Our New Friend, The Fox

Shortly after we moved in Matt told me about the fox he saw in our backyard, but I had yet to see it... until today. This morning the fox came in the backyard, took a bath, did some stretches and then curled up and had a nice nap. He is really beautiful. Nate saw him from our upstairs bedroom window and surprisingly didn't get all worked up about him... but he did watch him very intently. Maggie and I left to run some errands and unfortunately he was gone by the time we returned. I'm really enjoying getting to see wildlife (fox, deer and occassionally bear!) wander around... especially being from Southern California where that is very rare. I'm sure he'll be back and I'm looking forward to seeing him.

Planting the Garden - Day 1

Matt finally got a chance to start planing the garden today! Even though it was still VERY windy, and pretty warm outside today, Matt really had to get the garden going. So he and Maggie headed down to the garden (I stayed at home) and got started planting.

He put in a trellis (on the left side of the picture) that he built for sugar snap peas. He put in the teepee poles (above the trellis to the right) for the cucumbers. Mini-greenhouses (the small green round plastic containers in the middle of the picture) are put over the peppers (green and red) to protect them from the wind while they are still small. And finally the "Walls of Water" (the larger green tube-like containers on the right side of the picture) look kinda like "otter pops" put together and act as protection for the baby tomato plants. I came down to bring Matt some water hose attachments and ended up being put to work helping him to fill each individual tube of the 12 walls of water we put in!

So today he planted: peas, eggplant, tomatoes, bell peppers, cucumbers, and pumpkin. Still to come are: corn, more tomatoes, more peppers, pole beans, summer squash, zucchini, tomatillos, carrots, onions (yellow, red, and white), garlic, leeks, broccoli and brussel sprouts.... he's got a lot left, but he got most of the time consuming structures and plants completed today so hopefully the rest will go more quickly!

Here's how the garden is progressing:

I Hope I Have a Green Thumb!

Matt's Mom, Maggie, is visiting us this week. I had decided that I wanted some sort of potted plant on our front porch at the front door, so today Maggie and I headed to Home Depot. She used to own a flower shop, so her knowledge of flowers is so useful to me... especially since I don't know anything about plants or flowers. We worked together and put this together, picking out the pot, the flowers (Calmis that will climb up the railing) and trailing plants around the edge. It turned out great and looks beautiful at the door. I'll try not to kill it...

Herb Garden is Planted

Matt is in charge of his huge plot at the community garden, so this year I chose several herbs to plant and am going to take care of the herb garden at the house. I do not have a green thumb at all, so I hope I don't kill them!!!

Some we bought as plants already started and others we bought as seeds. We got 3 pots and got them planted today! We have rosemary, basil, cilantro, thyme, garlic, chives and oregano. The cilantro was a bit limp when we planted it (as you can see in the picture below), but since watering and letting it soak up the sun, it's perked up! I can't wait for them to grow and to cook with them!

Large Pot - Rosemary (plants) and Basil (seeds)

Medium Pot - Tyme (plant), Oregano (seeds), Cilantro (plant & seeds)

Small Pot - Chives (seeds) and Garlic (actual garlic from the market broken up & put in soil)

Crazy Quilt is Up

Two Christmas' ago Matt Mom has his great-great-grandmother's Crazy Quilt framed for him. A Crazy Quilt is a collection of items and fabrics that women would put together to practice their stiching. He absolutely loved it, but since we lived in CT at the time, we couldn't get it back to the apartment. And at the time, we were still hoping that Matt could find a job in California. But we ended up in Colorado Springs instead and my parents were nice enough to bring it with them when they drove out in March. We were just getting ready to move in April, so we didn't do anything with it then. Finally we got the Crazy Quilt up today in the family room and it looks beautiful!!! I'm sure it'll be a conversation starter when people come in and see it!!!

Garden Update

Matt spent the morning over at the community garden getting his plot reading for planting. He prepared the soil and set up the borders according to his diagram. Memorial weekend is typically the time to plant here (May can sometime still be cold... we got a bit of snow just a couple of weeks ago!). He's also gotten some "walls of water" and "mini greenhouses" to help protect the baby plants from the windy conditions at the garden. These sit over or around the plants. Apparently wind is quite a concern at this garden, as we learned today. Gusts were up to 40mph all day, and if Matt had already planted the baby plants without any protection, many of them would probably have died.

Plot Before

Plot After

This afternoon we went to three different nurseries to find all the plants he needs. We bought corn, many types of tomatoes (romas, heirlooms, beefstakes, early girls, pineapple, brandy wines, yellow pears and a few more), red peppers, green peppers, brussel sprouts (I'm not too thrilled about these, although I've never tried them!), broccoli, zucchini, yellow squash, pumpkin, beets, leeks, carrots, peas, pole beans, onions (white, yellow and red), cucumber, eggplant, and tomatillos. We also got a couple of herb plants that I needed for my herb garden: tyme, rosemary and garlic. We even picked up some cat grass for Nate so he doesn't feel left out!

Here are the plants we bought... Matt also has MANY packets of seeds to plant. He still has some of the structures to build for the pole beans and cucmbers, and then we are ready to go!!!

I'll update the blog as the garden is planted and as the veggies come in!!!

We Shopped Til We Dropped!

We did a ton of shopping for the house this weekend! Since our first guest (Matt's Mom) is arriving next week, I wanted to get some items for the house to get it more decorated, personalized and feeling more "homey". So we hit Gordman's, Home Goods, Cost Plus, Costco, etc on a mission to get a list of items I had made. We found some great items and got some good deals... large frames for wedding pictures on the mantle, candle hurricanes for the mantle, DVD baskets (finally... been looking forever!!!), Flour/Sugar/Tea/Coffee containers (using the remainder of our Williams-Sonoma gift card), guest bathroom accessories/shower curtain, a very cool gel kitchen mat... it was exhausting, but I'm so excited to get the house more put together.

Beautiful new frames (wedding pics soon!) & Hurricanes on the mantle

Containers from Williams-Sonoma

Our "gel" cooks mat... so comfy!!!

Finally... our DVD basket (more on order)

Guest bathroom accessories

We've also gotten a dobule curtain rod for the front room, sheer curtains, and then some new curtains on order. Once they come in, we'll put them up, and then our front room won't feel so "on display" to the neighborhood! I just want to get a few finishing touches and then we'll be set for awhile. It's looking beautiful!

We also decided that we want to turn our "fireplace room", a downstairs room with the only fireplace in the house that currently remains empty... except for the beautiful mantle items above, into a library room. So we want to get some nice bookshelves, some comfy leather chairs and a table. This room will take some time, finding items we like and buying them when we can afford them. But I think it'll be really nice, especially with a nice roaring fire! I can't wait to see and hear what our guest think of how we've gotten the house put together!

Go Sox!!!

Matt and I went to our first Sky Sox game of the season. The Sky Sox are the AAA team for the Colorado Rockies. We went to a couple of games last season and it was great. Tickets are cheap, the stadium is small, so where ever you sit, you are so close to the field! There are always great seats available, even if you just walk up to the box office.

The weather started out beautifully today... white puffy clouds, blue skies and temps in the low 70s. Of course, because this is Colorado Springs, the weather didn't stay that way. About half way through the game, the clouds rolled in, the wind kicked up and the rain started to fall. Luckily the rain didn't come down hard or last for long, but it's still very typical of here! After about 20 minutes of rain, the clouds moved on and the sun came out again.

The Sky Sox were playing pretty well... they got some runs off some errors the other team made. In the end they won 12-8. We left about the 7th inning when they were up 10-2, so they lost some ground in those last innings, but were able to keep the win.

Afterwards, we did more shopping for the house (more on that in another blog) and grabbed some dinner. A very fun day... looking forward to seeing some more games this summer, especially with friends and family! (We got their schedule on our new magnet below!)

New Layout

So I'm sure you've noticed that I changed the layout of our blog. I was just getting bored with the other one and found this great website (http://aquapoppydesigns2.blogspot.com) with a lot of really cute, free blog layouts. So I just decided it was time for a change... what do you think???

Yes, We're Trying... No, We're Not Pregnant Yet

I know that most of you that read this blog know this already. But I've just realized that the way most people greet me anymore is "Hi... so do you have any news for me???" So I've decided to just put it out there... Yes, Matt and I have been trying to get pregnant since the wedding. No, we aren't pregnant yet.

We have actually discovered that my thyroid has been not working correctly. After getting some blood tests taken to check fertility levels and my thyroid (because I was frustrated that I wasn't pregnant), we found out my thyroid is working too slowly. Normally, when it's working too slowly, the common symptoms are feeling very tired, gaining a lot of weight, but I wasn't feeling these symptoms. The thyroid controls many things in your body, including ovulation. And I wasn't ovulating... kinda hard to get pregnant without ovulating!!! So I've been taking a pill daily that has gotten my levels back down the to numbers my doctor wants to see. Hopefully once I get the thyroid until control, the ovulation will begin!

So I don't mean to sound rude to people in writing this blog... I really appreciate that people are excited for us to start a family (we can't wait either!)... just assume that we are trying, and we will anounce any news we have when we have it!

Let There Be Light!!!

When Matt and I moved into this house, we really liked so many elements of it.... but one thing we hated was the chandelier hanging in the dining room. It is truly ugly and I hated looking at it everyday! So several weeks ago, we bought a much more simple light fixture for the room. It's not a large room, so we just wanted something that didn't get in the way, like the other one did.

We found a beautiful, simple lighting fixture that stays up near the ceiling. It's silver with a frosted glass half-globe fixture. But once we bought it, my next worry was installing it! Matt is more handy than I sometimes think he is, but still, he said he hadn't done much electric work before. We turned off the electricity to the house and got the original (seriously ugly!!!) chandelier down. Thankfully Matt kinda knew what to do and we pretty much just figured it out without using much instructions. We finally got it installed!

The room feels so much bigger now and getting rid of the original fixture really opened up this space. We got the table put in the right place and we are set! Now we just need some accessories and some pictures on the walls to get this space feeling more like home. We are getting there!!!

And when we flipped the electricity back on.... it actually worked!!!

Two Years!!!

Two years ago at this time, Matt and I were driving across the country in my move to Connecticut!! I can't believe I've been gone from California now for 2 years... sometimes it feels like just yesterday and sometimes it feels like I've been gone for so long! So much has happened since leaving... my sister got pregnant, we got engaged, Matt got a fantastic job, we moved to Colorado, my niece was born and we got married... quite a whirlwind... especially for a girl who doesn't like change!!!

Although I thought my departure from California would be only 14 months, we've ended up in a great place. Matt and I would love to be living back in California, but Matt couldn't have found a more perfect job than the one with Dr. Storms. And Colorado Springs is a great place for us... a much closer plane ride back to California, much lower cost of living (especially housing!) and it's beautiful! It's still strange not to be living near an ocean, but the mountains help make up (a bit) for that! We might not be coming back to California to live for awhile, but we are happy in the place we've ended up!

The Garden Plan

Matt's garden this year is going to be at the local community garden. This weekend he went for the orientation. Unfortunately he said it was so unorganized and he spent nearly an hour just to get keys and a badge. But afterwards, he received his "G8" plot which is 20' x 40' space! For $80 he get the land, use of water and access to a tiller to get the soil ready. In addition, he talked with several people and found out the good places in town to buy supplies and veggies that grow well here. So he spent today working on his plan for his spot.

In addition to all the great veggies at the community garden, my "garden" will consist of some herbs in pots here at the house. We are planning on basil, rosemary, thyme, garlic, cilantro, chives and even some sunflowers in the yard. We are going to wait a few weeks to plant the herbs since it's still been a bit cold here. I hope I'm able to keep them alive... I do not have a green thumb!!! I'm sure all our summer visitors will love tasting all Matt's amazing veggies! I can't wait for the fresh brushetta!

Big Sandy

Last night Matt and I went to see Big Sandy and the Fly Rite Boys at the Rocket Room near Downtown Colorado Springs. Big Sandy is a pretty well known rockabilly group and they performed at Viva Las Vegas that we went to about a month ago. But they performed on the first night, which we missed.

So we arrived at the Rocket Room at about 8:30pm... the place is small, which I was excited about because we'd be so close to the band. There was a dance floor in the middle of the club, a small stage and 2 bars. Big Sandy was wandering around the club talking with people. Then at 9pm Big Sandy and the boys took the stage.

Big Sandy & the Fly Rite Boys

The music was great. I couldn't keep still and the dance floor was getting full. The words were a little hard to hear because we were a bit close to the speakers, but the music was great. They played for about an hour and then took a break... which ended up being about 45 minutes long. But during that time, Big Sandy walked around and talked to people. Eventually he made his way over to us and we chatted for a few minutes. Matt mentioned that this was my first Big Sandy show and I told him about going to Viva Las Vegas and hearing rockabilly music for the first time. He was really nice and at the end of the night, he even pointed out to everyone that this was my first Big Sandy show. I was impressed he remembered!

After the break, they played for nearly 2 1/2 hours straight! Matt and I danced and had so much fun. We realized that we haven't really danced that much together, and Matt hasn't done any swing dancing in years, so we were a little rusty. But I'd really like to take some swing dancing lessons so I can learn the basics and then we can hit the town. It was such a great night... hopefully we can find some more bands playing in area soon!

Stagecoach!!!

Last weekend my parents and I went to Stagecoach in Indio, CA. If you've heard of Coachella, it's similar, except that it's country music. It's held in the same location as Coachella, but the weekend after. My Mom and I went to the 1st Stagecoach Festival 3 years ago and it was amazing! But it's also exhausting with 2 very long, full, HOT days in the desert. In the festivals following we just haven't been excited enough about the lineup to put out the effort in the heat.

But this year, we couldn't resist going to one day of the 2-day festival. The headliners were Sugarland and Keith Urban (my "boyfriend"... Matt hates it when I say that!). We've seen both acts before, but they are favorites and we could see them every year! Also performing were Phil Vassar, Billy Currington, Merle Haggard and many others (but those were the ones we cared about seeing!).

We drove out early Saturday morning and tried to check into our hotel, but since we arrived so early, our room wasn't ready yet. We decided to head over to the festival early, and thankfully we did. As soon as we arrived, Mom and I realized this had become a much bigger event than that first year we attended. By 10:30am several parking lots were already full and it took us awhile to get to a parking lot with space. Then we headed to the gate, where Mom and I were nearly at the front 3 years ago, but now arriving about 11:30am put us near the back! Once inside, we could see how much bigger then event had gotten... so many more vendors, bathrooms (thankfully they are great at having a tons of bathrooms!) and tons more food. The great thing about this festival is that you can bring chairs and blankets, set them on the ground to "claim your spot" and then just walk away. Everyone respects everyone's space. No one has to stay behind to protect your spot. So we walked around, checked out the vendors and grabbed some lunch. We also made our plan for the day of who we wanted to see and which stage (there were 3!) they were at.

Our first performer we were really interested in seeing was Phil Vassar. He was great... he's such a talented songwriter, not only writing a ton of his own hits, but some big ones for people like Tim McGraw ("My Next 30 Years") and JoDee Messina (she wouldn't have had a career without him!). We knew every song and he was a great, fun performer. Next up, Billy Currington. I really love two of his songs, which were big hits, so he sang those. But he's also got a couple of songs that I really can't stand. But overall people liked him, and I enjoyed seeing the songs I really loved played live. After Billy, we headed over to a smaller stage to see Merle Haggard. I don't know any of his music, but the man is a legend, so I appreciated the fact that I got to see him live. The place was packed and it was great to see so many people there cheering for him! Afterwards we grabbed some dinner and headed back to the Mane Stage for the headlining acts!

Merle Haggard still rockin' at 73!

I've seen Sugarland twice before. The first time was at the first Stagecoach festival that Mom and I went to. They were just getting popular then, but since then, they've just blown up and become a major act in country music. Jennifer Nettles (lead singer) had the most amazing voice and they just look like they are having the greatest time up on that stage.

Mom & I doing our "Settlin" moves!

Keith Urban has been one of my faves for many years now. I've also seen him live twice before, and I could easily see him in concert every year and not be disappointed. Besides being seriously sexy and Australian, he's immensely talented at both songwriting and guitar playing. We stayed until the last song of the night, which was at about 11:30pm... makes for a very long day when the gates opened at 12noon!

We had such a great day and thankfully the weather wasn't too awful... it was about 85, but thankfully there was a breeze that helped cool things off. I'm looking forward to seeing who is playing next year!!!