Plants Galore!

Yesterday I went to the quarterly Harris County Master Gardner Plant Sale. My friend Erin and I have a tradition of going to this particular sale because of the quality of the plants. I got there about 10 minutes early, thinking I would beat the Saturday morning crowd. Little did I know people had been in line since 7 am, which put me around number 300. This was fine with me since I live in an apartment and am not in the market for large quantities of plants.

At 9 am the air horn blew and I felt like I was in middle of a stampede. People charged into the pavilion with their little red radio flyer wagons (issued by the MGs) bouning behind. I stood there in wonder looking at the chaos before me, people fighting over fruit trees, little children left behind by tomato-crazed parents, until the old lady behind smacked me with her cane and told me to get a move on before her prized peppers were gone. I wasn’t sure I even wanted to enter the building….did I want to my obituary to read “trampled by a Texan fruit tree in transit”?

I always have good luck at their sales so I went for it. After standing in line for 20 minutes and finally getting into the tomato/pepper tent (crammed with 80 people and an equal amount of wagons) I grabbed what I could and stumbled out to the checkout line.

I finally met up with Big Erin (Erin is not that big, actually she is rather petite Unfortunately, she got stuck with the name to decipher her from little Erin). We also met up with Lonnie ( who was accompanied by her two-year old daughter) and we proceeded to stand in line over an hour to check out.

We made it to the checkout right as it started to rain and were soaked by the time we got back to the car. I ended up spending $8.00. I purchased a California green pepper plant, a banana pepper plant, and jumbo pepper plant (the peppers are up to ½ lbs) and an eggplant.

Was it worth two hours, some cash and a few bruises from the retired locals…probably not, last year the neighbor kids ate all the peppers off my plant….

Thursday night

Houston Children’s Museum

The Iowa Farmer Wave
Today Melissa and I braved the inner loop and took Erin and Milena to the Children’s Museum. Our trip got delayed a bit because I had a radiator hose break in my car so I spent an hour in the shop getting it fixed. They just charged me for parts since we just had it tuned up Saturday.

Erin kept attempting to kiss the chicks

Getting some veggies at the market
We made it through the city and got to the museum. It is huge! They had so many things to do and something for every age. Erin loved it and I am exhausted. We had a good afternoon exploring the different exhibits. Erin especially loved the vacuum tubes that sucked ping-pong balls from phone booth to phone booth.


The Conductor

Attempting to lay an egg

Erins New Hair Cut

Erin the Milk Maid

Deep Freezes and Cable Internet

I woke up Saturday morning to the news saying there was a possibility of a “deep freeze” Saturday night. The result made me chuckle, it dropped down in the low 30’s for a few hours. Not exactly what I would consider a deep-freeze, but around here thats cold.

We finally upgraded to cable Internet this week and it is sooooo nice. We were still on dial-up and it was a pain to download drawings I work on. Now we feel back in the technology loop.

Erin had her 15-month well-check this week. She now weighs 20 ¼ pounds and is 29 inches long. That puts her in the 10-20% for weight and 75% for heights, so when averaged she is a normal. She had some shots and she is such a drama-queen – wails for 30 seconds and then acts like it never happened. Her doctor was really happy with her development and growth and her heart sounds good. We go in for her major cardiology visit in March, but according to her growth and development she is heart healthy and sturdy.

Saturday we helped some friends lay a floating wood floor. They have been working on it for months (not hard, but a tedious process). We spend most of the day with them working and hanging out, which worked out perfectly because our car was in the shop all day. We were due for a tune up and new spark plugs. $300.00 later its back in great shape and I am about ready to buy a bicycle.

Today we went to church and Erin started nursery. They usually don’t let kids start until eighteen months, but Erin is socially apt and to be frank, we were ready for her to start. She had an excellent time and did not even notice we were gone. She is a lot smaller than most of the kids, but she came home with two eyeballs and all extremities so she stood her ground.

I think tomorrow Melissa and I are taking the girls to the Children’s Museum in downtown Houston since its Presidents Days.

Hmmm….Need I say more?

My hair will be as white as hers by the time she is 16.

The goodness of modern technology of dragon sage and the joy of old school dumpster diving

Well we finally did it; Saturday we purchased our first new piece of furniture. Like so many Saturday mornings we went off to look for a new couch. We still have our good old hand-me-down college hide-a-bed couch thats pinned striped about eight different shades of brown. When we go furniture shopping we typically find something that would suite our situation, but before we can put money down on it our frugality sets in and we decided to sleep on it. And always, by the next morning we determine our old couch still has some life in it and hope we’ll find a better deal.

But Saturday was different. We walked in the furniture-mart liquidators and there sitting on the show room floor was a dragon sage colored couch with the matching love seat. It looks like suede leather but in reality its called micro-fiber and it suppose to repel everything from pop and tar to ballpoint pen and gum. They say this material is kid proof. I asked the guy if it repelled little kids with scissors or Sharpe magic markers and he gave me an evil glance. So they are not completely kid proof but dang close.

We have looked at mico-fiber before but usually they want a few thousand dollars plus your first-born. I keep on asking myself who spends $3000 on a couch….obviously someone without kids. But the price was right (thanks to a shady furniture mart on the bad side of town) and it was exactly what we were looking for.

And to make our weekend even better, we were also planning on looking for a new dresser (as we are still living in the one Jared and Jeremy shared as children). Friday night as we were walking in someone has thrown out a dresser in the complex trash. I don’t care about my self-dignity. There is always cool stuff in the dumpster and I have no problem dragging in home in mid afternoon while all the neighbors are getting off work. However Jared must have a little more self-respect because he waits until dark so no one sees him.

About 10 pm we took a walk out to the dumpster to assess the unruly piece and our conclusion was it is one uggo piece of furniture, but below the black lacker and white paint is a gorgeous walnut dresser in decent shape. I have never seen anything so ugly in my life, but I think I can get it back to a presentable piece.

So now with new couch and a new 8 ft dresser we decided it was time for a storage unit. After discovering a storage unit during the summer here will cost an arm and a leg we decided to rearrange our apartment. Its like one big Tetris game….how many things can you stick in 900sq/ft.? And we have the answer…everything but our kitchen table, but who needs one of those?

This is what the rest of our apartment looks like (thats melena in the chair)
And now I am psyched because when we have people over they don’t have to sit on our folding chairs that keep breaking and my socks and underwear now reside in separate drawers and Erin (who got our old dresser) is no longer living out of AE milk crates.
Life is good….

Good Old Fridays….

Hmm, texas grapefruit eh? I've seen bigger!

Today its just Erin and me. Between meeting drawing deadlines and babysitting I have been swamped this week. So I thought I would take Erin to the park today, but when I woke up there was a 100% chance of rain all day. I thought some meteorologist was just too sure of himself this morning…for once he was right.


I purchased my plane tickets to go back to Iowa for a few weeks for Max’s graduation in May. And then did my happy going home to Iowa dance. And I also just booked Max’s tickets for spring break. He is going to come down and hang with us for a week. (Or maybe we’ll just use him as a free babysitter and go paint the town red!) Last time he was down he drove with me from Iowa when I first moved here. I was way prego and ornery and it was well over 100 degrees everyday he was here. He spent the week moving us into our apartment (he’s such a little design freak, must run in the family or something). So this time we are going to go have some fun….May be go provoke the alligators at the stat park or something.

This weekend we are going shopping at all the mexo-furniture marts. I swear there is a furniture shop on every corner here and they are not just little stores but huge warehouses. Its like the furniture underground market Mecca. We decided that our college hand-me-down couch deserves to be laid to rest in the couch cemetery next to our dumpster (where some family will give it a new home or the arson kids in the neighborhood will hold their monthly bon-fire.)

I know, you wish you lived this exciting of a life….

Here are some new pics of Erin.

Mud Monster Invades San Jacinto Golf Course

Mud monster invades San Jacinto Golf Course.

Friday was a spectacular day, blue skies and mid seventies. Jared had to work a late simulation in mission control Tuesday night, which gave him Friday off. You all know my position on golfing - it’s an environmental hazard built for people who lack creativity and have too much disposable income. He has wanted to take me golfing for some time and that dream finally materialized Friday. We went to San Jack College (all you can play golf for $10.00). I took out my handy-dandy left-handed golf clubs, which I purchased for $1 from a Chinese couple that lived in married housing while at Iowa State. I think they are from about 1940 and may be artillery remnants from one of the World Wars, but they passed as clubs.

So we were warming up on the first hole and these two old guys asked if they could play with us. To my dismay, I said yes. I was hoping that I would only make an idiot out of myself in front of Jared, not some old men who having been playing golf for 50 years…..so much for the boys club.

After three holes consisting of lots of whiffs, 20 yard drives, and ball donations to the fishponds; I was finally getting the feel of it and rather enjoying myself (although I could tell one of the old guys was disgusted by my not-so-superb athletic performance).

And then I saw the flaw ( which explains why the course is only $10.00)……the course was built upon a bayou, a swamp, a wetland….whatever your preference is. All I know is for the next three holes my ball was constantly attracted to small lakes of water in midst of the fairways and rough. The muddy water coupled with my stellar stroke made me look like a mud monster from a 1950’s horror movie. By the time I hit hole seven my kakis and light yellow shirt were covered in mud splatter and grass chunks.

The wind picked up to 20-30 mph gusts and all the Texans thought it was cold and the course cleared out quickly. Or maybe it was the site of the mud monster approaching for a second round, who knows. Either way, we got dirty and I can honestly say I had a decent time golfing.

Other happening during the week…
Some crazy man hijacked his girlfriend and her four year old daughter and held them at gun point during a high-speed chase though the city. While stuck in rush hour traffic he started shooting at the cars around him to attempt to get traffic moving. In the end the mother and daughter were all right, no one was hit by the shots and the police finally shot him after he unloaded the rest of his gun of them……I got to get out of the city.

Hump Day

Wow, A moment to myself. Both little ones are sleeping…I can almost hear myself think. Today is going much better. Yesterday was a tough day. Melena was in her adjustment period and not happy and Erin was jealous for attention. I was attempting to decorate 6 cakes and figure out flowers for a funeral while tending the two little ones. But it all work out, somehow I managed to get everything accomplished :)

Here are some photos from last weekend. The weather was been beautiful here, higher temperature than normal. We have seen mid 70’s temps all month. Downtown the azaleas are in bloom and the azaleas walk is not for another few weeks so the gardens are dumping 200,000 pounds of ice to delay blooming. But today its going to rain. The rainstorms here remind me of home – dark skies and excellent lightening displays.

So I was watching the news yesterday and I heard “Davenport, Iowa” which caught my attention. They were talking about an apartment robbery which I thought was odd, considering Houston has enough crime to talk about they don’t need to go to Iowa to find news by any means. I guess two masked me with guns attempted to rob an apartment and this Iowa chick beat the crap out of both of them. She stabbed one five times and sent both of them to the hospital….Now there’s a hardy Iowa woman. It totally made my day!

Mondays....

Today I am a bit depressed. I just found out a girl I graduated school with passed away last night. She fought a long battle with leukemia and she died after having a stroke last week. Reminds you how precious life is. Our thoughts and prayers are with the Rima Family.

As for us, we had a relaxing weekend. The weather continues to be beautiful so we spent a good portion of the weekend outdoors.

Today I started my full-time babysitting job for some friends. They have a 5 ½ month old…she is a sweetie. I forgot what its like to have one that young, they just sit there and smile. Besides Erin petting her like a dog, it has been going very well.

I was going to post photos, but they have haing server issues....tomorrow!

Beautiful Days

By the Bay

Yesterday I spent the morning being initiated into “stamping up” with a crazy woman named Dianne. We put together some products for our youth group using rubber stamps. It’s all the craze down here, everyone is always stamping something. I’ll admit I rather enjoyed myself but not something I am planning on taking up anytime soon.

It was one of those beautiful days, almost like early June. For a moment, days like these make you forget that the hellish heat of the summer is lurking around the corner. I took Erin out to the park by the bay. I watched in amazement as she climbed, went over bridges and took on the biggest slides. It’s defiantly a two-person job. I would help her to the top to make sure she did not dive off the side of the equipment and then I would jump down to meet her at the bottom. I considered it my workout for yesterday, buy the time we left I was worn out.

She then found a squirrel (who obviously thought she was going to feed him) and terrorized him by chasing him tree to tree. She would point up in the tree and say “kitty kitty”. Then he would drop down and run to the next and she would be right behind him. It was a very obese squirrel so Erin had no problem keeping up.

I got up early this morning and biked again. I think I am finally getting out that initial I haven’t exercised it way too long and now my body hates me. Of course now that I have lived here 1.5 years, I can still manage to get lost (no longer in the land of the grid). So my ride was a little longer then expected, but I was out late enough to see the sun rise over JSC, which was well worth the 20 minutes of confusion.

Well the day is slipping away till next time……

Where did he go?

Erin Pics

My personal secretary

Erin in her New Dress

Erin loves to kiss now, This is her "kiss face"

Toilet Pandemonium

We finally got a good rainstorm last weekend. It rained most of Sunday and along with the rain came an unrelated flood. Erin has this new obsession with putting things in the toilet. Most instances of her chucking objects in the toilet we have been standing 5 feet away. She’ll wait until I have a curling iron wrapped up in my hair or am washing my hands. She flashes her innocent smile, flips the lid, drops the object and then quickly closes the lid in hopes you did not see her. I have come accustomed to fishing out shoes, kitchen bowls, clothing and the occasional box of Kleenex, but Sunday something was flushed. After a relaxing morning at church, I came home to a plugged toilet. As I watch in horror as it started to overflow, I came to the realization that we didn’t even have a plunger. To make matters worse the water would not turn off and our bathroom quickly flooded. So I spent Sunday afternoon scouring the town for a plunger in the pouring rain. We finally got the mess cleaned up (I am sure the neighbors below us were thrilled with the water leaking through their ceiling). We never found out what she put down there, it was probably my good watch Jared got me for our anniversary that has been missing a week. So Erin and I had a nice chat about what is appropriate behavior around the toilet.

I finally started my exercise routine this week. I started alternating biking and weight lifting. I thought if I biked at 6 am the traffic would be better (don’t worry mom, I have a light), but in reality people out at that time just drive worse because there is no one else on the road. However, I found a sidewalk, which I attribute to my survival.
It’s a beautiful day today, like an early June day up north. Erin and I went out behind the complex, fed the ducks, and took a little walk. She can now walk 10-15 minutes without stopping. Minus a few face plants here and there she is very nimble on her feet.

Sandcastles & Wheels

Last night we went out to eat at this quaint little Mexican restaurant called mamacitas. Typically it’s not the best Mexican food around, but Thursday nights they have buy one meal get one half off, which fits our frugal budget. The food last night was exceptionally good, so two thumbs up for mamacitas!

Erin and I went to the park today and played in the sand. I find the city parks around here provide an interesting social network of stay-at-home moms. A network that I attempt to avoid at all costs. I like meeting new people and every now and then I will meet a mother and we’ll chat about a book or food production. But typically the conversations in these networks seem to always revolve around the same thing: scrap booking, the jymbroee, and some parent who spent $300 on their kid’s first birthday party. So while all the other mothers are sitting on the sideline talking about what paper texture is better I built a sandcastle with some Chinese kids and then Erin pretended to be Godzilla and destroyed it.

Then on to the grocery store…. HEB (the large grocery store down here) just put in new carts and some of them have a big plastic car on the front to put your kids in (genius!) So as I am shopping Erin is in her little car having honking wars with the old man riding along on his scooter. We would meet him every isle or so and she would hang out the side and wave at him and honk. She is such a little flirt, makes me worried what age 16 will bring. Ever wonder why its name is HEB? The owner’s last name was BUTTS! Nothing like buying your food at Butt’s grocery, I imagine it was a very intelligent marketing person that suggested the initials instead of the full name for the store.


Tonight we are just lounging; I think it’s going to rain all weekend, which we need it. We are in the midst of a severe drought. Here a new pic of Erin and I, one of the few. I am usually the one operating the camera. Looking at it I desperately need to highlight my hair…hmmmmm put it on the to do list.
Have a good weekend. Until next time….