French Breakfast

I have been a wee bit obsessed with things French lately, like the sole meuniere I insisted on making Sunday night (even though Jason doesn't like fish) and planting lavender in my new herb garden. On Saturday, we started a most perfect weekend by sleeping in (!) until I was driven out of bed by the thought of eating freshly baked chocolate croissants (Trader Joe's, I love you). I had imagined having tea and croissants in the sun on the deck, but let's be honest, I didn't mind too much that it was grey and rainy and we ate in the living room wrapped in blankets.

We had a really nice weekend, during which we planted tomatoes and spruced up the deck and played guitar and went out to dinner here (I've been scouring the web for almond cake recipes, mmm) and started hockey again and watched the best episode of Glee so far and did not crack open a page of my thesis. In spite of predictions of constant rain, we got two days of mostly dry weather, and we are only a few flower pots short of having all the spring gardening work done. And to that I say, yay.

What else have we been doing since the last post?
* Jason is home from Nigeria, despite a brief delay due to volcanic ash. So weird, seriously. But so glad to have him home.

* I spent most of my bachelorettehood eating seafood and spending time torturing my trouble zones with Jillian. Jen gave me two of her DVDs for my birthday. Seriously good stuff.

* I know that over the past couple of years we've given you play by play by play of the garden. I'm trying to refrain (to a point), but I did want to inform you that now our garden is fully planted. And everything (even the carrots!) is coming up but the green beans. (Nervous, as green beans and tomatoes are my reason for gardening this year.) We are growing (or trying to grow): asparagus (it all came up in frilly feathers! yay!), cucumbers, onions, green onions, carrots, green beans (including purple pole beans), sweet peas, tomatoes, yellow peppers, strawberries, and leeks that survived many, many feet of snow over the winter.

Oh, and zucchini. Jason is ready to ditch the zucchini, but I think the third time will be the charm (that, and if it doesn't work this year we are never growing it again!). My trick this year is to plant zinnias next to them to lure some pollinators. Here's to hoping.

We're off this weekend to enjoy the 85 degree weather (!!!) with our friends at a church retreat--wrapping up the spiritual disciplines study we've been working on since October. Good stuff!

Happy Birthday, Jen!

A shout-out to Jenny on her 28th birthday (wow are we getting old). No old-school picture tonight--I ran across this adorable pic of Hot Dog Troy while I was "flipping" through the photo file tonight and couldn't resist. Aren't they both adorable? Jenny is such a good mom, and it was fun to watch her love on her two sweet boys while I was home last week. Love you, J-Train!

Spring Travel, Part One: Idaho

Jason and I have been together for seven years now, and not once have we managed to plan work travel at the same time. Case in point: this week. I just arrived home to a quiet house after ten days in Idaho, and Jason will be in Nigeria all week. Sigh.

We're surviving just fine, of course--well, apart from the fact that it's 11:14 p.m. and I am blogging instead of sleeping. Clearly Jason brings the "going to bed" (and "getting up in the morning") discipline to the relationship. My trip home was really fun--even the long days of traveling for work. I went to parts of Idaho I had never visited, including Craters of the Moon and Teton Valley and this sweet place on the California Trail where pioneers signed their names in axle grease on the rocks. It's a rough job, traveling to some of the coolest places in the state.

(And by cool, I mean a foot of snow...)


The big highlight of the trip, of course, was meeting Baby Cooper. He is so sweet and cuddly...and much quieter than his all-boy brother and cousins! We pulled out Jenny's baby book to confirm that he looks just like his mama--complete with so much hair it sticks up a couple of inches!


Troy has decided that his brother isn't the worst thing that ever happened to him after all, and it was so much fun to listen to him string words together! He loves to go outside with his Papa--we had a tea party for Jenny, and he spent the entire time outside with Dad. Cole and Mason are great fun, too. Mason wants to be just like his big brother--he's at the age where he's not so sure about his Aunt Missy, so the best way to get him to hug me was to give Cole a big squeeze, and he was next in line. I wish you could hear him laugh.



I also wish you could just sit down and have a conversation with Cole. He makes a friend every time he meets someone. We all went shopping on Friday, and Cole (whose Granny spoiled him with cookies and chocolate milk) wanted me to come out and drink my coffee on a bench while he ate cookies. It is impossible to tell him no, no matter how much I wanted to shop!




It was a nice long trip, so I also got to see some friends, which was nice. And it's always wonderful to spend Easter with my family (even though we missed Jason, sad!). I just really love being with them--is there anything better than sisters and brothers and mom and dad and nephews?

Blossoms

Just kidding about what I said back here about fall being better than spring. Spring is amazing. And it just smells so nice!

Actually, if spring and fall were going to have a battle of wits, spring has two strikes against it: appropriations season and tourists. The city is absolutely crawling with tourists right now, which would be all nice and dandy if I didn't have to keep living here in the midst of them. The roads are infested with tour buses (don't get me started on tour buses), and it took me literally 40 minutes yesterday to get from my office to Jason's. That's two miles away, people. Unbelievable.

This is what they all came to see: