Carmen and I drove down to my parents' house on Friday night to work on a teacher appreciation project. Last spring someone on the parent council suggested that we should give each of the teachers a potted plant at the teacher appreciation lunch, but when we added up the cost, it was just too expensive. So this year my dad is raising geraniums for our teachers in his little 'grow-op' in his basement. Everyone needs a hobby, right? My dad raises bedding out plants in the winter and tends his garden in the summer. Did you know that petunia seed is worth more per ounce than gold?
Anyways, my dad and I thought it would be more meaningful if the kids helped with the project, though the more I thought about it the more I was sure that Carmen would be the only child who would enjoy the job. She likes to get her hands dirty: clay pottery, gardening, general horse filth and so on, so I invited only Carmen to come work with Grandpa re-potting the plants into larger pots.
Friday night in my dad's garage Carmen filled the 6 inch pots with potting soil (not dirt, I needed to be corrected about this word continually) and brought the pots inside so that the dirt (doh! soil) could warm up over night for the transplanting in the morning. I thought about taking a picture on Friday night, but decided Saturday morning would give me plenty of opportunities to snap Carmen and Grandpa working together.
.
Wrong again. This is the only picture I snapped this morning. Carmen came down with the stomach flu in the night and was in no shape to do anything at all today (maybe her tolerance for dirty hands came back to bite her this time)...
So Grandpa worked alone and when I thought we could risk it I drove Carmen home. She did try to fake that she was feeling better in the car so that we could still go to Maxwell's birthday party, but I wasn't willing to make Carmen patient zero for the other party guests.
So Grandpa worked alone and when I thought we could risk it I drove Carmen home. She did try to fake that she was feeling better in the car so that we could still go to Maxwell's birthday party, but I wasn't willing to make Carmen patient zero for the other party guests..
I just hope the rest of the family does their due diligence with the hand washing and we hold this bug off at Carmen!
8 comments:
Oh wow, how great to have a dad with a hobby like that.
DON'T SHARE WATER BOTTLES :)
Oh, no! How disappointing for Carmen to get the flu on her weekend away! I hope she feels better, and yes, I hope the suds keep the rest of you flu-free.
So nice of Bernie to help out with this project. His grow-op is really amazing.
So sad for Carmen missing out on the dirt, er soil... Ross got the stomach flu this past tuesday, i thought we were far enough away from everyone being sick thru Christmas that we might actually be done with this flu - apparently we still have a few trailers...argh. Good luck to the rest of you.
We were sad not to get to see you guys. I called over to Mom and Dad's after the party, but you had already gone.
I hope you are feeling better, Carmen!
Yikes, poor thing. I hope she's on the mend - stomach flu is no fun for you or her. I love your dad's project and that you are working on it together. And I had no idea that an ounce of gold was less than petunia seeds. Take care Barb!
I'm so impressed with your dad for helping you with such a task. Fantastic! But poor Carmen..hope she's feeling well again soon!
Wow...you Canadians take your teacher appreciation seriously!
My favorite part of this post was the note about the worth of petunia seeds. Somehow that makes me achingly happy that at least somewhere beauty is worth more than money.
Shoot! I hope no one else comes down with it! Carmen must have been so disappointed to miss out on all the fun - and from the pictures of Maxwell's party, it looks like a great one. I love the photo of the tiny seedlings.
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