Seeds and Halloween

It has been almost a year since I last posted about my avocado seed. You can see the post here. I know it hasn't done the best, but at least it isn't dead! :)

In case you cannot tell, it is growing. The root system grew so much that I decided to put it in dirt. Well, it has taken a long while, but look at the wildly growing leaves. That stem is enormous!
I guess it might help if I took the toothpick out, but I didn't want to take any chances, since it hasn't died with them in. Plus the toothpick gives you a good size comparison.

Halloween! I know it is wicked late posting these, but my girls were so cute that I figured people would want to see them even if it is late.

In case there are people out there who have no costume recognizing skills, Kat is Dorothy and Ali is Glenda the good witch from Wizard of Oz. Oh, and I am the Wicked witch of East

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Scholastic achiever!

When I was younger I loved school. I loved that there were loads of new boys to kiss each year, and I loved recess, and I loved to do math and English. I loved to have TV time once a week where we watched "Reading Rainbow." But one of the things that I loved more than most people would think is reasonable is the scholastic book catalog. My sister, Adele, and I would pore over each catalog once it came out, and then we would beg (thinking back my mom was probably really annoyed by the begging) to be able to get the book that we wanted. She would usually only order about one for each of us, but I LOVED it. For some reason it was an even better place to get books than a book store, perhaps because of all the pictures.
When Ali started school, I knew that she would like it. She had a bit of a shaky start because most kids in her class were together last year. But of course, she made a few friends and now she loves school. One thing I hadn't counted on was the Scholastic catalog. When we got it, I didn't even let my girls read over it before I had. I love that thing. Even now that I am way too old I still love that catalog, and it brings back such good memories of all the wonderful books I got to read as a child. I am such a nerd...

Here is our first order.

PS I dyed my hair black, what do you think?

Too small?

I have been extremely lucky in that I have been able to watch my nephew Desmond for the last couple of months since my sister-in-law went back to work. This is their first child and he is extremely cute and cuddly. Anyone who sees those cheeks has the desire to kiss them he is so cuddly. But he is NOT small. He may have been small at one time in his life. Maybe for about 2 weeks after his birth, but since then, no. He is a big boy, and I don't mean that he is obese or anything, he is just big (maybe because his dad is about 6'5"). Well anyway, on to explaining the purpose of my post...
Gaby has been bringing him to my house in the mornings and I always comment on how big he is getting and how his clothes are not quite fitting him properly. I don't think she is getting the message. Now I understand the love of an outfit. I even dedicated an entire post to one of Ali's shirts, which was extremely hard for me to put away long after she had outgrown it. Some of the times that I tell my S-i-L that things are too small she complains that it is the first time he has gotten to wear the outfit, but that is NO excuse! Give it two years and he will still be wearing clothes that are 2 sizes too small because he has to catch up on the new outfits. I really was just giving her a hard time in the beginning because the outfits that he was wearing were just slightly too small on him, but now it is just getting funny. Below is the onesie for today.


Notice the tightness of the onesie as a whole as well as the "muscles" bulging out of his arms. If he moves to the side you can even see a little cleavage!

The buttons are barely able to come together. One slight movement and...Pop!

This outfit had me laughing so hard when I took him out of his carseat. I know it doesn't look too small on first inspection, but those round circles on his upper thighs are knee pads. Notice the crotch buttons are again being pushed past their limits.
Anyway, even if the clothes are too small, he seems pretty happy in them!

New Year's Resolutions

I know I am very late in posting my New Year's resolutions, but, in my defense, getting my posts out on time is NOT one of my resolutions. So this year I wanted to keep it simple so that I might actually have a chance at completing my goals. My first resolution is to limit my exaggerations. Now for those who know me or my family (The Thompsons), you may have noticed that exaggerations are just a part of who we are. You get a group of Thompsons together and stories just blow up. This year I plan on limiting how much I exaggerate, and by limit I mean I want to not exaggerate at all. Easier said than done with how much I am prone to naturally exaggerate. My second goal and one that should be easier to accomplish is to not kill plants. Now of the two goals that I set for myself the second should be far easier, but alas, 1 day into January and I killed my first plant.

For Christmas my sister gave me an avocado tree (I think she felt pity that my seed still isn't growing). Although if she saw my earlier post she would have been more wary of giving me anything resembling a plant. New Year's eve I put a crate too close to the table where the plant was set, and over night our bunny jumped up from the crate and destroyed the plant. Above is the remnants of what might have been a great avocado tree.

For those who are wondering how my seed is doing, here it is, rotting away.

My sister also gave me a lemon tree. The bunny got to all the lower branches and destroyed them, but luckily this tree was taller than the 1 1/2 ft the avocado tree had been.


This picture is just a small side note. I think that having a green thumb may skip a generation. My mother and my mother-in-law are both excellent with plants. I posted earlier about my 1$ Christmas tree. Well, I loved it so much that I went out and bought Ali her own plant (distiguished with the "A"). I let her do it all by herself, and she floods the thing constantly and she (according to me) planted the seeds too shallow. And yet her plant is thriving! Where did she get that skill. To be fair to me, her plant is not a christmas tree, hers is some type of flower, and maybe they are easier to grow. That is my story and I am sticking to it!

My plants and I

I have been wanting to blog about my planting adventures, but have not really gotten around to it lately, but today both girls went down for a nice nap...at the same time!

I have a black thumb, and for those who wonder what that is, I say it is the opposite of a green thumb. I kill plants. I don't discriminate, I kill them all. My mother-in-law (who definitely has a green thumb) bought me some nice potted flowers and said that in order to keep it alive all I have to do is water it every once in a while and to simply cut off the flowers once they die. Perhaps she shouldn't have said simply because 2 weeks later when all the flowers died and I had cut off the flowers all I had left was sticks. Those quickly died.

When we moved here to Los Angeles I thought I would take advantage of the nice weather and a big patio and grow some things. Most people who read this blog have seen my failed attempts at an avocado tree, but I have not talked about my tomatos. We bought the seeds in June. The big selling point was "Get ripe tomatos in just 2 weeks!" Well I haven't killed them and they did grow, but it is mid-November and I still have only 5 green tomatoes that refuse to ripen. I am not sure what more I could have done. Well I am terrible at raising plants, so when I went to target and they had "Grow your own Christmas tree" for only 1 dollar, I thought I might be wasting my dollar, but why not? I bought the small kit. Much to my surprise only 3 days later this is what I have:

It is a very small pot, only about 2 inches tall, but there is SOMETHING GROWING!!!! Now we will see if it really is a spruce tree.

Small update on my avocado adventure....nothing....not a single change.

Third try, or is this the fourth?

I am again trying to grow an avocado. This time I am going to give it even more sun and warmth. Lets see how it turns out.

This is what I have on my windowsill with the most light. If anyone sees anything wrong or has any opinion on growing avocado trees from seeds let me know.

2nd times a charm!

Awhile back I posted about my soon-to-be avocado tree and I am sure everyone who read that post is anxiously wondering what became of my little attempt at horticulture. Well you need wait no longer. IT FAILED! I wanted to post a picture of my failure, but decided that a rotten seed is not that cool. The seed split, so I thought it was going to grow, but then after a month of nothing it finally fell apart due to mold and rot. Now I have another chance! This seed is my second attempt and I am sure this one will work. It is smaller, much smaller (that is a 4oz baby food container), but I am sure the avocados will be tastier than the other ones would have been anyway!


Just because I thought it was cute. Here is Ty holding Ali up to pick that non-ripe orange. I let her eat it later and she finally understood what not ripe means!

Ali with her Uncle Jason who is leaving back to BYU today. Bye Jason!

I wanted to post this picture because it shows the enormity of Kat's cheeks. Note: there is nothing in her mouth.

Black beans are yummy, but they are messy!

New project

I was telling one of my friends in Boston about the amazing avocados we had growing up in California, so when we were leaving she suggested that I plant an organic avocado tree. This is the beginning of that adventure. I bought the biggest one in the basket. Plus, it was delicious. I plan on documenting the growth of my "tree" on this blog, so every month I will post a picture of its progress.

CALIFORNIA HERE I COME!!!!

I just got back from Brazil, and I had a wonderful trip. Since Nick is not prone to posts, he waited for me to tell everyone the news. We are going back to California, and I am really excited! Warmth and sun, and the beach! Why did I ever leave?

Obama interview

I know that this is really a family blog, but with recent events, the economy in the crapper, and the new president being sworn in a few months, I can not help but give my opinion. I am not sure how many people got the chance to see Barbara Walter's interview the other day, but I did get a chance to see some of it. Most of the interview was pointless, and during most of it I would alter between yelling "What the...?" and "Are you serious?" I mean, really who cares what kind of dog will be in the White house when we have yet to figure out the policies that will guide this country. As my husband so adequately stated, "It was cutesy during the campaign, but now I want to know what he is going to do." Obama may be a type of celebrity. I can understand why this would be, as he is the first African-American president. That is a great thing for this country, but what would be even better, is if we had a competent president (especially after a not so competent one). I think that he can be competent if he would stop playing these games. On ABC.com they have a story about his interview, and they say he, "touched on a broad range of topics from the economy and troop deployments in Afghanistan, to Thanksgiving plans with his family." In reality, I think he touched on the subject of the economy and the war but, more than half of the interview consisted of them talking about their family and mindless other topics. The fact of the matter is, I don't care that much about which of the rooms his girls are going to sleep in when there are thousands of people losing their jobs RIGHT now. President-elect, I DON'T CARE about how your Thanksgiving turkey will be cooked or how your girls are not going to be spoiled, I want to know what you are doing about the war, or about Wall st, or unemployment, or the loan crisis. Please stop avoiding questions because you don't want to lose popularity. I am tired of it, and I am sure I am not the only one.
ps I really do like Obama and I think he will make an good president, I am just frustrated by the fact that he seems to be under the impression that he is still campaigning. He is after all NOT a celebrity. He is going to be our president and he should realize that.