It's Official! We have a garden :)

 My husband is a genius!  It's hard to grow things in the desert.  I still have it in my head that you put things in soil, water them, weed...and they grow just like Indiana.  Turns out so NOT true.  Tracy build a raised garden this year.  We plan on building another one to the side of it with a walk way if it works well this year. 

 Look we even have plant that are somewhat growing!  Who knew this would work so well.  Of course, we had to have 4 tons of dirt brought in to put in the box but we are hoping it will be worth it!

This is what it looks like....don't you love the yard of dirt and rock :(  Tracy is going to put in a water system too so that I don't have to go out 2 times a day to water.  I know it's going to get crazy hot soon and I'm not going to want to walk out there.  He's also putting up one of those sail cloths for shade, which we will definitely need when it gets into the 100's!

Thanks honey :)

Sarah's Final 7th Grade Orchestra Concert!

 It has been a long year for Sarah.  I think she's pretty done with going to school for the year.  I remember that feeling.  The orchestra teacher had a rough year but a couple of weeks ago the advanced orchestra came home with an award for 1st in the state in school orchestras (middle schools and high schools).  She is the one reason we stayed in this middle school this year.  She's tough, doesn't take back talk and she expects the kids to do what they are expected to do.  She won't "give" a grade.  You have to work for it.  The intermediate kids were pretty unhappy at this concert and you could see it in their behavior  and the way they were sitting.  The teacher gave extra music to the advanced and took away a couple of songs from the intermediate kids because they weren't practicing enough and doing as well as she expected.  It was rather sad but I understood that she was frustrated. 

Sarah has requested that we try to take her to orchestra daily next year  for homeschooling.  She has been moved up to advanced this year.  It means she's going to have to practice all summer to get ready for the beginning of school but she says she's willing to do it.  I've asked the school and they seem to be ok with it.  I just need to verify some information and it's all good.  I'm so happy they let homeschoolers use the extracurriculars.  That makes a huge difference since I didn't want Sarah to drop a musical instrument and wasn't sure we were going to be able to pull of private lessons on top of everything else.  Yay God!