Catching Up . . .

Well. I certainly seem to excel at waiting months between posts and then writing a belated summary of events, don't I? We'll see if I can nix that habit, but for now I will continue in that glorious tradition:

Work is going great: I love the kids that I teach computers to and my coworkers are all made of awesome.

ONE WEEK OF SCHOOL LEFT OMG. Technically two, but I do not have finals so HA SUCKS TO BE YOU NICK. Mwahaha!

Speaking of Nick, things are going great! Coming up on 4 1/2 years next month! And wow, it seems like our 4 year anniversary just happened, where the heck is time going? I have a feeling I am going to be one of those perpetually bewildered old people, always wondering how I suddenly got to be old when just a few minutes ago I was typing this post!

We're started going to the Farmer's Markets around us, and WOW real tomatoes taste amazing! I've been snacking on raw broccoli and ate a pear for breakfast and the oranges are so delicious and the eggs are tasty and the apple juice is . . . well, actually not as good as I hoped, I will try a different vendor next time. Overall, however, we love it.

My Uncle Steve is doing good! His fight with the brain cancer glioblastoma is documented here. To summarize: his surgery went well, his chemo sucked but he did it, and his latest MRI was the best it could be! There have been a lot of ups and downs and scary moments, but right now is good.

Oh! Hey! I got an ipad 2 for Christmas and I LOVE IT SO MUCH.

We ran in the Davis Lucky 7k and finished in like 48 minutes, or something. I forgot. But we did finish! We keep talking about doing more and then we don't. But I have found three new races in Sac that look interesting, so I will keep you posted.

I have one semester left at Sac State, and then I graduate! I should be graduating in December of 2012!!! Yaaaay!

That means I have to decide where to get my credential, and possibly my masters. Eep!

As for me, I keep pretty busy between work and school, especially this semester. I had to do 70 hours of fieldwork at 4 different sites, and write a lot of papers! That plus upping my work from 2 to 3 days a week teaching plus 2 days after-care . . . was challenging at times, but generally I enjoyed it. My stomach has been behaving (remember those days of gastritis/IBS/acid reflux? Me neither. Yay!) My biggest stressor lately has been trying to keep our apartment clean. That, plus wishing we had more sunshine on our patio so I could grow some non-shady plants (I would kill to grow some basil!).

Hopefully I will remember to update this blog every now and then. ^_~

Ciao!

Flowers for my Patio

Today my parents came down and we went flower shopping! We started and ending at Home Depot, and in the middle went to a lovely family-owned flower nursery, where we bought nearly all the flowers. At Home Depot we bought pots and potting soil.

The tricky part was finding beautiful plants that will thrive in shade, because our patio is mostly shaded. We totally succeeded.

Here is my $5 hanging pot that we planted with a red and purple fuschia in the center, surrounding it with red begonias and white alyssum. It will look so beautiful when they are all blooming!



Here is some clivia, in a Home Depot Malaysian pot. I LOVE the colors and the thick leaves! There are a few sweet basil plants surrounding it, and an alyssum.


Here is the clivia close up!


This is a type of lantern flower that will grow 4-12 feet! (If it survives my not-so-green thumb!)

A close up of the lantern flower!



Aren't they beautiful? I can't wait to see them all when they've settled in!

Boyfriend+Vacation=Awesomeness

A few weeks ago, Nick and I went to his grandparent's cabin for the weekend. It was an insane adventure of finding food and watching scary horror movies from the 1960's, and it was amazingly fun. The back porch (that in winter apparently gets snow up to the roof!) led down to a creek and we spent hours hopping stones, climbing over fallen trees, and trying to catch a glimpse of tiny schools of elusive fish.

He picked me that pretty orange flower, (so sweet!) and it's actually much softer than it looks. We spent a day in a town nearby, walked through the little shops, didn't end up buying anything (although he nearly did get a wooden sling shot gun)(Do ya think I like parenthesis?). We stumbled upon a small fair and rode the fastest damn eggbeater ride I've ever found--so fast that I nearly threw up and we couldn't walk straight for five minutes.

For dinner the first night we made pasta and meatballs. HOMEMADE pasta and meatballs. I actually ground the sirloin. He actually blended the flour and eggs (from memory, he has done it so often). It took forever but it was absolutely delicious!

So I'd have to say as far as weekend vacations go, this one was definitely at the top.

P.S. Raisins in meatballs rock!


Yes, I know he's cute.


And yes, these are homemade waffles that he made us.


Pretty bluebird outside while we were eating said waffles.


Deck


Flower! For me!


Gnarled tree trunk.