During the craziness, I did finally get around to planting the garden outside (and it finally got warm enough). A friend recommended a method called square foot gardening, which uses raised garden boxes divided into one foot squares, with something different planted in each square. It recommends a soil mix of 1/3 vermiculite, 1/3 peat, and 1/3 compost. This prevents digging up your own yard and the purchased soil is much less likely to grow weeds than ground soil. So anyhoo, after reading up on it I decided to give it a try. Steve built a beauteous 5 x 3 ft box and we got to work. First was the transplanted tomatoes and peppers... 2 slicer tomatoes, 2 hybrid (cherry) tomatoes, 2 red bell peppers, and 2 pepperoncinis. They're all between 2 and 5 inches tall and the pride and joy of my plant growing career (which consequently started with these plants). We also planted seeds... 3 cucumbers and 3 green beans.
Of course it rained HARD for the two whole days after the planting. It just beat the crap out of the poor little plants. One slicer tomato looked really bad. I'm not sure it'll make it :( Only time will tell.
After all cleaning and planting was done, my family showed up my graduation weekend. It was awesome that they all came, and it made the difference between me deciding to walk in the ceremony or not. The University of Iowa offers their nighttime MBA program in several cities in Iowa, so I was able to take classes right here without driving to Iowa City or having to do it online. It was convenient and a really good program, but because I wasn't ever on campus I didn't really feel as connected to the University. If they hadn't been there, I wouldn't have felt the need to participate for myself. Even during the ceremony it didn't seem like that big of a deal, until I walked across the stage and received my diploma. See my name on that piece of paper was a much bigger deal than I expected it to be! I may have even been a little misty-eyed :)
Seeing my family was the best part though. It's the first time they've all come to visit me and we had a blast. And it doesn't matter how old you are... hearing your parents say they are proud of you is the best feeling in the world :-D
"The tassel's worth the hassle!" ~Author Unknown
Just thought I'd take a quick look to see if you had anything new before I got off the computer and there it was. Congratulations on your graduation, and it's no surprise at all since you are such a good learner and hard worker. And, you have a beautiful family and everyone looks so happy in the picture. Congratulations again. Take care.
ReplyDeleteJay