My Retail Therapy....Working in the Garden.....

To stay sane when you work in the retail business you need to have a relaxing hobby.  Mine is gardening.  I love to go out on my days off and weed, plant, and just look at all the different flowers.

When I am not in the garden, I'm reading magazines, and books about gardening or garden themed fiction books.  My Favorite book is Garden Spells.  I'll write about that some other day.

I have learned that I need to take time for myself on my days off...I need to have quiet and rest....And Gardening is a peaceful and productive way to have "me time"...This gives me the ability to go back to work and not get angry when people ask if an item is free because it doesn't have a ticket on it....or to keep calm and not react when a person is yelling at me for a policy I have no control over.  I think of my garden, and take a deep breath and smile.... Reacting only causes people to get angrier.  It is better to have no reaction.

I continually add to my garden.  I'm pleased to have this little patch that will be full of cosmos of varying color and sizes by midsummer/ early fall.  If I had my way there would be no lawn.  I would have paths and different garden patches.  My back yard would be full of colorful flowers and butterflies and bees.  On a limited budget it will take me awhile, but someday there will be more flowers than grass.  I love to start with seeds and watch every stage of the flowers I grow.  I love to be able to look a seedling and know what plant it will grow into.

I'm so thankful for my small garden and the peace it gives to me.  I'm thankful that my husband allows me to slowly take over the lawn with garden experimentation.  I also love to photograph and remember my gardens from year to year.  So that is one way that I keep sane in the crazy world of retail....
G.G.

My Peri Menopause Ultra-Violet Catastrophe...My internal Lawn mower broke....Preparing for what happens when it starts working.

So last time I blogged about my Peri menopause issues I was terrified I might be pregnant...and very glad I wasn't.    I tried really hard to get a doctors appointment so that I could get something to make my period start...I wonder can you do that?  But for whatever reason It took two months to get an appointment....

In that time I have enjoyed the bliss of not having a period...because hey what women really enjoys having a period.  If you do please write to me and tell me about it...My husband is sure women enjoy this and embrace it much better than I do... I have also searched the Internet hoping to have good questions for my doctor...And hoped and prayed for answers to what is going wrong with my body....hormonal imbalance? Ovarian cysts? Thyroid?.....

Here is what I learned at my doctors appointment..1. don't go to a Gynecologist appointment in the afternoon right before they are closing...That doctor you are seeing is done...Done looking at women's parts..Done talking about women's issues...They are thinking of going home and being something other than a doctor.... ( I of course believe this because when I'm at the end of my work shift I am done... Done helping people find clothes they want, done with clothes, I don't want to do anything with clothing except wear it..
.2. Don't be like me and push annual exams off....I did visit my PCP who said I didn't need to do an annual pap smear exam...My Gynecologist and Gynecologists receptionist thought differently and would not give me any appointment until I had that appointment and thus it being a non-emergency appointment.... I waited two months...I have to say I don't like the receptionist at this point..3. If you are going for an annual exam...That's all you get...There is no talking problems here, we scrap inside of you and quickly leave the room....4. Know what the appointment you made is...I thought I made I have an issue appointment...Evil receptionist made a annual pap smear appointment ...5. Don't tell the doctor you really don't like annual pap smear appointments, I mean when I said I didn't like coming to the doctors office.. that's what I meant, not I don't like you doctor. I don't like pap smear exams.. are there women who like them??( I wonder if I insulted this doctor and that is why they would not talk to me about anything...should I send an apology card?  Yet one of my friends says it's Obama Care...Annual exams mean no talking about problems you have to make another appointment for that )  For now on I will say how much I love them...Yes I love coming here and visiting you, sitting with this white embarrassing robe on, naked....Having my woman parts scraped by something that looks rather like a medieval torture device...And as for my problem...I learned nothing..If I don't start having my period in a month come back...Ugh!!!!

My mom was happy...The pap smear thing is good it detects cancer...Except it's checking my cervix and I'm quiet sure that's not where my problem is....So what does a very frustrated, woman do...she searches the Internet...What I found was much more help...A Web MD site about internal lawn mowers...Yep that's my problem...See Estrogen is fertilizer....I've got fertilizer....I have estrogen...Progesterone is the lawn mower.  Estrogen builds your uterus up....Progesterone causes the uterus to shed....I don't have that..That is not happening.....So I've been growing quiet the lawn of uterus in me......And now I'm preparing for what I desperately wanted to avoid...The Lawn Mowers Return....Yes at some point my body figures it out and the progesterone starts to work again in my body and there is quiet the lawn to cut....Thus the photo's of extra absorbent pads ( the equivalent of a diaper if you ask me ), and Ultra tampons.....because the last time the lawn mower stopped working I had a period for a month.... I can't even begin to think of how much I'll be spending on feminine hygiene products this month.  The question how long do you go before you try to see the doctor again.... How many weeks should I  let this period go before I call the doctor? Can I get an appointment?  Will I get any answers? Should I look for a different doctor?  How I wish I could fly back to New Jersey and see my old doctor...That is one thing I don't like about moving...I don't like finding new doctors...My old doctor knew me...Understood me....

So here is the beginning of my soon to be trial....The other thing that happens right before the Period from hell is this feeling of depression...I want to weep constantly for no reason..Having gone through it before I know what is happening and that keeps me sane...Yes every now and then I want to just weep, and I feel as though I may stop breathing from the weight of this feeling....But I know it is just the Lawn Mower getting ready to cut the grass...So to speak....Have you had any of these horrible Peri menopause issues??  Oh here the tears are rolling down my face...Uh why am I sad???  I am stronger than this!
G.G.

Planting Forks in My Garden....To keep neighborhood cats away....

My cat is an indoor cat....She helps me plant seeds...She sniffs all the growing seedlings and thankfully has not eaten any, and she watches me garden from the windows in the house. 

She has a friend who is an outdoor cat.  This cat seems to think my garden is the perfect litter box!

This is the perfect place for a cat...Inside, out of the garden.  After cleaning cat poop out of my garden for a couple of weeks, I decided to search the Internet and find out how I could keep cats out..I love my cat, but I don't love the ones that are coming to my garden.

I don't want to hurt the cats, I just want them to stay out.  So one idea that I have tried is planting forks in my garden.  You have to put them all around, it makes it to bothersome for the cat to want to walk around or even dig around them.  Plus if they step on them it doesn't feel nice, but it also does not harm them.

This is the present I'm trying to keep out of the garden!  Ugh!  I had one area that did not have forks and that cat used it. 

Along with the forks I also put lemon peel out.  Cat's don't like the smell of lemons!  I want to video what my cat does when I have lemon on my hands it's pretty funny! The problem I had was we had a lot of rain and the lemon smell went away...The cat came back!

So I've added more forks today.  It is a interesting look to the garden.

along with the forks I've also sprinkled crushed red pepper and paprika in the garden...more things cats don't like.....

The only cat I want in the garden is "Tom Cat"  my garden statue...All others please stay out!  I'll let you know what works!

Related sites:
4 ways to keep cats out of gardens   
Keep cats out of the garden
More ways to keep cats out of gardens
I have to say at least I have a chance of keeping cats out and glad I don't have rabbit or deer issues!
Happy Gardening.
G.G.

# Throw Back Thursday...Photos of me as a Mother.......

I'm reading this book about Eve...Eve means the mother of all living....Kimberly is the mother of two...A very thankful mother of two....because the doctors told her she should only be the mother of one... Looking back I wish I did more photos like this when the children were babies.  Most of the yearly baby photos are of just the two kids without me...I love these photos now.

This is the black and white version.  I'm glad I had them made this way too....There is something about black and white photos that I love...Being the mother of young children was wonderful...I stayed home and took care of them, napped when they napped...I taught them how to read, write and do basic math...OK I taught them how to count...My son even learned to say the alphabet backwards...My daughter even now says she had the best preschool teacher...I guess I gave her a lot of candy while I taught her things...

We look so young....I would not trade all the riches in the world for the time I got to spend with my children..Those preschool years were so wonderful...I don't think there was a day when they were young that we were not together...Portraits are wonderful...and I imagine that when we cross over all the special moments we captured in scrapbooks will be what we remember about life...All the ugly moments, sad moments, scary moments will no longer exists....We will have our beautiful moments..

School days came and our precious time together was less, but our summers were wonderful.  Everyday swimming at the pool, going to parks, visiting the library and friends.  Oh if they could only have dragged on longer...Summer goes by so fast now. 

These photo shoots were actually fathers day presents for my husband.  We would go and have our pictures taken so that he could carry our photo's around in his wallet.  He loves to show photo's of his family to friends.

The family photo are taken in November for Christmas cards.  The funny thing I notice about my family is no one has the same hair color. (They all have the Bowlby blue eyes...Lucky them...I have Hazel, changing color eyes...)  My husband has black hair (well grey now)..My son has brown hair, my daughter light blond although it is turning more chestnut blond every year , and I've got this strawberry blond going on...with white mixed in... Without my husband I couldn't be a mother....We work side by side...No leader or follower...A team...Sometimes we disagree...but we work it out....

This year we will go and do family photos again.  It is a pivotal year...My son will graduate....It will be fun to see the change from the years past to the present.  These two kids are such a blessing to me I'm so glad I've been the Mother of two...I have all sorts of photo ideas I may tell the photography place to reserve more than half an hour....

My goal this year is to get all these photos framed and hung up around my house.  I've spent hundreds of dollars on family photo's sent them out to friends and family and never framed the ones I've kept....They are still in the envelopes I got them in from the photo store....Such beautiful photos stored away...No more.....  Happy Mothers Day...I hope you have as many beautiful memories of your family as I have...God Has Blessed me.....
G.G.

P.S...If you are a mother of young children go every year and get your photo taken with them...they grow so fast it is worth the extra money you spend...

Thanksgiving Point Tulip Festival.....My Garden Visiting Adventure Part 1......

This past weekend I went to visit the Thanksgiving Point Tulip festival.  This has been something I have wanted to do since moving to Utah and learning about it.  Next year I want to visit the garden every week during the Tulip festival so I can see if there is any big difference in the garden from the beginning of the festival to the end.  I was a bit worried that going on the 2nd to last weekend would mean seeing less tulips.  I was wrong.  And despite all the crazy weather we have had the gardens were beautiful!

This is a photo of the entrance to the Tulip Festival.  This is actually one of the last photo's I took of the day.  I took 255 photos.  My advice to you go early in the morning.  You can stay as long as you want, but going early in the morning means no waiting in huge lines, and most likely having more time in places without huge amounts of people around you.  I hate having people in my flower photos!

Another photo of the front entrance.  We arrived around 10 am and did not have much of a line to wait in.  The walk to the gardens was a bit long, but still not this line, we actually walked right up to the door and went in fast.  I'm hoping to buy a season pass I could spend hours in this garden.  Find a shady spot and sit down with a good book.

OK I apologize now, this first blog post has very few Tulip photos.  This is all just the warm up to the good photos. When you walk into the back garden area you get this view.  There are 55 acres of gardens here.  They plant a quarter of a million tulips... Wow....This looks out on all the hidden gardens..There were people set up practicing their painting, and art techniques, Photographers of every level, families, couples, people of all ages and backgrounds.  And yet there was space enough to feel at times like you were in your own little paradise.  If you are elderly, handicapped, or just don't feel like walking you can even rent a golf cart and drive around the gardens.  My husband and I walked...for hours.....

There is a little man made stream, with fish and geese...It reminded me of our New Jersey park that we visited, but on a much bigger scale...No Turtles though....That is my daughters comment.

The largest man made waterfall west of the Mississippi....On top of that water fall are lilac bushes.  And the smell was intoxicating... I loved hearing the water rushing down the water fall......

You can meander about, sit and relax...Some nice man took our photo for us.  I think this is the most tulips you will see for this post...What a relaxing place...

You can walk up and over the water falls.  Here is my Husband cooling off. 

This is above the water fall....

This is the top of the waterfall with the lilac bushes....

A Moose....How did he get over there?? Makes me wonder do Moose live in Utah?? That is something I have to find out.....It instantly made me think of Vermont and Maine...Perhaps that is why my husband and I enjoyed it so much...It reminded us of our east coast homes....

Another photo looking out from the waterfall...you can see where they have places to buy lunch.  We had a really good cheese burger and tater tot lunch, and lots of water to drink....

Well that is 13 of the photos I took....I'm still in the process of editing them and choosing my favorites.  It will take me a lot of time.  I hope you enjoyed the first peek of my Tulip Festival Adventure.  I look forward to sharing more with you soon.
G.G.

Taking the Challenge...Reading The General Conference talks with my family.....

My Church has Conference twice a year, in October and April.  During the two days of conference the Prophet and Church leaders give talks on spiritual things that we should be focusing on.  It's a lot to remember and so afterwards you can listen to the talks, or read them. 

This year in Relief Society with every lesson there is a challenge.  It is usually something to do during the week.  I am not able to attend church every week due to work, but on the weeks when I do attend I write down the challenge and try to complete it.  The challenge a few weeks ago was to read all the Conference talks with my family before October.  To help strengthen our testimonies and family.  Tonight was the first night that we took the challenge.

The First talk that we read as a family came from Women's General Session.  Titled "The Comforter" By President Henry B. Eyring.  I loved the message that we can help Heavenly Father comfort those in need, by reaching out and strengthening others, to help bear others burdens and to mourn with those who mourn. 

I gave a copy of the talk to my children and my husband and told them to read through the talk and highlight anything that spoke to them.  After dinner we all sat and shared one thing that we highlighted and told why we liked that part of the talk.  It was great to see that we each had different things highlighted, and we also had some of the same parts highlighted.  I so enjoyed hearing what my teenagers thought, and was glad they were willing to share their thoughts.

After we finished I told them about the challenge and how I was going to buy 4 conference Ensigns so that each week we could share this experience.  I was happy to find that they were willing to take this challenge with me.  Since moving to Utah we have had a hard time adjusting to all the change in our lives.  Our family time and scripture time has often taken a backseat to all the changes in our lives.  I look forward to this new challenge in our lives that will help us bring the spirit into our house more often and to strengthen our family.
I'm thankful for the inspired Relief Society presidency who came up with spiritual challenges.  I hope to share with you some of the challenges I take this year as I work to grow closer to my Savior.
Hope you had a very wonderful Sunday.
G.G.

Throw back Thursday...The year my Perm went really wrong!

When I was young I had straight blond hair.  But what I really wanted was curly hair. Spiral curly hair.

I'm not sure if this is a perm that got my hair curly or if this was a night spent with my hair tied up in rags.  Yes I would do anything to have curly hair.

So at the end of my junior year in high school I went and got a perm....I dreamed of spiraling curls and I got Puff head!  Kinky tight puffy curls.  I spent hours and hours in the shower with conditioner trying desperately to tame those curls.  This photo looks good, but this was a bit after the perm...That is one funny thing I remember about high school...My really bad perm!

Now my hair it curls all on it's own.  Just the way I like it.  Not too much, just right.  Perhaps deep down I always knew my hair was supposed to be a certain way, and I couldn't wait for it to be that way on its own.
Happy Thursday.
G.G.