"Tommy Can You Hear Me?"

The pinball wizard may not have been able to hear, but OUR Tommy CAN hear us!

Today we had Tommy's post-tubes check-up and hearing screening and Tommy was found to be hearing in the normal range for his age group!  Hooray!!!

Here's the nitty gritty.  The first result we received was that Tommy's eardrums, which were not vibrating at all at our last hearing screening, were vibrating nicely today!  The eardrum and tiny hairs in his ears are doing their job, moving and transferring sounds to create meanings for those sounds in his brain.

Tommy's second results focused on what he is hearing.  Regular speech is done around 60 to 65 decibels.  Whispering is in the 20 decibel range, and sounds can range down to 0 decibels (which does not mean no sound, just very quiet sounds).  Tommy was responding to sounds down to the 20 decibel range.  Below that he wasn't responding too well to tones or white noises.  However, he did respond to speech down to 15 decibels.

There could be reasons other than hearing-loss as to why Tommy didn't respond to the quieter sounds.  Kids his age have a hard time maintaining focus and listening without distraction, especially to quiet sounds.  So although he was sitting and seemed to be listening intently, Tommy may have been having a hard time keeping his concentration focused on listening to the sounds, or he could even have stopped caring enough to respond to some of those quiet sounds.  Also, hearing testing can't be too specific for Tommy's age because they have to do the whole booth thing; he can't respond directly to specific tones administered straight into his ears by saying, "Yes, Doctor Shaw, I heard that high pitched beeping in my left ear."  So Tommy's final hearing verdict was that he hears in the "low" range of normal, but he IS IN normal ranges!  I feel like doing a jig!


EVEN if Tommy doesn't hear those quieter sounds and does have some hearing loss, he can hear normal speech down to a whisper, which means he can easily learn to talk.  And even better, he can be safe.  His safety was one of my greatest concerns.  What if he didn't hear me tell him to stop before putting a fork into a light socket?  What if he missed the sound of a car coming up the street?  But I know he can hear those things now, which means he is safer.  We will have his hearing re-tested in a year.  The doc says they can be a little bit more specific at that age, so we will know if he does have some kind of quiet tone hearing loss at that time.  For now, speech therapy to get him "caught up" is definitely on the docket for the months ahead. 

Considering that we were potentially looking at "profound hearing loss" following his last screening, I am full of joy at the news of this day.  Tommy can hear!  Over the past months I'd hear sounds I love: a lawnmower running on a summer evening, the Thunderbirds practicing overhead, my boys laughing together at some joke, birds calling to one another at sunrise, and I'd wonder if Tommy would ever have the pleasure of enjoying these sounds or finding sounds that he loved to hear of his own.  And now I know he will.  What a gift!

Our bodies are little miracles in action, the way they work, the way they heal.  I am so grateful for Tommy's strong, healthy little body.  I am grateful for modern medicine, once again in Tommy's life, that helped his ears to open up and hear.  When Dr. Shaw looked at Tommy's results and the results from the last hearing test, his tone of voice sounded a little surprised.  He said, "Honestly, tubes don't always work in cases like this (total failure in Tommy's previous screening), but in Tommy's case I am happy to say they did their part."  And I firmly believe prayer and grace played their part in fixing what was broken, my prayers along with all of yours.  So THANK YOU, from all of us, especially Tommy...who can hear.

Our Visit to The Dinosaur Resource Center

Today the boys and I headed up to Woodland Park to pay a little visit to the Dinosaur Resource Center.  We've passed this place a number of times on our various excursions up in the mountains above Colorado Springs, but we've never gone in.  Partly because from the outside it looks pretty small, but the price for admission is pretty big.  I'm not about to spend a huge amount of money getting our large family in there, only for the fun to be exhausted in an hour because there isn't a lot to do, even if the few things there are to do are pretty cool.  So when one of Josh's kindergarten classmate's mothers set up a summer outing for anyone interested from the old kindergarten class to go together at a steeply discounted group rate, we thought it was time to go! 

We were running a little behind, and our guide was waiting for us outside.  He spotted us immediately, and said the other moms in our group who had already arrived had said to look for "the mother with five boys who looks amazingly calm and in control."  Hahaha!  I am glad I fit the description at that particular moment...it means I fake control well!

It was a pretty cool place to explore.  We had a fun tour with a great guide who knew exactly what to point out that would be interesting to the young majority of the group, just when to mention a cool dino movie or TV show to recapture attention, and the precise moment to move on as interest waned.  Following the tour, we were free to look around on our own.  The boys really liked the exhibits, displaying bones and skeletal models, fossils and information on many different dinosaurs.  Luke was particularly excited by the dinosaurs that he recognized from one of his favorite PBS shows, Dinosaur Train.  Our guide told us that Dinosaur Train is actually very factual, more so than many Discovery Channel and National Geographic shows on dinosaurs, and that our kids should feel free to repeat any information they glean from that particular show.  Even with all the interesting things to see and learn, the place was as small as I suspected from the outside and, indeed, the boys were done looking shortly after our tour ended.  I was happy we went in with the group rate, it was well worth it at the lower price!

We wrapped up the outing with a picnic under the trees by the Center.  The kids ate and then played a game using the light-up roadside billboard for the Dinosaur Resource Center.  The sign would rotate through a cycle of event announcements and then a big dinosaur would appear before the announcements cycled through again.  The kids squatted down, watching the sign do its thing.  Then every time the dinosaur would come on the screen, the kids would run from the sign, screaming, and then when it went away, they'd creep back and squat down, waiting for it to come again so they could scream and run away all over again.  It was cute!  Josh was blessed with a fantastic class last year, and the kids come with pretty awesome moms too.  We had a great time visiting with everyone!

The large brown thing on the right side of the picture is the humorous of an Ultrasaurus.  It's HUGE!

Luke is on the lower left of this picture.  He was really excited about that skeleton on the ceiling, one of his favorite Dinosaur Train episodes focuses on a swimmer like this one!

Megalodon jaws.  Glad those are extinct.  I wouldn't want to be swimming in an ocean with that thing!

This giant prehistoric fish was not a replica, those were actual fossilized bones.   Really cool!

Digging for "dino bones."

Ben could jump as far as an Apatosaurus!

Josh loved the fossilized dino poop hidden in this box.  You were supposed to put your hand in and guess what it was you were feeling...Guess what...it's POO!  Classic boy humor.

Tommy enjoyed playing with the dinosaur puppets.  They were the highlight of his DRC experience...the puppets and my magic purse full of snacks.

Feeling the fossils was pretty cool; along with the jumping, it was Ben's fave.

Most of our group.  The five kindergarten friends are in the middle--starting with the boy in the green shirt left to right: Kellen, Josh, Gabby, Natalie and Aiden.

Zac's idea for a pose.  These guys crack me up!

When we got in the car, Zac made sure to say, "Thanks for a great day, Mom!"  I am glad they had fun.  I did too!

  

A {Little} Saturday Walk

On Saturday Adam and Zac arose at 4:00 in the morning...FOR FUN!  That doesn't sound like MY idea of fun, but for them, it was the start of a great day of adventuring.  They were going to hike to the top of Pike's Peak with two of Adam's buddies, Dave and Vern, and Vern's son, Spencer, one of Zac's great friends.  This hike has been a goal of Adam's since he arrived here in The Springs, almost 4 years ago, so it was a day long in coming and highly anticipated.  Just so the significance of this hike is not lost on the non-Colorado resident, Pike's Peak is one of Colorado's 54 fourteeners, topping out at 14,110 feet above sea level.  They took the Barr Trail out of Manitou Springs at 5:45am.  The trail travels along 12.6 uphill miles, with an increase in altitude of 7,300 feet.  Not for the faint of heart...or the unacclimatized! **Note:  Our hearty hero, Adam, was at sea level until the night before the hike on a business trip in Seattle.

The group hit the top at 1pm, making for a total time of 7 hours, 15 minutes.  That is pretty fast for a group that has two young boys in it, considering that the cut-off time for the Pike's Peak Ascent, a 1/2 marathon run by people who have been planning and preparing for a race that follows the same route, is 6 hours, 30 minutes (meaning you have to finish before that time for your time to "count").  Our guys were only 45 minutes slower than that.  Not bad at all!

It was a last minute decision to go for Adam.  I had my longest run (130 minutes) before my half on Labor Day to do, and I didn't want to go in the heat and thunderstorms of the afternoon.  So Adam wasn't going to go.  But I felt like maybe I should just do what I had to do so these guys could have some fun.  I called Jen, Vern's wife, on Friday morning and told her to count Adam and Zac in for the big hike and then talked to Adam on his way to the airport in Seattle and told him to get mentally planning because they were going.  Even if it meant that I ended up at the Y on the treadmill watching HGTV for 130 minutes.  I now have HUGE plans for remodeling my kitchen!    

Although we were a little worried about his performance, Adam said Zac did a great job.  He actually led the pack to the top!  He was a little hesitant to go the first time I mentioned it to him on Friday at lunch.  The early start time and the length of the hike did not necessarily appeal to him (i.e. "I'm not a hiker."  Huh, does all our family hiking not count?).  But after a little convincing (i.e. "Zac.  Spencer is going.  And Dad, who loves you, is going.  Whether you love hiking or not, this is a good chance to spend time with your father and your best buddy!"), he decided that it was going to be fun and that carrying a Camelbak was going to be cool, so he was in.  Zac dragged a bit in the beginning, so Adam carried his Camelbak for a short while and Zac picked up the pace.  Once they hit the timberline (where the trees can no longer grow), Zac figured out he was, in fact, a hiker, and started to go so fast that Adam had to call him back because he was getting too far ahead of the group.    

It was a beautiful day for the hike.  Sunrise was stunning.  It was hot down here at the base of the mountain, but perfectly pleasant on the slopes.  The mountain was busy, with the Pike's Peak Ascent and Marathon only 2 weeks away.  They even saw a local celebrity, Matt Carpenter, the man who holds the record for the Ascent, finishing it in 2:05.

The group had a great time together.  Adam loved having Zac as a hiking buddy and felt very proud of his eldest son as he hauled himself up the mountain with gusto.  My guys and Vern arrived at the top in pretty good shape.  Unfortunately, Dave and Spencer were both experiencing some mild symptoms of altitude sickness and were feeling a little unwell.  Before heading down, they had Pike's Peak famous donuts from the tiny cafe at the top, famed to be some of the best donuts in the world.  The donuts might not actually be all that spectacular, but after such a lot of work, even a so-so donut has got to taste like the ambrosia of the gods!

They caught a ride back down to the car in Manitou from Jen, who drove up to get them while I watched over the other Maloy kids (minus Spencer, who was on the hike) and the rest of my crew down here.  It had been an exhausting day, exhausting in the best way possible.  Ben is already chomping at the bit to be included on the next hike up.  And Adam is busily planning the backpacking trip he and Zac are taking together in two weeks. 

Zac and Spencer starting out in the dark

Those are some pretty serious warnings!

Sunrise

Zac pointing to the top...where they are headed!

Three miles in!

Barr Camp--Halfway there!

Timberline Shelter--About three quarters of the way up, just before they lose the trees

A very brave chipmunk!

What a view!

Looking up at the switchbacks

Zac shoots to the front of the pack

Looking down on some of the switchbacks.  The last 16 switchbacks of the hike leading to the top are called "The 16 Golden Stairs."

Dad and Zac at the top!

The group: Vern and Spencer, Dave, Zac and Adam

One final picture from the tippy top!

Hand-Me-Downs

Our wonderful neighbor next door, Gabi, has two boys, fifteen and sixteen-years-old.  The fifteen-year-old, Marcus, is on the smaller side, so he wears a size in clothes that are just a bit bigger than Zac wears.  For the past 18 months or so, Gabi has been bringing over bags of Marcus' outgrown clothing to pass on to my boys.

This summer, when we were on our way home from Washington, I received an email from the fantastic mother of one of Zac's teammates, Brigitte.  She is the one who has helped us the past two seasons, quite frankly saving us last season from having to be in two places at one time, by picking Zac up and taking him to soccer practice at least once a week, because, she says, "It's on [her] way anyway."  She was a blessing to us!  So she had pretty much helped us more than enough.  But the email this time wasn't about practices for the fall, it was to ask if we were interested in some of Jake's outgrown clothes, two years of them.  Jake, her only child, is Zac's age, but about 16 inches taller and 30 pounds heavier than Zac is.  She brought over tons of clothing, winter-wear, really nice sports clothing (not the Target brand my kids usually get), a couple of pairs of barely used shoes, and backpacks.  The favorite colors were clear: red, white and blue.  Jake's dad is on deployment in Afghanistan. 

We aren't destitute, but outfitting 5 boys obviously gets expensive and I am grateful for the money saved.  A lot of hand-me-downs never make it to the younger two before needing replacement.  And Josh and Ben practically wear the same size because they are built differently-- taller but lean vs. shorter but stockier, so I need a lot of clothing in the size they are in (I see the same thing happening with Luke and Tommy as Tommy gets older).  Most of the clothes handed down we've kept, we will certainly use them.  Just a bit of it is passed on to Goodwill or other neighbors, like if the style is not something my boys will wear or like Jake's 12 pairs of khaki shorts for his TCA uniform that we don't need.

Between these two wonderful women I am not in need of any clothes shopping for Zac this fall.  He is set with all these hand-me-downs and the things I had collected on sale here and there in his next size up over the past months.   And my needs for the next two sizes have grown much smaller as well!  Now I already have four pairs of jeans waiting for Zac when he grows out of the size he's in!  I was tempted to supplement the red, white and blue with a few other colors, until the most recent bag from Gabi arrived on my porch, which held all the extra color we needed!  And all these things can be passed down to the other boys as well.  They have saved me hundreds of dollars, these two thoughtful women!

I am so grateful!

Night Games

Soon after we arrived back in Colorado the boys began asking if they could take part in "night games" with some of the neighborhood boys.  Adam and I hummed and hawed about it for a little while, not totally comfortable with the idea of our boys running around in the dark of the night, especially considering how late in the evening it has to be to actually be dark in the summertime.

Then we remembered back to our own childhood nights of running around with the neighbor kids or nearby friends in the twilight and evening hours of summer.  Instantly we were reminded of the carefree feeling that accompanied those nights, how we felt so grown-up and excited to be living life after the sun went down, a jittery joy in our bellies.  And we thought: we live in a safe area, on a quiet residential street that makes one big circle and that has only two entry points.  So with reminders to be careful about cars and to watch where they are running, we let the two oldest go out.

Josh lamented greatly that he could not be included in the fun.  But 6 is just too young.  We would never even have considered it when Zac was 6, which was where that final decision came from.  However, we have tried to be gentle towards his tender feelings about being left-out, and have allowed him to stay up watching the games out the window, reading a book, or watching a PBS show on TV until the big brothers come in, rosy-cheeked and out-of-breath, at 9:30.

Starting next week night games will be over except for weekends, as all the boys will be shifted back to their school year bedtime schedule of lights-out at 8 for Luke and Josh and 8:30 for Zac and Ben.  For now, though, on these last precious nights of summer vacation, when evening lightning and rain storms aren't keeping them inside, we can hear shrieks, squeals and yells coming from the darkness as my boys play games with terrifying names like "Murder in the Dark," "Ninja" and "Bloody Murder."  And it is hard to hear the joyful sounds of their play and not be carried away a bit in the memories of youth: the pleasurable heebie-jeebies of feeling safely-scared, the splendid freedom of friends playing in the night, the sweetness of feeling "grown-up" while you are still a kid.

What Family Night Means To Me

Monday was one of those days.  We all have them.  The perfect storm.  Any number of variables can contribute to those days; variables that usually aren't a huge deal.  Not a huge deal at all when they arrive one, two or three at a time--but when they come in all on one day they can just be too much.  By the time dinner arrives there is nothing you'd like more than to just put out bowls of cereal and go crawl under the blankets of your bed...if only it weren't so hot, making blankets just sound awful, and you didn't actually have to be responsible for your children for the rest of the night.

These were Monday's variables in my perfect storm:

• Tired and a little stressed out from a very fun, but busy weekend.
• Physically exhausted from the training for Labor Day.  One day of rest is no longer enough it seems!
• Feeling a little overwhelmed by all that is ahead: moderate confidence, then tears, build back up the confidence, then tears.
• Bored kids ready to start school and getting on each other's nerves, as well as mine.
• Bored kids hopping from activity to activity without cleaning up afterward, leaving every room in the house looking like the Warner Brothers' Tasmanian Devil has visited our home.
• Same said kids, who on this particular Monday decided that helping one another, and me, was not a worthwhile practice.
• The second week in-a-row of Adam traveling for work just ahead.
• A lot of tantrums...from the 4-year-old.  Happily, none from the 21-month-old.  Although, at least from him they are expected and age appropriate, unlike for a 4-year-old.
• Back and forth thoughts on what to do for the 4-year-old for school next year: could he benefit from a non-mom teacher as he gets ready for Kindergarten?  How about at a school that understands his sensory issues?  Even if it turns out to be really expensive?  Yes!  No!  Maybe?  Arrrghhhh!
• Realizing my TWO (must be used separately) $20 for $45 worth of Blurb blog-to-book product coupons were going to expire on the 3rd, NOT the 15th as I had thought until the "countdown to expiration" arrived in my email inbox...and I only had half of one book done, oh dear!
• A baby who seems to think toys are for dummies, and will only play with the telephone, the Wii remotes, the sunscreen bottles on the counter, the shampoo from the swim bag, the dirty cups in the sink, {insert any other inappropriate non-toy for a toddler here}.
• Dirty dishes in the sink I am trying to ignore because easy-to-clean-after sandwiches are no longer an appropriate lunch choice according to bored boys, instead macaroni shells and cheese is the meal of choice, which leaves cheese-covered spoons, bowls, sauce pot and colander to wash.
• A sty in one eye, a swollen bug bite just below the other that I can see bulging in front of the eye it is below. 

Dinner did get served eventually.  It was pretty good too.  Not cereal.  Although I love cereal for dinner on hot days when Adam is out of town...hmmmm...maybe tomorrow night. 

And then it was time for Family Home Evening.  Ug.  I was in no mood for it, even though I had a fantastic talk from General Conference that I wanted to focus on for our lesson.  It was from last October's Conference Priesthood Session and I had read it earlier in the week, loved it, and immediately decided it needed to be used for the next possible FHE.  The stories in it I was sure would be interesting to the boys too.  So we settled in for our lesson that I had been so excited about.  No, "settled" is the wrong word.  No one was settled.  The kids were all over the place, only half listening, up and down in their seats, and once they would finally sit after long pauses in the lesson and significant looks that said, "Park it," Tommy would start with his cute (but not at that moment) Tommy-shouting and become a complete distraction.  So I was a little down-hearted after that.

We prepared to set out for our activity, a night of swimming at the Y.  Which was craziness, but after a lot of effort everyone and everything was in the car ready to go, minus Luke's shoes.  As I helped hunt for Luke's missing Croc-- for 10 minutes--while the boys loudly waited, buckled into their seats in the car, I found myself repeating the mantra, "I love my family.  I love my family," just to keep from canceling the entire event. I was not into it at all.  I was completely distracted by my own thoughts and irritations from the day and evening.

But we got in that warm pool water and started to play...and all of the stuff of the day, my stresses, my frustrations just seemed to melt off of me into the water as my family and I began having fun, swimming, splashing and laughing together.

After some tag and volleyball, they turned the water slide on, so Zac and Ben both headed to the big pool to slide.  Tommy and Luke both had on water wings so Adam and I felt relaxed.  Luke has become so brave in the water, putting his face in, letting me throw him and allowing his head to go under.  And Tommy was so funny in his water wings.  He had completely figured out how to control his body to float with the wings.  He could keep himself balanced and his head above the water, but dunked himself on purpose a number of times by rolling his body weight backward and then forward again.  He loves water!  He is a total water baby.

Then Josh decided it was the time for him to take the swim test to move from the "yellow band" (a swimmer who needs a parent close by in the pool area) to a "green band" (a swimmer who can enter the pool area and swim without an adult).  Josh's swimming is not pretty, he always looks kind of like he's in distress even though he's totally fine and not in distress at all.  His form is just bad.  But he did an amazing job on the test and passed with flying colors!  Adam said he did great.  I had to watch with Tommy from the small pool, so I could see but couldn't hear what was going on, but Josh gave me a big thumbs up through the window as he followed the lifeguard to go change out his band and have his name recorded in the swimmer book.  No more child watch for him!  And he could now do the water slide!  We were all so excited for him, especially his brothers.  Josh felt like a million dollars.

So Family Night made all the difference for my day, and probably for my week.  The kids' behavior during the lesson wasn't sparkling, I don't know if they'd even remember what we talked about without prompting today, two days later.  But the time together doing something we all loved, cheering on Josh together, was healing, a cure for what ailed me.  So this Monday, what Family Night meant to me was a clear head, a full heart and a little perspective.  I was once again shown that Family Night isn't about the perfect lesson or how much is learned from it, it is about family.  Family. God's greatest gift.

Kendra Comes Home

Kendra was one of my first friends here in Colorado Springs.  She and her husband, Cameron, moved here the same year we did, 2008, in the summer, so we were newbies together.  Sadly, Cameron's job as an Air Force dentist moved them on to Mountain Home, ID after just a year, but Kendra and I have remained close friends.  We meet at Women's Conference in the spring, and our family always tries to stop by and see them as we drive through Idaho on our way to Washington in the summer.  We missed them this year, because they were off on a family trip the day we drove through.  It was a bummer.

Until two days ago, when Kendra called and said she was visiting some dental school girlfriends in Fort Collins and had an extra day to come down and visit us too!  She came in on Saturday night and had to leave mid-morning on Sunday, but it was a great visit.  I think our talking filled every moment we were together aside from the sleeping hours. 

Saturday morning some of the other gals from our ward, who had also been newbies in 2008, thus creating some fast friendships, came over for brunch so we could all get some Kendra Time.  It was a wonderful morning with some of the women I admire most!  Thanks for giving us a reason to get together, Kendra! 

(l to r, top to bottom) Shaina, Me, Jen, Kendra, Heidi, Adri and baby Lea

The Gift of the Deep Freeze and Other Garden News

Last winter was cold.  Pipe-breaking cold.  Remember?  I do.  Vividly!  We had very little snow to make it fun.  Not that snow would have been fun in that kind of cold anyhow.  Kind of lame.

Spring was late.  Later than it usually is here, and that's LATE.  My tulips popped up eventually, but failed to bloom.  So I had a lot of green leaves attempting to look pretty, but no flowers to accent them.  Really lame.

But the late Spring has delivered an unexpected summer gift.  Lilies!  My beautiful lilies are bursting, busting, blooming!!!  Gorgeous!  The past three summers we have lived here, they have done the bloom-fest while we are in Washington, so I miss it.  There are usually a few stragglers to enjoy after we return, but the evidence of the glory I missed, in discarded petals and wilted stalks, is obvious.  But with the late Spring, the lilies are also blooming late.  They are going crazy, and there are more to come.  Not lame at all!

Since my attempt at a vegetable garden is once again in nearly-full-suck-mode, the lilies are bringing me extra joy.

I sure love them!

Since I'm on the subject of gardens, I will provide the Chaos garden report right now as well.  This year has been more successful than two years ago (last year we were so focused on basement finishing we never quite got to the garden), but it has still been frustrating and low-yield compared to the glorious bounties that have come from Washington gardens of our past.  The first year, our measly harvest inspired Adam to call one of our beans the $350 bean, because that is about all that grew from our investment.

This year we've had some varied and surprising results.  I planted some strawberry plants, that have sent off a couple of shoots for new plants and will hopefully produce actual berries next year.  No yield there, as was expected for first-year strawberry plants.  I also planted a lot of spinach, lettuce, carrots and radishes.  None of which have grown.  Let me take that back.  I have TWO carrots and had maybe 5 radishes, that never appeared to be fat, well-fed radishes, but more the starved and listless radish variety that look more like they were saying a rude, irreverent, "Eat me!" instead of "Oh yes, I am deliciously fit for consumption."

That the lettuces never came up at all shocked me.  Two years ago I had a few lettuce plants that looked so pathetic I had given them up for dead soon after transplanting the seedling starts, but they proved me wrong and came back like gang-busters (in a Colorado-lame-growing-climate kind of "gang-busters"), declaring their hardiness in an unforgiving land.  So no home-grown salads for us this year.

Two little carrots

 The tomato plants, that were not started from seed but rather seedling, are making an effort.  The plants aren't heavy with tomatoes and haven't gotten more than twice the size they were when we planted them, but if those tomatoes they're growing can get going on turning, I think we might have a crop!

While we're on the subject of tomatoes. We had, what we believe, an exciting visitor to our little patch of land.  On the drive home we listened to one of my old favorites and a road trip must-hear, Bunnicula, by James Howe.  It's the story of a vampire bunny that sucks the juice right out of the vegetables, leaving them white.  Well, upon our return from Washington, we discovered a little white tomato sitting right by our tomato plant.  Surely Bunnicula had been to our house!  Our imaginations made what otherwise would have been a gross discovery, fun.

I got pretty excited about our pepper plants, also not grown from seed.  They started producing peppers almost immediately after I planted them.  We have pimento and yellow bell (because that's what the store had when I went to get some).  But I think something else also got excited about them because they were eaten, ripe on the stem.  Darn!  There are still a few flower buds that might give me a couple peppers, enough to make a nice salsa fresca with those tomatoes!  In the meantime, I'm on the hunt for a fat, satisfied bug with pepper on his face.

 The one leafy green that did come up half-heartedly, is the rainbow chard.  There isn't a lot of it.  But considering the lack of any lettuce or spinach growth, I am happy about what I've got.  Hey!  I have enough for a nice minestrone soup!

 While we were on our trip, in addition to feeding Ruby, our dog sitter was also asked to water the plants.  Part of the problem with this year's garden is that I think she may have been a little spare on the water, even though I instructed her to give them a good drenching every day.  We had a lot of afternoon thunderstorms during July, which dump a lot of rain in a short period of time.  Unfortunately, there is usually too much water all at once and most of it runs off the garden bed sides before the earth has time to absorb it, so it's not good for watering the garden all the time, but I think on days we got rains she didn't water at all, so the plants suffered for it.  So the herb garden is slowly struggling to come back now that we are watering it more intensely.  The snow peas are similarly struggling. 

 The beans bushed up nicely before we left, but then they seemed to just stop.  They are nearly the exact same size as they were a month ago.  It could be the lack of water for a month causing the stunting, like with the herbs and peas.  So that's what we've got, a few little bean bushes with a few little flowers that might give us a few little beans.

 And now we finally come to my greatest hope.  The squash.  I have a number of zucchini plants and one acorn squash plant.  I love zucchini, one of my vegetable favorites.  And if all goes well with my pretty little squash plants, I will have zucchini galore come fall!  I just might be knocking on your door with a zucchini gift!  The plants seem to be thriving, blooming and strong.  So I'm hoping for a very late frost, to give my little zucchini flowers time to become little zucchinis that mature and ripen.

So that's the full garden report.  Hopefully I will also have a harvest report.  It may only contain information about food products you can make with zucchini, but at least that will be something!