A verbal bouquet

There has been a little progress towards the top I'm knitting for my granddaughter, but not as much as I had hoped for up to this point. It was a very busy weekend though... Scooter and I wanted to spend it making our vegetable garden happen. We both had very different ideas this year about what, how, and where we wanted it to be. The area we have been using did not bode us well last year, but we aren't sure if it's the location or the fact that it was just a weird season weatherwise. Many of our neighbors had the same complaint about their tomatoes and zucchini not producing well, so we were more inclined to believe it was the weather. Global warming perhaps? Who knows.....all we know is that it seemed our tomatoes were cooking right on the vines even though we put sunshades over them. This year, I want to try a raised bed in a different area of our yard that is shaded in the evenings by trees, but I just hope we aren't getting too late of a start on things. We made a trip over to the nursery yesterday and picked up some plants that were well on their way, so hopefully, we will be okay. If not, there's always the farmer's markets!

Back to the top....the pattern is a bit wonky, but I'm determined to get through it! I will spend the better part of this afternoon and evening working on it since Scooter had to go out of town today. I would like to at least get the back completed by tomorrow.

As I was finishing up my lunch today, I got a phone call from my sweetie. I just love it when he calls me to thank me for the lunch I packed for him and to tell me how lucky he is to be married to me! (I know, mush mush, but I can't help it) The guy is doing so great on his eating plan I set up for him. As I type this, he is now back into a pair of size 36 inch waist jeans...down from a 40 since March 29th!!! I am so proud of him! Yes, I showed him the right way to eat, but he is the one that has done the work. He is on the road quite a bit during his day and he could easily pull into a fast food drive thru...he chooses not to and I'm amazed at how well he has done! We have adopted a healthier lifestyle and it has brought about awesome results for us both. There was no way we wanted to spend our retirement years in poor health, unable to enjoy them.

At the end of his phone call, he told me to consider it my verbal bouquet. I love that man! We have a back and front yard full of roses, and yesterday while I was finishing up some tasks inside the house, the guy cut me a bouquet of these little pink lovelies. I love that he picks them out himself and brings them to me!

While I'm thinking about it....another thing that I am very impressed with is my friend sillyfru's mission to become debt free and begin building a retirement nest egg. Way to go fru!!! I have stressed this fact over and over to my kids and they are listening. I found this great article this morning on MSN, and while I'm hoping most people I know that are over the age of 50 have prepared long ago, apparently, it's not too late to begin after the age of 50. It will just be harder is all, but it is doable. My advice would be to not wait if possible, if you are under the age of 50. Another article I had found advised a person to start preparing at the age of 35, if you want to be able to retire comfortably at the age of 62 or 63. I did see somewhere also that 70 is the new 60, so that's something positive to think about too. If you check out fru's blog, I believe she has a post about a book she has been reading to help her meet her goals. Way to go, fru!!!

Knitnurd is outta here for now....stay healthy, happy, and keep your knit groove on!