My Green Space

New Blog

2011-06-29T09:19:00.000-07:00

So I really want to get back into posting regularly and so I decided to start a new blog that is more about my family than just about me and what I am doing . . . so this will be my last post here. You can find me now at theroundys.blogspot.com

I am just getting started, forgot how long it takes to really get going on a blog and move things over. I promise there will be posts worth reading soon.

Quick Update

2010-08-02T09:11:00.000-07:00

More to follow with photos soon, but real quick here is what has happened since I last posted in March.

April . . . went to Boise for Ricky and Julie's Wedding, then they came to visit us on their way to Virginia for the summer

May . . . work was nuts with my summer install season and we found a house that we liked and contracted for it to be built for us. Plus . . . little brother Jacob moved in with us.

June . . . tried to catch up on our lives and work . . . no real sales options on our house so decided we may rent it out.

July . . . this was the crazy one . . . closed on a new house, moved, painted, found a tenant and leased the old one, Eric's family visited to help us move, Eric had a birthday . . . not sure what else . . . oh yeah bought lots of furniture and things for the new house.

Boy am I glad that August in here. Still have some more painting to do, waiting on some furniture deliveries, and who knows what else, but on an excited note, I am starting to work only 3 days a week so I get to have time to be a wife and still have some time on the weekends to spend with my husband.

For Sale

2010-03-15T05:36:00.001-07:00

Yes it has been forever, I know, I've been busy. Work, life, being sick a lot, everything seems to keep me away from here.

Eric and I have been planning to put my house on the market for a little while now and on Wednesday night we met with the realtor to get the ball rolling. So this weekend we spent the whole weekend staging the house so that we could take some photos and hopefully help it sell faster. This was way more work than it sounds like it should have been.

When Eric moved in there was some added furniture that came with him along with a lot of clothes and stuff to store in the basement. At the same time we recieved all of our wedding gifts and many of them ended up in the basement as well waiting for the day that we would have a bigger house and could enjoy them. Well, we never really had the chance to organize it all and go through what we wanted to keep at the house and what we wanted to store in the storage unit that we have with all of Eric's furniture. So that is what we finally spent our weekend doing. Not exciting but definatly productive.

We took pictures yesterday . . . hope they help.

I Voted!!

2010-02-02T10:55:00.000-08:00

I live in Illinois. This is a fact. It is also a fact that 5 out of our last 7 governors are or have been in jail or are headed there. Yesterday another alderman plead guilty to corruption charges, he makes 28. Awesome aren't we. "Chicago politics" has become the namesake of corruption in this nation.

That being said today was our primary election. There has been a lot of talk about this election and how republicans could take over what has been staunchly democratic for some time.

Now those that know me and my politics know that while I am conservative I am not affiliated with either party. In fact I find the whole partisan system to be corrupt, but alas it is what it is. And today was a primary election so I had to decide which party to vote with. Being the conservative that I am I voted wtih the republicans.

Now the cute moment. So it is all senior citizens that run the polling places around here and the people ahead of me were voting democrat. When the lady went to hand me a republican ballot she said to me whispering "there has been a big republican turn out today, usually all democrat, but people are fed up with what is going on and excited to vote republican." I found it very cute that she would tell me, and even more cute that she felt the need to whisper, but also very exciting. Maybe some in Chicago and Illinois are finally deciding that they are tired of the pattern of corruption and ready to try for something better.

Ice Cream for Breakfast :)

2010-02-01T11:43:00.000-08:00

My wonderful husband is above all things a sugar addict. He loves all things sweet, especially syrup, cookies, and ice cream.

So on Friday night we were discussing what we wanted for breakfast the next morning. Saturdays we usually make something yummy for breakfast and take a break from our cold cereal ritual. We decided on crepes. I love crepes and had them for breakfast growing up and always enjoy them. Plus I had some frozed berries that I wanted to fill them with. Sounds yummy right?

After we decided on the crepes Eric mentioned putting vanilla ice cream in them as well. I kind of laughed it off thinking he was joking because really, who eats ice cream for breakfast?

Well Saturday morning came and we got up and started making breakfast. I made the crepes and Eric thawed the fruit and added a little sugar to make a sort of syrup out of the juice (always yummy). He got out the powdered sugar and I thought we were good to go. Next think I know the big bucket of vanilla ice cream was sitting on the table. I laughed and followed his lead and put some in my crepe.

It was fabulous! It was totally dessert for breakfast and I would totally do it again! I have discovered another perk to being married to Eric; I can have ice cream for breakfast ;)

I'm becoming domesticated . . .

2010-01-20T16:51:00.000-08:00

I work a lot . . . this is not new news. In fact in my single days I ate frozen meals for lunch and microwave popcorn for dinner a lot of the time because that is all that I had time for. Sad I know. Especially since I have always loved to cook. Not much of a baker, but I love cooking.

So this year for Christmas I put cook books on my wish list. I had gotten 3 as wedding/shower gifts, but I read them like novels so a few more would always be nice. Well I got my wish. My husband got me one, plus to cooking magazine subscriptions, my mother in law bought me one, and my wonderful mother got me four (one of which included a free year long magazine subscription). So if you did the math right you would see that I got six cook books, plus three subscriptions.

Don't know what you think, but that is a lot. Of course, I was excited about all of them. Granted I had to make more room on the counter for them and I will need to find another more permanant locaiton because they are taking up tons of my counter space.

So anyway . . . I have been reading away. There are so many new recipes and techniques that I want to try but finding time to cook and try new things during the week seems impossible. But I do find myself actually cooking pretty much everynight. But it makes me wonder what is happening to me. I am finally making a point to plan out meals and pick our recipies and actually follow it for the most part.

I am just starting to realize that I am putting in more effort at home and domestic issues than I have over the past, I don't know, ten years since I left home. Funny how being married has changed things.

Summertime already??

2010-01-15T09:03:00.000-08:00

I know most of you find that blog title totally nuts, but let me explain.

So I do landscaping for a living right . . . more specifically I work with flower displays for a living. So let me explain to you what my January is like at work.

Revising my order and working on sales for all of our early Spring flowers, ie Pansies, Tulips, etc.

Diving head first into Summer flower display designs, sales, and ordering. I spend half of my day looking at flower photos, working up ideas, and focusing on our summer plans. I work with bright colors, light, and all things tropical.

My office is a gray cinderblock room with bright flower photos and other photos all over the walls (because gray does not drive creativity). So I spend my day looking at summer and then walk out into the frozen winter to go home.

So in reality, I have no idea what season it is. Does anyone else understand my confusion?

Christmas is coming . . . traditions?

2009-12-11T17:29:00.000-08:00

Christmas is one of my favorite holidays. Always has been. It has always been one of my favorite times spent with my family. We have created our share of unique Christmas traditions over the years. Everything from seeing how many puzzles we can do in our days together, to our version of Christmas Eve dinner, and one of my all time favorites "Christmas Crunch".

This year is going to be different. For the first time in my life I won't be having Christmas with my family in Meridian. We will be spending Christmas with Eric's family in Nebraska. While I am excited to spend some time with them and get to know them better, I will miss my family terribly and our funny Christmas traditions.

But this has got me thinking about Eric and I creating some Christmas traditions of our own. This being our first Christmas together I don't really know where to start. I have all my Christmas shopping done and Eric is almost done with his. Shopping together has been fun, interesting, but fun. Eric put up lights on the house, the decorations are put up all over, gifts are wrapped under the tree, so it seems like we are pretty much ready. Only a couple things left to do.

All I have left to ask is what kind of traditions do we want to have in our new family. I realize traditions tend to create themselves so we'll have to see what happens. My question for you is, what is your favorite Christmas Tradition?

Am I the strange one?

2009-11-17T16:27:00.001-08:00

I love college football. This is not new news to those who know me well. I look forward to the fall season and weekends full of great games to watch. I have two favorite teams that I cheer for, but am a fan of the game in general so enjoy any good match up.

When Eric and I started dating I was excited to discover that he was a fan as well. I had tried to date guys in the past who weren't sports fans and it just didn't work out. Kind of one of those deal breakers for me I guess. As shallow as that may seem.

Anyway . . . all of the sudden I am trying to decide if my obsession is strange. I find that mine and Eric's dinner table conversations have a tendency to be about football, especially on the weekends! We do spend our weekends checking in on games, scores in general, and watching what we can and then talking about it with folks at church. We even scheduled things right on our honeymoon so that we wouldn't miss the Boise State game that Thursday night. Now I didn't really think about this being strange until yesterday morning when Eric and I were talking on the phone. I found a need to update him on the new BCS rankings and of course complain about how ridiculous I think they are.

I realize that it is good for couples to have things in common, but I am starting to wonder if maybe I am too interested in college football. What wife does this? Shouldn't I be the one complaining that my husband watches too much football? (Not that he does because I watch more than he does, I think) Not normal I think. I know i'm not your typical girl, never have been. But does this one make me a little too strange?

Honeymoon :)

2009-11-13T15:47:00.000-08:00

Eric spent a lot of time planning a perfect honeymoon. I love the outdoors, I love New England and I love the fall and I got a combination of all three. He planned a sightseeing trip to see New England's beautiful fall color. The day after our wedding we took an early morning flight to Boston. When we got there we headed to Vermont. That night we stayed in Quechee. I had been there once with my family years ago so it was fun to go back. The next day we had a great breakfast at a very cozy restaurant and then went to a Christmas store which always makes me happy. We then went to see Quechee Gorge. Somehow my family missed this when we were there but it was breathtaking. Sorry none of these pictures do justice to what we saw.

There was a short hike along the gorge where we saw a nice lake and a great view of the bridge.

We then went to visit a maple sugar farm and visited some waterfalls along the way. Eric had located quite a few possible hikes and the two that we picked were no more than 100 feet. One was actally closed which was a little dissapointing, but still it was a beautiful drive and we had a lot of fun.

That night we drove north to Burlington, VT. It was a beautiful drive through the Green Mountains. The next day we drove south along Lake Champlaign and took a ferry accross to New York where we visited Fort Tichonderoga. That has to be one of the most amazing reconstructions of a historic site that I have ever seen. It was awesome, it was freezing too so we didn't stay outside for too long.

We then drove up the New York side of Lake Champlaign and decided to cross into Canada just for fun. That turned into quite an adventure. The US Customs officer was not friendly when we tried to cross back into the US. Long story that I don't feel like sharing at the moment. But we did get back onto American soil and drove back to Burlington on the highway that took us along all the islands of Lake Champlaign. It was a beautiful drive especially at sunset.

The next day we headed east to Woodbury and Stowe. The scenic drive that we had planned had a road closure so the drive took about 3 hours longer than we planned. Beautiful though, it had snowed in the mountains the night before. When we arrived back in Woodbury we visited the Ben and Jerry's Ice Cream Plant. Eric and I love ice cream so it was something that we couldn't miss.

That night we headed to New Hampshire where we stayed in a small resort town in the middle of the White Mountains. The next day we went to the Flume in Franconian Notch. It was spectacular. Once again a freezing day, but once we got hiking it wasn't too bad.

We then took a tram up a mountain where we could get an awesome view of all the surrounding area. You could see Maine, Vermont, New York, and Canada. The only catch was that it turned into winter when we got to the top.

That night we drove to Bangor, Maine. The next morning we went to visit Acadia National Park. Acadia would be an awesome vacation all on it's own. The only change I would make is to visit in the summer as opposed to the fall. We drove the road through the park and to the top of the bald mountains where the wind was NUTS!! I thought that I was going to blow away.

We had lunch in Bar Harbor and then drove to Portland where we had dinner and then to Boston where we spent the night. It was a lot of driving that day. The next day was our last. We had both been to Boston before so we decided to walk the Freedom Trail. I had not gotten to do that before so it was a lot of fun. Once again a cold day and I was tired, but we had fun.

That afternoon we flew home to Chicago and the trip was over and it was time to get back to real life. Have to admit that real life now is better than real life before. I am loving being married :)

I got married!!

2009-11-12T18:23:00.000-08:00

So I know this is old news, in fact I have been married over a month now, but it has been a pretty busy month. Anyway, Eric and I were married on October 10th in the Boise, Idaho Temple. It was a whirlwind of a day, but absolutly wonderful!

My mother and sisters helped me out with pretty much all of the planning and organizing because I was so far away. I know they put in a lot of time and effort and it really paid off. Everything turned out beautiful!

Here are a couple photos that my sister in law Kirstin took for us.

Eric's friends and us.

Eric's family and us.

My parents and us.

Just us :)

Thrilled for Fall

2009-09-23T04:20:00.001-07:00

Fall is my favorite season. This isn't a secret or even anything new. Anyone who has known me for a really long time will know how much I love the fall. So in celebration of the first full day of Autumn here is my top ten reasons I am excited for it to be fall. We'll do this David Letterman style.

10. Cool crisp air, for someone not from the midwest the break from the humidity is awesome!

9. Get to start wearing my sweats around the house again, frumpy, but so comfy!

8. Sweater weather!! A term coined by me and my best friend in high school to describe the perfect fall weather.

7. Hot apple cider, my favorite!

6. The smell of harvest time, burning fields, totally reminds me of home.

5. Pumpkin anything!! I love pumpkin and this is the season that I can get as much of it as I want.

4. Changing leaves on trees, Eric & I get to go see the fall color in New England this year. I am so excited!

3. My birthday! Not that I am in the mood to get older, but still a reason to celebrate and eat cake.

2. College football . . . I am an addict!! Really it is the greatest thing ever.

1. Cause I am getting married this fall!! Ok so I know that one was lame, but still a HUGE reason I have been waiting for fall to hurry up and get here.

And that is it, I am a total nerd, but I love Fall!!

Making Adjustments

2009-09-22T17:35:00.000-07:00

I'm getting married in a few weeks. I know that isn't new news, but still . . . it has everything to do with my thoughts the past few days.

I have been single for quite a while now . . . my whole life really, but been on my own for a long time. In fact been living completely alone (minus Cletus) for several years now. In face I bought my house two years ago so that I would have a place to make my own and settle in.

Now I am suddenly realizing that my years of complete independance are almost over. You would think that I knew this when I agreed to get married, but for some reason it didn't really hit me till just now.

We are moving Eric out of his apartment this next weekend. So for the past couple weeks some of his things have been gradually making their way down to my house where we will be living. But it wasn't till yesterday when I came home for lunch and saw my kitchen full of boxes, his clothes in my closet, and other boxes and some furniture in my house that I really got it. I have to admit to having a mild panic attack (I think I am stressed out about way too many things which is probaly the main cause of the panic attack, but still). I kind of freaked out which is totally not like me.

I love Eric and I am very excited to spend the rest of forever with him; I am just coming to realize what a huge adjustment it will be to have somone else in my life and sharing a home. This whole married life thing is going to be quite the change for me.

Announcing

2009-09-02T17:58:00.000-07:00

As pretty much everyone knows I am engaged to marry Eric Roundy.

We will be sealed in the Boise Idaho Temple on Saturday October, 10th. There will be a reception at the LDS Cherry Lane Building in Meridian, Idaho that night from 7-9pm. We will also be hosting an open house in Naperville, IL on October 24th at the LDS 95th St. Building from 6-8pm. Announcements will be on their way shortly, but many people have been asking for details so here they are :)

We are very excited and would love for all of our friends and family to be able to celebrate with us.

Puppy Pancakes

2009-08-17T06:58:00.001-07:00

So I found this pretty funny . . . not sure if ya'll will but I'll share just for fun.

Background info, Eric served his mission in Korea, where they eat dogs and he jokes pretty constantly about Cletus being a good source of food storage and just in general about eating Cletus. Mostly he does it cause it always gets a reaction out of me.

So, yesterday morning Eric was making his grandma's buttermilk pancakes for breakfast. And I guess when he was a kid his grandma would always make them in the shape of a cat. Well he made them all just normal round pancakes at first and then in the end he decided to make a Cletus pancake. He actually got the proportions and shape just right. It turned out pretty good. Anyway, I thought HE was going to eat the Cletus pancake cause he always jokes about eating Cletus, but then he goes and puts it on MY plate. So . . . I had Cletus for breakfast yesterday while the real Cletus watched trying to figure out what in the world was going on. He was pretty tasty. :)

Kind of exciting . . .

2009-07-20T13:03:00.000-07:00

Eric and I took a quick trip to Nauvoo this weekend to see the pageant and go to the temple. While we were there he proposed so we are now officially engaged. We plan to get married this fall, barring any issues it will be in Boise in October. When we get everything set I will be sure to let folks know. Anyway, we are just excited :)

On the road again . . . please no!!

2009-07-06T17:21:00.001-07:00

So I realize that it has been just about forever since I have updated this and I have done a lot of things and been a lot of places so I will try to give you a quick run down of what I have been up to.

First, had a crazy Spring season with work . . . this year seemed much harder than pervious years and I was all over traveling and not sleeping and just working way too much! But all seems to have turned out well and time for me to start getting ready for the fall and winter seasons.

I went on an AWESOME road trip with my girls Molly and Tia to Gulf Shores, Alamaba. We had a condo accross the street from the beach and spent a week in the sun relaxing, not thinking about work, catching up on sleep, and just enjoying hanging out as friends cause we don't seem to get a lot of time for that anymore. We made a stop by Graceland on the way home so I can officially cross that one off my bucket list! It was fun!

Got home from Alabama just in time to head to Idaho the next weekend. Eric came with me, he was brave to agree to this trip. It was quite the trip. I went to the temple for myself and it was wonderful to have my parents, and four of my siblings, three brothers in law and Eric there with me. An hour later my six little brothers and sisters were sealed to my parents which was a very special experience for our family to all be in the temple together. We then packed up and headed up to Donnelly where we had a cabin on the lake for the long weekend. The weather didn't cooperate but I think we all still enjoyed just hanging out together for a few day. I miss my family so it is always fun to go see them. And it was really special to bring Eric with me and have him be a part of all that.

This past weekend we headed out to Nebraska to visit Eric's parent for the 4th of July. They live in Nebraska's official "4th of July City" so it just seemed appropriate for us to visit :) We had a good time and got home late last night.

Now I am back to work for my first full work week in almost a month and just looking forward to staying home this weekend and enjoying time with Cletus and Eric.

My first niece!!

2009-05-13T15:51:00.001-07:00

My twin sister Jennifer and her husband Tyson had their first baby girl last night. Her name is Lily Ann Hansen and she is beautiful and in my opinion she looks just like her mother. I am so excited to go home to visit my family in six weeks and get to actually meet her! Baby girls are so much fun!

Plus it is exciting to add another girl to the family. The boys were four up on us and now that lead is cut down to three :) We'll see how long that lasts ;)

Finally some Spring photos

2009-05-05T16:21:00.000-07:00

Ok, sorry it has been forever, life is really crazy these days between work, Eric, and you know . . . just life for me in the Spring. Anyway, this past Sunday Eric reminded me that I needed to take photos of my Spring tulips to share with my sister Jennifer, so we took a few pictures and I thought that I would share. Cletus kind of likes them too :)

This is Cletus and I with my flower pots.

A new mix that Diane and I came up with of Blue Muscari, a funky mini daffodil and a faint little pink tulip. We both decided we loved it!

Just the house in bloom. Thanks to Eric for getting the lawn mowed so that it could stop looking abandoned. We had so much rain and I was just so busy it was starting to look a little scary.

It is official!!

2009-04-07T14:56:00.001-07:00

As some of you, but maybe not all of you know my family has grown significantly over the past year or so and not just due to three weddings. My parents decided a little over a year ago to take in 6 little brothers and sisters that needed a good home (well there were 5 at the time and the 6th was on his way). Well exactly 13 months to the day that they arrived in our home (yesterday) the adoptions were all finalized, so I officially have 4 more little brothers and 2 more little sisters. They are great kids and I am so excited that they are officially a part of our family.

I finally decided what to do with it . . .

2009-04-03T11:31:00.000-07:00

Just in case you don't know me or don't know much about me, I kinda like the outdoors, plants, nice weather, that kind of stuff. So I am just a little bit excited about the coming spring. I am excited to see my yard come to life and to be able to start spending more time outdoors.

Anyway, so there is this spot in my backyard that I have been struggling with what to do with. It is a long narrow bed area that is up against my fence, just an odd spot so I killed the grass there last year and created a bed, but never got it planted with anything. But, I think that I have finally come up with a pallet that I like.

It starts with Solidago 'Fireworks' which is this kind of crazy yellow flowering perennial. Then mixed in the back with that will be the Stachys 'Humello' which I think was the subject of a previous blog post. I really like it if you can't tell. Them mixed in front of those will be these fun Echinacea 'Coconut Lime'. I really just love the form and the color. And planted with those to add that little touch of pink that I seem to really need these days will be Coreopsis 'Heavens Gate' which has dainty bi-color pink flowers.

All of these should combine to create a nice bed for me. I am going for a nice mixed/naturalized look. I am excited about the variety in color and texture. Once I get them planted and they start flowering this summer I will post a few pictures so that ya'll can see how it turns out.

Check this out!!

2009-03-15T17:26:00.000-07:00

My cousin Billy runs a website called Avdenture Journey, it is very cool, you can find a link to it further down on my page. But his little brother Joey is doing an awesome expedition and blogging it on his site. He is traversing 20,000 of Asia in an attempt to raise money for a wonderful charity. Check it out http://www.adventurejourney.net/expeditions/20000/

Just Doesn't Make Sense

2009-03-10T11:49:00.000-07:00

I have always known that I was just strange, but once again I have proof.

Most of you experienced the dreaded springing forward of daylight savings time this past weekend. It always makes for a rough weekend and it is everything I can do to remember to change the clocks and make sure I get to church on time on the following Sunday. (Thank goodness for cell phones that change automatically)

Anyway, this year, it wasn't bad at all. I was up on Sunday morning, a little later than usual, but that is to be expected when a whole hour of my night just disappears. Still, I had a Sunday morning meeting and had no problem making it to that on time. I was up late Sunday night, but still had no problems getting up on Monday morning, got to work a few minutes early and had a pretty decent Monday.

But this daylight savings thing finally caught up to me this morning. I totally slept in past my alarm. I was almost an hour late to work, and I have been dragging and trying to catch up all day.

With any luck my postponed "daylight savings drag day" will end soon and things will be back to normal tomorrow.

I liked it!!

2009-03-08T14:40:00.000-07:00

This past Friday night I went to the special preview night for the Chicago Flower and Garden Show. Work sent me, it was the charity night so you pay a lot more for your ticket and don't have to deal with the crowds. Which is nice cause usually the place is totally crowded.

Anyway, Diane and I were walking the show where there were elaborate displays, tons of color, and some truly creative work. Oddly enough we agreed on what we thought was the most striking bed of the show. As usual for me it was also one of the simplest.

I just thought that this bed was a great example of contrasting textures working together to add interest. There are only three plants here and they are all very common, Algerian Ivy, Huchera (some lime green variety), and Asparagus Fern. So simple, but still so stunning!

Or maybe I just loved it cause it is all GREEN!!

I'm excited for this one . . .

2009-03-01T16:43:00.000-08:00

With the arrival of March I am anxious for Spring. I planted a ridiculous amount of bulbs last fall but there is one that I am particularly excited to see in the next month or two when it comes up.

It is called Allium schubertii . . . I love alliums, but this one is a little different, and as normal for me I had to go with the funky one. These are planted in my front flower bed right by the front door. I am counting down the days till I get to see them.

But, alas it is still winter for 3 more weeks and then the Spring weather will probably be slow to come, but still . . . these give me something to be really excited for and something to look forward to. I planted a lot of tulips, hyacinths, muscari, and daffodils too, but I will share those with all of you when they come up in the Spring.

Is it pink or purple?

2009-02-16T17:24:00.000-08:00

Quick background here . . . I have one of my full time seasonal color employees that works with me at my office and we collaborate with the two designers on staff a lot. We help eachother a lot by just talking things through and getting eachother's opinions. We work a lot with color and combining colors and just a lot of collaboration.

Anyway, today one of our designers was working on a project and had shown me a plant that I didn't really have any experience with. Well the lady that works for me is a perennial flower guru and knows them all. So they two of them were talking and we were pulling up pictures online and trying to figure out some others plants that would accent this one well in a garden.

The conversation got funny and I realized that anyone listening in would probably think that we were a bunch of loons. We were discussing how pink/purple this flower is. After a long discussion the consensus was it is more pink than a purple but more purple than a pink. Not fuschia, still purple, but a purple with pink tones and not blue tones. I am thinking that I might need to send a request to the people at crayola to ask them to come up with a nifty one to two word name for this color.

If anyone has any suggestions I would love to hear them.

By the way, the name of the plant is Stachys officinalis 'Hummelo'.

Non-Existant

2009-02-16T05:43:00.000-08:00

Wow . . . I used to be really good about this whole blogging thing. I have been really involved in some private blog forums the past couple months so I have ignored my own. I'm sorry folks. I promise to write something soon and update ya'll as to what is actually going on in my life.

Can't hold my tongue any longer

2009-01-05T17:04:00.000-08:00

So I live in Illinois right . . . which is and you know (so long as you at least walk past a news paper or turn on the TV) in the middle of yet another political scandal. Our fabulous (very sarcastic) governor who is only a small part of corrupt Illinois politics has been arressted for allegedly trying to sell our vacant senate seat. Once again, ya'll know know.

Honestly his arrest came as no surprise, he has been a horrible governor. But we the people of the state of Illinois re-elected the man just a few years ago. So we deserve it I guess. I mean, Chicago politics have always been corrupt. The days of Al Capone may be over, but our political system is more honest than it was then. And for the most part I am as guilty as the rest, the city functions, it's clean, crime is down, and the corruption stays mostly under the table so we look past it.

Now, the state government is a totally different story. It has never functioned!! We have the most dysfunctional and self serving state legislature I have ever seen. And to cap it all off a governor that fits right it. (Side note: if you think our beloved president elect managed to be a part of these systems and never got his hands dirty, that is just plain naive or ignorant, sorry to be blunt, but I see it first hand and you don't play with pigs without getting dirty).

So now, we have a governor facing impeachment, a vacant senate seat, the democrats up in arms throwing their own to the wolves, republicans calling for a special election with the hope of seating another republican in the senate, and an appointed senator who has yet to be and will doubtfully be confirmed. Of course the man feels that he has a right to the seat and has gone so far as to say: "We are hoping and praying that they will not be able to deny what the Lord has ordained," Not sure when the Lord started ordaining senators, but this guy thinks that he has. My goodness . . . please NO!! But, he is prepared to sue in the case that he is not seated in the senate. The American way I guess. God bless America!

So what is my point here. People here in Illinois are upset, they are divided, they are embarrassed, and worst of all not being represented fairly on the national level (not that we have been the past two years while our junior senator was too busy running for president to be a senator, but we didn't seem to complain then). Anyway . . . my point is that we deserve every bit of what we have gotten. We look past corruption, we don't pay enough attention to who we elect and why, we are too complacent. It is just easier to keep letting wicked men lead us, than it is to fight to help good people be elected. I know that sounds crazy that good people could actually be involved in politics, but they have to be out there. It isn't enough to decide that things seem ok and just vote for the incumbent, or to just vote along party lines. It is our responsibility and right as citizens of this country to elect leader to represent us.

If anything, this situation along with the election last November have prompted me to not just talk, but to actually get involved. I know that I myself can't change the world, but that doesn't mean that I shouldn't try. We should all do everything in our power to make the world better, even if we don't see any success, we should keep trying and try to bring integrity back to politics, I know it sounds crazy, but we have got to try.

Thanks for listening to my rant :)

Happy New Years!

2009-01-01T06:49:00.000-08:00

I don't usually get all that excited about the new year . . . most years it just seems like another month and I just have to remember to change the year when I have to write down the date. But for some reason this year feels different. This year feels like a year of possibility for me and I intend to make the most of it. Not by making resolutions, but just by promising myself to be better and find new ways to enjoy life.

Happy new year to all of my friends and family . . . love you guys!

Happy Holidays

2008-12-28T05:48:00.000-08:00

December has been a busy month for me as it has probably been for most everyone, so I haven't had a lot of time to post on here. I will do better next month. But I just wanted to take a second and say that I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas with their families and have a very happy new year. I have enjoyed spending the last week with my family and all the kids. It made Christmas quite eventful this year, but we managed to still have a lot of fun.

10 Reasons I Hate the Snow

2008-12-10T07:39:00.000-08:00

I didn't always hate snow. I grew up in Idaho, Utah, Washington and we always had snow and I always loved when it would fall (admittedly hoping that we would have a snow day and I wouldn't have to go to school). But I always enjoyed playing in the snow with my sisters and friends. Sledding was tons of fun and I even tried to ski a time or two.

But now, it is all over. I find no more joy in the falling snow. Mostly due to the fact that everytime that the snow falls and the rest of ya'll make a cup of cocoa, start a fire, and curl up in a blanket; I get called out to go to work all night. So here are my top ten reasons why I despise snow (In no particular order).

1. People who can't drive in it think they can and go 10 mph and no one will mind
2. I hate shoveling my walks and driveway
3. People with 4wd think that they can drive like normal and try to kill people
4. No one seems to be able to park in the stall
5. My dog does not want to go outside
6. The snow covered up my winter pots outside so now you can't see them
7. I don't get to sleep
8. People still drive like they are in a rush to get somewhere . . . for heavens sake give yourself more time
9. The salt on the roads sprays onto my windshield so I can't see
10. I have to cancel plans all the time

The Story of the Little Green Chair

2008-11-29T06:10:00.000-08:00

This story actually begins about a year ago when I first bought and moved into my house.

The second bedroom of my house is quite tiny and the paint on the walls when I moved in was more than hideous; light purple walls and ceiling and dark purple trim and cabinets. Something had to be done with that. It had been used as a closet/dressing room by the previous owner and I intended to use it as the same but wanted it to be a guest room as well.

My house is quite old and has a very traditional look to it and some classic character. Which actually works quite well with my style of decor . . . very simple and very classic. But I had this urge to do something funky with that one room. So, after consulting with my good friend Molly (the trained interior decorator) I decided that it needed to be painted my favorite funky shade of apple green.

So . . . fifteen (and I am almost not exaggerating) coats of primer and paint later I had a cute little room with bright green walls and white trim and cabinets. Now the question is what do you use for furniture colors in a room that is bright green? Kind of a tough call really. But as always (especially when on a limited budget) IKEA had the answer. It was an orange pull out sofa. It pulls out to a full size bed, but is small enough that it fits in the room without taking up too much space. Really I love the color too . . . it's fun.

But for the past year this room has really not been much of anything. It had the sofa in it, but when people are over it really didn't serve much of a purpose. Then about a week ago my good friend Molly called me once again about helping her unload a chair that a friend had given her. So I went over. This friend that had given her this gargantuan chair had also sent her home with a lime green chair straight out of the 70's. Once I got there and we were talking we decided that there was a perfect place for this extra little lime green chair and that was in my spare room.

So we loaded it into the Jeep and I brought it home. It sat in the Jeep for a few days and then made it's way into the kitchen and finally yesterday I rearranged the room a little and it made it's way in there. I had to text Molly a picture right away because this little chair actually accomplished a huge feat. It finally gave this room a purpose. It is now and adorable sitting room where all I need is a good table lamp and ottoman and I have my little reading room that I have always wanted. So here is the little green chair that could.

Mom Insisted . . .

2008-11-28T18:41:00.000-08:00

So if you have been reading lately you would have noticed my anticipation for the holiday season and my debate as to how much I plan to decorate my house. I have been looking around at ornaments and trees for weeks while shopping for work and have continued that debate in my head.

I got home from work early today and was cleaning and rearranging some furniture in my house and my mom called. She asked if I had my lights and decorations up yet and I said no, and I wasn't sure that I was going to this year. Then my mom "insisted" that I have a tree. So I went shopping and bought all the stuff and put up the tree and the few decorations that I have and this is the result.

One Of My Favorite Things

2008-11-28T09:29:00.000-08:00

This year I forgot to take the day after Thanksgiving off work. So here I am sitting at my desk wasting time, cause most people are off today and there is really nothing pressing to get done. So here I sit being a little depressed that I am missing out on one of my favorite experiences of the holiday season...Black Friday.

I guess that my love for this beloved shopping day started when I was quite young and we would go shopping with my mom to Fred Meyer. It was the one day a year when we would get new socks because they were 50% off that day. As I got older we would go through the ads on Thanksgiving day and see what we could find that we wanted to go get for people and then make plans for where we were going and when to get it all as quickly as possible.

In fact I remember one year my Aunt Marianne and some of her boys coming along . . . that was quite the experience. My cousin Greg (just to make a point and be nuts) grabbed a cart as they opened the door and pushed through the crowd and went running down the aisles. I got a real good laugh out of the whole thing.

Alas, this joyous tradition is just not the same without my mom and sisters to go with. And since I forgot to take the day off I guess it will have to wait until next year to enjoy it again. Maybe I will learn to plan better by then.

Happy Thanksgiving!

2008-11-27T03:14:00.000-08:00

It is that time of year again. I love Thanksgiving, it is one of my favorite holidays. Probably not just because of all the yummy food, but probably more because it is the first holiday of the holiday season and I just love this time of year.

I just want to let my family and friends know that I am thankful for them and love them and miss them when I can't be there with them this holiday. But I look forward to Christmas when I can be home sharing the holiday with my family.

I'm A Dork

2008-11-19T15:48:00.001-08:00

But at least it's a funny story . . . so as usual I was driving around a lot today for work. I had to go to a bunch of stores to pick up all sorts of random supplies and so I stopped into this shopping center that had a craft store and a hardware store that I needed to go to. But as I walked into the craft store I noticed the pots out front (I notice these things cause this is what I do for a living). They looked really nice so when I came out of the craft store I made it a point to look a little closer at them. As I did that I realized that they were exactly the recipie of my winter display pots. I was shocked.

Not to toot my own horn, but my company and my department is sort of a trend setter in the industry for seasonal color displays like this. So it isn't unusual for me to see my competitors try to copy my work . . . usually I get a good laugh out of it cause they fail miserably at it. But this time it was exact! I really could not believe it. I went back to my office and had to tell Diane (the supervisor that works for me in Aurora) all about it. She was as shocked as I was and wanted to know where the place was so that she could vandalize them (she was kidding).

So later in the day my boss walked into my office and we were chatting and I had to tell her about this. We wanted to figure out which of our competitors did the work. She asked where the place was and I told her and she started naming off stores in the shopping center that I was referring to so I knew she had the right one. She started laughing and told me that WE maintained that shopping center and had arranged these planters. At that point they spread out and told everyone and we all got a good laugh.

I was a new job this Spring that I had heard of but never knew where it was. I tend to think that I know all the Aurora jobs since that used to be my job, but there have been some new ones that I have never been to cause I have been busy dealing with all the other locations.

In any case, it was the light hearted moment of the afternoon and I learned where this job was that I had not been able to place before. Sorry if it didn't sound as funny to you . . . but we were cracking up.

Exciting!! . . . sad isn't it?

2008-11-18T15:55:00.000-08:00

Today was another driving day for me . . . I made my circle all over the Chicago Suburbs and into the city and on my way back south and I passed a gas station and saw something that excited me. I was on the phone with my mom at the time so I shared my excitement with her.

I officially saw gas for $1.99.

It is below $2.00 a gallon. Honestly I never thought that I would see that again with how the prices sky rocketed, but was excited to see it. Then I thought, "why am I excited? It is finally getting closer to reasonable!"

This is a wonderful example of how capitalism actually works!! The prices rose until they reached a point where the market was no longer willing to buy as much of the product as they were before. It finally hit that threshold where people finally started to cut back their fuel consumption. . . not just you typical driver, but everyone one was cutting back including businesses. So then the market did what a free market does and it corrected itself. Oil stopped selling for $160 a barrel . . . it dropped to $54 a barrel. Finally!! And this without the government having to step in and freeze fuel taxes, or force the big oil companies to do anything.

I am grateful to live in a capitalistic society where a free market exists and the consumers actually control the market, not the government. Let capitalism work . . . it's a beautiful thing!

It's coming up fast!

2008-11-13T15:04:00.000-08:00

I have been so busy with work and everything else in my life that I didn't even realize that it was already November. I mean, I knew what the date was, but I didn't realize what it meant. Now all of the sudden it is November 13th and Thanksgiving is only two weeks away and Christmas is only six weeks away. The holidays totally snuck up on me.

Of course I didn't realize that until today. Granted I have thought about it a little bit, enough to think about getting a tree and buy my plane ticket home. But other than that . . . just put it off as if it was so far in the future

I spent a good portion of my day today tying bows for holiday decor projects for some clients. By the end of my day it looked as if Christmas had exploded in my office. And it got me thinking. I need to do some shopping . . . plan out my decorations at home . . . and maybe even think about doing some lights.

I am a true lover of all things Christmas, especially the lights. As a kid I loved to help my dad with the lights on the house. And now that I am all grown up I may even do some lights on my own house. I realize that I won't be able to do a lot this year, but I want to start making some of those purchases and get my Christmas decorations for my house started. And I really am kind of excited about it.

Something To Be Grateful For

2008-11-04T10:51:00.001-08:00

Growing up in Idaho and in my family I was taught conservative values. As I have grown up and become more politically opinionated I have continued to be fairly conservative in my political opinions. Although I am not offiliated with the Republican party I do agree with them on many issues.

Living here in Illinois, being young, especially here in this election season people assume that I am liberal like people here. I am grateful that today I was able to cast my vote for president without anyone telling me who I should vote for or looking over my shoulder. I feel very blessed to live in a free country where every vote counts. I realize that my vote for president won't really make much of a difference in the home state of one of the candidates, but it matters to me because I was able to vote for the man who I think will do the best job and best supports my values.

In case you are wondering who that is I did vote for John McCain and Sarah Palin. I still hold on to the hope that they win. Also, my prayers are with those in California that they will be able to pass proposition 8 and preserve traditional marriage.

Excited To Go Home

2008-11-01T09:03:00.000-07:00

Time moves much faster than I would like, but this week I realized that I am going home to see my family next week. This trip home will be full of firsts for me. I haven't been home since March, which doesn't seem that long ago, but with all of the changes in my family it seems like forever ago. When I went home in March it was to meet my five new brothers and sisters.

On this trip home I will be seeing my parents new house for the first time. For the first time since I left home almost 9 years ago I will be going home not to the house I know, but to a new one which will be a different experience all together. I still have mixed feelings about it, but oh well . . . it will be different.

I will be meeting my newest little brother Jack who was born in August. I have heard him cry over the phone plenty of times, but it will be fun to finally get to meet him and hold him. I am also excited to see the little kids. I miss them too. Sorry . . . wish I could post a picture but we still can't.

I will be meeting my first nephew for the first time. He was born two weeks ago and I will be getting to hold him while his mom and dad are in the temple for Ali's wedding.

I will be meeting Jenn and Tyson's new dog Oscar. Being a dog person my self I am quite excited about that. I only wish that I could bring Cletus along to meet his cousin.

And lastly I will be meeting Chaz . . . Ali's almost husband. I have been away from home for a long time and never met him when he and Ali dated in high school, etc. The family approves of him so I will trust their good opinion. The reason for the trip is Ali's wedding so it will be fun to be there.

In any case it will be a lot of firsts for me on this trip and I will be meeting a lot of additions to my family. We'll hope that it isn't too crazy and busy that I don't get to enjoy it.

I'm Debating . . .

2008-10-24T13:02:00.000-07:00

I know that this sounds a little bit early to be thinking about this, but it's me so I am.

Last year I closed on my house November 15th. The next two weeks were total chaos trying to get out of my apartment and get into the house and walls painted and everything. In the middle of all this I was covering a vacancy in my Northern office so was working crazy hours and commuting three hours a day. As I got into December things slowed down a little, but still I was just trying to get the house all situated. So the only holiday decorating that managed to happen was a wreath on the door and that was only because it was easier than taking it down to the basement and storing it.

Now, for those that know me well (especially my family) you know that I love Christmas lights, decorations, the whole works. Just not the blow up stuff for the front yard . . . that stuff gets pretty tacky.

Through college we always did some decorating for Christmas, but once I finished school I never did much cause I either had roommates and none of us would be around, or it was my own apartment and there wasn't space or last year where I was just to exhausted to deal with the whole mess.

But now . . . I am kind of out of excuses. That isn't to say that I can't come up with some. I won't be here for Christmas Day, no one is going to really see it, I don't want to tackle lights by myself, it is too expensive to buy the stuff, I can keep going . . .

Still . . . I think that I kind of want to go all out. Not too crazy but actually get and decorate a tree. Maybe a few lights out front. Maybe finally find a nativity set that I will love. It couldn't get too out of hand cause I don't have much money to spend on it, but still . . . I think I want to do something. Especially since I made really cute stockings last year and kind of want to display them.

Anyway . . . this is just me thinking . . . still not sure how it is all going to play out.

Glutton For Punishment

2008-10-13T17:01:00.000-07:00

This summer has been quite a productive one for my home landscape . . . I somewhat started from scratch and for someone who works as much as I do and lives alone I feel like I have accomplished a lot.

On Friday at work Michelle mentioned that Midwest Groundcovers (one of our wholesale vendors that I have bought most of my plant material from) was having a cart sale in their retail section this morning. Which meant that you put everything you can on a cart and the total price is $75.00. Which comes out to be cheaper than my wholesale pricing even with my discount. So we decided that we would check it out.

Well I came out of there today with about 30 1 gal. perennials, two large shrub roses, and some groundcover. Sounds like a lot to plant right? Well the planting part is easy really . . . the labor intensive part for me at this point is prepping the beds to be planted. I have an area for about half of it almost ready to go, but now I have to hurry and get the other bed all done so that I can plant it in the next two weeks before it gets too late in the season. So that is where my next week and weekend and possibly further will be spent.

The somewhat depressing part is that so much of what I planted this year was done so late in season that I really didn't get to appreciate it . . . so next spring should be awesome.

What I forgot to mention that just when I finish planting all of this I will have the bulbs that I ordered delivered and then there will be planting all of those. Whew . . . this is gonna get tiring.

Just another year as a cubs fan . . .

2008-10-05T06:03:00.001-07:00

It has been another great baseball season leading to the fall classic. Both Chicago teams have done well, both are in the playoffs and it is looking like it could be a very exciting October. But then I get reminded that I am a cubs fan . . . and as a cubs fan I should be accustomed to constant disappointments and a team that manages to blow any lead they have the moment they get to the playoffs. So . . . after blowing the first round with three straight losses to the Dodgers . . . here's to you cubbies and continuing your 100 year tradition of disappointing your fans by choking when it really counts.

Am I Really This Easy To Figure Out?

2008-10-04T06:12:00.000-07:00

I have been working in my office for a few years now and am coming up on my third fall season. Every year one of the admin girls (Terri) and I both start getting ready as fall rolls around because fall means pumpkin time. And I don't mean cute little decorative pumpkins or pumpkin carving; I mean to eat. In the fall all of the sudden pumpkin is everywhere: milkshakes, cream cheese, pancakes, cookies, bread, muffins . . . etc. And she and I share the same love of anything and everything pumpkin. So every year we both bring each other whatever we find and the rest of the office just roll their eyes and laugh at us.

Well with my birthday coming up this weekend . . . our new designer (Melissa) decided she wanted to do something for me. Very nice of her. I was out of the office most of the day yesterday and when I got back there was a post it note on my desk to look in the fridge. So when I went to the fridge I found a pumpkin pie and a can of redi-whip. Talk about a way to end a Friday. So the girls all got together for a "meeting" in the conference room and we had birthday pie.

Admittedly, pumpkin pie is one of my all time favorite things. This makes two out of the last three years when I have had pumpkin pie in place of a birthday cake. Both times I didn't ask for the substitution, but friends made it for me. Which begs the question . . . am I really this easy to figure out?

Reminding Myself Why I Love The City

2008-09-23T16:08:00.000-07:00

So I was downtown today for work which seems to be happing more often than it used to. Melissa and I had a meeting with one of our Michigan Avenue clients so I left early to make sure that regardless of traffic I would for sure get there in time. The meeting was at 10:00 and I pulled off Congress Parkway at 9:00 (for anyone not in the city that would normally be at most 10-15 minutes away). As I turn onto Michigan things seem to be a little backed up and I just leave it to traffic in the city. Well as we continue to not move and my time is running out much faster than I would like I am forced off Michigan Avenue and onto State Street to keep going north. Melissa calls me and she is even further behind me (keep in mind we should both have been ridiculously early to this meeting). So I finally get around it and part at Millennium Park.

I come out of the parking garage beneath the park and it is a beautiful day . . . one of those days that just reminds me why I love the city. It was bright and sunny and warm outside and the park was just beautiful. I was ahead of Melissa so I took a minute to walk around. Actually when Melissa and I were done with our meeting we took a minute to walk through part of the park and there was music in the amphitheater and we walked through the Lurie Garden . . . all pretty cool.

In any case . . . as I got closer to the building that I was headed too for my meeting I discovered the reason behind the crazy traffic and detours. There was a fire in one of the buildings . . . not a big fire, but a fire none the less. And as everyone know a fire in Chicago requires at least:

15 fire trucks.

20 Police Cars

and 6 road closures. Oh the joy of the big city.

Very Exciting!!

2008-09-17T11:20:00.000-07:00

I am not one to toot my own horn, but I am pretty excited about this. I do work at a couple locations along Michigan Avenue (The Magnificent Mile) and there is a competition every year with all of the "Gardens of the Magnificent Mile" and awards given. The top award requires an all but perfect score and is rarely given out. Two years ago we received this award for one of our sites and it was the first time in five years that it had been awarded. Then this year that same site was once again awarded the top honor. So for an award that is rarely handed out, I am so excited that we received it two out of three years. It really is a great statement about the awesome company that I work for and the fabulous team that I have. Really I couldn't be more proud of them. So I just had to share my proud moment with all of you.

It's Raining, It's Pouring . . . And It Won't Stop

2008-09-14T16:58:00.000-07:00

I woke up yesterday morning to the sound of rain. I turned on the news knowing that the hurricane was supposed to hit Texas to see how things were going. As the morning progressed it just kept raining and I really didn't think anything of it until I looked outside and saw 2" of water covering my entire patio. And now a day and a half later it has finally stopped raining. The bucket on my patio that was empty now has 10+ inches of water in it. Having grown up in the what is considered desert this was crazy. There are parts of this country that get that much rain in a year. Anyway, I just thought that I would share. The pictures don't quite show just how crazy it was.

Random Weekend

2008-09-01T15:32:00.000-07:00

It's Labor Day weekend. My real last weekend to relax before my fall season kicks in and my life gets busy again. But, my girls and I didn't make any plans ahead of time of what we should do this weekend. About mid week I started looking around and thought that it would be fun to go to Mammoth Caves in Kentucky . . . last minute that just didn't work out. So it got to be Friday and still no plans. So the girls got together and called me on Friday afternoon with our plans.

We were going to camp out in my backyard on Friday. And by camp, I mean fire, tent, the works . . . it just happened to include a tv in the tent to watch movies and air mattresses. And when we got up in the morning there was the shower complete with a hot breakfast . . . tons of fun. Saturday afternoon was completed with haircuts all around and swimming at the pool. Went to a community play in the evening and out to dinner after. Not a bad day for having no plans.

The weekend was completed today with a hike at Starved Rock State Park. I was talking with Molly last night and we needed something to do today. Starved Rock is only an hour away and I have never bothered going. So we went. Hiked pretty much the whole length of the trails and wore ourselves out pretty good.

For not having been hiking in quite a while . . . it was a little rough, but we did manage to have a good time. The weather was beautiful, hot and humid, and the trail was good. Sad that there wasn't much water and the waterfalls were less than exciting . . . we will just have to go again in the Spring.

My Bucket List

2008-08-27T17:44:00.000-07:00

A couple of weeks ago I was assigned a speaking assignment in church that really didn't excite me . . . read back a few pots and you can see what it was. In any case . . . while I was attempting to prepare that talk I spent a lot of time talking to friends and family. And it was a conversation that I had with my friend Molly that prompted this post.

If my memory serves me well we had just recently watched the movie "The Bucket List" for at least the second time. I really like the movie. Anyway, we were talking about some of the advantages to being single . . . like you can do whatever you want, you can go where ever you want, you have to freedom and sometimes are in the financial position to do things that you could never do married or with a young family. Part of this conversation was me realizing that I have not taken advantage of these opprotunities the way I ought to have.

So she and I started taking about making our own "Bucket List". Not a list of things to accomplish before we die, but a list of things that we want to do before we get married. I have been mulling it over off and on for the past few weeks and decided I needed to start mine.

This is by no means my complete list . . . this is just me getting started and kind of brainstorming. If there are any suggestions of things that would be fun to add I am up for suggestions. But so far, here is what I have.

- Sit on a beach in Florida
- Attend the Chelsea flower show
- Go to Hawaii
- Hike Mammoth Caves
- See the Smokey Mountains
- Get my motorcycle license
- Visit Graceland
- Go fishing in Alaska
- Learn to Kayak
- Actually run an 8K (the Shamrock Shuffle - I always say I am going to and never do)
- Visit Philadelphia and it's historical sites
- Actually go through all of the Smithsonian museums

*Note this list is subject to change at my discretion

A few of my favorite things

2008-08-26T16:22:00.000-07:00

As I have been thinking about what I want to do with my own landscape it got me thinking about some of my favorite plants. So I thought that I would share with you my two favorite trees of all time. My favorite evergreen and my favorite deciduous tree.

The first is the Blue Atlas Cedar, the picture here is of a weeping cultivar. It is an evergreen, but an unusual one. The needles are whorled and short and stay tight to the branches giving the tree an interesting texture. The color is fabulous, it is kind of a steel blue that light reflects off of and gives it a lot of depth.

Unfortunately for me this tree does not do very well in the climate that I live in. I see them from time to time, but most people ask me what they are when I pull up photos of them or see them at trade shows.

My favorite deciduous tree is the Tri-Color Beech. The most beautiful specimen of this that I have ever seen is on BYU campus on the East side of the MARB as you head towards the Clyde. If you are there, you should check it out. It really is beautiful.

This is another kind of hard to find and very expensive plant, but if you can find it and get it to grow it is stunning. It is keeps it's pink and red color all summer and adds fantastic contrast to all of the green surrounding it.

As I write this I realized that neither of my favorite trees are actually green which I have been informed is my favorite color, just an interesting side note.

Longing for "Sweater Weather"

2008-08-22T16:45:00.001-07:00

My freshman year of high school I met a girl named Jessica and we became pretty much best friends instantly. One of the things that we had in common was our love of fall weather which we eventually dubbed "sweater weather". Defined, "sweater weather" is when it is cool enough outside that you need a sweater or light jacket, but warm enough that you don't need a coat. This is my favorite kind of weather.

Today . . . was a worse than typical muggy, hot, Chicago summer day and it had me longing for that cool crisp autumn weather that I really love. I realized about a week or so ago just how ready I was for fall. I went shopping with my friend Molly and bought a wool skirt, jeans, pants, long sleeve shirts and a hooded sweater. Nothing that I can actually wear right now. But, I am officially ready for when the cool weather hits.

Still . . . I would like to share with you the top ten reasons that I love fall . . . so here they are.

10. School starts so all the kids are gone during the day.
9. It means that Thanksgiving is almost here . . . yummy food.
8. The smell of fields getting harvested and burned is fantastic.
7. Orange, brown and red are some of my favorite colors.
6. You can turn off AC and the heat and save money on energy bills.
5. Corn mazes and pumpkin patches are tons o fun.
4. You can get pumpkin flavored ANYTHING!! Yummy!!
3. I love sweatshirts!
2. Nothing is more beautiful than Autumn leaves!
1. IT IS COLLEGE FOOTBALL TIME!!

It sounded simple

2008-08-20T17:02:00.000-07:00

So typical me story. About a week and a half ago my dear friend Casey accompanied me on a trip to IKEA to pick out a bookcase. We found one that I really liked and that I thought would look good so I bought it and brought it home.

So this is IKEA furniture which means that it comes in small boxes and has to be assembled. I have assembled a lot of this type of furniture in my time and didn't think twice about buying it. It sat on my front porch for about a week because I never had time to assemble it. Finally last Thursday or so I dragged the heavy boxes inside and decided to do something about them. It said that it was a two person job, but being me I decided I could tackle it on my own.

So I got started putting it together. Another one of the beauties of IKEA furniture is that it comes with instructions, but they are pictures and no words so that they can use the same instructions no matter what country the product is sold in. I looked at the instructions and thought that it looked pretty straight forward so I proceeded. The first couple pieces went together no problem. It was just a few screws and a lot of wooden pegs. As I started getting a little farther in the project I realized that the wood pegs in this kit were way too big for the holes in the wood and despite hours of effort and a lot of muscle these were not gonna work.

At this point I am just frustrated so it sits on my floor and takes over the room until yesterday when I decided I had had enough. During my lunch I went over to the Home Depot to see if I could find the right size pegs. I like to think that I am pretty good with home improvement stores and typically can have an intelligent conversation with the employees there. So I go in and explain to them what I am looking for and I swear to you they looked at me like I had three heads. So I left more frustrated.

Then I thought that little ACE Hardware always has the most random things. So on my way home from work I stopped there. I found the old guy to talk to cause the girl snapping her gum at the register when I walked in did not look promising. This guy knew exactly what I was looking for and showed me where they were . . . went and found me wood glue and all. So helpful.

I came home and within half an hour I had it all put together and ready to put stuff on. And the two man thing was cause this thing is pretty darn heavy; I wasn't sure that I was going to be able to get it back upright. But with enough stubborheadedness I did. So here it is . . . I hope that I really end up loving it cause it was way more work than I thought that it would be.

I'm a little annoyed

2008-08-12T17:17:00.000-07:00

I am in Michigan for a few days for work. I left early this morning and got here and started looking at installations that I did earlier this Spring. Not a single site that I visited today has taken care of the material that we installed. I know that it has nothing to do with me, but I can't seem to help but to take this personally. I do my best not to, but when it is so many back to back, it kind of hurts a little. I jump through hoops for clients to make things just right for them and deal with all of their stupid quirks and then they don't even care about the finished project. At least not enough to take care of it. Days like today I feel like I care about the overall look of their site more than they do. I work really hard and feel like a little piece of me goes into each of these projects. Anyway, it was a little bit of a depressing day. I just hope that tomorrow is better and I see something that actually makes me happy.

Ideas??

2008-08-04T06:50:00.000-07:00

(I posted this on my family blog, but then realized that I do have friends with experience in this field so I thought that I would post it on my blog as well)

Ok, so this is kind of funny, but seriously I am asking for some advice here.

Don't know how many of you have seen the cover article for the Ensign this month, but it is all about how to cope with being single. Anyway, my bishopric feels very strongly that our wards need to really hear this message and selected a few people in the ward who they feel are living happy productive single lives to share their experiences with the ward in relation to this article. And for some reason they think that I am one of these people. Apparently they don't know me as well as they think that they do.

I honestly avoided the article like I do most articles of that nature because really I never feel like they say anything new and you know that they were written by either therapists or married people. But I gave in and read it last night knowing that I have to speak on this subject next week.

The article makes a few good points, but still nothing new. But it uses the word cope and dealing with loss in relation to being single and I guess that I have never really felt that way so I don't understand that. I don't fee like I cope, I just live my life and I don't feel like I have lost anything, just that I don't have something yet that I want. So I guess I have a hard time relating to people that do. Granted, I am not thrilled to still be single with no real prospects, but I don't see the point in being miserable about it either. I have bad days, but the good ones are much more frequent.

What they have asked all three of us to focus on is the first subsection of the article about acknowledging and dealing with the pain. Not sure what that means . . . but I feel like you acknowledge and deal with it by living your life your way and making goals besides just getting married and having a family.

Anyway, help please. Please if you get a chance read the article and let me know what you think or any insights that you may have. I am really not sure where to go with this.

Flower Pots Anyone?

2008-08-02T06:35:00.000-07:00

I have been meaning to post pictures of the flower pots that I did at my house this summer. I apologize for the morning sun (not ideal conditions so it doesn't show them very well). This is mostly material from work that I was either experimenting with new varieties or combinations. A couple of them are pretty standard. And before you say anything . . . yes I have way too many flower pots on my back patio. So here we go with the grand tour:
We will start with the two at my front porch. These ones I actually spent time searching out the perfect pot. After tons of searching I found these awesome chocolate brown ceramic pots with wide ribbing.
Ok broken down . . . They are pretty much the same plant pallet. This smaller one has Blue Arrows Juncus as the centerpiece, the tall airy small pink flowers are Talinum Limon, then we have Rambin Pink Petunias and the trailing foliage is Kent's Beauty Oregano. I have to admit I wasn't sold on the Oregano at first . . . Diane talked me into trying it, but color and smell is fantastic.The larger version of this pot is pretty much the same but not oregano. For the trailer in this one I used one of my favorite plants which is Lysmachia Goldilocks. I wanted them to be a little different so I didn't have the same thing flanking both sides of my front door (I'm not that fancy). So with a little bit of variation and mismatched size they are a little bit more casual.Now to the back patio. These two sit next to a little bench. The one on the left is Angelonia Angelmist Purple which is one of my favorite container flowers and then the yellow in there is Lantana New Gold which is an old standard, but I love it because of the smell and the awesome bright yellow color. The container on the right is a combination of two plants that were new to me this year. The taller one is Iresine Blazin Rose. This one said it could handle the sun, and it does, but what I learned is that it loses it's awesome bright pink color in the sun so in this container it is all faded. Now I know, next time it goes in the shade. The purple in there is a Fanfare Impatien. I just don't like the color, so this pot is by far my least favorite. (There is actually another one with this combo too that is a little smaller, but I didn't bother taking a picture.)
Next is another old standard these are all Dragon Wing Red Begonias. Great plant in general. The two pots on the left have a little bit of White Serena Angelonia mixed in just for a little bit of texture.With this one there are actually two of them that flank both sides of a walk that goes through my backyard, but I just couldn't get a picture of them together because of the sun. This combination Melissa (who I work with) actually came up with. She sent me home with this combo to see how it would turn out. They got huge but they were planted as 6" annuals which gave them a huge head start. Anyway the combo, Angelonia Angelmist Dark Pink (hope by now you know what Angelonia looks like), the foliage in the front is Coleus Lava Rose, ane then the last part of it is a Begonia Baby Wing White. I did like how these turned out. A little pastely (not my thing), but I still liked them.
Last, I just had one more pot to fill so this is that it got, Pink Geraniums and White Petunias. Nothing too exciting, but I like it cause it is cute in the green pot.

Anybody want a Frickle?

2008-08-01T17:07:00.000-07:00

No, not that is not a typo. I spent the last two days in Minneapolis for work. I drove up there with one of my co-workers, Michelle. Before we left she decided to look up a fun place to eat. She and I are both bigs fans of the food network so she looked up Minneapolis on Diners, Drive-ins and Dives. She found a place called the Talk Town Diner that sounded fun so we decided to try it. We had looked at the menu ahead of time so we kind of knew what we wanted.

They had some interesting combinations that I would never have thought of, but the place smelled wonderful. The one thing that Michelle had seen on the menu that she was dying to try was Frickles. They are deep fried pickle chips that you eat like a french fry. I have to admit that I was a little less anxious to try them, but still curious so I didn't complain when she ordered them.

They came out and we both kind of had to laugh . . . and then gave them a try. They were actually pretty good. Totally not a flavor that I have ever had before, but not a bad one. I liked them, but had to quit afte a while cause I had the most amazing grilled cheese sandwich on the way that I needed to leave room for. It was great with chedder and gruyre cheese, tomato and bacon. It was fabulous and I made it though a little more than half of it before I was on overload. Besides that they really had great garlicy french fries too.

This inspired me, next time I travel (even if it is just for work) I am going to try to find fun new places and food to try.

Patience is a virtue . . . it pays off!

2008-07-30T13:22:00.000-07:00

When I was planning the plant pallet for the bed that I planted in my back yard last month I was looking for a specific hydrangea that I really liked. But no one had it. All of my perennial growers were out and no one would have it until mid to late August. Being who I am I couldn't wait and just purchased another variety instead. Side note: I do like the ones that I ended up with a lot.

Anyway, so I was at Home Depot on Saturday picking up yard waste bags and fertilizer and decided to go and browse their shrub selection. And right there I found three of the 'Limelight' Hydrangea that I was searching all over for earlier this summer. And the real beauty of the situation is that they were on clearance so they were the same price that I would pay wholesale so I didn't feel like I was wasting money buying them retail (sorry to all of you who are forced to by retail).

I found some Privet that I really liked too so I brought them all home and planted them in another new bed that I had just finished prepping. So now I have that one started. I will post photos and a plant list when it is finished. I need to by some more plants and get it all done. Sorry . . . can't display that work in progress cause it kind of looks silly right now.

I just wanted to share my joy in finally getting what I really wanted.

By Popular Demand

2008-07-30T12:17:00.001-07:00

Ok folks . . . I didn't realize that so many people would demand a photo of my hair cut. So sorry that I didn't post one with my last post. Anyhow . . . haven't really been anywhere to look cute and have my picture taken so this one will just have to do. I am making a funny face . . . dont' know why. It really doesn't do it justice. It is an awesome exaggerated a-line cut so it gets really short in the back. I really love it though.

Hair yesterday . . . gone today!

2008-07-26T10:27:00.000-07:00

I started growing out my hair when I finished college and moved to Illinois four years ago. Partially to prove that I could survive having long hair and to appease a few people that had wanted me to finally let it grow out. Anyone who has known me longer than the last four years knows that I am by nature a short hair kind of gal so this was actually quite out of character for me.

Part of my justification for growing it out was that I would make sure that I would grow it long enough that it would be enough to donate to Locks of Love when I finally cut it off. About a year ago it was long enough (the minimum 10" requirement), but I decided to let it keep growing.

The last couple months I have been dying to cut it all off so finally today I did. My friend Lori who cuts my hair cut off this 16" braid for me to send in.

I am really loving having my hair short again. But I feel that it may come as a shock to the folks here who don't know the me that always had her hair short. But really . . . who cares . . . I love it this way!

Happy 4th of July!

2008-07-04T06:37:00.000-07:00

The fourth of July is one of my all time favorite holidays . . . it's all about good times, with good friends spending time hanging out in the sun, having a barbecue, and watching some awesome fireworks. It's of course also about the independence of our nation . . . blah, blah, blah. Really I do love American history and all that the fourth of July really means and the sacrifices that were made to make this country what it is. But I have to admit that I also like what it has become . . . a day off to enjoy the heat of the summer with good friends and family. So folks . . . enjoy your day!

Open Days Gardens

2008-06-29T16:40:00.000-07:00

One of the girls that I work with (Michelle - she is our lead designer) always keeps up on what is going on in the area and any upcoming events. This year she found out about a national program that offers a day to walk through local private gardens. I happens in every state . . . she bought the directory and looked up Illinois and planned an outing for a few of us to go visit some of these magnificent gardens this weekend. This will be my "cliff notes" version of what I saw today. I took 187 pictures so this is just a very small sampling.

Gardens of Suzanne and Dennis Nyren

This home and garden is located in Lake Forest next to that Lake Forest Open Lands. This garden did a magnificent job of staying true to it's woodland neighbor.

With all of the green this orange was stunning!

The Carton Garden

This home was right behind the first one . . . it was originally part of the same piece of property and the previous home was the original on the property. The owner sold of the first portion and built a home on the remaining seven acres (approximately). This is where we began right by the kitchen.

This area opened up into a large lawn area with a stunning beech tree (which happened to be the tree of the day . . . everyone had one). Part of the beauty of this garden was it's ability to combine the formal with the wild and whimsy. Very natural plantings with perfect borders up to the turf or a perfectly shaped formal tree . . . really the combination was done perfectly.

The large lawn lead us back to the pool house and the secluded pool. The garden around it was fabulous . . . the pool was beautiful . . . the setting perfect . . . but the truly amazing show piece was the latticed espalier pears along the back wall! It was like nothing that I have ever seen before!

This lead us back into the garden area with more espalier fruit trees and ornaments hanging from the lines.This garden backed into a wooded fire pit area complete with furniture made from tree stumps . . . if only I had a place like this when I was in high school . . . my friends and I would have had a fire every night.

As you exit the wooded area you come to the pond . . . once again a stunning beech tree was the focal point. A path lead you all the way around the pond in order to enjoy every single plant there in all of their glory.

This lead us back to the house, and just when we thought that we were done we realized that there was a side yard that we had not even seen. This area included a bog, theater, walking path, and backed right up to the golf course. Overall . . . we could have spent the whole day here exploring what this homeowner spent 50 years creating.

John V. Crowe Garden

This French style garden was designed by an English designer, Rosemary Verey. The formal tea roses by the pool with the perfect tree line and hedge are absolute examples of French formal design.

The lilac room had stunning beds where I got a lot of ideas of combinations for my own garden. To me the stunning feature was the red brick wall that enclosed one side of this garden room.

Lawn stairs are a rare find, but one that I truly enjoy. These were stunning in this large expanse of lawn!

The home is my dream house . . . the red brick and white colums are what I have dreamed of since I was small. It was wonderful to see my dream home in reality!

Markus Collection and Garden

All that I can really say about this garden is that I was curious when we went in based on the description . . . it sounded more like a specimen arboretum than a home landscape. I was stunned by what I saw . . . such a variety of conifers and maples . . . I have never seen that many together . . . and it was designed so perfectly that you didn't realize that you were looking at a specimen garden . . . the colors and textures worked together so well. See for yourself . . . but warning the pictures don't begin to do justice to how fabulous this was.

I have more pictures, but I thought that this was a good sample of how much color you can get with almost no flower, just foliage.

Nantucket Garden

I have never seen white and green beds work so well before. This gardener is good when it comes to working withing a pallet.

They made the best out of their low point (boggy area) and recently planted it with what will be even more beautiful as it matures.

As you move up the slope you find the soft color perennial garden.

This home showed a beautiful Nantucket style garden . . . it fit perfectly with the home.

Walled Retreat

At this home the landscape and the structure were truly one. It began on the side with this formal line of trees.

Next you pass through the doorway in the wall into the yard. The doorway with climbing hydrangea around it was a show piece all it's own.

I loved that this person has a fondness for bright pink flowers as much as I do.

Greta's Cotswold Cottage Garden

This gardener made the most out of a very small space. She created a fabulous colorful garden.

I loved the swing in the back. I can just imagine curling up in it with a good book on a lazy Saturday morning.

McKenna Garden

This Asian inspired garden was perfectly designed to move you through the garden and create different garden rooms. It began with the long hall leading to the red bench. I love red.

The next hallway leads you through columns with Chinese dog statues on them ending in a Asian style tea house.

From here you wind around the back where there sits a small patio table.

The containers here were fantastic. I just had to share.

Fireflies

2008-06-27T22:07:00.001-07:00

I am not talented enough to take my own picture, but I really liked this image. Anyway . . . one of the things that I really love about summers in the midwest is . . . wait for it . . . THE HUMIDITY!! Ok, just kidding . . . what I really love are fireflies. And this year is even more fun because I have my own back yard where I can sit in a chair on the patio in the evening and just watch them . . . Cletus tries to chase them and catch them . . . he never does, but it doesn't stop him from trying. It is a very nice way to wind down at night and just relax. Love them!

My New Bed

2008-06-25T12:56:00.000-07:00

I know it's been a while since I have blogged about anything, but give me a break . . . I've been busy. Work was crazy as always in the spring and I have been trying to get a few things done around the house. But I did finally finish one project . . . a new planter bed in my backyard. When I moved in there were a couple random small beds in the back yard, but other than that it was just not so good grass and weeds as far as the eye could see. I had to do something so I forced myself to get started on my own landscape . . . and actually doing some real landscaping and not just flower pots although I have plenty of those. I will post pictures of those later.

This was my starting point. It is an odd area of the backyard off the patio, but the gate between the porch steps and with the air conditioner. And to make things better there was a random little bed with two Arborvitaes and a Clematis in the middle. So I got started. First step was to buy the hot green marking paint so that I could mark out the bed and make sure that it was exactly where I wanted it. Yes, I know the easy way is with a garden hose, but that would not let me play with spray paint. Once I had the bed where I wanted it then came the round up. Gotta make sure that all of the grass and weeds were totally dead before I started to pull them out. Can't have grass filling it back in when I am done!! Then came the absolute brutal task of cutting out the sod by hand. It was tight spaces and not a big enough area to really use a sod cutter so the spade became my friend. OUCH!! I had blisters and my back hurt for days. Next step, was about 4" of compost. The soil was not so great so it really needed that layer of compost. Then came the planting . . . I had been thinking of what I wanted to plant for a while, then my growers didn't have everything that I wanted so I had to make some sacrifices. Anyway, the final plant list for this bed is Quick Fire Hydrangea, Knockout Rose, Allium Summer Beauty, Geranium Max Frei, Karl Foerester Grass, and then two flats of Apricot Cora Vinca (I had to have some annual flower space). In any case, that was my project for last week . . . now onto the next.

Another Reminder . . .

2008-06-03T16:25:00.000-07:00

So I bought this house in November and at that point all of the existing plant material was starting to go dormant not to mention I was too crazy busy to care to look and see what it was. But as Spring approached I had a huge desire to do something with my landscape and to find out more about what was already here.

I love home improvement stores so I go all of the time, and every time I have to go into the garden center. As I have been looking at plants and bulbs I have had this huge urge to buy peonies. They are kind of an old fashioned flower, but for some reason I have this huge desire to have some. Then I realized it is because my mom has some and really loves them.

Anyway, my pleasant surprise this Spring was to discover that I already have some. There are two different ones in two different parts of the yard. They just started blooming and they are beautiful!

Holy Flood Batman!!

2008-05-26T12:58:00.000-07:00

I woke up this morning and looked outside and saw that it had rained and didn't really think much of it. As I let the dog out I looked closer and realized that it had rained quite a bit. Almost two inches! That's a lot! Once again still didn't really think much of it. Then I had to run downstairs to put some towels in the laundry and realized that my entire basement was flooded! Only about an inch of water or so, but that really is a lot of water. I waded through the water to check out the drain and realized that it was not draining at all. Not good. I thought about it for a while and kind of put of doing anything cause I didn't know what to do then I went down stairs again over an hour later and there was more water! It wasn't even raining! At this point I realized that I had to do something.
So I googled it. Then I made the trip to Lowes to purchase a new shop vac so that I could get the water out of there. Sounds simple enough. Buying the thing and putting it together was the easy part. What I didn't think of at the time is that I would have to somehow empty the shop vac when it was full. I live in a very old house with very narrow and steep staircases. Not ideal when trying to carry this huge shop vac full of 16 gallons of water. By the way 16 gallons is heavy, really, really, really heavy!! But I had a brilliant realization. I have a walk out basement. The older portion of the house has a smaller dirt floor basement that is connected to the rest of the basement, but it has a small door that leads to stairs out straight to the backyard. This was my best route to get the water out.
At this point I commenced the tedious/exhausting task of getting the water out of the basement. What feels like 18 trips later, I got it done. My back and my arms will be killing me tomorrow, but the floor has no more water on it. Of course the drain is still not draining so it isn't fixed yet.
Part of being an ignorant homeowner I don't even know if I have a sump pump that could have gone out. Maybe it is just a clog, but I don't think so. Luckily my friends dad is a pretty handy guy and gonna come check it out for me. If it is the sump pump I am in luck because my home warranty cover it . . . how great would that be. If not, I gotta call a plumber anyway and then pay for it.
Ugh, well happy memorial day everyone!

You scared me!

2008-05-10T16:15:00.000-07:00

Last night I got home from work late and Cletus was here waiting for me and dying to get outside so he could go to the bathroom. When he came inside he was dripping blood from there (sorry, I won't be graphic). It scared me, moments later it stopped, but I turned him on his back to see if I could figure out what was happening. It stopped, but I was still worried.

Then early this morning I woke up and let him out again and the same thing happened. This time I followed him around to see if it was in his pee or separate. (Once again, sorry a little gross). But, it wasn't. So now I am really confused, but I have to go to work . . . so I called the vet and set an appointment for this afternoon cause I was really scared. When blood comes out of somewhere that it isn't supposed to it is pretty scary.

So I took the little man to the vet this afternoon . . . which he didn't like a bit. Granted no one likes to be poked and prodded. But she determined that it was a simple prostate infection that would be cleared up with antibiotics. So $200 later we were on our way home. I felt relieved, but here is hoping that the antibiotics work and this is really all that it is.

My Cabbage Patch

2008-04-26T10:03:00.001-07:00

I was at one of my growers greenhouses last week and saw the cutest little lettuce plants and just had to have some.

So because I am still fairly new to this house I haven't really created a little garden yet so at this point it is all going to be in containers on my back patio. While it is still a little early to plant anything outside like tomatoes or peppers it isn't too early for cool season plants like lettuce.

So I decided to create a salad pot; where I have mixed lettuce plants that can be harvested anytime to create a single serving salad. Which is really perfect for me because anytime that I buy lettuce it goes bad before I even get to finish it.

I am pretty happy with how it turned out. There are four different lettuce plants, each with a different color, habit and leaf shape so it will be beautiful too! Granted when it gets warm I will have to make sure that I keep it as cool as possible in the shade, but I am excited to see how it all turns out.

My never ending quest

2008-04-19T04:47:00.000-07:00

Since I started this blog early this year I have had several different layouts and backgrounds. It is all a part of my seemingly futile attempt to really create the perfect blog for me. There have been some minor changes and some really drastic ones. But I think that I am starting to get closer to finding the ideal look for me. Through a friends blog I was turned onto a website that has the greatest blog backgrounds without having their logo plastered all over them. It is http://www.cutestblogontheblock.blogspot.com/ And they really are very cute. So that was an exciting find. But here is my problem. I like several of them and obviously can only have one. So I have now used the one that I think is my favorite, but here are a couple of the runners up that may end up taking its place at some point.

Yes, all but one of them has and element of green in them. I just have to tell you than until a friend of mine pointed it out a few months ago I never realized my obsession with the color green and most definitely would not have named it as my favorite color, but it has become very apparent to me that it is. So if you are not a fan of the color sorry, apparently I am.

Paperbag Princess

Room for Vintage

Barefoot

Coconut Lime

New Realization

2008-04-17T16:17:00.000-07:00

I learned something new today. And it wasn't something that I wanted to know, and in fact I think that I was a happier person not knowing it. I learned that Canadian Geese (which are very prevalent in this area) are a federally protected species and you can't do anything about them at all. They can set up their nests and lay their eggs anywhere they want, even in your yard and you can't move them or destroy the eggs.

Now for the reason that this bothers me, they are worse than rats around here. They walk across the road and stop traffic, they poop everywhere, and they attack people. Why would these be protected? It isn't like their is any shortage of them in the world, and if there is we have more than enough to share. Let's waste our federal dollars protecting something that is actually worth protecting! Not on pests!

Oddly enough around here there is someone who likes this things enough to actually call the police on some of my guys who moved some eggs in order to plant where they needed to. I was shocked! Not to mention I had no idea that they were protected. But my real question is who loves these things enough to want more of them around? Come on people, don't we all have better things to worry about?

Aggrevation

2008-04-16T17:42:00.000-07:00

Today I went to the Home Depot to pick up a couple of thing that I needed for the yard and was once again annoyed to see plant material available for sale that either not meant for this part of the country or out way to soon cause it's still too cold out for it.

I love home improvement stores, I can walk through one for hours. But they do the same thing that every garden center and nursery does, just worse. They tell people that they know all about plants and what they are selling, but the sell the wrong thing. Shrubs, trees and perennials that are not hardy in this zone. And my real aggravation right now is all of the flowers that they had out. It is early spring in Chicago. We are not going to be frost free for at least a month. They had large vegetable plants out, summer annuals, and perennials in bloom that shouldn't bloom till July.

I think that this is one of the reasons that most people feel like they can't grow anything. They buy the wrong material or at the wrong time and can't figure out why it fails. I just wish that some store somewhere would take the high road and set the example for everyone else and actually do the right thing for the consumer.

I have realized that this is also part of my aggravation with some of my clients at work. They ask why I don't have a lot of different options for spring and my answer is that spring flowers are quite limited. But when they go to the store or talk to lower quality contractors that will say anything for a buck, they see all of these other options and think that I am trying to force them into something or lying to them. When actually I am trying to do the right thing. All that I can really say to this is "ugh". I will just keep doing what I know is best and let people who insist on it learn the hard way. Sad really, but nothing I can do about it.

Oh the joy of taxes!

2008-04-14T16:26:00.001-07:00

Usually I am the person who does their taxes in February the second I get all of my forms, but this year I put it off. I just completed them with less than 30 hours to spare. I know that sounds like a good amount of time, but it is really cutting it close for me. I guess that I put if off cause I was a little scared of it. Last year the company that I worked for had my deductions wrong so I ended up owing around two grand so this year I was a little afraid. Granted I fixed the problem, but still. I was excited to discover that I only owed a total of $35 this year. Not to shabby since my goal is to simply to break even. I would rather have the money through the year rather than get a huge tax return. I am excited for next year when I can start deducting mortgage interest. Then I may actually get a return again.

In any case I used a different tax software this year and I liked it a lot better than the one I have used the last two years. Yes, I do require the assistance of software because the tax forms confuse me and I just can't seem to do it. The last couple years I have used turbo tax online which costs about $80 to efile and took about two hours to do. This year I used H&R Block online which only cost $35 and was done in 45 minutes. Not bad, I think. So anyone out there, I kinda recommend the latter. Just my little experience, thats all.

Just for fun

2008-04-12T10:18:00.001-07:00

I just saw this and it made me smile. Cause it is totally true for me . . . kinda sad, but really it is funny.

Rainy Days

2008-04-12T09:56:00.001-07:00

Granted it is spring and I am really busy with work, but the past few days have been nothing but rainy and cold. I was out working this morning and it was still just cold and wet. Now I am home and Cletus and I are getting cabin fever pretty bad. He was just getting used to being able to play outside a lot and now I have to keep him in again. So I'm trying to find some fun activities for me and Cletus to do inside. I am not home a ton so when I am I like to be able to play with him, but when it is like this . . . well . . . we are both a little bored.

What the?? Ugh

2008-04-09T19:12:00.000-07:00

I have to admit that despite my involvement in the green industry it has been a lot of years since I have mowed a lawn and quite a few years since I have actually had to maintain a landscape. But, with my new homeowner adventures I am getting that opportunity again (please tell me that you picked up on the sarcasm in that). Can I just tell you that this is a never ending process!! Yes, I know, live plants are a renewable material and will constantly grow. My degree in horticulture taught me that one, but still . . . can't it just take a break for a while?? I feel like that is all I am doing every night when I get home from work. Granted, it is spring and I have to get it all up and running so really soon enough all I will have to do is mow and weed. But still.

Actually though, on an exciting note I bought my first lawn mower last week. I'm kind of excited about it, but still the patio set for the same price seemed like a much better investment. But in the end, practicality prevailed and I bought the lawn mower. Couldn't quite get the manager to throw the new patio set in for free. But this new lawn mower has the coolest feature (sad I know that I think lawn mower features are cool, but give me a break, its the business that I am in). When you finish mowing the lawn there is a place to attach a hose to the mower and you let it run for a minute and it washes the deck of the mower so you never have to scrape the build up off. How cool is that?? Ok, for those of you who have never mowed a lawn you have no idea, but for anyone who has spent hours scraping the bottom of a mower to get built up grass clipping that smell awful off the deck of the mower you can understand just how totally awesome this is!

Niece/Nephew Update

2008-03-28T21:56:00.001-07:00

I know that my sister posted this on her blog, but I want to announce it on mine for anyone that doesn't subscribe to hers. My sister Sarita (and I guess her husband Eric, even though it isn't in his belly, it is in hers) is having a baby and this is our first official baby picture of my very first niece/nephew who is due October 8th (I'm kind of hoping that it is born on my birthday). So, I'm pretty excited about this whole Aunt thing and thought that I would share.

Exhausted!

2008-03-25T20:18:00.000-07:00

Someday I am going to learn my limits and stop overbooking myself. But sadly for me; someday is not today. I have made a very classic mistake for me again this week and scheduled myself to be too many places in too short a time. And in the end, what that means for me is a total lack of sleep. Of course I am up right now at 10:15 and at home and could be in bed, but instead I am posting on here. Granted in order to get through my day it took a couple of nodoze and a few diet cokes so I am not sure when I am going to fall asleep tonight. So really, I just need to learn my lesson and tell people "no" once in a while and make some time for myself.

On a positive note, Cletus will be back home with me in 7 hours. I am excited, I really missed him!

Am I Just Pathetic For This???

2008-03-20T15:27:00.000-07:00

I have only had Cletus for a little over three months and for the first time I am going to be away from him overnight this weekend. But it isn't just overnight, it is for five whole days! I found myself being such the paranoid mom . . . I was packing his things and I made sure that he had a variety of treats, his favorite blanket, his favorite toys, plenty of food, and anything that I could think of. I put together a big long note of his daily routine, what he likes, emergency phone numbers, etc. A friend that I work with is taking him while I am gone, but for some reason I am totally worried for both of them. He's a lot to handle so I am a little worried.

He just picked him up a few minutes ago and I am totally feeling a sense of separation anxiety. I keep telling myself that this is ridiculous, but I am sad that he isn't here. This could be a long weekend, it is just a good thing that I am not going to be at my house.

Proud Momma

2008-03-16T05:32:00.001-07:00

Yesterday I was downtown for the annual St. Patrick's Day parade and the traditional dying of the Chicago River a nice bright green. While we were standing on the State Street bridge tying not to freeze and waiting for the river to turn my favorite shade of green we came upon a lady with her bulldog. And where my dog Cletus is a bulldog I always have to play with other people's bulldogs. This one was really old and I was talking to the owner about bulldogs for a while cause she is looking for a new one cause hers doesn't have a lot of time left. But as we were discussing them, people kept coming up and petting her dog and telling her how cute she was and all that I could help thinking is that Cletus is so much cuter! Her bulldog actually had a few features that disqualify her from being registered in the breed. I actually showed her pictures on my phone of Cletus and she loved his color . . . really he is just a beautiful dog. Anyway, we walked away and I mentioned to my friend "Cletus is way cuter!" and of course she agreed. So I had this proud momma moment where I got to think "my baby is way cuter than your baby!"

Singles wards

2008-03-09T19:53:00.000-07:00

Just a quick question that has been bothering me . . . do all singles wards just suck? Is that why people get married is to get out of having to attend them? Cause I am telling you, I think that is exactly why. This is just Liz venting for a second, but really . . . eight years in singles wards and they are all still crazy. Now that I just said that I realized that maybe it is me that is the crazy one. Who really knows. In any case . . . just one more element of my life where I have just about had it!

I'm losing it!

2008-03-05T19:12:00.001-08:00

Alright, I know that this seems to be a recurring theme, but this whole winter thing is killing me. A ton of work to do because of the snow which means that I am not getting the sleep I need to and when I do get the chance to sleep it never seems to be enough. And on top of that I work for a company that is growing at an almost ridiculous fast rate. Which means more work for me to do and more traveling. I am spending all my time preparing and presenting presentations for clients and don't have the time to come back and get the work set up. I am selling a ton, now the real trick is going to be if I can manage to actually pull it all off. I'm sure I will, that is the kind of person I am and really the kind of company that I work for. But still, it seems almost ridiculous. Sadly enough, it seems like work is all I do, mostly because right now, it really is all that I do. I NEED A BREAK! I know that I am going to be getting one when I go home for Easter, but that really just can't come soon enough.

New Brothers and Sisters

2008-02-29T14:14:00.000-08:00

I'm all sorts of excited to go home this Easter to meet the 5 newest members of my family; Haily, Michael, Alex, Krystal, and Joshua. Our family has been given the opportunity to add these beautiful children to our family and we are very excited. Michael is already there, Krystal will be back on Sunday and Haily, Alex, and Joshua will be joining in on Thursday. So our already growing family of 10 just jumped to 15! How exciting, eh? Anyway, it is just a really great blessing and I am just excited to get to be a part of it at Easter.

2008-02-22T15:47:00.001-08:00

Ok, I am officially a magnet for people who don't look both ways before pulling out of a parking lot or something like that. Granted I drive more than most people because of my job, but this is getting ridiculous! Once again I was driving today, and some kid in his volvo pulled out right in front of me. It was like deja vu all over again. I had two choices because I didn't have time to stop; I could t-bone the other car and risk serious injury or swerve and try to miss him and potentially run off the road. I chose option two, still hit the other car, but not too bad and did end up totally off the road. And once again I was in my work truck. So my truck is now officially out of commission and in the mean time I am driving a new ford edge. I kinda like it, it's much smaller and lower to the ground than I am used to, but so far . . . I like it. Granted, I really don't like having to get into an accident to get to try out a new car.

So . . . really?

2008-02-19T17:01:00.000-08:00

Usually winter is the slow time of year for me. I don't work as many hours, I get extra projects done, more sleep, all sorts of a nice slow time. Not so much this year. Combine the purchase of my house, with being short staffed in my department, way more snow than normal, and working for a company that is growing by leaps and bounds despite a looming recession and there is no such things as extra time. I find it very interesting at work that we are all looking forward to Spring and wishing it would just speed up and get here. In fact one of my employees has a countdown posted. Spring is supposed to be the dreaded time of year for us. We are crazy busy and don't even have time to breath, but this year; it can't come soon enough!

Chicago Auto Show

2008-02-17T06:36:00.001-08:00

After not being able to talk anyone into going with me last year I was not about to miss this years auto show. Anyone who knows me knows that I have a serious infatuation with cars. More than one man has been a little intimidated by it which actually cracks me up a little. In any case I love cars. And one of my favorite things is classic muscle cars. A few years ago when the new Ford Mustang body style came out and returned the look to that of classic muscle I was so excited. Then Dodge followed suit with the Charger, Chrysler 300C, etc. But now, there's the Dodge Challenger brought back to life and totally awesome! So yesterday I got to see the preview at the auto show and I am telling you it is even more awesome in real life than a picture could ever let you imagine! So in case you didn't pick up on it, I liked it. I enjoyed the auto show as always. The friend that I talked into going with me were unfortunately not half as excited as I was about it so they hurried me through. Sad, I know. I will just have to plan better next year and make sure to schedule a time with my friends that really love cars.

So Ready for Spring!

2008-02-16T05:58:00.001-08:00

Ok, I don't know about anyone else, but I could not possibly be more ready for Spring. This has been snowiest winter in at least 30 years and it is only February. And at that it is only the middle of February. We still have over one more month of winter left. I know that with work my life in the Spring gets really hectic and chaotic and I am running around like a mad woman, but you know what . . . I am ready for it so bring it on! I just can't wait for the temperatures to warm up so that I can ride my bike or play with the dog outside. Winter kills me cause I feel like I am locked up in the house. Granted there are always places to go and things to do, but I just like to be able to come home and not have to stay inside the house. My new house has a big backyard for Cletus to play in but I can't let him out there for very long when it is this cold. So we are both looking forward to the Spring. At work the count down has officially started. There are officially 33 days till Spring.

Plant by Number

2008-02-16T05:06:00.000-08:00

So I spend a lot of my time in my career designing custom container plantings. People ask me every day where they can find container ideas that will tell them what plants to use and where to place them and everything that they need. There are a couple of options, but one that I have found that I really like is www.plantbynumber.com This site was created by the folks at Ball Seed (which if you don't know is one of the largest seed producers and distributors in the world). They use this as a tool to market their product to the home gardener. Even as a professional I check it out from time to time just to be reminded how different plants interact with each other. I will admit that there is plant material that they suggest that I wouldn't use. That being said keep in mind that I am focused on the commercial setting. I need tough and hardy plant material that doesn't need any special attention to thrive. Most home gardeners can give special attention to their container gardens so this is not the same kind of an issue for them. I'm not one of them, by them time I get home from dealing with everyone else's flowers all day I really have no energy to give any special attention to mine, but I still manage nice flower displays most years. I just end up using the tough stuff.

Resolutions?

2008-01-05T07:33:00.000-08:00

Ok, so new year, new years resolutions right? Well I have not been one to make any the past few years cause I never stick to them. So this year, not so much a resolution, but a few life goals. Ok, so maybe there is no difference, but let's just say that they aren't resolutions.

So I am so cliche and I want to finally lose weight this year. I got started, joined a support site, started my workouts . . . so far so good. Granted it is only 5 days into the year.

Be better with money. Who can't use that as a goal.

Improve my spirituality. Lots of work to do there.

So . . . now it's in writing for the whole world to read. Maybe that will help keep me motivated.

New to this

2008-01-04T21:21:00.000-08:00

Ok . . . so whole blog thing is new to me, but I figure that I ought to give it a shot . . . a way for folks to see what I am up to . . . and to share feelings and ideas that I have. So here it goes . . .