Gardening Round 2

It's that time of year again!  Remember our garden from last year?  We did so well with it!  Not only did we have tons of fresh veggies, but it was also very theraputic.  It was so neat to watch everything grow from just a tiny seed to a beautiful plant that bears fruit (or veggies).  It's amazing to watch God's design unfold before your very eyes.  There is something about it that is so innate and instinctive.  

Check out the pics from this year's garden:

 

Most everything we planted has come up and is very green.  These are the potatoes:

I can hardly wait until we have ripe vegetables!

The parsley we planted from last year is rockin!  We have tons of it.  It's also like three feet high!

Dill - yummy!  Can't wait to combine those new potatoes with some dill!

Tomatoes!  Last year, we had four tomato plants (that were as tall as me!) which produced at least 50+ tomatoes all together.   

This year, we planted two varieties of tomatoes - Better Boy (same one from last year) and Roma tomatoes.  Roma tomatoes are the medium-sized ones that you normally buy at Publix.  They are a small oval shape and very firm.  I don't really like the juicy part of a tomato, so this Roma kind is my personal favorite.  I hope we get lots of them!

We planted things in stages so we could have more veggies longer.  Here are the watermelon plants peeping through!

Hmmmm...Basil!  You know what this means - PESTO!  :-)

Some of our parsley freshly cut from the garden.  We have so much of it that whenever someone comes to the house, we send them home with a bunch of parsley!  Not only can I hardly wait to eat all these veggies, but I can hardly wait to share it with our friends + family + neighbors.   

Speaking of sharing with friends + neighbors, when are going to do our vegetable stand Julia?  ;-)

Maybe next time I post on here, we'll have some vegetables!  Right now we are getting ready to head to Florida for Memorial Day weekend - wahoo!  Hello sunshine state!  

   



Flower Arranging

Look what I did last week! 

I am trying to develop my creative skill set so I signed up for a floral design workshop.  It was a two-hour class and we learned all kinds of tricks and techniques that designers in the floral industry use while also creating a nice arrangement of our own!  Check out the Spring Mix that I designed!

Work in progress

Action shot!

 

It's beginning to take on shape and look like a real floral arrangement!

All finished!



 

The final product!

  

The class was so much fun!  I did learn a few tricks of the trade that will definitely come in handy.  I will be taking more "continuing education" workshops including more floral design, graphic design, sewing, and cooking.

 Floral design is a real creative outlet for me and I would really like to do something like that (or similar) out of my home.  Something creative, flexible, and "down-to-earth" that I could do out of our home to bring in additional income.  I've thought about lots of things - everything from stationery shop to event rentals to floral design to something with crafting/gardening.  Ideally, I would have a small shop separate from the house where I could actually do my work. 

What do you think? 

Please feel free to share your thoughts because sometimes the people around you know you so well that they can point out things that you may have missed or would never think of!  I need your help guys! 

Looking forward to hearing from you!

Timber!

Check out this video!  So, naturally the first thing we thought of was this:

The sniper and her spotter

The targets

Oh the things we do in Alabama.  :-)

 

It's really fun though  One day I found Misha doing this and totally made fun of him.  Then I gave it a try and was hooked.  Even Susan had some fun with it when she came to visit.

 

Guess we've got to find something else to do  ;-)

On the plus side, our yard looks soooo much better!  We didn't have to do anything or pay for it...they were in our neighbor's yard.  Thanks to our neighbors removing those three trees!  We've got lots more sunshine (especially for my garden)!  I even get to plant sunflowers!  Plus, we feel much safer during storms now.  No trees leaning on our house.  And no more pine cones to pick up!!!  LOVE!

Recent Visitors

When I was growing up, every single Easter was spent going to church that morning and then lunch & an egg hunt at my Granny & Granddaddy's house.  Just like every other holiday, our huge family would squeeze into their modest 2-bedroom home at 905 East Bartow in Quitman.  We would have people eating in almost every room of the house - kitchen, dining room, living room, bedrooms, front porch, back porch, and outside.  Of course, when the adults and older cousins were hiding the Easter eggs, the kids had to go inside - no peeking either!  Cousins would scramble trying to find as many eggs as they could.  Some were hard-boiled, some had candy...and then there was the prize egg.  Three hints were given out and whoever found the prize egg got cash!  Granddaddy would always hand out dollar bills to the kids...even if they weren't the lucky one who found the prize egg.  :-)  Fond memories.

After Granny & Granddaddy passed away, our family has kept the same traditions just in different locations.  Thanksgiving was at our lake cabin this year, Christmas is now spent at Aunt Judy's, and Easter at Penny's.  Same family gatherings, good food, fellowship, fun, and family time.  It does a heart good. 

More recently, since Misha and I moved to Birmingham, my family has started a new Easter tradition.  Mama, Daddy, and Susan come visit us in Birmingham for Easter weekend.  Of course, we miss spending the time with our extended family, but we try to save as much time as we can for good and lengthy trips back to GA & FL.  At least until we move back!  ;-)

Here are some pictures from our weekend: 

Eating out Friday night at one of our favorite local Greek restaurants:

Yummy!

Saturday the guys went to the shooting range, so the girls had a little outing too! 

We went to the Farmer's Market in Downtown, Birmingham

Hit up Yogurt Mountain

and did a little shopping!  Love the super high-heels we made Mama pose with!  Haha!

We were even able to coordinate and meet up with Melissa (Mama's cousin/basically sister) who lives in Huntsville, AL.  They came down to Birmingham to surprise Mama!  We "bumped" into Melissa & Roy in World Market.  Mama was totally surprised!  :-)

Melissa & Roy came over to the house and we all had a nice dinner on the deck.  On the  menu:  Missy's Pizza (alfresco of course - it's better that way!)

Sunday we did a little tradition combination - Ukrainian Easter eggs!

It was such a great Easter weekend!

Our next round of visitors came in the following Thursday.  It was a crazy week for us because Mama & Daddy left on Monday (after car trouble and eventually replacing their alternator)

then the tornadoes were Wednesday and our visitors came into town Thursday.  Thank goodness we had a house for them to come to!  :-)  Daniila, Mariana, and Elias drove up from Florida to attend a wedding in Huntsville, AL and to spend the weekend with us!

We did some hiking, visited the Botanical Gardens, cooked, and enjoyed spending time with good friends! 

Elias is a little monkey!  YES - that's him in that fallen tree.  I have no idea how he got up there!

The guys were so sweet to help us move the limbs and debris from our yard!

Two great weekends in a row!  Looking forward to spending this upcoming weekend with Aunt Judy!

Alabama Tornadoes

Last Wednesday (at 5:30 in the morning) Misha and I woke up to the sound of the tornado sirens going off, which is not unusual.  We decide to go ahead and get up because there is no going back to sleep anyway.  Once we are up, the house is dark and the storm is strong.  Misha takes a look out of the window just in time to see blue sparks and flames flying - which was a transformer blowing.  We snatch up the kitty and a blanket and head for the basement.  Clarification - this sounds as if it were very drawn out, but it was only a matter of 30 seconds between the time we get out of bed to when we head for the basement.  Although we are up on the mountain, we do not take tornado sirens lightly!

The storm lasted for no more than 20 minutes.  After it died down, we emerged out of the basement and went to take a look outside.  Others in the neighborhood were doing the same. 

(Cute picture!) Misha and Bugira looking out the window to make sure it was okay to go outside.  Bugira was very concerned.  She is excellent for neighborhood watch. 

We had a large pecan limb fall on our roof and slide down by our front door, but we quickly realized that we were beyond lucky. 

Neighbors on all four sides of us had HUGE trees down.  Three out of those four had the trees fall on their homes.  Luckily, no one was injured.  That's a piece of our roof in the above picture, in case you were wondering.  Power lines were ripped and were all over the place.  This is a picture of our next door neighbor's house/car.  Our yard borders their yard - and is now separated by this downed live power line laying over her car.         

  

The strange thing is that we lost power for most of Wednesday, then got it back that afternoon.  Our power comes from THIS line!  Most of our neighborhood didn't get power back until YESTERDAY - seven days after the storms.  Don't get me wrong, I'm not complaining about the utility companies - they are doing an amazing job restoring power.  There are road crews everywhere working day and night.  I'm just trying to emphasize the scope of these storms!

After talking with neighbors, we learned that this was only the beginning of these storms.  There were more waves of storms coming that were supposed to be record-breaking...and that they were.  Although we did not have any trees down, there were three large trees uprooted/cracked that were leaning towards our house. 

Can you see the crack at the base of this tree?

With more storms coming, we decided not to stay at our house...not even in the basement.  After packing, moving the boat, and trying to secure our house as best we could, we both went to work for a couple hours (after the roads were somewhat cleared) only to leave early because the storms were coming fast.  We went to stay with Larissa & Vitaly (my Russian teacher and her husband).  

 

We rode out wave after wave of storms bracing for them to hit.  It never got bad at their house though...we never even lost power!  We were glued to the weather reports.  There were white and purple images on the radar screen because their technology couldn't even pick up how bad and fast these winds were!   The weather forecasters and televisors did a phenomenal job and saved hundreds if not thousands of peoples lives.  They even had to take cover at one point, but they are to be commended!!!

We did survive the night and were alive and well (except for my nerves were shot)!  That morning, we had to go check on our house.  Really, we did not know if we still had one.  We were fully anticipating that trees were smashed through our house.  

Thank the good Lord that our house was unharmed and those trees were still holding on!  Here are some pictures from our street and neighborhood all from the first round of storms that morning:

Most roads were totally blocked for a few days:

Power lines were down everywhere:

Do you see the mailbox?  Does that give you a good comparison as to how massive these trees are?

Yup, that's a car under there

Our neighbors brand new suburban was totaled.  I didn't get the best picture of it b/c most of the damage was on the other side, but it was totally smashed in with windows broken.

I actually got to go inside this house:

This is the room where their children were sleeping and the tree fell and all caved in. 

These are some of the logs that they moved off of their house:

Although things were pretty rough in Bluff Park, it is no comparison to other tornado-ravaged areas.  There were hundreds of tornadoes reported in Alabama on just that one day.  You can see a video of the main 1 1/2 mile wide twister here.  This was filmed in Tuscaloosa (where the University of Alabama is - about an hour from our house).  This twister was actually headed straight for where we live.  Thank the good Lord above that it turned north about fifteen minutes before it was supposed to hit.  The area where it hit is less than 10 miles from our house.  Here are some pictures from those areas:

This one is specifically from Pleasant Grove, AL. The tornado that went through here was the same one that went through Tuscaloosa and was actually headed for where we live, but then turned north.

If you feel led to donate, their are so many organizations out there to give to.  Start with a church...and  Red Cross is a good one too.  You can give anything - time, blood, money, energy, effort, materials...and most importantly - prayer.  Please remember and pray for these people.  They have lost everything.  Many lost their families and loved ones.  The only thing they have left is their life and faith.  Help them rebuild.