Jamie Danford

One of these things...

... is not like the others,

 

One of these things just doesn't belong. Can you tell which thing is not like the others by the time I finish my song?
Looks like my yellow pear tomato plant has found its happy place in the Dhuland garden...

And let me just tell you how frickin' scrumptious these little beauties are.  Oh my, mouthwatering mama!  I know I say it every year, but damn I love me some homegrown tomatoes. 

Now, let's play the game again okay?

One of these things is  not like the others...

 

See that big boy in the back row?  Woe be to the poor chicken lady who birthed that sucker. 

 

I'm pretty sure Edith was walking bow-legged this morning.  And she was a little cranky too.  Just sayin'. 

And any egg this big probably has this goin' on...

 
Holy cholesterol Batman, that there's a double-yolker!  Hmmmm... somebody pass the salt, I'm goin' in.

 

HellooOOOoooo Iowa!

Awwww... my super cool, super funny friends who moved to Iowa about five years ago came back in town to take care of some family stuff.  And YAY me, they managed to carve out a couple of hours to hang out with us!

 
Jane and Mark were our neighbors when we lived on Timberline Drive... moons ago. Our girls were born nine months apart, and goodness knows we went through the ringer just to get them here.  We rode the  parenting rollercoaster together, and found ourselves loving each other like family. 

 
And Jane was the one who first introduced me to scrapbooking. Which of course led to the day that we met Sid and Kristine at a crop down at Tybee Island. 

 
And you know where that led.

I love these sillies... and Jane is our missing piece. 

Iowa sure is a loooong way away. 

Sigh.

Love you Mark and Jane!

;)

 

Another week...

Well crap. 

I've let another week fly past without any Dhuland disclosure.  My poor blog.

It's weird because it seems like I've ALWAYS made time to write, but lately I've been neglecting it.  My precious bloggy has suffered because there's been so many other things happening in my brain.

And unfortunately one of those things is a dirty little secret that I must confess. {I'm SO embarrassed.}

Ready?

I've become a crazy coupon lady.

NOooOOOooOOOOoo~~~~

It's true.

I blame Kristine and Deiha.

I didn't mean for it to happen.  It slipped.

Deiha got into the coupon crap like a year and a half ago, then hearing her stories of grocery goodness, Kristine fell into it last summer.  I fought it.  Nope, I wasn't organized enough, didn't have the patience for the math involved, and refused to dedicate the time to hunting down coupons. 

But after hearing these two discount divas talking about their free shampoo and fourteen cent bags of Kibbles and Bits, I decided to give it a shot.

I went online, found the coupon sites they talked about and committed to at least go into it with an open mind.  What would it hurt right?

And now, a month later... I'm completely addicted.  And not only that, I'm saving a butt-load of moolah!  Don't worry, I'm not a hoarder... Unless I'm getting a CRAZY good deal, I don't get a ton of stuff (although I've run into some hoarder situations where shoppers have gone in and taken every single stitch of sale merchandise off the shelf... crazy.)

It's so much fun! And I'm getting some ridiculous deals in the process, like this little batch of goodness...

 
I paid $10.17 for ALL of this!  {Did I mention it's addictive?  Oh Deiha, you were SOOOO right!}

So, instead of working on my writing, I've been playing coupon queen.  I'm such a dork.

But I'm gonna try to get back in control of this place... Honest.

Don't give up on me yet!

;)

The week in review...

Seein' as how I've just completely ignored my bloggy this week, I figured we'd whip through the last handful of days with some pics.  Random, yes... half assed, probably... indicative of my life this week, absolutely.

First up, we had an Inferno softball game Monday night...

 
And Miss Priss started as pitcher, but kinda lost her nerve after the opposing team started running the 'merry go round' on her.  She freaked out a little, and so Coach Sarah swapped her over to third base (just like the last game) and brought in the other pitcher to replace her.  However the other pitcher was pretty worn out from the soccer game she had before the softball game, so eventually she started to fizzle out.  It was at this point that the coach called a meeting on the mound, and Miss Priss volunteered to come back up and pitch.  Can I say HOW FREAKIN' PROUD we were?  It took some courage for her to do it, and she not only conquered her nerves, but she managed to throw enough strikes to get the Inferno out of the game without too much trauma.  Talk about a character building moment. 

And speaking of character...

 
These girls received a beautiful compliment after their winning game yesterday.  One of the parents from the other team told our coach that we were one of the classiest teams out there.  How 'bout that? 

And speaking of classy...

 
Can I just tell you how proud I am of my precious hubby?  After twenty five years of dipping smokeless tobacco, he's finally decided to quit.  We found him some tobacco-free dip that tastes and feels almost just like the real stuff, and he's now been 'baccy free for four days. And the best part is that he's still going strong.  He's finally gotten over the cranky phase, and he's starting to act like  his normal sweet, silly, dork ball self.  {I wuv him.}

We also had another big change this week...

 
Our Shady lady got spayed.  Phew, no chance for pups around here now (thank the Lord!) Big Dave loves his freckled mistress and wanted to make sure she'd have a long happy life with us. 

And one more thing....

 
Mwahahaaaaaaa... hello sweet tangy babies.  We've got 'maters!!

Oh yes, it's been a good week in Dhuland.  Hmmm, wonder what's in store for us this week...

Inferno...

 

(Yes, I forgot my camera, so this is a phone pic, and yes those are flaming socks, which should be indicative of the awesome ballsiness of this team... and yes ballsiness IS a word, at least in Dhuland.)

This morning was Miss Priss' first game with her new rec-league team, the Inferno.  They did SO great, and even though they lost, it wasn't but by only two points and to one of the better teams in the league. 

The majority of the team is made up of Charles Ellis middle schoolers, with Miss Priss being the only 'outsider,' but I've gotta tell you that this team has welcomed our girl with open arms and makes her feel like more of a friend than the girls she's gone to school with for years on her SCPS team.

The Inferno, coached by one of our old pals Sarah Taylor, is a breath of fresh air for us after such an uninspiring experience with her school team.  I mean yay, the Raiders placed second in their league, but I don't think anyone really felt very victorious after the experience.  It was like there were twelve complete strangers playing in a group... no team comraderie at all.  The coaches (Sarah and Big Dave) on the Inferno keep things light and fun, while focusing on fundamentals and team spirit.  They don't yell, scream or belittle the girls (wow... amazing that the Christian school can't seem to figure out that cussing at the kids during a game DOES NOT help) and Miss Priss feels so comfy now that she's gotten brave enough to be the starting pitcher. 

She did so good (if you've ever watched girls' softball you know there's a huge burden on the pitcher) and got plenty of outs, but finally hit a sour spot and started walking people, which got her flustered, so Coach Sarah called in the other pitcher to replace her.  Miss Priss played a solid third base (her preferred position) for the rest of the game and got two hits, including a daring slide into homeplate  which left her with a lovely strawberry on her leg and a HUGE grin on her face (she's been wanting to slide so bad for some reason.)

The Inferno rocks, that's all I can say.  Our girls battled HARD and came back from what we thought was an insurmountable deficit to finish the game (because of the time rule) within two points.

GO INFERNO!!! 
(And thanks Coach Sarah for bein' a total rockstar.)  ;)

I've been wantin' to show you this forever....

...and I FINALLY remembered! (Yay me.)

It's this...

 

... and this...

 

(Check out the lava lamp at the top of the page~)

They're diecuts from the Cricut Feelin' Groovy cartridge, which my bff brought along for our crop weekend back in April.  And is it completely chocked full of 100 % grooviliciousness?  Um... YES.

 
Sid seized hold of the cartridge and after doing some gyrations that resembled the sensual bellydancing video On Demand, never left it alone... for the whole weekend.  She was smitten, that's all I can say. 

And I wish I had more of her creations, because she cut and assembled smiley faces, lava lamps, flower power stuff and more.  She was our very own Groovy Diva. 

So there. I know it's only fodder for scrappers and paper crafters, but I  had to show you yet another bit of cuteness inspired by Cricut. 

Hope you're having a stellar week!  Tomorrow's Friday, and I am READY.  Miss Priss has her spring dance tomorrow night and then her first game with her rec-league softball team, the Inferno.  Should be a GREAT weekend!

Happy Mother's Day!!!

 
Woooowweeeeeee... I ~LOVE~ this woman!

If I had a million zillion dollars, it wouldn't be enough to buy her the kind of present she deserves.  She's my favorite human, my role model, my cheerleader and friend.

And hopefully my girl feels the same way about me...

 
She and Big Dave spoiled me with a schmancy redneck/ghetto anniversary-mommy appreciation party in our garage Friday night...

 
...and surprised me with my Mother's Day gift, something I've been wanting for a looooooong time...

 
Jealous?

Hee heee...  I know, it's not exactly a little blue box with a bow on it, but it's exactly what I asked for.  Now I can program this little sucker to water my veggie patch and not worry about parched cukies and maters! 

They even threw in a new hose, because ~sigh~ they love to spoil me...

 
~~chuckle~~

I'm a happy chicky! And I hope all of you Moms out there have a perfect  Mother's Day.

;)

Sweet Sixteen...

Woopeee doopeeedeeeee... today is our sixteen year wedding anniversary!!

Is it hard to believe that we've made it this long?  Nope.  I'm pretty sure Big Dave and I were custom made for each other.  (And I'm pretty sure that nobody else could handle being married to either of us so it's a dang good thing we found each other.)

So to the boy who stole my heart and promised to love me forever...

... and continues to give me butterflies in all the right places...

  
...I say I LOVE YOU!!!

And Happy anniversary!!!

 
 

 

Garden Update...

Oh things are rolling right along in our Dhuland garden as the spring growing season rolls on toward summer. 

 
The peas have gone crazy this year, giving me several quarts to fill my freezer...

 

And for lunch today I fixed a HUMONGO salad from the lettuce I harvested this morning...

 

Delish!

The garden is beginning to take shape as the 'maters are beginning to show signs of fruit...

 

And the peppers are doing their best to keep up with the 'maters...

 
And my 'fre-nemies' the squash are doing their best to impress me...

 

And see all that grassy stuff growing around them? It's an unfortunate circumstance resulting from the fact that I didn't let the chicken poop 'cook' long enough in my compost pile. See, the chickens eat seed which happens to contain 'millet' and the seeds pass through their digestive systems unhindered.  Well, if you don't leave it to compost for like a year or something, the undigested seeds will live to see another day... as evil weeds in my garden. Yuck!

And speaking of seeds running rampant in the garden, I've got a band of rogues trying to take over...

 
 See this little guy on the right? It's a rebel tomato plant that's sprung up from a random seed in my compost pile.  I had the same thing happen in one of the blue buckets that I'd planted broccoli in...

 
And alongside the okra bucket on the ground.  The crazy randon 'mater plants are a new phenomenon in the Dhuland garden, and two of them already have blossoms and fruit on them. I have no idea of what kind of tomatoes they are because I'm not the only contributor to my compost pile (the hottie neighbor and my mom both take regular dumps in it.)  So it'll be a  mystery, but hopefully a salad-worthy mystery. 

So there we have it... the baby squash and cukies are on their way, the 'maters are fruiting and the pepper are producing.

Photosynthesis is in full swing 'round here!

Oh whatta weekend!

Did you have a great weekend? I know I sure did!
It was just one of those weekends where we had nothing special planned, and yet it was magical all the same. 

Miss Priss and Big Dave spent the night out Friday night (Priss with a friend, D hunting) so I had an evening to myself (yum!) And then Saturday was filled with poolside bliss, finishing a crappy book (Return to Sullivan's Island by D.B. Frank) and then an evening of play with my two favorite people...

 
{And just for the record, I didn't know either of these twerps were creepin' around behind me.}

We have a great night pitchin' shoes in the yard...

 
Miss Priss takes things reeeeeal serious (she's got her pitcher look on) when she's up against her Daddy in shoes.

Hey girly!

 

And so what if we had to rake fifty two thousand pounds of leaves today, we were together, me and Big Dave.  (Priss Pants was napping in her room... oh to be a teenager.)

This was a good one...

Booooooo Monday!

;)