My Garden in Spring.....favorites plants starting to regrow after a winter nap....and space for new adventures in growing plants...

While my family in Vermont is still looking at snow, I am gardening.... I just planted some carnations..I'm trying to put more plants in the garden this year that I know will survive.  Carnations are one of my favorite flowers anyways.

a new plant I'm trying the Surdaisy.... It is supposed to bloom from March to October.....

Baby California Poppy plants...

the blanket flower plant is starting to grow from the bottom of the old plant.  That was a hard lesson I learned one year....don't cut the bottom of the Mum's and Blanket flower plants, the plant regrows from the bottom in the spring...

Mr. Frog in front of the Pink Lily plants, I've put Black Eyed Susan Vine seeds behind him and I'm trying to start some from seed in the house too..

The carnations from last year survived (top photo) and my coneflower (Echinacea) are also coming back.

The Ice plant is looking healthy and spreading out over the edge of the garden....this will annoy my husband...perhaps my son will mow the lawn this year and I won't hear about the plants invading the lawn space...

The Mum's are happy and growing well, and the Day lilies are still in the garden but contained to the back..when we bought the house, the Day Lilies were all through the garden and other than blooming for one day are just a pain!  Well that's my opinion anyways....

The Columbine plant is almost ready to bloom, I hope it is the light purple colored one and not the dark red colored flower.  I like the light purple much better.

There is lots of space for planting seeds this spring...A nice clean garden bed...I'm so excited!

Mr. Lizard keeping watch for seedlings...

The Periwinkle (Vinca Minor) plant is spreading in the back yard garden.  Periwinkle is for fond remembrance....I'm so glad it has survived and is already blooming.

The Hen's and Chickens are doing well too.... It was nice to spend the day in my garden...I love spring in the garden, there are favorite plants starting to grow and space for new plants to try...I'm off to read "Garden Spells"  and then "The Meaning of Flowers"  My two favorite garden novels.....

Happy Spring!
G.G.

DANCING WITH THE MANNEQUINS.....MY RETAIL REALITY!

Did you know that if you get a degree in fashion design you could get a job dressing the mannequins at a retail store.  I actually think that this would be a cool job!  I sometimes envy our "Visual Specialist."

She spends her day dressing the Mannequins. Believe it or not mannequins get dressed and undressed often in big retail stores...it's a full time job!  I'm the type of person that if I want to buy some new clothes the first place I look to get ideas from in a store is the Mannequin.  This way I have an idea of what goes well together.

There are also a lot of people who shop that do this too...Sometimes the problem is that the size that the customer wants is the size that is on the mannequin...most of the time unfortunately we don't have more left in the store....My job is to undress the mannequins for customers....Well that's one of my many jobs..

Mannequins are pretty expensive, and only certain people are allowed to dress and undress them...There are certain ones that only the Visual Supervisor is allowed to touch.  So if an employee tells you they can't take those desperately wanted leggings off the mannequin, believe them...leave your name and number and you will eventually get those leggings that you want, usually the next day...leaving in a huff will get you no where...

The other day while trying to undress a mannequin for a customer, I had to call for help, she was just too much for me...The person who came to help said.."you look like you are dancing with the mannequin"...and I thought that would be a fun blog post..  I actually like looking at store mannequins, there are so  many cool displays out there.  Perhaps I'll go back to school, get a fashion design degree and apply to dress the Mannequins.... It might be fun....Well for a while.....The one thing I have learned is.. that really tight dress that looks so good on the very fit mannequin....really doesn't look good on anyone else...as I've undressed and dressed the same mannequin often..
Hope you enjoyed this little post about my life in retail...
Do you look at the mannequins when you go to buy new clothes?
G.G.

# Throw Back Thursday...It's Been Four Years ... Why We Decided To Move..

This is the house I thought I'd live in forever.  I never imagined that my husband and I would pack up our lives and move....Let alone move across the country.  But life has a funny way of sending you to places you never expected to be.  In 2010 my husband and jumped on to the roller coaster of losing your job at the same time. We both actually got new job's pretty fast, but my husbands new job was not what was promised or expected.  As we struggled and prayed we each felt at some point things would turn around.  One Sunday while driving home I prayed about what the outcome of our trials would be.  I instantly felt reassured that things would work out, and also felt that the end result would be that we were going to move.  I went home and told my husband the answer to my prayer and he quickly told me that there was no way we were going to move. I think he even told me to bite my tongue...  Looking back I wish I had just started packing things.  I often say "When God tells you that you are going to move start packing!"

From October to March we struggled.  I kept telling my husband to look for new jobs as I knew the job he had was not good for him.  He kept struggling, and still through it all I felt we would move.  I told people that I knew we were going to move. They all laughed at me, told me that was crazy and gave me lists of why we definitely were not going to move.   Now in my move idea I was not moving across the country...I was moving north... closer to Vermont.  I had my own move ideas, and God had his, and to bring it all about God had a lot of work to do.  I think my poor husband got the brunt of God's work, he was humbled, and beaten down....So that when the move was to be presented he would be willing to go.
I think this Tuesday was what reminded me of all these events.  There we were.. my husband and I together at a concert in March.  Four years ago at a concert in March we decided to move... 

The Yearly call from a friend across the country came asking my husband to apply to work at his Sisters company.  All the other years we had said "No Thanks."  But this year seeing how beat up my husband was I said "why don't you go out and see what the job is."  I just wanted him to look at other options.  So he went, and when he got home he really wanted that job.  I hadn't really expected him to want the job, but he really, really wanted that job.  He expected a job offer, and when it didn't come fast he was very upset.  When it came, he really wanted to go.  I told him I did not want to move.  I thought he should say no.  And He said no, he rejected the job offer.  I thought that was that and life would go on.  I kept feeling though that the decision we made was wrong, and that I should let my husband try this new job.  He kept telling me of his dreams of a little house for us, and a good job for him.  A second offer for the job came, and I still said I did not want to move.  No one wanted us to move...His family was very against the move... there we were at a concert and I knew we were supposed to move.  That night I told him you need to take the job.  I put my trust in God and never looked back.   He left right before Easter four years ago.  I was left to clean, pack, supervise the fixing of the house and putting the house up for sale, plus convincing two very upset children that this would be the adventure of a life time. ( all the while really not wanting to move myself.)

Those three months were stressful, lonely, and hard. I knew that I had made the right choice, but it was so hard to pack up memories, and dreams I had for the future.  I think many of my husbands friends think the move was my idea.  The person who really wanted to move was my husband.  The person at first who really needed the move was my husband.  He needed a job that was challenging, a job where he was respected, and paid fairly, where he felt he was providing for his family.   Although my children didn't see it, they needed the move too.  They cried so much, and were so upset by it, but now they would be upset if we ever decided to go back.

Often as I do family history work, I wonder, why did they move?  That's why I've written this.  So if someone years from now wonders...Why did they move??? They will know.  We moved because my husband wanted a chance to have a good job...He wanted a chance to have a house with a garage...He wanted to try this job, and I couldn't have been so selfish to say no....

We lived for 8 months in a tiny two bedroom apartment, waiting for the house to sell...There were many people who said...Your house won't sell...I trusted God...It sold and we actually made money....

Although I could have stayed in that little apartment, as the thought of packing twice in such a short time was not something that I wanted to do, I went out and found us a new house.  Packed our world up again...Moved us to a small house with a garage for my husbands classic car.... I wanted to stay in the area where we had first moved, but God still knew better than me.  It took me a year to see that.  I love my new home. 

My Husbands parents came to visit, My family has visited.  While we miss family and friends very much.  We still know the move was supposed to happen.  Sitting across from my son right now I ask.."Are you happy here?"  He replies "What kind of question is that...I'm so happy here."  The other night my husband said "I really love my job."  and my daughter she said " I love it here...I wouldn't have been able to do Karate in New Jersey."  I really like it here too...I love my crazy job, I love my little house, I love the view outside the window.  I'm glad we moved.  It was one of the hardest decisions for us to make, but I'm glad we did it.  Now I just need to figure out how to get us back to the East Coast this Summer so we can visit all our family and friends.
So Universe...PLEASE SEND ME SOME PLANE TICKETS...(we had 4 tickets to the east coast, and then unfortunately we had to use them as my father in law got sick....and I'm glad my husband was able to go out and see him...and then my father in law passed away....all the tickets are gone....So...I'm hoping some how....we will still get to visit this summer....I've come to the conclusion a little debt to see family is better than staying home.... But if the Universe,God, would be so kind...4 tickets to the east coast would be nice...
Happy Thursday....
G.G.

#Throw Back Thursday...We Decided to Adopt...A Rescue cat....

Six years ago are daughter wanted a pet cat.... And we decided to adopt a cat from a rescue program.  When we went to look at cat's we fell in love with a little grey kitten.  Only to go and find out she had already been adopted.  The next weekend we went again and met a cat the rescue group thought would be a good fit for us.

Her name was Amber.  She had been found on the streets alone and pregnant.  Her 4 kittens had recently been adopted and now she was waiting for a forever home.  What I loved about Amber was the rescue workers could do anything to her and she did not get upset.  I thought she will be a good first pet for my children.  And So we took Amber home.

She has become the center of our families attention.   

We bought her this cat tree which she loved.  She would sit and watch the birds outside. What a spoiled cat!

She is a great hunter, and loves bags.

She finds the weirdest places to sleep.  I sometimes wish I could be like a cat and just lay on a pile of stuff and find it comfortable enough to sleep.

Here she is surrounded by all the stuffed animal cats we collected before having a real cat.

We all love to have our furry friend curl up and take a nap with us.

She is always willing to play with the kids.  She loved my sons Lego collection, though I'm not sure he loved her trying to chew on them.

She always seems to be in a place that might not be where we want her....I think this brief case is a purr-fect bed dad!

Flying from New Jersey to Utah with her was very interesting. I was glad we could have her right in the plane with us.  I'm so glad we adopted a rescue cat.  She has brought a lot of love to us.  She is always around me when I'm home, and she seems to know when I need her quiet companionship.  She is also a good alarm clock...well except for this morning, usually at 6:30 she wakes me up.  We can't afford to adopt another pet, but one thing I do to help shelter pets is to go to FREE KIBBLE CAT every day and answer their trivia questions.  It is a small thing, but it gives kibble to dogs and cats waiting for their forever homes.  Perhaps you will go and do the same.
Have a great Thursday!
G.G.