My Black Thumbs' Favorite Green Plants

I have the worst luck growing things and so when something goes really well, then I am super excited.  My top 3 favorites are:

ROSES

As big as my palm

JASMINE

Goes all the way to the back

Planted under the rock

1. THE ROSE:  A lot of people say the rose is a hassle to grow but in my garden they are a dream come true.  I hardly do any work on them and in appreciation they give me a beautiful show of flowers, twice a year.  Of course they do seem to be bothered by all of the garden pest, specifically the aphid, but I just spray and kill the little buggers and it is almost therapeutic.  Each rose bush also seems to have their own little disease going on, like they communicate with each other in who has the worst "cold", one might have powdery mildew while another has rust or black spot.  This problem is quickly solved by just cutting off the damaged areas and a little extra rose feed.
2. THE JASMINE:  Love the smell of my jasmine bush in the back yard and you know what?  I haven't done a thing with it!  The fact that it has survived still amazes me, I mean I don't even water the poor plant.  It's in my backyard between 2 big rocks planted in this little space that had some dirt in it, and it is absolutely huge, climbing up the rocks to the back fence.  I would suggest anyone with a far away place that doesn't get any tender loving care this is the plant to put in, just bring out a chair and sit near it when the flowers come.
3. THE BOUGAINVILLEA:  Rhonda bought me this plant 2 years ago and I bought another one shortly after, I really think it should be called Lazarus because I kill it each winter and it comes back to life.  This last winter I hesitated bringing it inside because it had it's flowers on and it was January.  Then that big storm hit and when the snow finally melted I brought it in, thinking I had killed it for sure.  Let me tell you the Aloe Vera - didn't make it.  But low and behold to my surprise the bougainvillea has sprouted its leaves and flowers are soon to come.

Katerina turned 2

 Our pretty girl turned 2 on Friday, we did our normal Friday morning thing and walked down to the market and had a drink at our favorite coffee place.  We then ate lunch at Koka Roka came home for a nap and then back outside in the afternoon to play.  I took the kids to Koka Roka so I could bake a cake in the afternoon, ended up making cupcakes instead because I couldn't find my cake pans.

 We are going to send her to school in the fall along with Nik, she is an early morning person and really likes to go outside first thing and she is already starting to not take naps.  Its a program that will cost us 60euros a month, not to bad, I think she will really enjoy it.  I know that I will.

 Along with going to the park everyday, she also really likes to pet the cats in the neighborhood.

 And drive the van.

 This is her very dramatic look of "oww, I hurt myself"

Taking care of her little baby, TukTuk.

Splashing around in the tub, a complete water baby, if I allowed her she would take 3-4 baths a day.
She is no-diaper trained and the reason I say it that way is that she is NOT "potty trained" she prefers to do her bathroom needs outside or on the tiled floor when at home, but she loves using toilets in public places-definitely did not get that from me.  She does not like to wear a diaper even for sleeping, she does pretty good about waking herself up to go pee, but I still put one on at night.
She can live off of eating just olives and feta, again I think this is from her Greek heritage.
She adores her big brother and I love it when they give each other hugs, or if one gets hurt the other one comforts 'em.
She's my baby girl growing up.

Grandma Doris

My Grandma Doris passed away on May 30th, I guess she was pretty sick the last couple of weeks so it is good that she is no longer in pain.  She kept a dress of mine from when I was little and Kat has been wearing it, I wish I could have sent her a picture before she passed but instead I will just share it with the rest of you.

It's the neatest dress ever since it is reversible, so if she gets one side dirty I can just turn it inside out and she can wear it a little longer.  Katerina is always so busy looking around that it is hard to get a picture of her looking directly at me.  She turns 2 on Friday, I can't believe how big she is getting.  To Grandma Doris may she rest in peace, all our love to her.

The coolest FREE thing

I learned about this website from another blog and just had to share it, you can spend hours fixing or making new photos on this website.
www.picmonkey.com

Definitely try to check it out, there is so much fun stuff on there from mustaches (just in case 1 person didn't have theirs on at your party Kelly) to a button that supposedly slims you (I need this one).  Here are a few examples of the stuff I have done.

Have fun, I know I am!

Finally - Pictures of Easter

I apologize for the lateness, you see the issue was that we took the photos on my camera and it is a real pain in the youwho to get them downloaded on to my computer, in fact I haven't used it since last year and will post some of those pics later.

 This is Kat's godmother, a really great girl named Ero, she is living down in Crete right now, but she came up here for Easter.  Her and her mother came to visit our house the day before Easter and then we went to theirs on Easter.

 Ero had this Minnie hanging on her wall and Kat has been in love with Minnie ever since Eric came to visit and he brought her a toy Minnie (we came home with this minnie also).

 The reason you DO NOT want us to visit your house is the fact that my children have NO PROBLEM at ALL in making themselves at home, I believe they jumped on every bed in Vaso's house (Ero's mother).

 Our absolutely delicious Easter dinner, Lamb and potatoes baked in the oven, yummy!

 Easter Egg hunting, done later in the day, although the eggs where "laid" earlier we rushed off to go visit Ero.  Don't worry we didn't eat them not only did they sit in the hot sun for a couple of hours but I also under cooked them, ΓιαΓια  did a better job at cooking her eggs and Nik really enjoyed eating his.  Thanks to my friend Kat (kathleen) in Oregon we had some beautifully colored eggs.

 Baby Kat spotted the eggs out faster than Nik but for some reason didn't get the whole thing about picking them up, so she only got one.  Nik on the other hand who is very competitive got the rest and "won" .

 Kat pointing out the egg that Nik can't see, I guess she is just at a lower level.

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Hope you enjoyed the pictures.

More Greek News

Yesterday was voting day for the new government in Greece, all Greeks over the age of 18 have voted.  Not like the US were you vote if you want to or you can just skip it, here it is mandatory.
But in typical Greek fashion, there was no ONE winner, instead the guy who got the top votes will probably make a coalition government with the 2nd, 3rd and possibly the 4th place winners.  Unless if you go the route of the communist party, and that would be a re-vote, of course they are just asking for that for 2 reasons: they came in 5th and they always like to be contrary to whatever the rest of the government is saying.  So once again wishing the best of luck to the future of Greece.

Another 5 Years

We got my Visa on Friday, so I am good for staying in the country for another 5 years.  Of course in typical Greek fashion the Kalampaka town hall didn't communicate with the Trikala office and instead of a 10 year Visa I got a 5 year one.  Oh well, and people wonder why the country is failing, little things like the fact that they never listen to each other is only one of them.

Walking the footpath

Here we are walking up the footpath, ignore my heavy breathing, Nik is talking about his shoes.  I love the way Kat walks like her brother, she loves to copy him, sometimes a curse but mostly just cute.