Black Thumb No More

So, remember the sticks in my office and how I said that I don't have a green thumb, but in fact have a black thumb (the death kind, not the racist kind)? Well, I've decided to try to do something about it.

When we bought our house (almost a year ago), the curb appeal was one of the clinchers of the deal for us. The previous owners had done a lot of really nice landscaping in the front yard, and I've had quite a few comments that we have one of the nicer lawns in the neighborhood - I take no credit, it's all the previous owners' talents here.

But after a winter of dormancy, the only thing of much predominance in our yard a couple months ago was weeds. We had weeds covering our grass, weeds that were so big that they flowered more than the plants I potted, weeds that had become bush-like and heinous along the side of our house, weeds that were verging on 6-feet tall intermingled with rose bushes. So, this weekend, we decided to end the curse, and make nice with the green.

Saturday, Joel mowed, pruned, and began weeding. I went to Lowe's and bought flowers, finished weeding, and planted. I have to say, I think it looks really nice. You know how I like before and after pics ... so here we go with the before:

This is the front - it's yellowed a little from the winter, and just over all kind of ... blah.

The planting bed beneath one of our palm trees actually became covered with these green weeds, and a couple days ago sprouted lovely lavendar blooms. It's a sad thing when the weeds are prettier than the plants you're trying to coax alive.

The side yard got taken over by these weeds by the time I got to them yesterday. Let's just say that there was no brown mulch to be seen. It was a weed-crazy jungle.

And the monkey grass was diseased, overgrown, and tamped down by one too many dogs using it as a toilet. I don't know what it is about monkey grass, but every time Finn sees some on our walk he has to get to it as fast as possible.

Here's our Afters.

We pruned the palms and the red trees on the left side of the house, as well as the bush half-way down the property line on the left. We did the weed/feed/ant killer thing with great results, and I think it already looks a lot better.

You can see off to the left of this picture that we cleaned off the planting beds under the palms and planted tiny little annuals. I like the cleaner look of them now - even though it was hard pulling out the one thing that did bloom like crazy.

I pulled out the weeds and planted an azalea bush - they're gorgeous down here, and I'm hoping that we'll have some of that beauty in our yard this time next year. The first time I found myself in an azalea garden in full bloom, I felt sure that this is what heaven will be like.
And, I planted geraniums along our front walk. I think it's a lot more cheerful and welcoming than the diseased monkey grass. And a little hanging basket tops it off as my favorite purchase of the day.
All in all, it was a very rewarding day. All we have to do now is upkeep and keep the beds weeded and the grass fed. I think we can do it! On to Operation Backyard! I'll keep you updated, if you care to follow the progress ...

A Day in the Life - April 11th, to be Exact

My friend Tawny lives near Seattle, and here I am almost as far away as we can get in the continental states, dangling my feet in the ocean on the southern East Coast. She and I lived together for a very short (but incredibly fun) month in Japan, but she became one of those people I feel like I've known my whole life, and if we don't see her in 10 years, I'll still know her. Just some of the details will be a little fuzzy, like the name of her second-born (sorry, Cheryl!).

So, we decided to share a photo journal of a day in our life, so we can see what our lives are like during the day to day. There was one catch - we couldn't dress it up for the cameras. I promised Tawny I wouldn't clean anything, and just do the normal stuff. So, that's what I've done. Since there were so many photos, I decided to document it here on the ol' blog so everyone could see how exciting my day is (not).

So if you ever wondered ... I'm throwing down my mystique at your feet, and hope we can still be friends after you realize how boring I am.

6:15am - Wake up to walk the dog. I hadn't even turned any lights on yet when I took this picture. Remember - I had just woken up. I don't think I'll win any beauty contests here.

The best thing about waking up to walk the dog is that he's so happy to see me. He blinks his eyes a few times, yawns, shakes, and stretches. Then he's awake and hyper as all get-out. He then drags me down the block on our "walk" which more closely resembles a "stumble."


After coming back from my walk, I look at the huge boxes in our garage room and wonder how they're going to fit in our garbage can, or if they'd even fit in my car. I have no idea how we're going to get rid of all this stuff. Maybe this is why so many people in Georgia burn their trash.


6:30am - Read scriptures. I'm reading Preach My Gospel right now and really enjoying it. I wish I wasn't so sleepy, and that I could discipline myself to wake up earlier. I enjoy it more when I wake up at 5:45am ... something I haven't been able to bring myself to do in the last few weeks.

Oh, and Finn always sits REALLY close to me while I read - like he's standing watch to make sure I do it, or something.

6:45am - Get ready. Finn sits and watches me do my hair and make-up every morning. I've trained him to sit outside the bathroom, otherwise he gets into all sorts of stuff. Look how good he is! (The bed remained unmade all day long, in case you're wondering)

7:15am - Eat breakfast. Lucky Charms and orange juice. If you're wondering why I have no pictures of Joel, those will come later - he refused to let me take his picture this early in the morning.

8:00am - My commute to work is one of my favorite parts of the day. This is why:

8:15am - My office building looks more like a Spanish monastery than an office building. It's really beautiful, especially in the morning mist.

But this is the door that I go in:

Welcome to the wonderful world of Service Quality
You thought it would be more glamorous, didn't you. It's not glamorous, but this is where Quality happens, believe me!

One of my morning routines is to do a tangram while my computer is booting up. What's a tangram, you ask? Why, it's a simple puzzle you've probably done before. I got a Tangram A Day calendar during the new year, so I do one every M-F.


10:00am - My office view. The beautiful back of the head I'm looking at is Virginia. She's a float who's helping us temporarily until we hire someone to take Celeste's place. She's great, but you can't tell all that from the back of her pretty head.

11:00 am - I really do work. Here's proof. And my window view. The sticks in the background are the carcass of an orchid my office gave me when I started last May. *sigh* It's pretty obvious that they didn't know about me and my "black" thumb (black as opposed to green, not that I'm racist).



12:30pm - The only thing out of the ordinary today was that Joel got to come visit me for lunch. Normally he has school, but he had the day off, so he picked me up for lunch on the island.


3:00pm - I know it seems like a long time, but I was working (see picture above of "working"). 3:00 is when my surge protector surged and neglected to protect. My computer went blank while I was working on a document I'd needed to send out on Monday. This is how I feel about the situation.

My boss, Patricia always has good words of advice for me when I get frustrated. She's really high in WOO (Winning Others Over) according to one personality test. If you ask me, she's a woman who can get things done, and help others feel really good about what they accomplish. But you be the judge.
4:00pm - So instead of typing, I make copies and put the room together for Orientation on Monday. This is the before:

And, I forgot to take an after, but imagine it more orderly, with name plates, binders, and pens at each chair. It looked nice. Then it's time to go home (after I revisit half-deleted document and send it out ... FINALLY!).

6:00pm - Finn gets really happy when I come home and demands to be played with for a little bit. He's so cute, who can deny him??

I read blogs of my friends and remembered Tawny's aversion to cheese. All that talk gave me a hankerin' for a big hunka cheese! So, this is for you, Tawny!

Did I ever tell you that I LOVE cheese?? This proves it:
8:00pm - We relax on the couch and watch some TV. We must have had dinner, but I don't remember what. Maybe I just ate that whole chunk of cheese, I really couldn't tell you. But here's my guys that I love more than anything in the whole world:

10:00pm - Some people can say they're a "morning person." Others are "nightowls." I somehow managed to lose out on both sides. By 10:00, I'm pretty much useless. You can decide if I look worse in the 6am photo or here - maybe that's how we'll determine which one I am. I just like sleeping.

11:00 - Carry Joel to bed (he's not really that sleepy, and I'm not really that strong).

So, that's it. That's my day from start to finish. I hope you liked it! And Tawny, I'm ready for yours anytime now!

We Are the Champions!

I can't believe we finally won! It was a really close game and I almost cried in the last few minutes of the second half. But, that three-point shot at the buzzer may be my favorite shot in history. As Adam said, "That's the kind of thing that happened to all the other teams we played - never to us!!"

We watched it on our enormous television, and at the end, during the celebrations, we felt like we were practically there. I touched the trophy:


Joel rejoiced with the team:


We both climbed the ladder with this guy to cut our bit of net:
And Finn cheered us on in between gnawing on his "hoop":
All in all, it was a wondrous occasion. We jumped up and down, I couldn't stop running around things (our kitchen island, our dinner table, the couch ...), Joel couldn't stop clapping (the Karpowitz Klap - it's louder than you might think - think, concentrated sportsmanship), and instead of running outside and screaming, and honking our horns and beating pots and pans together, I just flicked our porch light off and on for a good long time.

So, while we weren't at home in Kansas at Allen Fieldhouse like we wish we could have been, we're very glad to have participated at all. Life is good, ladies and gentlemen. Life is good.

Rock Chalk Jayhawk!!!!

I know I said my next post will be about Guitar Hero III, but I haven't had time to download pictures yet ... and after a week of more downs than ups, this was a welcome turn of events! My mom told me that 20 years ago today, KU won the NCAA Championship in 1988. Even though we haven't won the championship yet, it's really nice to get that monkey Roy Williams off our backs.

This is such a pretty headline and picture from the ESPN website:

KU Can Do, Too!

There were many favorite parts of watching the game tonight (in between the nail biters in the first 12 minutes of the second half), that it's hard to choose my favorite. But I think I'd have to rate them thusly:

5. The smiles on the bench in the last few minutes of the game ... after listening to the commentators talk about the faces of the game telling the outcome.

4. Hearing the announcers wrap up and say the sweet words, "KU wins over North Carolina!"

3. Calling my mom who watched the game at Allen Field House ... the roar of the crowd was deafening. After yelling "WHAT??" three times a piece and my mom dropping her phone, I think just the roar of the crowd was good enough.

2. The look of consternation on Roy William's face at the 6 minute mark.

1. Hearing the "Rock Chalk" chant 1 minute before the buzzer.

The Hawks Spread Their Wings as the Fat Lady Sings!! (I wonder if Kristen still has her T-shirt from 20 years ago ...). I'm definitely wearing KU colors to church tomorrow and work on Monday. No doubt about it.

ROCK CHALK!!