It's Time to Stay Home

I've been enjoying my work free weekends and evenings with the girls. We've been hanging out. Hear what Dakota has to say about the time…

Here are some other things we've been doing.


We can't help, but be outside, especially with the cooler temps. Saturday morning, after I got back from my 22 mile run, Cheyenne wanted to go for a bike ride. I told her I would walk and she could ride.

What Matters The Most to Me

I've been busy with work in the best possible way. It's a blessing, but I still want to take time to capture what matters the most to me. Earlier today, I filmed a birthday party event...when I got home I made dinner and then the girls, Trey and I decided to play outside.

A Fun Hiding Spot

The girls have a favorite spot on the patio. Well, it's more like in….

They like to sit in this bin with the lid closed. They use an LED lantern and watch videos like My Little Pony.

Trey and I have a backyard surprise for them. If they love this space, they are going to love what we have in store for them! I'll post pictures soon! I can't wait!!!!

My Week in Photos & Patio Makeover

Sometimes being little is hard. Dakota wanted to bowl.

When Daddy works late, we stay in - watch My Little Pony, paint nails and braid hair.

Here is an example of the type of things I text message Trey.
I'm in the process of sprucing up the patio. This is my birthday gift to myself. My 30th birthday is April 30th. With Trey's business and my work, the likelihood that I can travel leisurely is not likely, so this is my b-day gift to myself (and the family).
This is just a little bit of the makeover. It's not glamorous, but it's a nice space to sit and play with the kids. I plan on adding a few more things. I'd love to get the girls a sandbox and playhouse.
Other wish list items:
Rug, Ceiling Fan, BBQ pit (ours died last year) and a storage bin for toys.

Solar lanterns                                               A bird bath thingy and bird feeder
     

Stuck at Home

and loving it!

If I could live off the land...

...I would grow my own food, veggies and fruit and raise my own chicken and all that earth loving stuff. But the truth is, I'm lucky I can grow this...so, I'll take it.

Here is my garden. It's flourishing!
I've got an empty row there, towards the middle. I've had so much success with the brussel sprouts, I might try to grow more.

 
The sage is invading the rest of my herb garden!

For the past two weeks, I've been eating brussel sprout leaves like lettuce. I didn't even think to eat them, until Erin mentioned something about it. Great idea! The leaves tastes rich and earthy kind of like kale. I'm still waiting for the sprouts to grow...

The girls like helping me water and tend to the compost bin.

I've decided it should rain everyday for 15 minutes

Is that too much to ask?

Even with me being at home, I have slacked on watering the garden, everyday. Surprisingly, the herbs are still alive. I guess, I'm making the point, that anyone can garden???

 
And this here, is the real reason why I have kids, free labor.
 
She won't resent me at all.... :)

Pink Eye
Have you ever had pink eye? I've never had it. I noticed this afternoon, Dakota's right eye was all crusty and then when I put her down for the night I noticed her eyes were watery and she had nasty goo in them. I might have to take her to the doctors office tomorrow morning. I'll keep an eye on it <-----(see what I did there?)

P.S. Dakota's new sleeping schedule for the past few nights has been 10 pm(ish) feeding and then wake up time 5 am. She is 5 weeks old.

Backyard Garden

My girl, likes dirt. She likes digging in the garden and getting her nails full of mud. She doesn't get that from me. I hate when my hands get dirty.

I don't mind her playing in the backyard, but I need to call Pest Control so they can spray for wasps. The wasps like creating nests in the backyard. I've seen several nests already. I've never been stung by one, but last year, I stepped on a dead wasp and it stung the hell out of my foot. I can't imagine what a live bug sting feels like.

How do you pair herbs with food? I love mixing herbs in chicken, pork, beef, veggies, and salad bowls. It's wonderful having easy access to fresh herbs. It makes food tastes so much better. This season, I mainly planted herbs because to me, it's low maintenance compared to a veggie garden.

However, I did plant 3 small tomato plants. The little tomato cherries are starting to grow.

And here are the banana peppers. I guess they are done. I should pull them before bugs or birds get to them first.

All Signed Up & Sanding & Painting Furniture

Well, we did it, we signed Cheyenne up for a summer ballet program at Texas Ballet Theatre. It's a week long program that will be in July. I'm so excited for her!!!!! Out of all the programs I researched, I feel like this is the best one for her. It's a 5 day program for 3 hours each day. Each day, she'll learn ballet, drama, do crafts, have story time and eat a snack. At the end of the week, there will be a recital.

I don't want her to get jealous of Dakota since Dakota will be getting so much attention. I mean, naturally, the baby will be glued to me, I'm sure, so I think this program will not only give Chey something fun to do, this summer, but it will be her time to shine.

This Tuesday is a big day for my ballerina, she has a very first ballet recital, so today we went out and bought a new outfit for her to wear to the program. 

I couldn't get her to be still, she kept dancing! Oh, and she insisted on wearing the outfit out of the store. I didn't mind at all. Next to the store is a ballet company and there was a class full of ballerinas warming-up. Chey was dressed in her new outfit peering through the window, she was mesmerized. That image of her, was priceless. 

Oh, yeah and this happened today....
Since we only have 20 more days until my due date, we figured we better start getting things done. 

We took a used toddler bed, sanded it and painted it the color Cheyenne wanted. Guess what color she requested?

Uh-huh.

Thanks Trey for making all those trips to the store, since you kept running out of spray paint cans. So far, he's only had to go on one service call. It's shaping up to be a good weekend.

More on the progress of the room later, in another post.

Pregnancy. Things I Miss. Things I Enjoy. Plus, Garden Update

Since, I'm pregnant, there are things I miss.
1. Wine - When I use to work from home on freelance projects, I would love to sit down and drink a few glasses of wine. Lately, I've been working on side projects and I miss my Moscato. I guess, I could remedy it by making a pot of decaf coffee. I'll try that.
2. Feeling Normal - I miss the feeling of feeling good all the time. Lately, my body is achy. At first it was mainly in the morning, but here lately, it's at any given point in the day. I'll be sitting down and then I'll get up and I'll have a sharp sting of pain in my back.
3. Running - I especially miss my long runs on Saturday Mornings. When I get back into running, I know I will have to start off slow (like a snail) and build my endurance and miles back up to where it was. I have a feeling 6 miles will be my new long run distance, at least for a while. Somewhere my old ultra marathon self is laughing at me. Remember those 14, 16, 18, 20 mile long runs? I MISS IT!!!!!!!
4. Eating Like an Ultra Marathoner and Burning Calories Like an Ultra Marathoner - Enough said. Now, I just eat, like a pregnant woman. HA!
5. Margaritas - I know. I know....another alcoholic beverage. I don't want you guys to think I'm an addict (I'm not), but I seriously miss Margaritas! What makes it even worse is that Trey never drank them before, he's not much of a drinker to begin with...but now anytime we go out for Mexican food he'll order one. I'll take a sip, of his, but it's such a tease. I hate him, when he drinks in front of me because he just rubs it in...

It's not all gloom and doom. I also have a list of the things I enjoy about being pregnant.
1. The smiles I get from strangers when they notice I'm pregnant.
2. Belly rubs from friends and family.
3. Helping Hands - It's nice how Trey has been so helpful. When we're together, he carries items for me because he knows it strains my back when I lift anything that is heavy. He is also good about helping me with Cheyenne if she needs to be carried.
4. Sleeping in - As the weeks go by, I'm getting better at this -- I'm allowing myself to sleep in, instead of waking up during the work week at 4 am, I'm waking up at 5 am. During the weekend, I've been sleeping in until 7:30 am -- which feels so late, but my body really needs the rest.


Here is my DailyMile Stats from last week. I logged quite a few miles on the bike at the Monte Carlo and at the gym, yesterday.

Walking 2 miles

Cycling: 44 Miles

Elliptical: 10 minutes

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GARDEN UPDATE
I realized I haven't said much about our family garden. Well, it's doing great. I'll post some recent pictures soon, but here are some photos that are are just a few weeks old.

If I don't watch Cheyenne she'll drown everything, but as long as I supervise, she's does a good job. She really is a good helper.

My Cilantro has really taken off. If you want some, let me know, I've got plenty!

I Rolled Up My Sleeves & Jeans

Saturday, I rolled up my sleeves and jeans, put on my old sneakers, and buried my hands in the earth. Springtime means, it's time to get the garden in order....
'
As I've mentioned, my vegetable garden didn't do too well, so this weekend I focused on HERBS! I picked up a few potted plants from Central Market. I like potted more than seeds because they are predictable.  With seeds, I never know how many seeds to plant, in a given area. Potted plants, take most of the guess work out. I prefer it that way. Oh, yeah and I'm impatient.

Welcome to the garden: Basil, Parsely, and Chives -- I'm gonna eat you up!

At the moment, this is what the space looks like. The cilantro has decided to take off and I'm okay with that. Oh, and my mint, there at the bottom left, is coming back to life. I'm glad I didn't pull the roots out.

With all these herbs, there is still room on the left side for me to plant something. Soooooooo, even though my veggie garden failed miserably, last season -- I think I'm going to give it another try this season. I'm not going to go crazy on the veggies, but I'll plant a few. I'll keep you posted.

It's Like Christmas, My Treadmill is Working Again

November, 16th I shared the sad news that my treadmill was broken. It was the worst time of the year for it to stop working... I was training for Cowtown Half Marathon, it was Christmas time (no extra money) and winter time (cold weather).

After months of doing without, I finally bought the replacement part. The error code message called for, a mother board kit. Trey even got conformation from a treadmill technician, that's the part we needed. The part arrived Friday evening and yesterday Trey started to install it, when he discovered there was a blown fuse. Ends up, we didn't need an expensive replacement part, we needed to replace the blown fuse. By the way, we didn't even have to purchase a new fuse because there was an extra one right next to the messed up one. I would've never been able to figure that out, but thank goodness for Trey. He such a handy man and knows everything about everything.

This is a picture of the messed up fuse. Itty-bitty part.
I'm not even mad. Sooooooo, this means I can return the pricey part, that is if I want to. Trey thinks we should keep it, in case the board ever breaks, we'll have the part. You, see this is an older treadmill and the part took forever to get -- it was on back order. Plus there's re-stocking fees for returns and shipping cost, so we'd be out at least 30 bucks. I don't know. I think, I still want to return the part. What would you do?

This morning I woke up and went for a walk on my HAPPY-MILL. It was so convenient . That's what I've missed the most.

After walking I was pretty hungry, so I made breakfast. Lately, I crave salsa and eggs.

A few hours ago, I had a coffee date with Krista. Her and the kids came over and the girls enjoyed playing in the backyard. Which reminds me, I'm so excited, this is the first year ever Trey and I will hire a professional company to maintain our lawn. No more weeds and stickers, we hope. Our yard is going to look so nice.

The girls were wonderful helpers, now I don't have to worry about watering the garden. They took care of that for me. Hmmm, maybe I should hire them to maintain the yard. I can pay them with candy.

While the girls were outside, Kye had a diaper mishap, it was gross and I shall spare you the details. It was quite funny for me to observe, but Krista was grossed out, since she was the one cleaning the mess. Krista didn't have a change of clothes for him --- all she had was Makenna's girly-strawberry shirt. He was rockin' it!

So, that's what I've been doing for the first part of my day. I have lots more to do, so I better get moving. Have a great Monday, friends. Here's to a good week!

Winter Gardening in Texas

But first a quick update on Cheyenne:
She woke up feeling much better. Actually, she was awake at 4 am requesting cartoons. So, yes -- she's doing fine. I made it to work on time and she made it school and ballet.

Now, I'm the one who feels a little under the weather. My head has been throbbing since I got to work. Sinus pressure is annoying.
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Winter Gardening in Texas
One thing I didn't think I'd be talking about mid-Januray is gardening, but hey I'm doing just that...
It seems as though my herb garden is thriving, even though I rarely water it. We haven't really had a harsh winter, so that probably explains why the cilantro is still alive. Here recently, it's felt like spring. Check out my dead basil in the very back. I'm not sure if I should uproot it or leave it, you know in case it comes back to life in the spring....Anyone know this? I'm too lazy to google the answer.

Skinny Rosemary plant.

Oregano. I need a bigger plant, it's hard to cut these short leaves because they all bunch together.

Here is the other side of the garden bed. It's bare and lonely.

It's been months, since I bought cilantro from the grocery store. It's nice to go outside and pluck as much as I want, when I need it.

Cheyenne's Day

This afternoon Trey and I met Nana and Nanny in Weatherford. We were reunited with our baby.

She spent time in Abilene visiting with family and shopping.

Since we were in the area, I tried a cupcake from this place. It was great.

This was Cheyenne's day. We asked her what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to watch Lion King. So, for the third time, in the past few days, we went to the movies---again.

The Lion King kept her attention the entire time. I loved how she reacted to some of the jokes and the action scenes.

She kept her glasses on the entire time too.

Movie popcorn. We couldn't finish it. We barely made a dent.

Nana got Chey a bubble blower and she was excited to show us.








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We spent an hour at the park and then headed home for dinner. I'm getting burnt out on all this eating out. I feel so blah and gross. Ugh! I've been reminded why I prefer eating healthy.

Some letters Chey got.