The FURminator

If you don't have a dog, you may not have heard of the FURminator. It is the best thing that has happened to Clint and I since our Roomba. It looks like a comb and it pulls the under layer of the dog's coat out. Because it has been soooo hot here, Cherry has been shedding really really bad. We have hardwood floors throughout the house, and so Cherry's hair forms tumbleweeds that float across the floor. I vaccum at least once a week and it still gets bad. But not anymore!

This is all the hair we combed off Cherry during one sitting! It was just as big as Cherry! I can't believe that would have been all over our house. Now, when Cherry gets off the coach, there isn't a bunch of white hair left behind! Yeah for the FURminator!

This Weekends Happenings

Friday, Clint took one the harder tests he has taken. I didn't see him most of the week because of this thing. He has only told me a handful of times that he was nervous about a test and this was one of those times. He ended up doing fine on it. Friday night we went to some friends' of ours' apartment. They fixed their signature burritos (yummy). And then we ended up just hanging out and talking til pretty late. Saturday we went to N8 and Lacie's house. N8 had smoked some chickens and then we went and swam in their apartment's pool. It was the first time I've been swimming this summer so needless to say I was quite pale. But that's OK because it got dark pretty quickly. Sunday Clint did a very romantic thing. We had planned to clean house, go grocery shopping, blah, blah, blah. But I was feeling pretty down because I hadn't seen Clint much and we just weren't in sync, if you will. So around 1:30 he comes into the living room and says hey, get up, were getting out of the house. I asked him where we were going but he wouldn't tell me. He ended up taking me to the Galleria mall in Dallas. We really didn't shop (it's waaay out of our price range) we mainly just people watched and went in to some of the fancy places and looked around. Then he took me to Campisis which is a very authentic Italian food place in downtown Dallas. It is so good. I had only been there one time and it was back when Clint and I first started dating. Then we went to a used CD place and we each got a CD. It was so much fun. We got home around 7 or so. It was really short and nothing fancy but it was probably one of the sweetest and romantic things Clint has ever done. He knows just how to help me de-stress. Thanks Clint. I love you.

More Food...

This is one of my okra plants. I grew this one from seed and it looks the healthiest. I will probably grow all my okra from seed from now on. If you look back at my old post about my plants, you can see how big they are getting. One is producing a few okras but they are so small, I think they are probably inedible so I haven't picked them yet.

These are my tomato plants and then my bell pepper plant on the side. My tomatoes got a fungus (one hazard of planting them in pots, I think) so they look a little ragged. But they are doing well now and are getting new growth everyday. Again, look at my old post to see how big these guys have gotten.

So this is the momma. It's my biggest plant. This is spaghetti squash. It has really taken off...in every direction. Soon, I won't have much room to plant anything else on that row or the row next to it! But it does have some buds so I should be getting some squash soon!

This is from my tomato plant with the larger variety of tomato. It has also taken off. One day there were flowers, the next nickel sized tomatoes. I definitely have an appreciation now for people that had to do this everyday in order for their family to eat. Pretty amazing.

Food, Glorious Food!

I haven't posted anything about my babies in quite some time. So here is an update. I don't know why this text is underlined. (Sigh) This is the first of the harvest. It isn't quite ripe, but I can tell you it will be a big day around here when we finally get to eat it! This one is from our grape tomato plant. We counted it up and there are about 20 tomatoes on the plant but they are a lot smaller.

These are the green beans mom sent us home with. Mom's garden is really awesome. It puts mine to shame. But that's okay. It's been fun calling her about my plants her calling me about her's. I don't know how many times I called saying "Mom, I think my plant is dying!" They weren't.

These are the bell peppers. This was the funnest plant to grow. I had no idea how they grew or what would happen. First, the leaves are large and dark green. Little white flowers start blooming and then the flower starts to die. Behind the flower, a little green bulge emerges. Within a day the little bulges are quarter sized. A day later, they are golf ball sized. It was amazing to see how quickly these guys grew.

Memorial Day Weekend

This weekend, all of Clint's sisters were in town. We went down to Corsicana to see them all on Saturday. Unfortunately, I forgot the camera, again! Basically, we hung out at the house. It was good to see Jill, Jared and Watson. They live in Nashville, TN and only come down a few times a year so this was a real treat. In July, Clint and I are planning a road trip up there so that should be lots of fun. Beth, Nick, Connor and Lillie were there also. They lived in El Paso but actually moved back to this area over Memorial Day Weekend. We are excited that they have moved closer. Kara, Keith and Annabelle were there. Annabelle is so precious. She spends most of her time eating or sleeping. Oh what a life! Monday we went to Waxahachie to see my family. My aunt Becky and Uncle Johnny had a huge cook out. Chad and Donnita's kids were sliding down this huge blow up slide with water sprayers on it. It looked like a lot of fun. They played on that thing all day. Justin, Kassie and Blair were there. It was good to see them and to hold Blair. She is so cute and so far has kept the blue eyes (Justin is the only one in the family with blue eyes). We got home around 4:30 and went and hung out at a friend's house and then Clint had a soccer game at 8:30. It was a pretty busy weekend but we thoroughly enjoyed seeing all the family. Hope everyone else had a great weekend too!

Book Blog and Some Random Stuff

Some of you may be aware that the new Harry Potter movie comes out in July. I cannot wait. I've been looking on the web for all the trailers they have released and it looks awesome! So anyway, that leads to my book which is Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. I read it when it came out but I re-read it because I had forgotten a lot. It is such a good book. I love the whole series.

I also have been meaning to write about some of the funny things I have experienced while working at Calloway's. Calloway's is a nursery and is one of the nicer nurseries in Ft Worth. So it tends to attract a more "uppity" crowd. With that in mind, here are a few funny stories.

When I first started working there, a lady came in with three very dead shrubs. She told me how she had tried everything to revive them, but nothing had worked. I said that was fine and asked if she had her receipt. She pulls out this old carbon copy receipt from 1997. Yes, that's right. She had kept that receipt for 12 years! The plants had been just fine for about 11 1/2 of those years. I told her I would have to get my manager to approve the return. My manager asked her at what point she thought it was the plants fault and not Calloway's? I don't think the lady appreciated that. She got all her money back.

Another time, a lady came in and bought probably $150 worth of plants. After she paid, she began removing all the price tags off the plants. She told me, her husband didn't need to know how much they all cost.

At Calloway's, it isn't surprising to see BMW's, Lexus', Range Rovers' etc. out in the parking lot. In fact, there is usually at least one of those cars out there. The women come in with huge diamond rings, expensive clothes and huge hair. The men carry themselves with an air of importance. But they do not mind fighting you tooth and nail for $1 off of a purchase! "The sign says these are on sale for $3.48 and you charged me $4.59!" (This was an actual quote.) I guess that's why they have so much money, they are so mean to people, they end up getting whatever they want.

So anyway, I really enjoy Calloway's but I thought these were just some of the sillier things that have happened to me. Have a good week everybody!

Superwoman

Mom has inspired me to try growing my own vegetables. I first started with 3 buckets (see the 2nd pic) but soon found that I would need something bigger so...This is the before pic, except I had already started (oops). So this is the closest thing I have to before.
This is in my backyard. You can't tell from this pic, but basically our entire yard is weeds. I was very encouraged though because I found earthworms, ladybugs, rolly pollys and spiders in the yard. (They are all pretty beneficial bugs to have around.) In the soil I also mixed some organic mushroom compost.


My babies! Okay, I know that sounds weird, but when I got these guys they were all pretty small and now they are really starting to grow. I have become pretty obsessive, worrying that bugs are eating the leaves, they aren't growing right, etc., etc. The 2 on the left are tomato and the right is a bell pepper plant. I will definitely post when I get a tomato (if the squirrels or birds don't get to it first.)

AFTER! I was really proud of myself for this. All I had was a shovel and spade to dig up all this earth. It's about a 4X4 area. You can just make out the 3 rows from the pic. Cherry has decided that she likes this area and has taken to stepping through it. In fact, if you look at the row to the right toward the top of the pic, you can see paw prints. I'm not sure what I'm going to do about that... I just planted 3 okra seeds and it has been raining like crazy here this whole week so I'm hoping they will emerge soon. My future plans for the garden are: carrots, spinach, garlic, red potatoes and sweet potatoes. I really felt like superwoman after this. Even though Clint had to pull out some of his med school training and massage my neck the next day!