what you want

I know all of you readers out there have been dying for an updated picture of my watermelon. I had said I was finished gloating about my watermelon but the overwhelming demand for more made me change my mind!

Here it is. Still going strong.

And, as a bonus, you can see we have two more melons!

the quickness of watermelon

I know, another post about the stupid watermelon. But I am totally fascinated with how quickly it is growing.

Here is the picture I took Friday afternoon next to the picture I took just now (Monday late morning).

At this rate in a few weeks we will have a decent size melon!

I will try to refrain from anymore posts about the watermelon.

just another day

I know it is not really that exciting for you to see how my plants are growing but I am quite excited about the watermelon plant. I haven't really ever grown anything other than tomatoes. I wanted to show you a baby watermelon. He is just little bitty but hopefully he will grow to a nice size watermelon.

Also, I got a good size flower on the hydrangea plant.

Bella is still going strong with the potty training. No accidents, no diapers and she is going both #1 and #2 in the toilet. Her reward board is working out well.

Tomorrow is the 4th of July but being down here without the commericals, news reports and a normal job with the day off I really don't feel it is anything but a regular ol' day. Hopefully all of you will be doing something fun and watching some fireworks.

Hope you have a great 4th!

passing the time

Life has been pretty calm lately. I am not sure how much of that has to do with the fact that I will be going back to the States for a while. But, whatever it is I am liking it. I feel sort of calm and excited all at the same time.

We (the whole family) just got over some bug or something. There was a lot of nastiness going on in the house. And, since I am the one with the strong stomach, I get to clean up all the girls' messes! Yeah, it was great fun! My husband is off to the side dry heaving and I am clean a really gross diaper or clean up puke. I think it is all behind us now. Hopefully.

In bad parenting news... The other day when I was sick I fell asleep while the girls were playing. I woke up and all was quiet. A sure sign that they are up to no good. I looked around the house and didn't see them anywhere. I came into the office and saw that the front door was open. We have a big gate that is locked at all times so I knew they couldn't have gone anywhere, but still. I went outside and there was potting soil EVERYWHERE! I guess they were having fun in the plants. I didn't get a picture because 1. I was so mad at myself for doing that and 2. I was mad at them (well, really Bella). She has been able to open the door for about a month now. I told her she is NEVER to open the door without mommy or daddy saying it is ok. These pictures show you the door handle. It is a bit different than in the States. The first picture is it closed. The second picture shows that you just pull the lever to the left and it unlatches the door.

We have turned ghetto a little bit. The color has went out on our big TV. Being in the middle of nowhere causes a problem as far as getting it fixed. Our fix... putting the smaller TV right next to it. Watching TV in black and white is just too weird. I think there is a good size electronics store in San Juan (about 20 minutes from here) and maybe we can see if they can help us.

I have been SLOWLY working on that quilt I wanted to make. I got all the strips laid out and have only sewed 4 panels. It is just a lot of repetitive work and right now I am not feeling it. I want to get the back and front finished so I can take it back to the States and have someone help me quilt it. That is the part I am not sure about. I want it to look good and not like someone had a seizure while quilting it.

Our *garden* has been doing well. Jorge's watermelons are taking off the best. I think they need a bigger container, but they are going to have to settle with what we gave them. I am not sure what the time span is from when they flower to when they have the actual melons. We will just wait and see. Also, we are getting some tomatoes.

I went through all the girls' clothes. Since we are doing another round of winter in the States I needed to see if I have to buy anything. They are pretty close in size so that helps with not needing so many clothes. They just share. It is hard going through the clothes. Just proves how much they have grown. Sometimes I want them to stop growing.

As you see nothing too exciting going on here. Just passing the time with everyday life. I think since I have something to look forward to I am satisfied with the current. I still haven't finalized a job or found childcare for the girls but for some reason I am not worried. Usually unsettled things make me crazy. Maybe I have finally realized that things will work themselves out. Or maybe I just don't want to worry. I do that too much.

a good day

The title of this blog entry has been long awaited. There have been a lot of days lately where I have been down in the dumps. Because of very supportive people I feel I am back on track a bit. Some stresses have been lifted.

Yesterday I spent the day without the girls. I know, it was Mother's Day, but I guess you can interpret it however you like. Since I spend almost all my time with them, I looked at it as a day off. A day for me.

Jorge took me to Aguascalientes. We went to the movies and then walked around in the mall. We didn't end up buying anything. We then planned on going to Chili's. I love their chips and salsa. It was so packed and our stomachs couldn't handle the wait so we ended up going to McDonald's. I know, McDonald's? Hey, when you are living in a tiny town where there are no food joints other than hole in the wall dives that don't offer much of a variety, any chain restaurants are a treat.

Then we ventured over to Home Depot. This was the place I was looking forward to. I wanted to buy a few flowers and some pots to add to my *garden* (which is growing like crazy) on the front patio. Not having anything green around sucks. Plus, taking care of the plants and watching them grow helps with my stress. I would love to move to a house with some real outdoor space with a small patch of grass or dirt. Maybe one day.

(The Gerbera Daisy is my favorite flower. Of course I had to buy a pink one.)

(And, I didn't want the pink one to not have an orange friend. They are sitting on each side of the front door. A nice way to come home.)

(The watermelons had to be transplanted to a bigger container.)

(The bean plant is getting ready for Jorge to climb it.)

(The tomato plants are flowering. Soon I will have to find some kind of support for them.)

Since it was *my* day and all, Jorge was going to stop by the fabric store in Aguascalientes without a fight. It is the same store as the one in San Juan (where I normally go if I want to attempt to find some fabric), but this one looks a lot bigger and I was hoping (crossing my fingers) that they would have a better, larger selection. Unfortunately it was closed when we drove back by it on our way home. I guess next time.

All and all it was a nice relaxing day.

accidental garden

Last year they had a flower expo downtown. Well, that is what they called it. It was basically a tent set up near downtown at a park. They were selling all sorts of flowers, bushes and trees at a very reasonable prices. We bought a beautiful hydrangea plant that had big bluish purple flowers on it. We put it out back on the patio and it did fairly well in the shade. That was until we got Colbie.

He saw all the green leaves and assumed it was his personal salad bar. Once he was done with it, all the remained were a few sticks poking up from the soil. I stopped watering it and thought that was the end of it's life. Earlier this year while back with Colbie I noticed some green leaves on those remaining sticks that Colbie so kindly left behind. It was coming back to life. I am still not sure how but was happy about it. (You can see in the picture the stick where he chewed on it.)

Now we are close to having flowers once again. I found a spot on the front patio that is shaded the whole day (and far away from Colbie). If this sensitive flower gets even 10 minutes in the sun here it is on the path to death, again.

Unknowingly, last year Jorge stuck a bean in the soil. I guess he secretly desires to be a farmer or has some fantasy to act out Jack and the Bean Stock. After moving the plant to the front patio I noticed a different type of plant growing on the side of the flower. I pointed it out to Jorge and he said, "Yeah, I put that in there last year.". Now we have a bean plant growing. I am not sure what we will get from it, but we will give it it's fair chance at life.

Now with the hydrangea plant growing so well and the bean plant taking off, we thought we would add to our garden. We got some free tomato seeds in a packet of cookies. Odd combination but we didn't care. We bought a planter (probably a bit too small) and planted those seeds. Now we have a couple of tomato plants.

I guess feeling so successful with his *crop* of beans, Jorge wanted to try his luck again. One day he walked in the house, after eating some watermelon, and told me that he had thrown some of the seeds from the watermelon he just ate into the planter of tomatoes. I saw the seeds sitting on the surface of the soil but didn't really pay much attention to them. I kept water the tomato plants as normal. One day I went to water the plants and noticed a different type of plant growing and it took all of 1 second to realize what it was. Over the span of a week or two 3 more of those plants appeared.

After only buying the hydrangea last year, we now have 1 hydrangea plant, 1 bean plant, 2 tomato plants and 4 watermelon plants. Let's see how good we are at producing the produce.