Garden Follow Up

As noted previously, we have been blessed recently with a lot of fruit. If you want it come pick it or let John know you are coming and he may pick some for you. We have a lot of it. You will have to fight the birds for the Peaches. It would appear that they like those much more than the apricots because with the 2 right next to each other they have left the apricots alone for the most part.

Little did we realize just how blessed we are until John went out and started looking a little closer on Friday afternoon while Bella was visiting. He was trying to talk her into eating from the tree, but she wasn't having much to do with it for a while. She may still think if fruit doesn't come from the store it can't be very good. John plucks fruit every morning to eat on the way to work. You can see he will have choices for quite some time...
Above are the Peach and Apricot mentioned before.

Here are the Plum trees. The first one has put out fruit the last two years but it was never worth bragging about. Hopefully they get a bit bigger this year than years previous. This is the first year the other two have done anything and pretty much what you see is what you get with them, but we’re glad they’re putting fruit out because John was ready to pull them out of the ground if they didn’t give fruit.

Here is a picture of our Apple Tree. Rosie has volunteered her Mum to come and make some Crumble with the apples. Now just to get her here :). This tree is one of the youngest trees in the backyard and this is the first year for it to provide fruit and it’s already doing very well.

The Lemon tree is doing about what it does every year which is about as much as we really need. You can see some of last years growth as well as what will ripen for us later this year.

We’re please to see that the Navel Orange has some fruit on it that will mature through the year as well. John has planted a few of these and this is the first to grow and put on fruit. Hopefully they will make it that far. John’s Dad used to have a Navel Orange tree years ago that only put fruit on one year and they got plucked by a little boy that his Mom watched and it never put out fruit again. Funny story in retrospect, but it wasn’t at the time. Possible future blog.

Then we have the Pomegranate shrub. I think they are considered shrub and at least that is what this one is looking like.  It has a few fruit blooming and one has turned green and looks like fruit.  Trouble is Buddy likes to pluck them while they're red blossoms so we'll see what we get.  Should at least get the one green one he didn't get at.

We should mention the 2 sunflowers that sprung up from seeds dropped last year. John plans to plant some more this week. They are supposed to get about 6’ tall but these appear to have topped out at ~2’.

Lastly we have the grapevines. John has planted a few of these in the past and these are the first to actually grow and now are even putting out a few bunches.

John needs to spend a little time getting them back under control again, but we’re just happy to see fruit on them. We’re hoping some time in the near future to get some blackberry and raspberry bushes to grow but the times John has tried to get them to grow either the grub worms have gotten to them or they have died for other reasons. One time he got them to grow at his parent’s house but only got fruit off of the raspberries one year and never again after that.

If anybody knows someone who can help him we would really appreciate the help!

For the Love of Aunt Rosie

I think everyone understands on this Mother's Day what a wonderful mother Rosie would make based on the way she is around children and certainly the way children (especially nieces and nephews) are with Rosie. That said, I don't think any of her nieces, or nephews for that matter, feel about Aunt Rosie the way that Bella does.  Nobody comes between Bella and her Auntie Rosie.  And now we have a great example of not only that love, but Bella shows herself to be mature beyond her years and yet still 5 years old.  Listen to the 2 messages that wee Bella left for her Aunt Rosie:
http://sites.google.com/site/intheqc/our-music

Our Cup Runneth Over

If anyone wants peaches or apricots you won't have to buy them if you can beat the birds to them.
Both trees have decided to go nuts this year and the plum tree is giving out more fruit this year than we have ever seen.  Even the apple tree has decided to get into the act a bit this year.

John spent much of the day picking off excessive fruuit and cutting out bent limbs.

You can see all the fruit on the ground that he plucked from teh limbs as well as some of the limbs that had to be cut and still the tree has more fruit than we'll be able to keep up with.
And that is just the Peach tree.  The Apricot tree had on large limb that had to be lopped off because their was too much fruit and the limb was laying on the ground.

 

Today was a really warm day in the QC and John decided it was time to put out Buddy's pool again. after it appeared he was having trouble cooling down on his own while John was out mowing the lawn and Buddy was chasing flying bugs.

We didn't get a picture of Buddy in the pool but you can definitely tell he has been there and that he was badly in need of a bath.  He jumped in and lay down in the water as soon as John put the hose in the pool.

All the green grass is about dead and the Bermuda grass is just starting come up.  The transition is a bit frustrating until the grass is green again.

Our House

We like our house and neighborhood.  Could they both be improved?  Yes.  But all in all we've been pretty blessed.

Front Yard

Backyard

Trip to Las Vegas

I (John) went on a trip to Vegas last week for a Game Manufacturers Trade Show.  My Brother-in-law, Jay, has been helping try to get the game design company off the ground and he went to the show too.  Kendra tagged along as well to make sort of a vacation of it. It was well worth the trip and along the way we ran into something we felt like we just couldn't pass up.  Well sort of anyway.  We did just drive by on the way there knowing that we would have an easier time stopping on the way home.

We all commented at different times that we hope that Rosie, Todd, and Christina will be able to go as well next year.  Originally it was supposed to be Todd, Jay, and I going and Rosie wanted to go but with none of the other women going she volunteered to work 4 days the week we were going to be gone.  I decided that with Todd being off the work the previous week that he didn't really need to go with us and then Kendra decided she would come with Bubby (Jay and Kendra's son, Everett) and by then it was too late for Rosie to change her plans.

The trip was extremely useful towards the ends we were looking at and I think we all look forward to returning, bigger and better prepared, next year.  The idea is that my game will be in production by that time and we can make more contacts in the Retail realm of distributing games.  For those who aren't aware already I have been blogging about my adventures of kicking off Prodigy Game Works LLC and "Generals of the Revolution" for quite some time and it is getting close to becoming a reality and hopefully a success.

One of many highlights of the trip was spending time with my nephew.  He proved to be a great travel companion.

Oh What A Night!

It's been kind of ironic (I'm not sure that is the right word, but...) that this weekend is Mother's Day in England.
A few weeks ago Bret asked us if we would be willing to watch the Rowley kids so he could do something special for Hollie for their anniversary (Happy Anniversary).  Of course, we agreed and we had them over night last night.  It started off about 4pm with me still being at work and Rosie calling to ask what time I was going to be home because she already had big plans for the kids with pizza in the park.  I got home about 6:00 and immediately could see that Buddy was thoroughly enjoying the moment.  Someone with more energy than him to play with.
We played for a little in the backyard and then ordered the pizza and loaded up to go to the park.  Rosie watched the kids while I went and picked up the pizza.  By the time I got back Mable had learned to go down the slide and they all must have been really hungry because while Aiden only had 2 pieces (square cut small pieces), Grayson must have eaten half the pepperoni pizza (fortunately it was dark enough out by this time and they couldn't see that Uncle John had messed up and not gotten just cheese) and "Set the Table" ate 3 pieces.  About that time, Aiden said he was getting tired so Rosie started loading up Aiden and Mabel while I sat and ate more pizza with Grayson.
We let Grayson give us the directions to get back home.  I'm not sure how much he got lucky with guesses or how much he really knew, but he got us home the same way we went there.  Aiden was having a hard time with all this because he was sure that the he had missed the first turn.
Aiden was the first to fall asleep after changing into PJs which Buddy seemed to like becuase he made himself comfortable right next to him.  Mabel and Gray weren't going down quite as easy and managed to make it another hour til 9pm.  That was enough for Uncle John and Auntie Rosie.  We put up the play pen for Mabel to sleep in and Rosie stayed with her while Uncle John went in the family room to watch Gray.  Auntie Rosie got Mabel to fall asleep with her voodoo and Uncle John managed to fall asleep with Gray watching TV.  Rosie came in and got both of them and invited Grayson to come sleep in bed with them much to Uncle John's dismay.  I'm convinced kids in bed are much like dogs and cats.  Not necessarily that they don't belong in bed, but that when they are in bed they seem to cling to the one that least wants them there and Grayson was no different.  Almost immediatley, Grayson was nestled comfortably into the middle of my back.
This is where the story really starts to get interesting:
1AM: (but feels like it has to be 4 or 5am): Grayson wakes up and says, "Aunt Rosie?  I'm thirsty."  So accomodatingly Rosie lifts him out of the bed and tells him where in the kitchen she left him some water.  A minute later we hear tinkling coming from the front bath. While that is going on it must have triggered Rosie's bladder.  In the mean time, Grayson comes back wide awake, climbs into bed, and is ready for play time.  By the time Rosie comes back to bed he's full of conversation and planning meals for the next week.  Rosie mentioned at the park that we could have pizza for breakfast with the leftovers and Grayson had exclaimed. "GOOD IDEA!"  So now plans are in the works.  Gray says we can have pizza for lunch and I told him pizza was for breakfast and, while it was dark, I'm sure I got a look of "You stay out of this" while he told Rosie that pizza was for lunch and breakfast and Rosie thought french toast was a better idea for breakfast.  I think she got the look as well because Gray said it was going to be french fries for dinner.  Thursday (which Unlce JOhn mistook for thirsty) was going to be pizza again (Not quite sure what happened for the days in between.  I may have nodded off about 1:30am).  Anyway, Rosie eventually got him to sleep just in time for Mabel to wake up crying (I'm not sure what time it was but I am sure it wasn't long).  She was much more accomodating with sleep and shortly after went back to sleep.  Moments later (5am), Aiden was yelling "Aunt Rosie" from down the hall.  She invited him into bed with us and we were granted another hour and a half from the powers that be before it was time to get up for good.  Rosie fed the kids and they weren't having anything but pizza.  Of course there had to be scenes reminiscent of Rosie's nephew years ago and "The dog ate my pizza."  That was followed by more backyard playing with Buddy until the boys were invited to go play with the McDowell grandchildren next door.
It was a great time with the Rowley kids and I think a great time was had by all.  Of course, that may be the sleep deprivation speaking :).  Hollie and Bret, thanks for the opportunity!  We felt like we got a little taste of parenthood and if nothing else, we got a good post for our blog.  Hollie, you were right.  This stuff does write itself. :)
Truthfully from the parenthood experience part I can see why people do this.  Smiles from little faces just seem to light me up.  We'll post a pic if we take one later.

HAPPY VALENTINES DAY!!!

Rosie came up with the excellent idea of taking a picture of us on Valentines Day.  This morning before church we planned to go to the temple (where I proposed 6 years ago), but I think 2 hours of nursery took it out of her so we decided to take a picture of us in the backyard.  I went out to find a decent spot for the picture and noticed popcorn popping on the apricot tree.  It was even more evident on the peach tree so we decided that would be a good spot.  The unusually warm weather here in AZ is really fooling the trees and they are all starting to bloom early.  I'm afraid we're now going to get a freeze and its all going to be for not.
Here's the picture of us:

Rosie is Beautiful!
Buddy wanted in on some of the goings on as well:

Looks like he's wondering, "Who's my Valentine?"