Playing Catch-Up

So, I haven't been very good at keeping this thing up to date...and honestly, I haven't been very good about taking pictures, not even one during Christmas. Now I can blame that on the lack of memory card, but I think I've just been feeling guilty (or liberated) about not posting anything on the blog or facebook and therefore haven't taken to my normal shutterbug tendencies. But here are a few pictures I HAVE managed to take in hopes of catching up with the present. So here it goes... November brought on some rain.

In December I went to LA with some friends, we say Jay Leno at a comedy club, walked around Rodeo Drive, went to a museum, wandered around the Chinese Theater where all the hand/foot prints are, and were audience members on Let's Make A Deal and The Price is Right. But that's not all...Erica won big on the TPIR, she won the showcase showdown!!!

I won tickets to a meet & greet with Parachute at a Christmas concert. they were AMAZING. I also got to meet Rachel Platten, I LOVE her music, so upbeat and catchy, reminds me of Ingrid Michaelson.

December also brought on a slew of Christmas parties, first was Brad's work party, then my work party, then a union party, and finally a friend's party. All of which were awesome in their own ways.

We spent Christmas in Utah and had a good time hanging out with friends and family! It's fun to see all the nieces and nephews and family. New Year's we spent with my family at my aunt's annual New Year's party. This is about as much blogging as I can handle for now. Next time I'll catch up on January/February...and whatever other months pass before I update again, but I will try to be better.

6 Years Later...

...I still have the best husband for me and we're still falling deeper and deeper in love. We have our ups and downs but it just makes us stronger. Everyday I see things and do things that I know if I were with anyone else it wouldn't be the same. I am more myself than ever and it's because of Brad and his endless faith and acceptance. Our anniversary this year is a little on the strange side. It was yesterday, but we only saw each other for a little while in the morning before heading off to work. We celebrated on Thursday by going out to dinner at Old Fisherman's Grotto. It was delicious. The night ended with the waiter giving me a rose, which I thought was so sweet. Since it was a work night we just went home after dinner and watched our usual Thursday night TV. Very low-key but that's how we roll. Today I'm headed to the East Coast with my mom. Brad is up in Mendocino at a spear diving competition. I'm excited to explore New England and hopefully the weather holds out for us and we don't get too much rain. I hope Brad has good weather this weekend, it's no fun to dive in huge swells. He really loves free diving, and he is so good at spear fishing it's scary. I think if we ever had to "live off the land" we would be fine, Brad would be able to get fish for us to eat any time. Now, I just need to "acquire" the taste for lingcod...then we'll be set for life. I'm so impressed with his skills. He continues to amaze me all the time with his ability to learn anything and excel at it. The past 6 years have flown by, and I'm eager and excited for the future!

Gardening

I've known for a long time I DO NOT have a green thumb. But that didn't stop Brad from trying his luck and he's done pretty well for himself and his first garden. I'm proud. And I especially enjoy reaping the benefits.

We started in January with a bunch of seeds and a lot of enthusiasm


After they started growing indoors we transplanted them outside in our very small patch of dirt that we can call our own. One area runs along the side of our home and the other area is right in front of our front door.




We planted a variety of lettuce, spinach, strawberries, green beans, broccoli, zucchini, yellow crookneck squash, basil, tomatoes, peppers, and probably a few other things that I'm forgetting. I loved the spinach, we picked it as it grew and sauteed it in olive oil and garlic, it was so delicious. It's amazing how much flavor home grown spinach has compared to store bought! The broccoli was also really scrumptious. Our basil never thrived, it's still living, but not really thriving. The green beans on the other hand, are going crazy. We thought they had died for a while since we transplanted them and they never shot up the poles, but it started to get a bit warmer here and they went gang busters. We have a lot of green beans! It makes me happy!





We've had a few strawberries, but we haven't been able to eat any of them. But maybe soon.




We've had our share of problems, the worst are the snails, caterpillars, and lack of sunshine. Because of the lack of sunshine/warmth our tomato plants seem to be stunted. We have exactly one bloom and one small tomato. Maybe once our Indian summer arrives we will have more luck...
However, the lack of sunshine has not stunted our zucchini. Check out this monster!



Now my favorite part of my garden was our flowers! Lilies are my favorite!