The First Crop.....

Here it is, the first pick of vegetables from the garden -- peppers!  There are three kinds here, as you can see, and actually the green bells are supposed to be yellow before they are picked, but this always happens with my bell pepper plants -- the first fruits are always too large for the smaller plants before they turn, so I have to pick them green.  They taste the same, whatever color they are, so I don't worry about it!  And the plants will be able to handle full size and color fruits pretty soon, so this only happens in the beginning of the season.  I HIGHLY recommend growing pepper plants, if you like peppers -- they are so easy to grow, they produce heavily (I always have a freezer full of peppers all winter long!), and all you have to do is buy the plants you want from Lowe's or Walmart or wherever!  Easy-peasy!! :-D  I have never had any problems with purchased pepper plants, I've always been very happy with them (unlike the tomato plants....).  This year, I planted one yellow and one orange bell, Cubanelle (LOVED those last year!), a Fajita bell (supposed to be mildly spicy), Poblano, and those skinny ones in the basket (can't remember the name), also spicy -- Brian loves the spicy peppers!!

I love having peppers all winter for my recipes!!!  And I use a bunch in my canning recipes too!  Last week, some frozen, chopped peppers from last year saved a supper that I threw together at the last moment -- it was chicken breast sprinkled with garlic and onion powder and Italian seasoning, and a can of crushed tomatoes on top, and I tossed in a few handfuls of chopped Cubanelle peppers that were in the freezer, and it was DELICIOUS!!!  It was even better the next day in sandwiches!  I was surprised how yummy it was!!  I'm definitely making that a regular meal for us!! :-D

SOOOOO.....today we finally got to Home Depot, and I looked at the tile I want for the kitchen floor....*SIGH!!*  I hate waiting for it!! :-(   Here is a picture of it on the rack.....

You can't tell from the picture, but it's a gorgeous red color!!  I want to get the size on the bottom right - it's 16 inches square!  I'm trying to talk Brian into buying one box each week (for $30 a box -- DO-ABLE! :-), but he doesn't think that's a good idea.  He's probably right.....we need 10-11 boxes, plus cement boards for underneath, plus mortar, PLUS grout!!!  So his thought is, why waste $30/week to have to wait for the rest of the money to get everything else....I suppose he's right....blah, blah! :-P   So it's going to definitely be when we get our tax money back next year, which is actually only 6 months from now (WHERE did all THAT time go???).....I guess I can wait until then!  I'll just have to get as much of the rest of the house done as possible by then!! :-D

We went to the thrift store today, too.  We had the kids with us....my boys are pretty annoying there, but my daughter loves it!  She picked out some clothes for herself, and I got myself a few sleeveless shirts for summer, too!!  Here's our booty.....(LOL)

Almost everything was one or two dollars!  Except there was one shirt that I LOVED, another woman had it, but left it on a rack at the register, and it was my absolute favorite style for a shirt, but.....it was $6!!!  Oh, I had a very hard time deciding if I wanted to pay that much for a shirt, when I usually won't even buy a $3 shirt for myself.....I really just cringed every time I started to put it on the counter at the register!  I DID get it, though.  I didn't want to lose it, I can never find this style of shirt for myself, and I love it so much!!  But I still feel a little sick and ashamed for spending that much on a used shirt....well, here it is......

I LOVE it!!!  I don't know if you can see them, but there are ties just below the bust line, and then the shirt flares out underneath -- that's my favorite style shirt!!  And I keep telling myself, this was probably a $15 shirt brand new, so I got a great deal....no need to be regretting it! ^-^