Adam at Wendy's

Doesn't Adam look like a big boy sitting in his own chair? Even drinking out of a straw! He's getting good at that! The sippy cup is still better in that if he throws it (which he does when he's done...we have to work on that one!), it doesn't leak!

Adam Exploring the Sprinkler

Adam and the Sprinkler

Adam got a little too close to the sprinkler!
After that, he wasn't so sure about it anymore - I didn't manage to get the earlier incident on camera.

This is hilarous! Amy sent it to me!

Updating My Courses

I am going to be working on updating my courses all summer and one of the things that I am doing is adding video examples. I just updated my new ones into YouTube, which I'm using for hosting. I'll be working all summer on these updates, which include my lecture notes, the videos and we'll see what else.

Yard Work

We spent today doing yard work. We aren't quite done. We have to get more dirt for the back before we can put down grass seed (for once, I knew this and the guys didn't for a change!). We also can't mulch the other front side until we raise the sidewalk - we are going to pay for that to be done later this summer.

Front Yard
Back Yard

Garden - we got this in today and we planted flowers around it (marigolds).

Gernamiums in back

Cedar mulch on left - Ray really wanted cedar to ward off insects, but it was really hard to find, but we finally managed today, but only in bags, but it actually was very reasonable.

The hay bale for the grass seed cover was also a pain to find, but I manged to find that as well. I was trying to find everything prior to today, but we did have to go out to get vegetables today as I didn't get them yesterday. We did try to go to Home Depot in Cuyahoga Falls, but they had poor selection and no cashiers - we ended up deserting what we had in a cart and leaving it we were so annoyed with them.

Let me up!

Adam trying to get through the gate - he knows how they work, but doesn't have the dexerity to do it yet (good for us!). Those are new shorts - 24 months and too loose for him. We were calling him droopy drawers - he looked like those kids who wear those ridiculous shaggy pants.

Adam in the Sandbox

More footage of Adam in the Sandbox (are you sick of this yet?)

This is my current favorite picture!

Baby Bibs

Why aren't some baby bibs made with buttons instead of velcro? Seriously, I can only find the velcro ones and guess what - Adam can take those off himself! He can't deal with buttons, hence I need need buttons (or snaps). I have a few snaps that were given to me, but no one around here sells them! AGHH!!!

Grilled Chicken with Barley

We tried a new recipe tonight and Ray really enjoyed it. Reiman Publications (they do all the Taste of Home magazines) discontinued Cooking for 2, which I subscribed to and so I got one issue of Healthy Cooking to finish out that subscription. We enjoyed this recipe, but I'm still not sure if I'll actually keep this subscription or not - I'll probably pick up the next month's at the store and see what is in it. I like healtier recipes, but I'm not fond of all the weird ingredients that usually go along with those publications (hence why I quit subscriping to Light and Tasty, which I think this is an incarnation of as I don't see that one listed on their pages anymore).

Grilled Chicken with Barley
Modified from Healthy Cooking

1/4 cup lemon juice
1 tbsp plus 1 tsp canola oil, divided
2 garlic cloves, minced
1 tsp dried oregano
1/2 tsp dried basil
4 boneless chicken breast halves (approx 4 oz each)
1 can (14.5 oz) chicken broth [they used reduced sodium and then added salt...I just used regular and left out the salt]
1/2 cup medium pearl barley
1 medium carrot, chopped
1 small red pepper, chopped [I used green pepper]
1/2 small onion, chopped [they used green onion, I used regular onion]
1/4 tsp pepper

In a small bowl, combine lemon juice, 1 tbsp oil, garlic, oregano and basil. Pour 2 tbsp into container with chicken. Seal and coat, refrigerate for about an hour.

Cover and refrigerate rest of marinade as well.

In a large saucepan, bring broth to boil. Stir in barley. Reduce heat; cover and simmer for 45-50 minutes or until tender.

Sauté carrot, red pepper and onion until tender. Add pepper. Stir veggies and reserved marinade into cooked barley.

Drain marinade from chicken. Grill chicken for 4-7 minutes on each side or until juices are clear. [They did this inside, I had Ray do it outside.] Serve with barley mixture.

Serves 4.

TV and Movies

Okay, first this will show just how far behind we are, but hopefully we will catch up over the summer. Anyway, we just watched the season/series finale of Scrubs. This has been a GREAT last season and I have to admit, as much as I love the series, I hope they don't bring it back as it went on a high note and the final episode was definitely a FINALE. So many series go too long and end badly. It was just a perfect finale and a great last season - really well done.

Have you noticed that they are redoing cartoons lately? Seriously....transformers and now it is GI Joe! We saw that trailer when we were at Star Trek. Which was just SO awesome...can't wait until that comes out on DVD so I can buy it!!! I watch more Disney now...anyway, I've seen a few minutes of Hannah Montana here and there - been mostly ignoring it as Adam doesn't care and neither do I, but Ray happened to mention it is Jem redone...and it SO is! I hadn't noticed that until he said it!

Grades are IN!

I submitted all my grades last night and I just finished up the assessment paperwork I had to do for our accreditation committee. I'm DONE for spring semester! And I have a week until summer term starts. I do have two incompletes (one at SNHU and one at LRSC), but at least I done with most of it. I will have one SNHU term, but that doesn't start for another month or so. So anyway, my work load has lightened! We are going to visit Adam Nelkie (Adam's Uncle Adam) next week, so that should hopefully be a fun trip.

Backwards works too!

Playing in his Sandbox

Some video from today in the sandbox

Ray and Adam

Aren't they cute?

Adam was in this basket, so Ray just picked it and him up after his bath!

Kitchen Molding

Ray and Dave also as their last project put up some molding that we hadn't gotten around to in the kitchen.

Yard Waste

All that work meant lots of yard waste. The city picks it all up, though!

Front Yard

The work on the front yard

The entire look
Front circle with annuals and I got my birdfeeder out

Front flower bed with perennials. We added the edging bricks this year to match the front circle. I replaced the plants we lost as well with some new ones. We didn't get many tulips back up, so I'll replant this fall. We are mulching next weekend.

We moved some bushes on this side (bushes to hid the AC unit) - we took out the straight pricker bushes as while pretty, they are a hazard to Adam. This way it is all the sam bush anyway, which I like better. We also pulled one push up - it was behind others. I think it was so you couldn't see the AC from the front step, but who cares in my opinion.

We added two new bushes were the old pricker bushes were (and there was one where we pulled the other bush up to). They grow in eventually.

We also bought a new hose reel so that our hose will be neater and it will live behind the bushes too. We will add mulch here and we have the bricks for the front here as well, but we are getting an estimate on leveling the sidewalk in front of it first and we don't want to put that down until we decide if we are doing that.

Back Yard

Our back yard

This is the side under the awning in back. I did all the weeding - we moved the strawberries (in the whiskey barrels) and raspberries here. We bought some new strawberry plants and two new raspberry bushes. We are going to pant the rest to grass this coming weekend.

Finished Garden

Doesn't that look nice? While the men were working on the frame, I cleaned up the weeds and stuff. We added some of the extra sand in and that had to be mixed in. We'll add some more topsoil before we actually plant and mix it up once more. I saw a ton of earthworms as I weeded, though, which is a great sign as I wasn't seeing them in past years - that is a good sign that our work has helped improve our soil.

Fixing up the Garden

We did the garden this weekend as well. I won't plant until next week (we are still getting frost watches), but we got the frame redone and the chicken wire restrung. Hopefully it will keep out the rodents, but it now also looks nice and is easy to get in and out of.

Garden frame
Putting in the gate

Testing the gate

As you can see, Adam put it through its paces!

Stringing chicken wire

Pounding in stakes

Adam "helping" pound in stakes with Daddy's hammer

More hammering!

And I thought this was just cute.

Playing in the Sandbox

Adam enjoying the new sandbox!

Building Adam's Sandbox

One of our major projects for last weekend was Adam's new sandbox! The boy is now the proud owner of a box of sand! He "supervised" the entire process!

Ray and Dave cutting boards for the frame

Building the frame - you can see Adam checking out the process to ensure quality control! Power tools are cool!

Adam and PaPa putting the frame into the ground

Completed framePutting in the first load of sand
Adam checking out that first load - gotta see if it meets approval!

Putting in the seats

Completed sandbox

And a happy boy in it! He got these toys for Easter and they finally really get put into use!

Finally - cleaning out Dave's truck, which is how we got the sand home.

Mud Puddles are FUN!

Saturday was somewhat rainy. We went inside and took breaks (did other things - like lunch, etc.) when it actually poured, but we were in and out in the sprinkles/mist. So it meant a wet, muddy, day (Adam had three baths as it was simply easy to put him in in the tub to clean him up), but it was warm, so we kept on it. Adam had a blast, though, and really enjoyed the puddles!

Hmm...what is this?

I can splash here, too!

Daddy's Gloves

Adam found Ray's gloves and insisted on wearing them! They didn't stay on so good!