Green Thumb...

This week I decided to try my hand at some gardening! Last year on the deck I had bought flowers and had them in some pots and a box hanging on the railing, but this year I decided to start everything from seeds. I picked some flowers and herbs and am hoping that this moonflower vine will cover the entire railing and transform it into a green wall of delight! I've got 50 some little pots going - crossing my fingers that they all sprout!

Since I'm so new to the gardening scene, I called up my dad for some advice... he suggested these peat pots - you plant the entire pot into the ground or larger container after it's sprouted! No messy transplanting - how cool is that! (I'm also trying the peat pellet - similar concept). I'd love any other tips from you seasoned gardeners out there... share, share, share!


PS - James and I grabbed a quick bite at KFC this past week. We tried there new BIG BOX meal, it's got a little of everything in it and when you 'super size' it you get this HUGE 1/2 gallon soda to drink! The picture doesn't do it justice, we couldn't believe how gigantic it was.

PIRATE PARTY!

Save the date - SATURDAY MAY 26TH! You're all invited, start collecting your pirate gear!

A Weekend Full of My Favorite Things...

James and I headed out for dinner and a movie Friday. We laughed over fourtune cookies at PF Changs, bit our nails through "Shooter," and still made it home to catch the last March Madness game of the night.

Saturday started off with some deep cleaning, which always makes me feel great (perhaps I should then do it a little more often). After getting the fridge emptied and deep cleaned, I caught up with family on the phone, then headed out for some thrifting and got some great finds for spring and summer. James and I then hooked up with our pals TJ & Shannon for a delicious gourmet shrimp dinner cooked buy Chef TJ!! We finished off the evening with chocolate fondue and games.

Sunday, lunch consisted of french toast and eggs, a favorite of both James and myself :), a long nap, more chocolate fondue, and the reading of my April issue of Domino. Not to mention enjoying a few bubbles with my favorite gum balls!

The time is near...

James and I just watched the trailer for the next PIRATES movie!!! It comes out May 25th - save the date for our pirate party and check out the trailer here.

B.L.B.

These are just some pics of my Big Lip Biopsy - and as far as I know the black spot was just a sun spot! You should have seen the looks that I got in the laundry mat (yes, smart people probably would have stayed in their house - especially looking like that - but I just had too much to do)!

Birthday Bash!

Well this is a belated post! Thanks to all to you who came to celebrate James' 25th birthday, he felt so loved! (And thanks to Katie for the great pics- as you know my camera died mid evening!) We had plenty of food and good fortune to go around @ Pf Chang's. We topped off the evening with ice cream cake and games back at our place. It was so nice get the evening going a little earlier, we fit a lot in before starting to feel tired - it was great!

Oh, and I used my chopsticks the entire evening!

In my party planning efforts, I found this neat site where you can learn to write Chinese! Just look up your word in the dictionary and click the green box to see the artsy translation.

it's cookie time, it's cookie time!

For those of you who grew up on the comedy Troop Beverly Hills, the title will hold a special place in your heart! Moving along, I'm hoping it's not too late to be posting about all our wonderful Christmas fun... We did go 'home,' both of our families are out side of Chicago - but we had no snow! Not a flake in sight! Since we couldn't go sledding we had to come up with some other things to do. We spent Saturday with both families baking cookies and other treats and enjoying gourmet soup compliments of chef Grafton. And we finally learned how to play Settlers of Catan!

Then started the Christmas extravaganza! Christmas eve with James' dad, Christmas morning with his mom and Christmas evening with my parents! It was non stop! James flew home early Tuesday moring and I stayed the rest of the week with my family. Stacie and I did a lot of shopping :) and we took a beading class at La Beada Loca. And last but not least we laughed and laughed as we strolled down memory lane while watching, you guessed it, Troop Beverly Hills!

(Moms, if I ever get around to it I'll post the pictures from our other Christmas stuff!)

Black is Black!

I LOVE black Friday!! For anyone who loves to shop, this is the most glorious day of all! And, I do love to shop! Perhaps there is no better way to enter into the holiday spirit than hit the stores at 5 a.m. the day after Thanksgiving. The hustle and bustle, great deals, and blaring Christmas music - the only thing that would have made our day better would have been snow. We actually didn't head out until 8:00, and for those who don't like a crowd, may I suggest MacArthur in downtown Norfolk. We had a parking spot right outside the door, and there wasn't a ton of people there at all (a clerk told us the "rush" comes between 1-4 black Friday). We finished off morning in Chesapeake, and enjoyed lunch at Don Pablo's. James went off to work and I headed right back to the stores!

Total gifts left to purchase before Christmas: 4

Oh, and yes, WE - James and I went shopping! For not sharing my love of shopping, he did quite well, there were only a few moments of heavy breathing ;)

Freedom

Teacher inservice days were this past week - which means vacation days for me!! Much needed, if I do say so myself. So anyway, this is what I did!

Day #1 Thursday

6:00am - Get up (well I tried to)

7:30am - Chapel with James @ seminary

8:30am - Chose not to drink coffee

9:15am - Watched James take hebrew test

9:45am - Took honda in for inspection

9:47am - Got compliment on my new hair cut (props to you Shannon)

9:58am - Listened to old men talk about Hiliary Clinton

10:17am - Honda passed car inspection

11:00am - Picked up James and went to my doctor's appointment. New doctor, he was kinda weird, but the good news is I DO NOT HAVE COLON CANCER!

12:30pm - Vaccumed and washed car

1:18pm - Ate Turkey Artichoke sandwich at Panera. It was amazing!

2:20pm - Took a nap

5:30pm - Went to see Austin go horseback riding (ya, it was kind of a long nap)

8:30pm - Paid a suprise visit to the Logsdon's to sing Happy Birthday to TJ

10:30pm - Went to bed in flannel pj's

Day #2 Friday

6:30am - couldn't sleep so I did some Christmas shopping for James

9:00am - Ate cinnamon rolls for breakfast

9:30am - Put Roasted Herbed Chicken dinner in crock pot

10:00am - Packed a picnic lunch

11:30am - Went to Virginia Aquarium

11:54am - Watched sharks from inside a submarine

12:30pm - Talked with an elderly man about his first few years of marriage. Turns out he and his wife lived out by our current place. He told us about their favoirte cheap date - sharing popcorn and a soda for 47 cents while people watching at an amusement park. The park is gone now, I think a grocery store sits there. But what's not gone is the love those two have, he had a sparkle in his eyes when he said "my sister said we'd never make it - we sure proved her wrong."

12:45pm - Spread out a blanket and enjoyed lunch in the sun

1:30pm - Watched 3D movie on sharks

2:37pm - Went on a mini nature hike, well I guess it was more of a walk

3:00pm - James attempted to escape the bite of a python, failed, but it was fun to watch

4:45pm - Washed dishes

5:45pm - Still washing dishes

6:30pm - Ate dinner it was awesome!

8:55pm - "Men's Accountability" for James. Shannon and I went to see "One Night with the King." It's the story of Esther and it was pretty good.

12:34pm - fell asleep on the way home

Aaahhhhh....

October in Review

What a busy month! From Harvest Party to Halloween and a birthday in between we were pooped by the time November came. But we had tons of fun - only one regret, we did not get to carve our pumpkins...