A Dog She's Not Afraid Of

Mirna has always been at least a little nervous around dogs even small ones, ans she has seemed even a little scared of the bigger ones.  I'm not sure where the fear came from other than perhaps a big dog barking loudly when they were on walks when she was smaller perhaps, heck I think her mother might even be nervous around those bigger dogs too.  The funny things is that Gabby loves dogs, so I'm clueless as to how that all happened.

When we got to the park on Tuesday, there was a family with a Yorkie Schnauzer mix puppy (adorable!!!) that both girls were so intrigued by.  Mirna insisted on holding it and they could not stop petting it.  We had to explain how to hold the puppy and that one does not throw the puppy, but in the end she didn't want to stop holding it.  The little four year-old that owned the puppy was very protective, and followed Mirna everywhere.

In the end I told Marina she would be lucky to get out of there without Mirna wanting to take the puppy home, but it all ended well.  I think they eventually wanted to go play on the slide and the puppy was forgotten.  It was just so fun to see her around a dog she wasn't nervous about.  With the exception that I think her parents aren't too keen on having a pet, Mirna would love to have a puppy.

~Fraise

Progress

I thought I would do one of my garden "before and after" posts for you. However I will be comparing this year to last year.  Amazingly enough it doesn't look like the same area, you'll be surprised.  I'm still learning about the amount of sun the various parts get since as the sun moves the big tree covers more of the bed.  I've decided that to know truly how much sun I should try to document at which point in the day the shadow covers each area.  This way I will be able to determine better where to put plants that need more sun and other that prefer more shade.

It's also been a job to take care of the milk weed type plants that we have in this yard.  My father-in-law loves them, and so to placate him I've chosen to keep some as feature plants, but the go to seed early and are pretty prolific, so I have been trying to make sure to cut off the flower/seed parts as soon as they appear.  They also have a rather long spongy tap root that will break off if you don't pull it right or dig deep enough around them during their removal.  The problem with this is that the the remainder of the root will inevitably grow a new shoot and leaves the following year and then you have to try to dig them up again.  A problem I didn't quite grasp last year, and so now the area that I clean up last year has a number of them that have grown back and I am slowly getting them out.

Mosquito season has officially arrived and gardening at about any time of day in our back yard is tricky as we have a canal just 10 ft behind our back fence.  I'm not sure how our neighbor's sons who are always out building and gardening handle it, because for some reason the bugs seem to love me.  So now I'm resorting to working in long sleeves and pants with lots of bug spray.  My husband jokes some times that he's going to buy me a hat that has a mesh that hangs and protects your face just like a beekeeper hat.

Anyway, enough chatter, and on to the before and after shots! 

2010

2011

2010

2011

2010

2011

I hope that you have enjoyed examining my work so far.  It's been grueling but awesome.  I can't wait until I can see what the next year brings with the garden!

~Fraise

A New Bed

A little girl, dear to my heart, was so excited to show me her "big girl" bed when I visited on Tuesday.

She had to show me how she slept in it and her new mesh canopy.

It's so crazy how fast children grow.  Pretty soon it'll be Gabby showing me her "big girl" bed.  Marina says that Mirna is more serious in her attempts to style her hair and pretty soon I don't doubt that will spill over into clothes as well.  Where does time go.

For now we will just have to celebrate them and how sweet and cuddly these precious little girls are.  And how the world is so new to them.

~Fraise

Poppies!

One thing I miss about train rides through the french country side are fields of sunflowers, lavender and....poppies.

Source

Source

If you've ever looked at the work of Claude Monet and his works depicting the scenery around his home Giverny as well as early paintings of his son and wife you'll notice the poppy fields and how pretty they are.

These two photos were taken on my mission outside of Nîmes, France in May of 2005.

That was something I truly loved about southern France.

Our small "field" of poppies is blooming right now and it's very pretty.  Though not the traditional red of the countryside in Provence, the orange is stunning against the green.  ☺

~Fraise

Privilege to Serve

Don't you love the opportunity to take one person's un-needed goods and help to fill someone else's needs?  Marina mentioned that she had a bunch of baby clothes she wanted to get rid of since she didn't plan on having any more babies and asked if I knew anyone that was having a baby girl.  Of course me being 30 that's not that hard to come by, but I thought of my mission companion, Melissa.

This was the scrapbook page I did for our companionship in my mission journal, forgive the poor execution.

She above all would be a person who would welcome the clothes.  Up until now she wasn't sure if she could have children, and so her pregnancy came as a complete surprise and delight to her and those of us that love her dearly.  So for the last couple of weeks I have gathered, in a few trips to Marina's, the baby clothes and other gently used items she wanted to pass on.

It has been fun to go through the clothes.  I decided to help Marina out in that I would take them, however she could give them to me and launder all the clothes myself, since most of them had been sitting in her garage in bags for the last 6 months.

Oxyclean soak for brightening and stains ☺

I also thought it would be a good opportunity to check for any extra wear and tear, make repairs, and set aside a few items to make Marina and the girls a little surprise.  Can you guess what it might be?

Here's a hint.

I'm so excited to get it done.  I'm still working out the design, but once that is finished I will be able to get started on it. ☺

Anyway, here's to helping to pay it forward and help other people!

~ Fraise

Turned Photographer

 
Do you remember this little girl?  And how I wrote about how she loves to be the center of attention when the camera comes out?  Well either her Aunt Sisi (me) is wearing off on her or she's starting to discover her own creative bug, because her new favorite thing is to be the photographer whenever she sees a camera.  She asks if we can take pictures all the time even when it isn't out too.

The fun thing is that even though she's just pointing the camera at random and clicking, she has a unique and some times quite brilliant eye. I thought I would show you some of her photographic work (click on the images to see a bigger, clearer version):

She may turn out to be quite the little artist as time goes by.

I'm excited to see what times brings with this one!

~Fraise

(This one was also taken by Mirna.)