Fruity Mentos...Who Knew?

Was I alone in not knowing how yummy fruity Mentos were? I bought a box from Costco for the kids' backpacks and for TCAP testing this week. Holy Guacamole!! They are outrageously addictive. Much better than Skittles. Except I can't arrange them by color and see how many of each came in the package, line them up and reduce the color grid one by one. Oh well, I am old enough now that I don't have to play with my food. Besides, I'm finding the whole flick one out of the tube kinda fun too.

Anyway, onto more significant news. Indy returned home from Chattanooga. I realize that is news to you. This is because in that last post A Change of Plans, I was working my way to that news, but there was this change of plans see, and it didn't happen. So she was in Chattanooga the past three days on a high school Quiz Bowl competition that several area schools went to. She went with 4 other guys from her high school and a Coach & his wife. Story of our life...Indy only does things with boys; there are hardly any girlfriends. Don't know if that was the case for any of ya'll or why that is, but I had the same problem. I haven't heard all the details yet, but Indy was quite pleased with herself for being the first to click in on a "Religious" question. It had something to do with in this instance, a word association, Bible + Friday = Good Friday. So they came in 4th out of 8 teams, which is pretty good considering I do believe the whole point in going was to get out of school and have a good time. They did that!!!

I guess it's official...Taryn likes the New Scary Nick. That's what I'm calling him. She talked him out of wearing all black and he wore jeans today. It must be love. But New Scary Nick really isn't that bad. Mike saw him today. Dad volunteered for pick up duty...hmmm, wonder why? New Scary Nick has too much of a baby face originally that the cute factor still factors in. But, Indy had the original Scary Nick friend, so the name just comes naturally. Indy says he's an OK kid. She gives him a hard time and he thinks that means she doesn't like him. Taryn had to tell him that if we don't talk to you, tease or insult you, that means we don't like you. So it's a good thing. New Scary Nick says I'm awesome and cool because I didn't freak out or give him a dirty look. Excuse me - doesn't he know I'm Freakishly Cool?! Last night, for a second there, I thought Indy was home last night but I knew she wasn't, but it sure sounded like her voice...so I go upstairs and it was Taryn chattering away with New Scary Nick in the exact same tone Indy uses when she talks to Joe. How funny! It must be a sister thing.

More gardening news for the blog. Oh yay! I'm sure ya'll are enthralled. But, unless I'm seeing double from too much sun, which is a distinct possibility, I count 19 new plants that my mom & I dug holes for and planted today. I would just say "planted", but that just skips over the truly monumental effort all that "planting" took. First you gotta scope out the spot, scrape the pine straw back, dig thru the clay, put it in a bucket, dig some more, pop out the plant from its container, loosen its roots, put organic crap in the hole (really, it's manure), position the plant just so, carefully repack the soil/clay/mud around the plant, replace the pine straw, tamp down all around the plant, carry the extra soil to the forest and pitch it, clean up the buckets, carry the bag of manure, shovel and whatever to the next hole to be dug. Whew! Can you believe I have the energy to blog?! And we put up solar lights too. Needless to say, we were out there for at least 4 hours toiling away. There are still, gosh, I don't know, about 7 or 8 more shrubs we didn't get to for the hill, and a bunch of flower pots to do. And we're going back to the nursery tomorrow. I know 10 more shrubs is on the list for the back hedge, and I'd be surprised if we didn't end up getting another half dozen perennials. That'll be the case from now until... until... until... Oh, my aching back. Tomorrow, the wrought iron railing guy comes to put up the custom stair railing for mom. We can't wait to see what he designed for us.

Totally unrelated, both garage doors broke. One for the second time. That guy is coming tomorrow too to fix them. The warranty that came with the house expires tomorrow. We weren't going to renew it, but decided today that we'd better. We sure have used it alot this past year and were really glad we had it! Never buy a home without one! And the Volvo should be done tomorrow. I'M ONLY ONE PERSON! I think I'm gonna have the Volvo delivered. With a pizza. Wait, I don't want it to smell up the new car smell. I'll send Mike out for pizzas.