Longest Week

Its not just me, I have heard several people say this has been the longest week ever. Lets not even talk about the lack of sleep I've had or the quiet days at the office which make for really long days.  The good news is, its Friday and y'all know I love that.

Bella had a program at school last night so I left work early to get her picked up, fed and up to the school by 5:45.  She played herself...a monkey.  She has a hooded vest that has ears on the hat so she was fine wearing that for her monkey costume.  I was fine with that as well seeing as the Little Bo Peep costume from last year's program is still hanging in the closet collecting dust.  That was $40 well spent.  I couldn't even convince her it would make a great Halloween costume when the time came.  Oh well.

My girl is to the right of the yellow kid with the black hooded vest on, right above the Curious George monkey.  Let me say this child is so complete opposite of her brother.  She sang every song, did all the movements and was a little clown.  Christopher participated but was not the least bit animated like his sister.

Here she is during her speaking part...she nailed it!

And after...picture with Mommy is a must.

Y'all...I was so happy to be smiling and breathing.  I had sat down at a table, minding my own business waiting for the program to start when these two ladies sat across from me.  One of them had bathed in perfume prior to arriving.  Oh my gosh, it was awful.  Not only was it entirely too much perfume but it didn't even smell nice.  I seriously wanted to hold a sign up saying "its NOT me".  Thankfully, once the program started they moved up to get better pictures.  I could breathe again!!  Seriously people, if you have to put that much perfume on, you either need to take a real bath or you have something else much worse going on.  Ugh.

After the program we made a trip to the grocery store to pick up a few things.  A few things that came to $132 later.  But according to my children, we have food in the house again.  Good thing because I wouldn't want them withering away or you know, dying of starvation.  #itwillneverhappen #thereisalwaysfood  #mykidsaresodramatic

I also checked on the garden when I got home.  Stuff is popping up everywhere.  The first greenbeans we planted are up but the others we planted a few days later aren't yet.  I have baby toms growing, onions and tators coming up as well.  And since I can't remember where we planted the cucumbers, squash, zucchini and cantaloupe, I'm going to say its all coming up.  Let me clarify, I know which two rows goodies are planted on but I can't remember the order or placement of it all.  I knew I should have picked up the cute little garden stakes I saw at Target.  

 I guess that's about it for now.  The cool front is here and man it is super windy outside.  My girl had a great idea for Mommy to make a pot of soup this evening for supper.  Y'all have a good one.

The Garden Is In

Yes ma'am, we got it in yesterday evening.  I still need more green bean and flower seeds but everything else is in.  I have three new additions to the garden this year...onions, green bell peppers and cantaloupe.  I've never tried them before but giving it a whirl this year. We also have tomatoes (big ones & cherries), potatoes, squash, zucchini, cucumbers, green beans and jalapenos.

For the flowers we have sunflowers, zinnias, purple coneflowers, hollyhocks and poppies.  Hopefully the bees will be plentiful this year and the garden will be bountiful.

I am also hoping the dreams I've had regarding the garden are premonitions, if you will.  The dreams are behind me planting bell peppers this year.  In one dream, I had a huge bell pepper "tree" on the side of the house where I grew up with tons of peppers hanging down.  Weird I know, especially since they don't grow in the form of a tree but I'm thinking positive and taking it as a sign to plant them this year.  I also had another dream that Momma was in.  Just a note here, when she is in my dreams, there is always a message.  In this one, she is cooking supper.  Daddy brings in a ton of green beans from the garden.  She tells him she'll cook those too.  She was in the process of frying up some squash and zucchini already.  Hoping its a sign my garden will do well this year.

Thinking positive....

Not much else going on this way. Gearing up for Easter this weekend with family.  You know how I'm looking forward to that. 

Garden Prep

We have slowly been prepping for our Spring garden.  I didn't put in a Fall garden this year.  The first year we had the garden I tried one and failed miserably.  Maybe I'll try again one day.  We tilled up the dirt back in November or December, I can't remember now, so it wouldn't be all grass come Spring.  We broke it up again this past Saturday and added 22 bags of manure/compost to the mix.

We were planning to head to Shady's later in the day to get our crawfish fix so Levi graciously offered to help us out to our work done a little faster, or should I say, Kristian offered Levi's help, ha!  Crawfish at Shady's goes quickly so we didn't want to miss out.  After we got the bags emptied, we went to work spreading it.  Even baby girl helped out.  She loves getting the garden ready for planting.  

The guys made a few more passes with the tiller to get all the manure worked in and we are set until March for planting.  Good thing because I haven't decided what all I'm planting this year. 

While at Lowes Saturday getting the "poop" as Bella says....I scored this African Daisy beauty in the clearance section for $8!!  I was super excited about that.  

I also picked up a new toy that we put to good use while tilling the garden up.  You would have thought that we had pulled out all the roots from the trees by now, but we still came across a few Saturday.  See those red beauties below for $29....I'm the proud owner of a set now.  They came handy for cutting the tree roots we found.

They also came in handy when cutting back my rose bushes. I have a rose bush that I transplanted from a friend's house. She was digging it up & throwing it out because she didn't like it.  I know, I know. I cut it back quite a bit when I transplanted it but left a couple thick dead limbs on it.  I was already shocking it enough so we left those for pruning off this year.  My new toy took them right off so easy. 

That was our Saturday and we did make it to Shady's for crawfish.  We didn't stay long though.  We ate, had a couple beers and were all ready to head home to sleep.  

Sunday I worked out in the yard some more....like 3 hours more and man I felt it!  I dug up some roots in my side flower bed that I'm fairly certain was ginger root.  That stuff had taken over the bed and being right up against the house, I didn't like it.  I cleaned out all the leaves and weeds and trimmed back the Indian Hawthorn bushes that are on both ends of the flower bed.  I also cleaned up the bed around the pecan tree up front but I left the flower bed against the front of the house.  I was exhausted and sore so I opted to wait on that one because its in the worst shape.  I have a lot of digging up to do in that one as well.  That one is full of airplane or spider plants.  Its choking up everything else in there so I need to dig it out.  Maybe this weekend, we'll see how I feel. 

Friday night I started with a little cough in the evening. I didn't think anything of it because I felt fine Saturday morning.  Worked in the yard Saturday and Sunday and bam, it was back Sunday evening.  Monday morning I woke up feeling yucky with a gosh awful sore throat, and have felt that way all week, cough and all.  No fever, just yucky cough and my head feeling cloudy, for lack of a better description.  Needless to say I am looking forward to the weekend so I can sleep in a bit.  The kids will be at their dad's this weekend but home early Sunday.  

Y'all have a good one!

The Garden Is In

We finally got the garden done Good Friday.  I had just about given up hope that we would have one this year but Tony came through and we got her done the week before Easter.  I wasn't really planning on expanding but Tony made that decision for me, and I'm happy he did.  Bella was really excited because it meant we get to plant more flowers.  This year's garden has tomatoes-big ones and cherry ones, yellow squash, cucumbers, zucchini, green beans, jalapenos, carrots and strawberries.  The flowers are a mixture but does include our favorite zinnias and sunflowers.  I honestly can't remember all of them because I let Bella picked whatever seeds she wanted, I just made sure they were okay to plant now and not in the Fall.  For one of the rows, I mixed the seeds up so there would be a variety coming up.  We'll see how that does.

These pictures were taken 2 days ago.  Everything is up except for the carrots.

Also took a picture of my blackberry vine. This little baby has a ton of blooms on it and 3 more shoots coming up at the root.  So exciting.  There was a time last year I didn't know if it would make it, but it did and it looks really good. 

I still have some morning glory seeds to plant along the back fence. Need to do that before its too late.  Also want to get some cuttings from Daddy's passion vine and butterfly vine.  They both make really pretty flowers. All of those growing along the back fence would be pretty I think. 

So there you have my garden this year.  Hoping I will actually get some cucumbers!  

One more picture I want to share with you.... 

Bella loves her some bluebonnets. Our neighbor has some popping up in their flower beds so she's always telling me when a new one bloomed.  They've also been talking about them in school and this is her artwork with finger paints she did of them.  Couldn't be more beautiful.  Her Grammy loved bluebonnets so this picture is extra sweet to me.  Definitely frame worthy in my book.  Need to take this sweet girl for a drive to see fields of them for sure.  

Y'all have a good one.

Hello March

Good grief.  That's the only thing that comes to mind when I look at the calendar and realize March begins this weekend.  I'm slowly getting the Spring bug.  I've been pinning garden ideas and flowers like crazy but have yet to really do anything at the house.  Christopher cut the grass last weekend (before the cold set in again) and I cleaned out the bed where my blackberry vine is growing and raked up a bag of leaves. I wasn't in the mood to fill up a lot, and believe me there are plenty of leaves in my backyard to fill up 20 or more.  We were going to try and start work on the garden Saturday but rain took care of that thought so now it'll be another couple of weeks before we get going since the tiller makes the rounds in Angleton to various families.  I'm thinking we'll have a late planting this year, which is really fine with me.  I won't have to worry about a late freeze killing any new sprouts.  I'm still contemplating what to plant this year.  I've had horrible luck with cucumbers and squash.  Tomatoes always do really well and last year I tried my hand at potatoes and jalapenos and they both did well.  Not sure I want to do potatoes again.  Maybe, if I can get a different variety. Good thing I still have some time to decide.  See, Mother Nature was looking after me.  Ha!

I'm going to finish up a St. Patrick's Day wreath this weekend.  I have the fabric and the "wreath" made out of a wire hanger, I just need to cut the fabric and tie.  This is my inspiration...

We'll see how it turns out.  I love the different shades of green I have for mine.  I think my sister is going to be jealous when I'm done seeing that green is her favorite color.  I have some other fabric I've been hanging onto for many years now that came from my Grandma Berger's closet.  I wish now I had taken a lot more (just to have it) but I'm making use of what I've had on hand for all these years waiting for that special something I was going to make with it.  Bella has a baby blanket that was made using a piece of material from that closet.  I also have a quilt my mom had made with some pieces that were already put together.  I will have to take pictures so I can show you here.  Really are special to me.  

I'm off to get a cup of coffee to warm these bones, wrap myself in a quilt and find a small child to snuggle with.  Y'all have a good one. 

Weekend Update

I love the sound of thunder.  It makes me smile.  I do prefer to be snuggled up at home but regardless of where I'm at, a smile spreads across my face when I hear it.  I'm hearing a little now as I try to work.  My mind keeps wandering to this past weekend and my time with my honey, his son and my children.  I loved every minute of it and can't wait until they can be here 24/7.  I missed them as soon as they left.  I'm sure in some books that makes me pathetic in ways, but all I see is happiness.  Been a long time and it feels good. 

Before honey arrived Saturday, the kids and I made our way to Lowes to pick up a few things.  This was us stuffed in the car on our way home.  Don't you just love Bella's expression?

 

You're looking at 3 Adirondack chairs, one garden hose reel and a tomato cage.  What you can't see is a hanging basket with flowers, several other flowers we picked up, a bag of ant killer, a bag of weed n feed, a princess kneeler for Miss Bella to help Mommy scratch in the flower beds...and I think that was it from there.  I went to Wal-Mart to look for a trellis Tony had told me about for my cucumbers but couldn't find them.  Picked up two bags of top soil, a planter and more flowers. 

 

Finally planted my blackberry vine I bought several weeks ago.  Here's the boy digging the hole for it.  I wanted it in the back corner because it will get the most sunlight there...

 

And the finished product.  Didn't my landscaper do a great job?  I thought so. 

Might have to keep him around.  Ha!

 

 

I still have a lot to do with the flower beds around the house but I did get the dead stuff pulled out and all of the leaves (well most of them) out of the beds.   Didn't get all the flowers we bought planted but will later.  Thank goodness I got a lot done Saturday because Sunday was cold and rainy.  Perfect day to stay inside, do laundry, watch tv, nap, do more laundry, nap some more and so forth.  That's exactly what we did.  It was a great lazy and productive day.  My laundry is caught up! 

Guess I'll try and get back to work.  Y'all have a good one!

Spring Garden

We got the garden done this weekend!!  It was a much easier process this year since we weren't starting from scratch.  Planting a garden in the Fall helped as well, even though that one didn't really work out for us, tilling up the dirt did. 

Tony tilling up the dirt....

We added 12 bags of manure to this.  Thankful I was able to take my brother's truck to pick that up.  I was bad about taking pictures this time around, but Tony captured this one while Chris and I were raking up the rows...

 

And our finished product...well almost finished.  We will plant cucumbers in a couple weeks...

 

 

That little patch right up front is Christopher's little strawberry patch.  He wanted to try some this year.  Not sure they'll make (its a little late) but who knows.  We're going to get some chicken wire and rig it up in an effort to keep the birds out.  We'll see how he likes it.  The next row will be cucumbers.  Didn't get a trellis (yet) but I'm still going to look into it.  After that we have a row dedicated to squash and zucchini, followed by two rows of green beans, a row of tators and a row of tomatoes and jalapeno peppers.  On the other side of that is an area dedicated to my flowers.  We're trying something different.  I'm told this is the Grandma Berger method of growing flowers.  We've scattered seed all over this area...no rows, just dirt and seeds.  I did plant the sunflowers in a row on the far right side.  In the middle is zinnias, poppy, daisies and I think something else?????  Memory is failing me right now.  Still no signs but I did find a flag that said "Welcome To Our Garden".  Christopher placed it up by his strawberries.  I also did not find any purple hull peas so those did not make the cut.  Maybe next year.   

 

Now for the downside portion of this weekend.  As I was walking outside Saturday morning to open the garage up and pull the hoes and rakes out, I discovered my water heater leaking.  Yay me!  Tony checked it out when he arrived and confirmed that it was leaking.  Where he wasn't sure but I couldn't remember how old it was and he decided it'd be best for me to replace it.  Ah, the joys of being a homeowner.  After we finished the garden, we ventured to Lowes and made a selection.  Not a cheap purchase but I tell you what guys, my brother is freaking awesome in case y'all didn't know it already because he saved me $300 in installation fees by replacing this himself.  While he and Chris did this Sunday, I stayed out of the way (until they needed me) and raked bags and bags of leaves.  You know, fun stuff!  At the end of the day, we grilled steaks, had some tators and corn on the cob as a thank you to my brother and son for helping me out.  I pitched in some beer too this weekend. That cold beer tasted oh so good after working in the yard all day.

 

All I can say is THANK GOD FOR BIG BROTHERS!!  He saved me again.  :)

 

Y'all have a good one!   

Garden Planning

Brother is coming over tomorrow to start moving dirt around so we can plant our garden for the second year in a row.  Woo Hoo!!  I really do love having a garden y'all, its so fun and relaxing.  And the best thing, other than having fresh vegetables, is the kids really enjoy it too. They get excited when its finally time to picking all those yummy vegetables, even though they don't eat most of them.  Well, Bella doesn't and Christopher eats the green beans and cucumbers. 

I'm thinking of adding some things to the garden this year.  Here's how my list is looking so far...

• Cucumbers
• Squash
• Green Beans
• Tomatoes
• Purple Hull Peas
• Tators
• Jalapenos
• And of course....flowers!

I also am seriously thinking about planting a lemon or lime tree...or maybe both!  Always wanted one so why not?  What's stopping me?  I think its the mentality I had for years that I needed approval to move forward with an idea.  I don't need that now...just need to get out of that old mentality. 

Enough about mentality and my issues.  Where did that come from anyway?

Getting back to my garden.  I am also thinking I want a trellis of some sort for my cucumbers.  Found this idea on Pinterest (thanks Sherri!)...

 

This trellis is awesome but I think a flowering vine would look much better on it...

 

I am also thinking about adding little signs throughout my garden. 

 

 

"No weeds here", "Squash this way", "Cutting flowers over yonder"...you get the point. 

 

And a bottle tree...

 

 

 

Wouldn't that be gorgeous with all the colors and the sun hitting it?  I think so. 

 

Here's what my garden looks like in my head....amazing isn't it?

 

 

Some day I will have the land and the means to do this.  Dream big or don't dream at all.  Hey...I dreamed big for prince charming and he finally showed up :). 

 

Y'all have a good weekend.  I hope you get to play in dirt too!

 

Fall Garden

The kids and I planted a Fall garden Tuesday evening.  Its small compared to what we planted in the Spring but nonetheless, its a garden.  Squash and beans....and flowers.  We did expand the size of the garden but we won't take full advantage of that until Spring.  And by "we" I mean my tiller guy, who happens to be big brother Tony, expanded it.  I just merely mentioned that I wanted something bigger for next year and he decided to go ahead and till it up now.  No harm in prepping early.  We'll see how it goes.  Tony has been having a heckuva time with his garden this Fall with hardly anything coming up.  He's given up on some and replanted others, but the radishes are growing like crazy!  Too bad I'm not crazy about them.  :(

Working hard to get it just right....

Pausing for a moment to capture of picture of mommy & daughter.  Do you like our matching boots?

Catching Up

Ok, ok...so I've been MIA for a while.  Only since the latter part of April, that's all.  I've been gone longer before so :P.  that's me sticking my tongue out at you.  hahaha!

Not really anything going on that's keeping me away, I just haven't felt like I had anything to journal about other than my usual frustrations with life in general. 

Since y'all think I'm weird already, I will share this with you.  My mom has been in my dreams a lot recently.  In fact, there were 3 nights in a row she was there.  She hasn't made an appearance in a very long time.  No matter what the dream is about, I am happy when I wake up because I got to see her.  I don't remember a whole lot of details but one dream involved a wedding, one a plane and the other Bella.  In all of them, there was chaos and a mess of stuff going on around us.  Mom was always there.  The plane dream in particular was a bumpy flight, but we made it through it.  I find it funny and strange that momma was on a plane in the dream because that is something she never did while she was with us.  She refused to fly.  Wanted no part of it.  If she couldn't ride in a car or bus, she wasn't going, period.  No discussion. I think my lesson of these dreams is that no matter how rough my life gets, I'm going to be alright in the end, and momma is right there with me every step of the way.

See any resemblance in the pictures below?  I do believe I am going to recreate the top photo as best I can.  I don't know for sure this picture was taken on Mother's Day but it was taken in May of 1975.  I was just a little 3 year old and momma was a beautiful 34 years.  The photo below that one was taken in December last year.  I was 40 and Bella was 3.  I don't realize how much I do look like my mom until I see pictures of her when she was younger.  To me, that's when you can really see it.  :) 

 

 

The garden at home is growing at leaps and bounds.  We had to replant the cucumbers and they are coming up nicely.  The tomatoes are still taller than the sunflowers, the they are catching up and will pass them up very soon.  I have lots of green tomatoes, a few baby green beans and a couple tiny squash. Every time I find something I giggle.  Christopher thinks its cute because I get soooo excited.  Its fun to see your garden grow!

 

 

This picture was taken a couple weeks ago...

And these were taken last week. 

 

Startin' to come together Pepper, startin' to come together! 

(Name that movie!!)

 

In other news, the Ladycats made it to the playoffs again this year.  They had a heckuva time this past series.  They won the first game but lost games 2 and 3 putting them of the playoffs.  Its always so hard but I feel like I cried more tears this year than any other year. 

 

These pictures were taken during the first round of playoffs...

 

Me and two of my favorite nieces, Cori and Mary Beth

 

 

Two of the Ladycats biggest fans, Kenna and Bella

 

 

Plus one more...

Channeling Grammy (Momma) for extra mojo!

 

Pop and Bella...

 

 

Last but not least, I finally got my butt up last night and went walking/running. My legs were burning when I got home but I was proud of myself for finally getting after it.  I've got 10 extra pounds I've been carrying around and I don't like it one bit.  I refuse to buy new clothes that fit when I have a closet full of perfectly fine, albeit too small at the moment, but nothing wrong with them otherwise fine clothes.  Christopher took some pictures of me last night so I could see the before and after results.  I also weighed myself but I'm not sharing those numbers with you because well, its none of your business, that's why :P!!  ha!

 

BEFORE...

Me just being goofy...I made Christopher laugh :)

 

I should have taken a picture of my backside so you could see just how large my ass has gotten.  Its all in my mid-section, God Bless us Vyvial women and our asses and midsections. Anyway, I'm bound and determined to get back down to where I feel more comfortable.  Just not happy with myself right now.

 

I guess that's about it for now.  I am doing a "Dress A Day In May" again.  I only started yesterday since we were hauling stuff for the fishing tournament last week.  I forgot to take pictures yesterday when we got home but I was on it today.  I'll share those in a separate post on DADIM.  Maybe a weekly recap. 

 

Y'all have a good one!

  

Woo Hoo, Its Friday

Its Friday and I couldn't be more relieved...and happy.  This week has just been pure hell.

The one and only highlight was finding mom's ring.  It gave me hope but yesterday found me slammed with yet another freaking life obstacle.  I'm still struggling but I have received so much support from family and friends.  Two friends and one family member have really stepped up the support and kick me in my ass the last couple of days.  Reminding me and pointing out all the positives in my life and that I am in fact, not such a bad person at all.  I still think I need my ass kicked a little harder but as I have said many a times, I'm upright, I'm sober and my kids are taken care of.  I'm not in a corner mumbling to myself...yet!

Getting in some more family time Saturday...my Berger side this time.  My cousin Reesa is getting married here in a couple short weeks and my baby girl will be the flower girl (her first gig) in her wedding.  We are going to a shower Saturday so I'll get to see my Aunt and two cousins.  More girl time is always a good thing. 

Sunday I'm going to try my best to make it to Market Days but I also need to spend some time in our garden.  I promise I'll take some pictures to share with you.  Everything is coming up and as Christopher said, "you can really see everything now". 

Hope y'all have a great weekend!

Flowers

Its no secret that I love fresh flowers.  My dream of one day owning a flower shop got lost somewhere over the years.  I really don't know anything about arranging flowers but when you throw wildflowers in a vase, somehow they look just perfect.  My darling daughter has a love of flowers just like her mommy.  Every day this sweet girl will bring me flowers.  Some days she may only find one but its always for mommy.  I can now understand the joy my grandmother felt when us grandkids would pick every wildflower on the side of the road to bring to her.  Its a good thing.  Here is a sampling of what my love brought to me this past weekend...

 

My sweet flower picker.  She is going to make a great gardener when our flowers start blooming!

My girlfriend Jenn over at Pin This sent me a link to this website called veryjane (we call it the devil).  One of its specials Sunday was the wall vase you see below.  I think this would be perfect to hang in my kitchen for all the pretty flowers my girl brings me, don't you think?  By the time I went to order one, they were sold out.  Boo!  Probably a good thing actually.  Hasn't kept me from looking at Etsy to see what else I could find.  So many color/design options.  Too many for me to make a decision.  Maybe by the time the flowers start blooming in the garden I will have made a decision or maybe, if I'm lucky there will be some at the Market Days in town this weekend.  :)

I love the mason jar...   

My Garden...Finally!!

Yes!  I have a garden.  And I totally wouldn't have done it had my brother not brought it up again.  I had thought about digging up the ground for one but I knew I probably wouldn't do it.  Tony offered to come over Saturday and till it up and get it going.  I didn't say no.  My vision of course was much smaller but once Tony looked at the slope of the ground and where the sun comes in, the line of the trees, etc...he suggested a different area and slightly bigger version.  My response to him was, "go big or go home", at least that's what I'm always hearing with regard to several things :).  So we went bigger than my original vision and I am so very stinkin' excited.  We have squash, cucumbers, tomatoes, green beans and flowers.  Yes, you read that right...flowers!  You see, my Grandma Berger always had a garden, always.  In the early days, when they had livestock in the back forty, the garden was up front.  I loved that garden.  It was fenced in and most all of it was vegetables but there was a space she had up front close to the gate that was flowers.  Well I had to be like Grandma Berger!  So I have 3 rows of flowers....zinnias, snapdragons and sunflowers.  Eventually, I would love to fence in my garden to look the way Grandma's did.  That would be sweet.  Some day. 

I hope my garden does well.  It will be a learning process for me and the kids.  This is our first but we are ready to have some fun...some good therapy. 

Our First Garden!!

Up Close...me and the kids plus my nephew Brady :)

Trying to figure it all out...

 

Bella ready to plant her flower seeds :)

 Away she goes...doing such an awesome job

 

 

 

Planting our tomatoes 

 

Gotta put your head in it...

 

 

It was a great day.  One that I've needed for a long time.  I can't wait to share pictures of our garden's progress.  My little house...its starting to come together. :)

 

Y'all have a good one!