NEW POST! FLOWERS!

Sorry its been so long since I've blogged but I'm back and back with a fury! So, husband and I have started decorating the house. We are a bit scatterbrained about it because there's 6,000 SF of blank canvas to start with. Last week I rented home decorating books from the library then the next day went out to OSH Garden Supply because they were having a garden sale! Before we left we googled some good flowers with low pollen counts and came up with: Geraniums, Petunias, and Snapdragons.
Here's our before picture:
Notice the uncontrollable bushes in front of the house, the lack of color in the walkway and the massive flowering bush on the right.


We started by pulling out all the dead annuals and their weed friends and the uncontrollable flowering bushes. We then trimmed the bushes near the house which, HEY! Aren't really scary large masses at all. They now look like green apple lollipops. 6 hours and 2 farmers tans later we have taken ownership of our garden. Sure, now they are mere baby plants but I have high hopes!

We finished the job with mulch. It surprisingly only took about 2 hours and two trips to Lowes. Yes, in case you were wondering, we fit all the mulch in my Integra. What I'd like to do from now on is post pictures of all the things we've fit in the Integra. IT WILL SURPRISE YOU!! I missed the pictures of the SHED, the LCD TV, the living room tables, and a set of cabinets but I assure you that there will be more! What an amazing car!

The Shed is UP!

Our new house has a side yard that is not landscaped and is perfect for either a boat or a shed. Given my new-found aversion to moving vessels, we opted to use the space for a shed. We chose a resin shed because they're durable, low maintenance and easy to assemble...or so the directions in German, French, and Korean lead us to believe.
Day one of Shed Assembly:
Chad designed a foundation built of cement blocks, small stone, and paver's sand. So we piled them into our cars and drove back home. We borrowed our nice neighbor's wheelbarrow and got to work. It took about 3 hours but the foundation was set and the floor placed!
Day 2:
Navigating through the directions wasn't easy, but as the sun went down that day, the walls of the shed made their way up.

Day 3: Continued to work on walls...
Day 4: We each went to work early to get the most sunlight in the evening and finished our project!
I feel good and the work gloves I bought were put to good use. My husband will surely customize the inside to make it his own and we'll put down river rock around the sides and vine plants in the back.

mid week blues

I find myself tired this afternoon. Its as if the week has just taken over my energy and I am left a tired ragdoll. Maybe I should use my gift cert for a massage this week. I got my sister a whole spa day for her bday and she was sending pics out for the play by play but now I feel like the 4 yr old little sister that just wants what she has. Lol. The spa day was my idea. Looking fwd to the weekend!

FART

I noticed that I am quite the serious, insightful blogger. So, here's a blog for being silly. FART.

Spin, I SAY!

I've started focusing on getting off my butt and into the gym regularly. Today it was pilates, and tomorrow I'm off to Spin Class. Spin was the hardest for the first 15 mins or so, but I got through it! Although, after Spin, I have the munchies and eat everything in sight.

I need to be careful and not fall into the tunnel vision of perfecting a self image that has been defined by my society. Instead what I want to do is focus on being healthy and feeling beautiful. Sure, looking good is fine. But really, I'm a married lady and my husband thinks I look good in sweats and glasses so aside from him, who am I trying to impress?

Beach Season

We went to the beach today for the first time this season and oh how I've missed it. I've been so busy with setting up the house that I have been feeling so guilty when I'm not working on house stuff. Today broke the mold. The beach felt awesome. Under my umbrella I sat on my mat and caught up on some magazine reading. Aside from that my friends and I even played --yes played-- in the ocean, bumped the volleyball, and had a BBQ. Not too often as an adult can I say that I've played and actually referred to a passing of time devoted to nothing. Jumped waves, ate hot dogs (not caring if they were all meat or not) and did some free reading.



The beach we went to was in Santa Cruz. Its called Natural Bridges and we actually ran across the passage way in between the tides to our own secret private beach!

I think that too much of the 20 something years is spent getting things that make us busy. Getting a job, getting married, getting a house. Although those are all normal and good events they take up the time in those supposedly "care free" years between school and having children. Until I hit the latter of the aforementioned milestones I think I need to take more time out of the busyness of life and just play.

Case of the Mondays

Although I am happy to have had a long weekend I am suffering from a case of the Mondays. And yes, I am aware that today is Tuesday. But the thing about this particular Tuesday is that it has taken place of the dreaded Monday. I know, I could look on the bright side that it IS only a 4-day week or that I just enjoyed a long weekend but No, I must dwell on the day that is Monday. Mondays never seem to go right. There's always many things that go wrong and make me want to crawl back under my comfy covers until I am ready to wake up. Today for instance, we thought the garbage collection was moved back a day due to the holiday. But no, at 6am (and if you know me well, you know I wake up much later than that) the garbage truck was roaring down the street. Thank goodness for husbands--otherwise I would have been the one that had to run down the stairs in my PJs to take the garbage out. However, nonetheless my beauty rest was disturbed. Then, I FORGOT MY COFFEE on the kitchen counter. Biggest obstacle thus far because lets face it, Monday mornings require coffee. And let me indulge you on the joy that is my morning coffee. My lovely husband actually imports our beans (orders online) from the plains of Sub-Saharan Africa. He then grinds them through the burr and brews the beans until they are perfectly infused in my mug. Then, to top it off he then makes my coffee just the way I like it: 1 splenda and a dash of milk, kisses me goodbye and hands me my mug on the way to the train. Well, given the garbage debacle mentioned above, the kiss goodbye was thrown off course and the coffee handoff was never made.
So, I think that to change my mood I need to focus on the normals of a Tuesday. Well, by now I have usually gotten into the hum of the work week: emails are checked, projects underway. --Missed that one. Redbox's new releases come out--That's a plus. Light workout at the gym before spin class tomorrow--Another plus. Almost to Wednesday which is half way until weekend--awesome!