Fruit of our Labors

After months and months of watering, caging, staring at, loving, and caring for our tomato plants...we were blessed with a ripe, red tomato measuring 2 1/4 inches! For those of you who aren't sure...a tomato really is a fruit.Brad was amazed at what our plants have been able to accomplish. We counted yesterday and we now have about 20 tomatoes growing.

Even Jacob was amazed at our tomato growing efforts and sat still long enough for a picture with our first tomato.

This past week I started tutoring a girl we go to church with in high school chemistry. I got out my old college chemistry book and started looking over things. I was amazed at how much information I have forgotten. It's hard to believe that I once knew what all of those terms mean; how the periodic table columns are organized; what an anion is versus what a cation is; what a valence shell is. But I'm relearning and it's great brain stimulation, since that has sort of stopped since having Jacob. With the extra cash I brought in after our first tutor session, Brad and I purchased a croquet set. Brad said it's the best $10 he's ever spent! We spent much of Saturday afternoon and evening playing in our backyard. (Note - Croquet is a sport, not a fruit, but the money used to buy it can be considered fruit of one's labor.) For those of you who think, "What? Your backyard is too small for that!" We have decided that our backyard is the perfect size because it has walls on all four sides so even if someone purposefully knocks your ball a long ways (Rich), it doesn't end up being that far. Here are some pictures of us playing croquet with our friends. Sorry we didn't get any good pictures, but maybe between the two of these mediocre pictures you can "get the picture". Besides, we were having more fun playing than taking pictures.

We were even blessed to have an adoring fan to cheer on his mom...who got beat every game!