Extreme Garden Makeover

My father-in-law is very handy. incredibly handy. If you read about our laundry room/bathroom addition, then you know he is our general contractor and our hired labor- all rolled into one!

Recently he helped out a friend with some things at their home. And when asked what they could give in return, the answer was "a garden for Ty and Kelley." I should add at this point that his friend owns a professional, commercial landscaping company. Oh and places like the Ritz Carlton hire his company.

So here's some before shots of our sweet cottage home.
Sorry, this one was at night. But allow me to point out a couple of things to you... the over grown "bush/tree" in front of the guest bedroom- making our house feel tiny. The utter lack of any other real bushes at all. just some short scraggily things... close ups in a second. Oh and please notice my wonderful husband cutting down the short scraggily things.
The morning before the crew arrives... here's the side of our home. a nice tangle of "Stuff" (you can see the garden hose we laid out defining where we would "like" a flower bed to be.)

once again, the over grown tree/bush. some more yucky bushes. my cute purse on the porch and my favorite red door.

The front of the house. This is next to the walk way. People actually had to look at this as they walked into our home. I'm starting to wonder why they ever came back. must have been the red front door.

in front of our new laundry room. Last year we planted a lot of seeds in this square. About 10 packets. Only the zinnias grew. This year we were building throughout the spring and this area was being trampled constantly, so I did not attempt to grow anything. Then one day, we had zinnias again! So I started watering them. And this year we had more zinnias than last year! It was an amazing surprise!! (we cut them all off and made bouquets for our home since this picture)

Here's the front of the house after the first day of work! The 2 man crew came over and in 1 hour and 10 minutes, they had cleared out ALL of the yucky stuff! ( they left the zinnias for one more week of beauty). Isn't it amazing how much bigger the house looks just plain!! Oh man oh man! The excitement was growing!!

And here's the finished product! (dont' worry, close ups are coming). Off to the left of the guest bedroom (far left window) is a magnolia tree. In front of the laundry room is a bright RED crepe myrtle (it matches the front door)

Our brand new flower bed!!! (remember the garden hose that was laid out? this is what became of it!!) Oh and by the way- this whole garden took a 4 man crew just over 6 hours. I think if I worked for the next 10 years it wouldn't look this good!

Here's looking under that guest bedroom window. There are some knock out roses (near the cute red buckets- which I've since filled with white vinca). in the far back is some bush that goes all the way out to the left and there are LOTS of them- don't know what they are called, but in the spring they bloom pink!! in the very very front is the lime green sweet potato vine. there's some decorative grass in the middle and some other flowers too. wish I knew all the names, I have so much to learn!!

Oh- a sweet little statue I found at Hobby Lobby last week. (also where I purchased the red buckets and a few other things you'll see shortly.) This statute is almost directly under the guest window and you can see it as you walk up the side walk.

at the turn in the sidewalk is this sweet little statue.

Here's the view as you walk up the sidewalk. Isn't it amazing!!!

So I had been growing this begonias in containers all spring. they've done great! but i had them all clustered awkwardly on the porche. The genius land scape men rearranged them up the stairs! so cool!! (and our new S flag - anniversary gift from dad and cindy)

The red crepe myrtle!! tons of flowers!! yellow lantana all along the sidewalk. knock out roses all along the sidewalk and wrapping around the porch. some really tall grass stuff on the right (you can barely see it) borders with the drive way.

view from the drive way. tall grasses in the front.

Oh- maybe you remember how we had our gas metered moved out of the garage and was just sitting in front of the house all gray and tall and ugly?

well due to this pretty thing... you can't see it any more!! I"m going to call that bush "hocus pocus" because it makes things disappear.

The happy couple!! Proud of our new landscapeing!! (guess what day it was? hint... look at my outfit!)

The next step??? YARD OF THE MONTH!! oh how I"ve been wanting to win that since we moved in! Now I have a chance!! Oh man! get excited!!

Anniversary Celebration

Yesterday was a perfect day of celebration of our 2 whole years of marriage!! Ty came home for lunch, which he normally does. But I tried to spice it up! So, I made his favorite lemonade-ice tea, fixed his lunch, set up the table with appetizers and sandwiches, and then... candles! Oh yeah! a romantic candle-lit lunch while watching Sportscenter (that's what Ty likes to do during his lunch hour- helps him calm down from work a bit).

Then I took Ty back to work. I ran some errands (mostly fun errands), then went back to pick him up and we headed off to dinner!

We went to Houston's, one of Ty's all time favorites. We had the delicious spinach dip for an appetizer.

Houston's makes some fancy foods and steaks and things. But Ty orders the chicken fingers EVERY time! This time was no exception! They really are the best chicken fingers, cole slaw, and fries you can find. Even the honey mustard is exceptionally yummy. The chicken fingers are no longer on the menu, but you can still get them. I noticed on the bill this time that the chicken fingers are really called "The Flying Chicken Plate." I definitely made fun of Ty for loving The Flying Chicken Plate.

And I got this crab cake salad. I've gotten it the last few times I've gone there. It is really yummy- greens, crab cake (mostly crab- not bread), avocado, grapefruit, a little onion, and a champagne vinaigrette. I wanted to eat "light" because I was saving up for dessert!

Presenting the Five- Nut Brownie!! served hot! on top of a vanilla bean creme! with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on top! Oh My Oh My! The brownie was seriously incredible!! I'm a "lac-tard" so I did not eat the ice cream. I did eat the creme however and it was delicious!! but my tummy was not too happy on the car ride home. worth it!!

Here we are at dinner! Ty was a great sport! I get very cheesy and sentimental and so I was asking questions like "what has been the biggest surprise in marriage?" "What was your all time favorite meal in the last 2 years?" "where do you see us in 5 years?" He did great! Answering everything (and I personally think he enjoyed it)

Here we are on our deck getting a better shot together. (Oh how i love Ty's hair long like this! he hates it and is getting it cut tomorrow. I'm sad) Then we took a walk together to work off our huge meal and dessert.

Gift time!! So we have a few things going on... getting a new garden next weekend! (more details to come later). So my mom sent money for us to buy a hydrangea bush. Grandma sent money. Dad and Cindy sent this precious garden flag (in our wedding colors too).

Ty's parents give us Spode Christmas dishes each year. I love having Christmas dishes!!

The 2nd year traditional theme is COTTON! So... I gave Ty this seer sucker suit. (well actually he picked it out and I told him it was his anniversary gift).

He took me shopping one day! (loved the time together! That alone was a gift!) And he helped me pick out the following items. 3 dresses (Ann Taylor Loft) and a pair of shorts (Banana Republic). I tried on each thing, I would model for him, he complimented each thing! it was a great day!!

Such a fun day!! Next year the gift theme is leather or crystal/glass. Hmm... I have 1 year to figure something out!

Two Whole Years

Last night we were watching The Patriot and it came to the part when Gabriel (played by Heath Ledger) gets married. I turned to Ty and said, "A year ago tomorrow that was us!" He looked at me and said, " ONE year ago?" "Oh, I mean two, I just got carried away in the moment and time flies when you're in love." Oops.

So today we have been married for TWO whole years!! (note to self, not one). So as a reflection... here are some wedding pics from TWO years ago.

Rehearsal dinner (the only picture I have from that by the way. Good thing this is a good pic)

The whole wedding party. I still love the flowers and my dress and where our reception was and our cake. I looked through the album today, still love it. Would love to relive it all over again!!

Ty and I leaving in a horse drawn carriage after running through a plethora of bubbles! It was superb!
And one pic from the honeymoon! Oh what I would give to be back at The Royal in Playa Del Carmen! Yummy food!! All you can eat dessert!! (well and other food too, but I only really care about dessert.) Beautiful weather and lots of scuba diving!

Ty... it's been a fabulous 2 years! I love you more now then I did back then! I can't wait for many many more to come!!

Now it's off to pick my wonderful hubby up from work so we can go get some yummy dinner (and dessert!) I'll blog tomorrow about dinner and our gifts (complete with food pics of course!!)

Have a Good Night... Morning

Since I haven't uploaded any photos from my recent trips, we'll begin playing catch up with the following story...

All was well when Ty and I boarded the plane on June 9th in Dallas. We flew straight to Atlanta, ON TIME! Our flight in Atlanta was ON TIME! When I went to college years ago, Delta had the cheapest tickets between St. Louis and Wilmington, only problem was you had to fly through Atlanta and nothing was EVER on time. I mean I was always late. I even stayed the night in Atlanta once, not by choice either.

So 2 flights on time in the same night was very very impressive.

As we began our descent into Wilmington, things got a little bumpy. I had noticed on our itinerary that we were on a "Air France" plane. Apparently they joined up with Delta and share planes. I didn't think much of that, but when things got bumpy that little fact came back up in my brain... especially since this was just a week or so after that terrible Air France crash.

We were coming in for the on time landing (10:56 pm)... Ty and I were not sitting together, but he told me later that we were really low- he could see cars very well- and it was really dark.

Yet the bumpiness did not stop. In fact it got worse. I was never afraid for my life or anything- just a little uncomfortable.

Unfortunately, the lady sitting behind me was afraid for her life. As were the 3 ladies sitting behind Ty. The panic attacks started. And they were bad! I started humming out loud just to try and drown out her words. The husband behind me was firmly telling the wife to cut it out and stop- which only provoked her more. And the sweet little high school graduate sitting next to me was breathing hard and getting motion sick.

Next thing you know, we're going back up and circling out above the ocean. 15 minutes later (okay maybe only 5, but it felt like 15) the pilot comes on to say that a storm has settled right about the run way so we will circle a bit to see if it will move.

15 minutes pass. We go in to land again. Guess what... storm is not gone. The bumps come again. As do the very vocal panic attacks. Oh this is getting bad. Not to mention VERY LATE!

We head back up to the sky.

Meanwhile, my sweet mom is waiting in the tiny Wilmington airport where you can stand in one place and see the whole airport. she watches our plane try to come in twice and leave. Next thing she sees is our flight erased from the monitors. Then a man comes out into the lobby and announces, "Anyone here for flight 57 from Atlanta, please come in to this room."

Immediately everyone's faces fall... this sounds like it's going to be a personal explanation of a crash. The quickly and quietly walk over to the room. He then tells them, " the plane diverted to Myrtle Beach." whew. that was close.

In Myrtle, I call mom. She already knows we're there and is ready to drive the 45 minutes to come get us. They won't let us off the plane. They won't let us do anything. The panic attack ladies are getting worse. And it's getting really late. I just don't want to deal with those ladies anymore. The pilot jumped off the plane to find out about the weather and the flight attendant just keeps telling us to stay seated. It was terrible.

We needed more fuel. We were basically out. It was after midnight, most airport workers have gone home. Finally they find a fueler, we get fuel. Apparently the storm is moving South- oh towards Myrtle, nice.

As they are about to close the doors and take off, the suddenly tell the panic attack ladies they can leave. What? I wanted to leave, but they said no. Ugh.

Ty switches seats with the high school graduate. The panic attackers are gone.

We have a peaceful, non bumpy, easy flight into Wilmington. We land at 1:13.

Nevermind about Delta being on time. Once again, they were not.

Joe Clarke Soccer Camps

I have a GREAT dad! He has taught me many many things in life! One of my favorite "inherited traits" is his ability to make everything into a game! Waiting for your food at a restaurant or standing in line somewhere, any thing at any time can be fun when dad is with you. Life is just not boring. We don't have time for boring because we are always playing games!

I have also become known for this at times. In fact, I was with my college friends last week and they still love to say to me, "ok, here's the game!" - that was my token phrase throughout college. Sometimes they just call me "Joe Clarke." I like it.

Good ole dad- dancing it up at our wedding. I think I also learned my dancing skills from him. That's not really a good thing- for either of us. Or for those who have to watch.

In Santa Barbara last Christmas, not only was it cold outside and had been raining for days, but the ocean was just over freezing. I mean it was probably 35 degrees or something. But Joe Clarke was not content to just "see" the ocean. No. He had to experience it. So he ran around barefoot while I took his picture.

Even sitting on the floor opening Christmas gifts becomes a game. "Let's see who is most flexible!" "Let's see who can sit like this and put their knees on the floor!" (My 18 year old step sister won. Old age has not yet taken affect on her bones.)

And finally some normal pictures of good ole dad! Grilling and bonding with my sweet hubby.

Dad and I in Santa Barbara.

I love you Dad!

This Just In!

I received an email today telling me to go to my texas education profile for my score on the Spanish Oral Proficiency Test....



I needed a score of 6, 7, or 8 to pass...



I MADE A 6!!!



Yeah!! Thanks for all your prayers and confidence! What great news to end a vacation on!!



Tomorrow, I head home to Dallas... will be composing blogs in my mind and uploading pics as soon as I get home! Get excited for more posts!

Stayed Tuned

So... I've been on vacation for the past 2 weeks... The day after school ended I left for St. Louis to visit my dad and fam and also to work his soccer camp. Due to excessive heat, soccering, and lack of sleep, I did not post on my blog.

I came home just long enough to do some laundry, clean the house, and pack again. Then hubby and I left to visit my mom and grandma in North Carolina. Due to lots of beach time, eating, jogging, and a VERY SLOW computer, I have not posted on my blog.

I return to the big D on Tuesday evening and have many blogs planned in my mind... just to keep you interested...

~ laundry room updates
~ gardening ideas and thoughts
~ new kitchen floor
~ new classroom
~ St. Louis trip
~ working soccer camp and a plethora of funny kid sayings
~ visiting NC and the beach
~ flight to NC

I believe that's it for now. but it's a lot. and once I'm back to a non-slow, I mean agonizing slow, I mean click on a link then go take a shower, come back and check, then go dry my hair, then come back and check and finally see my email. Click on an email, go eat lunch, come back and check, go brush my teeth, come back and read my email - kinda slow. You get the point.

Off to bed for now... enough of fighting with this computer. Tomorrow is my last full day and I have many things I want to do... all including the beach in some form or another.

Good night!