Svedi Pie

Stephen Arthur

2012-02-13T11:40:00.000-07:00

Little Steve!!

My cutest little nephew.

Named for his great-grandpa, grandpas on both sides and his daddy (he's the fourth Stephen on the Svedi side - oldest sons all have the name Stephen and then a different middle name- and his middle name, Arthur, is from Rachael's dad). I absolutely love when names have history like that.

He was born early this morning (3:43am) by emergency c-section.

Poor little guy's heart rate was very low so they decided to get him our ASAP. Turns out there was meconium in utero and some of it got in his lungs and he suffered from some oxygen deprivation (Meconium aspiration syndrome) and may have also suffered from a seizure, but we don't know for certain how severe it all is.

He's in the NICU now and the doctors have been doing a great job and trying to help him all the can. They say he is doing really well despite everything he's gone through and is breathing on his own now. He was pretty active soon after birth, but the medicine they have him on now is sedating him right now.

Big Steve (my brother and new daddy) said Little Steve's nose already looks a lot like his Uncle Scott's (my youngest brother). So sweet.

I'll probably post more as we find out more info, but for now Little Steve is getting the good care he needs and new Mommy and Daddy are worn out, and concerned, but still doing pretty well and optimistic about Little Steve's outcome.

Weekend on the Queen Mary

2012-01-29T10:31:00.001-07:00

Here's a brief summary of our very busy and very fun weekend last week.

On the bow of the ship

A while back we entered a FB contest for QM 75th year (tell a story of QM in 75 words or less). We didn't win (came in 2nd) but we did get a plaque in the museum! :)

QM funnels are famous for their red/orange color (well all Cunard ships were, it's called Cunard Red)

Shaina's hanging out in a restricted area!

Hey Craig!

This was taken on a Russian Submarine that is next to QM. It was used during the cold war. The crazy thing about this photo is that it's a picture of a U.S. aircraft carrier off the coast of Japan or Vietnam or somewhere, and it was taken in the early 70's from the periscope of the Russian Submarine we were on - oh I got a creepy feeling just looking at the photo!

Shaina, Shara, my mom and dad getting ready to go eat at Sir Winstons!

Craig and I getting ready for Sir Winstons.

Please ignore the TV behind me :)

I love the way Shaina's dress is blowing in the wind here. Hello Marilyn (Shaina adores Marilyn Monroe)

Craig and I with the glowing funnel - so pretty at night.

We went on a ghost tour after our fine dinner. My mom is holding the divining rods and those things were going crazy! When my mom asked the "ghosts" to point the rods towards her husband the rods immediately spun right around and came to a dead stop pointing right at my dad. Everyone on the tour got a good jump (or scream) at that one!

QM haunted pool, technically the only way to see the pool is on a tour.

We had a fun adventure at the pool on this trip. The five of us (Craig, Shaina, Shara, Mom and Dad) were sneaky sneaking around the ship. We found a back way into the pool area (on the lower level) and were having fun looking all around the pool area and checking things out, spooking ourselves out listening for ghosts, etc. . . All of the sudden Craig heard something and said "We need to get out of here now!" We tried to find the door we snuck in through but we were on the wrong side of the pool! A tour of about 20 people started walking in along the upper balcony we were stuck!! We dashed behind the pillar and tried to get as small as five people can, hoping we wouldn't get caught.

_____________________________________________________ wall

Mom **Craig

Dad*

Shaina**Shara

________________ pillar

A Rough Diagram ^

It was 5-10 tense minutes while we waited hoping no one would see us. Finally (finally) the tour left for the next stop and we dashed out as quickly as we could, wondering if someone was going to come after us. No one did! We made it!

We laughed and laughed about almost getting caught and congratulated ourselves for being so sneaky and good that we weren't spotted.

The next day Craig and I went on the official tour to kind of see what that tour would have seen. When we walked in on the upper levels we looked down on the pillar and just started laughing - it was sooo obvious that we had been down there. That tour could have easily seen my mom and Craig (who were standing against the wall) - tour guide must have pretended we were there so we wouldn't ruin the tour for everyone. Oh man so pitiful, but still too funny (to us at least).

This is the Queen's Saloon (where Craig proposed)

The propeller - it's hard to tell in this pic, but it's HUGE. Also every time Craig and I go to the QM we have a game that we throw in some pennies in the water and if the penny lands on the propeller then our wish will come true. We probably tossed in $5 worth of pennies only landed on the propeller one (maybe twice) time before. We tell my mom and sister our game and "it's not as easy as you think" They pull out their pennies and then my mom on her first two tries lands on the propeller!! What the heck! Shaina has a few misses, but by the third or fourth toss she lands on the propeller. Then my dad comes in and on his second try he lands on the propeller!

It was so embarrassing.

Mural from the Grand Saloon

QM wood carving in the Grand Saloon.

Craig and Shaina looking out through the portholes in our room.

Hey Guys!

My sister is so cute!

This was our room for the stay. We stayed in the Windsor Suite - this was the favorite suite of the Duke and Duchess of Windsor

Here they are walking QM decks.

Another shot of the Suite.

Lovely wood paneled staircase

Craig got a nice picture of the art deco lighting on QM. This light is very iconic of QM.

QM stairs with original floor.

Art Deco mirror - love the etched glass.

My favorite mural on QM (in the Grand Salon)

Three funnels at night.

Long live the Queen.

We had a really fun trip taking my parents and sister all around the ship and telling stories and talking and having a great time. We really wore ourselves out by the end of it - but it was great!

We hope that we can share the ship and stories with Craig's parents one day too.

We had a great weekend!

2012-01-27T21:39:00.000-07:00

We took a whirlwind trip to Long Beach last weekend and met up with my mom, dad and sister, we had a blast! Craig put up a ton of pictures on facebook earlier this week, but I'll try to share some stories and a few pics sometime this weekend.

Fun side note almost 3 years ago to the day we were in that same room and Craig proposed - how fun is that?

Middle of the Road News

2012-01-12T17:54:00.001-07:00

Early in Dec I was visiting family in CA. My sister, Stacia, noticed a lump on my throat - she told me it looked like an Adam's apple. We saw a nurse in our home ward that Sunday and she said it was probably a goiter. So I tried to push it out of my mind for the rest of the week I was home visiting family - hoping that it was just a goiter (even though a goiter sounds so gross - at least according to Tangled)

I came home and from there I've had several appts with Doctors, got an ultrasound, had a biopsy, went on antibiotics, more appts, and several tests.

Pressure. . .

Then I had to deal (I shouldn't just say I, Craig had to deal with a lot of this himself and that was so hard for him) with lost ultrasound reports, inconclusive results and a misplaced disc with the ultrasound pictures that kept delaying things.

More stress . . .

The Specialist pretty early on narrowed it down to one of three things - swollen lymph node (which the specialist was pretty certain it wasn't, but I was put on antibiotics "just in case"), thyrogossal duct cyst, or a tumor. But it took several weeks (almost a month) to get some real answers because the Specialist's equipment couldn't read the ultrasound disc, then the report was missing; once they got the report it was inconclusive. . . . Oh my gosh - just thinking about it makes me frustrated.

Finally I found out that is was a cyst, relief finally.

I thought I was coping with the whole crazy situation pretty well, but I didn't realize how much pressure I was feeling until the confirmed that it was a cyst - then the weight just lifted off. Craig was going nuts with the waiting game and for him too it was so good just to finally know something.

I still have to have surgery to have the cyst removed. So it wasn't the best news (swollen lymph node), but certainly not the worst (tumor), and while I'm still pretty nervous about having surgery (a first for me) I'll take middle of the road news.

Anyways - how's that for an update? Crazy, no?

I'm just so glad that finally we have some solid news and that we know how to take care of this issue now. Waiting seemed like it went on forever (it felt like a month went by in between each appt)

Also I did think that if it was something really serious (tumor) how would I tell people? A blog post or FB posting would have been an awful way to tell friends (but feels ok for this middle ground news). I decided that if it was something serious I probably would have sent out an email to my close friends (is it weird that now that an email feels more personal?) I knew that phone calls would have been too much to handle for all at one time, and a text feels too informal and short for news like that. . . . I don't know. What is a good way to share important news with dear friends spread all over the country now that blog, FB and twitter have taken over?

Also it made me really miss the good days when we could just get together and hang out.

Christmas Pictures

2011-12-27T14:30:00.001-07:00

Some Christmas Images:

Anderson Christmas pig pickin

There were so many this year that some of us got kicked up in the shop attic.

All decorated

I've had this Nativity set since I was about 7 or 8. My Grandparents gave it to me one year for Christmas.

Probably my most sentimental Christmas decoration

Making Christmas candies/treats

Our Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve.

Christmas at Nana and Papa's - we determined it was Category 5 this year.

Everyone was completely spoiled.

The grandkids begging Papa to let them open up two presents on Christmas Eve.

Papa said no.

Everyone trying to guess what the code was.

Nana and Papa tricked everyone by using numbers instead of names - and then adding a fake name on top!

They're so sneaky.

Christmas Morning sunrise on the way back to Nana and Papa's for Christmas breakfast and then to open the many gifts we were spoiled with.

Couldn't ask for a prettier morning!

Hope you all had a great Christmas!!

We couldn't have asked for a better one!

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

2011-11-29T10:33:00.000-07:00

Well a whole month has gone by, I should have at least put up about some things I'm grateful for, but that post never happened.

Instead I share with you the trouble I'm in for the next month:

It's the number one place they shouldn't be and it just happens to be their new favorite spot in the world.

Happy Halloween!!

2011-10-31T18:50:00.000-06:00

Halloween & Spooky Town Videos

2011-10-26T20:28:00.000-06:00

We love Halloween at our place. I know I promised pictures, and I'll try to get those up too. But here's a little video of our Halloween decorations. Craig did a great job!!

Here is Craig's Spooky Town collection - it's kind of dark, but still it's awesome!

Why Do you No Longer Believe?

2011-10-26T13:30:00.002-06:00

I shared this on facebook, but I think it's important to share here are well.

I know some people, John Dehlin being one of them, who are going to be meeting with LDS General Authorities very soon trying to address the needs of those who no longer believe that the LDS Church is the "only true and living church." According to some pretty recent stats as many as 80% of Young Single Adults in the LDS church are becoming disaffected and going "inactive". Obviously this is becoming concerning to church leaders. This survey is an important step in discovering some of the reasons for this disaffection and the hope is that church leaders will be able to then understand and meet the needs of those that who no longer believe.

You can access the survey here.

It is specifically for those "who once believed that the LDS church is "the only true and living church upon the face of the whole earth" (D&C 1:30), but who no longer believe that it is."

If you fit into that category please provide your thoughts and experience, if you don't, but are curious about the survey feel free to click and read.

I feel it's important to spread this in hopes that church leaders will be able to address the needs of those who are feeling disaffected with the church but still have a desire to belong.

Our Cat is So Fat . . .

2011-10-10T16:48:00.000-06:00

when he squeezes under the fence to run in for dinner he gets covered in dirty streaks.

That is one butterball cat.

MumFest

2011-10-09T19:30:00.000-06:00

This weekend we went down to one of our favorite places, New Bern and the Tryon Palace. We went there in Spring for the Tulip Festival and when we heard about the MumFest in the Fall we were really excited to go back again. We assumed that the Mumfest would be a lot like the Tulip Festival, pretty much walk around Tryon Palace gardens and look at the fall flowers:

Listen to the drum and fife music from the 1700's

(New Bern was the original capital in NC back before the US was even born - so there is a lot of revolutionary history and events)

But it turns out MumFest is more than just that:

They had a huge street fair with tons of booths and food all around, bands, dancers, wrestling matches, bmx bikers, dog shows . . . .

They even had a civil war campsite set up for you to look around.

It was awesome!

We loved the pumpkin patch they had set up around a 150 year old church and 300+ year old graveyard:

That is one old tree -

and those baby pumpkins in the background are resting on tombstones.

Old, old tombstone - probably from the 1700's (one near it was 1724)

That's one of the coolest things about New Bern, it's always giving you more than you expect. We really had a great time at MumFest and can't wait to go back next year.

Wayne County Fair

2011-10-05T04:25:00.000-06:00

I love the fair -

I don't know what it is about cheap rides, fair foods, booths and entries (yeah I even like looking at all the art and photographs), the animals and especially the fair people (you know what I mean) that I love, but I just do.

We went this year with the nieces, nephew, Nana and Papa and had such a great time! I even let myself cheat and have sugar (haven't eaten any for about a month) and had part of an Apple Jack (pretty much a fried apple pie) and part of a funnel cake - Yum, Yum!

Nana and Papa watching the young'uns ride.

My one small disappointment was that there weren't many crazies out, I only saw about 2! Maybe it was getting too chilly or many NC just doesn't have as many crazies as CA? ;-)

But I can't wait until we go again next year!

October Glory

2011-10-03T09:05:00.001-06:00

On Oct 1st we planted our October Glory maple.
We're so excited about this one!

Our place already had some beautiful trees for Spring blossoms (magnolia tree, dogwood, tulip poplar, redbud,), but we really wanted to bring in some fall colors, and when it comes to fall there really isn't anything that is better than a maple.

Here is the little guy - he's a fast grower.

And here is what they look like in full fall glory!

These guys start off yellow, then change to orange and finally to a brilliant red. Pretty much you get all the good colors with this one. Can't wait to see him grow!

image found here

Also one of my fav lines from Conference comes from Pres.Packard:

"You may think that you are ... lost, that is never true."

He was speaking specifically about repentance, but taking it out of context I feel that is a touching message for life in general.

It's October - Fall Spring Blossoms

2011-10-01T17:51:00.000-06:00

Dang - it's October already! What the heck!

Actually we're all pretty happy fall is coming and the hot, hot summer is gone.

Since October is Craig's favorite month (birthday and Halloween) we got festive the first day and put up a bunch of Halloween stuff. But I'm not showing you, not yet at least.

First I need to show you this:

Yeah, those are Spring blossoms, yes Spring!

It's the weirdest thing! We think this happened because Hurricane Irene stripped a bunch of leaves off the trees, but since it was still warm out the leaf-less limbs got tricked into thinking it was Spring, not Fall and time to put out Spring Blossoms again.

Also since NC had a crazy hot May/June & July - we're talking high 90's/100's our little veggies couldn't take it, and neither could we. They shriveled and melted in the heat and we just stopped weeding. Well our vegetables died, but the grass sure didn't:

Craig mowed it all down today.

We're thinking that before we ever take on a garden that size again we first need to invest in a tiller. So we're definitely changing things up next year.

Ok, that's about it for now, but don't worry I'm going to be back.

China is on vacation all next week (yeah they get week long holidays) so I'll have more time to be proactive about posting. And I've got Halloween stuff, and our October Glory to share.

Oh and I was super happy to hear about the Provo Tabernacle. Honestly, that was probably my favorite thing from Conference.

Christmas Shopping

2011-09-22T10:01:00.001-06:00

I know, I know it's only September, not even Fall yet, but we have to start early to fit Christmas into our budget. All I wanted to say is that I love that feeling you get when you finally get some good or even great ideas for gifts and you're bursting with surprises. That may be one of my favorite feelings during the holiday season.

Hurricane Irene

2011-08-28T21:14:00.006-06:00

For some reason I couldn't upload this to blogger - so I made my first YouTube video:

We shot this on 8/27 around Noon - so right in the middle of the hurricane. The oak tree I mention in the video is a 100+ year old tree that I was worried was blown over 'cause it's so top-heavy. It wasn't!! Also I'm kind of sad the quality got poor when uploading. Sorry!

And a couple of videos we shot of Irene at the in-laws

This is probably the best at showing how much the trees were tossed around - it was like watching them do a crazy and unnatural dance.

This tree is pretty young and limber fortunately, but still thick enough that I can't put my hand around it. It was being whipped around like it was a thick as a piece of string.

Still image of the maple bent over

The leak we have now

The mess it made - I hope our floors aren't significantly damaged!

Girl's Evil Plans

2011-08-13T08:25:00.000-06:00

We need more of them.

You, know those plans where the girl coyly knows how to get a guy to notice, or give the guy an opportunity to get to know her better. Here are two of my favorite evil plans stories:

This was my friend's mom: She shows up at a ward dance and sees this cute guy that she really wants to get to know. At the dance that night all she got was his name, but knew she wanted to know more about him. The next day she went to a church fireside and this new guy was there - she sat next to him and the two talked and hit it off. He offered her a ride home. Just as he was dropping her off he asked her out for their first date (which quickly turned into engagement and marriage). After that ride home she proceeded to walk back to the church to pick up her car.

How awesome is that?!

On a documentary a couple recounts how they met on the ocean liner SS United States. The SS United States was the Ship of State for the U.S. from 1952 until 1969. On one voyage a man recalls how everyone was out on deck waving and cheering as the ship set sail. A small handkerchief fell from the deck above. He caught it and looked up, he saw a beautiful young woman looking down at him and said to him "It's mine." The two spent the entire voyage together and were later married. Years later their kids asked her "Mom are you sure you didn't drop your handkerchief on purpose?" "I'll never tell." she replies, and she never did admit if it was on purpose or not.

Is that not the sweetest thing?

Do you know of any good ones? Please share!

Kiva

2011-08-02T06:53:00.000-06:00

Most of you probably have heard a little about Kiva in the past and it's an organization that I've been wanting to get more involved with - and I just learned about a pretty cool promo that lets you see how Kiva works.

Basically Kiva is a microfinancing company. They send out loans to people in low income areas. You can lend a woman $25 in Nicaragua to help with her general store, or another woman in the Philippines to help buy food and vitamins for her pig farm. Over time they will pay you (and others that contributed) back and then you can re-lend that $25 over again.

Right now they're doing a kind of promo to get more people aware and you can get a $25 free trial (a voucher pretty much) to send out. It's pretty awesome. I just sent one to a lady in the Philippines (Stacia that was for you) and they have about 1700 free trials remaining, so if you've always wanted to get involved in something like Kiva (like I have been) but haven't yet this is a great opportunity to start!

If this is something you're interested in testing out here's a link for the free trial:
http://kiva.org/invitedby/shara2017

But God does not work this way

2011-07-22T09:35:00.001-06:00

The following is from the talk The Other Prodigal:

Who is it that whispers so subtly in our ear that a gift given to another somehow diminishes the blessings we have received? Who makes us feel that if God is smiling on another, then He surely must somehow be frowning on us? You and I both know who does this—it is the father of all lies.³It is Lucifer, our common enemy, whose cry down through the corridors of time is always and to everyone, “Give me thine honor.”⁴

It has been said that envy is the one sin to which no one readily confesses, but just how widespread that tendency can be is suggested in the old Danish proverb, “If envy were a fever, all the world would be ill.” The parson in Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales laments it because it is so far-reaching—it can resent anything, including any virtue and talent, and it can be offended by everything, including every goodness and joy.⁵As others seem to grow larger in our sight, we think we must therefore be smaller. So, unfortunately, we occasionally act that way.

How does this happen, especially when we wish so much that it would not? I think one of the reasons is that every day we see allurements of one kind or another that tell us what we have is not enough. Someone or something is forever telling us we need to be more handsome or more wealthy, more applauded or more admired than we see ourselves as being. We are told we haven’t collected enough possessions or gone to enough fun places. We are bombarded with the message that on the world’s scale of things we have been weighed in the balance and found wanting.⁶Some days it is as if we have been locked in a cubicle of a great and spacious building where the only thing on the TV is a never-ending soap opera entitled Vain Imaginations.⁷

But God does not work this way. . . .

One observer has written: “In a world that constantly compares people, ranking them as more or less intelligent, more or less attractive, more or less successful, it is not easy to really believe in a [divine] love that does not do the same. When I hear someone praised,” he says, “it is hard not to think of myself as less praiseworthy; when I read about the goodness and kindness of other people, it is hard not to wonder whether I myself am as good and kind as they; and when I see trophies, rewards, and prizes being handed out to special people, I cannot avoid asking myself why that didn’t happen to me.”⁸If left unresisted, we can see how this inclination so embellished by the world will ultimately bring a resentful, demeaning view of God and a terribly destructive view of ourselves. Most “thou shalt not” commandments are meant to keep us from hurting others, but I am convinced the commandment not to covet is meant to keep us from hurting ourselves.

(emphasis added)

When I first heard this talk by Elder Holland it was mind-opening. Wow - every word was true, how did I know? Because I was (am?) just like the Other Prodigal in so many ways.

I've been pondering a lot about this lately but I think I'll just leave this excerpt alone right now and then write a follow up to it in another post.

Pioneers

2011-07-18T11:56:00.000-06:00

Pioneer Day is about a week away but even still this is very touching:

If you know about Carol Lynn Pearson she is a pretty amazing woman, very much a pioneer in her own right. I have such respect for her.

Why you shouldn't look through "People You May Know" on Facebook

2011-07-14T22:37:00.003-06:00

It's late at night, I'm waiting for dough to rise, and Craig has long gone to bed, so what do I do? Surf around on Facebook waay too long, including taking a long look at the People You May Know section. Maybe I'm weird, but that section brings up uncomfortable feelings for me which is probably why I haven't ever really clicked on it before. Here's just a sampling of why so uncomfortable:

People I've "de-friended" - maybe a little guilt comes up because I dropped them so casually. Some of them I look at and think "Oh I shouldn't have given up on to you!" But now it's too late.

The old bf that you really don't think or care about anymore, but then sometimes seeing a picture brings up some hurt feelings (it's as if immediately I remembered how I felt when the hurt happened - it's not that I feel pain anymore, but I remember what that hurt/pain felt like - does that make sense?).

The old high school choir teacher who I worked so hard for and tried to be so good for and it was never enough.

The other high school teacher who I loved but I'm pretty sure wouldn't remember me also the old acquaintances/friends from way back when that I remember fondly but it was when I was really shy and so I'm pretty sure they don't remember me either.

An old crowd of "friends" that reminded me really how left out of some things I really was back in the day (long story short one girl didn't like me and then the next thing I knew a lot of my LDS friends - or people I thought were my friends - really weren't. Parties and game nights that I got to hear about after the fact and those sorts of things, remembering times when I overheard being talked about by these girls, kicked out of the girls camp cabin, whatever).

An old roommate that was one of my best girl friends at the time, and now there's nothing and it would be too awkward to even try.

Really it just shows me that there are reasons why I have the FB friends I do (and when I look through that list the feelings are soooo much better) and now I know there are reasons why I don't look through the People You May Know because they weren't all friends.

Anyways, dough is done rising - to bed!

Summer

2011-07-07T19:54:00.000-06:00

Summer is here in full fury -

nothing by 90 degree weather since end of May and no end in sight until Sept

We try to keep out of the heat as much as we can, but it sure is hard when we've got so much growing:

The blackberries are so good - tomorrow I'm making blackberry jam!

blueberries everywhere! 8lbs so far and counting

harlequin dahlias which we love - some our our favs we planted this year, I hope they come back next year

Turk caps - these babies are awesome. They were already here when we moved in and just beautiful, added bonus they love the heat so while some of our flowers are melting in the heat (gerbera daisy) these guys are going crazy

Zinnias - some other heat lovers. Supposedly they self-sow (like the Turks cap) so we hope they come back next year

Sideshow Bob

2011-07-04T17:54:00.000-06:00

I guess I should be writing something about how great America is today, but really I'm more excited that I had access to a good camera! And now I introduce you to Sideshow Bob:

Or in other words:

You need to use your imagination, but our sugar maple is slowing turning into Sideshow Bob.

Happy 4th!

Les Miz

2011-06-23T15:28:00.002-06:00

Definitely the best part about being an aunt is introducing the nieces and nephews to classics like Monty Python and the Holy Grail and Star Wars. About a month ago we introduced our nieces and nephew to Les Miz (10th Anniversary, NOT 25th which is an embarrassment because it has Nick Jonas as Marius - Thanks Carina!) they loved it! It was so fun to see their reactions to such a great show.

Of course one of their favorites was Master of the House (because when you first hear Les Miz that the song that stands out the most) - one thing they couldn't get enough of was the "squish, squish" sound in the background. They die laughing every time they hear it:

We gave them a copy of the 10th Anniversary and they've had so much fun going through and not just enjoying the music but finding any random thing that would make them laugh (like a random guy getting into the song in his chair in the background) or the way Valjean sings/says "Go!" at 5:01

They are hilarious! I mean who finds random things like that?

Love Never Dies?

2011-05-30T10:43:00.001-06:00

Warning spoilers ahead for Love Never Dies (The Phantom of the Opera Sequel).

Since we're going to London next year Craig and I really want to see a show on West End, we talked about going to see Love Never Dies and decided to hear some of the music and learn more of the plot (this is a habit I picked up from my mom, she always had us learn the music and plot before we went to see the show live - that may sound wrong to some, but I think it helped us to enjoy the performance even more). I have to say that after hearing some of the music and knowing the story I am so upset by what A.L.W. did. I love musicals and I love A.L.W. - Evita, Phantom, Joseph, Cats (not ashamed to admit that), and love some of his songs from Jesus Christ Superstar, Aspects of Love, and Tell Me On a Sunday - I mean he is amazing - but he sucked this one up.

The music? Contrived, without passion or drive, average, ordinary. I've sure if I listened to it enough could like it - but never love it. Let's just say it's no Phantom.

The plot: Awful, he pretty much ruined everything great about the Phantom characters with the sequel. I assume when he was coming up with the plot he just took the main characters and then flipped their personalities for sequel.

This is genius

Meg: In Phantom a sweet, innocent, kind friend to Christine. In LND: cold, stripper, desperate for fame including (this part made me so mad) attempting to kill a small child.

Madam Giry: In Phantom - had compassion and pity on the Phantom, protector. In LND: driven by money and greed.

Raoul: In Phantom - kind, loving, wanting nothing more than Christine's safety. His love is pure and good while Phantom's was driven by lust and greed. In LND: drunken alcoholic, bad husband and absentee father.

Phantom: Tormented, driven mad by a cruel world, passion, genius, lustful. You both pitied him and hated him. In LND: Oh just kidding about that madness and torment, really he is the kindly benefactor to freaks at Coney Island and his love for Christine is real and true. He used to be a really unique, interesting, dynamic character - like I said one that you both loved, pitied felt compassion for and yet he really is evil and tortured and hated. That is a powerful character. Now that he's just "misunderstood" it's not as impressive a character.

Christine: Naive, loyal (to her father's memory, Madame Giry for taking care of her, Phantom for his training, and Raoul to his love), kind, vulnerable, seeking love and freedom (she felt trapped by the Phantom because she felt indebted to him by father's promise for the Angel of Music, but also did not want to succumb to him). In LND: Oh remember how the whole conflict of The Phantom was that while Christine loved Phantom for his music she never really love him as a man and never wanted to succumb physically to him? Oh well really she did and they have a child so she also cheated on Raoul (where was that loyalty again?).

Gah, isn't that terrible!? I think what bothers me most is that ALW pretty much undermined everything he created in Phantom. The passion, desperation, and beauty in the music (especially the finale in Phantom) is really meaningless because really Phantom is this good "wholesome" guy who was just misunderstood and Raoul is not the loving protector he seemed but a drunken has-been. So disappointing. It really bothers me when story-writers ruin things when they get kind of arrogant about their work and are not true to the story à la George Lucas.

Ok, I just had to get that out - the more I thought about it the madder I was so I just had to get on a soapbox for a minute to let it out. Now onto enjoy Phantom and pretend Love Never Dies doesn't exist

2011-05-27T06:44:00.000-06:00

I don't know how far behind I am on a new web fad but my sister sent me this website and I can already see that it's addictive (basically you can gather all your favorite images around the web and put it together in organized collections).

So far I spent an hour this morning playing on it instead of doing my chores - I might get in trouble from Craig, but it's so fun!

Here's a screen shot from my board Food We Grow.

I can already see boards in my future for home improvement/decor projects, opinions and causes I have, more gardening ideas, etc. . . .

I thought I'd share with you my two boards so far so you can get a pretty good idea of what we have in our gardens:

Flower Garden

Vegetable Garden

Enjoy and if you join don't say I didn't warn you! ;)

40lbs

2011-05-25T09:11:00.002-06:00

We got 40lbs of potatoes from our garden!

(Oscar helped me dig them all up - and got the dirtiest I've ever seen him)

Well actually it was a unsuccessful (but still kind of successful adventure). Really we should have had a lot more and since we pulled them up pretty early (should have given them another few weeks/month) we had lots and lot of tiny baby potatoes that could have been bigger if we waited.

Why didn't we? Well our potatoes suffered a lot this year.

We had a really late frost this year that almost killed them, hail a couple times from severe thunderstorms (twice when tornadoes came through NC, we didn't get any damage, but the hail beat our potatoes to bits) and the biggest threat were these guys:

Colorado potato bugs - no matter what we did we couldn't stop them. We had a pretty wet April and that amplified the problem a ton. We squished by hand (sickest thing ever - they're soft and pussy - I hate even thinking about it) and we even sprayed a few times but we couldn't get rid of them. We'd squish and spray and then the next day it would rain and they would be back with a vengeance. They ate the plants back right down the the stock, it got to the point that our plants were just barely hanging on so we had to pull them up. The frustrating thing is that over at Papa's (f.i.l) garden he got about 5 on one plant, squished them and the rest were fine. We had hundreds :(

Washed and drying out:

this pic looked way better on my phone - but oh well

Keeping in mind how hard of a time our potatoes had it I'm proud of the amount we ended up with! Hopefully next year we can do better.

So far for our Spring garden we've ended up with 10lbs of peas (hopefully a few more - our runner peas are still producing), 3lbs strawberries and 40lbs of potatoes - one good cauliflower and 5 bad ones (not growing cauliflower again, but I tried our neighbors broccoli and it is so, so much better fresh - so we'll try broccoli next year). I have several heads of cabbage about ready to pick - carrots are still in the ground as are onions - overall not bad.

2 Years =

2011-05-02T07:07:00.001-06:00

stunning flowers,

delicious locally-made fudge (on the table),

one dreamy B&B complete with turret,

the perfect weekend, the perfect anniversary.

Summer Garden

2011-04-28T07:24:00.000-06:00

Out here we can plant our summer garden in April. We planted our butter beans (lima), field peas, cucumbers and corn (sweet corn and popcorn!) about two weeks ago. Our sprouts came up so fast - the field peas and butter beans were up in three days. Within a week they were all up!

In June when it's good and hot we're going to plant pumpkins and cantaloupe. I'm really excited about the cantaloupe. I haven't had a good cantaloupe since Taiwan; commercially grown cantaloupe (and honeydew) here in the US just isn't as good as it was when I was younger.

Cucumbers, surrounded by grass weeds.

This year the weeds are driving me crazy. I go out just about every day to hoe the garden and they're still everywhere. I don't know why over here there are so many more than at the in-laws. But that is the constant battle in the garden, and the price I pay for these veggies.

Butter beans and field peas.

(I don't know why we don't call lima beans butter beans in the West. Wouldn't you eat a lot more of them if they were called butter beans? And they're so good, I never knew lima beans were so delicious)

The strawberries are doing really well - we're getting a strawberry here and there, when they really take off I'm looking forward to strawberry jam and freezing some.

Here you can see the Spring garden side: garden peas (on the trellis - we should be having garden peas in a couple weeks :), cauliflower and cabbages, carrots (which I'm really excited about - they were my failed crop last year), some baby lettuce and our potatoes (ice taters) that are going out of control.

But the most exciting thing about today:

A cauliflower head!! Yeah that was an awesome find :D

Oscar wears the cone of shame

2011-04-26T14:03:00.000-06:00

Oscar's reduced to wearing a cone the next couple of weeks. It is so sad/pathetic. He got hurt last week and then tried to lick his wound away - he ended up licking his belly so much he licked the top layer of his skin off about a 3 inch area. Poor little guy was hurting real bad and miserable for a few days. He's doing so much better now, but is still wearing to cone until his scabs fall off.

I think that it's pretty funny because he had a hard time getting around with the cone for a while. He would run into the wall or chair and not realize the cone was getting in his way. Craig thinks I'm horrible for laughing at him when he was so pathetic, but I can't help myself!

Of course he does love all the attention and extra love he's getting.

Don't want to leave Boots out:

Boots found himself a new favorite place to nap in.

I've been catching him all the time napping in the doll cradle - too cute!

His Sacred Name

2011-04-24T05:02:00.000-06:00

And now, after the many testimonies which have been given of him, this is the testimony, last of all, which we give of him: That he lives!

D&C 76:22

I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.

Galatians 2:20

The Scriptures teach us that He lives; how great and glorious it is that we can know the bonds of death have been broken. However, not only does he live in flesh and bone, but there is another meaning to His life and mission. He lives in us as we take upon His name and His offering of new life.

Happy Easter!

P-51, F-4, A-10, F-15

2011-04-22T19:51:00.000-06:00

We live near an airforce base, which means that just about everyday we have military planes flying overheard. It's actually pretty cool to see them fly and to try an learn about them. Last weekend was the annual air Wings Over Wayne Airshow - it is awesome! It was actually amazing to see how advanced these planes are, basically it makes you realize that a lot of the "futuristic" military power they show in movies it already here (i.e. the Jericho from Ironman).

Here are some of the highlights:

Heritage Flight - planes flown in 1940s, 1960's, 1970's, currently

Top: P-51, Left - F-15, Right - F-4 & Back A-10

P-51 Mustang - this bad boy pretty much helped us win WWII.
He had the best engine sound too - classic. They said that were only about 150 left.

F-4 Phantom - the loudest of all of them. Phantoms were used a lot during the Vietnam war

A-10 Warthog - the "tank-killer" very stealth-like and quiet in comparison to the others, very rugged and hardy.

F-15 Eagle.
Work-horses of the army these days. They've been around since the 70's, but these guy still get the job done. These were the sound-barrier breakers.

The professional fliers were crazy - it was almost dizzying watching them perform in the air, but it was so cool to see how they could manipulate their planes to perform in ways the planes were never meant to. The Golden Knights were pretty much amazing. They are top parachuters and it was really cool watching them come in. They also brought in a bunch of Japanese Zeros and torpedo plans and did a kind of recreation of Pearl Harbor. That was also really impressive.

They also had a lot of planes and helicopters on display with military men standing nearby to tell us about them:

This guy told us how the helicopter is somehow connected to the pilots helmet and when it is the pilot can aim simply by sight. He said the pilot can look at something 2-3 miles away and he is locked on target. Dang.

But one of the coolest things we saw was an F-22 Raptor:

The latest and greatest this is one bad mammy jammy. No plane should be able to move like this plane does. Unfortunately we didn't see her fly, this time she was for looks only. But you know a plane is impressive when even the military was crowding around to get pictures.

I really enjoy learning more about our military capability and some history - it's pretty awesome.

Changing Colors

2011-04-14T18:46:00.000-06:00

Remember how I said that the UV rays change the color of the Double Delight rose?

Our rose has gone from this:

To this (taken yesterday 4/13):

To this (taken today):

Honestly that's so cool! I'm surprised that it's so pinky - maybe in a few days it will become more red, or maybe we ended up with a more pink Double Delight.

Double Delight

2011-04-12T16:27:00.000-06:00

One part of our yard is a rose garden. The previous owners had 6 beautiful rose bushes in one corner:

But all of them were Knockout roses

They're those roses you see that are real loose and floppy looking. Pretty, but not really what you think of when you think of a rose. They're really easy to take care of and so much more popular than the hybrid tea rose. But you can't beat a tea rose for beauty. So even though the teas are notorious for being difficult we really wanted to add them to our rose garden. We did manage to find an awesome resource about rose care which made it seem so much more do-able. We got three kinds, Queen Elizabeth, Chicago Peace and Double Delight.

When I first saw the Double Delight rose I fell in love with it! It's beautiful and my colors (red & white).

About a week and a half after we got it we have our first rose! So happy!

This little one is still developing his red color. The red is created by ultra-violet rays on the petals, which means that the hotter this summer gets the more red the rose will turn and it means that there is never two roses alike - how cool is that?

I'm lovin' it!

Tulip Festival - aka we really need to get a camera

2011-04-09T20:03:00.002-06:00

Today we went down to one of our favorite places: New Bern for the Garden Tour they had there. They plan it every year when the tulips are up and they have a lots of tours of the gardens at Tryon Palace and in surrounding homes and gardens. They also had a plant sale - of course we had a great time!

Prepare for lots of tulip pictures:

The homes around Tryon Palace had some beautiful gardens! This was from the Stanley home:

George Washington stayed in the Stanley home when he visited NC - (New Bern was the original capital of NC).

Then on to the Tryon gardens:

A colonial drummer and fifer walking through some gates to the palace. They sounded really good!

They had little garden areas everywhere, divided up with brick walls and mazed hedges - while in the kitchen garden we found one of several "secret" tulip gardens. Loved the iron window with the secret garden behind it.

And looking past the wrought iron - loved this area!

Tulips galore!

I especially loved the orangey ones

Have you ever seen a "black" tulip before?

It was pretty cool looking - but if I were to only plant one color I'm not sure it would be the black one.

Bearded tulips - I love the colors on these ones too!

So many colors - there were also lots of irises, violas, hyacinth, etc with the tulips - so pretty! Craig's parents came with us and that was so fun - we really had a good time!

Red & Purple? - so bold

Beautiful arbors and archway path!

It was awesome - and we probably overdid it at the plant sale - we got about 20 plants!

Including the firsts for my little herb garden:

Cilantro and Rosemary - they smell so good!

And we found one of the prettiest plants ever!

The lovely Hippeastrum (Amaryllis). Looks at this girl!

That is one tall beauty!

We found out that it is possible to grow these babies outside in NC, overwinter them in the ground and have beautiful flowers year after year (most places are too cold to have them in the ground, but not here - it may be hot - but we get some awesome plants here and I love that)

Overall a great day!

Crown

2011-03-31T14:40:00.000-06:00

It looks very strongly that the job search has come to an end!!

I would just like to say that I am so proud of Craig, he really tried his hardest to do what he felt was right and to be inspired which directions he should move in. He searched all over for jobs, followed any leads he was given, and sent out so many applications/resumes. He is amazing!

Craig was offered a position at Crown and it looks like in the next couple of weeks (after the background check) he'll be able to start there!! We learned about the company a few months ago through one of my favorite girls in Relief Society (her husband also works at Crown), applied, and then went through a pretty lengthy waiting period before finally getting the good news (almost 3 months). He went in today and filled out all the paperwork and now just have to do a background check and then he'll start.

I feel that Heaven really is looking down on us right now. Getting this job feels like when we got our home. In both the house hunt and job hunt there were a number of things we really wanted. We prayed for those things and then received so much. For the job we prayed it would come before unemployment ran out (we are only a couple weeks away from unemployment ending), that it would be stable, have good benefits, decent pay and is one that Craig would enjoy and be proud to have. This is that job in every way and more. He'll be part of the manufacturing process for Crown, which is perfect for him - no office/desk job for Craig - he would not be happy with that kind of a job. And he justs has a 40 hr work week (Thank goodness no 12 hour days! Not only did he have many, many long work days in UT which I was so over, but we were seriously looking at another job where he would be working 55-70 hours a week and only two holidays a year - even thinking about that stressed me out). We are so grateful for this!

謝謝天父!

Strawberry/Blueberry Blossoms

2011-03-21T20:25:00.000-06:00

Looks like we'll have a few strawberries this year after all - I can't wait!

Blueberry blossoms are bell shaped and really pretty.

I like seeing so many of them because that means we'll be having more berries!

Here's a better pic of just bells.

The bees are loving the blueberries, makes it difficult to prune some of them, but all that pollinating - yay!

First Day of Spring!

2011-03-20T07:00:00.003-06:00

Happy first day of Spring!

I am loving all the new spring blossoms around our trees

Flowering Cherry

Redbud

Cleveland Pear

(this one is actually over at the in-laws, but I love this tree)

We also found a beautiful flower that we really liked

Columbine!

It's really such an unusual and striking shape (if you look closely you can see that the back of the flower has several "tails") It's really beautiful. They says it's an old fashioned flower/cottage garden type of a flower but we really loved the look. It looks great under our Redbud tree.

Columbine are partial shade lovers who like loose, well drained soil. The should bloom throughout the summer if you deadhead them (remove blossoms as soon as they wilt and die, this prompts the plant to grow more flowers - true for most flowers).

In other news our little cats are having fun these days, getting into trouble as always.

This week Boots decided he was old enough (6 months or so) to roam. We generally don't leave them outside while we go out but we did once last week and Boots left our property and went who knows where (meanwhile Oscar hung out in a tree). We were getting worried about him until he finally showed up again very late at night. The next day we told him that we scheduled a little visit to the vet a later this week to try and "snip" the roaming in the bud (quite literally), we'll see how much fun he has roaming after his doctor's visit.

Oscar knows he's not allowed in our bedroom, but of course he tries to sneak in as often as he can. One day we found him in our room just like this. I guess he figured if he couldn't see us then we wouldn't be able to see him! Too funny!

Hope you all have a great first day of Spring!!

Queen Mary

2011-03-16T20:47:00.001-06:00

I think most of our friends know that the Queen Mary in Long Beach is a special place for Craig and I. We visited there while we were dating, Craig proposed there, we honeymooned there and we recently went there for Craig's birthday last year. It has a lot of meaning to us.

Anyways QM is holding a contest on Facebook right now and it's a thing where you write your "story" on QM and the winner gets a free stay there, 25 of the stories will be put in the ship's museum (how cool would that be?). I hate asking this but if you could vote for our story it would be so awesome (we didn't realize it was by votes when we first entered).

This should be the link to it. If that doesn't work it's under Queen Mary -> Contests (right under info, wall, notes, etc) and our story is called "Our Beginning", Craig put it up. You shouldn't have to "like" or add any applications or anything, it should just be a box that says Vote Now that you can click on - you can choose not to post it on your wall if you don't want to. Thank you so much!!

Strawberries

2011-03-14T15:38:00.000-06:00

We have the best neighbor ever. Mr. D is so nice and so willing to help us as much as he can. His whole backyard is a vegetable garden and he enjoys it so much. He was really happy when we moved next door and found out that we wanted to garden as well. He loves to talk garden shop with us and is so generous (he gave us carrot seeds and field pea seeds already). He showed us his 8 or 10 rows of strawberry plants and told us he would give us some runners from them.

Today he gave us sixty (60!!) strawberry plants!

Just look at those beauties!

He is so nice!

These ones I believe are June-bearing strawberries instead of ever-bearing strawberries, supposedly the June bearing are a little sweeter, but who knows - a strawberry is a strawberry to me. :) We may not have many strawberries this year because they're still pretty young plants, but next year we should have a bunch! So I guess this year we'll just be enjoying blueberries and blackberries (I hope the blackberries will be strong).

I have always wanted a little strawberry patch and I'm so glad we have one now. Thank you Mr. D!

Apple Trees!

2011-03-11T09:49:00.003-07:00

I am really excited now. We got our apple trees in!

I really wanted to plant some fruit tree especially since I know that it will take about 4-5 years to get fruit on them so I wanted them in as soon as possible. I can't wait to see these babies grow!

We picked my favorite kind of apple, Fuji

And for the pollinator we picked an unknown one that had excellent reviews, Goldrush

Don't they both look delicious?!

A lot of fruit trees are self-pollinating (peach, citruses, some plums, sour cherry, figs, persimmons, apricots), but many are not (apple, pear, sweet cherry and some varieties of plum). For the non self-pollinators you need to plant two trees of different varieties. So that's why we ended up with two of them, and they should be planted 15-20ft from each other to encourage cross pollination, but also to give room for growth and spread.

Apple tress need plenty of full-sun and regular watering.

These trees will grow up about 25ft and should give about 5-10 bushels a year when mature (a bushel is about 42 lbs). That's a whole lot of apples!!

They also require regular pruning/taming and fertilizing once a year.

Fruit trees do require more work than shade or flowering trees, but they bear sweet rewards. Last year an aunt bought some Fuji apples from a backyard grower and they were the biggest and best Fujis I've ever eaten!! So I'm hoping with proper care we can get the same delicious rewards in a few years.

Here they are planted - not sure if you can even see the Fuji tree but he's hanging out near the blackberries (blackberries are on the two trellises). Also that line of green you see in the back those are our mystery easter lilies or daffodils (not sure what will pop up but it will look pretty!)

If you are interested in planting fruit trees but may not have the space for a huge tree there are dwarf and semi-dwarf trees as well that take up a lot let space. The dwarf grow only to about 6" tall and will give 1/2 a bushel of apples (about 21 pounds) when mature. Dwarf trees for other fruits should give even more - again with proper care.

We ordered our apple trees from Gurney's along with some onions, pumpkin, beet and popcorn seeds. If you're looking for trees, shrubs, plants or seeds I highly recommend them. They had very comparable prices and excellent shipping costs and their customer service is extremely good! Honestly the best experience I've had with customer service in a long time.

Originally we had ordered some sugar maples from them, but then we tried to cancel the order because we found some larger ones to get (maples grow so slowly and they trees we did get were 10 years ahead of the ones we ordered, we really wanted that jump start one the trees). When we called up to cancel the sugar maples they told us they couldn't stop the shipping process (not sure why) and to call them back when we got the maples. When we did they told up that they would refund the $ to our account, but we could keep the trees, no questions or complaints asked. I was really impressed with that. And then the guy I talked with spent another 20 mins just talking with me about care general care for trees, perennials and annuals like when the fertilize them and when to transplant and such. He was awesome!

Little House on the Prairie

2011-03-08T21:44:00.003-07:00

I just finished reading (for the severalth time) one of the best book series ever: Little House on the Prairie. When I read it I feel very inspired and impressed with the pioneering and farming life-style from the late 1800s. I try not to glorify their lives in those books. I can tell it was a difficult one, and even in the books there were many times of failure and desperation and of course not everyone from that time period was as hard working or good as shown in this book, but even still that pioneering spirit is a powerful one (I mean how many conferences go by without us hearing about the pioneer heritage?)

For instance the women in these books possessed a great deal of talent. Not only were they excellent cooks, but also seamstresses, gardeners, musicians, and homemakers; they were also well educated (given the time). Laura could spell, read, remember history and dates and figure out math better than most people I know today. I find it so interesting because when we talk about our hobbies today you're bound to find someone who says cooking is their hobby, or gardening, or sewing, but these women did all of that and then some and also raised a herd of kids. Talk about your power woman! That is so impressive to me.

The men from these books were (for the most part) equally admirable. I really love this exchange between Almanzo and his dad in Farmer Boy: "Almanzo asked Father why he did not hire the machine that did threshing. . . . "That's the lazy man's way to thresh," Father said. "Haste makes waste, but a lazy man'd rather get his work done fast than do it himself. That machine chews up the straw till it's not fit to feed stock and it scatters grain around and wastes it. All it saves is time, son. And what's good is time, with nothing to do? You want to twiddle your thumbs, all these stormy days?""

It just gets me thinking, why am I not doing more? What am I filling my time with? TV? Internet searching that is really had no importance? Reading pointless articles and blogs? When I'm honest with myself that is such a waste. I could be developing talents that could help my family become more self-sufficient (free and independent as Alamanzo's father says) I love that idea so much and I'm realizing more and more the only true way to being free is self-sufficiency.

These pioneers were so hard working and such an example of how I should better organize my life. For instance Laura's Ma always had her family fed, dressed, beds made, and finished morning chores before the real day's work and tasks began or any free-time was spent for the day. Shoot most days I don't even get out of my PJ's before getting online to work, breakfast is usually around noon and the bed is rarely made. For some people that's not a problem, but the thing is when I have a more organized morning I feel so much better about the day and accomplish so much more.

I really think it's this drive inside of me to have a more self-sufficient (free) life that makes me want to emulate those pioneering values, skills and talents, and it also makes me sad for what we as a society has lost since that time in American history.

Maybe I need to talk with Craig about getting a few more acres one day, we have the garden space, but you know just a little more for the chickens, milk cow, small orchard, root cellar, etc. ;)

Post Edit: I realized I forgot to mention one new insight I gained and loved from this time round of reading. I really loved reading about how the parents taught their children, especially about selflessness, gratitude for all that they had (even though it was so little), and resourcefulness. They actively taught them in words and actions. Always Ma and Pa (and Almanzo's parents) were teaching. Laura's Ma told her one time "remember a young lady never does anything to draw attention to herself (a principle I think is sorely missing in today's society)." It wasn't as much what they taught (although those values they taught are still so, so important) but how they did it. It seemed that Ma and Pa were always teaching, always explaining, always showing, very consciously instilling values, character and talent in their little girls. (I know her stories probably oversimplified it, and make it seem much easier or better than it really was, but still I loved reading about how Ma and Pa taught their children).

Sugar Maples!

2011-03-08T16:45:00.003-07:00

Of all maple trees the sugar maple is the prettiest. It's fall colors range from yellow to orangey red, but it has one of the best orange fall colors. Ever since we bought this place we've been wanting to put in some beautiful fall colors.

Sugar Maples:

Zones 3-8

Full Sun (also does well in partial shade in hotter zones)

Slow medium growth

60-75ft

Not tolerant of salt or pollution (If winter roads with salt is a problem or air pollution Norway Maple is much more tolerant and almost as pretty - nice yellow fall color).

The sugar maple has the sweetest sap (used a lot of maple syrup)

With our tax return we decided our "treat" to ourselves would be these two 12' sugar maple beauties:

One in the front (you can see the truck tracks from bring the guy in)

And one in the back (plus a good look at Craig's shop's).

We are really excited to see how they'll look when they start budding out.

We also started tackling our "wooded" area

Craig cut down a few small pine trees and we gathered up a bunch of the fallen branches that had fallen down. I must admit I did question the placement of the fire so close to the other trees, but we've had recent rainfall and everything was pretty damp, plus we hosed everything around the fire pretty good.

There were so many fallen branches and mess that we got quite the blaze going - it felt good to start cleaning it all up.

Sugar maples image here

Carrots!

2011-03-06T10:14:00.000-07:00

Carrots are coming up!!

I feel like this is a huge accomplishment because last year none of our carrots came up - so this makes me happy. I think it's because we plant them too deep. Carrots should only be planted up to 1/2" or surface sown.

I'll have to thin them when they get bigger and transplant some of them. Carrot seeds are so small it's really hard to get them all evenly spaced. So they say just to put as many as can out and thin them as needed. But I don't want to throw any away

Spring colors are popping up everywhere!

Camellia plant - I love this one! We have a few of them around and they're real pretty.

Pretty little blue flowers (They're probably weeds, but at this early in spring I'll take any pretty colored flowers).

Our first blossom in our back mystery flower bed. I can't wait for all of them all to bloom!

Tulip Trees :)

2011-03-03T20:09:00.003-07:00

We uncovered another mystery tree/shrub. One that is out near our drive way and "welcomes" those in.

It's a tulip tree!

Well really it's some kind of magnolia tree, but most people refer to it as a tulip tree for obvious reasons.

He was a tree at one point but sometime after the original owner passed away and before we bought it someone had it cut down (his children were selling the place). Some after it was cut it started making a come back, but it's turned into more of a shrub than a tree now. Our neighbor, Mr. D was good friends with the old owner and sad that he would never have let anyone cut down the tree. Kind of sad, but we're still glad its still around.

So glad that we bought two more!

This one is a Magnolia Jane
Zones: 4-8
Plant in full-sun; partial shade (if you leave further South afternoon shade is good for the Magnolia Jane)
Water regularly, but do not over water; well drained soil
Grow to about 10-12Ft
Slow growing
Magnolia Jane's are designed to bloom later than the typical Magnolia tree so her blooms will avoid the late frosts and will bloom periodically throughout the summer.

We'll have this to look forward to from our Jane:

beautiful!!

We also got a Magnolia Royal Star which smells so good and is blooming now. We'll put it up on the other side of the driveway from our current one so that it will have the nice balance of two blooming tulip trees.

so pretty!!

Zones 4-9
Full-sun
Medium-fast growth
15-20ft
Magnolia Start are among the first to bloom, but late frost will kill early blooms

These might be my favorite things we've gotten so far.

Also I am also happy to report that the peas are doing well (despite my crooked rows),

and overall the vegetable garden seems to be thriving.

The cabbages seem to have rebounded after an overnight frost - they looked more vigorous today than ever before - that made me happy, because they were looking a little wilted and sad before.

Also tonight I was trying to learn about the Hemerocallis flower (I think that's what's in our mystery flower bed). But when I went to search the images for it Google jumped in with it's auto search (you know where it tries to guess what you're typing) and brought up hemroids. I had typed and jumped so fast that before I know it I was hit with image after image of hemroids!! Eww!! So gross!! Can you imagine? You think you're going to get images of pretty flowers and you get shocked with hemroids!! Ahhh - I need to wash my eyeballs. Curse you Google.

Magnolia Jane image here

More Spring Planting: Lilies

2011-02-28T12:04:00.003-07:00

So far this is the thing I love most about having our own place. I love looking and picking out different plants and around our place!

We had some leftover containers and tried to find some good container plants for them. We found two "lilies": Canna Lily (though not technically from the lily family) and Oriental (we got a mix with Stargazers in them, which I absolutely love) and then we liked the Lily of the Valley so much we got it to add to a mystery flower bed we have. I really hope they turn out!

Planted 3 Cannas and the kittens are there making sure we're doing everything right

Canna flowers are tropical and blooms mid summer until the first frost. They love sun and are drought-hardy, they need good drainage and water as needed.

We picked this one because last summer was one of the hottest summers on record and quite dry - so we thought this would do well.

5 Oriental Lilies Bulbs

Oriental Lilies love full-sun and good drainage (they love water, but not standing water). They bloom anywhere from June - August and are very fragrant. Also if you do plan of planting any bulbs (like lilies or tulips) I highly recommend a bulb planter. It was so easy!!

Our mystery flower bed where we planted 3 Lily of the Valley rizhomes

Another fragrant flower, Lily of the Valley are shade lovers and love moist soil. They are a perennial plant and bloom in April and May.
Good for zones 2-8
Plant roots/rhizomes in partial to full shade and give a good watering. Be sure to water enough to keep the soil moist (shade will keep the soil pretty moist - or at least it does on our little spot)
Transplant Lily of the Valley after it blooms in the summer.
Remove leaves when the start to yellow, but not before as that's how they gather energy over the winter.

We planted them on back behind our patio wall since it's shady there almost all day. They spread quickly and can overtake the flowerbed if not careful. I figure if we don't like our mystery flowers I'll let the Lily of the Valley take over, if we do then I'll have the transplant some whenever they start getting out of control.

We even had one sprout already coming up from the Lily of the Valley!

While digging up the container we actually found rhizomes from a mystery plant in the container - It felt wrong to throw it away when we really don't know what it is - so I planted it in the corner and we'll see if anything happens there.

Mystery plant - hopefully he'll grow and we'll see what he is

I'm learning about the different kinds of plant propagation and it's really interesting. So far this year we've planted plants from seed (peas, & carrots), cuttings (roses & blackberries - we planted those at our Uncles), bulbs (Oriental lilies), rhizomes (parts of the root; mystery plant, Canna Lily, Lily of the Valley), and tuber (potatoes). I think it's amazing all the many different ways that plants have to reproduce and carry on. I know this sounds so hippy but really digging in the dirt makes me aware of how amazing life is, in all it's varieties. I also feel like I am beginning to understand the spiritual and scriptural references to planting and growing much more now. I love it!

Roses and Daffodils

2011-02-27T14:19:00.001-07:00

A small area in our yard is devoted to roses. There were about 6 rose plants in this picture

(all the plants on the inside of the fence)

But it looked like was missing about a rose bushes on the end, so we decided we needed to fill it in.

Oh, see that pile of dirt? That was a fire ant hill, one of the biggest I've ever seen (although Craig says he's seen much bigger). The ants have moved on, but kind of scary right? I mean you're not supposed to be able to "see" an ant hill in pictures taken with a lame camera phone. . .

We picked out these two, Rainbow Knock-out on the left and Chicago Peace on the right (I love the changing colors)

The Knockout is the in the back and the Chicago Peace one is the one that looks more green. I'm really looking forward to seeing these babies grow, and it should fill that left out section nicely.

I know these pictures don't really look that great, because everything is still dormant and dead. But don't worry I'll be sure to take pictures of everything when it's green and blooming (and hopefully we'll have a new camera by then too!)

But here's something pretty - we got some volunteer daffodils coming up. :)

I honestly can't wait for Spring to full-on come!

The Peas are Popping Up!

2011-02-24T13:53:00.004-07:00

I was so good for a week or so and then got behind again.

So here are the recent updates:

Some of the peas have popped!

I found these two this morning and already I've spotted about 5 more that have come up this afternoon!

No sign of carrots yet, or taters.

Sorry this is so fuzzy - I'm working on just my camera phone as of late.

We finished one of our many projects:

We got this bench at a flea market, I loved the iron, but the wood was really old, and some of the slats cracked. Craig and Papa decided to replace all the wood on it (this picture is in process of them getting all the right measurements for the new wood pieces).

Here is it all finished, I think it looks pretty good!

Now we just need to find a good place for it so we can sit out and enjoy the Spring evenings coming up soon!

Oscar got a bath and was not happy about it:

He has too much fun rolling around in the mud outside and needed one bad.

He's trying desperately to "clean" the water off of him here.

Poor little guy (but it was so funny/sad to see him all wet!)

Boots has been getting into trouble too.

See this cute bear? Boots seems to think it's his.

Twice we've found it hidden in the back of the couch. We have no idea when and how Boots sneaked it off.

The other day Craig and I caught him!

He knew exactly what he was up too!

The little stinker.

I have to admit though part of the reason this picture is so fuzzy is because I was laughing so hard!

Spring Surprises

2011-02-16T07:12:00.000-07:00

Already we're starting to see surprises.

We have a little birds nest in one of our dogwoods - I hope we get some more!

So far we've seen Blue Jays, Cardinals, Mockingbirds, and lots of little sparrows. I love hearing all the birds in the mornings

This is my favorite surprise so far. See those sprouts of greens?

I was told those are Easter Lilies!

Sometime in April we should be seeing these beauties all around our garden area.

Spring Garden!

2011-02-15T12:28:00.000-07:00

We planted today!

Right now we have three rows of garden peas, a row of cabbage plants, and a row of carrots.

Still to plant - cauliflower and ice taters.

I can't wait until the sprouts start to come up :)

The seeds are in! And the rabbits are already out

2011-02-11T12:01:00.001-07:00

I am really pleased!

I ordered these guys Tuesday evening and here they are in my paws Friday afternoon - talk about fast!

I'll make my Feb 15th date still :D

Also they sent along a free carrot variety - Parisienne Carrots. They're weird shaped (small round, globe shaped) I've never even heard of it and I'm excited to try them out too! So far I'm happy with this company - now when we plant them we'll see how many germinate and that's the real truth of how good these seeds are.

Also I found rabbit tracks in our garden bed yesterday - shoot!

Hopefully out little kittens will turn out to be guard cats. But I doubt it - Boots has turned into the most uncoordinated cat - he already fell out of a tree (he won't try climbing one again either) and he's always missing his target when he tries to jump anywhere. He'd probably hurt more plants then the rabbits would. Plus he prefers the computer.

Oscar is still a sweetie, but he's the laziest cat ever. He'd be too lazy to catch a rabbit.

See here he found his way to taking a nap in a box

Heirloom Seeds

2011-02-10T14:16:00.002-07:00

I ordered some of our seeds and can't wait until they get here! Here are some of veggies we have to look forward to:

Chantenay Red Core Carrots
Giant of Naples Cauliflower
Dixie Speckled Butterpea Lima Beans
Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage
Tall Telephone Garden Pea
Golden Globe Turnip
Parisian Pickling Cucumber
Marketmore 76 Cucumber
Emerald Giant Pepper

I still want to get these seeds: cantaloupe, pumpkin, potato, sweet potato, and peanut.

One thing that was really important to me is that we got heirloom seeds. Around here hybrid seeds are more common it's kind of hard to be sure I'm getting heirloom seeds, so I had to order mine online (this probably means that I won't make my Feb 15th plant date, but that's ok). I really didn't know much about heirloom or hybrid seeds until decided that I wanted to try saving my seeds. The great advantage of heirloom seeds is that they remain true the following year and the seeds can be saved. Hybrids won't remain true and new seeds need to be bought year after year. Some say heirlooms will generally have better flavor, but that's negotiable.

The advantages of hybrids seeds are that they can flower earlier, have improved disease resistance, more tolerant to environmental stress, higher yield, and they are more consistent performers so truthfully they can be a lot easier to care for and more reliable than heirloom seeds. But in the end I really wanted to make sure I could save my seeds, and know that they came from a pure source.

There is a huge controversy about seeds going on right now, not just about hybrid v. heirloom, but also GMO seeds (genetically modified or GEI, genetically engineered). The Future of Food is a really good documentary seed patents and the loss of variety in our seeds. Fascinating stuff (and by fascinating I mean it's one that is worth being very aware of, it is shocking how much companies and the govt has done to our agriculture, farmers and the nation).

I ordered my seeds from this site: Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds mostly because they had reviews written about the ones I picked. I did find several more that sold heirloom seeds:

Seed Savers Exchange

Heirloom Seeds

Victory Seeds

Taming Blackberry Bushes

2011-02-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

Jena asked some great questions about berry vines and I thought I should reply.

"I want to start a couple canes in the front yard where I can give them supports and prune them as needed, but I'm concerned about them taking over. I know with mint you can plant it inside an old tire and as long as you don't let the springs grow over into the surrounding oil, it won't/shouldn't grow under the tire. Can you do that with berry vines? Is there another way to keep them from going hog wild? I need to jump on it when I get home in March. Also, any tips for controlling unwanted volunteers without ruining the soil? (as with Roundup)"

This is everything I know about taming Blackberry bushes for you (I'm still pretty new about this so I don't know a whole lot).

From what I've learned thus far blackberries produce berries on canes that grew the previous summer and depending on the kind of blackberry you have you will need to trellis it.

Western trailing berries:
Immediately after the harvest ends in the mid-summer all of the canes that produces fruit should be cut off to about 1' off the ground (then cut off completely the following year). This encourages the growth of new canes and those canes will produce next year's harvest. Western trailing berries should have their second year canes trellised (done from fall - early spring) like so:

A are the fruiting canes and B are the "primocanes" the canes that will be fruiting next year.

Eastern erect and semi-erect blackberries:
These varieties don't need to be trellised but need to be pruned the same way (i.e. first year canes allowed to grow on the ground, second year canes produce fruit, third year canes cut back 1' or less and forth+ cut away and used as mulch and compost) with one additional component second year canes need to be pruned so the tips of the canes (and thus the berries) are not touching the ground.

I think if you keep this method your blackberries should be tamed and not going crazy out of control.

Also for ideas on weed control - if you want the organic route they best suggestions I've seen are:

Solarize your garden bed before planting
Keep a moderate layer of compost and organic mulch surrounding the plants (grass cuttings, old canes, and compost, but not grass treated with turf-builder), but not too heavy cause your canes still need to push through.
Invest in a good hoe
For pest control use Bacillus Thuringiensis (Bt) it's an organic pest and worm control

I wish I had more ideas for weed control for you, but that's all I got so far (anyone else out there with some knowledge?). I haven't had much experience with weed control around perennials yet. We have yet to tackle our blueberries which have completely gone out of control and have tons of weeds around that. As we tackle that task later this spring and summer I'll update you :)

I agree using Roundup is probably the worst thing you can do for your soil. Having good soil is the number one thing for good fruit and Roundup and it's many cousins destroys soil (they say if you have $5 to spend on your plant spend $4.50 on improving soil and getting that ready and $0.50 on the seed). Better to tolerate a few weeds than use that garbage.

I bought these pruners at Lowe's for $17.98 and so far they are wonderful!

I should say that I bought one pair at the same store that was about $40 because it looked "higher quality." Craig saw what I bought and was so disappointed - "too fancy" and "too many parts" To prove it to me he trimmed one bush and the dang thing chipped and broke. So we returned it and he found these ones and they worked great!!

image for blackberry trellis here

Blackberry, Maple and Dogwood

2011-02-07T11:04:00.000-07:00

It's been a cool 51 degrees out, perfect weather for getting some yard work done!

I successfully pruned and fertilized the blackberry bushes, looks much better!

To fertilize perennials (including fruit trees and berry bushes) you need to use a water soluble fertilizer (since you can't turn the dirt). From what I've read a good water soluble one is MiracleGro Azalea plant food mixed with Ironite. They also recommend using ammonium sulfate if your soil is more alkaline (berries and fruit need acidic soil - NC soil is already acidic so I don't need to add it, but UT's soil is alkaline so there you should add ammonium sulfate).

I may need to get some string soon and tie the canes up to the trellis.

And so exciting new growth!

Hopefully we'll get two new canes coming up soon!

We also planted a maple, an itty bitty one. I don't even think you can buy trees this little.

We found this little guy growing over at the in-laws and brought it on over. Last spring it had a few leaves and they even turned colors in the fall - so we'll see if we get a few more this year.

We also moved a dogwood over from the side yard to the front and replanted it there - We really wanted more trees in the front yard and have tons of dogwoods along our side yard.

We're hoping he'll make it since dogwoods have a reputation of being finicky sometimes

Things are looking good and I can't wait until Spring so we can see how things start to look when ever everything starts to grow and also see what surprises we'll have from our new place.

Gardening Goals

2011-02-04T11:59:00.000-07:00

I thought it would be good to set up a few things I wanted to really focus on for this year (again another way to help me not go overboard because I would really like to plant a few fruit trees, strawberries and do lots of variety in my garden)

1. Plant at least one new vegetable I've never tried before. I'm leaning very heavily towards turnips and/or Swiss Chard

2a. Save the blackberries! This is my fruit goal for our place (later on it will be add strawberry vines and at least an apple tree).We have tons and tons of blueberry bushes and they are wonderful!! But we also have a few blackberry bushes too. When we bought the place we talked a little with the owner's daughter. She said that the last hobby her dad took up before he passed away was blackberries. Most of the bushes he had are dead :( But there are five canes still alive. I'm going to see if we can nurture those canes and grow more and get some luscious blackberry crops in a year or so. I'm so excited for this. Blackberries instantly take me back to summers with my grandma and grandpa.

The couple dark ones you see are the only ones alive, the rest are dead :(

2b. Learn how to prune/take care of our blueberry bushes.

Just about every bush you see in these two pictures is a blueberry bush - and that's not all we have!

We can't just let them go, it would be such a shame to not take care of them and learn how and when to prune and fertilize them.

3. Learn how to preserve/can/ferment food. We had so many cucumbers last year and unfortunately quite a few went bad before we could eat them or even give them away! I need to get this under control, otherwise what's the point in having a garden?

4. Solarize each half of my garden. I'll solarize my summer garden section during the spring, and the spring side in the summer (this means my spring side will have a lot more weeds than my summer side, but hopefully after that I'll have everything ready to go)

The Force

2011-02-03T07:38:00.002-07:00

This is my favorite thing ever right now:

Craig discovered this and we've watched it at least 10 times now - too funny!

Starting the 2011 Garden

2011-02-02T13:33:00.002-07:00

Today is a great day.

For start January over (yay there is an end in sight for cabin fever), Phil didn't see his shadow, and we started tearing up the garden today!!

We decided to only cut up half of the garden this area. Since we're still novices at this we didn't want to go overboard and burn ourselves out.

Craig starting it off cutting it up.

Doing a great job!

We were really happy to see that our ground is full of black dirt!! Apparently there is a strip of black land from Raleigh to the coast and our place happens to be right on it - I was so happy!

Look at that freshly turned earth - I love walking on fresh ground and the smell is so good.

It's a pretty big spot about 28'x80'!

I'm thinking we'll divide it in half and use one half for a Spring garden and the other half for our Summer garden.

Feb 15th we'll be planting garden peas, lettuce, ice taters, butter beans and maybe some cauliflower and turnips. Still planning it all out - I'm so excited! :D

Nourishing Traditions

2011-01-26T13:04:00.003-07:00

When you think of the nourishing foods what do you think of?

The foods that come directly to my mind is homemade chicken soup, beef stew, or a pot roast with good vegetables homemade whole grain bread, things like that. These foods are rich and hearty and packed so full of nutrients good things for you.

I came across this book, Nourishing Traditions, a few years ago and have been wanting it so bad. I recently got it and haven't been able to put it down. It. Is. Amazing.

Essentially this is a cookbook that takes a look at many diet traditions (specifically pre-industrialized) around the world and comparing them to our modern diet. Not surprisingly these diets were all generally healthier and more nourishing than our diet today. And generally speaking people enjoyed greater health than we do today: "Fewer people alive at 70 today survive until 90 than forty years ago. And those who do survive past 70 are often helpless burden to their families, rather than useful members of society. Credit for today's relatively long life span belongs to improved sanitation and the reduction of infant mortality" They certainly didn't have our weight problems back then as we do know (which I know is somewhat attributed to the fact that our daily life doesn't involve as much labor, however take a look at the wealthy from the Edwardian era, they did not have much labor and routinely ate 11 course dinners most of them did not have the weight problems we do now at a fraction of their dietary intake).

I love that is challenges a lot of current nutrition and diet trends and truthfully goes against the guidelines set by the FDA in the Food Pyramid (for one it encourages eating more fat in the diet to promote brain health and absorption of fat soluble vitamins such as Vitamins A and D). To me there is a lot more validity in these traditional diets than the guidelines set forth by (in my estimation) greed. As the Food Pyramid guidelines are coming from a govt who is heavily invested in our grain and corn production is it any wonder they would encourage eating more grains than anything else?

Here are some other fascinating things I've come across:

Speaking on butter: "Many studies have show the importance of butterfat for reproduction; its absence results in "nutritional castration," the failure to bring out male and female sexual characteristics. As butter consumption in America has declined sterility rates and problems with sexual development have increased. In calves, butter substitutes are unable to promote growth or sustain reproduction . . . The only good source of fat-soluble vitamins in the American diet, one sure to be eaten, is butterfat."

On eating too much sugar (strange how relatively little you hear about cutting out sugar from your diet, I wonder if that has anything to do with the Sugar Quota the govt has been involved in ): "Sugar consumption is positively associated with cancer in humans and test animals. Tumors are known to be enormous sugar absorbers. Research indicates that it is fructose, not the glucose, moiety of sugar that is the most harmful, especially for growing children. Yet the greatest increase in sugar consumption during the last two decades is from high fructose corn syrup used on soft drinks, ketchup and many other fabricated foods aimed at children. . . . Most people who have "got religion" about nutrition have learned through experience that sugar and white flour are inimical to good health, and they know who difficult it is to give these things up on a society whose eating habits are based on them."

On fermented vegetables and fruits: "People knew how to preserve vegetables for long periods of time without the use of freezers or canning machines. This was done through a process of lacto-fermentation. Lactic acid is a natural preservative that inhibits putrefying bacteria" (by producing a good type of bacteria, lactobacilli). "the proliferation of lactobacilli in fermented vegetable enhances their digestibility and increase vitamin levels. These beneficial organiasms produce numerous helpful enzymes as well as antibiotic and anticarcinogenic substances. Their main by-product, lactic acid, not only keeps vegetables and fruits in a state of perfect preservation but also promotes and healthy flora throughout the intestine." Examples of fermented vegetables and fruits are sauerkraut, kimchi, pickled cucumbers (although best if done yourself with using whey), pickled beets, tofu, chutneys, and berry preserves (what we used to eat for jams and jellies).

On whole grains: "The well meaning advice of many nutritionists, to consume whole grains as our ancestors did and not refined flours and polished rice, is misleading. . . for while our ancestors ate whole grains, they did not consume them as presented in our modern cookbooks in the form of quick-rise breads, granolas, and other hastily prepared casseroles and concoctions. Our ancestors and virtually all preindustrialized peoples, soaked or fermented their grains before making them into porridge, breads, cakes and casseroles. . . . In India rice and lentils are fermented for at least two days before the are prepared. . . ; in Africa the natives soak coarsely ground corn overnight before adding to soups and stews; Mexican corn cakes, called pozol, are fermented for several days and as long as two weeks in banana leaves; before the introduction of commercial brewers yeast, Europeans made slow-rise breads from fermented starters; in America the pioneers were famous for their sourdough breads, pancakes, and biscuits; and and throughout Europe grains were soaked overnight, and for as long as several days, in water or soured milk before the were cooked and served as porridge and gruel. . . . All gains contain phytic acid . . . in the outer layer or bran. Untreated phytic acid can combine with calcium, magnesium, copper, iron, and especially zinc in the intestinal tract and block their absorption. This is why a diet high in unfermented whole grains may lead to serious mineral deficiencies and bone loss, as little as seven hours of soaking in warm water will neutralize a large portion of phytic acid in grains. . . . Soaking in warm water also neutralizes enzyme inhibitors, present in all seeds, and encourage the production of numerous beneficial enzymes. The action of these enzymes also increase the amounts of many vitamins, especially B vitamins" Ok there is so much more great stuff there about whole grains I could type out her whole intro to that chapter.

She also talks about how great homemade broths are for you and how great eggs are for you. Once you can get past the hippie cover of the book it's super amazing and I highly recommend it. One thing I love about it is that there are many things that are very accessible, and are things to work towards, like the more exotic flavors (she address using organ meats), but you can make changes to start today that are beneficial. It's very well-rounded and balanced as far as dishes go. It will help the baker to learn how to preserve foods better, the main dish gourmet to venture into sweet treats, etc. She never says go without eating a certain thing (except refined flour and sugar and only easting sugars and sweets sparingly, which I think we all know at this point), food it something to be enjoyed again as it once was. And it's strange, but after her book, and some others I honestly feel like I can make my own food to taste so, so much better than I can buy frozen, ready-made, boxed up, or even ordered out at most restaurants. It's awesome!

Boots & Oscar

2011-01-19T08:02:00.000-07:00

Here are our new babies, Boots (the black one) and Oscar (white).

They're brothers and they are so, so cute.

We got them Monday and at first they were so scared and so curious at the same time

They love getting into all kinds of things! Socks never climbed up on anything, but these two guys are are all over the place!

There isn't anything funnier than two kittens playing - they crack us up all the time.

Also they don't mew very much, but trill and chirp more like little birds :)

Even as little as they are we can already see their different personalities coming out:

Oscar is out little lap cat. He is so loving and sweet and loves to cuddle up in a lap

Craig has a new best friend

He was stretched out forever on Craig's lap, he's also a little lazier than Boots

Isn't that so sweet?

Boots is a little more shy and cautious about us petting him and sitting in our lap

But then he's much more playful with his toys than Oscar

Hopefully he'll warm up to us soon - but this little guy is hilarious to watch play, he pounces and attacks and runs all over the place.

He's also the comforter of the two: If Oscar doesn't know where Boots is then he'll start crying for his brother. Boots will come right out of his hiding place (usually underneath the couch) and go comfort his brother like he saying "Here I am, it's ok!" So, so sweet.

Christmas Snow

2010-12-26T18:38:00.002-07:00

Well technically this is the day after Christmas snow. It started to fall last night and hasn't stopped falling yet. I think I mentioned before that snow here is pretty rare, but the East Coast has been pounded the last two days and brought probably 6" or 7" - that's huge here! Also Papa said that in the last 60 years there has only been Christmas Snow one other time around here, so it's really special.

Snow out here still has that magic to it that it did before I lived in Utah and had to learn how to drive in it and live day to day because the world pretty much stops around here when snow falls, church is cancelled and everything is closed down. We even made Snow Cream - Yum!

This is what we woke up to!

Craig is coming out to investigate

We wandered around our property and the woods in the back to check things outs - it was beautiful!

The birds around our place were going crazy. They were out flying and playing and chirping like it was springtime. I think they didn't know what to do with all this snow around.

I'd never seen a Cardinal before living out here and now we have a few nesting around our place so I can see them a lot!

The bright red Cardinal against the snow is so, so beautiful. These Cardinal pictures really looks so much prettier bigger.

Also Craig is the best and got me the sweetest present ever. I don't know if there are many of you out there that loved the American Girl collection, but my sisters and I LOVED them. We read all the Felicity, Kirsten, Samantha and Molly books over and over again. We started getting the doll catalogs and spent hours and hours pouring over them picking out which doll we liked best and all her clothes and accessories just dreaming we could get them - but if you are an AG fan you know they are pricey. Well Craig has good ears and heard me talking about how much I wanted one growing up and this is what I got for Christmas:

My very own Samantha Doll (my favorite one)!! AG has discontinued her so I didn't even know it was possible to get her. It was so sweet and I was just like a little girl again when I saw it. He is seriously the best ever!!

Jimmy Stewart giving thanks to our Savior

2010-12-22T10:28:00.000-07:00

This is probably one of my favorite scenes about Christmas. The way Jimmy Stewart approaches Baby Jesus is incredibly touching probably because you get the sense that it was really how the actor felt towards the Savior. That feeling of love, gratitude, and belief is missing in the world today and it's wonderful to be reminded of it through this film.

If you want to watch the whole show go here

Merry Christmas!

Pockets

2010-12-19T18:32:00.000-07:00

In Primary this morning Sister T asked E, (our nephew) to hand over the toy he was playing with.

Which he did, she then asked him to hand over any more in his pockets;

so he did . . . again,

and again,

and again

. . .

All of this came out of his pockets!

In the end no one could contain their laughter.

Rough Weekend

2010-12-13T09:49:00.001-07:00

Socks was hit and had to be put down (but not before he crawled from the road with a broken back and head trauma back to the house - it's so sad to even think about that)

Then Craig and Papa lost their contract with the Church, so now no job.

Truthfully losing Socks hurts more than losing employment.

Some pretty heavy hearts around here, we know that Heaven will provide, but it still hurts.

Road to Emmaus

2010-12-07T08:29:00.002-07:00

Ok I'm hoping someone out there can help me out!

It's no secret that sometimes I have a hard time with LDS music, a lot of it is so, so ridiculously cheesy (remember Family Man?). But there is one song from my mission that I absolutely love and can't find it anywhere. The problem is it was my companion's burned cd and I have idea the title or what cd it was originally on. But I do know this much:

The song is telling the story of the two men on the road to Emmaus
Shockingly enough two men sing the song (I include this tidbit because when I searched it I found a variety of singers singing about the road to Emmaus)
The two lines I remember are: "did not our hearts burn when he was by our side" and "when our hearts burn that's when truth is born" ( just not sure if it "you" or "our", "is" or "was", "burn" or "burned".)

When I try to search any song about the road to Emmaus or using those lyrics I can't find it at all - that's never happened to me before :(

If those clues help you to remember this song please let me know!! Even thinking about it takes me right back to the mission, it just has that feeling for me, so I would love to find it. Help!

Trudi and Somer, I really appreciate your help!, unfortunately it's not a cover of the Hilary Weeks one. :( It's not the right lyrics or the right music (although that song is beautiful). Thank you though for trying to help me!

Christmas Preparations

2010-12-05T20:44:00.002-07:00

Whew - I'm on a roll. It helps that this time of year is so full of traditions so I have more fun things to write about - and that I'm home alone for the next few days while Craig is out of town with his dad.

Christmas preparations are well on their way.

I mentioned before that just about all our Christmas shopping is finished, now I have most of them wrapped too (such a stress reliever for me - I'm finding the older I get the more stressed out I get when things are left to last minute)

Our little tree once again. I'm thinking that we'll get a big one at the after Christmas sales so we'll have a "proper" Christmas tree next year.

We added a few new decorations this year.

Last week while helping his mom get down and putting up her decorations we discovered that we had the same musical rocking horse growing up! I don't know why, but little things like that are really special to the two of us. That was it, we had to find one of our own (we can't steal all our parents decorations :). Craig was awesome and found one on eBay that very night. How awesome is that?!

He plays Santa Claus is Coming to Town and rocks up and down.

Aunt Annie May made this beautiful centerpiece for us! Can you believe she made it? I loved that it fit so well with the lots of red and gold I already had. His aunts are especially giving to us and we appreciate it so much!

I really love the little red cardinal

I also am planning on putting a little chocolate goodies filled tin together for a few people (like sweet Miss Lucy). I'm really excited to see how they all turn out! Here's what I have on my list so far:

White Chocolate Peppermint bark

Dark Chocolate Truffles

Oreo Truffles (Milk and White Chocolate)

Chocolate Chip Cookies (Thanks Katie!)

Chocolate Almond Sticks

(this one I'm so excited to try because it uses nutella - I will forever thank Becky R for introducing me to such divinity.)

Any other chocolate goodness suggestions?

Hope you're enjoying the Christmas season too!

Karma

2010-12-04T18:01:00.001-07:00

This is what I get for my previous post.

7 hours later this is what we found:

Craig's dad and uncle both said they have never seen it snow this early before (it's pretty uncommon for it to snow in the first place, and even more uncommon to stick).

Karma is a beast.

Winter Driving

2010-12-04T08:33:00.001-07:00

Words cannot describe how happy I am not to have to worry about this anymore:

<br/><a href="http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/seattle-drivers-are-powerless-against-ice/20hl521m?q=Icy+road&rel=msn&from=en-us_msnhp&form=msnhed&gt1=42007&fg=sharenoembed" target="_new"title="Seattle Drivers are Powerless Against Ice">Video: Seattle Drivers are Powerless Against Ice</a>

<br/><a href="http://www.bing.com/videos/watch/video/car-cant-make-hill-in-snow/207djpkz?q=Snow&rel=msn&from=en-us_msnhpc&form=msnhed&gt1=42007&playermode=&ad=&adFull=&adPartial=&timePlaying=&gallery.categoryRequests=videobytag.aspx%3fmk%3dus%26vs%3d0%26ns%3dgallery%26tag%3dv5%2520hero%2520playlist%26sf%3dVideoId%26ipt%3d1&fg=sharenoembed" target="_new"title="Car Can't Make Hill In Snow">Video: Car Can't Make Hill In Snow</a>

Southern Flavor Holidays

2010-12-01T20:28:00.000-07:00

We had a great Thanksgiving thanks to these ladies:

Aunt Glennie, Aunt Ruth and Aunt Annie May

This ladies can whip up one amazing meal.

We had about over 20 people there so it was no small feat to feed everyone

And it was no small feat to get pictures of most everyone -

I had to sneak the pics by not using flash, but then most of my pics turned out blurry :(

Here's some of the spread

Shoot I guess I wrote it too small to read - we had fired and oven turkey, green beans, hush puppies, sweet potato fluff, black-eyed peas, and so much more.

And the desserts - wow!

I must say my favorite was the pecan pie and red velvet

(oh and I totally say pee-can now, not pee-cahn, I can't help myself!)

I made this beauty:

Apple pie with a crisp n caramel topping.

Turned out pretty good!

My favorite thing was the homemade biscuits though

Made by the wonderful Aunt Ruth

I will say though I missed some of my family's special recipes (like our mashed potatoes and raspberry vinaigrette salad and Turkey Ole leftovers.)

The good was amazing, but it was really nice to get to know Craig's family even better. They are really the best (and I think the love that I get so interested in their cooking/baking).

Hope you all had a great Thanksgiving too!!

Also I must say I'm feeling great about Christmas coming up too. It's December 1st and I have all the Christmas shopping done (minus stocking stuffers) and all of Craig's presents wrapped. Now to just enjoy the month!

Happy Holidays!!

Our Little Tree!

2010-11-19T19:21:00.001-07:00

In honor of our new place we have been wanting to plant a new tree, just to mark the occasion. We really wanted one that was showy in the fall and here he is:

Just a little guy, but I'm really excited to see how he grows.

Craig was super resourceful for this one and we actually didn't even have to buy it, he found it buried back in the pine groves where it would have died because it really wasn't getting enough light and was quickly being crowded out by the pines. So we dug it up and brought it out for us to plant. If you look closely you can see how all the leaves are facing one direction trying to catch as much precious sunlight as it could in it's old place.

The color is just what we were looking for, a nice reddish orange.

He's looking pretty good so far - I hope he makes it!

Hodgepodge

2010-11-18T09:45:00.004-07:00

A family of rabbits is now living in our blueberry bushes. They're really cute, but I'm afraid for my garden and blueberry crop next year. Rabbit stew? Not sure I could bring myself to really kill the rabbits though, but I know they'll get to my garden . . .

Facebook free for two weeks now. It was just time to kick the habit.

Loving the cookbook The Pioneer Woman Cooks, I want to make almost every single recipe and that's pretty rare for most cookbooks I see. I love her Sour Cream Pancakes, Cornbead and Beans (oh and learned to cook dried beans - only 100x better than canned), and Pizza Crust - can't wait to make her Creme Brulee and Red Velvet Cake. She was on Throwdown with Bobby Flay last night (I only saw the last 15 min) and she is so cute - I really hope they re-air it soon so I can catch the rest of it. Seriously she has my dream life.

Kicked the Glee habit too. The show has lost so much of it's original charm and I'm a little over celebrity guest stars and everything having to be controversial and edgy.

Vacation - last month we went down to Disneyland and a few days on the Queen Mary. It was really fun, but very tiring. Some highlights:

Love the pumpkin Disney characters

Family! And pumpkin Mickey

Craig finally met Donald Duck - check out that smile

The Haunted Mansion is the real star for Disney during the Holidays - it was like a totally new ride

I think we went on it about 5 or 6 times.

Craig's b-day surprise on the Queen Mary

It was delicious!

My family joined us on the QM and we took them on a tour (one of our favorite nights of the vacation)

Scott ended up playing on one of QM original pianos. It was awesome!!

So excited for a Southern thanksgiving next week. Craig's 3 aunts are amazing cooks and from what I hear not only is there a turkey, but ham and chicken. Then the sides sweet potatoes, butter beans (I LOVE butter beans), biscuits, collards (still not a fan, maybe one day), amazing stuffing (only they call it dressing), and of course the deserts sweet potato pie, pecan pie as only a Southern woman can make it (I've had it before, it's heaven in your mouth), cakes (yes several varieties, I hope one is red velvet) I'm making apple pie - but I don't think it will compare to their years and experience. I'll be sure to take lots of pictures.

Also we have Christmas pig pickin' coming up and a Christmas Candy making day scheduled and I'm super excited for both days. I'll miss my family this year for sure, but this is our first with Craig's so I'm loving learning all these new traditions.

This is Halloween, everybody make a scene

2010-10-31T21:31:00.001-06:00

Happy Halloween!

We had a pretty chill, but pretty fun Halloween this year:

No costumes, but Halloween movies and treats with the family (Nightmare Before Christmas which is one of the best Halloween movie of all time) and we told a few ghost stories and scared the young'uns (nieces and nephew) and that's always fun ;)

We were sure to get all decked out for the event!

Halloween is Craig's favorite holiday, so we were sure to get it it just right.

About 70% of all our decorations are from Craig's childhood (or replacements - like the Happy Halloween sign above)

The Disney tin is from our recent trip and the haunted house is from Craig's childhood (he actually broke it to bits several time, but his mom knew how much Craig loved it and pieced it back each time - so sweet)

This haunted house was the newest addition this year - it's pretty awesome.

We had a pretty great Halloween and hope you all did too!

Hopefully soon I'll finally put up some pictures of out trip to Disneyland and the Queen Mary.

Oh and because it's awesome I'm leaving you all with the pumpkin my brother carved.

I know - it's freakin' amazing!

Work makes me not want to blog :)

2010-10-23T13:55:00.000-06:00

I try not to talk about work too much, but I feel I need to explain my lack of blogging.

The last few months at work has been crazy, crazy, crazy. Got welcomed back from vacation last week with over 660 emails. But I should have expected about that much since I seem to be getting about 100 emails a day and send out at least 50 or so in return. Plus the endless work chat/ calls that goes on all day long (even after "hours").

It makes me never want to email, comment, facebook, or blog post ever again. Sorry about that folks. I really enjoy reading your blogs and I want to comment but honestly some days the thought of typing one more word than I need to is just too much. I'm not really trying to complain about work, just let you all know what's up. I guess we just got to do what we got to do.

Hopefully one day things will calm down (or better yet hopefully one day we'll have so much work they'll need to hire someone to help! That would be great!) Until then just know if and when I comment/post I really love ya! :D

Sad Day - Socks has a new home

2010-10-09T20:54:00.001-06:00

This has been a hard week, and I'm certain next week will make up for it, today is an especially bittersweet day.

Socks is back with the in-laws and he is there to stay.

When we took him over there we realized within two minutes that he wouldn't be coming home with us.

First of all Socks is really the sweetest cat ever.

When he had ear mites he was so good about letting me put medicine in his ears (he never, ever struggled, he is so. so patient). Socks loves being around people (when he is sleeping the day away he is either in the office with me or by the door waiting for Craig), he's always got to be right in the center of any group of people.

this is my fav pic of him, flopped right on the chair in the office

He loves to play and is so, so loving and lately he's taken to following us around everywhere (to the point where he will wait outside the door for us whenever we're showering or in the restroom). He purrs and cuddles with us.

I am no pet person and I fell in love, Craig fell even harder (Socks was especially attached to Craig and was his shadow from the moment Craig came home). It's hard to even describe how sweet of a cat he is.

Isn't that the best cat ever?

My second favorite "flopped" picture

We knew that the transition to our place was a little hard for Socks, he was mostly an outdoor cat, (he loved climbing in and around Papa's tractors and lawnmowers) and loved play with the in-law's cat, Termite. At our place he didn't like going outside unless one of us was with him, and every morning sometime around 4 or 5 or 6am he would start "knocking" or scratching at our bedroom door (we realize now that he and Termite would play all night long, so he had some lonely nights while he was away and was just craving a friend by 5am). But we felt he was making progress.

Here he wiggled his way right in between Craig and I on the couch.

Today when we took him over we knew he had never really adjusted over the last month. He jumped out of the car and knew exactly where he was. His tail and ears perked right up and he went to check out his favorite tractor. Then when he spotted Termite his world lit up. He was so happy! (you know that youtube video of the lion, Christian, reunited with his friends? that was Socks' reaction when he saw Termite again) He ran right over and pounced taking Termite by surprise, but she remembered him right away and that was it - the two went right off playing with each other the rest of the evening, he didn't even eat he was too busy playing. He wouldn't even let us come near him because he didn't want us to take him back.

We had no idea he was missing her so much (or that Termite missed him so much, she was just as glad to see him too). It wasn't until tonight we realized that they were best friends and they need to stay together (we told Papa that it's a good thing Termite was spayed or they would have kittens on their hands every 6 months :). It was so sad and so sweet at the same time. We're sad not to have Socks anymore, but glad that he's really happy with his friend.

Babies, the movie

2010-10-08T07:13:00.005-06:00

Finally, finally I was able to see this (sorry Miss Katie, I'm still sad I moved before it came out in Utah and we could see it). But it is adorable!

My favorite baby? Baby Bayer from Mongolia - he had the cutest chubbiest cheeks ever, and he was the most smiley and good natured, then probably Ponijiao from Africa (he was probably the most mischievous).

I loved seeing how different cultures baby their baby. It just shows something we all know, all they need is lovin'.

I would definitely recommend it, it's a little slower paced than I expected and really it's just about the babies - not even a narrator to give back stories. But still so adorable and so good.

For the mindful, there is native nudity from the African family (and one time from the American family - mama takes a dip in the pool with baby, and you see back and side shots) overall I felt portrayed tastefully, and part of one birth shown.

This is why I love our place

2010-09-29T13:20:00.000-06:00

This is my view from my back door. I love it - no backyard neighbors, just a wooded area, so private.

I love it so much, mostly because growing up my Grandma's backyard opened up to a some woods and I remember spending hours and hours playing back there.

Socks likes looking out the back door so much it's become his favorite napping place.

There's our side back yard. I love our trees! So far I know we have:

Dogwood Trees - we have at least 10 and they are so pretty in the spring

Tulip Poplar - pretty spring blossoms and pretty yellow leaves in the fall

Black Gum (the black gum are the bare trees you see - it got too hot for them this year and they dropped all their leaves early)

Red Bud (red blossoms in Spring)

Cypress

Pine

Magnolia (huge pretty white blossoms)

We're going to plant River Birch and Autumn Blaze pretty soon too.

All of these big nice trees bring lots of birds and I love hearing them in the morning. We especially have lots of mocking birds.

Here's is the view from the Master - it's looking out to our side yard, my garden area.

I can't wait to dig into it next spring!

I wish I could get pictures that help you feel how peaceful the yard is. And even though it's really private we're still only 5 mins away from the grocery store and Bojangles (I hate to admit that a fast food place has good food, normally I can't stand the stuff, but they have great biscuits - it's a good thing I don't go very often, but if you some to visit I'll be sure to take you! You have to, for the name alone :)

Socks vs the Mailbox

2010-09-23T17:10:00.000-06:00

Well our mailbox lost a battle with a car the other day (or maybe they both lost, it dented the car pretty bad - and you can see why below).

This, my friends, is what you call a jumbo mailbox. I never even knew this size existed before!

Socks didn't quite know what to make of it.

He tried to get away from it, but there is no escaping this beast.

So he decided that it wasn't so bad after all. Too bad it's going on it's pole in the front soon, instead of becoming he's new bed.

Dining Room

2010-09-22T18:00:00.000-06:00

Here is another one of my favorite spots in our new place

The tables and china cabinet fit better than I had hoped for!

Not bad for $200.

Shaina, I have the apron and table runner up :)

I do want to get a little centerpiece for the table when I find the right one.

And on the opposite wall I have my little Holiday shelf

(currently set up for Fall and with a few quick changes will be Halloween ready on 10/1)

The paneling is still the same, I'm waiting a little while before painting it. I just want to get a real good feel for the space, furniture/decor, and lighting (natural and from our fixtures and we're in the process of changing it all right now). So I'll live with it for a few months or so.

And there is another happy note!

Since moving out here I've gained about 12lbs! (Staying with the in-laws didn't allow for much control over my diet - but still so grateful for their generosity) But I've lost 3lbs already :), and hoping the rest will come off pretty easily.

My Library

2010-09-20T17:00:00.002-06:00

We have been busy, but we're moved in!

The last couple of weeks have been boxes and boxes (and they're still lurking around):

But it feels so good to be here - we're pretty worn out most days (Craig's already combated one leak), cleaning, moving, unpacking, buying necessities, it's pretty tiresome, but still so good!

The house is coming together pretty well, and so far my favorite spot is my little library corner.

I remember President Hinckley mentioned that every home should have one quiet corner for a library and I've wanted one every since I heard that. So Craig bought me a second bookcase and I set one up in my office and I love it! (yes Stacia that is your painting on the right in the bookcase)

"When I was a boy we lived in a large old house. One room was called the library. It had a solid table and a good lamp, three or four comfortable chairs with good light, and books in cases that lined the walls. There were many volumes—the acquisitions of my father and mother over a period of many years.

We were never forced to read them, but they were placed where they were handy and where we could get at them whenever we wished.

There was quiet in that room. It was understood that it was a place to study.

In so many of our homes today there is not the possibility of such a library. Most families are cramped for space. But with planning there can be a corner, there can be an area that becomes something of a hideaway from the noises about us where one can sit and read and think. It is a wonderful thing to have a desk or a table, be it ever so simple, on which are found the standard works of the Church, a few good books, the magazines issued by the Church, and other things worthy of our reading."

Craig and Socks even visit me now in my office/library:

(sorry the pics are so blurry, these are from my phone, somehow I managed to melt part of my camera and now the batteries can't stay in)

Lesson 256 that Heaven watches out for us

2010-09-07T15:44:00.000-06:00

Since I work at home now I have to file quarterly taxes (let me tell you how fun that is). This is my first time to pay them and I didn't figure it out right so I was $x00 short. Well with closing on a house, plus paying for taxes, plus deposits on utilities, plus getting (some) furniture, plus Craig having to go to the Urgent Care for his eye (he's ok, but they like taking $) and I was more than a little stressed for unaccounted extra money.

Enter Heaven's hand.

We closed today (!!!!!) and our closing costs was $x90 less than what the bank estimated it to be. I couldn't believe (especially since I've been hearing story after story about how closing costs were usually hundreds more). Wow, it feels like with every upcoming milestone we have to cross the blessings come (amongst the stretching and growing, but they come, every time).

謝謝天父!

The Greatest Camp Chair

2010-09-01T08:44:00.000-06:00

Wow! I mean - 6 cup holders, does that mean that 6 people can sit in it? I'm thinking yes.

Bedrooms/Office

2010-08-31T08:00:00.004-06:00

Here are the rest of the bedrooms and the office.

Based on these pictures it's really easy to see that half the house still has the 50's charm (3 bedrooms, office, blue bathroom, and kitchen) and half was the addition in the 70's (Master bed and bath, living room/dining area). Funny how the older side need fewer changes than the newer (the 70's was a tragic era. :)

I love the wood floors and old 50's closets complete with pull-chain lights (they're awesome!)

I don't plan on doing anything to these rooms for a while, maybe until our kidlets are old enough to want to change them up.

Guest room/Little Princess Room

Pink wallpaper is not my fav, but livable.

It's actually a pretty good-size (12'x12') The layout they used isn't the best in here

Food Storage/Little Bud's Room

Actually I wouldn't change anything in this one.

This one we'll leave the same -

The wall paper has little sail boats on it and so we'll use it to put Craig's Titanic/Ocean liner items in it, under lock and key.

My little office space (and you can see the front door that is never used)

I want to find/build a window seat/chest to put right where the love seat is.

And there you have the tour of our little house - it's got some cosmetic work to do to it, but I like that. It will give us ownership of the place and we'll work to make it ours.

2nd Bathroom

2010-08-30T08:00:00.000-06:00

Hello blue!

I actually like this bathroom and I love the sink (you can't really see the style of it in this picture, but it's totally from the 50's and I love it). I also love that the linen closet to the side has a built in 50's laundry hamper.

I would like to freshen this up by painting the top half of the walls and maybe the linen closet a creamy color, switch out the lighting and curtains for something brighter, maybe add a new mirror and call it good.

Scary Master Bathroom

2010-08-29T08:00:00.001-06:00

Warning: This post is intentionally posted on the Sabbath so that when you see these pics you're even less likely to let out an expletive.

This is the other reason we almost didn't put in an offer:

Oh my word!! The toilet is even a mustard yellow.

Honestly I think this bathroom may one day be a gut job if we ever have enough $.
(goodness with all my talk of changing things around I make it sound like money is so easy to come by - fortunately most what I want to do is paint - this is about the only really big thing I would love to tear apart :)

My sister, Stacia (who is very stylish) said that she thinks if we replace the two sinks, the toilet and get rid of the wallpaper (still kinda pricey) and put in the right vintage decor we might be able to make it look nice. She may have just said that to make me feel better, but I can hope she's right and it's probably the least expensive solution.

I still think we should gut the whole thing and redo it. I've already envisioned how I would.

Maybe one day, until then we live in the 1970's bathroom. Blah blah blah. . .

I just remember the shops, garden, extra bedroom and office to make up for this, it can't all be perfect and even with this bathroom, it is perfect enough. :D

Master Bedroom

2010-08-28T08:00:00.006-06:00

So when we first saw this place the master bedroom was both a surprise and a disappointment. Surprise because it's much bigger than most MB we saw, disappointment because of that dang 70's paneling and the bright teal (yes teal) carpet. The owners added on to the house in the 70's and that's where this room and living/dining area and the master bath all came from.

More paneling, great

Ok, I should note this paneling is not painted.

The paneling was intentionally done with a white birch kind of look to it.

What do you do with a room like this?

We don't have it in our budget to replace the carpeting or put up drywall anytime soon. So we're kind of stuck with this. But I've decided that once we paint the paneling to smooth out the walls (envision a more sea gray on the wall to really make the trim pop) and embrace the teal carpet we could have an awesome seaside kind of looking room
UPDATE: Craig told me today that actually we will replace the carpet soon. Wow! Yay! - so basically that changes everything. Now I'm not sure how I want to approach this - I still think a seaside style has a peaceful feel to it that is good for a bedrooms.

I found this website and it saved everything that I felt about teal/turquoise:

Everything Turquoise

Our bedspread is a beige, so I'm thinking of bringing lots of stuff into the room with a seaside feel to it: sandy beiges, browns, teals, sea greens and blues, white, seashells.

Here is just a sampling that site:

shell dishes

blue birds are not real seasidy, but it could work maybe (that bird is darling to me)

I really love these storage bins

Now the plan is just to wait out the teal carpet until we change it - that's exciting :)

Living/Dining Room

2010-08-27T08:00:00.001-06:00

We almost didn't get the house because of this area:

Why oh why is there paneling?!

It was such a turn off for me.

Seriously I was almost ready to walk away from this place because of it (and place met everyone of our wants), but the paneling! I want the wood on the floor, not the walls. :)

Since replacing the panels with drywall is too expensive our option is to paint it. I searched the internets and found these images that gave me some hope:

Nice Painted Wood Paneling

DYI design

And this article was the greatest: Why Men Fear Painting Wood with more nice images.

We did happen to go into the home of a friend of ours and she had painted paneling that was just like this kind - it looked pretty good! We didn't even notice it was paneling for half an hour - that was my final go-ahead moment.

I think the painted panels would give us a more farmhouse feel - and I kind of love that look. I'm still debating about the shades, but I'm thinking a sandy or a beige color with a white trim, although yellow is warming up to me (ooh like a light yellow with chocolate brown sofa and wood furniture). I need to keep it pretty neutral since I know that it will will be a long time before I can paint it again. Any suggestions? My only hesitancy is that I think the white trim look may be too trendy and look really dated in a few years. Do you think so?

Anyone vote I keep the wood paneling? ;)

My Kitchen

2010-08-26T08:00:00.000-06:00

Here is my kitchen:

Things I love about it:

Open shelving (love), even though the counters are laminate it has the look of wood (maybe if I'm lucky one day we'll be able to put in real butcher block counters), potato and onion bins from the 50's - so awesome (I'll show a picture when I can), fairly spacious (even though it doesn't look it, it's quite roomy), it certainly doesn't have the look of a modern kitchen - but I kind of like that.

Things are are not so hot:

What is the washing machine doing there?! (eventually we'll move it out), dim lighting, cabinets are a dingy grey/white

My basic kitchen update plans:

Paint the cupboards a brighter/creamier white, bring in better lighting, replace handles, paint walls green

Kind of like this:

What do you think? Personally I love the green walls and white cupboards!
(side note: I love that brick with green cupboard island - wouldn't that be dreamy?)

I want the kitchen very apply or minty fresh feel.

Instead of the yellow accent I would like to have a little red

(remember my red kitchen aid - it should pop in there!)

I'm having a lot of fun envisioning what to put on the open shelves.

I do love the look of vintage milk glass like these:

Milk glass bowl
P.S. Craig got me this bowl for my birthday! (I actually wrote this post before he got it for me :)

Milk glass dish

Milk glass pedestal dishes

And I love cherry prints so I would love to throw something in like these cherry towels:

The awesome thing is I already have an adorable cherry print apron and table runner with hot pad from my wonderful sister, so I am well on my way to a minty/cherry fresh kitchen!

Svedi Pie

Stephen Arthur

Weekend on the Queen Mary

We had a great weekend!

Middle of the Road News

Christmas Pictures

Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree

Happy Halloween!!

Halloween & Spooky Town Videos

Why Do you No Longer Believe?

Our Cat is So Fat . . .

MumFest

Wayne County Fair

October Glory

It's October - Fall Spring Blossoms

Christmas Shopping

Hurricane Irene

Girl's Evil Plans

Kiva

But God does not work this way

Pioneers

Why you shouldn't look through "People You May Know" on Facebook

Summer

Sideshow Bob

Les Miz

Love Never Dies?

Pinterest

40lbs

2 Years =

Summer Garden

Oscar wears the cone of shame

His Sacred Name

P-51, F-4, A-10, F-15

Changing Colors

Double Delight

Tulip Festival - aka we really need to get a camera

Crown

Strawberry/Blueberry Blossoms

First Day of Spring!

Queen Mary

Strawberries

Apple Trees!

Little House on the Prairie

Sugar Maples!

Carrots!

Tulip Trees :)

More Spring Planting: Lilies

Roses and Daffodils

The Peas are Popping Up!

Spring Surprises

Spring Garden!

The seeds are in! And the rabbits are already out

Heirloom Seeds

Taming Blackberry Bushes

Blackberry, Maple and Dogwood

Gardening Goals

The Force

Starting the 2011 Garden

Nourishing Traditions

Boots & Oscar

Christmas Snow

Jimmy Stewart giving thanks to our Savior

Pockets

Rough Weekend

Road to Emmaus

Christmas Preparations

Karma

Winter Driving

Southern Flavor Holidays

Our Little Tree!

Hodgepodge

This is Halloween, everybody make a scene

Work makes me not want to blog :)

Sad Day - Socks has a new home

Babies, the movie

This is why I love our place

Socks vs the Mailbox

Dining Room

My Library

Lesson 256 that Heaven watches out for us