Our Big Backyard

I know I shouldn't brag, but our back yard is pretty big by suburban Texas standards. And we've been hard at work improving it over the last few weekends. Let me show you the different areas:

The Orchard: We have a peach, plum, pear, and pecan tree. We also have two apple trees that are not pictured because they are on the side of the house. The trees look pretty bare at this distance, but they are starting to bud and I even spotted a couple of flowers on the peach tree.


Yesterday I showed you the garden:


This past weekend we added our newest addition, a swing set:




Of course, it's quite a big hit already.

And last but not least, the pool and spa:

What?? You don't see it???? Well, give us another 5 years. Or 20. Probably closer to 20. :)

Garden 2011: Week 1

Two weekends ago, we decided to enlarge our garden. (I do square foot gardening--but this is my favorite site about it--be sure to sign up for the weekly reminder emails!)Dave built me a 4x12 foot bed using this cinderblock plan from Covington's Nursery. He filled it with new dirt and I planted my first crops last week--lettuce, spinach, peas, carrots, onions, and broccoli. Thus far the only thing up is the broccoil, and that's only because I used transplants. Everything else is from seed.


I hope to update my progress every few weeks!

Weekend Projects

Something about this time of year leads to a flurry of household projects. Last year around this time, Dave had just finished the bar exam and we had 7 weeks until Miss Madeline made her debut. We painted several rooms, rearranged furniture, put together new furniture. This past weekend we painted a garage-sale find for Emma's room:

We FINALLY hung family pictures:

We also purchased materials to build 2 containers for a forthcoming square foot garden. Stay tuned!

Nesting

When I was pregnant with Emma, my idea of nesting was going shopping. (Ah, the glory days of 2 salaries and no kids.) Emma had a fantastic wardrobe, and I prided myself on finding cute things on sale. (Again, another advantage of being a teacher and having the entire second half of your pregnancy off because of summer break.) I didn't really decorate her room, which was already painted yellow and went just fine with the bedding I had chosen.

This time around, I haven't done too much shopping because I already had a lot, even though the girls will be born in opposite seasons. However, I have been into decorating--just not the baby's room. I feel like the baby really won't care or notice or spend time in her bedroom, besides being confined to the crib for sleep.

But I have been excited to do Emma's room for some time now. And with the bar exam FINALLY over, we've been rushing around to try to finish projects. First on the agenda: painting Emma's room a lovely shade of light pink. Dave was against it at first, citing the perfectly good (if beige) paint job that has only been on the walls for six months. But I used my powers of pregnancy persuasion and my painter's tape skills and convinced him to do it, and I'm so glad that I did. A splash of color makes it a much happier room, if you ask me. And I talked it up to Emma so much that she is (pardon the pun) tickled pink about it. I got pink Roman shades and a pink coverlet for her new, big-girl, queen-sized bed. (Yes, I know it's huge. But it also will serve as the guest bed for now).

The result? Emma loves it and has not missed her old room (or crib) at all, and now refers to it as "tiny baby's room." She has taken more easily to the new bed than I could have hoped for. The first couple of days she stayed in it after she woke up, singing songs and waiting for us to come get her. I wasn't sure she knew she could climb out of it, and wasn't about to shatter the illusion. But by day three, a cloudy Saturday morning when Dave and I were happily sleeping in, we heard our door turn and you-know-who climbed up into our bed. That night she also escaped, running around upstairs in her padded, pajama-ed feet. But after one talking-to, she has stayed put. She has not run around at night again, and in the mornings she comes down by herself, but only after I yell upstairs that it's okay to come down. (I know, I'm lazy, but I am 38 weeks pregnant, after all.) I love that she loves her room, and it makes her seem so big yet so little (in the middle of a queen-size bed) at the same time.

Now on to get the baby's room ready.

PS. You may notice the lack of furniture in Emma's room. A white dresser is on its way and should be here by sometime next week. I will eventually get her a nightstand too, once I can be assured that it will be more than something for her to bonk her head on when she eventually falls out of and/or jumps on the bed. There's a lot more that I want to do (read: buy) for her room, but one must spread out one's economic stimuli.

Home Sweet Home

Some randome updates:
1. We're in the house! We closed on October 24th, spent the next week hauling carloads of stuff, and moved the furniture on November 1st. It's still a mess, but my in-laws are coming for Thanksgiving, which is motivating me to get finished. Perhaps I'll post some indoor pictures with Christmas decorations?
2. We've been without the internet or TV for 2 weeks. While I really missed some things (email, blogs, the weather report), I've been more than happy not to hear the news. I was electioned out months ago.
3. Emma turned 2! Birthday posts (not to mention a Halloween post) to come soon. She completely grasps the birthday concept except for the fact that it lasts a DAY. Her birthday was on the 7th and she's still asking for birthday cake 2 weeks later.
4. I'm feeling much better, though still puking randomly. Someone needs to tell the unborn that I'm well into the second trimester, and that good food will be on its way if s/he'll let me get my appetite back. I find out if it's a she or a he in the first week of December.
5. I can't believe it's almost Thanksgiving! Either because we've been so busy, or the fact that it's still in the 70s here, it just doesn't feel like it. But I'm ready for the holidays!
More to come soon!

House Update

We currently have 3 homes. Lest this sound appealing, I assure you it's not. Particularly when you have to pay for them on less than a "Lifestyles-of-the-Rich-and-Famous" salary.

Home #1: A 2-bedroom condo in Jersey City, NJ, that we don't need and don't want. We have given up on selling it this year and are currently looking for renters. If you know of anyone who'd be interested, please please please email me.

Home #2: A 3-bedroom apartment in Rockwall, TX that we don't want but really need. I don't know how old this complex is, but it has charming qualities like circuit breakers that randomly stop working, thus rendering your stove unusable at the worst of times (like when your toddler is standing next to you chanting "eat! eat!"). Really, it's not that bad, and it's nice to have an extra bedroom/study/storage room. But I don't particularly want to be here and sort of feel like now that I'm in suburbia, I really shouldn't have to haul groceries up two flights of stairs.

Home #3: A six-bedroom house that we really want but isn't quite ready for occupancy yet. Though, to be fair, it's getting really close and we should be in by Halloween. (We give up the lease on home #2 on November 3rd, and if we find renters for home #1 all should be pretty good. If not, well, home #3 is going to be pretty empty for a while and we'll be eating lots of rice and noodles).

All I want for Christmas is...

A new washer/dryer was definitely NOT on my list. That is, up until about 10 days ago when our old one decided to die. I've done my time at the laundromat and I am not going back. So last Saturday we went to Sears, Home Depot, Sears, Lowe's, and Sears in search of the perfect one. I had hoped that the next time I'd be picking out appliances we'd have a house and I'd pick out the posh ones you see advertised in magazines. While the pickings in stackable washer/dryers are quite slim, especially given the dimensions of our utility closet, we found a pretty front-loader. It's bigger than the old one and definitely has more bells and whistles (the old one was probably 15-20 years old). So thus it is: Merry Christmas to ME!