Front yard ~ Before and after

Bobby keeps mentioning how lovely our front garden looks now.  So I thought I'd put up some before and after photos of when we first moved in and what it looks like now:

Before:

This was when we first moved in.  The outside walls were being repaired and repainted.  I remembered Charlie saying that our house looked like an abandoned one.  Ha ha! And there were a lot and I mean A LOT of succulents in the front yard. Like rows and rows of them:

And then, it was a work in progress from building the drain at the side of the house to continuing it to the front.  And then adding some big blocks by the bottom part to tier the garden:

It was definitely a lot of trips to the home improvement store for plants, mulch, rocks... you name it!  But it's so nice now to have random people walking by saying how great the yard looks :-)

After:

It's a bit difficult to see the vibrant colors of all the flowers in the photos.  And I still did keep a lot of succulents but moved them towards the front wall:

Bobby says it's like having our own little botanic garden in the front. And he even suggested that we put up little signs for the plants just like the Botanic Garden does. Ha ha! Not sure how long the colors will stay for but we are definitely enjoying the most of it now :-)

What could possibly go wrong?

Graham and Charlie found their boxing gloves a while ago.  I had forgotten to post this video.  Glad that no one was knocked-out!  This would not be a good time to go to the hospital with the new cases of Coronavirus increasing again:

Charlie definitely looks like he is going to punch the lights out of his brother:

This makes me miss my fit-boxing crew back in Abu Dhabi when we lived there. We had a fun bunch of gals and somehow our instructor managed to put up with all of us.  And that includes wearing this funny sweater during Christmas back in 2016.  Ha!

Now that homeschooling is over, I guess I have no excuse whatsoever to not exercise.  But it's too hot outside today!  Okay, okay.  Maybe I can just at least start with some light stretching :-P

I can definitely tell that my "muffin top" has increased since this Safer At Home period that began back in mid March.  Perhaps my diet of pasta and pizza hasn't helped much.  I definitely miss my weekly hour-long walks with a couple other moms from school.  It would be so nice to have things back to normal again.  

Nope, no strawberries to eat

I was in the front yard this morning and was totally super excited when I saw a bright red strawberry!

Mmm.... can't wait to eat this one :-)

But oh no!!!  Turn it over and there's a hole on the other side :-(

It's a good thing I didn't ask the boys to bite into it then and there:

At least there wasn't anything crawling inside it.  What a bummer!  The strawberry really did look delicious to eat.  This is probably the whole reason why I bought the upside down planter, but those strawberry plants in the planter aren't looking so great right now.  Can't seem to win this battle.  Guess we will just have to keep getting strawberries from the supermarket!

Progress with Heelys

Graham and Charlie were both begging for these Heelys (shoes with wheels) for Christmas last year.  They haven't ventured out with them very much as it seems that the wheels have to be either on all the time or off all the time. I don't like them walking around too much with the wheels on since it's almost like them walking with high-heels on!  Charlie had accidentally slipped a few times as he would jump or pounce and forget that he had those wheels at the bottom/back on his shoes.  Oops!

I should have bought different ones where you can just push the wheels in and out on demand, as these wheels have to be pried out with a special tool. Oh well, learning process with these kids and their demands!

We did let the boys venture out to the Botanic Garden once with their Heelys a couple of weeks ago.  Graham is getting better at them while Charlie is still struggling with it quite a bit:

We keep telling them to practice on the pavement in the backyard with their helmets and pads on but nope, I guess that just doesn't seem fun enough???  We still have the skateboards too which we haven't been practicing on.  My new one still has the plastic wrapper on.  Ha ha! Perhaps we should start practicing soon as the beaches have re-opened which means the strand is also open now.

P.S:  Homeschooling is over! Yay, I made it.  Someone needs to print me a shirt that says "I survived homeschooling."  LOL!!!

Scrabble Time

We've been trying to keep busy with no tablet and TV time.  It's really difficult! Ha ha!  Thankfully Charlie likes to play chess and scrabble.  Wow... I don't think I've had to play with so many vowels before:

And Charlie manages to finish up all his Scrabble tiles including his last tile - a "Q" with the word "Qi".  Bobby helped him of course :-P

Look who's happy!  And looks like I spelled "villain" incorrectly.  Oops! :-P

A few days later... wow, these vowels really love me!

I'm teaching Charlie how to count the scores for the words that he puts down on the board.  I think it's funny how he immediately thinks about how he can maximize his words.  He is such a competitor!  Hopefully that will serve him well in his future... as long as he doesn't cheat.  He has had the tendency to cheat in every game in order to win but thankfully he is getting better at following the rules.  Just makes you wonder what this kid is going to grow up to be!

What are you most thankful for?

Graham and Charlie has been finishing up their COVID-19 time capsule project.  The one that was provided by their teachers is 10 pages long.   I thought Charlie's answer to "What are you most thankful for?" was so cute!

Yup, you read right - "a roof over my head"!  I guess we said it enough times that the boys know what to say now.  Ha ha!!!

And Graham's answer is so sweet "... for my family."  Awwww.....

And here is Charlie's letter to himself.  It's so funny!  He is asking his future self if he has kids - daughter or boy, and also asking what their names are.  Charlie also writes that he is the "best Charlie"... whenever he reads this in the future :-)

These are definitely interesting times that we are living in right now.  And as if the virus wasn't enough, there are also people protesting, rioting, looting, and police brutality.  What else can this world put up with??!

Fixing up the trampoline

Hopefully this will be it for now with the trampoline.  The new net arrived last week and then a couple of the new metal poles arrived yesterday.  Yay!!!  I didn't realize how bad our trampoline netting actually looked:

Check at all the stitching that had to be done to keep the net together.  LOL!!!

Okay, maybe not so funny because Graham did end up falling out of the trampoline a few weeks ago.  Ouch..! Poor fella.  But weirdly enough, no bruise - even after hitting his lower back on the pavers on the ground!

The easiest way to remove the old net was to just cut it off from the spring.  No turning back now!

Charlie is my little helper today:

I couldn't figure out why I could not take off this screw/bolt at the top of one of the poles.  So down it comes:

The cap was broken.  Nothing superglue and a rubber band can't fix.  Ha ha!

These instructions seem confusing!

There are a total of 8 ropes and somehow they are not long enough in total length to cover the entire trampoline??!  I'm obviously not doing something right.  Hmmm.....

I'm glad the weather was nice and gloomy so at least I wasn't baking in the sun all afternoon.  I had to take a break by the end of yesterday and come back to it today as I still couldn't figure out how to secure the bottom of the net to the frame.  It was probably a good thing while I waited because the new poles showed up!  Look how bad these are.  I like how the previous owner had tried to repair one of them.  And somehow the poles managed to survive the boys too.  Ha ha!

The new metal poles were not cheap but look, nice and straight and shiny! And I thought I was getting both the bottom half and the top half for the price.  It was just the bottom halves!  Luckily, those were the only ones we needed:

Well, the old poles have a new purpose now - to keep the corn plants from falling over when it's too windy around here!

Look how great the trampoline looks now!  And Graham and Charlie says it feels bigger??! Maybe because the poles are not slanting into the trampoline area now.  Ha ha!  And by the way, so glad I didn't bump my head on those overhanging wires when I was on the ladder.  

Perhaps it was the right move to replace just the netting and poles and not buying an entire new trampoline.  I was trying to tug on the springs to remove the netting and it would not even budge.  I can only imagine how painful my fingers will be by the end of that ordeal!

And one last thing for the trampoline - a little heart on the mat:

It's actually bright green duct tape that I cut into the shape to patch up a little tear on the mat.  Yay for a safer trampoline!!!  Wait,.. there are still those gaps where there wasn't enough rope to connect the bottom of the netting to the frame.  The boys are too big to squeeze through those gaps.  Right??!

We have corn!

Yup, you heard right - we have corn too!  First, the zucchini and now the corn is ready too.  It has been quite the learning process in knowing about how corn plants are pollinated.  And then, there's also the crazy fact that every silk on the corn produces one kernel on the cob??!  That's just unbelievable!

Well, it was time to figure out if the corn was ready.  Supposedly if the silk starts to turn brown, it is ready.  I still couldn't really tell, so I just went ahead and peeled back the husk:

It's ready!!!  I can't believe it,... corn from our own backyard!

And with all its kernel. Yay!!!

Looks like our hand-pollination may have worked or perhaps mother-nature is just really good at her job :-)

Funny, but Graham doesn't really eat corn and it was his idea to actually plant the corn.  So, we'll at least let him play with our first pickin' before we cook it:

More corn the next day too:

Supposedly the husk is brown because there's too much sun on it.  Thankfully there are lots of layers because it was only the outer layer that's brown.  Perfect on the inside!  So impressed with what's been produced.  I was totally expecting lots of holes/lack of kernels on the cob:

And did I mention how easy it was to peel off the silk on the corn? I always have so much trouble cleaning off the silk from the store-bought corn.  How weird it that??!  Did I also mention how super sweet the corn was?  Supposedly the sugar in the corn starts to break down the minute it is picked.  Thumbs up from Charlie!

The only sad thing about this whole situation is the corn plant.  Once the corn ears are picked, the plant is done!  It has fulfilled its purpose and that's that.  I wonder if the plant or husks can be used for something else.  Hmm.... looks like there will be some researched involved here.  Ooohhh... corn husk to make/wrap tamales??! :-D

We have zucchini!

My good friend Linda had given me a little zucchini plant just a little while ago. Perhaps early last month? And we picked our first zucchini early this week!

Graham and Charlie doesn't like to eat sauteed zucchini, so looks like we will be having zucchini bread this weekend!

There is already another baby zucchini growing.  I am still trying to make a combo pumpkin + zucchini.  It's difficult with the timing because by the time I wake up, the flowers are already closing up.  Yes, yes... I need to wake up earlier :-P

Charlie's "snowflakes"

I'm not sure how this all came about but a couple of mornings ago, Charlie came out to the living room with a whole bunch of cut paper snowflakes.  He had already put one up on the sliding door months ago, so I said sure... why not:

Well, I guess I didn't realize how many he had cut!  And he also put up some "word clouds" which was introduced to him by his teacher this past week:

If anything, there are no excuses running into this sliding door now! Ha ha!  Charlie is already thinking up plans on covering this entire glass door with more paper snowflakes.  Obviously I will keep you all posted if it happens.  Or should I say "when" it happens.  Charlie is such a unique snowflake himself :-)

Recent happenings

After figuring out which sort of filter we needed for our standing fan, I was finally able to order one and switch it out today.  YIKES!!!  Although I really shouldn't be too surprised.  We have never changed out the filter since we bought this fan.  I won't tell you how long ago that was :-P

So please go and change out your air conditioner and fan filters when you are done reading this post!!!

And looks like our tether ball has finally had it!  The rope was fraying and I think there was even water in the ball.  Blah... I can't imagine what's growing in there!

This one is so much better.  Yay!!!

Somehow, this caterpillar managed to find my kale.  It sure is good at camouflaging!

And the next day, the hungry caterpillar was gone.  It at least left me the stems of the kale but not sure if it will continue to grow new leaves?  I guess we shall find out.

And find out we did on something else in the yard.  One of the sprinklers in the front yard was spewing water which is totally not what it's suppose to do.  The plastic sprinkler head literally broke into 2 pieces.  I'm glad I noticed it a few days ago when I was turned the sprinklers on:

Thankfully I was able to get a wrench and unscrew what was left out of the pipe.  I'm just glad it wasn't the pipe that burst.  You can see the white PVC pipe as the water had washed away all the soil around it.  And luckily I had saved some sprinkler heads when the gardener worked on the sprinkler system in the backyard last year:

Everything is back in order! Fingers crossed.

The weather has been gloomy the last couple of days.  "June Gloom" is standing up to its name!  And hey, look what I came up with.  I bought some acrylic garland beads and hung them at the bottom of the drapery:

I still have to put a clothes pin on the line to keep the drapery from moving away from the perfect spot.  But at least it's staying down a bit more to keep the sun away from my hubby's precious face.  And the extra bling under the drapery looks pretty too :-)

We've been busy making more avocado and spam rolls.  I've figured out how to get the rice on the outside of the roll, like at the restaurants :-)  Yummm...!!!  Bobby just sticks with avocado rolls.  I keep telling him that spam is like pork roll but he seems to strongly disagree. He! he!

And looks like homeschooling and baking does not go hand-in-hand.  I tried to make orange cake during "school hour" at home.  The recipe called for softened butter.  I had forgotten to take the butter out so I decided to stick the 2/3 cups of butter into the microwave.  Well,... this is what 2/3 cups of MELTED butter looks like.  Ooops!!!

Looks like I won't be doing that again!  I just left the butter out on the counter and thankfully it solidified again. So back in the fridge it goes.  Too funny!!!

Auction item

A couple of weeks ago, the local school district had an online silent auction as a fundraiser.  I bid on one jewelry item but then was outbid.  So I continued looking and found this one item - "estate jewelry" as it was labeled, that no one had bid on.  Here it is!

It's a matching necklace plus earrings. I think it may be hand-painted?  Well, I definitely got a steal for what I paid compared to the retail value.  And since my birthday is not too far around the corner, Bobby basically just turned to me and said "Happy Birthday". Ha!  Real nice, honey - but this one doesn't count ;-P

Social distress

It's unfortunate with what's happening around us these past week with the death of yet another man involving the police.  As if the Coronavirus was not enough, now we have to deal with demonstrations (thankfully mostly peaceful) but then some are taking advantage of the situation and causing riots and looting.  For the past 2 days now, we are under daily 6pm - 6am curfews!

Even the National Guard has been deployed to help out:

Let's hope these moments will pass soon and our community can come together again in more peaceful times.