Leelanau

We had a totally awesome incredible trip up to the Leelanau peninsula. I started uploading pics but haven't finished going through the good ones. Here are some for now bc I haven't posted in so long.

My new life

Sorry for no pics. How do you describe being a student in pics?

I have been in class two days now. The first day, it was fine, I understood everything, and thought I would do the homework when I got home. Then I went to the second day, sans homeowrk or preparation and learned there was an almost mandatory, previously unannounced weekly two hour lab. Seriously, an additional two hour lab means an additional bazillion in our already close to a mortgage sized daycare bill. No me likey.

Then I went to pick ujp #'s 2 &3 and found #2 crying next to her favorite teacher. They said, she really hasnt been herself today. She was burning up with a fever. At least that is better than #3's class where they call me to pick her up if she so much as burps.

So #1 and #2 have strep throat last night, and both are laying on the floor in the basement crying and moaning and refusing gatoraide or cholraseptic or popsicles, which we all know means they are seriously ill. J had taken #1 to the ped and she had a positive strep test, as did he, which means #2 had it as well. When I got home from class I bolted to CVS to get supplies, partly bc we needed them, and mostly bc I needed to escape the moaning and general illness all around.

Amoxicillin is pretty amazing bc after two doses they are pretty much back to normal. But I didnt do my homework OR read the chapter we went over today. And I needed to. And I already feel behind.

But we still had a sitter and went to the A2 summer festival tonight followed by a quart of sangria at a place near our house.

And now my dearest has quarantined me to the front porch until I do my homework.

Severe Thunderstorms in A2 vs FL

There have been like three tornado warnings in the past week here in A2. I have some mental blcok related to understanding the difference between a watch and a warning-I am never sure which is which. I think this relates to my upbringing in Florida. In Florida, when there was a severe thunderstorm or a tornado watch/warning, we basically thought, oh that's nice, let's go to bed, and then we slept soundly through the night.

Here in MI, when there is a tornado warning, I have friends call me at midnight and tell me to take the kids to the basement to sleep for the night. Or I text the babysitter to tell her we will be home in 15 min as we are enjoying our sangria on the porch of this great outdoor bar. Then we we get home and she runs out the door and tells us to pay her later she has to leave this instant. Or we go to J's fellowship graduation and the lights flicker during it implying a severe t-storm, people beg us to let them drive us home, and we end up riding home on our bikes in a severe storm that we later find out someone died in. Not to mention that the limb down in our yard took up our whole compost bin ( Size of your avg city trashcan) plus our neighbor's whole compost bin.

Anyways, seriously, sleep in the basement? Our house has been here a hundred years old. I dont think so.

The final day of freedom...

Tomorrow I officially become a full time PhD student. My stipend is already in my bank account and half spent so I guess there is no backing out..................

Shakespeare in the Arb

Zach and I went to see Shakespeare in the Arb last night. It was a beautiful awesome summer evening and the only possible thing I could have asked for was to see it with J. We biked there which added to the coolness.
The play was Midsummer's Night Dream. Each act was set in a different part of the arb so all the cast and spectators picked up their stuff and walked to the next setting. I took a lot of pics until a. my battery died and b. I was worried the camera click was bothering people.

It is Peony season. I LOVE peonies. They are so gorgeous and smell so delicious. They don't grow in the South. Or at least they aren't supposed to and I never saw any. I have gotsta plant some.

U-pick!

It is Strawberry season. We went on the second day of picking for the first time. It was amazing how many berries were on one plant. Meg and I picked a whole box in about 20 minutes. Then Zach and I went back with the girls on the way to the airport and between the four pickers ( or should I say 2 pickers and 2 eaters) we picked another box. I made 10 jars of jam- and learned a valued lesson that if you add 2 extra cups of berries your jam will be more like syrup. I also put a few pounds in the freezer and will make strawberry shortcake in a little while. The berries go rotten in almost minutes after you pick them so you have to use them up superfast.


#3 'assisted' by staying asleep the whole time.

woof woof!

She is a chocolate lab puppy! Not what I initially thought when I first saw it!

The photos that go with the post...

The school vegetable garden. I dont think my pics do it justice cause it is pretty much my dream garden- full sun, big space, neatly laid out. It just was started this spring, it used to be a grass lot. They have great plans for it for the future too.

My front porch containers-this one is petunias, a container tomato and cilantro. Trying to go for the attractive edible mix.

Geraniums, nasturiums and lettuce for the other containers.

Turnips!

Lechuga.

See the pea on there, see it see it!1

The Whatever Club...

Madison just started a club in our basement. It's called the Whatever Club and everyone is included. During club hours, you can go to the basement and do whatever craft you want. In relation to that, I am going to talk about whatever right now. First, I apologize for no pictures. They will be forthcoming.

I have returned from death's door. It was really bad. Not Jason fly home from Uganda bad like Mom suggested, but call my neighbor's for help while crying bad. We have made a good social network here and I am REALLY grateful that friends went to pick up my CSA for me, took Mad to school, came over in the evening and entertained the girls for an hour, and came over in a severe thunderstorm and whisked Meg away for a few hours and brought me tea and a bottle of ginger tablets.

Speaking of CSAs... the first share came in this week! We got:
garlic scapes ( do they have those in the South?)
asparagus
tat soi
spinach
three different kinds of lettuce
spicy greens mix
radishes
haruki ( think Gwen Stefani) turnips w/greens

I will try really hard to take pics of it next week.

My garden- again sorry about the pics. I will have to take some tomorrow fo sho. I regularly go over to Mad's school garden and alternate between drooling over it and being green with envy. It is really large and in full sun and laid out beautifully. Our yard is super shady. Jason built me wonderful raised beds that look so nice but it remains to be seen if they are actually getting enough sun. So I planted some things the same time as them and my stuff seems to be keeping up with the Joneses quite nicely. I have been picking sugar snaps for a few days now, and have enough lettuce for a salad or two ready. The spinach is doing decently and the turnips are getting big. I might actually get a daikon or two. I have a cherry tomato in a pot that has tripled in size already. I just planted more tomatoes, jalapenos, cukes, squash, broccoli ( impulse buy). One thing I tell myself every year after stuff starts to come in- plant more! I thought I started so many sugar snaps that I gave some seedlings away, but while those plants are producing well, I need like double the amount to actually have enough to serve for a meal. Same for the spinach. And I am going to harvest like 8 radishes altogether. I usually seem to do ok with the matos, cukes and eggplant though.

I have to do a 75 hour mentored research immersion as a requirement. My advisor is going on saabatical to Paris in September so she suggested I do it in June and July since I am only taking one class. Sounded like a great idea- I am all for knocking out any requirement asafp. I started for real today- it was kind of neat to hang out in her offices and do actual work. What actual work you say? She studies post traumatic stress syndrome in pregnant women, focusing on sexual abuse survivors. Today I did a ton of reading and had the project coordinator do an orientation. I am going to analyze one data set for my initial project. That sounds good on paper but first I have to learn how to analyze data period. My stats class starts June 17.

Since I am about to start discussing the weather forecast for the next week, I will hop off.

Sob Story...commence sympathy

We are on day 19 of sickness in the Bell house. Nineteen days. This is coming off of pretty much no illness for about a year. I was thinking that our family is just remarkably healthy or something. When we got off the plane to San Francisco Mere had a runny nose, then proceded to get a fever, which she passed to Meg who then passed it to me. I still have sinusitis and then on Friday Mere started the vomiting and diarrhea, then Mad got it, then I got it. I pretty much spent 24 hours of this weekend with a horrific sinus headache that I couldnt take anything for because I would throw it up. Finally I took some phenergan (not discussing how/where it entered my body) which is usually just given in the hospital, and it knocked me out cold for 12 hours then I was in some kind of a fog for another 12 hours.

So, yesterday afternoon as I was still in sickieland I kissed J goodbye as he left for two weeks in Uganda. I had a big meeting today with my phd advisors so I got up early, got the big girls dressed and went in to check on little bit and found her sitting in a pool of vomit. Holy Lord, when will it end??? I have eaten an apple and a granola bar over the past two days, my husband is in BFU, someone is barfing at any given time in this house and when I do eat something two of my temporary choppers fall out. Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.