Garden and tibits

Thought you might as well know the story behind my web address "Leah's Garden". Garden currently to me means anything I'm growing, nourishing and giving love and attention to. It doesn't have to mean food or plants alone. :)

But... it did start with a plant garden. My parents moved to their current house in 2000 and spring 2001 I started my garden. We fenced off 44x56 feet of space from the deers. Yeah, I realize that's 2464 square feet of garden. And I live in a 480 SF apartment!!

The family split the garden into 4ths with pathway bricks - one for me, one for each of my sisters and one for my parents/brother. And I'm the one who used EVERY inch of their spot, as you can see. :)

Yup, it creep over the boundaries and snuck outside the fence. I loved it!! It's almost like a jungle with it's 3-D look. Corn, peas, squashes, zucchini, cucumbers, tomatoes, spinach, broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, pumpkin, morning glories and sunflowers grew in it. Definately the best garden I ever had.

Now you can see why my email address is "sunflowersinthegarden at gmail dot com". This is the picture that inspired it! :)

Other good news: (yeah, another list)

I've been doing plenty of quilting this week! I'm happy about that, but don't have too much to show yet.

I've been avoiding doing taxes... they're stressful! So I packed 4 boxes of books instead... that's good, right?

Funny how "hard" stuff can look easy compare to taxes! (Really procrasinting now...)

I finally plunked down my rear and started to tackle the taxes. About 3 hours later I found a HUGE mistake!

We didn't owe as much as we thought. I couldn't believe it! You mean I have been stressing and saving and avoiding taxes for over 2 months when it was nothing?!

My error: I took the standard deduction ($10,000) and then the next line was to multiply "dependants" by $3200. Well yeah, somehow I missed that line.

I was sooooooooo happy that I even cried a little in sheer relief.

We do owe on State taxes.... phhhhht! But it's well covered. :)

I was a good girl too, I promptly put as much as I could into savings - I want to buy a house!

Huge relief going on over here.

Other good news - my car renewal fee is a mere $228. Another whew. :)

Now I don't feel stressed out about buying plane tickets to see my parents this summer. But boy, Katrina really hiked the prices up on tickets!

My garbage disposal might not be working... umm. I might have been tired a few weeks ago when I was doing the dishes and unthinkingly grabbed a pan from the stove and started to dump its contents. And then let out a really bad word. It wasn't dirty water... it was cooking oil!!

This is a time when I want to be a little girl and say "Daddy... come and fix this." :P Eh, he probably wouldn't fix it per se, but show me how to. Yeah, but I don't plan on dumping more oil down the drain!! ;)

And still not over this cold. Neither is my husband and he's had it for over a week.

It is just me? I've noticed quite a few other quilter bloggers have been declining in their posts. I guess spring has been calling to us! I'm sure when it gets too hot we'll happily park ourselves in front of the computer with a big cold drink and post... and maybe whine. ;)

Leah