I did it!!!

Those of you who know me well, know that I am a lover of plants. I pride myself on getting most of my plants from the Used Plant Section of local grocery stores. Those of you not familiar with this section have probably passed it by numerous times without even noticing. It is usually a shopping cart filled with various types of post-holiday plants. Shamrocks in April, tulips in March, Mums in June...you get it. Well, my desire to rescue as many of these plants as possible extended to Orchids a few years back. I desperately wanted to successfully grow an orchid, but could not bring myself to fork over the big bucks to buy a big, pretty....live...one. So when I saw one in the Used Plant Section back then, I snatched it up! I read about how to take care of it, and did my best..........and it died. So sad. Next time I found one I did the same. Bought it, read about it, and successfully killed it. I think this has happened like four times. I was beginning to think that I had the opposite of a green thumb when it came to orchids.

I had just picked up what was to be my last go at bringing back a Used Orchid when my step mother-in-law found out about my love. Unbeknownst to me, Orchiding was a hobby of hers as well (I since have seen her house populated with beautiful orchids of all shapes and sizes), and offered some advice on how to properly care for one. I took her advice and tediously tended my new acquisition. It occupied a spot on my tiny kitchen window sill. One day, when I brought it down to water I hit myself in the eye with a shoot of new growth!!! I had no idea! I was so excited that not only had I not killed it (!), but it had thrived!

I have been patiently watching and waiting as bud, after bud, grew on that new stem shoot, and today I was rewarded! I bloom!! A real, live, orchid flower! On my plant! I didn't kill it!! I'm not sure there are sufficient exclamation points to describe how happy I am about this. I can't wait to see all the buds open up!

The full plant with the new shoot going to the right. Thats what I hit my head on.

The little shoot with some early buds.

The finished product! I worked so hard.......

Fight For Air!

I'm back again!

Last weekend we got to participate in the American Lung Association's Fight For Air Climb again. This is our third year climbing and we always have a great time. For those of you not familiar with this event, its held at the Wells Fargo building down town (for one day we overlook the evil overlord-ness that is Wells Fargo) and the point is to climb to the top, 23 floors, as fast as you can. For me that was 10 minutes and 24 seconds. My fastest time yet! But I still didn't even register on the to 20 women my age with that time, I think some people were coming in with like 5 minutes and less. One little boy on our team did it twice and his fastest time was just over 5 minutes and he was only 10!

Here are some photos from the "after party".

Spencer is the coordinator for this awesome climb, and one of Nik's best friends. Thanks for getting us involved Spencer!

She is so cute! And she even posed for me! This is Spencer's wife Jessica and she volunteers at the climb every year. I think this is Jess's second time volunteering while pregnant too!

Nik is acting like a frog in hopes of getting a smile out of Spencer and Jess's daughter L. It didn't work...Nik did the climb in just over 6 minutes.

Go Lisa!! She climbed 10 times!! I'm sure she won't appreciate me posting this, but I had to document her progress.

Aren't we cute? John Stockton and a little Devil! Nik won first place in the costume contest again this year! John Stockton is a go-to look for Nik I guess.

I just love this picture of L.

Two awesome ladies on Team Slingshot!

He finally got a smile!

Handsome.

Also, love the shorts.