Rain, rain go away...

It's been a little while since I posted. I think it has rained since that time. Hopefully it will let up soon, I'd like to be outside!

However, I've been busy! And not the kind of busy that leads to procrastination and then me updating my blog because, "I will never be able to concentrate until I do!" (or so I tell myself).

Last weekend Charlie's parents and his brother and sister-in-law came to visit. We hadn't seen them in quite some time, so it was good to see them again. I am always at a loss of what to do with then when they're here. I know that sounds bad, but it's true. I feel like I have to entertain them the entire time, and they are not easy to entertain. It is easy when my parents come to visit, because I know that even if we don't do anything but sit around, it will be fun. If all I do is sit around with my mother-in-law one of the two of us might not survive the weekend. Better to keep busy.

In that spirit, despite the fact that it was raining (it has been raining for two weeks straight it seems like), we had enough of a break from the rain Saturday morning to go to the zoo for a bit. The Columbus Zoo is quite the experience. The best zoo in the country last year. And I hadn't been in forever, so it was time to go again.

Everyone was very impressed with the flamingos

A little fuzzy, but they LOVED the reptile house:)

This one stayed right there and looked at us. Until some lady came by and started yelling, "Hey there monkey! HEY! HEY!!!" Very annoying.

The animals were all so active because it wasn't too hot out!

Even the giant turtle was moving. It looks like he's fallen and he can't get up, but he was very slowly moving.

Fuzzy again, but a BABY GORILLA!

Sleepy kangaroo

I learned that koala bears sleep 22 hrs per day. That must be the life.

And the Lorakeets!

It was a good time. It started to rain and rain hard before we got to the lions or the giraffes, but that is OK, we'll have to go back another time.

We also celebrated Joe's birthday, Kelly brought a cake along and we sang happy birthday.

Being prepared like usual, I did not have birthday candles, so we used tea lights. However, we could not get 29 tea lights on the cake, so 4 had to do.

On Sunday, after they left, it was nice out, so Charlie and I decided to go for a walk around the Village since we had a small break from the rain. Good thing I brought my trusty camera! I saw an Egret, yes an EGRET on the top of someone's HOUSE! I have seen them in the water when I run by the river, but never this far from shore! Watching it fly was amazing! I just hope he could find his way back to the water...

This past week has been a pretty busy one as well. On Monday I didn't have to drive to Dayton because we had a guest lecturer that afternoon at Children's, so I had the morning off! I went to our condo and cleaned it from top to bottom. We were supposed to do it together on Sunday, but we forgot, and besides, Charlie's back would not have held up. My back was killing me by the end with all of the sweeping and mopping and bending and stooping. Anyways, it is clean now. It was gross though. I have half a mind to charge our old tenants for the cleaning. It was nasty. I also went to the gym that morning, so I was SORE on Tuesday!

Yesterday I went to yoga, for the first time in probably over a year. I decided I wanted to start going again. It is such a good workout - the stretching is amazing and, literally, every muscle in my body hurts today. My feet, my hands, my breathing muscles, everything. And it is a good way to release stress. Worth the $15, though I still think that's a lot of $$ for a yoga class.

Today I had lectures in the morning, and I didn't have to go to Dayton for the afternoon again, this time because Dr. Adam's wife broke her arm and he had to go to the doctor with her. So that is not so good for her, but good for me! The sun was shining for the first time in what seemed like FOREVER, so I went to Home Depot and bought plants. Lots and lots of plants. Shrubs, perennials of all sorts, just anything that looked good. Then I came home and finished the edging in the front and planted all the plants I bought. I'm still a bit torn about whether or not to do two rows of stones for edging or just one, but one will do for now.

I had already put some wildflower seeds in the front, along with some geranium roots, daylilies and there was already some cone flowers growing, sedum, and two other things that I bought last year but have no earthly idea what they are. Today I added a lilac bush and a rhododendron. I didn't take a picture of that, because it doesn't really look like anything yet.

On the side here I had already planted some monkshood and crocismia in between my peonies (I hope the crocismia gets enough sun. And I hope the squirrels just dug around and did not steal my bulbs, we'll find out). Four hostas were already out there, I added three more hostas today, as well as some foxglove, coral bells, lily turf and yarrow. This side yard is sort of part sun, however my peonies, which usually like full sun, so really well here, so I took a few chances, we'll see how things do. Like my friend Sireesha said, you might as well try. I feel like plants are a bit more hardy than I sometimes give them credit for.

I planted some bleeding heart and astilbe in the back last weekend, which is already starting to poke its little head through the soil. The backyard is difficult, because I think it may be all been paved, and then they filled it in and made a backyard. Which I'm glad they did, but the soil sucks, and it is rocky like two inches down and just crappy for growing things. I transplanted some extra dirt from the front to the back, for the planting I did so far. I want to add some hydrangeas. I'm going to have to raise the bed if I'm going to do that though, so we'll see how enthusiastic I feel about it later.

Now, I've cleaned the house and gotten everything ready for another weekend of visitors, this time my parents! So excited to see them!

Before I go, another picture of my dogwood. Such a pretty color of pink, I love it.

"How people choose to treat you is their path. How you react is yours."

This was on my daily inspiration card in yoga last night. So true.

Vacation!

I just found out yesterday that I'm going to be able to get the time off I wanted to go to Door County with my whole family in July! Such a blessing! I owe a HUGE thank you to Andi at the Dayton VA and Trish for allowing me to do that, because technically we are not allowed to take vacation during that time (since we are down six residents until the new first years start in mid July).

Sometimes good things do happen. Here is to rejoicing in the small things...

De-Stressing

Orange Daylilies

Bleeding Heart

I have been getting so frustrated by everything. Which frustrates me more. The weather is finally getting nice, and I have been looking forward to doing some landscaping since last summer, and now that the time is here, I feel as though I do not have any time whatsoever to do it. Which irritates me to no end. I have my exam this Saturday, but then after that I need to start working on my research paper which is due at the end of May. And every single weekend from  here until June is occupied. Which I would not change for the world. My in-laws and my parents will be in town - I haven't seen them since the holidays and I am very excited for them to come and visit with us, I have graduation parties, weekend call, Charlie needs to stay in Florida for a weekend and then we're going to Peru which will take up two more weekends. None of that would I change - my family is always more important than a stupid garden anyways. However, it was all making me feel overwhelmed, which was making me mad, which in the end is all ridiculous anyways.



Amethyst Astilbe



Common Monkshood

I was talking to Charlie on the phone last night about it, when I realized - this does not have to be stressful. It should not be stressful. I need to set boundaries and then keep them. I want to do some landscaping. Now, it does not need to be the Taj Mahal of landscaping, and, quite honestly, if I want to do a perennial garden like I was saying, then probably it is better to slowly plant things throughout the spring and early summer so that in the end I will have something that will be blooming from spring until fall. I just need to make time to do it. Why do I need to spend an entire day? When I get home early I can work on the walls. It is light out until 8pm or later now. The walls will get built, the compost will get delivered, it will be OK. And it defeats the purpose if it makes me crazy and frustrated.

Geranium Karmina



Crocosmia Lucifer

 So, in that spirit I got on American Meadows last night and, lo' and behold, they had some of the bulbs and stuff that I wanted to plant this spring on sale! Yay! Now they said that the things I bought are bulbs and roots to be planted in the spring. We'll see if they bloom this year or not, but I'm hoping they at least take and we will have something pretty next year. I was unsure about buying plants online. I thought those might be better to get from a local nursery.

I wonder if I could ever have a garden without the orange daylilies. I don't think so. They are a huge part of what I remember from my childhood, and having them in my garden makes me incredibly happy.

"Spring shows what God can do with a drab and dirty world."

- Virgil A. Kraft

Spring is HERE!!!

Cilantro!

Parsley!

There won't be too many words today. I should be studying for my exam on Saturday. Tonight my goal is to finish pediatrics and start on Optics. Last minute studying is the way to go anyways...

Spring is finally here in Columbus, OH. I am calling it that, anyways. The trees are blooming and everything is starting to grow. It's so exciting! This winter has seemed especially long. I'm not sure why. This weekend was gorgeous! And we took full advantage of it! We slept in until approximately 11:30 on Saturday (love doing that) and then got started. We went to Home Depot and started buying. Charlie had been wanting a fire pit for awhile, so we decided to get the stuff to do it, since we found an instructional website that didn't seem to difficult. As always, it was harder than it looked online, but I think the finished product is pretty nice.

That was pretty much all we got done on Saturday, since we had tickets to see the Sabres play the Blue Jackets here in Columbus (Sabres won, yay!). That night we tried out our new fire pit. It only took a few tries and a little bit of internet searching to get it going...

Sunday was more productive. We started in on the retaining walls for the gardens. The front beds went first. It is more work than you might think. But, we got the first part of the front bed done, and I think it will go faster now that we know what we are doing.

My peonies are getting bigger by the day, too!

That night we went for a walk around German Village. I'll end with some pictures from that walk - so pretty!

I think I've decided that I can never live somewhere without spring. Something about spring just makes everything seem better.

"My favorite weather is bird chirping weather."

- Terri Guillemets

Birthdays

One of my and Charlie's very best friend's turned 30 last weekend.  Max was the first of our friends to turn 30. I remember when that sounded so old, but now it is just around the corner. Ellen threw him a surprise party, which she did an outstanding job of doing. Her sisters Katie and Julie helped her out. She even brought his mom, dad, brother and sister into town to celebrate with him. He was really truely surprised, it was awesome.  I was on call, but luckily the ER left me alone long enough to enjoy the night with everyone.

She had everyone arrive at about 7:45. They were supposed to arrive at around 8:00, but you know how that goes. They got there around 8:45 and then fun began. El, per the usual, thought of everything, including a pinata stuffed with little plastic bottles full of liquor.

It got me to thinking about birthdays. They really are so great, aren't they? I mean, what a fantastic idea - to celebrate your birth. Your entrance into this world. It's like a celebration of how happy everyone is that the birthday boy/girl was born and is a part of your life.

This is why I don't understand people that don't like birthdays. Charlie is friends with a Jehovah's Witness in Florida and found out that they do not celebrate holidays. Of any kind. No birthdays, no nothing. That is awful. Why can I not be thankful for Max's or Ellen's or Charlie's presence in my life? They have all played a role in shaping who I am today and who I continue to become, as do all of my friends and family. That is something to be celebrated, if you ask me.

So, as my half birthday nears, I realize that I will soon join Max at 30 (I mean, not that soon, another year and a half, but it seems soon). I don't know how I will feel about being 30, but I do know that I will welcome the day in the company of those that I love and with lots of kind words and well wishes from those that I love and can't be with me. Birthdays are the best:)

"And in the end, it's not the years in your life that count. It's the life in your years."

- Abraham Lincoln