The Friday List of Wonderful Things

1.  I know I have slacked off in the blog department.  BUT, on the upside, I have been super productive at my real job this week (hence no creative energy for blogging) and that makes me a happy camper and much less stressed out.

2.  I didn't get up at 4am to watch the Royal Wedding.  But I saw some highlights this morning.  Boy, is that new princess pretty.   Although, I still don't see why everyone goes gaga for Prince William.  Totally not my type.  Now, if he wore band t-shirts, played the guitar and had dark hair and tattoos...then I'd be in. 

3.  JC and I are going to a wedding this weekend and taking Mimi.  I can't wait to watch her dance on the dancefloor with the rest of the kids, I'm sure there will be lots of "falling on the butt" instances though.

4.  I haven't cooked anything awesome in a really long time.  I think it's time to kick it in gear. 

5.  My vegetable garden is growing!  Even the seeds!  The only thing that hasn't sprouted yet is the lavender and I'm sure if it'll grow at all.  I think I planted it wrong, but when I realized it, I just crossed my fingers and hoped that it would still grow. 

6.  Mia can count to three.  But only if she is walking down stairs (with help) and aligning her three rubber ducks on the bathtub ledge during bath time.

7.  I now let my crazy cat Goose outside in the backyard.  He always comes back to the door and meows when he wants in.  I think my cat is smart.  And cute.  I love watching him creep around the yard and jump in and out of bushes. I suppose it's alot like cat heaven, ya know?

8.  Be ready for posts about how to make German Chicken and Dumplings (hint: they also add ground beef), a wonderful delicious German dessert called Man Cream courtesy of my German sister in law, Iona.  Also, pictures of Mia and her half German cousin Nora Elise.  Here's a preview...

Piggies

Nana came to town.  She watched Mia on Tuesday while I worked and JC worked.  Mia's nana is great.  I would know because nana is also my mama.  I love her very much and wished she lived right next door to me. If I had just 1/4 of the genuine caring and patience that she has, then I would be content with myself.  I think I'm still on that journey. Yeah, I definitely am.

Nana taught Mia how to sing "This little piggy..."  So now, when you ask Mia where her piggies are, she points to her toes.  Also, when you ask her where her toes are, she points to them again.  Have I mentioned how smart my child is?  I mean, I don't want to brag...but...okay, I'll brag.  She's the smartest kid I've ever seen.

Nana had some fun with Mia's piggies.  Look!

Her very first set of painted toenails...

Okay, wait.  I may or may not have painted them when she was a baby because we got snowed in and we were bored.  So, her very SECOND set of painted toenails.

Come back anytime Nana! :)

Vegetable Garden 2011

We did it! We did it!  And it wasn't even that hard, really.  My very first vegetable garden.  *sigh*  It makes me so happy.  I can remember my mom FORCING me to work in ours when I was younger and I hated it.  I seriously hated it.  But now, I haven't been this excited about a few plants, seeds and dirt since I don't know when!

My mom, Mia and I visited the Farmer's Market in downtown Dallas on Saturday and picked up some plants (as well as some fabulous Mexican food, gelato, butter cake and other things) to put in the garden.  Well, the plants went in the garden, the rest just went in our tummies.  You get the point.  Anyway, the biggest win of the day is getting Mia to do this.  Fabulous!

Yesterday, I got up early and bought lots of dirt for the garden at Home Depot.  Here's what I got.  While I'd like to say I got it because it was organic and fancy and everything but mostly I got it because it was on sale and NOT $15 a bag.  I once heard that you don't have to spend lots of money on the dirt as long as you add plant food.  So, that's what I did.

So, we got my little 4x6 garden box ready to go...

Just a little garden in the city.  Makes me so happy.  Okay, so next step...add the dirt.

 Then let Mia play in it for awhile.

After that, then we added the plant food and spread it around. The kind we used was a quarter cup of food per 5 square inches.

Then we arranged our plants in the position we wanted them.  This was the part that made me the most excited because I could visualize what it would look like.

Here is what we planted:

3 strawberry plants, 2 tomato plants, 1 basil plant, 1 chive plant, 1 cilantro plant, 1 green pepper plant, 1 row of carrot seeds, 1 row of green bean seeds, 1 row of sugar snap pea seeds, 1 row of lavender seeds and marigolds all around.  The marigolds are a natural way to keep the bunnies from digging in your garden.  My mama taught me that one.  You could also use blood meal.  But the thought of that made me want to throw up so I chose pretty flowers in place of blood.  Wasn't a hard choice to make.

Next step, plant the plants and bury the seeds.

Next, step back and admire your square foot garden. 

Oh, and water it of course.  That is important too.

I HAVE A GARDEN!  Cross your fingers and toes that the blazing hot Texas sun doesn't eat it up this summer and I don't forget to water it. 

The Friday List of Wonderful Things

How is that for a title?  Things are pretty darn wonderful for the Talman family right now, so I think that's what I'll call it.  Wonderful things....

Wonderful Thing #1 - My mom is coming to visit today and staying for a few days.  She was having baby attacks and needed to squeeze on Mia for awhile.  She's excited about her Na-Na coming to see her.

Wonderful Thing #2 - We are going to the farmer's market in downtown Dallas on Saturday.  Hurray!  I imagine there will be beautiful plants, colorful flowers and FABULOUS food there to buy.  I'm super excited about it.

Wonderful Thing #3 - My cookbooks. Hardly ever open the Weight Watchers one but open the Decatur Methodist Church and Adams, Minnesota Family Favorites all the time.  I think that is what we call...winning.

 

Wonderful Thing #4 - My baby runs in the backyard now.  RUNS!  I mean takes off and flys from end to end.  So, that probably means she's not a baby anymore.  Boo.

Wonderful Thing #5 - People can comment on my blog now!  I think there were issues in the past.

Wonderful Thing #6 - I got to pretend I was a phone switch operator lady in my office today.  I felt like I was in "Mad Men" working the switch board in that little room with those catty ladies.   I love Mad Men...

Wonderful Thing #7 - My first EVER niece Nora Elise is coming to visit us in Dallas next week.  She is 4 months old and I am DYING to see her.  Also, how fabulous is that name?  Nora Elise...

Wonderful Thing #8 - I am planting my vegetable and herb garden this weekend.  Stay tuned for pictures!

Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy, Mommy.

We're there, folks.  Mia walks around all day long saying "Mommy, Mommy, Mommy" (x25 more times).  And yes, it's Mommy and Daddy now, not mama and dada.  That part I love...and I must admit when she runs to me saying Mommy and grabs onto my legs and hugs them, it just melts my heart.  I can't help but pick her up and kiss her face for 20 straight minutes.  Then she pushes me away and runs after the cat.  It's not THIS BAD, but it's mommy, mommy, mommy all day now.

Yesterday, I did what every parent in Texas does. I took pictures of Mia with the bluebonnets.  They are super sacred here and I think if you pick even one and get caught, you go to jail.  Anyway, that's what JC told me when I wanted to go pick some and put them in a vase.  They are rather pretty and just grow WILD everywhere here for about a month in the spring.  Then they're gone.  So, to take advantage of what little time I have left to photograph them, I got the camera out...took forever to get the settings to at least look okay and snapped away.  Here's what I got.

Then we stopped to smell the flowers.  I would say, "Smell the pretty flowers, Mimi" and she did this, and I thought...I have the smartest kid alive.

Then it was crab-town.  And the pictures started to look like this...

But that's okay, cause even her crabby face is cute.  After the bluebonnet pics, we went and bought some new shoes. 

A new tradition.

My husband loves golf.  My father-in-law loves golf.  My brother-in-law loves golf.  And me?  Well, I think I've made it clear that I like to ride in the cart and drink beer.  But now, I know more about golf now than I ever thought I would. It's a good thing.

Well, we've started a new tradition.  Every year on the last day of the Master's Tournament, the boys come over, drink beer and yell at the TV.  We grill steaks and play with Mimi. Fun day, all around. 

One of the things that JC has is a coveted Master's hat.  So, we decided to take pictures of Mimi in it each year when everyone comes over. 

The picture last year...

What an adorable, little, teething baby sucking on her finger.  Chubby cheeks and everything. One year later...

A little girl.  And my awesome cat, Goose (of course)...but really?!?  That is what happens in a year?  She might as well be eighteen, guys.  I can't believe it. 

It's not good, but I'm already missing the "baby stuff".  I saw a mom giving her baby a bottle in the grocery store today and thought, "Awww...I wish that was me."  Okay, for all you grandparents, aunts and uncles reading this...this doesn't mean it's time for another baby.  No. No. No. But...maybe it'll happen sooner than I thought.  Maybe?  Maybe.

If we end up with another one of these some day...

 
Then I'm game.  

Friday List

So the blog rage these days is to make a list of random things that are happening in your life and post it every Friday. Just another Friday ritual, kind of like #ff on Twitter. You know, where you promote people to follow on Friday, hence the #ff hashtag (or following friday hash tag). Anyway, I think I'll join in.  So here it goes. 

1.  I am taking Mia to story time at the library this morning.Then doing my version of "Extreme Couponing" at the grocery store and then hopefully trying to get to Macy's to use my birthday gift cards to buy something fun for the house.  (Who am I kidding, I think I'm going to buy new silverware.)

2.  I am in love with my new Keurig coffee maker I got for my birthday.  I can't wait to wake up in the morning to choose which flavor I want and then make it.  Laugh if you will, but this little thing in my life really makes me happy.

3. I am making DRIP BEEF for dinner tonight. 

4.  It's already starting to get hot in Dallas.  I'm not ready to stop wearing jeans yet.  Crap.

5.  This is going on in my yard right now...(Pictures courtesy of crappy Blackberry camera)

6.  This weekend is The Masters golf tournament. I'm cheering for that young kid who looks like Zac Efron. 

7.  She finally looks like me.  At least in this picture.

Birthday Cake

I'm 28.  Yesterday was my birthday and now I'm 28 years old.  It's a pretty awesome age to be, I guess.  No different than 27.  When I turn 30, well...that will probably feel a little different.  Anyway, I have always been the type to never quite graduate from grade school in the sense that I feel the need to always bring things for other people on my birthday.

This year?  Homemade Red Velvet Cake.  I actually have never had red velvet cake.  Crazy, huh?  So, I made THIS RECIPE the night before my birthday and brought it in to work yesterday.  It was Sweet!!!  And I don't mean, like..."Sweet, Jill brought me a birthday cake on her birthday"...I mean, "Oh my god, all of my teeth just fell out because this cake is so sweet."  It was too sweet for me and I was a little disappointed.  Mostly cause it's straight from scratch, is made with things like "shortening" in it and I even sifted the cake flour. CAKE FLOUR! I didn't even know that existed.  Anyway, here is me sifting.  That flour does look rather pretty, doesn't it?

Then I did all of the other things the recipe said to do and ended up with four bowls of ingredients.  See?

And eventually, they all got mixed together...

Then I made the That's the Best Frosting I've Ever Had recipe again and...yup.  Still the best frosting I've ever had.

Baked it, put the frosting on it and viola.  Red velvet birthday cake, from scratch!!

Oh, it's so pretty...but really, just way too sweet.  I may or may not have chugged milk straight from the jug out of necessity after taking a few bites of this first piece.  Happy Birthday to me!

My funny, funny girl.

God, she's cute.  Right?  I mean, like really cute.  I'm sorry if you're sick of it, but it's my blog.  My little corner of the internet and she just provides the best material ever.  I'll give you three reasons why...

Reason #1 - She doesn't cry, kick, scream of hit me in the face when I wake her out of a dead sleep at 6am.  On Saturday, Mia and I walked in the Dallas MS Walk and we had to be in Addison by 6:30am.  She was still very much asleep at 6am and so to wake her, I gently took of her pajamas and talked to her softly and after about 2 minutes of slowly waking up...she opened her eyes, looked at me, smiled and said "Shoes!" She was excited to be up and was just the best kid during the whole thing.  Here we are, pretty in orange.

Reason #2 - She gets red-faced after she plays too hard.  On Friday afternoon we went to the park.  It was about 85 degrees outside and pretty sunny.  Within minutes of walking around the park and then swinging, her face was beat red.  For anyone who knows me...knows that she takes after me here.  I don't sweat...I just get beat red. My heat expels out of my body in color rather than liquid.  Weird, I know.  I blame genetics.  But, FINALLY, something that she gets from me.  Up until now, it's been "Oh, look how much she looks like JC!" Here's the red face in action... this was after about 15 minutes of digging in the rocks.

 

Reason #3 - This.  

I love my daughter.  She's the funniest person I've ever met.

Neil Sperry would be proud.

It's funny how when you own a house, you start to notice things like lawns, landscaping, trees, flowers, etc.  I never noticed this stuff IN MY LIFE and now all of a sudden, I want to be gardener of the year.  It's crazy, I even bought a Neil Sperry book (he is THE MAN in Texas gardening) and I've actually read it.  I read a gardening book and I'm excited about it.

So, I wanted to show some of my efforts.  We got really lucky with the landscaping that is already in place at our house.  The previous owners were super duper gardeners who loved tropical plants...mexican palms, hibiscus plants, things like that.  This place was beautiful when we bought it.  I loved it.  One of the trees in our backyard looks like this right now.

 

Beautiful.  I love this tree.  Pretty pink flowers in the Spring. 

Then we had 2 winters with temperatures below freezing.  Remember THIS ? You can actually see our little Mexican Palm tree covered in snow.  Needless to say, pretty tropical plants were dead, dead, dead.

So, I tore out all of the dead tropical plants (roots and all) and bought some less exotic plants.  Here is what I'm working with now.  I like it.