Thursday, March 22, 2012

Mystery Dinner

Last week we went to a fun mystery dinner. Nicole (Carrie's sister-in-law, Danny's wife) wanted to have a murder mystery dinner party for her birthday. Yes, those of you who know Nicole will say..."Wait a minute, her birthday is in January." It is true, but life gets busy and you need time to prepare for one of these parties.

If you have done one before, you know that you are supposed to dress up as a character. And these characters were entertaining. 

Work and life and my calling at church has been really busy, so of course I procrastinated making or getting a costume. Well... Thursday I went to the store and found the least expensive fabric that I could find that was appropriate for our characters. ($2 for 5 yards!) I brought it home with the intention of getting started before I had to leave to help with our young women activity that night, but my sewing machine decided to go on the fritz. I panicked a little and then called up my mom and borrowed her machine after the activity ended at 9PM. I got home tired... and sewed like mad! I got Dee's done that night and most of mine. I ended up redoing part of mine the hour before the party of Friday.  So here is how they turned out. Two costumes about 4 dollars each.
I played Rotunda Immaculata a Vestal who protects the eternal flame of Rome. 
Dee played Bogus Fortunata, a Roman priest/fortune teller.

Here are the other players:

Cesar (Danny), Cleptopatra (Nicole)

Mercedes Accelerati (Shanna), Maximus Testosterous (Ben)

Herangus Adnosium (Dad), Flotilla Submergia (Mom)

Getting The Garden Going

So this year we decided to do a garden... not such an easy task in Arizona. A couple of years ago we started trying and had mixed success. This year we figured if we were going to try again, we would do it right. We have a space all planned out, it has a lattice covering to protect it from the heat of the summer, a drip system running to it and everything.





So we dug it out. Taking about 3 different Saturdays to get it deep enough. We broke through the layer of caliche (Basically dirt Arizona has turned into concrete) and removed the bad, sandy, silty soil.





We ordered REAL soil and were shocked at how rich and dark it was. What a pile! Dee and a couple of the men from church helped shovel and wheelbarrow it into our back yard to fill the hole we dug.

We hooked up the watering system and bought plants and seeds.
They have started to sprout forth:) It is such a joy to see these little green sprigs poking out of the earth. With any luck we should have a productive garden in a month or two. 
 Dee even left me a message when it was all said and done: