the first

i used to pray to be kept busy......  it's been at least over a year now and my prayers are still being answered!!

i don't have time or energy now to detail the last month and a half... but i am here to record some of our firsts in the last little while!  i thought it sounded appropriate for this hot july first... (JULY??!)

a couple months back we were wanting to plant some things, so finally in the first weekend in may we planted our first plants!!  we got a small tomato plant and a pot to put it in and we got zinnia seeds to plant in a different planter.  our tomato plant has flourished, is much much larger now and is yielding small green tomatoes!!!  some of them have started to ripen red!!!!!!!  it's a cherry tomato plant, so they'll stay small, but they seem big for cherries... but they're so cute!  and if we can harvest any good ones before caterpillars and worms get to them i'm sure they'll taste great!  we've already lost some to the our small critter friends... : /

and those flowers... do you know how exciting it is to watch little green sprouts finally poke up out of the dirt?!!  at time of writing, we have 3 blooms, 2 half blooms, and a couple more that are just about ready to start opening!!!  i can't remember how many seeds we planted, but it was definitely more than that : )  we have several plants, but they don't all have blooms yet.  like... the four that got yanked out by a small sub-three-foot friend and replanted by our plant babysitter while we were on vacation.... we haven't given up on them yet!!  (the plants....or the friends : )  and would we plant zinnias again?  we're not sure... they're a lot taller than we realized and the blooms aren't as big as we had envisioned.  now... they probably put all that information on our little seed packet... but we're novices with a capital n and i liked how the picture on the front looked... : ) ha

moving on.  after being faithful fish stick and tuna consumers for years, this family actually purchased a package of tilapia fillets and planned and made and ate FISH for dinner!!!  will made it and i made the pilaf.  the smell actually wasn't that strong and the flavor not too fishy, really.  we had heard before that tilapia wasn't too strong and more on the mild side.  we kept seeing the packs at winco, but never bought them.  then on vacation will tried tilapia at the place that we got a lobster roll (boston food!) and loved it.  so the next week was our first real fish dinner!!  word to the wise.... once your fish dish is in the dishwasher just wash it!  or hand wash it.... but if it just sits there you will get a reminder every time you open the dishwasher... and you can relive your days on the high seas!

our last first brings us back to today - july first.  this morning i did my latin american part to support the world cup in brazil.  i went to my first zumba class!!  i was able to secure a spot in the back.  it looked like they do a lot of the same dances each time because most people were familiar with all of them.  sometimes i was lucky to get the move down by the last time you do it before moving on... plus it's tricky in the back because you've got that many more people to see through and around.  sometimes your view gets blocked and it's like playing telephone as you watch the people in front of you and try and do what they do.... who knows what the leader at the front is doing! : )  i sweat like a pig and loved every minute of it!  i plan to go back when i can.  bonus: saw one of my first graders and her mom there!

some kids think "first is the worst," and "second is the best" but not lately!  yep, we're livin on the edge and loving it! : )