Home improvements!

An early Christmas present from the Baldwins just arrived - our new deep freezer! We picked it up from Sears on Wednesday and brought it home. It was considerably easier to get down the stairs and into our house, thank goodness, than our living room couches were, and just barely fit through the laundry room doorway (we had to take the door off, my idea, but that's pretty easy). I had to laugh, though, looking at the freezer as it sat in the doorway waiting to be squeezed through, because it reminded me so much of our couch ordeal last August 1st. I'll never forget getting our couch wedged in the doorway of our new home! We truly feared we'd never get it out again! (We finally did, although it involved sawing the bottom of the couch in pieces and reconstructing them into a semi-safe whole once in the living room.) Here are some pics of our newest addition, waiting to be filled with all kinds of goodies!

Our freezer waiting to be moved into the laundry room. Will it fit through the door???



Kenny squeezing past the freezer with tools to take off the door. Will he fit through the door???



This gives you an idea of its relative size (it is 7.2 cubic feet). Thank you, Baldwin family!!!



In addition to a new appliance, I've been working on a few other home improvement projects. With as much love, care, and optimism as I can muster, I have been painstakingly raising a garden. At first I just had three tomato plants in pots, but one weekend I had a brilliant idea for the strip of "grass" at the edge of the driveway, which was really just a patch of weeds, rocks, and clumps of dead grass that I kept having to mow. I raked up nearly the entire area, picking rocks, sticks, and weeds out of the dirt, and then planted nasturtiums, bachelor buttons, and other wildflower seeds in the soil. I then added a few dahlia and lobelia plants and didn't give them enough water. Luckily, Kenny nursed the plants back to health while I was in Oregon and had some great surprises to show me when I got back. Due in no part to me, the plants have begun to really catch hold and flourish. The lobelia blooms have almost all reemerged, the dahlias look perkier, and the seedlings are sprouting!

And just yesterday, Kenny and I harvested our first tomatoes - four delicious, plump, red jewels hanging from a sprightly green vine!

Here's front door area with new citronella candles to ward off the usual army of mosquitos. I think they are quite pretty!
(You gotta love Burlington Coat Factory!)



My new garden edging the picket fence.









My tomato plants!