Where we were when we heard our country had been attacked, those who lost their lives that day, and those that are in a foreign land fighting against the terrorism that threatened our freedom.
Party Pooped
Finally, the much awaited party post!!! Unfortunately, there aren’t too many pictures of the party itself. As mentioned here Bubba and I were much too busy hosting to snap all those artistic photos I had hoped to capture. You wouldn’t believe the last-minute running around involved in setting up for a little party. Or maybe I’m just an inexperienced hostess with poor time management skills…. Naw, that couldn’t be it!
Anywho, the photos I plan to share with you will be a mix of the few photos I was able to snap. But most have come from my sweet uncle and my Bubba’s brother, who is also very sweet. They did an excellent job of capturing the “essence” of the much planned for party.
It all happened in our little casa’s back yard…
(Wish I had remembered to put my luminarias along the walk way. That would have really dressed things up out there!)
This was the scene before we laid the food out or any of the guests arrived.
All those milk glass vases came from my Goodwill and thrift store collection. I didn’t realize how many I had hoarded collected over the past few months.
I decided to go with a lemon lime theme, so everything was shades of yellow and green citrus-y goodness.
All of the tables had a grouping of my milk glass vases filled with my favorite yellow flowers. In the background of this picture you can see that we used plastic dinnerware. For the next party, I think I will use real dinnerware if possible. It really classes things up, plus a metal fork won’t fly away in the wind like a plastic one will. But, it was nice not having to wash a kazillion pieces of cutlery. In hindsight, those table runners really didn’t work in my breezy backyard either. Things to note for next time…if there is a next time, I had no idea how stressful this little event would be!
In the tree we hung tissue paper pom-poms in shades of yellow, green and white. Along with yellow and white lanterns that looked oh so romantic when lit up.
As the guests walked into my urban oasis, they were greeted by the Wedding Tree, one of my first Etsy finds!
Instead of going with my original plan of the thumb print tree, I decided having the guests sign their names on a leaf would be much less messy than sticking their thumbs onto an ink pad. Plus it saved everyone from worrying about getting finger prints on their pretty clothes. And I still have a sweet memento to hang on my wall and enjoy everyday.
Going with my lemon and lime theme, I found a sweet seller on Etsy to design a tree in yellow and green. Can you believe I ordered the Wedding Tree the morning before the party, and that evening the PDF file was waiting for me in my inbox?! After I was over my shock of such quick service, I planned on popping into Staples the next morning to have our tree printed. And print they did. If I ever need any type of graphics work done, I’ll be sure to contact that Etsy seller again and have it printed at Staples!
The green bowl you see is one of Bubba’s Goodwill finds, the pen holder is a crystal vase my mother gave me for Christmas. And the verse in the frame…
Is my father’s favorite verse:
“But they that wait upon the Lord, shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; and they shall walk and not faint.” Isaiah 43:31
And above that, I hung an airplane from Dad’s collection. Since my father passed away several years ago, it was so very important to me to have an element of Dad incorporated into the celebration.
After everyone had signed the tree and oohed and ahhed over my flower arrangements and pom-poms (not really) it was time to eat!
On the menu was smoked pork loin, potato salad, pasta salad, and bbq’ed beans. And for dessert, cupcakes in three flavors: chocolate, carrot, and vanilla. Along with oatmeal raisin, chocolate chip and lemon cookies. I also threw in some brownies for good measure. You can’t have a party without some cavity inducing sweets!
(If I had thought to take some shots of the food, you would find those photos here. Instead I’ll share shots of everyone enjoying the festive feast.)
All of the sides and desserts I picked up at the grocery store, but not after visiting two different grocery stores the morning of the party. Being the scatter brained little party planner I am, I had forgotten which store I’d ordered the cupcakes from! Thankfully, the sweet ladies at the first grocery store were ever so helpful and called each Albertson’s in the area until we located the right store. That saved me so much time and frustration!
Unfortunately, that was not the only sweat inducing obstacle of the day. But I plan on dedicating an entire post to that story. Let’s just say it involved law enforcement, the fire department, and a very sleepy April.
All in all, the party was a success. Both Bubba and I enjoyed sharing our home with friends and family. Our guests enjoyed the food and the atmosphere. My fears of cops coming in and breaking up the party, or angry neighbors calling said cops to break up the party were all unfounded. Everyone enjoyed themselves, there was lots of good food, and lots of good company. That’s really what a party is all about anyways right?
Both Bubba and I are so very thankful for the guests and all those sweet people that helped out. Those that helped in the set up and those that helped us take it all down, and for those who simply graced us with their presence. I know a lot of our guests traveled from far and near and sacrificed money and time to be in attendance. Not only am I thankful for our sweet guests, I’m also thankful for local law enforcement who saved our house from being burnt down (again, that’s for another post), and for the sweet ladies at Albertson’s that saved me time that I didn’t have.
Before I sound like an actress tearfully accepting an award and thanking all those that ever “spared a square” (thousand points to anyone who can guess which television show that’s from!), let’s share some advice. To all of you who are planning a backyard party or any type of event at your home, if someone offers to help, take them up on it. Yes, you can do it yourself, but do you really have time? The answer is a loud and resounding NO.
Between landscaping the yard, scrubbing the kitchen, and pulling Bubba’s dirty socks out from underneath the couch I had no time. There was hardly enough time to buy the food and other party supplies, design and mail the invitations (which by the way were not mailed until 3 weeks before the party!), plan on the decor (I forgot to put lighting up, instead of the cozy romantic evening I had planned on, we ended up with a dark and spooky evening), or have an impeccably clean or at least moderately clean home (There were parts of my home that were used to stash clutter and other I-don’t-know-what-to-do-with items while in my mad frantic rush to clean two hours before the party. I just know some of my guests saw what horrid conditions my washer and dryer live in!). Aside from those things, relax , enjoy your guests and all of your hard work! And remember, cupcakes can be tracked down, fires can be put out, but memories cannot be remade.
Dust Bunnies
Two posts in the same week? Nay, two posts back to back?! You may wonder if my slackerdom mentioned in the post yesterday has been cured. No, it hasn’t, this is merely a post of avoidance. The avoidance of dishes that beg for attention every time I enter the kitchen, or the laundry that reproduces like those dust bunnies that reside under my couch and every other available dark place in my home. Or all those thank you cards that scream to be sent, a month after the wedding reception/house warming party.(I promise those will be sent out before my first wedding anniversary!)
This post is all about avoidance, and sharing photos that I couldn’t cram into my post yesterday. But mostly avoidance. It’s much easier to sit here and tap away at my keyboard than peel myself from the sofa and scrap last nights dinner from the dishes awaiting me in the kitchen, or finally carry those towels to the washing machine, or relocate the breeding dust bunnies to a more appropriate home.
Ah yes, the joys of procrastination. Let’s hope the urge to avoid will dissipate before the end of the weekend. I’m hoping to get those dust bunnies relocated by Monday!
This past weekend, Bubba and I went to the former Carrot Capital of the world to visit my sweet sweet mother.
Goldie especially loves Mom, maybe it’s due to the fact that my mother rescued her from certain doom that is Mom’s neighborhood (strays don’t stand a chance on a busy street with speeding cars). Or it could be that Goldie just loves anyone that’s willing to let her transfer her golden needles to them via a good cuddle. Mom’s a regular yellow dog magnet. They are drawn to her like dust bunnies to a rarely visited corner of a living room. And it’s not just yellow dogs, it’s all dogs. She’s currently got three dogs, one of which is up for adoption.
Here he is helping mom do dishes, actually he doesn’t help. He only watches until he’s shooed away. His name is Buddy, recently neutered, 6 months old, and very friendly. If anyone is interested please let me know. My mother will gladly give up her sweet foster dog if you can offer him a loving forever home. If we can get him to stay still long enough, I’ll post a picture of his sweet face.
While in Grants, we saw all the sights in town and in nearby areas.These jewels were found in a neighboring town, that consisted of 4 mobile homes and 3 ancient adobes. Small town goodness at it’s best.
Here’s one of the four mobile homes. Everyone’s definition of a castle is different, sometimes it’s a mobile home with a grand entrance.
Or just a little fixer upper…she just needs a little elbow grease and some love.
This was Bubba’s favorite part of the visit. Apparently, Transformers are big with 31 year olds these days.
Aside from visiting my sweet mother, my favorite part of the trip was visiting the airport that I used to frequent with my father as a child. Dad was a private pilot and loved planes. He even had the pleasure of owning a plane two times in his lifetime. However, plane ownership is not for the weak of heart or the empty of wallet and he had to sell them both.
Even during the times he didn’t have a plane, he would still head down to the airport once a day to visit with the manager and other flight enthusiasts. I loved tagging along, and hearing the stories and seeing the planes. All those buttons were too tempting to not take a peek at. To this day, I still enjoy airports and planes. And as always, snap copious amounts of photos…
I loved this one, it was shiny! And a tail dragger! I have a soft spot for tail draggers as that’s what my dad used to fly when I was a kid and we’d go on our Sunday afternoon flys. I’ve got a Father’s Day post I’ve been working on since before Father’s Day that details these little Dad stories even more. If this procrastination bug ever goes away I’ll get that one up.
Speaking of procrastinating, I can’t ignore the cries of agony coming from my dirty dishes that are begging to be washed, and my damp towels that are surely growing something mysterious by now, and the ever growing dust bunny population.
Here’s to a great weekend filled with equal parts productivity and relaxation!
Slacking
My slackerdom has finally cast its ugly net onto my blogging habits now. Today I realized it’s been nearly a month since my last post! There’s got to be some sort of cure for this slackery. It’s even reached it’s craggly cold hand into my photo editing, as I am still working on editing all the photos for the much awaited and talked about party post. But rest assured, that is coming very soon!
The lack of posts doesn’t mean that Bubba and I have been sitting around twiddling our thumbs, or that I haven’t been snapping copious amounts of dog photos (believe me, my furkids run when they see that huge black clicky box). It just means that I’ve been too preoccupied enjoying the summer. There’s been too many fun things to do out and about rather than sitting at home typing away at my laptop. Even with all those great and spectacular things that have been keeping me away from my beloved blog, it was high time to come back for a little RR in my cozy net cottage.
So pull up a virtual chair and grab a glass of virtual lemonade and cozy up on my virtual front porch for a photo story of what we’ve been up to these days.
Like observing the local wildlife. Be very quiet, the native Annie dogs are grazing.
Notice how intently my Golden girl is still observing the grazing Annie. This is what the evening dog outings entail. Run, eat grass, run, watch other dog eat grass, repeat as needed.
This tail, although it may look harmless, has caused the demise of many a milk glass vase. But isn’t it beautiful?
Aside from observing grazing Annie’s and avoiding happy dog tails, there’s also been other wildlife to enjoy. I’ve got a pair of praying mantis’ living in the front flower bed.
Annie loves to observe Bubba in his natural habitat, the couch, with a Sponge Bob Square Pants Gameboy.
Sometimes the observing pays off, and you get a new frisbee.
A tail wagging new Frisbee.
And a tail wagging and sniff inducing chew bone.
Also crazy eye inducing bone.
After the new toys had been sufficiently chewed, torn, and otherwise played with, it was time for an evening drive. Goldie loves car rides.
Annie not so much.
But once one has arrived at one’s destination, it’s all business. SNIFF SNIFF
We take our walks seriously around here.
We also take our sunsets seriously. And I mean seriously, is God a great artist or what? He creates a beautiful sunset for us to be blessed with every evening. And they are all different. I hear sunrises are just as awe-inducing, someday I will wake up early enough to enjoy the beautiful sunrise our Lord has made for us….someday.
All that running and chasing and picture-taking calls for a special treat. How about some peach cobbler? Bubba made this from fresh peaches, baked in his new vintage Fire King dish.
Here’s what it looked like a couple of days later.
We may or may not have had cobbler for dinner one night this week, and it may or may not have been eaten straight from the casserole dish. And my jeans may or may not have screamed out in agony.
After all that cobbler it’s time to snuggle up on the couch with your sweetie.
That pretty much sums up the goings on at Casa de Yellow. We have been slacking on some of our chores, but certainly not on our enjoyment of summer.
Lazy Days of Summer
If you haven’t guessed, our belated wedding/ house warming party is now over, done, finito! Honestly, I wasn’t sure if we would all make it to the other side alive, the preparation, the work, the stress, the sleepless nights, (did I mention the stress?) all seemed to take its toll. But surprisingly, or not so surprisingly, we made it, and we can now relax and revel in the fact that we have our spare time back. We no longer need to spend our weekends moving rocks or scrubbing the bathroom. That is, there are no chores or projects on a deadline any longer. Unless the bathroom is starting to turn green and fuzzy, then we are definitely on a deadline to kill that green germ-y beast!
All this talk of having no time for fun makes it sound like I did everything on my own, but that’s far from the truth. I know without a shadow of a doubt that things never would have gone so smoothly without the help of our family and friends. From set up to tear down, our sweet loved ones were there! My aunt and uncle from Ohio even flew down for the party! I never felt so loved. My poor sweet mother came over 3 times in one week! That’s asking a lot when you consider there is 81 miles ,one way mind you, between my house and her house. She must really love this little party planner!
By the way this little party planner would love to share lots of great artistic photos, but alas, she was much too busy making sure everyone had a place to sit and food to eat. But now that the dust has settled, I really wish I had taken the time to document more of what we ate, and how things looked. Especially, now that I have had the chance to think about how much time went into those things. But really, I got some nice snapshots of all our sweet guests, which is much more important than the food or the decor. Maybe I can sweet talk some of our guests into sharing the shots they were able to capture while Bubba and I were busy hosting. *Hint Hint*
In the mean time, here’s what we’ve been doing with all of our free time…
Enjoying our messy house, which has been cleaned up a bit since these pictures were taken. I can only handle a disheveled kitchen for so long.
All those glasses on the table are from the party. I insisted on using real glasses, even though I had to buy them behind Bubba’s back! He wanted to use all plastic ware as it doesn’t need to be washed which is a valid point. But I just couldn’t bring myself to seeing red plastic cups on my pretty tables. So, the morning of I ducked out to get some last-minute items, one of which was the real glasses you see here. Purchased from the dollar store, a box of 16 for $8 , not a bad deal if you ask me. However, upon my return home with my purchase, Bubba’s only remark about the glasses that we will surely reuse, “Well, your washing them after the party!” Thankfully, Bubba’s sweet aunts must have sensed the tension and took the initiative and washed all of them when I wasn’t looking! Marrying into a huge family, with 8 new aunts, certainly has it’s benefits! Thanks to my new aunts-in law!!!
Aside from dodging dish washing, I decided that after three months of having dirt under my nails, it was high time to do something girly and relaxing. So I went and got a mani-pedi. The poor lady that had to sand off my hooves, wasn’t quite as relaxed. But she got a good tip for putting up with my nasty hooves and dirty finger nails. I love being a girl again!
I’m not the only one relaxing these days, no Bubba didn’t go with me to get a mani/pedi. The doggies must have gotten tired watching all the work, this was the scene on our sofa the day after…
{By the way, I have some posts coming about my new gallery wall, which by the way will be relocated, and my new living room paint color!}
A couple days after the party, my mom was back in town to drop off my sweet aunt and uncle at the airport. As always, the puppies were oh so excited to see her. Especially Goldie…
My golden girl refused to release my mother from the ultimate snuggle…
There came a time in the middle that all my poor mother could do was grin and bear it.
When we weren’t napping on the sofa or terrorizing our guests with the never ending snuggle, we all enjoyed a nice sunset stroll…
There’s nothing like kickin’ back and watching the sunset…
This was our view…
Sunset strolls make some of us very happy…
However, some of us prefer trolling the internet for good deals…
Sunset walks are fun and call for a butt wiggle at the mention of them, (yes, sometimes I participate in the excited butt wiggle) but watching the neighborhood from the comfort of your own home is priceless…
Before my aunt and uncle had to head back to the Buckeye state, my mom and I got to grab some precious time with my aunt at Goodwill. I love watching sisters shop, especially when they both have such flowery personalities (notice the floral theme). See, much like other families, in mine we tend to have similar styles and tastes. At least for the women in my family, I really can’t see my uncle wearing a pink shirt with white flowers.
Since, I don’t have a lot of party pictures to share yet, I will give you a sneak peek of what I do have. Some of these were taken after the fact, others were taken as a practice run before the party. Example, the beautiful pork loin that my sweet husband made the week before.
Here we have my tissue pom-poms, this was taken a week after the party so you will have to excuse it’s droopiness. I made at least ten of these guys in yellow, white, and green. Our theme was lemon and lime, I just love the way yellow and green just go together perfectly. If you are interested in making your own pom-poms please visit my good friend Martha Stewart here.
I also hung yellow and white battery operated lanterns in my little tree. Most of them came from an online store, but I picked up a few extra white lanterns at the dollar store. I found the dollar store lanterns were much brighter and held a battery charge much longer than my special order lanterns.
I had lots of color hanging from my tree with the pom-poms and lanterns, but I also wanted color on my tables. Enter my bazillion and twenty yellow flowers, I was able to use all 16 of my vintage milk glass bud vases! It was an exciting time.
And we’ve gotten to enjoy these cheerful guys long after the party.
I’ll end on the most important aspect of throwing a party, the food!! Here is the practice pork loin that Bubba smoked the week before. Isn’t it pretty, and he even achieved the much sought after pink ring, which means it was smoked perfectly, not that it’s raw! Which was my first inclination when my sweet husband proudly proclaimed the perfection that is the pink ring. At least when it comes to smoked pork.
I have a story to tell about the smoking meat the morning of the party. But since I am at 1, 326 words now I’ll end with a few words of advice. When having a party at your home, hire out as many home improvement professionals as possible, hire a maid, and be sure the fire department is on speed dial!
Wood you be so kind…
To listen to my little rant?
In my last post I mentioned a big reveal for the final work on my yard. However, the big reveal really is more of big let down. See, I got lazy and thought I could hire someone to do the remaining yard work for me. So, hire I did, I called a contractor I’d worked with one time before, he quoted me a fairly reasonable rate, so I set up a time for he and his constituents to come and complete the work I had started. The task: to spread mulch over exposed dirt along the perimeter of the backyard and front yard, and reuse crusher fines from the back and place them in a pathway in the front.
I stupidly thought quality materials would be used, but that’s really my fault in not being clear of my intentions for the yard. From a distance it looks beautiful, and it probably looks fine to anyone else. But to me, I see things that I would rather not have in my yard. But more on that later…
I love the path, it’s exactly what I had in mind, and I got to reuse my old crusher fines. However, the mulch isn’t quite what I had expected. Turns out the contractor got it from the City for $5.00 a load. Meaning that, the stuff that has been spread all over my yard is shredded up yard waste from all over the community. The professional I hired did not share this little tidbit with me, until after it had been spread and I complained about the quality. Oh yes, and after payment had been received. This sort of mulch is great if you’ve got a large lot and just need some cheap ground cover. In fact, I think this is a great way of instituting the 3 R’s. But (yes, I’m full of those aren’t I?) it just doesn’t work in our yard. First of all, we don’t have a back 40 that needs cheap ground cover, secondly, the chunks are too big and too sharp for the brat dogs to play on, and thirdly, I don’t have the time or the desire to sift through a ton of mulch to remove unwanted materials.
I blame myself really, I didn’t ask enough questions, and I didn’t inspect the materials before they were used. It looks nice from a distance though doesn’t it? Until you get a closer look…
Notice the large chunks of wood and rock that is not original to my yard…
I mentioned the quality wasn’t quite up to my standards. Well, this is why…
Scary pieces of sharp metal, large pieces of ugly particle board, and various chunks of trash.
And it’s not only in my front yard, but also in the back…
Excuse my half dead Rosemary, but notice how thickly the trashy mulch has been laid down. It’s going to be a booger to pull up or even sift through.
And I should mention the dusty path that leads to…
A pile of discarded crusher fines! The plan was to use these throughout the yard but with every available surface covered with the trashy mulch, I really don’t know what to do with the extra crusher fines. And yes, I did ask that mulch be put on exposed soil, however, I underestimated how much crusher fine would be used in the front.
So, I’ve been sifting through the wood trying to sort good wood, bad wood, trash, plastic, and metal.
Here’s my sorting stations that have been started so far…
Now I’m left with some decisions to make, should I continue sorting and sifting, should shifting of the ugly mulch begin in preparation for the placement of prettier mulch, or should I start all over again and give it away to a mulch needing soul on Craigslist? I realize that any mulch will have some non-compostables, but should they be so abundant that they take up bulk of the ground cover?
And to top it all off, I’ve got a backyard party planned in less than a month! Invites have been sent so there’s no backing out now!
Chalk this one up to an expensive and time consuming lesson in home improvement.
May Wrap Up
I’m participating in a blog color story series hosted by Jules, of Pancakes and French Fries. Each month, Ms. Jules will recap a month in the life of herself and her family using colors that have been previously chosen for that month. For instance, May has been ‘Jacaranda’ , for those of you who, like me (live under a New Mexican rock) and have never heard of a jacaranda tree, it’s a lovely tree the blooms beautiful purple flowers. So, any and everything purple was photographed for May. June will be “Peacock”, so all things with a lovely blue hue will be captured on film..er…by digital camera. You can find more details over at Jules’ blog home here.
I wasn’t able to get my color story for April prepared until mid May, so if you are interested, please visit my story here.
Unfortunately, May flew by, without much purple in sight ,which was a disappointment I had big plans for all of it’s purple-y goodness. The reason May flew by so quickly you ask? Well, I’ve been working on a little landscape “renovation” of my front and backyards. I know there aren’t many shades of violet and lavendar in this lil project photo story, but you will see a few glimpses of my purple and blue Bachelor Buttons. That counts for a color story doesn’t it?
Here’s what she looked like before I started my endeavor:
Ignore the weed grass, that’s the cowlick of my front yard. And my car usually has a hubcap, Bubba was working on the brakes, stopping is a good thing! Oh, and notice the purple bachelor buttons!
The yard after the first full day…
Not very pretty or inviting…
Here she is on the third day, apparently I was way too tired after the second day to take photos…
I decided a nice little path might make things more interesting, and say “Welcome” instead of “Go away, I know who Jesus is!”.
The plan, to seed or sod or possibly cover with wood mulch, the dirt rectangle by the front porch and flower bed. And to place left over crusher fine for the path. Painting of the porch and garage border will come soon after all the heavy work has been completed. Stay tuned for my big reveal!
One more, very unrelated thing to the color purple or moving rocks, May 21st marked my FIRST blogiversary! Yep, it’s been a whole year since I got up the courage and I started my ramblings here at my blog home. There wasn’t a party, but there was carrot cake, and yes, I blew out the candle and made a little bloggie wish. But I can’t tell or it won’t come true!
April Windy Showers
I’m participating in a blog color story series hosted by Jules, of Pancakes and French Fries. Each month, Ms. Jules will recap a month in the life of herself and her family using colors that have been previously chosen for that month. For instance, April was “grass”, so everything with an emerald hue was included in that months color story. May will be ‘Jacaranda’ , so for those of you who are like me and don’t like big words, that means everything purple. You can find more details over at Jules’ blog home here.
April Windy Showers, sounds like a weather girl doesn’t it? But it pretty much sums up the month of April for all of us who live in the great Southwest. In New Mexico, spring doesn’t come with rain clouds, it blows in with lots of wind, dust, and fire threats. Maybe the wind is making my head spin too much so it was too hard to get my color story done! Yeah, that’s why it’s coming a month late!
April (the month not the blogger) brought lots of cheerful and sunny yellow my way. If you remember from the color story for March, Ms. Jules had chosen yellow for March and green or “grass” for April. However, I being the rebel I am, decided to switch the two. Mainly because April is my birth month and namesake, and yellow happens to be my favorite color. Honestly, the reasons being less rebel like and more selfish.
April started off with a birthday celebration, mine! I turned the big 3-0, I thought it would be more traumatic than what it was. But really, 30 just feels like 29, sometimes it feels like 50, and oftentimes I wish it felt like 20, but 30 really isn’t that bad.
For my birthday Bubba and I went to visit my mother in G-town. She took us out to one of the local eateries that our family has been patronizing for nearly 20 years. I had the red enchiladas…YUM…YUM…
After gorging ourselves on the greasy goodness of cheese enchiladas and sopas fresh from the fryer, we decided a hike was in order. You could almost hear our arteries clogging up, so a bit of exercise was much needed. Besides that, who could pass up such a beautiful and sunny day?
After our little nature walk, it was time to eat again. Yup, when any of my family get together we are regular Hobbits with our 6 or 7 meals a day. (breakfast, second breakfast, elevensies, luncheon, afternoon tea, dinner and supper; by the way I had to google Hobbit meals. I’m dweebie but not that dweebie! And on another side note, second breakfast and elevensies, is actually the same meal with a different name. Just in case you were wondering.)
A birthday would not be complete without a birthday cake would it? At least that’s my rule, and fortunately my sweet momma agrees, and slaved away to make my favorite, carrot cake with pineapple! YUM…YUM…again…
The month of April not only brought me my 30th year, but also a little road trip to AZ, you can read more about those escapades here.
While in AZ I spotted the prettiest yellow trees or maybe bush? Nonetheless, I love them and a want 2 or 30. Does anyone know what they are?
Here’s a close up…
While in Arizona, the Bubs and I, also sampled our first In-n-Out burger. It was good, but not nearly as heavenly as New Mexico’s cherished Lotaburger.
Upon our return from the freezing cold that was Arizona, (again you can read about those freezing temps here) we visited a local rose garden where I captured this beauty.
Which helped me come to terms with finally throwing out my old dusty and dried out wedding bouquet. Of course, I couldn’t toss it without taking some pictures of it first. These dried up roses mean a lot to me, not only because they were from the day I legally became someones wife ,but because I , with the help of my mother and sister made all the floral pieces for the matrimonial event. Including this bouquet of yellow roses. Maybe soon I can muster up the courage to do a post about the wedding day.
Late April, brought a time to celebrate the Risen Savior.
For Easter, we went to my sweet mom’s house again. And yes, we ate, talked, then ate again…YUM…YUM
The day after Easter brought these delightfully fattening yummies. If you love regular Reese’s you’ll really love the white chocolate variety. I had to put them in the freezer as to not polish off the entire package!
The last week of my namesake, just as the grass was starting to grow in, the beasts I call pets suddenly got interested in the watering system. Which consisted of a fancy sprinkler and a hose, but it sounds so much more sophisticated to say “watering system”. I was so upset, I wrote a whole post about it.
However, with a little trip down to the local Home Depot the watering issue has been rectified, if only temporarily.
Let’s hope the remainder of May and all of June will bring just as much cheeriness as April (Again, the month not the blogger, although I am pretty cheery if I do say so myself!).
Fortress of Solitude
Just like Superman, I now have my fortress of solitude! Yep, that’s right the wall is complete! Granted, one wall is a row of block higher than I had expected, but that just gives me that much more privacy. Which is quite lovely considering we had zero privacy to start with. Here’s a little reminder of what the old wall looked like before construction began.
Notice the ugly chain link that was serving as a trellis? That would soon be going away.
Here you can see loose bricks.
And more loose brick…
This is my leaning tower of terror. See, how the wall curves slightly? That’s caused from an old tree that had grown right next to the wall, and had been chopped down many years ago. It’s stump had been left, leaving pressure on the old block wall, causing a weakness. But the stump had been there so long, it was pretty much rotted away and came out of the sand pretty easily.
Here you can see how low the wall actually was, we could look all the way down the street into all of our neighbors backyards. In some spots the wall was 3ft high, in others it was 4 ft. The perfect height for neighborhood kids to look over and watch you water your weeds. I’ll miss the kids, they really were sweet. But, I love the privacy!
The morning work was to begin, they pulled up, unloaded, and started tearing down the old tittering wall right away.
Our old bricks were so crumbly it didn’t take much to get it demo’ed.
Did I mention the amount of supplies needed to get this job done? This only shows half of the stuff they actually used, since most of it was still on the truck. Dummy me, I didn’t get a shot of the truck with all the brick and toys.
Remember that old chain link trellis? Yeah, I was happy to see that go down. I may or may not have done a happy dance.
Unfortunately, they weren’t able to get my fortress completed in the two days we had hoped. Apparently, the old bricks they had planned on reusing were too crumbly to be used again. They had to buy more bricks, and put in more reinforcement.
But on the bright side, the dogs liked having new things to sniff over the weekend.
Here’s what the wall looked like after two days of their hard work, and my annoying picture taking.
My plants got a trimming too, I hope the poor little things come back. They were already half dead before my yard became a construction zone.
After keeping the dogs away from cement, that apparently smelled too good to resist, Monday finally rolled around. The poor guys worked another full day, but finally, after 5 full days yard-less, and 3 days of a yard full of brick layers, the fortress was complete.
The doggies love their new lookie-loo holes. The neighbors, probably not so much.
Did you notice the wall seems to have helped with trash being blown in from the street? Well, probably not, since you don’t live here, and don’t see it in person. But believe me, it’s really helped. We’ve had a few windy days since completion, and I’ve had a lot fewer McD’s wrappers tangled within my Rosemary. There was so much trash blown in on these windy New Mexican days, that I just couldn’t keep up with it. I typically pick up trash once a week, when it really needs to be picked up everyday. Apparently the “trashiness” of my yard did not go unnoticed, one of the wall guys politely mentioned that he had hoped all of their trash had been picked up, because they were unsure what trash was already there. Talk about an embarrassing moment. I foresee much yard work in the near future.
Speaking of yard work, last Sunday I went to Wally World with my lovely mother (not the fanciest way to celebrate Mother’s Day, but it suits us), and the good folks over at W-world had all potted plants marked half off! It’s like the little plant fairy’s knew we were coming. And they knew it was a deal my mom and I just couldn’t resist. Certainly a perfect way to celebrate Mother’s Day with my gardening loving momma.
Three shopping carts full of plants later, 1 cart for my dear mother, and 2 for me. I ended up with 3 Spanish Brooms, 4 Snowball Bushes, and one green bush that I can’t remember the name of. Plus, several annuals that will go in pots in the front.
Yeah, we may have gone a little overboard, but boy was it fun. And yes, I am the crazy lady that brings her fancy camera with her to Wal-Mart. You wouldn’t believe the odd looks I got while taking the photo above.
Well, off my fortress of solitude, to untangle wrappers out of my plants!
They shall call her blessed…
Mother’s Day was on Sunday, and yes I realize it’s now been three days since the celebration of mother’s and motherhood. But why should we only celebrate our mom’s on Mother’s Day? Why not celebrate them everyday? Maybe I’m just looking for an excuse to post my ode to mom’s a little later than planned. But, my point being, mothers are so very important they need to be recognized and celebrated. Especially my mother, after all, she raised me, a shining example of everything perfect right? 😉
Here is my mother and I on the day that I became Mrs. Bubba and Bubba became Mr.April.
Thanks for being my mother and teaching me so very much. It’s your teaching through example that I learned to trust in Christ, if I didn’t have that faith I wouldn’t have the wonderful life that I have been blessed with today. I am truly blessed to be able to call you mother and friend.
I can’t mention mother’s without talking about my beautiful mother-in-law. She raised seven kids, that’s five BOYS and two girls. I can’t imagine how stressful that must have been. But, all seven of them have turned out smashingly. Especially, the second oldest, but I’m not biased.
“Her children arise up, and call her blessed; her husband [also], and he praiseth her.” Proverbs 31:28
Semi-Seasonal 