My Garden

My Dad let me borrow a book called Square Foot gardening by Mel Bartholomew.  Last Sunday I read the book and decided I that I wanted a garden!  Last summer my Dad grew tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, and lots of other veggies.  I thought that was the coolest thing.  The whole point of a Square Foot garden is to grow a little bit of everything.  You have a 4x4 foot box that is broken up into 1x1 foot sections.  In each 1x1 foot section you can grow veggies, flowers, or herbs. 

Sweet Jerr Bear offered to help me build my garden.  So off to Home Depot we went.  We got 4 wood post that were 4x10 for the border, weed blocker, soil, compost, plant labels, chicken wire, zip ties, wire cutters, 8 4x1 inch panels, and lots of seeds! 

First I had to begin soaking my seeds.  So I wrapped the seeds up into moist paper towels and let them soak for a good 2 hours.  To make sure I didn't mix the seeds up, I bought the plant labels from Home Depot. 

After soaking my seeds, it was time to get dirty!  Jerry helped me build my garden. 

Step One: Build the border

Step Two:  Staple the weed blocker to the bottom of the border

Step Three: Build Cover (this is optional- unfortunately I have very naughty dogs that will either eat or destroy my garden)  For our cover we just screwed the 4 foot x 1 inch wood panels together to form a border.  Then we stapled chicken wire to the sides.  Last we used zip ties to connect the chicken wire. 

Step Four: Fill your garden box. The book tells you to make your own soil by mixing a bunch of stuff together.  However, we decided to mix Top Soil, Garden Soil (with Pete Moss), and Compost. 

Step Five: Place panels 1 foot apart.

Step Six: Plant your seeds!!!! This is the best part!  

For my garden I decided to plant cantaloupe, watermelon thyme, jalopenos, bell peppers, sunflowers, marigolds, cayenne peppers, cilantro, basil, sugar snap peas, chives, broccoli, squash, cucumbers, and parsley.  I really hope it all grows!!!!

Step Seven:  Put cover over garden to keep bad dogs out

Hopefully my garden will grow!  I'll keep you posted!!!

Lauren's Baby Shower

This Saturday we (me, my mom, Aunt Rozlyn, Meagan, and Misty) threw Lauren a baby shower!  It was so much fun!  It was so great to see all of Lauren's old friends from high school.  All of them have either just had a baby or are pregnant!  Lauren looked so cute.  She's all belly!  Lauren got so much cute stuff.  I think my favorite was this clothes hamper from Reetha (Lauren's mother- in- law).  It was pink with white polka dots and it had Claire embroidered on it.  Here are so pictures from the shower. 

That's the clothes hamper!  Soooo cute!

Dessert and punch table.  We had cake from Nothing Bunt Cakes!  The cake was delious! 

Close up of the diaper cake!  I think the doll on top of the cake looks like Lauren!

The shower was great!  I can't wait for Claire to be here!  Only a little over a month!  

Grass Update

Well, it's been about a month since Jerry tilled up the backyard and layed seed down.  For awhile, I thought it was a lost cause.  No grass was growing and it was so frustrating!  Then finally one day.... GRASSS!!!!!! Here are some pictures... I know it's not much, but hey it's a start!

Close up:

Hopefully all the grass will end looking this full:

A couple of weekends ago, Jerry decided to put in a french drain.  I was very nervous about this, but Jerry assured me that we had to have it.  So we dug a trench, put the tarp thing down, put a sock around a pipe, and put some rocks on top of the pipe.  And what do you know we have a french drain!  It sounds a lot easier describing it, but it was ALOT of work.  On Wednesday it rained really bad.  Instead of the water pooling, it went down the french drain!  It was a miracle!  Usually we have nasty mudwater in our back yard for at least a week.  Which is a huge pain because the dogs track in a ton of mud into the house. 

The next weekend we decided to beautify the house.  We cleaned out the "flower beds."  It's hard for me to even call it that because it was just so awful looking.  Here is one picture of just how awful one of our flower bed looked:

After working ALL DAY Saturday and Sunday we have the end result.  Drum roll please....

Side of the house:  We took out the wood planks and replaced it with beautiful stones.  We also trimmed the trees, put down some bushes, and topped it with black mulch. 

This is the front of the house.  We put in 3 little bushes in front of the window, planted red and white germaniums, and topped it all with black mulch. 

This is the walkway.  We planted red and white germaniums and put down black mulch.  I love th black mulch!  It looks like dirt.

This is a cute welcome sign I got at Hobby Lobby.  I love that store!

I never realized how rewarding a pretty yard can make you feel.  Everytime I drive up to our house I have so much pride!  I used to hate when my parents would make me help plant flowers and I never understood why they cared so much.  It makes me so happy to drive up to our house now. 

Here is the end result of a long hard weekend.  As you can see Lucy was tired from just watching Jerry and I. 

Spring Training

Over Spring Break, Jerry and I went to Surprise, Arizona for the Ranger's Spring Training. We also went with Dustin (Jerry's SigEp bro), Groves (Jerry's SigEp bro), Brett (Groves' brother), and Kline(Groves and Brett's bff). We had so much fun! The weather was so perfect! In the mornings we would go to the back fields and watch all the players (major and minor league) practice and work out. It was really fun seeing all the players and getting their autographs.   Here is a picture of all the pitchers meeting before they go to practice. 

While we were in the back fields it was really easy to get autographs.  Here is a picture of me and Jerry with Matt Harrison one of the pitcher.  We go alot of autographs, including Neftali Feliz.  

After visiting the back fields it was time to go to the game.  The field was pretty small compared to the Ballpark.  I like it that way.  It seemed more up close and personal.  We litterally sat in talking distance to the players.  Here's a picture of the stadium. 

One day, we got the game early and Elvis Andrus was signing autographs.  It was really cool.  He signed my program and we got a picture with him.  I was pretty excited. 

One night we went to the Padres/ Mariners stadium and watched the Padres play the Dodgers. 

That was fun too. 

I'm not sure why I like baseball so much.  For one, it is was of Jerry's passions and it's nice to somewhat understand baseball and talk baseball together (as good as I can "talk" baseball). Jerry is a very good/ patient teacher.  I explains trades, positions, and plays to me during the game when he thinks I'm bored (I'm not really bored- just relaxed.)  Second, baseball is so relaxing.  I love being outside, the slow pace of the game, and all the yummy smells.    Third, Ian Kinsler.  Enough said.  Fourth, I feel like the players are more normal that other professional atheletes.  Being at Spring Training the players didn't seem to be cocky or too cool for school.  They were happy to talk to you or give you there autograph or take a picture with you.  It just really impressed me. 

It was a wonderful trip.  I had a great time and I can't wait to go to a baseball game at the Ballpark.  GO RANGERS!

Here are some random pictures I snapped throughout the trip. 

CJ Wilson-

Feliz signing my baseball:

The coolest Ranger's Fans ever:

COME ON GRASS!!!

Jerry and I have been battling our backyard for the past year. It seems that it is impossible to grow grass in the backyard. It is really annoying. Jerry decided to till up the entire backyard and put down some grass seeds. I really hope that it takes! GROW GRASS GROW!!!!

Here's a picture of Jerry with the tilling machine. What a handyman!

Claire's New Bedroom!

For Lauren's Birthday, my mom and I chipped in to buy her Claire's bedding. We finally got it in and it is super cute! It's not to girly, but just right! Here's a picture of Claire's crib.

Here's a picture of Lauren's belly this week! She's really starting to get big!


I've been shopping a lot for Claire lately. I just can't help myself, everything that size is so cute! I can't wait for Claire to be here!

COWTOWN 10K!!!!!

On Saturday, February 27, Jerry and I ran the Cowtown 10K. We've been training for the past couple of months for this race. We've always done 5K with no problem, so we decided to go for the 10K. The morning was a little stressful. We left the house at 6:30 thinking that would give us plenty of time to get their by 7:30...we were wrong.... we got stuck in traffic. Here's a picture of me trying to keep it cool (even though I was freaking out because I thought we were going to miss the race.)
b
I was totally freaking out on the inside and I was trying to hide it from Jerry, but I think he knew. Here's a picture of the awesome traffic.
This is what time it was... keep in mind we were still outside of downtown and our race started at 7:30.
Here's a picture of Jerry driving- calm... cool... collected... as always

So we waited...and drove a few feet... waited some more... and drove a few more feet. It was terrible! We finally found a parking spot... by that time it was 7:23. At this point, Jerry and I were at an all out sprint to the starting line. Shockingly, right as we ran up we heard the gun go off. So we just went for it. Talk about an interesting warm up... by the time we were starting we were already ready for a break. We ran the entire way. I was so proud of us! There were some pretty terrible hills in there, but we got through them! I'm so glad we ran the Cowtown this year! This was the first of many 10K's and hopefully we can add half marathons and maybe marathon to our resume. I really enjoy running with Jerry. He pushes me to run faster and I push him to keep going. I think we make a great team!

After we ran the race, we met up with Andrea and ate at Ole South.
While I was stuffing my face with pancakes, I could see the marathoners running. It kind of made me feel guilty for eating pancakes... but not bad enough to stop eating.