Two Weeks Is Not Long Enough…

The past couple of weeks have been quite busy with helping others with their landscapes, writing articles, keeping up with the kids, throwing a baby shower and my first television appearance thrown in to boot.

You would think that all of that would be enough to keep me preoccupied.  But, there was something else going on during those two weeks that made me very happy.

My second oldest daughter, Rachele, came home on leave for the first time since leaving for the Navy 5 months ago.

She has finished with her much of her Navy training and we couldn’t wait to see her.

While my husband and I had seen her in Chicago after she graduated from basic training in May, the kids hadn’t seen her for a long time.

Once she arrived, the kids were overjoyed to have their big sister back in the house.  Rachele was happy that the dogs remembered her and so did her cat.

Rachele had a full schedule of seeing family and friends while she was home.  She would often return home late at night and fall asleep on the couch.

Even though she was busy, she did find time to work on her 1970 VW Bug with her dad, changing the oil.

For her last night home, we had the family over for dinner (my oldest daughter and her family).

It was rather bittersweet to see her go.  She is off to Gulfport, Mississippi for more training where she will learn navigation, survival skills and advanced first aid.  Earlier this week she had to hike through the swamp & woods to learn navigation.

Rachele will be back in 1 month for a couple of days before she heads to her permanent base in Southern California.  I am so glad that she will only be a few hours away so we will be able to see her more often when she is not deployed.

In the meantime, life carries on with my other kids and work.  But now, I have a little more time to spend with the newest addition to our family…

Meet Penny – our black labrador retriever.

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I hope you are having a good week.

I am off to see a sick citrus tree tomorrow…

Family Celebrations

Noelle Johnson, aka, 'AZ Plant Lady' is a author, horticulturist, and landscape consultant who helps people learn how to create, grow, and maintain beautiful desert gardens that thrive in a hot, dry climate. She does this through her consulting services, her online class Desert Gardening 101, and her monthly membership club, Through the Garden Gate. As she likes to tell desert-dwellers, "Gardening in the desert isn't hard, but it is different."