Say Goodbye to Rosemary

Looks like it's all over for this poor rosemary. I first bought her (and her sister) eight years ago. They have thrived over the years. I divided and repotted them after two or three years, then repotted a couple more times. I put them in these pots two years ago. They thrived into lovely Italian mountainside-like bushes. But, alas, during this winter they began the decline. I put them in front of different windows, and it could be that they didn't get enough sunlight there. Or they are just rootbound. The "deader" one has less soil in the pot. I didn't add new soil last year, and I probably should have. It's old anyway. I guess it was time.

The sister plant isn't doing too badly, though. Only one part of it has died and the new growth looks good. I probably should do something with the soil this year, but the plant is big and heavy and it will take a lot of work to pull it out, shake off old soil and add new stuff. We'll see. I switched to fiberglass pots. Terracotta was WAY too heavy!

So I've bought a "baby" rosemary. Actually this is two plants that I put together. It's a trailing one, however, so it won't look the same. But isn't it lovely, fresh and green. Yummy roast potatoes coming up!

Bella!

This was one of the best movies I have ever seen. The link is from a 700 Club interview in which he says almost the exact thing he says on a Today Show interview, so he's not just talking to a certain crowd. It begins with the trailer of the movie. Here's another interview on YouTube, in case you didn't click on all the YouTube videos of him once you saw that first one!!!!! Notice all the interviewers are women, and they can hardly control themselves for giggling at the beginning. Guess I'd do the same!

Two people within a week raved about this independent film. One was the girl who cuts my hair here in Omaha, and the other was our former chaplain from Italy who lives in Wisconsin, so they were in no way related. I figured I'd put it in our Netflix queue. And we're glad we did.

It's a very moving story. It makes you think, feel, and want to be a better person after watching it. Check out the links and you'll want to go out and rent it yourself. I think I'll go buy it!

Minich Week

I haven't been in the mood to blog. Maybe it's the endless clouds and rain we've had for a week off and on. I think it's been cloudy and/or raining since last Thursday. The week has been incredibly busy, believe it or not.

• Graduation on Saturday at OCA. This was my favorite class!
• Three parties on Saturday, so I was gone all day until about 7pm and I still didn't get to one boy's party that I really wanted to go to
• Sunday. Sang in church so had to be there early; nursery duty, lamb for dinner, nap and another graduation party until 9 or so.
• Memorial Day. Transplanted the hosta that were under the willow tree. Made homemade ice cream. Vacuumed the pool.
• Rain, rain, rain. Andrew took the day off to get things moved in to his new house. We bought a bed that will be delivered today. Spent the afternoon packing him up and cleaning up what was his room. Organized stuff. Baked cookies. Tacos for dinner. Had to be at church at 7:30 for music practice. I was already tired from standing all day. The practice wasn't that great. It is for a "concert" we're having in our church parking lot. I thought maybe we'd get some upbeat, fun music for singing outside, but it ended up being hymns sung in the same tempo with guitar...that's the upbeat part, I guess. Sounds like old ladies in a southern Baptist church.... Well, not quite. I was disappointed anyway.
• More rain. Grocery shopping. Cleaned the house, vacuumed the car. Baked more cookies. Andrew came home for dinner, but I missed him since I was at church. *sad* BTW, the cookies are for the concert thingy. I'm NOT sitting here scarfing down all these cookies...I could though!
  

Linnea got home from Peru on Saturday! If you've seen the Flickr badge, she's uploaded all her pictures on to my Flickr. Click the slide show for a brilliant video of the trip! I don't think they are all in order yet. It's kinda hard with Flickr. But you'll get the idea.

William got the job with the ObamaFellows campaign. He has to decide by this afternoon where he's going to work...either Oregon, Washington, North Carolina or Iowa. That's what he's narrowed his list down to. It's from mid-June to the end of July, registering voters, doing community service stuff. You can probably go to the website and find out what all they're doing. He's pretty happy about it. And I'm glad he's getting into politics like this. He is very interested in it all! "The heart of man plans his way, but the Lord establishes his steps." We'll see where God takes him!

AND my momma got home safely from all her travels. We picked her up over a month ago and she's been visiting my sisters ever since. I talked to her this morning. She got through the Atlanta airport with some help and only had 10 minutes to wait before boarding. The flights went smoothly and sister #5 picked her up at the airport in Moline! Now she's in her quiet house. All her plants are blooming profusely she said.

A week without "work"

Of course I don't mean I'm just lying about, but this is the first week out of school so to speak. Bellevue got out last week and OCA has half-day exams most of this week. So really, I'm out of school for the summer. I do love substituting, though. I love the teachers I work with at OCA, I love the action at school. I love kids. AND I love leaving it there!!!

I've finally planted my flower pots on the deck. Well, got started anyway. I'm so totally out of fresh ideas that I went to the store and couldn't even see what I wanted. I ended up with petunias, dusty miller and ageratum. Guess I'm in the red, white and blue mood. I've kept my hanging geraniums alive through the winter, so I will probably cut them back, repot them and hang them up again. I couldn't resist buying lantana. This variety is yellow when it first buds and then the flowers turn hot pink. I've put it in a pot out on the pool deck. In Italy it flowed over fences around the pool park we used to go to. So I have sweet memories of it. Also, I think Maureen grew it on her balcony across from us. I'm NOT bringing it in in the winter, though. There are ENOUGH plants coming in! However, I think the rosemary has had enough. One pot has a branch or two still alive, the other looks a little better. They are both outside now getting sun from early morning to late at night. We'll see how they fare this summer. I'm sure they must be root bound. I've had them in various size pots since I bought them the summer of 2000!!! Not bad, huh?
We had our willow tree cut down while we were out of town for Will's graduation. It was very large, very old, and much of it very dead.( BTW, the guy who cut it is named "Vinny Palermo". How do you like THAT for an Italian name??) Now we have a huge stump and an empty place in the back yard. Our yard slopes quite a bit, so we're trying to figure out how to landscape it to improve the bare look and fit in a fire pit area. It's very hard to come up with good ideas. Den and I are not idea people! I wouldn't mind the pond idea either.
My other project I'm working on is a letter to the pastors of our school students. I've never worked with mail merge, so I'm trying to work that out! I just gave up and started writing this instead.

Change, just for fun

I was looking over the templates and thought I'd just do something new for spring. I'm not sure if it's "me", or if I'll like this new look, but it's fresh and fun. I could go with something pink..... I like the way it frames my photos. I couldn't figure out what other people's had a frame around them and mine didn't. All I can figure out is that it's the template.

My Happy Wanderer

Linnea is off to Peru! Amazing that young people can just decide to take off and go. She went with a friend from SC, and they are going to do the Machu Picchu hike. Click on the word and it should take you to the tour that I'm guessing she's on. Here's what she wrote about the rest of the trip:

Tomorrow we go to Cuzco and then hike the Inca Trail from Saturday till Tuesday, getting to Machu Picchu at dawn (apparently that´s the big deal) on the last day. Very exciting, I got all my hiking gear my last few days in Columbia so I´m all ready . . . hopefully. Anyway, after that we go to Arequipa (so you can follow this on your map), where there are canyons and volcanoes--it´s also close to Lake Titicaca--on Wednesday and then come back to Lima Friday night to fly out the next morning.

This is what happens when they watch Carmen Sandiego while they're growing up! They learn about all these places and then have an insatiable appetite to see them. I'm glad she can do this. Poor Andrew is feeling like he's going to be George Bailey, always wanting to "get out of this crummy old town and see the world". He's just got to find someone to do it with!

Blogger sisters

Here are the three of us, now all bloggers. (We have three more who haven't joined us yet!) My sister on the right joined us yesterday; she's "What's for dinner?" What fun it will be to read her thoughts, see her photos and stay in touch with what's going on with her family. She's a wonderful woman! Has the sweetest husband and children, and I'm glad I'm going to be able to hear what she has to say. She lives in Delaware and her husband is a PCA church planter. Her children go to a classical school where Em works some. She is great with women's ministry. Other tidbits about this sister....I was her teacher for 5th and 6th grade during the first year and a half of which I still lived at home!!! She couldn't get away with much! She also went to CIU where I went and met her husband there just like I did. After graduation she taught at Ben Lippen while her husband went to seminary.

So I'm introducing my sister. Enjoy reading her blogs....she's enjoying reading yours. *smile*