Friday Favorites!

1) Decanter - We attended our first horse race and had a great time! It was supposed to rain most of Saturday, but the weather held out for us and it was actually really nice!

2) New Job - I had a great first week at my new job! Everyone has been so welcoming, the commute is SO much better. I'm sure now that this was the right decision for us, and I can't wait to see where it takes us! 

3) Night Out - Thursday was Bailey's daycamp day this week. We went out for a couple beers with some of Josh's co-workers after we brought her home and put her to bed. We went to Max's Taphouse. They were having an event where they had at least 20 rare beers on draft and another 20 rare bottles. We each tried 2 beers. Josh was super excited that he got to try a cask beer, because they're really hard to find. We really enjoyed getting out and breaking up our routine.

4) Bathroom Progress - I may or may have not mentioned before that we're painting our master bathroom and making a few upgrades. Well, we made a lot of progress on that last weekend. We've both been super busy and exhausted this past week, so we haven't worked on it after work. As a result, we have been using our guest bathroom to get ready in the mornings (since our new mirrors aren't up in our bathroom). I didn't realize it until we had to share a sink and mirror, but we're really spoiled! I've missed the space we have in our bathroom. We hope to finish it this weekend, so I'll hopefully have some pictures up soon! 

5) Movie Night - Friday night, Josh decided he wanted to do something, so we went and picked up a movie. I decided I wasn't up for cooking dinner since it was already 8:00, so I got Chinese (YUM) and Josh got Quizno's. We got The Rum Diaries and I honestly couldn't tell you how it was. I watched about the first 30 minutes of it then I crawled on the floor and took a little nap with Bailey. We didn't start the movie until after 10:00, so me staying up for the whole thing was just out of the question. Even so, it was nice to lay back and relax.

Decanter!

As I mentioned in my 101 and 1001 post, I really want to go to Preakness. Preakness Stakes is the second race of the Triple Crown. We live less than an hour away from Pimlico, so there's definitely no reason not to go while we're living up here! The other two races are the Kentucky Derby and Belmont Stakes in NY.  I would like to go to those eventually, but we'll just focus on Preakness for now. Haha. It didn't work out for us to go this year or last year, but we're planning to go next year!

I heard about Decanter, which is pretty much a celebration of MD wine and horse racing. Um, wine AND horses...yes please. 

We got there a little before the races started, so we tried a couple of wines until they announced that the first race was starting soon, then we made our way outside to find our spots. 

Right before our first race!

It's amazing how fast they can go!

After the first race, we went back inside to try some more wines, then we went to search for food. We were stuck between crab cakes and Jamaican BBQ. We went with the BBQ, that was a mistake. The sides were just OK, but the BBQ wasn't good at all to me. Not only was it super greasy, it just wasn't good. I'm a Southern girl and I know how I like my BBQ. Smothered in Jerk seasoning is not how I like my BBQ. You couldn't even taste the pork, and it was WAY too spicy for my taste. Josh said he thought it was alright, but it just made me appreciate good 'ole BBQ even more than I already do!

We went in to wash away that flavor with some more wine, then Josh started to get annoyed with the crowd and started hinting that he was ready to go. I wanted to watch one more race before we did, so we went outside to wait for the next one. We were right beside the track for this one...much better view!

Waiting for the race.

  

Before each race, all the horses walk around the track and you get a good look at them. We didn't bet on any of the races, but it's still much more fun when you have a horse to pull for! So, Josh and I each picked a horse. I don't know what Josh's reasoning was, but I picked the darkest one out there because I thought she was gorgeous. And for some reason it seemed like the shiny black horse would run faster. Haha. I chose #6 and Josh chose #10. Guess who won?!?

Beautiful!

We had a really great time, and I'm definitely looking forward to going to more horse races. The wine festival part wasn't impressive. MD has a LOT of wineries, so it is nice to be able to try a couple wines before you drive an hour or so to get to the winery. However, it is not nice to wait in a line for all the tiny samples you get. It's good for a while, but it gets old fast. We were so tired of the lines, we probably didn't even visit half of the booths. Next time I think we'll just go to a  horse race since that was the most enjoyable part for both of us. :-)

Composting on a Budget!

About a month or so ago, we started to think about composting. I wanted to use some compost in our garden and it was really hard for me to find. I thought it would be a good idea to try it for ourselves. Well, the compost bins I was finding were ridiculously expensive. I found out we could get them for free as residents of our county. I went out to the recycling center and picked one up. I thought it would be a small glorified trashcan or something. I was wrong. When they gave it to me it was a roll of plastic. You assemble it yourself and it turns out to be huge! It's about 3 1/2 ft in diameter and at least that tall. Way too big to go on our patio obviously. I gave it to my dad and we kind of gave up for a while. 

I had pretty much forgotten about our hopes to start composting when I was browsing one of my favorite DIY blogs one day. Then I found this post. I went to Target immediately after work to pick up one of these bins. I was totally up for a compost bin that costs less than $10! 

First, we drilled some holes in the lid of the bin.

Then, we drilled some holes in the bottom of the bin, so it can drain.

Then, we added some dirt, leaves, shredded newspaper and eggshells. It's fine to start with just the dirt and leaves and add as you go.

Fortunately, we still had a little bit of the compost we bought a while back. When we opened the bag, we noticed that there were lots of worms in it. They were actually still alive, so we threw that in there too! The worms will help speed the process.

This is the compost bin sitting out back. I know it's not pretty, but it doesn't look any worse than the grill!

...and it definitely looks better than this!

We've been adding all sorts of stuff to the compost bin and things seem to be going well so far. I just have to get into the habit of putting things that I used to throw away into the compost bin. I was really surprised at all of the things you can put in there. Like hair! Between Bailey and I, we produce a LOT of hair! We can also add dryer lint, paper, fruit and veggie scraps of course, tea bags, coffee, and lots more! You can't compost anything with fats in it, so no cooking oils, meat leftovers or dairy items...they can make smelly compost.

We've got a small container we keep under our kitchen sink to collect food scraps, paper towels, etc. Our tiny little pile is starting to grow, and I'm really looking forward to being able to use our own compost in our fall garden!

Friday Favorites!

1) Clothes Shopping - Well, not the shopping exactly, but getting new clothes. I needed some new work clothes since I'm starting my new job soon. I didn't realize how long it had been since I had been clothes shopping until I started. I've gotten a few staples my wardrobe has been lacking for quite some time and I got several other cute things :-). Now I'll just try to add a new item or so every few weeks until I get my wardrobe built up to where I want it. 

2) Just Because Flowers - I love all flowers, but the ones I don't expect are definitely the best! Josh got me some surprise flowers this week. 

3) Bailey's Backpack - We got Bailey a backpack for her to wear on walks. We can put a little bit of weight in them and she will get tired faster. She has only been on one walk with it so far, and then she only carried my keys. Before we add any weight, we want to make sure it is adjusted just right. She will also be able to carry some of her own stuff when we go camping. It's super cute on her. She looks like she's about to go to school. 

4) Last Day - I had my last day of work on Friday! It was a good last day! We had a company cookout, so there was a chance to say goodbye to everyone. 

5) Ikea - I had to make a "quick trip" to Ikea one day this past week. I needed to pick up a rug I've wanted for the past year and a couple other odds and ends. I would like to go back soon so we can pick up the items we need to finish decorating the guest room. I will definitely miss working just 15 minutes from there, but it's probably for the best.

6) Compost Bin - I'll post more about this later, but we started a compost bin this week! It's really too early to know how it's going, but I'm really excited about it!

Friday Favorites!

I'm posting this late...again. It's been a busy weekend, but I'm finally getting around to this!


1) Easter - We had a great time with my family this past weekend! It was so nice to be able to catch up  and just spend time together!

2) New lights - I mentioned that my dad replaced some of our lights for us while he was in town. Josh and I picked out our new lights the week before they got here and I had been looking forward to changing them ever since! I like our new ones SO much better! I don't have pictures of everything, so I just posted stock pictures of what I didn't have. We got some new indoor lighting too. I'll eventually post those pics!

Old front light, this thing is hideous and I've been looking forward to getting rid of it since we moved in.

New front light. I was SO glad to get rid of that old brass. Our new light matches our trim :-).

Old back lights (ours were black instead of gold).

New back lights

All our new outdoor lights are motion sensored. Now when we take Bailey out back at night, it doesn't matter if we remember to turn the light off. It will turn itself off!

3) Job Offer - I posted about this before, but this was definitely another highlight of my week! I'm so excited about starting my new job!

4) Mani/Pedi - Since I knew I was having an interview, I decided to get a manicure (my hands looked SO bad). I wasn't going to get a pedicure because I knew I would be getting one in May with Anna, but the nail technician ended up talking me into it. It was long overdue and felt great!

5) Clothes Shopping - Interview + new job = new clothes! I haven't worked in an office setting in a while. I rarely wore nice clothes to my old job because I didn't want to ruin them in the lab. I'm really excited about shopping for new clothes and getting to dress up a little more!

6) Roth - I don't have a 401K yet, so I've been feeling a little behind in the retirement savings area. I just became eligible for a 401K in January, but I knew I wanted to switch jobs, so I didn't start it. We started my Roth IRA last week, so I finally have some savings! I will be starting my 401K soon after I start my new job! 

New Beginnings

Decisions have always been a struggle for me. Even the tiny ones, like what to order at a restaurant. I think deciding on a career is one of the hardest decisions. I mean, you're committing to 40 hours a week for a huge chunk of your life. That's a lot of hours! I would like to think that when you find the "right" one, it won't seem that way. Like when you find the right person. Marriage means you'll be with someone for the rest of your life, but that wasn't scary at all for me. I knew I wanted to be with Josh for the rest of my life. I wouldn't have it any other way. But decide on a job I want to have for the next 35 years...that's another story. I don't know why the thought terrifies me. I can change my career and it's not really a big deal, right? I mean, you have to wait for the right opportunities I guess, but still, it's not like divorce or anything. 

I graduated from NC State with a Food Science degree. I enjoyed my major for the most part, but to this day, I have no idea why I chose it. I started off as an Animal Science major and I was going to be a vet. Life happened and I changed my mind. I went through a few majors before I finally settled on Food Science. Second semester of my junior year I started to have second thoughts. But I didn't want to flake out on yet another major. Senior year, I was still having second thoughts, but I was already graduating late because I had changed my major 3 times already. I decided it was time to suck it up and graduated. I was interested in my classes, so why not give it a shot. I found a job in my field about 6 months after moving to MD. I've been there for a little over a year now. I've liked it for the most part, but I don't love it and I'm not passionate about it. I knew I wanted to consider other options before my 1 year mark, but I was determined to stick it out for a year to see if my feelings changed. They didn't and I started looking elsewhere. I started to apply to other local food companies. Some huge, some tiny. I prayed, I talked to Josh about it, I thought about it...a LOT. Doors were just not opening for me, even with some connections. 

We decided I should maybe try another career path, not just because of the lack of opportunities, or because we want to eventually move back to NC and there are even less opportunities there, but also because I knew my heart just wasn't in it. One of Josh's co-workers suggested that we see if there was anything available at their company. Again, I prayed, talked to Josh, and thought a lot, we decided it couldn't hurt. His company is absolutely wonderful so the thought thrilled me. I didn't really know what I wanted to do anyway, so why not take a chance? Well, things have really fallen into place for me. For us. I will be starting my new job on April 24th! I'm starting off as a receptionist to cover maternity leave right now. I'm really not sure where I will end up in the future. I'll be sort of test driving things to see where I fit best. I think that is just great. I usually don't like uncertainty. I'm a planner and I like what's coming next. I'm actually very excited about it though! 

So, here's to a fresh start. Hopefully I've found my calling!

Happy Easter!

I don't think there is anything that can make a person more thankful for Jesus' sacrifice than being able to spend time with the people you love most! Easter is the one holiday we get to celebrate with my family at OUR house. It makes sense for us to travel home for the holidays so we can see all our family, but it's still nice to be able to host a holiday here. 

Friday Josh worked, but half a day. My dad replaced some lights for us (YAY) while he was at work. Then when he got home, he helped my dad replace some more. We got all new exterior lights. We replaced the old ugly ones with updated motion sensored ones. We got new lights in the kitchen and in the master bathroom too. Pictures to come soon!

We also colored eggs on Friday! This was always so much fun for me when I was younger and I still enjoy it!

 Coloring eggs!

 Helping Nikki decorate the lucky egg.

 Silly lucky egg.

We grilled out Friday night. Josh made some delicious ribs! After dinner, we sat down to play Monopoly. It was lots of fun but of course it took forever. We didn't even completely finish. We just decided it was inevitable that Josh was going to win. Haha. 

Saturday, we decided to take some pictures before going to the park.

They love each other so much

 Silly pup, she wants to run so bad here!

 Daddy with all his girls, except Bailey.

 Family pic!

After pictures, we went to the park. We took Bailey to the dog park first, so she could get some energy out. Natalia had some serious concerns about Bailey finding the lucky egg again this year, so I made sure Bailey had her own "eggs" :-). Nikki and I hid eggs while Natalia played at the playground with my parents and Josh took Bailey for a walk.

 This was Bailey's "lucky egg"

 This one had a string so I hung it on a branch. She had fun trying to get it off.

Gathering eggs! 

She's so curious!

After playing at the park and hunting for eggs Natalia and Bailey were both exhausted. We went home and had dinner. Everyone was tired so we all crashed pretty early. I woke up early Easter morning so I could cook breakfast for everyone before my family left. Josh and I were planning on going to church Sunday, but we were all running late as usual. My family ended up leaving around 11 and the latest service is at 11. 

We had a great time with my family this weekend. I'm so glad my family was able to come up a day early! We don't get to see them very often and when we do it's usually rushed. I'm so grateful for having relaxing (for us) weekend with everyone. This is definitely what I would consider a blessed weekend :-).

Friday Favorites!

This one is a little late, but we've had family in town for Easter weekend! I'm only posting for things that happened through Friday in case this week is horrible, that way I at least have this weekend for next week's post! Haha.

1) Reel Mower - Last year, we didn't have a lawn mower. Our yard is ridiculously small, so we just put it off. Josh cut the grass with the weed eater. Even that only took him about 20 minutes, so it wasn't a huge deal. We decided it was time to break down and buy one. We considered electric, gas and reel mowers. The reel mower won out hands down. We don't have to worry about fuel or motors of any sort, they're cheaper, and they're smaller. We found this one on Amazon and decided to go for it. Josh cut grass with it for the first time last weekend and he loves it! He cut our grass and our neighbor's grass in like 10 minutes. WAY better!

2) Landscaping - We got around to landscaping our front yard last weekend! I was really glad we were able to finish this before my family came to town for Easter. There are a few minor tweaks we would still like to take care of, but it's WAY better than it was last year!

3) Gardening - We got our vegetable garden planted early in the week! I'm really excited about this and I hope we come out better than last year. Unfortunately, our back yard doesn't get as much sun as we would like, so we're not sure how some of the plants will do. We also have the groundhog to worry about. We haven't seen any this year so far, but we don't have much for him to eat yet since we planted mostly from seed. We planted potatoes, okra, red pepper, banana pepper, carrots, sugar snap peas, several varieties of lettuce, spinach, 3 varieties of tomatoes, herbs, zucchini and a tomatillo plant. I've never grown some of this stuff, so I'm hoping for the best! 

Lettuce!

4) Leinenkugel Beer Garden - After a long day of yard work last Saturday, Josh and I went to Power Plant to meet some friends for drinks at the beer garden. We had a groupon that was expiring soon, so it was a great time to go. We each got a couple drinks and we got a crab pretzel to share. It was SO good! We had a really great time and it was nice to get out of the house after working hard!

5) Weekday Lazy Day - One day this past week, we decided to just relax and cook brats on the grill. Usually during the week we try to get a few things done when we get home, so this definitely wasn't typical of us. We just decided to take it easy this day and it was so refreshing and worth it! We just hung out with Bailey outside and enjoyed ourselves. It felt like a Saturday, so it was hard to get up and go to work the next day, but it still felt great!

6) Short Week - My family decided to come up a day earlier than they planned. Since they were going to be coming in Thursday night, I ended up taking my floating holiday on Friday. Not only was it great to get to spend extra time with family, it was really great to have a 4 day week at work! 

So, when we first moved into our house, our yard was a bit of a mess. It was something we knew we definitely wanted to change, but we kept putting it off for other projects and we just never got around to getting it done last year. Last weekend we got really motivated, worked really hard and got it done! Unfortunately, I can't find any pictures of the yard before last weekend! I didn't take any "before" pictures because I knew I had already taken some when we moved in. I'm still sure I took them, but I can't find them to save my life! I'll keep looking and I'll add them when I find them. 

It involved quite a bit of work. First, we had to dig up all our old shrubs and get rid of them. We had mixed types of different sizes.We had 2 Japanese Holly plants that were relatively small, a rosebush and a huge Burberry shrub. The Burberry was really pretty while it still had its leaves, but it looked horrible during the winter. Plus it had thorns. 

I was able to find this picture. It shows the random huge shrub we had. The other 2 were not even 1/4 its size.  This thing was a beast and it was pretty hard to remove. The size was definitely a factor, but the thorns were just as bad! The roots were huge!

Once all the old shrubs were gone, we removed the old mulch , weed blocker and weeds we had (it seems like everything except the weeds died over Winter). We didn't have a border last year and we really wanted one. It is really annoying to have to keep sweeping mulch off the walkways! After considering all our options, we decided to go with brick. It's pretty, it's cheap, and it reminds us of State :-). Win-win-win! We decided to slightly re-configure the area as well. The previous owners had a large area mulched out and we really didn't like it. We would prefer to have more grass. We decreased the size of the mulched area by a few feet. We planted grass there. We already had some grass seed we bought for patching up areas. We planted the grass in front of the mulched area (hence the straw). After spending a ridiculous amount of time figuring out how we wanted to space the shrubs, we planted our Boxwood! We put down some fresh weed-blocker and mulch. It looks SO much better! 

The area beside our front door used to have a shrub. We decided not to put one there this time around. I would like to be able to decorate this area seasonally and it will be much easier without the shrub in the way. Right now we just have some herbs planted here, but we may add a potted plant of some sort. I'm looking forward to being able to put some pumpkins in this space during the Fall and a small tree at Christmas time! The only downside to removing that shrub so far is that it used to hide our water hose. We'll just have to make sure we find something pretty that's large enough to hide it away :-). 

We also cleaned out all the dead stuff from the flower bed, planted some pansies and added new mulch. We're going to replace this border with a red one to match the brick. This is something that crossed our mind after the fact and I don't want to risk ruining the flowers, so I'm fine putting this off again. We will likely plant either Tulips of Daffodils here next time around. We'll just replace the border when we put those in the ground in the Fall.

Red and white Pansies.

All in all, I'm really happy with how this project turned out. There is one major, or maybe not so major change I would have made. We already had some grass seed we bought for patching up areas. Since we already had the grass, we just bought straw to protect it while it grew in. I JUST realized (a week later) that it would have been cheaper to buy the one roll of sod we would have needed to cover the space. Not only would it have been cheaper, we would have instantly had grass (our grass has yet to start coming in) and it wouldn't have been nearly as messy. We'll be picking straw out of our mulch for quite a while. We may still end up doing this if we're not successful in growing grass. From what we've heard from our neighbors, they've all had a really hard time with grass seed on our side of the street. The houses on the other side of the street have really pretty grass, but they don't get nearly as much sunlight in their front yards. I really wish our house faced opposite directions. Then we would have the full day of sunlight in our back yard for the garden, and the sun wouldn't be so harsh on our grass. 

See that straw all over the place?!?

I'll be sure to post another picture later in the season once we have some grass!