Nectarine Harvest

All the nectarines on our tree seem to be ripening at the same time. They are delicious when eaten pulled right from the tree while they are warm and juicy from being pelted by the sun. Yum! Mia and I love to eat them in the backyard and let the juice drip all over our hands and toes. Then we hose off and that's fun too!

The heat sure is making it hard to keep up with all of the ripening fruit. The bugs seem to be eating more than we are. I am trying to utilize them quickly. We've been having fresh nectarines, I made a batch of nectarine jam, I've frozen nectarines, made nectarine bars(like lemon bars, only the consistency isn't quite right so they are sticky) and nectarine cobbler (far and away my favorite.)

It's nearly a full time job!

I'm also trying to get an old fashioned swing set -- a surprisingly difficult challenge if you want to get a decent one. Hopefully we will be picking it up tonight.

I'm also going to be doing a women-only trail run this Saturday up in Pasadena that is sponsored by "Run Like A Girl" so I'm *really* excited about that.

Am I Too Old For This Top?

So I was trying to decide if I am too old to wear the navel-bearing top I have on right now and I realized... if I'm asking the question, I'm too old. Oh well, I am leaving it on anyway!





Now the real question is, will I actually go to my son's preschool wearing it?





All else is good. I had a good run today and even managed to mow the lawn and clean the kiddies play castle (it was nasty!)





I'm looking forward to Father's Day this weekend, and the Gardens of the Montecito Tour. Not only will I be helping my friend who is putting on the event, but my yard is going to be in the tour. We recently relandscaped our yard, ripping out the grass and replacing it with drought-tolerant plants and hardscaping. The idea was to create a bit of a zen feel, provide some screening in front of our living room windows and establish a hedge to curtain us from our neighbors' terrible yard. Here are the before and after photos:

(Click here to see more images of our new landscaping)
Actually, I see I really need to update the "after" photo. The bamboo and the hedge and all the plants have really filled in.

Houseguests

So, while on an extended hiatus from writing in my blog I had 14 people in my house on one night... and they all slept here... and all had breakfast the next morning.

Insane, isn't it?

Breakfast the next morning involved two dozen eggs, over a pound of cheese, two dozen tortillas, two packages of pork breakfast sausages, one entire casing of chorizo, three avocados, an entire gallon of milk and two pots of coffee. Thank god we didn't do a dinner here.

Overall it was a pretty good experience. The guests were three of my cousins and their kids and my brother. Everyone seemes to handle themselves well -- the only problem was that they clogged BOTH of my toilets. Ewww! Freaking kids!

While the family was here my cousin Angie (finally) graduated from college, we went to tea, had a visit from my grandma, we went to Disneyland and California Adventure and we went to the L.A. Zoo. The day we went to the zoo the oddest thing happened: our visitors from Montana and North Dakota were treated to a rare and spectacular thunder and lightning storm right here in Los Angeles! What are the chances?

Jed's BFF Julian also stayed with us for two weeks. Julian and Jed grew up together in Mount Washington. Now Julian is in the army based in Alaska, but after some intensive desert training he's heading for Iraq in November. We wish him well.

I think Julian got a rare glimpse at what life and outings with two small children is really like. The first week he was here he joined us on a couple of outings, but then I got sick. REALLY sick. So Jed and Uncle Julian took over. I'm the first to say that outings with our two kids can be really tough. I do it all the time by myself, and it's often just great -- but it *is* exhausting.

I spent the second week of Julian's visit bundled up on the counch watching TV and being miserable. I felt bad that I was such a terrible hostess, especially since this was his big LA vacation... but then again he did keep saying that I looked like a mental patient everytime I walked into the room.

A Mammoth Mother's Day

Mother's Day weekend was also really cool for me. The four of us spent three relaxing, warm, fun days in Mammoth. It is unusal for just the four of us to go, so it was really special. Also, Jed did almost all of the work so I got to kick back and read a book. Yay!