spring

well, it's here. spring has sprung in saskatoon with such glory that it provides winter amnesia.  the tree in my front yard is brilliant in youthful green, i believe a bleeding heart is growing in my front flower bed, and the grass has now turned truly into a lawn.  i have spent much of the last week watching my children run through sprinklers, or not watching them play in their new fort (my backyard miracle!).  it's heaven!
or, it would be if i didn't have a cold.
i know, whine whine, but summer colds suck.
i have thought of blogging a few times in the last number of days, but have thought "what is there to say?".  my brain is currently swimming in snot.  and, truth be told, i've been feeling a little down about the blog lately, wondering if anyone is actually reading it, and then
then!
i got a little postcard in the mail from a bosom buddy (bethany....... - that's said in a drawn out fashion with my head tilted down and to the side and my mouth slightly smily with a tina fey pout and my eyes looking up through my bangs at you - bethany......!) with great blogger encouragement, so i'm back at it.  even with nothing to say. :)

i went to my first (cashless) poker tournament on monday.  well, first i learned how to play poker at the end of our home group on sunday.  it went a little like this: 

               'amen'.        
               pause. 

'ummm....i have this serious problem that i need help with and if you don't want to or can't that's fine.'
              affirmative and sympathetic nods and smiles from all.
'scott and i are in a poker tournament tomorrow and we need to learn texas hold-em tonight.'

i locked eyes on the one guy with the ear to ear grin and knew we were saved!

i was the second person out in the tournament, which landed me a set of toronto maple leafs cards  (i'm sure there's some hockey significance to the gift and the losing, but i'm not privy to such trivia).  scott, however, made it to the last table.  i think it was the painful colouring of his hawaiian shirt - he caused his opponents moments of mental hysteria.

all-in-all it was a very fun time, despite the grandious amounts of deep-fried appys.  the organizer of the game (and youth group pastor at our church) asked some friends to cook from a specific cookbook his wife had given him last Christmas, entitled "this is why you're fat".  delicacies included deep-fried pepsi and doughnuts wrapped in bacon.   
now, lest you think that people in saskatchwan actually eat like that, it was a joke. 
there were also some amazing little bacon-cheese-pastry somethings and mexican layered dip and home-made caramel corn.  yum.

i planted my first vegetable garden on the weekend.  i'm doing the square-foot box method where you plant a different crop in each square foot of your 4x4' garden.  so, i have two types of basil, two types of tomatoes, lettuce, spinach, beans, carrots (hopefully - they don't seem to be sprouting), beets, rosemary, oregano and strawberries (they take up four feet).  every morning  i come downstairs and look out my kitchen window to see if my tomato leaves look wilty.  i love it!  sunday morning i grabbed a cup of tea and went out to water in my pj's.  i came in five minutes later refreshed and happy and with two misquito bites on my NECK!  they (meaning the mosquito population) must have heard of my twilight tendencies.  i wore a shirt with a collar to church to try and hide them, but the first women i saw graciously pointed them out to me.  thank you.

well, i must rustle my children off to bed and my nose to a kleenex and my body to the couch (in that order).

quick news flash - my kids just came in from riding their bikes at the church parking lot (my daughter is still learning to go training-wheel free).  can i just say how, with all the talk of the church not being a building, it's so nice to have a church building!  anyways, the news is that my dear son went to blow a dandylion seedhead and sucked in by mistake.  not recommended for humans.