One of my favorite things about owning our own home, is having the freedom to have a garden! Colby was just as excited about this, so together we planted our own. In Arkansas, the ground is mostly clay, so we had to build our garden on top of our ground. Colby hauled over 20 wheel barrels full of soil to fill the garden box he had made, then mixed it with compost, etc. We had planted a few of the plants indoors, planted several outside directly in the garden, and had a few purchased "starter" plants. The plants have really taken off (along with the weeds) and we had our first garden food last night, green beans.

Our main garden is 20'x5' and consists of peppers, jalapeno, tomatoes (Roma, Early Girl, Better Boy), summer squash, zucchini, green beans, beets, green onion, peas and a small herb garden (chives, basil, cilantro, oregano, and rosemary). We have a separate flower bed along the side of our house with strawberries, cantaloupe and watermelon and one small fruit tree in the corner.

Here are some pictures. In order to get everything in without photo overload, I made them into collages. If you want to see the details (Mom and Dad), click on the image and you will see it larger. :) Enjoy!

the main garden: mini pictures are green onions, beets, tomatoes, artichoke and zucchini

Beans

peach tree--we have 7 peaches and we planted it this year. We are calling that a success.

Peas

Side Garden--strawberries (covered so the birds don't keep eating all the good ones), cantaloupe and watermelon

From Lemonade Stands to Tattoo Stations

As Colby and I were out for an afternoon walk, two neighbor kids came running out to their corner stand yelling, "Tattoos, 10 cents. You want one?" And they had options, all drawn out nicely on their construction paper to choose from. Apparently Lemonade stands are the thing of the past. Now it's all about hand-sketched, crayola-washables, 10 cent tattoos. In case you are wondering, we passed that one up. I had a good chuckle about it though.

Ten million fireflies lit up the world as I fell asleep

The first time I saw fireflies here in Arkansas, it seriously looked like someone had strung twinkling Christmas lights across a large field. To me, it really is a magical sight. As we headed home from the movie theater tonight I saw them; the fireflies are back for this new season. Seeing them made me giddy. These bugs are seriously the coolest thing ever. If you have fireflies in your area, I hope you are enjoying them as much as I am. Good night!

Caribbean Cruise

Colby and I took a week off of work for a week to go play in the Caribbean aboard the Star Princess ship. We stopped off at four islands: Bahamas, St. Maarten, St. Thomas, and Grand Turk. With those four stops, and two full days at sea, we had plenty of time for adventure and relaxation. Some of our favorite things onboard the ship were the wonderful four-plus course dinners (we probably gained at least 5 pounds each), movies on the top deck under the stars, unlimited softserve, and relaxing by the pools. On the islands we did a lot of snorkeling and sight-seeing.

on the front of the sihp while leaving Ft. Lauderdale

at our muster station during the emergency drill

Nassau, Bahamas: Nassau was our least favorite stop of the four, but still enjoyable. We were only there for a few hours and it was overcast. While there we took a land taxi over to visit the Atlantis hotel with an agenda to visit the beautiful aquarium the taxi driver told us about. Mistake. We got there and the aquarium did appear to be beautiful, but that was only our impression from the small segment available to the public. Unlike our taxi driver said, non hotel guests must pay $40 each to enter. We opted out of that expense and adventure. We walked around a bit, then headed back toward the ship on a water taxi where we were told all about the famous people who own homes in the vicinity. Before boarding the ship we spent a little time in the straw market, a large market full of knock offs and such.

Atlantis in the back

At the Atlantis aquarium...at least the part we could see

Watching the stingrays at Atlantis

Formal night at dinner

Our 1st day at sea: Spent the whole day reading by the pool, laying out at the back of the ship and eating ice cream.

St. Maarten: Here we left the ship with our snorkel equiptment in hand ready to see the underwater life of the Caribbean. We spent the morning at Dawn's beach where we saw beautiful fish and even a sting ray. After a few hours, we took a taxi to Little bay where we had heard was full of amazing fish. Unfortunately, the information we were given was no longer true. Apparently a snorkeling shop was on the beach and they used to feed the fish, bringing in wonderful wildlife. The shop has since closed, leaving the water quite lifeless. Oh well. The first stop was beautiful. Our misfortune of this stop was forgetting to reapply the sunscreen. Our backsides were lobster-red from the sun baking down on them all day long. The water was so refreshing that we didn't even notice it. We certainly felt it later though!

Dawn's Beach

Little Bay

a delicious and refreshing coconut smoothie. so worth every penny.

leaving St. Maarten

St. Thomas: We contemplated even taking our snorkeling stuff off the ship at this island because we were in so much pain from our sunburn. Our fronts were red from laying of two days prior on the ship, and our backs were red from snorkeling in St. Maarten. We took the snorkeling stuff just in case. Our first stop on the island was at Magen's Bay, one of the Caribbean's top 10 beaches. It was beautiful; it is a protected bay full of crystal-clear, blue water lapping ever so lightly up on a span of white sandy beach. The entrance was quite crowded, so we headed down to a quiet spot and found a shady tree to keep us away from the painful sun. Yes, we were acting much like the retirees that were on our ship. We both sported t-shirts when we went into the water, definitely a first for me. After spending a few hours there, we decided to toughen up and go to Coki Beach for snorkeling. There aren't any fish at Magens Bay, so snorkeling would mean another taxi ride. We made it up to Coki Beach and are so glad we did. The fish were amazing. The most incredible thing we saw were schools of thousands on inch long fish. As we sawm through them we saw a few 3-4 foot Bass at the bottom and realized/were told the bass were swimming around the small fish and making "bait balls," balls of the fish that they would later swim through with open mouths. Pretty interesting. When these little fish would change direction, their scales would capture the sun and reflect a beautiful silver shimmer through the clear water.

breakfast before heading off the ship to St. Thomas

St. Magen's Bay

Our shady spot on the beach...had to protect that sunburn :)

In our "sun protection" attire

Coki Beach

Grand Turk:Our favorite island was probably Grand Turk, which is the capitol of Turks and Caicos; it is a tiny island, only 7x1 miles, in the middle of the world's third largest coral reef. Instead of taking a taxi to a nearby snorkeling area, we rented a scooter and drove around the whole island stopping to snorkel, visiting the lighthouse and driving through the towns, all while dodging the free roaming cows, donkeys and horses of the island. We saw some neat coral, beautiful shells, tiny jelly fish (which we also had to swim through--ouch), brightly colored fish, a flounder (the one that lay on the bottom on their sides and blend in with the sand) and a lion fish. We ended the evening on the ship pulling away from the island during a beautiful sunset. Perfect ending to a perfect day.

arriving at Grand Turk

scootin' on the scooter. We had a blast!

The lighthouse that was brought over from the UK years ago to help prevent the many shipwrecks occurring on the reef.


Governor's Beach

Final day at sea: more relaxing, laying out, reading and eating...

Back to Reality

We are back from a week in Caribbean aboard the Star Princess and dreading returning back to work tomorrow. Pictures and stories to come...once unpacking, laundry and all that good stuff is taken care of.

forever young??

While chaperoning at a youth activity (for 12-18 year olds) I went up to some of the leaders who were assembling the dessert table and asked what I could do to help.

Their response: Oh, we aren't ready for you guys quite yet.

Great, clearly she didn't hear me offer to help and thought instead that I was one of the youth who couldn't wait any longer for her cupcake.

My response: I know, what can I do to help so we can get ready more quickly.

Her response: Oh, I thought you were a youth. Sure. We would love your help.

Fabulous.

I guess it is better to look young than old and wrinkly. I will embrace it.

Tickle my Ivory Keys

I had a love/hate relationship with piano growing up. I loved when I could play beautiful pieces on the piano, but hated the practicing. Now that I am on my own and not being "forced" (ok, that word is a little harsh) to take lessons, I really wish I had a piano to play around on. Colby and I have been looking around on craigslist for several months for a piano. We found a few that would work okay, but always passed them over because we had no where to put it. Now that we are in a house a piano is more of a realistic idea. While Darren and Brittany were here Colby found a piano online for sale about 15 miles away. We hurried over to see it and with Brittany's help I was able to decide make a decision to buy it. It is a 1987 Baldwin upright console piano with minimal aesthetic damage. The sound quality is great, besides needing a good tuning. Luckily (for us, not Darren) we had some extra helping hands this weekend so Colby and Darren were able to move it into our home. I absolutely love having a piano and find myself practicing daily...something I never thought would be the case years ago.

I am grateful for the years of lessons my parents paid for and pushed me through as a child. Hopefully I can get back to the level I used to be.

Painting away

After a little indecisiveness, we now how three layers of paint (four on one small section) on the bottom layer of our dining room, and a new look to the room. We love the change. Everything was much too bland before when the whole room was the light tan color of the upper section. We planned on doing this from the beginning, but figured we could do it ourselves rather than paying our painter $150 for an extra color change.

sunny days

Nothing beats getting off work at 12:30 on Friday and being able to drive home with music blasting and the windows down. I love warm, sunshiny days. If only it would last. The weekend forecast isn't looking so promising.

same old, same old

I keep coming to my own blog to see who has updated blogs recently and each time am disgusted that the same post has been at the top of my page for over a month. Each time I see it I think, self-what super interesting thing can I post about, and the answer each time is nothing, absolutely nothing.

The past month has been a great month. There just isn't anything fabulous to write about. I started my job with Walmart in a buyers training program and am loving it. Our first 10 weeks are spent working in a local store. Some days time flies by, like when we got to spend a few hours in the bakery making valentine cupcakes, and other days just drag. After the store rotation we will rotate around several merchandising roles within buying and planning. The thought of these rotations make my marketing self very happy.

Just wanted you all to know we are alive and well...just busy. Between full time work, working with our youth program, and trying to be a good wife, not much time is left for blogging. Hopefully you are all well and this post has a shorter life-span as my most recent post than the previous one.

xoxo!

ps, now that I am really thinking about it...a few notable things have happened...we painted our dining room, got a great start on our own food storage, had a low-key but wonderful valentines day together, and determined I have TMJ. I guess my real excuse for no posts is simply lack of time and motivation. :)

A palindrome

(i received this from a cousin...fascinating. I'm glad he shared with me and wanted to share it with you.)

Note that a 'palindrome' is a word, phrase, number or other sequence of units that can be read the same way in either direction (the adjustment of punctuation and spaces between words is generally permitted).

In this case, not only can the words be read in either direction (forward or backward) but the meaning is also an exact opposite. Actually, quite brilliant.

Be sure to watch it in it's entirety, both forward and backward.

Enjoy....

Granite Hot Springs

Since I have known Colby, he has told me all about this fabulous place. I never imagined it would be quite what it really was, and I know the pictures do not do it justice. The forest department has taken a natural hot spring and captured the 110 degree water into a partially manmade pool. The place is 15 miles off the road, so to get there most snow mobile, dog sled or cross country ski in. We took the snow mobiles. Even with partially frozen hair after the plunge, the experience was fantastic.

{click collages to enlarge}

small detour

Minus our little detour on our way to Wyoming, our week long vacation to Star Valley could not have been better. We always love when we are able to get out and visit family. Our original plan was to be in SV for Christmas, but after looking at plane tickets, we decided to forgo that option. One night at home, Colby was playing around on priceline. He looked at me with a scared face and exclaimed, "I just bought plane tickets to Wyoming." He had put in his info, thinking it impossible to actually be granted tickets, but we got them--great deal too!


Our flight there left from northwest arkansas regional airport, only 10 minutes from our house. We flew through Chicago with our final destination being Jackson Hole, wy. We arrived to Jackson 30 minutes early and were so excited, until the pilot suddendly pulled the plane back up after nearly landing. There was a snow storm and due to the large size of our plane we could not land until the runway had been cleared off more. Small planes were landing, but not us. We circled over Yellowstone for 2.5 hours (couldn't see anything except clouds though) before being redirected to SLC. Bummer. Because the conditions in Jackson were not improving the airline decided to send the plane back to Chicago (several hours later) because they needed the aircraft the next day. Passengers were told they could fly to Chicago then try to get on the Jackson flight the next day. Wow. Because it was weather related, the airline was not reimbursing any additional travel expenses. If we flew to Chicago, we would need a hotel and were not sure if we could even land in Jackson the following day. We felt bad for all the other passengers who were going to Jackson for skiing and had to lose out on hotel room reservations and ski lift passes they had already purchased. A man across the aisle from us actually ripped the armrest out of his chair because he was so mad. Lucky for us, we had no "real plans" and our vacation could be put on hold. We stayed in SLC with Aunt Malee that night, and rented a car to drive up to Idaho Falls the next day where we would meet the Heiners and go with them to Star Valley. The good side of all of this is we got to see Malee and I got to stop in real quick at Nordstrom!!

Needless to say, we were grateful to finally reach our final destination in Star Valley, 27 hours late.

Black piece is the armrest from the seat in front of it.

Merry Christmas

This Christmas was a little different for Colby and me in that we spent it in Arkansas, just the two of us. I was a little unsure about the idea at first, but after looking at plane tickets a while back to visit Wyoming for the holiday, I decided Arkansas would be just great. And really, it was. Actually, it was more than great. We spent Christmas Eve with some of our favorite people in Arkansas and have an afternoon/evening with food, games, conversation and even a little nativity by the kids and Colby. We left the party and headed home to a very quiet home and loved it. After watching movies and playing games opening Christmas PJs (thanks Mom and Dad), we went to crawl into bed around 12:00. I went to lock the front door and saw SNOW outside. I opened the door and could not believe my eyes. We were having a white Christmas. To most, including Colby, this was nothing noteworthy, but to me, this was bliss. It is my first White Christmas (that I can remember)!

Santa/Colby was very good to me this year. I have been drooling over several photography sites since beginning to plan our wedding 2 years ago and have really been wanting to have a nice camera of my own to see what I could do with one. Sensing my desire to have my own hobby, Colby got me a Canon t1i and I could not be happier with it! I had been wanting this for some time and Colby made it very clear that I would not be getting one for Christmas. I was prepared to not get it--until every gift I opened was camera related--HC memory cards, tripod, SLR camera case, etc. But, I came to the end of my pile and there was no camera. I was slightly confused until Colby dragged (almost literally) me into the bedroom to make the bed and I saw it sitting on the bed. I started to cry. I love it and can't wait to learn everything about it! I know Christmas is not all about gifts, but this made for a great day. I am grateful for a great husband who understands me and supports me in my new hobby.

After gifts, we had a Jergensen traditional Christmas breakfast, omelets! They were delicious and accompanied by a phone call from Mitch in France. We wrapped the afternoon up with a trip to the theater to see Sherlock Holmes.

Christmas was wonderful being here in Arkansas. We missed our families but luckily get to see both families shortly before and after Christmas. Thanks everyone for helping make our Christmas wonderful.

christmas eve


snow

omelet sous chef

Jergensen Visit

Since Colby and I were unable to visit family for either Thanksgiving or Christmas, and we just moved into a new home, my family came out to visit on a quick weekend trip the beginning of December. We loved having them here and showing them our home in NWA! We toured way too many Walmart places, played several rounds of scattergories, ate good food (depending who you ask...), napped, and just enjoyed being together. Thanks for a fun time!