i wish it would stop raining!

it has been raining here (POURING off and on) for like 3 weeks straight now. we have had to plant the gardens in between raindrops and still haven't gotten all of our outside work done. i wish it was not so foggy and rainy and gloomy outside because i want to take and post some pictures of our NEW garden project at my parents' house. it is HUGE compared to what we have now, and with a lot of work and prayers, it will make a huge dent in our food bill and keep us fed through the end of the fall! we have planted so much more already than we usually do because we have a bunch more room, and i am so excited to see how it goes. our next step is to slap up a fence around it because i have already seen (and chased) a bunny sniffing around!
shlee and i tried to have a yard sale yesterday but it misted the entire day so nobody really came out, despite the fact that it was town-wide garage sale day! i think we made like $35 total between the both of us. but i suppose that's better than nothing. it was fun to hang around with everybody all day and ted had a reason to spend all day in the garden (otherwise it would have taken forever to get most of the work done because he'd have done it in snippets).
in other news the realtor came on friday so that we could list the house, but i still don't think that we will just yet. we signed off on the listing as of today, but after having the weekend to think it over and pray on it we have decided to give ourselves a little bit of time. the financial reality of it is that with the housing market like it is, and after all of the money that we put into the house and having to pay realtor commission, we would only break even, and that's only if we got a full-price offer. so we are taking some time and doing some painting and de-cluttering and landscaping and whatnot, and then we will re-group. also, our principal on the mortgage will be paid off a little more and hopefully the housing market will have rebounded slightly by then. on a high note, my house is cleaner than it has been since ru was born and i have a ton of ambition to make it even better! we will make our house the castle (or tiny adorable lake cabin) that i always knew it could be!
i wish i had taken pictures of our dinner from last night. i tried my hand at making some whole wheat amish-style noodles, and despite the fact that they were a little thick, my husband LOVED them. i adore him for cherishing my simplistic culinary missteps! i served them up hot with butter, parsley and caraway seeds and i have to say that i enjoyed them very much (i'll just have to spend a little more time to roll them thinner the next time). we also had peas with pearl onions and some broiled cod fillets. i need more dinners like that!
i hope i can make my next post a picture filled one!

birthday/ted's mom

ted's mom is home from the hospital and feeling much better, thank God. unfortunately, she will be on heart medication for the rest of her life though. right now she's a little too concerned with what's going on at work, and she really should be using her strength to recover and relax.
my little one has discovered peekaboo and musical instruments all in the span of a few days. we've also started going to the playground when it is nice enough out (which hasn't been often lately. boo.). her favorite thing to do lately is play the tambourine, which is fabulous! it's so amazing to me to watch her learn new things every single day! people always say that babies are constantly learning but to actually watch it happen is a complete miracle. it makes me glad that i can be at home with her all day (at the same time though my wallet is crying!).
my birthday was fun. ted and i went on a drive through sussex county and stopped at a nice little coffee shop that we always used to go to while we were dating and got decadent drinks and some kind of delicious salt and pepper mexican chocolate that i wish i had a million little discs of to have whenever i want it. then we went to harold's and i had a ton of lox and gouda and a million pickles and didn't even care. it POURED the entire day (we had wanted to break in my six flags season pass, but it really didn't seem like the right day, since it wouldn't have been open and all). at night my folks and my sis and her boyfriend came by for cake. then, my sis's bf got me the best present...the michael jackson experience for wii! we went back to my parents' house and played for a few hours and it was SO! MUCH! FUN!!! all in all my birthday was really nice even though it wasn't what i would have expected.
this sunday the whole family and i are having a garage sale at my mom's house and we are hoping to get rid of a ton of stuff so that moving (when we finally do actually move) won't be quite so hard. we could also use a little pocket money, so i'm hoping that we do make some! plus we could use gas/food/beer money for the festival up in hancock next weekend. i'm also hoping it stops raining so that we don't have to camp out in a giant mud puddle. i mean, i know i married a hippie but i'm soooo not down for all that! on the up side, there's always the callicoon farmer's market!

mother's day and planting season

the little one at yankee stadium for her first jays game! she's wearing a "my first blue jays t-shirt" to match daddy's tattoo (and shirt, and hat)!

it's may in northwestern nj and that means a few things...mama's day, planting season, and my birthday! 26, however, is not really a milestone worthy of a huge celebration.
but mother's day was fun. first my sister and i dragged my mom to jazzercize where we had an awesome time and a really good workout. then my parents, my grandparents, my sis, dh & baby & i all had bagels and strawberries and chocolates and mimosas on my deck. then after that just the three of us went to jay and silent bob's secret stash in red bank and bought me some comic books and stickers for my car, and had wings and beer for dinner. sometimes my teddy really knows me. red bank is a little too fancy for me though. i'm pretty glad i was just passing through.
ted's mama's in the hospital right now. she had congestive heart failure that the doc diagnosed as an infection for like 2 months. if she hadn't seen another doctor this saturday, who knows what would have happened. but at least they know the problem now and she's feeling a little better. she's in our prayers. what a way to spend mother's day.
finally, the planting! we've planted our normal garden and are acquiring a larger portion of my parents yard to plant in as well! it's already about halfway dug, but isn't quite ready for planting yet. we are so excited to use our farming skills to take on this little mini-farm project! ted has been working at a hay farm off and on as weekend help, so this is really a good start for him.
more on that later. off to make matzo ball soup!