Check out my green thumb...!

I am so ready for spring!!! On February 5th we planted our tomato seeds and they are getting so big! I have never been able to grow from seeds before. My plants usually get spindly and die. My tomato plants have already formed their true leaves on most of the seedlings. I have 28 seeds that have yet to sprout because I planted them late. I also planted my pepper seeds about a week ago. They haven't sprouted yet but I have them enclosed so they will germinate faster. I am quickly running out of room. I put some shelves up in the windows on the south end of the house and in front of the glass doors. As you can see from my pictures it better get warm fast so I can plant. If my last seeds sprout and nothing dies I will have 228 tomato plants! I plan on selling the extra's that I don't plant. Emily's bedroom window.
These are my berry bushes. When I took pictures of them before they didn't have any leaves. Some of these are even blossoming right now. I have one plant that doesn't seem to be doing anything... I think I killed it :(

Peppers!!! The top two rows only. There are five seeds per container. As they begin sprouting I will have to move them to their own containers... Hence the problem I am having finding here to put them!

More plants in my window... as you can see I had to get creative finding containers... then I read somewhere about using foam cups... As long as I save them to use again that is because I want to be friendly to the environment.

More tomato seedlings!

This is an artichoke plant. I planted four of these I'm not sure how they will do in our area.

This is what my bedroom window looks like.

I plan on using raised garden beds this year. I am going to use the square foot gardening method with some alterations :) Wish me luck :)

YUM Cookie Dough!

Ok maybe we went overboard... Misty an I have been into cooking in bulk lately. We've done pizza, eggrolls an yesterday we did cookie dough! WOO HOO. I think we made 14 batches! There were six bags and two batches in each batch plus we cooked one double batch. We took some pictures so be inspired!!! Yes we tested each batch for quality control :p It was good! I was sick from eating too much dough lol.

Taylor had a day too.... Poor guy fell asleep in his jumper... He just couldn't stay awake another minute.

Sincerely 1950's!!!

After watching the Video be sure to check out the pictures in the post below.

Bring Back The 1950's

In case you didn't know... Chris and I love to sing. We play with a band called MO Country ;) Well last night we had a 50's theme show. We sang music from the 1950's and everyone dressed up. It was so much fun! I really liked dressing up. I found my clothes at a thrift shop and did my hair 50's style. It was so much fun. If you want to hear some of our show you can see some video clips on YouTube. http://www.youtube.com/user/KristieSue

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LPcBX0ve3H0

Chris and I before the show. He's Buddy Holly!!! :p

Brittany and I :)

The Band!

The Ladies

This picture was Chris's idea and it turned out really cute! He's got a real smile!

Nikki and I... I didn't

wear the glasses for the show they were too distracting.

Emily took this picture

Brett was happy... The kids got to keep the giant lollipops.

A Day At The Park!

We had a really nice day at the park yesterday. The sun was shining and it wasn't freezing cold. We had to get out of the house. We are all so ready for spring and being cooped up in the house with four kids can get CRAZY! To start out with we almost had an episode... Brett started to have a fit so he got to go sit all alone at the picnic table. I told him I was going to take his picture while he was pouting so everyone could see. I don't think he believed me...

Brett Pouting At The Picnic Table...

Brett Still Pouting...

And still...

.....

This was so sweet. Logan decided to go over and talk to Brett to try to encourage him to stop crying so they could play and have a good time.
And it worked :) Brett stopped pouting and it was time for fun.

Emily on the swing.

Emily taking a picture of me on the swing.

Emily is getting really good at her picture taking.

This is another picture Emily took. It's my favorite of the day.

Taylor getting to play with the big kids.

Me taking Taylor down the super big slide. This slide is really tall so I couldn't let Emily take him down.

After a long day at the park he was ready to have his bottle and nap.

Winter Depression...

This time of year is always a struggle for me. I thank God that he's shown me this weakness and I'm able to fight it. It's hard to fight when you don't even know there's a battle taking place. It was about four years ago that I realized I have this weakness. For some reason I just tend to get depressed around this time of year. Maybe it's because I am longing for spring who knows. I just know right now I'm am at a low point.

I've struggled with drugs and alcohol in my life. I've been sober for ten years... there has been the rare occasion that I've stumbled with alcohol but God has always led me back to him and my stumblings don't last long. I haven't had a relapse in over four years thanks to the fact that I finally realized my times of depression were a cycle. I am able to ask for prayer and tell my husband that I'm struggling and this has helped me get through some hard times.

I know without a doubt that if I didn't have a constant friend in Jesus that I would never be where I am right now. He has kept me together when otherwise I would have fallen to pieces. The Bible says he will never leave me. I believe it. I am so thankful that my salvation is not dependant upon my own feelings. Right now I feel worthless. I feel like nothing I do is good enough. I feel ugly. I feel numb. I know that these feelings will pass and it's all part of being human. I know these feelings are not reality. I'm not worthless and I do matter. Knowing and feeling are so different aren't they?

I used to think that depression was a choice, that people chose to be depressed. I didn't have a clue what I was talking about. I don't choose to feel this way. If I could will myself out of this depression I would do it right now, but I can't. All I can do is pray and wait it out. I have to be strong and not give in to temptation and self pity. Does anyone else go through this like I do? I'm not even sure why I'm sharing this other than to say thank God I have Jesus, without him how lost I would be.

One of my favorite hymns....

Without him I would be nothing...
Without him I'd surely fail...
Without him I would be drifting...
Like a ship without a sail...

Jesus Oh Jesus...
Do you know him today...
Do not turn him away...
Oh Jesus Oh Jesus...
Without you how lost I would be...

Seeds & Mirrors

I'm so excited, spring is just around the corner. I am going to try growing my own vegetable plants this year from seed, instead of buying plants. I ordered heirloom seeds so I will be able to save the seeds out of the plants I grow and hopefully not have to buy more seeds again next year. Today we planted all our tomato seeds. I'm excited to see if I can actually do this. If I fail I can always buy plants in the spring and try again next year. We have the green house effect going on with the zip lock bags as you can see. I also finally bought some berry bushes too. I always say I'm going to do this and never get around to it in time. So I have two each of blackberry, raspberry and blueberry. I planted them in pots to begin with and when the weather is warm enough I'm going to transplant them outside. Chris is going to help me build raised beds for most of my gardening this year. I'm so excited!!! Did I say that already?

Yesterday we went to some thrift stores and I found this amazing mirror for our bathroom. We were going to have to buy one anyway and all the nice mirrors I've like have been in the $200 range! Who would have thought a bathroom mirror would cost that much. Well this mirror was like brand new. There are no scratches anywhere and it has a solid frame that matches the bathroom perfectly. It was only $40!!! I was giddy all the way home over getting it... It will hang long way over the bathroom sink.