Earth Day and so forth

Let's see...
We planted a square foot garden. It makes me happy. We have planted tomatoes, herbs, chiles, squashes, strawberries, asparagus, cucumbers, spinach, peas, and a blackberry bush (that one's not in the square foot garden). I'm afraid that our tomatoes froze, though. I am still clinging to the hope that the leaves froze but the roots and stem are okay; I think I can see some new growth coming from the top, but I might be deluding myself. And the spaghetti squash doesn't seem to be doing so hot. But everything else is really thriving. I'm going to give it a couple more days to see if the struggling plants make a comeback, but I might have to replace them. Dang Utah frosts. (Not to be confused with the Dang Utah Frosts. Ha.)
Anyway, here is a little picture of me in my farmer clothes in front of our little bit o' earth. (Ten points if you can name what book that's from.)

The chives actually survived all winter from last year and are growing like crazy. We had more plants than space in the square foot garden, so we planted some just in the ground in our yard, and some in a planter. It will be an experiment to see if the magic of the square foot gardening method holds true.

Also, my parents had an old, expired car seat that they left here after we drove back from Oklahoma. Joel thought it was wasteful to just throw it out, so he decided to recycle it. First, some preparation, during which my tree-climbing abilities came in handy:

Joel, who was not blessed with such a talent for climbing trees, used a ladder, and Dane followed him up all by himself.

While we waited for the finishing touches, Dane posed for a picture:

He has just barely started smiling on command. It makes me smile, too.
And then it was ready!


A swing!

What a great idea, Daddy! Dane loves swinging and asks to get on the "whee" every day. It's still too cold on some days, though. Sometimes I'm afraid spring will never arrive.

Anyway, that was our Earth Day. (It actually was the Saturday before Earth Day, but it counts.)

Award Winner Limericks

Not to be confused with Award Winning Limericks

First, a business item. A few of you have pointed out that being a private blog means my updates to get posted onto Google Reader or Notifier or various other notification systems. I don't want to sound presumptuous, but if you would like, I can put some of on the email notification list so you get an email when I update. Blogger apparently allows ten emails in the notification list, but if you really want, I can do that for some of you.

And now, without further ado, the limericks:

Lizzy
After Joel and I started to date,
he acquired a brand new roommate,
it cause quite a stir
for he was a her!
but all three of our friendships is great

Jackie
While inside my freshman apartment,
I had many stresses, like rent,
but we sure felt revived
with those boys in Twenty-five,
and I think it was time quite well spent

Melanee & George
Joel and George did a fortunate thing
at their respective weddings in spring,
'cause when Joel married me
and George, Melanee,
they ensured part-Japanese offspring

Meghan & Stephen
Steve and Meg welcomed us on a cruise ship,
together with them 'twas a great trip,
they're our closest in-laws,
but we're sad now because
They are moving to ole Mississip!

Holly & Evan
Evan and I platonically dated,
Yes platonically, I've not misstated,
we had lots of fun,
but not to be outdone,
Kyle and Holly make Evan much more elated.

Cassia & Bryan
I met Bryan in Phil class 210,
where his test score was higher (again),
during interviews long,
Cassia played us a song,
That they'd marry I did not know then.

Joel
I love you like crazy, my sweet,
without you I'd be incomplete
I love you no less
but I still must confess,
I am always amazed by your huge feet


Kelley
There is one thing all students are hating,
that laborious task: annotating.
But to Kelley's delight
she tamed Write 'n' Cite,
all of this while Neil she was dating

Shannon
When Joel was head of student body,
you kept him from looking too dotty,
tell your neighbor hello,
we were good friends you know,
and I'm sorry these poems are shoddy.

Sarah
Joel's family has many a cousin,
by now they must number twelve dozen,
Sarah is one of them,
but now I must end,
For there are no more words to rhyme "cousin"

Kristen
Kristen daydreams of being in New York,
She also love Café Rio pork,
But my best memory,
of fair Kristen, you see,
Is when she and I were just "orch dorks"

Mom Frost
Joel's mom has been known by a few names,
there are several to which she can lay claim,
there is Joann LaRelle,
Laurie, Martha LaRelle,
but it's "Grandma" she proudly proclaims

Laurie Jayne
Although she was not in the first ten,
Laurie Jayne wants a limerick from my pen,
my mind has been spent,
this last line represents,
the fact that I can't think of any more rhyming words and this was way harder than I expected. Amen.

Privatization, Part II

I didn't explain why I've decided to go private because I didn't want to sound paranoid or make other people paranoid, or make anyone feel like they need to go private, too. But I guess that was silly, and everyone deserves an explanation.
I have decided to go private because there are a lot of creepy people in the world who could use information/photos from our blog in a way that is detrimental to us or in a way that we would never want our photos to be used. My work as a therapist makes me even more aware of these possibilities, 1) because I work with people who have been hurt by those who are creepy, and I see it as a very real threat that is more common than people realize, even in communities that are considered safe, and 2) because I work with people who may be considered creepy, and they know my name and sometimes the names of my family members. I just have more exposure to bad stuff than the average citizen.
Again, I'm not trying to scare anyone. We haven't had any specific experiences that lead us to believe that anyone is currently using our blog for nefarious purposes. But those are my reasons.
Just so you know.

Privatization

I have decided to make the blog private. I will spare you a lengthy explanation. I don't anticipate that becoming private will be too much of a problem; I'm pretty sure all my "regulars" are friends and family.
Please comment or email me at ami.frost at gmail dot com (do you like my secret agent way of spelling out my email?) if you would like to be in my special club of blog readers. Even if you are my good friends and family, please email me anyway so I can make sure I have your current email address.
I'll probably give people a week or so to respond and then we'll disappear into secret cyberspace. First ten responders will receive a limerick in their honor (unless you specifically tell me you don't want your limerick, in which case you will receive no prize). Hurry! Offer available for a limited time only!

Correction

I am a bad sister and failed to mention that I did hang out with my brother Kenji on Easter. He actually even came up and surprised me at church. Then we hung out at the Penovich's and he caught me up on Lost. I also failed to take any pictures of him during the egg hunt, probably because he wasn't wearing a shorts suit or a plaid hat. But I'm sorry, and now I will make up for it.
First, if you look and listen closely to the video, you can see Kenji's feet and hear him telling me I'm using my stupid baby voice.
Second, I did get video of Kenji playing egg catch with Dane, but it won't upload for some reason.
Third, here are some of Kenji's favorite pictures of himself.


Sorry I didn't mention you earlier. And a preemptive sorry for posting these amazing pictures.

Happy Easter!!

This will be a very picture-heavy post. Here are a few words, though:
Joel went down to Arizona for his brother's missionary homecoming talk, so Dane and I celebrated Easter on our own. We missed Daddy but had a good time. Before church, we had a little photo shoot in the backyard. I have been increasingly dissatisfied with the quality of photos my digital camera produces, but here are some of the better ones:




Then Dane experienced his first day in Nursery, where he behaved quite well until fifteen minutes before the end, when he got really sad and needed Mommy. After church, we went down to Orem to celebrate a seven-year Easter tradition of hanging out with our friends the Penovich family. Dane loved their cat, even though I think he thought it was a puppy.

And then Easter egg hunt!









After a lot of strenuous hunting and candy-eating, Dane decided to loosen up a bit.

Happy Easter! And here's a little video of Dane's egg finding skills.

P.S. My parents got Dane the little blazer and hat, and I made his little tie and shorts. He was pretty dang cute, if I do say so myself. And, due to the lack of an adult male at our house this weekend, I tied the tie myself too. I was pretty proud of myself.

Cheep! Cheep!

Dane and I went to IFA Country Store to visit some baby Easter animals this morning.
We saw tiny chicks:



Ducklings:

Goslings:

And rabbits:



My favorites were the Rhode Island Reds

and the Golden Sex Links (although what's up with that name??)

I was briefly tempted to bring home a pet chick. At only $2.78, how could I resist? But of course there's all the necessary supplies and food so it would survive. And then, provided we were able to take care of it, what do you do with a chicken at your house? Anyway, they were cute.
Dane had fun with all the little animals, but soon he became more interested in the toy trucks in the store:

I guess he's a boy.

APRIL FOOLS!

My Etsy shop was all a sham! There was only one person who called me on the hideous products. I am thinking that my friends are all too nice to potentially dash my dreams, but fear no more! All of my items for sale were products of Joel and my imaginations the night before. Then I made them all in like half an hour and the Etsy shop was born!
I get kind of bugged when people laugh harder at their own joke than anybody else does, but I'm afraid I might be doing that. Joel and I had a lot of laughs about this. I hope you did too.
I thought of the Cuddle Soft Ear and the Hot Little Hand. Joel came up with the Cuddle Soft Face, Child Sackcloth, and Table Rooster. The curtains have actually been hanging in Dane's room for like a year. I accidentally did one sideways and never got around to fixing it. So that one was real, haha.
I will be keeping the shop up for about another week just for laughs, but I better take it down in case someone tries to buy something. That's pretty improbable, though, eh?
I will probably have a real shop sometime in the future; my sister and I are coming up with ideas. I'll let you know whenever we get it up. Hopefully they will be more attractive products.
Happy April Fool's Day!

Entrepreneurship

So, I have many friends who have Etsy shops, and I have been thinking for a while that it would be fun to set up my own. I couldn't think of anything I make that other people don't already make better, so I decided to put my creativity to work and go for unique items. I just set up my shop today, and I'm excited to see how business goes!
Please check out my new shop at paradisefrost.etsy.com, and let me know if you have any feedback or ideas for new products!