Lord and Lady Baltimore

We have been enjoying the fruits of all of Tara's hard labor in the garden this summer. (I guess it's early fall now? Hard to believe in a couple weeks it'll be October, although it's starting to really cool down at nights here now.). Pictured below are Lord (red) and Lady (pink) Baltimore hibiscus (or, as my Grandma Turner calls them, "Scarlet" and "Melanie"), which are currently in full bloom. It seems like every time one thing finishes blooming, another comes to life. It's truly wonderful. Inspired, I brought home some new additions from Watson's nursery last week--a limelight hydrangea and some purple coneflowers--but I'm worried they might croak before I even get them in the ground, since I didn't realize we didn't own a shovel (never had an occasion to need one at the condo back in Champaign!).

You would think in a week I could make it out of the house to buy a shovel, but as I was telling my friend Bethany yesterday, a simple thing like that can be totally impossible for a new parent such as myself. Take this blog post, for instance. The picture's been uploaded and ready for me to make comments since the 9th (it's very un-Julie of me to wait this long!). On another note, Bethany had called with some big news that I thought deserved highlighting. For those of you who met her and Jose at our wedding--those two crazy kids just got engaged! Congratulations, guys!! Hopefully this doesn't embarrass you too much :)

Aiden is doing really well these days...grinning from ear to ear about just about everything. The little bugger just gets cuter all the time. My mom was here this weekend taking tons of pictures (she calls herself a member of his paparrazzi) and as soon as she sends us those we'll have more to share with you guys (hint, hint, Mom!).