It's Green and Summery Outside!

Well the weather is getting nicer, yippee!  That means life is starting to spring out of the ground in the backyard.  We're planning to pull up the grass and make a patio with stepping stones, ground cover, and pretty Northwest climate-loving plants. 

Kitten has many window sills and perches in the new house that she can sit on and monitor the bird (or squirrel) situation outside.   

 

Here's a beautiful dahlia we just bought, isn't it lovely?

Aunt Cathy came over and did some gardening with Chelsea last week.  The above potted maple tree and planter is a birthday gift from her for Chelsea (the big 28 is this Sunday!). Chelsea picked out the surrounding plants and has been diligently checking them daily to note their progress.

We finally re-potted our evergreen trees, so now we have a nice little potted garden to see from our TV room window. 

Well, here's what a lot of rain and no lawn mower will get you--a meadow! Chels is working on pulling up the grass in this shot, meanwhile I was lounging on the chairs.  Someone has got to supervise,  ha ha! The backyard is Chels' domain and she's excited to create the perfect backyard oasis for us.  I can't wait!  Don't worry, I am helping with the labor :)

Kitten loves when we work outside.  She gets to explore and eat grass.  That is, until her privileges get revoked because she jumps on top of the fence.  It's taller than I am, what is she thinking?! 

Stay tuned for more pictures of our lovely plants and evolving backyard garden space.  We are so thrilled to finally have a yard! Now we just need more sunny days...

Happy 6th birthday to our sweet nephew Gavin today, hope you've had a great day buddy! We love you!

Being sick equals a wacky sleep schedule!

Well I would love to report that Chels and I have been enjoying this beautiful, long Memorial Day weekend doing something fun, but alas, I am sick!  So we have mostly been spending it around the house.  Boo-hiss, I hate being sick!  I've had this cold/stomach-flu thing for a week and I am ready for it to be gone.  I have been feeling better this weekend, thank goodness! I think the sunshine is helping. 

We have been having some fun, thanks to my regimen of Dayquil, Sprite, and Saltines. We had been planning on hosting a girls night at our place Saturday night with some friends for a few weeks now and we did decide to get together, after I disinfected the house... We had snacks, played a board game, and just hung out and chatted.  It was nice to see them!

This morning we ventured out of the house again for an exhibit we've been wanting to see with the cousins, Claire & Sean.  The exhibit is at the UW's Burke Museum called "Hungry Planet: What the World Eats". It's a series of photographs based on a book by two artists who travelled around the world documenting people's weekly meals. They photograph all the food items in the families home, surrounded by the members of the family.  The grocery items are listed, and there is a cost comparison between the local currency and US dollars.  It is fascinating! Find out more here: Hungry Planet. A few things surprised me: in many of the photos, the Coca-Cola label was recognizable almost instantly, and in many places of the world (like Egypt, for example) where I wouldn't have thought soda would be a part of the weekly diet as it is for so many Americans. Secondly, I was struck by how many more fruits and vegetables other areas of the world consume per week, and how much more of their diet it makes up--it seems there is more emphasis here on "meat and potatoes", with veggies playing only a side role.  Very interesting!

Last weekend we spent Saturday afternoon with Grandpa watching one of his favorite movies "The Man Who Came to Dinner". It was hilarious!  There were so many witty one-liners in the movie that Chelsea said she remembers her Grandpa say but she never realized where they came from.  It was great, we had a good time.  Afterward, we spent the evening at our friends Nick & AnnMarie's new place for dinner.  They have a cute dog Gus that we love, and it's always nice to have good conversation and good food with good friends!  Chels and I also went to Steph & Dan's for dinner on Sunday night--it was a girls night because Dan had to go out-of-town for work, so we watched "Puss-in-Boots", which was pretty silly and cute. We've all been so busy lately, it was nice to hang out with family and catch up.

Other than that, we haven't been up to too much.  Just trying to get healthy, and stay that way. Here's to getting back on a normal sleep schedule!

Yay for May!

Spring has sprung!  Well, in our backyard at least.  We are still wanting to take out the grass and put in a little patio of stepping stones and ground cover--it the meantime, our grass has been growing!  Now we just need to figure out what we want to do in the backyard and get started.  Aunt Cathy & Claire lent us a few books on small space gardens, so we have some ideas in mind.  Stay tuned for the backyard bonanza makeover! 

Kitten and I taking a little afternoon snooze

Yesterday Chels and I took Grandpa to Macys to get a few kitchen appliances he's been wanting: we found a great 2-in-1 Cuisinart Blender & Food Processor, a hand mixer, and a panini grill.  Chels and I have a smoothies book, so we made a plan with Grandpa to go over to his place and test out the new blender by making smoothies.  Yum!  Afterward we went to dinner at an Indian restaurant Chels & I like.  It was a fun afternoon!  I always love to hear Grandpa's Navy days stories, there seemed to be some sort of adventure happening much of the time. 

Last week Chels was dog-sitting for a cute little French Bulldog named Cutter, whom we nicknamed "Le Pooh".  Here he is, he's so cute!

                   He loved sitting in front of the fire!

Unfortunately, Kitten was not as fond of Le Pooh as Chelsea and I.  She pretty much ignored him, staying upstairs and peering down at him from the top of the stairs.  I guess she doesn't want a puppy after all!

For the past couple of weeks, we have been helping one of our good friends pack and move--her and her partner, whom we love both of them very much, recently split up and it's very sad.  Chelsea was friends with both of them separately before they became a couple, and by the time I came into the picture they were together and became two of our very good friends.  We love them both and hope to support & be friends with both of them.  Chelsea and I are almost 30 (yikes!), so we're getting to that age where big life events are happening that we haven't seen before: friends getting divorced, friends getting diagnosed with cancer, friends' parents dying, etc.  WOW!  Life is really starting to happen--however, I don't want to sound like a downer because there is also plenty of really great things happening, too!  It's kind of cheesy, but it just makes you realize how fleeting and precious life's moments are.  We had fun last night at a goodbye party for one of Chelsea's old co-workers. It was at a karaoke bar, and unfortunately Chels and I did not get to sing our rendition of Cher's "If I Could Turn Back Time"--Chels can do a Cher voice that sounds just like her, it's hilarious. We saw some old friends there and it was really nice to catch up! 

Today was a lower key day for me, I did a lot of cooking, laundry, and house stuff.  I made a new recipe tonight, here it is: Mexican Casserole .  It's from Cooking Light Magazine and was pretty good!  A couple of changes I made (and some I will make next time): I used ground turkey instead of protein crumbles; I also used a 9x13 glass casserole dish to bake in.  It was pretty good, but needs a few modifications--there wasn't enough filling to keep it all together, so it came out of the pan feeling more like nachos than a casserole.  Next time I will probably double the beans, and may even use half refried beans.  A little more cheese in the layers may help keep it together for a more casserole-like feel (you know how we Minnesotans love our casseroles!).  But all in all it was pretty tasty, I recommend giving it a try. 

We also got the paint supplies this weekend for our next room makeover: this time it's the half bathroom on the second floor.  It's a hideous deep burgundy color, way too dark for a small bathroom.  Thank goodness I married someone who loves bright colors just as much as I do--we chose a cool lime green that I think will be awesome! Hopefully it's not so bright that you need to wear your sunglasses in there :)  Stay tuned for pictures!