I'd Guess These to Be From Early July 2003...

What a surprise! Tim's aunt sent these two photos along with Molly's birthday present. They really bring back memories. It seems like things move so slowly anymore, but these pictures are less than 5 years old. We don't even own the black truck and silver car anymore.

I think that today I will try to make it into town to buy Molly one of these. The girl LOVES tractors. OK, yes that's a combine, not a tractor. But lets not make things confusing for the one year old.

It's Coming Up Roses

"I'm a rose gardener, I'm a rose gardener!" I say. -picture me doing a happy little dance while I say this. Sorry no photo of the dance, I don't want to get hits from people searching for photo's of pregnant dancing ladies :)

I have never in my life tried to grow roses, but I always pictured this little area of the landscape off the kitchen porch as a rose garden. This spring Tim surprised me with three plants, all of them hybrid teas. Both of them pictured above are from the Gurney's mail order catalog. The orange one on the left is called Mojave and the yellow one on the right is King's Ransom. Like I said I know nothing of roses but they seem to be beautiful bushes, they came to us as bare root stock.

Tim also purchased one from the mail order company Michigan Bulb Co. We planted this rose at the same time as these and nothing ever came of it. A month or so ago we called MBC and requested a new plant be sent. They told us they were back ordered until Spring of 2008. Well, much to my surprise the new rose (Double Delight) showed up the beginning of this week. It is planted and hopefully will catch up with it's bed-mates soon. I worry though because it had some new growth started when we planted it and now this appears to be dying off. If this one doesn't take I think I will ask to use to money for something else and by a replacement from Gurney's.

Next year I plan to place two climbing bushes on trellises on either side of the mudroom window. I've decided to take this garden one step at a time so I don't become over-whelmed trying to get a bunch of finicky plants started.

If all goes well I might also consider starting some sort of ground cover rose. My only worry with that is we have black landscaping fabric under the mulch and I don't know if the ground covers need to be able to reach the soil at points to start new root systems. Something to look into at Molly's next nap time I guess.

Iowa River Power Restaurant

Today Molly, my mom, and I took a day trip to Iowa City to see my sister Mary. We had a lovely time putzing around and eating -two things the four of us do well.

Mary took us to lunch at the Iowa River Power Restaurant which I have wanted to eat at since I discovered it existed on a college field trip eight years ago. I was a little worried because I figured it was a pretty pricey place, but we all agreed once we got there it was no more expensive than eating at an Applebees would be and the food and service was 10x better. I would imagine supper would be quite a bit more expensive then lunch, but I'll have to visit again at night to find out for sure :) (hint, hint Tim).

Here's a link to the restaurant's web site- http://www.powercompanyrestaurant.com/

the pictures are mostly of the Lounge where we ate, but the coolest part of the building is the Main Dining room which unfortunately only has one photo on the site. My favorite part was one section that had a bunch of old lead glass windows hanging from the ceiling- a few of which would make a good fit in the foyer. Also, check out the photos of Flannigan's. It wasn't open yet when we went in so we didn't get to check out that section- but I LOVE the tile floor in the photo!

I think the other girls would agree- ***** 5 stars all the way.

Looking For Something To Do Friday Night?

They are having a birthday party for Frank Lloyd Wright with cake (you know I wonder exactly what Mr. Wright's favorite flavor of cake was?) and tours of the Park Inn. I was really thinking about going, but now it turns out I have to take Tim to Waterloo (the opposite direction of Mason City from our house for those of you not familiar with Iowa) to pick up the VW. I toured the hotel two summers ago and I was really excited to see the progress that had been made, so if anyone goes let me know what I missed -sigh-

Here's the article from the paper, you have to skip down to the bottom past the band info to get the details. Wright birthday celebration scheduled

Why Does He Love Her More?

So I get a call from Tim last night, "The car broke down can you come pick me up?" He's got luck like you wouldn't believe. He ends up breaking down right at the turn off for work, he wasn't even late. Plus, he's got this amazing wife that will go out in the middle of the night to pick him up when the "person" she's playing second fiddle to lets him down.

This is why there is no post on all the new landscaping we did this weekend. So now the Volkswagen is robbing you too. How's it feel?