Green

I'm finally starting to see it all around me. The grass and leaves are both showing the sure signs of spring. I don't know if I mentioned it, but I have flowers in my garden that have been alive for an entire year. Violas and Johnny Jump-ups can apparently stand very cold weather and snow. We have been getting the yard in order for the past week. Bernie is putting new trim around the front and I planted a few onions. We are planning to plant the rest of the veggies the first or second weekend in may. We are thinking tomatoes, broccoli, and green peppers. Corn was a dismal failure last year and squash takes up a ton of room. I'm not sure I want to deal with the huge plants even though squash muffins/bread is sounding pretty good to me right now. I'm going to take it easy with the flowers this year. Hanging baskets will likely be the extent of it because I just don't have the energy to keep up with too many of them. And Bennett will just pull them out of the ground or out of pots on the ground anyway.

Bennett's sleep has regulated again for the moment (knocks on wood). He is back to simply laying down and going to sleep without any fuss. He doesn't even seem to want to rock with me in the chair in the moment. I don't think he can get comfortable. And he's been sleeping through the night for multiple days now which feels awesome when I wake up in the morning. I keep wondering when he is going to transition to one nap. He is almost 17 months old, so I expect it soon.

We went to the park/lunch with a few of our mommy friends and their little ones. It's always fun to get out and about with other people we have something in common with. All the babies are between 11 and 17 months, so it is more parallel play than playing with each other. Someday soon that will change to taking toys from each other.

Bernie is applying for a job in Bismarck ND, where he is from. We are not really anxious to move at the moment like we were when he was bidding out in Great Falls. But we would really like to be near family and Bernie needs to get off of shift work eventually. So this job would accomplish both goals although the chances of him getting it are very slim. Our list of potential places is quite limited and includes Bismarck, Great Falls, and Phoenix. Maybe Missoula and Flagstaff, but we would have to discuss them more. So the location restriction combined with non-shift work positions really limit the jobs to apply for. We could be applying for many years and by that time may decide we don't want to move anyway!

Congrats to Eric and Lora Wingenbach (Bernie's friend from high school). They had their little boy this morning. We can't wait to meet baby Liam James.