Here is our garden spider. No photoshop here. And I have $5 that he can eat rick’s spider.
New Photo Gallery!
So I have never really liked the way the old photo gallery worked. Being the web geek, and photo nerd that I am, I found a new way of making the photos work.
Check out the new gallery here: http://photos.mattandstephaniesblog.com/
or visit the photos page link up top.
Some new features:
• Thumbnails with Hover for a larger preview
• Auto play to cycle through all images
• Gallery preview Images
• Easy to jump back to the gallery by pressing the lower left icon.
Have fun. We’ll add more photos to it as we have them.
Tomatoes!
The first tomatoes of the season are finally here! My garden didn’t produce the early season tomatoes we should get in Arizona around May/June. I was shocked my plants made it through July and August, and managed to produce some fruit. I tasted one yesterday and let’s just say it was worth the wait!
Friday Update 8/29/08
Adoption Update: Our agency didn’t have any referrals this week, it has been since the week of 7/11/08 since the last set of referrals and probably none for the next couple of weeks.
Running and Push-Up Updates: Let’s not talk about exercise this week.
Pets:
Carter has a favorite room in the house and it is the nursery. Hopefully he is willing to share when Tom and Jerry get here.
Carter with Sammy
Carter in the crib
Gardening:
This week I chopped back my basil and decided to dry some for future use.
Me and the basil (not all this basil could be dried, you just pick out the good leaves and no stems)
One of the three spiders that we later found in the basil while pulling off the leaves (yikes I was holding three spiders and didn’t know it)
The dried basil (I also filled the little jar that fits in my spice rack)
Scary Lightning
Wow are we having a massive storm. I mean the biggest lightning storm of the year.
I was daring enough to go out with the new camera
The new birthday lens was great. Thanks to all made that happen for me!
Here are some pics that I took
Overwhelmed
Recently I have been feeling very overwhelmed with my commitment to the Carbon Account Challenge and feeling guilty from what I had learned in that first month. I was very frustrated with the fact that the efforts we had made to make our lives a more sustainable one had not come as far as I had hoped. It was very daunting to see it there in black and white. So, mid-way through August I just stopped tracking, thinking I would just put guesstimates in when I felt up to it. Then I read this blog and one very wise suggestion reminded me that it is okay to take changing our lives a little at a time:
Start with one or two things (take the bus one day a week, use cloth bags, etc) and make it a habit. Then move on to another and another.
I have decided for now to not track every little thing, but to continue making little changes to our lives, and check our progress every few months with the carbon account. Sometimes I need to be reminded that I can’t do it all at once, but I can and will eventually get to where I want to be.
The first pickled okra of the season
Yep I pickled okra this afternoon. I also pickled some more banana peppers and made bread. It was a busy afternoon in the kitchen!
Show and Tell
After my Friday Update last week, my Uncle Rick thought he would share one of the spiders that lives in his garden.
Yikes! I am glad I don’t have any of those. Anyone else want to share the creatures that live in their garden?
Friday Update 8/22/08
Adoption Update: Our agency didn’t have any referrals this week, it has been since the week of 7/11/08 since the last set of referrals. 🙁
Highchair I scored off of Craigslist for Tom or Jerry (of course, Jackson gave it a test run for us)
Running Update: I didn’t run at all this week. I still have been staying up too late watching the Olympics to bother with getting up early to run, but I have been riding the exercise bike this week. It is so much nicer to exercise in air conditioned comfort.
Push-up Update: We did them this week, well I still have one more set to do, but we did them! We did repeat week 2, so we are a little behind, but I thought it would take more than six weeks anyway.
Matt got a new-to-him toy this week:
Jackson was excited about the box
Carter was excited about the foam (he loves to eat foam)
Matt was excited for the new toy and that his wife let him put it together in the house because it was so hot in the garage
Random stuff from the web:
I was looking for something to do with old magazines and might have to give this a try.
All I have to say on this story is, “Seriously!?”
gas costs on a bike
i thought this was funny.
Blog Action Day
I decided to participate in blog action day and figured I better post about it here so I remember to have my post done by October 15.
Blog Action Day is an annual nonprofit event that aims to unite the world’s bloggers, podcasters and videocasters, to post about the same issue on the same day. Our aim is to raise awareness and trigger a global discussion.
Eden Reforestation Project – Ethiopia
Thanks to Kellie for posting about Eden Reforestation Project – Ethiopia. I had looked a while back for a tree planting program in Ethiopia and hadn’t stumbled upon Eden’s website. I am so happy to have read her post today because reforestation in Ethiopia covers two of my greatest passions, taking care of the earth and Tom and Jerry’s homeland.
Tesfaye from Chronicle Project on Vimeo.
There is also a free coloring book download for those of you with kids or who are teachers.
Friday Update 8/15/08
Adoption Update: Our agency didn’t have any referrals this week, it has been since the week of 7/11/08 since the last set of referrals. So, they have to be coming soon, right? This isn’t all that unusual with international adoption. I do like it better when the line is moving, but I am not very stressed about the wait at this time.
Running Update: I ran once this week. 🙁 Let’s just say someone stayed up too late every night to watch the Olympics and refused to get up early before the heat set in and run.
Push-ups: We didn’t do them, don’t know what happened we just forgot. I am pretty sure we are now going to have to just repeat week 2.
Gardening: Most of my plants are still alive, they made it through the hottest part of the season!
Taffi helping weed (Just ignore the photographer’s shadow, she doesn’t think these things through)
My peppers (they were feeling left out of the last post on gardening)
A bee doing his job (I hadn’t seen a lot of bees this summer, but they finally showed up!)
Scary Spider (I let them live in the garden because they eat the bugs that eat my plants, but there are several of them and I have a tiny fear of spiders)
What an exciting week, ehh?
Christian Emoticons
I came across this post today and it made me laugh, so I thought I would share.
\~~~\
This means, “I stayed in bed this morning and accidentally missed church. Please don’t judge me if we see each other at a restaurant on Sunday afternoon and I am clearly wearing clothes that indicate I did not go.” (Also known as “bedside Baptist.”)^^^^
This means, “Our church had to install speed bumps in the parking lot because despite what the sermon said, I will run you over if you get in my way when I am trying to leave church.0:)
This means, “I am a Christian with a halo and a unibrow. I wear both proudly.”!!!
This means, “I drink coffee during church! Lots of coffee!”.oO
This means, “Our small church is becoming a megachurch.”Y Y Y
This means, “You will see lots of people singing with their hands raised at our church.”&
This means, “I am a bald worship leader.”\_ \_ \_
This means, “Our new church building has movie-theater style seats.”~~~~~>
This means, “We handle snakes at our church during service.”o o o o o o o
This means, “I am not afraid to throw Skittles in order to wake up a crowd of people.”0$
This means, “I tip with tracts instead of money at restaurants.” (Shame on you.)[ –> <– }
This means, “I can’t clap on rhythm during worship songs. When I try to bring my hands together, it’s like one hand is thinking one thing and the other is thinking something completely different.”