Trying it out

I am trying out the new feature on Blogger that lets you e-mail posts to your blog. Forgive me if it comes out weird. Two things that I think will be good about this feature:

1. When I am posting at work it will look like I am actually working
2. Spell check will always be on

So another birthday has come and gone. Nothing major happened but I think a good time was had by all. Tuesday night Steph, Jarrod, Carrie, and Matt came to the house for some BBQ. We made fajitas and sausage. It was delicious! Steph provided the cake - chocolate cake with cookies and cream icing with vanilla ice cream on the side. YU-UM!!! Wednesday night my PPD friends treated me to happy hour at Baby A's. I was pretty toasty by the end of the night and woke up Thursday (my actual birthday) to my first hang over ever, yes I am that lame. It was my birthday present to myself. I pretty much felt like I was going to vomit all day and greasy pizza at lunch didn't help. Steve had made us reservations at III Forks but we had to cancel because there was no way I was going to be able to eat. Instead, we went shopping for our niece's birthday present.

This weekend we are headed to Corpus for Sydney's birthday party. She is turning 4 and they have rented a gymnastics bus. I don't really know what it is but she and her sister are waaaaay excited about it. I'll try to get some good pictures to show y'all. Hope everyone else has a fabulous weekend!

Update: This worked but it had the confidentiality statement at the bottom that goes with all of my e-mails so I had delete the post and re-post it.

Owning a home is hard

I have been working in the yard for the past 3 days and am so tired! We are re-doing the landscaping out front. It is times like these that I think maybe our apartment wasn't so bad after all.

Friday I had the afternoon off so I decided that I would get a jump start on things and get all of the flowers. I went to Lowes and got Knock-Out Rose bushes and Begonias in various shades of pink along with some lawn edging to keep the grass from growing into the flowerbed. As I was looking around I saw that the Hibiscus trees were on sale so I got one of those for the deck. I also found some window boxes that could be hung on the railing of the deck so I got those and some Annuals (Feather is what their tag said) in a bunch of different colors to go in the boxes. I was so excited about the plants for the deck that I started working on those as soon as I got home. While I was working I realized that I didn’t have enough potting soil so I ran up to Home Depot and got some more. While I was there I found some super cute pillows too. The deck is really starting to look fun!





Saturday we woke up later than we wanted to so we tired to hurry through the last few errands we need to run before getting to work. We let the grass grow way too far into the flowerbed that the builders created so we went bought an extension to Steve's weedeater that would make it a tiller and then went to Geo Growers for some organic soil. We got home around noon and got busy. First we pulled some bushes from the flowerbed that the builder put in. We decided to pull the ugly bushes that were around our utility box and put these ones in. Then, while Steve was tilling the flowerbed I was moving some Lillies that have really sprouted away to each side of the garage. When I first planted them, there were only 3 flowers so I put them on the left side of the garage; now I have over 10 so I moved some to the right side of the garage to even things out. As Steve was finishing his first pass of tilling, the tiller stopped working. He had hit a piece of brick buried in the soil and it had logged itself in-between the blades and we think that caused the gears to burn out. Ugh! We had to pull the rest of the grass by hand. This took the rest of the day. Around 6 we started getting really tired so we planted the rose bushes because they seemed to be drooping, cleaned up all of our tools and called it a day.

Sunday morning we got up at 8 and head back outside. It was freezing!!! I continued to pull grass while Steve started digging the trench for the lawn edging. At about 10 I was an icicle so I came inside and made us breakfast. Steve finished the edging and then came in as well. After breakfast we read the paper and got ready for Shawna and Oliver’s wedding reception. It was so pretty! It was exactly what I pictured an afternoon wedding to look like. After the wedding we headed back to Home Depot for more lawn edging and it was back to work for us. As I was planting the begonias I realized that we had made the new flowerbed bigger than the old one and needed more flowers. I decided to line the front of the flowerbed with them and then find something else to put between them and the rose bushes. I got through almost all of them before it got dark.

Last night I went out to finish the begonias up but it was windy and cold again so I didn’t. Hopefully tonight the weather will be nicer so I can finish up. Friday I am going to buy geraniums to fill in the rest of the flowerbed. I am not going to take pictures until we are done so keep your fingers crossed that it will be Friday!

Omigod!

This post is kinda long; I actually did a lot for once! Friday Steve took me to see Legally Blonde the Musical.



I loved it! It was my first time ever going to a musical/play and Legally Blonde is one of my favorite movies so it was perfect! I was surprised to see so many younger people there. It was slightly annoying actually. That is my only complaint. The music was great, super upbeat and fun. The stage decorations were amazing. You almost forget you are watching a play. And the costumes!! O.M.G. Her pink sparkly shoes were phenomenal. I was totally memorized by them. I have been trying to find out who makes them so I can get a pair for myself! No luck so far.

Saturday, we ran errands. Well, I did. I dropped Steve off at Third Base to watch the OSU basketball game with some friends and then went to the mall and to BestBuy to return some stuff. While I was out I finished up his Valentine’s gift. I got him a panoramic picture of the OSU football stadium online and needed to get it framed.



I could have bough it already framed, but $150 was a little more than I wanted to spend considering I just spent that on his birthday. So I got just the picture for $50. Guess how much it cost to get it framed? $167!!! For the frame alone!! WTF?!?!?!?!?! And that is with a 50% off coupon! I had no idea how much it cost to get stuff framed. So much for saving money I guess. That night we barbequed and did our taxes. More annoyances. Steve and I decided that we would apply for the first-time homeowners’ credit so that we could pay off my car. As we began to do our taxes, we realized that we were going to have to pay taxes on the sell of his town home last year. That took the whole $7500!!! We keep having to tell ourselves that at least we are not having to pay. It is super depressing though. After that we watched season 3 of Entourage.

Sunday we got our first delivery of the Statesman. I love the Sunday paper! Mostly because I like to find all of the good deals in the ads. BestBuy was advertising the Wii Fit so we got dressed and headed straight over. As we were walking in we saw a lady walking out with one and another lady walking towards the register. I was kind worried that maybe they were all gone already. Luckily there were a couple left when we got to the aisle so we grab one and a cute pink cover.



After that we went to Rudy's for lunch and then to go see our second Oscar movie – Benjamin Button. I liked it but I don’t know if it is what I would consider Oscar quality. It was really long, and Steve had a hard time staying comfortable so he kept shifting in his seat. If you haven’t seen it, I would wait until it comes out on DVD.

When we got home we painted the bathroom finally. We comprised on the color – I got to use my dark purple if I only did one wall. It was probably a better idea because I do my make-up in there and I don’t want the color to bounce off the walls and make me use too much or too little. We painted the wall that the shower and tub are on. Since it was just one wall we got the small can of paint. It wasn’t enough so we ran out and couldn’t finish. I am going to get the rest of the paint tonight and finish. I will take pictures and post them later.

I think this will be a good week. Work is finally starting to quiet down, and Sharla’s happy hour and my party are giving me something to look forward to. Hope everyone else has a good week too!

Call me!!

I got a new phone today!! The BlackBerry Pearl II, in pink of course.



I know what you're thinking - Why didn't I get the iPhone? I just really am not that into it. Yes it has cool applications and it is a touch screen but I think it is just too trendy for me. I don't need to do all of that stuff on my phone. All I need, or at least wanted, is a phone with full HTML and a QWERTY (or however you spell it) keyboard. The Pearl doesn't have the full keyboard but it is close and I thought it was easier to use than some of the others I looked at because the keys are bigger. So far I am really liking this phone. And I got a great deal on it. It was only $100 with my upgrade and then they gave me a $50 mail-in rebate! Woo hoo!

Steve and I saw The Reader last night.



I can't decide if I like it or not. It was not at all what I was expecting. Have any of you seen it? Did you like?

Another weekend bites the dust

I blinked and the weekend was gone!!

On Black Friday, this camera I had been eyeing for quite some time now finally went on sale. Steve and I were preparing to fight the crowds at BestBuy and go get it when we realized that we could order it online instead. So we did! It was delivered right as we were packing up to leave for Harlingen this past Friday. I was so excited that I was going to get to use it over the weekend! It is a Sony Cybershot T300.



I love it so far!!

We got to my parents around 9:30 and just hung out the rest of the evening. My sister and I got my mom a necklace and a bracelet for her birthday. She seemed to like them. You never can tell with my mom.

Saturday we did a little shopping. My sister and I went out by ourselves that morning. We said that we were going to running but went to pick up some decorations and the cake I ordered for my mom earlier in the week. We dropped them off at my grandma’s so that we could surprise my mom with them at dinner. As a family we went to Furniture Row and my mom got herself an entertainment center and the matching coffee table and end tables. It was her birthday present to herself. We went to BestBuy after that to get a memory card and a case for my camera. It is black and pink and will hold my license and credit card along with the camera. Now I can go places with just the camera and not my whole purse!





That night we went to La Playa for dinner. Dot and I left early to “Greet the guests”. We tied balloons on the chairs, put up and few center pieces, and gave the cake to the waiter. My mom was happy to see the balloons when we walked in. We all kinda talked for awhile and then ordered dinner. Steve, my siblings and I shared a padrillada for 4. It is a huge plate with beef and chicken fajitas, sausage, and ribs. It was fabulous! The waiter was an idiot though and never ordered my parent’s food!! So the birthday girl had to pick off people’s plates (mostly ours) until theirs came out. To make matters worse, the waiter then brought out the cake still in the cake box and didn’t light the candles!! I was so disappointed! He was such an idiot! After cake, we left and went back to our house with some of my family members trailing behind us. They stayed over for awhile and then we all crashed out.

Yesterday was spent on the road mostly. We left Harlingen around 3, got home around 8, dropped Gizmo off and then took Dottie home. As soon as we got back home I went to bed. I was exhausted. I feel like I have been going and going since the weekend before Thanksgiving. Luckily then only thing I have going on next weekend is the Jingle Bell 5K. Other than that, I am not getting off the couch!!!