Think Spring!

I love Utah this time of year! While many friends in WI are still under cold and snow, here we are consistently in the mid 50's and our tulips and other bulbs are about to bloom. I recently realized I may have gone a little overboard with the bulb planting last fall, however I'm going to have a few planters that will look amazing! It's fun to start seeing my perennials come back, it sometimes seems there's no guarantee the first year that stuff will make it through the winter...but then I'm surprised by buds and small leaves in the unlikeliest of places. With this lovely spring weather, I've been spending most of my weekends hunched over cleaning out flowerbeds in our yard. I'd say at this point I'm about half-way done. Look forward to many MANY lawn and garden pictures this year. I'm already so excited I can hardly wait! I've also gotten the pond ready and the goldfish to go back out, however we first needed to construct a 'shelter' of sorts for them, so the swimming raccoon from last summer doesn't once again treat our pond as an all-you-can-eat swimming hole. This is a picture of what we came up with:

It's basically wire mesh with 1/4" spaces. We bent it into a circular tube on one end and left a foot-long piece stick out. We sunk it to the bottom of the pond and placed a large potted container (which our water lily lives in) on top of the flat part to anchor it down. We're hoping that the goldfish will be smart enough to seek refuge if the swimming raccoon comes back, and that his little hands won't be able to get through the 1/4" mesh. I went to the local Petsmart today and got 3 more fish, bringing our total to 6. Hopefully they'll all adjust well to the pond and  I won't have any floaters by morning. (fingers crossed).

Last weekend we planted our tomato seeds for the year. We waited a full two weeks longer than last year, and hopefully they won't be outgrowing their containers before it is warm enough to plant them out. Some unusually warm weather mid-February made it difficult to wait, but come mid-April, I'm sure we'll be thankful that we waited. I started several types of flowers from seed, mostly just to see if any of them are easy to sprout. So far marigolds and zinnias seem fairly fool-proof. I'm still waiting to seeing sprouting from the others...including pansies, violas, petunias, and several I can't remember at present. We already have our first tomato sprouts (as of today)...so Jason is a happy boy.

President's Day weekend we took a trip to St. George, UT to visit Jason's grandparents. They rent a house down there for a month each winter. This year due to a mix-up of sorts, they had a house that was completely decked out in golf memorabilia! We're talking golf EVERYWHERE....on the walls, in the bathrooms, on the bookshelves....even in the backyard! Let's just say this guy is a golf-nut, I guess its a good thing that its one of his businesses. The weather in St. George is typically still nice and warm in February, however we picked the one cool and rainy weekend to go visit. It was still relaxing, and nice to hang out with everyone. One of the days, after the weather cleared, we checked out a local art and craft fair where I picked up another piece of pottery I'm quite fond of. I'm sort of a sucker for pottery, and this little one is a new addition to my collection.

Hours at my regular job have been cut back slightly now that I'm not working in the lab anymore. I'm much happier with this arrangement, as I don't find myself hating my life on a daily basis. I'm considering getting on an early morning prep shift at a restaurant...and guess what just opened in Utah...that's right...Culver's. The owners have rights to open 4 more restaurants around the Salt Lake Valley, so with the next location opening in the fall I may be able to get on there and pick any shift I'd like. I have mixed feelings about this, but do know that the busier I am, the happier I tend to be. In the meantime I'm sleeping in and watching the cat move from one sunny napping spot to another before going in to work in the afternoon. Emphasis: MUCH happier.

Here ends the weekend. Daylight savings time is deceiving me, and I think it's still much earlier than it actually is. My back hurts from hunching over my flowerbeds all weekend, but clean flowerbeds make this girl a happy camper. I've long come to realize the flowerbeds being clean make me happier than they make anyone else. I told Jason today we shouldn't have a baby in March-April...or he will have to clean the flowerbeds and I will just sit and point at what to do with a stick. We should have daffodils (at least the warm ones by the house) by the end of the week.

 *smile*

61 days and counting til our next WI vacation...driving this time!!

Take Care everyone!

S.~

I almost forgot to mention I started a blog for my crafting/cardmaking for anyone who is interested. Check it out if you get excited about that sort of thing! S.~

http://crafter-monkey.blogspot.com/