Camera-less

I promised myself I would start taking my camera everywhere I went so I would never miss out on a picture. Want to know how well that's working out for me? I can't even find my camera. It's probably thrown in behind my seat in the truck, or lying on the dryer from a busy afternoon of carrying in the groceries. Needless to say, I have missed a lot of wonderful opportunities to snap pictures of my everyday life.

I have missed out on being able to show you the new and innovative way of catching the horses at the ranch (which I created- and will never try again.) You would have seen me slowly driving the pickup and feeding carrots out the window to bait the horses. You would have gotten to see a picture of the dent in my truck from when they got in a fight over the carrots and kicked each other and my truck. You could have seen a couple of my friends sitting in the bed of that same truck pulling two roped horses, and hoping everyone else would follow. You missed out on the stampede that later took place when all the other horses realized the leaders were gone and then proceeded to pass the truck in a full out gallop toward the ranch house...followed by the rope burns on the hands that were holding the horses in tow when they decided to take off running with the herd. Hard to imagine? Yeah, I blame myself. They would have been some great photos.

You are also missing out on being able to see my husband's birthday party. The bullet cake that rolled over while being driven to the party, the lack of decorations because GIJoe got home two hours before he was supposed to, and the wonderful steaks that were slapped on the table and devoured in seconds.
Thankfully all is not lost. Because my phone has a camera on it, I was able to get a few important things that have happened in the last week or so.

This is my baby. He was bitten by a spider under his left eye and had to go to the doctor's office. It was scraped, poked, prodded, squished, and covered in medicine. This is him after the whole ordeal was over. He was quite happy to know we were headed back home, and that he was going to get a treat for being such a good boy.

...and this is him when I told him we were going to have to put medicine on his bite twice a day for the next week, and he would have to hold still for the heat compresses we would have to use daily.

This is our garden. It has really taken off in the last couple of weeks! I have been able to harvest a couple of strawberries (before the squirrels engorged themselves on the fruits of my labor) and have brought in two or three cucumbers, only to have them shrivel up before I could use them. I'm looking forward to being able to harvest other things from it, and make a complete dinner one night soon.

This is Jenny. (Or Jen-aye, depending on if you have watched the movie Forrest Gump) Born on April 2nd, 2011. She is three days old in this picture. If I had known the mom better, I would have really enjoyed scratching the little girl and getting some great close up pictures with her. However, because the horse is new to my friend Devon, and this was the first time I met either one of them, I chose to stay away. (Notice the Mom has her rear end pointed my direction? Don't think that is just an accident. She is like that in all of my snapshots)

Noticing an animal theme here? It's not lost on me...I guess now we both know what the really important things are in my life that I have to get pictures of. Not the hubby's birthday, but a chicken. Yes, one day I will have chickens. Until then, I have to be happy with going to a friends newly built chicken coop to play with their "pets". I like this little thing, it has feathery feet. Not too sure if the feeling is mutual though...

And speaking of chickens, this is Ernie. My loud and demanding Sun Conure. She normally does not enjoy getting wet. (Probably due to the fact that when she was a baby, I stuck her in the shower thinking she would like it, and she looked like a drowned rat when I finally gave up and pulled her out. That was the first time she bit me- just to let me know I was to never again do that to her. Anyway, here she is, enjoying a spray from the hose while resting outside in the warm spring sun. She sneezed every time she got wet...probably re-living those childhood memories.

And last but not least, this is one of the hundreds of roses that have bloomed in the backyard. I had been picking them every day and enjoying the bouquets of fresh roses on the table, until I saw that they had little insects crawling in them and around the vase. I have since decided to enjoy their beauty through the window instead of in the house.

And with that, I promise from here on out, I will tote my camera wherever I go and take incredibly stunning photos of every adventure I have. If I can find it that is... Believe me? Naw- I don't either.

How Does Your Garden Grow?

In an attempt to save a little dough and to feel some amount of control over something, my mother in law and I have decided to grow our own food in the backyard. This will be garden number two for me...I'm not really sure how many for Marianne. This has been a very long process. You see, first we had to think about whether we wanted the responsibility of a garden. Should it be organic? Should it be a raised bed? Exactly how big should it be? Will the romping dogs and mischievous rats stay away from our precious plants?

Then they became a little more direct. Like: Bricks cost that much!? The plants cost that much?! We have to have soil additives!? And they cost how much?!

After about one month of diligently studying the vegetables we wanted to grow, waking up in the wee hours of the morning to listen to Bob Webster's radio show about plants, debating back and forth about how much we want to spend and scratching off dates that we might have time to buy the dirt, we set off last weekend to pursue our dreams of growing a green thumb.

This is what I have learned about building a garden: It takes a lot of time, a truck with an empty bed, two hunky guys from Lowes to load cinder blocks, muscles of your own when you get those cinder blocks home, two trips to Lowes because only 26 bricks can fit in the truck, 4 trips to the dirt store, gas to feed the truck after lugging around all that extra weight, an air pump for the flat wheelbarrow tire, several bags of soil enhancers, lots of drinking water and an extra trip to the garden store because apparently one of the soil enhancers cannot survive when left in the heat of the truck overnight.

This weekend, we skipped off to the garden store and gathered our plants. We collected cucumbers, carrot seeds, onion slips, squash, eggplant, strawberries, bush beans, english peas, and tomatoes.

After lots of hemming and hawing about where everything should be placed, this is what we came up with:

The cucumbers are on the side so they will vine out, the peas are in the middle so they can vine up, the squash have lots of space so they can grow big, the strawberries are hanging in an upside down hanger so they will grow down and the eggplant has not yet been planted- so until they are, I guess they will not grow at all. The flowers are strategically placed around the outside to discourage bugs from entering the premises, and will soon have carrots and onions as their friendly border neighbors. All in all, I think it looks pretty good. Not bad for two full weekends of hard, backbreaking work.

I am very excited to see that I might just be able to grow strawberries this year. I have heard they are hard to grow. I know that no matter how hard they are to grow, it wont be as hard as putting this all together.

Don't let the tired face fool you...he didn't do anything to help. No- he just lounged around and watched me sweat, groan and toil under the sun...Which he seems to be enjoying entirely too much.

New Years Resolution(s)

Okay, I know I'm a little late in posting my resolution, seeing that it is already the 7th day into the new year. However, just so you know, my resolution is not to be more prompt or on time, so I can breathe easy.
No, I am afraid I am unoriginal in some cases and have resolved to lose weight. However, before you roll your eyes and skip on to the next blog let me tell you how I intend to do this:
    I am going to eliminate (as much as I can) any processed foods, high fructose corn syrup and any preservatives that is put into foods- natural or not. Everything I am going to place into my mouth should be fresh fruits and veggies, (Fresh and Organic if I can get it) or homemade with healthier choices, like whole wheat breads, cookies with honey and dried fruit, stews and soups with lots of veggies and grass fed beef or free range chicken, fresh eggs from the farm and raw milk. (which allows me to make my own butter!)
    So far, I have thoroughly enjoyed going to Whole Foods and strolling around looking at all of the organic fruits that are in season- not to mention the bulk unrefined sugar, flours and lentils. The only thing that I will not be at least attempting to make myself is cheese. I have decided though to splurge on the organic, raw milk cheeses in the specialty stores.
This last week, I have made a wonderful stew, a lentil and rice soup, a completely organic cheesy potato soup, a lemon cream chicken and pasta dish (my homemade noodles were a disaster- so I had to used boxed this time) and lots of frozen yogurt and sorbets for desserts. I even attempted a citrus salad complete with meyer lemons, blood and navel oranges, grapefruit and some fennel and basil, topped with feta cheese. (No one but me seemed to be impressed with it though- perhaps because they were not the ones peeling oranges for an hour.) Next time I will leave the fennel out and add walnuts.

                                                                                        My yummy Citrus Salad

My last year's resolution was to work out during the week. I did a very good job I think of dutifully waking up every weekday at 4:15 am to work out with my crazy friend, Angie. Now that GI Joe and I have moved, it is going to be hard for me to continue my early morning routine. I enjoyed the peaceful drive in the morning out to her house listening to KLove and getting to have a workout buddy to encourage me when P90X got rough. Now the drive is just too far, and so I am left to push myself into doing something active.
On the plus side, I have far exceeded my expectations with running. A few months ago I could hardly run a half mile without feeling like I was going to die- and now I just completed a 10 mile run in honor of Angie's birthday ultra-Marathon! (She ran 30 miles...) I'm still shocked that I could have pushed myself that far! I had a near break down at mile four and was crying while I was running because I just couldn't imagine lasting to mile ten. God sent one of my best friends to run along beside me at my slow, 13 minute mile pace. She even offered me a chewy energy bar to distract me from being so overwhelmed. I wouldn't have been able to have made it without Mari by my side. I know Angie would have been there too if she didnt have so many people pining for her attention. (It was her birthday run after all, everyone was there for her!)
Anyway, long story short, I hope to be able to run a 5K sometime soon, and work on my pace. Maybe even attempt the half-marathon at the end of this year. I'll have to have Mari again though, and lots and lots of chewies...

                                                          Me after running 10 miles...smiling only because it is done! 
                                                      Not very fashionable I might add...but at that point I didnt care.


So there it is: my new years resolution(s). To continue to run, to eat more healthfully and to restrain myself from knocking the daylights out of those rude, yuppie people who walk around Whole Foods with their noses turned up at everyone around them.