From the sunshine state to the sunflower state.

   We made it!We hit a torential down pour with hail in Alabama. And bad traffic in Arkansas. Got turned around do to the road being closed and not seeing to deture in Oklahoma. But we made it. Staying with my sister all the grand kids are here they are all so cute. The first we will head back to Oklahoma to see Erica's graduation from basic. We are so proud of her!! Then back here for the 4th. Looking forward to it very much.

We will be leaving in 3 days!

We're all in going mode. Oklahoma or bust. I really can't wait. I wont be able to update this again probably until we get back so you'll have to follow me on my face book. I can up load from my phone so I'll try to do that.

It's hot!

Well, It's been just plain hot here in Florida. We are getting back to our usual afternoon thunder storms. The plants love it. I've been getting about a hand full of grape tomatoes every other day from our one grape tomato plant. The strawberries have been a little shriveled though. I guess its water melon season cause there are watermelon stands all around here. A lot of people have planted gardens this year one guys back yard fronts the main road and he planted his whole yard then opened a vegetable stand. I haven't stopped by yet but I plan on it.Still haven't figured out how to add pictures without accessing the computer. So :(

Technical difficulty.

Sorry! My computer has been dead and I haven't been able to up date this thing for quite some time. I have borrowed a loner so I don't know when I will get to up date this again. Just when things are getting so busy too. We've been doing more house projects then ever. Helped my sister move. Had a big yard sale with Chris's aunt. And to top it all off....Erica has joined the army and is just about to graduate from basic training. We are going to take a cross country trip to go see her.
Today I took the dog to get his shots so he is all ready for the ride. They gave him a little doggy band aid with smiley faces on it. He got home and showed it to everyone. He is so cute. It's been nearly four hours and he hasn't ripped it off yet.
Well, Hope to up date this soon. Not my computer so I can't do pictures on here.:(  It's OK because my camera died too.  Something else electronic died at around the same time....Oh my mp3 player. Bad luck does come in threes. Good I've had mine.
Love to everyone.

Catching up.

Well it's Easter. Happy Easter everyone!

Just sitting around after stuffing my self with ham and the fixings. Mmm.. It was good. We ate early this year because Chris had to work later. First coarse, candy. Then, the food. Than for dessert we had home made rum cake that I made. Gramme brought pink champagne so we tried that. Then for more dessert we ate more candy. Isn't that awful. Now we are all fat and full. Oh yeah, we also ate easter eggs that me and Veronica colored.

 I tried to recreate a  rum cake that I had gotten for Christmas. I was unsuccessful. The cake I did make, was quite good. I think the one I got for Christmas must have been aged a little. It was insanely good. Do you age cakes? I don't know. Anyway, I used a yellow cake mix and a box of pudding. I used a cup of rum. It was suppose to be dark Tortuga rum but I was unable to get some in Florida and didn't want to wait for mail order so I tried to improvise by using two diffrent types of rum. Tortuga rum is from the Caribbean and I used Jamaican (Myers dark) and Puerto Rican (Captain Morgan Private Stock).

  

No it wasn't a from scratch cake but... the recipe sounded really good. The cake tasted really rummy. Really rummy. After a couple of bites though it was a lot better tasting. The sauce I poured over the cake was delicious. I could have just ate the sauce but I guess that wouldn't have been right. I think the problem was that I didn't achieve an even distribution of the sauce in the cake.Some parts were really soaked with the rum sauce and some parts had none. I think this is a recipe I'll have to perfect a little more. Maybe I'll have to start from scratch.

I've started my garden that is in the front yard but first I had to get the weeds out of the bed. 

The garden and my grass out front is full of this stuff.

What is it? I was told it is called stinging nettle. But the pictures of stinging nettle on the internet look nothing like this plant. It's a ground cover. I would have to say its the most horrible evil plant I've ever came across. It literally feels like you've been stung by a bee when it gets you. Only thing is it keeps stinging for hours. There is no visible thorns on this plant. Weed killer doesn't seem to kill it. Not that I've tried a lot. I don't like the idea of poisoning my land. There's so many problems caused by people spraying chemicals on plants around here that we have fish die offs from it. I'll get rid of it some how.

So far in the front I've planted herbs (oregano, thyme, basil, dill, and lavender), strawberries, a daisy, tomatoes, bell peppers, viola's, and petunias. I got the viola's and petunias on the clearance rack at the hardware store and they are growing better than any thing else I planted. 

Chris planted some trees. The orange, and a fig tree. He also planted a gardenia bush. For some reason he is hesitating on the blue berries that I protected all winter long. I might have to plant them myself. I can't hardly stand the fact that there are no significant plants in our yard. Well there is the cypress tree we planted when we moved in but it's under water and still dead from winter. I don't know when they wake up hopefully soon.

We haven't really been doing a lot lately just trying to spend time with Erica before she is off to basic training. She will be leaving at the end of the month. Mom is planing a big fish boil (no fish. It has crab and shrimp)

  

I miss her already but I know it is what she has to do to make a better life for herself. Plus I think she will be a really good soldier. Look out Army here she comes.