Garden Check Up

I took a break from the garden posting for a bit, but I really wanted everyone to see the squash that is about to take over our life.

This first picture is a picture of our zucchini that we planted from seeds a couple of weeks ago. They grew really fast. They always look a little sad unless water is hitting them.

Here is a picture of our cherry tomato plant. We eat cherry tomatoes now all the time. I tried to capture a spot where you could see the crazy amount of tomatoes this plant produces. One cherry tomato plant can feed a large family for sure. Look on the left to spot 4 green ones.

Here is a picture of our corn that we also planted from seeds a few weeks ago. Currently the yellow squash is trying to take over everything, but the corn is standing strong and growing taller every day.

Our beans have probably grown the most in the past week. We planted seeds a couple of weeks ago and they sprouted up almost immediately. They got stuck at one stage and height until the past week, but have now taken off. We've pulled off three beans so far, but we are ready for a full meals worth.

Lastly, I wanted to show you our squash! Our plants are HUGE, with mini squash sprouting everywhere. Give them about 4 to 5 more inches and they'll be ready for picking. I think we are going to have so many vegetables coming in the next month that we plan to join the local farmer's market in the square a couple of blocks from our home. The market starts in a couple of weeks and should be a lot of fun. This picture is just one of our billion squash plants--as you can see--a lot of squash is being produced by this one plant.

Luke gets off this Friday and Monday so we are very excited about our upcoming trip! We head for Las Cruces, NM this weekend for the Southern New Mexico Wine Festival, then to Truth or Consequences for some mineral bath soaking and massages, and finally to White Sands Memorial to see the largest gypsum deposit in the world. I'll post pictures and blog all about it when we return. I feel like it's been forever since our last trip, so as you can see...I'm ready to hit the road again.

Day 3

Today is day 3 of my new workout routine! I bought Jillian Michael's 30 Day Shred DVD this weekend in hopes of motivating myself to get back in shape. I completed the level 1 workout Saturday and just about died. So...Sunday I recruited my laughing husband to join in my pain. We both painfully made it through level one and decided that we would stick together and complete the 30 Day Shred as a team. We weighed in last night at numbers that need no mention (however, Luke only weighs 3 more pounds and is WAY taller--sad I know). Wish us luck and hopefully 30 days from now we'll be back in shape!

Love It

Happy Friday to all! Today is a sport's holiday for the Carlsbad schools. I've never heard of sports day, but this school finds more reasons to take off. Apparently a lot of sports have their playoffs today, so they just let everyone out.

On another note--Luke and I spotted little bits of rain coming from the sky this morning. It's been so long that I'm hoping for rain. No real down pour as of yet, but I'll keep my fingers crossed.

Today I wanted to give a shout out to one of my favorite authors. His writing name is James Rollins. He writes various types of books and has a different alias for each genre. He writes under different names simply because they told him his original last name was too difficult to say. No matter what his name is--I love his books.

I am a very picky book reader. I love to read books that challenge me into my own research on a topic. Rollins books fall under scientific, historical, thrillers.

I love and read all of Dan Brown's books, and Rollins books are very similar. Most of the time they interlace true historical events, with a controversial topic, and high action that leaves you begging for more. Rollins loves to incorporate technology into his books as well. A lot of times I wouldn't even know we had some of the military capabilities we have until he lays them out as part of the facts from his books. Two examples of real technology I didn't know about until reading his books-- just to get you intrigued: Super Black is a real compound developed at the National Physical Laboratory in Britain, and Liquid Body Armor is real and developed by the U.S. Army Research Laboratory.

I have finished all Sigma Series books and highly recommend them. Currently I am working to finish all his thrillers to date. So far I haven't stumbled upon a bad one yet. So...if you are looking for a new summer author--Check out JAMES ROLLINS!

His website: http://www.jamesrollins.com/

A Few Things

The other week I made cupcakes. I had a regular muffin tin with 12 spots. The batter called for 24 cupcakes. I knew this, but wanted to be lazy and try to fit all of the batter in just the 12 slots. As you can guess...that didn't really work out. They spilled out all over my oven (thank goodness for those oven mats that make for easy cleaning) and worst yet, the cupcakes all collapsed down and tasted awful. So...as you can guess Luke got quite a laugh out of this and offered to bake the perfect batch. Last night Luke took the cupcake challenge and made(as sad as it is for me to report) them perfect. I look at this as a win for both of us (I now have yummy cupcakes).

I put jumbo sprinkles on mine!

We've had our debates over icing recently. I tried to be healthy (yes I see how silly this is) and buy the reduced sugar icing. Luke hated it and specifically ask for cream cheese. I do not like cream cheese icing for some reason though, so...we just live with two icing cans in the house. No winner here! Just two happy people to have their own icing:)
On a completely other note*** I think I have the most beautiful nieces in the world! They are just precious. I am taking a trip back east in June and can't wait to see them. One of the hardest parts about living so far away is not getting to see them very often. At this age they are growing so fast.

This is the baby of the two and we call her The Bear!
Here they are having a tea party in a field of buttercups. Not sure you could find anything more precious.

Sweet Spring almost Summer

It's 95 degrees out, so it feels like summer, but schools still in session, so spring it is. I just wanted to take a post to show the beautiful flowers out and about my house.

Yes I am that dork that planted flowers to match her house!

Funny story is that Luke and I looked specifically for flowers that are more bushy (or so we thought) turns out these shoot straight up instead. Oh well! Still beautiful.

This was already here when we arrived, but I love it! It's on the side of the house towards the front. Not really sure what it is, but it matches well.

Mckittrick Canyon

Yesterday Luke and I went hiking with his co worker and co worker's son. We ventured back to Mckittrick Canyon (the place we wondered from the trail last time). We set off around 10:30 a.m., and ended with a full six hour hike. We only stopped for around 15 min. out of the entire 6 hours. The canyon gate is locked at 6, so you have to be out by that time or risk sleeping on the mountain. We did see a lot of backpackers marching up the mountain with 60 pound packs, so I was thankful we were just day tripping it. I personally loved climbing the mountain to reach the impossible ridge that always seemed just out of reach. I did find yesterday that my foot cannot hold up for 6 hour hikes (you were right mom! sorry I had to at least try). So, today I can't walk! We have a nice computer chair that rolls, so I'll be fine. I think I'm cut out for the 6 mile hikes vs. the 6 hour hikes. We covered around 12 miles yesterday with 2 of those miles straight up and straight down a mountain. Here are some wonderful pictures that give off the feeling you might spot an old Mayan ruin at any second.

You can see me rounding the corner in this pic

The War

A war was waged on the Dorman household. By who you ask? The evil, awful, weed! However, after this week and weekend--the Dorman family has prevailed. Yes I am talking about our garden again. It's basically all we have going on recently. Plus, we've gone a bit high tech. I married a man that is very handy and likes to experiment--hence the high tech garden we now have.

Luke getting the drip irrigation system all worked out.

After the drip system was installed, we then rolled out the weed blocker (my personal favorite--no more weeding for me).

Last but not least, we put out the mulch for a beautiful look and helpful nutrients.

Our tomatoes are almost ready! I really want to cut them off now for some yummy fried green tomatoes. We still have a bit more of the garden we are waiting to grow up before we cover and mulch, but we're almost there. Have a happy weekend everyone.