Experiences in Farming 101

I would like to say that I come from a long line of farmers, but I don't. If I had a farming history, and as far as I know I don't, I would like to think that I would have grown up on a farm. Or at that least grew up on farmish property. I wouldn't be scared of the size of a horse or I would be eating brown chicken eggs. Maybe I would have some crops.

So I am not a farmers. Obviously.

But... my grandpa gardens. He loves to garden. I remember being little and there was always something growing in his dark Arizona soil. He grew a beautiful, big, plentiful garden.

And... my mom gardens. She loves to garden. I remember being little and there was usually something growing in our brown Arizona soil. She grew a beautiful, big, plentiful garden.

So here is my experiences in farming 101. I learned a thing or two about growing vegetables from my mom and grandpa. I've helped grow corn, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini etc. So when Brett and I got around to landscaping our backyard we decided to grow a garden.

So... we try to garden. We love to garden. Isaac will someday remember being little and there being one thing  growing in our hard Arizona soil. We grow a unsightly, small, scarce garden.

Last winter was our first garden. We got broccoli. This past summer we got zucchini. This winter will be our third garden. 

Every season we plant six or seven different things. We usually buy starter plans and plant them in random but organized rows. Our experiences have resulted in death. We only get one type of produce. Expensive and wasteful. So this year we planted seeds in rows, the way farmers do. I also decided to try a few potted vegetables. I work with a girl who has had great results with this.

My last attempt this year will be an herb garden. I took a well shaded part of the yard and decided to try a few herbs. This will be my second herb garden. This summer I tried a few things and ended up with a beautiful basil plant. It is still alive and growing in so full. 

Let's cross our fingers and hope that third time is a charm. Cause I am not up for failing farming 101 again.

April 15th, 2010: Closing

At the beginning of April, I had posted about our home being built. We were super excited and super annoyed with the whole house process. Buying a home was a complete headache. I had also previously mentioned that we were expecting to move into our home at the end on April. Well the day after I had posted the original home buying blog, we were told that were would be closing on April 15th. Trying to pack two years of junk so quickly was not fun.

We closed on our home, moved our stuff in, and started the projects. I'm not going to lie, there are still some unpacked boxes, mostly random decorations and unused books. For the sake of this post I will give you a sample tour of our home. I am planning on posting some pictures that actually have furniture and paint, so you can get a better tour then.

 This is our front door and half of our living room, which is still empty aside from my piano.

Past the living room is our family room and kitchen. I will get updated photos soon.

Top of the stairs and to your left is the master bedroom. To the right and down the hall there is a full bath, and three rooms.

Inside the master bedroom. Behind is the master bath, huge.

Bathroom upstairs.

After reviewing my little tour I just realized it was very uninformative. But empty home are kinda boring. Anyways, our house is four bedrooms, two and a half baths, and 2198 square feet. I've been having so much fun decorating it.

For as far as we live from Phoenix, Brett and I really do love it. We purchased in Queen Creek, but it isn't too deep into the town. We live across the street from everything we need. More to come...

Announcements, Stories, and Shreds of Unimportant Information

Apparently it's been awhile since I sat down to type a blog. Ironic as it may be, I have hours of free time in front of a computer; I choose to watch The Biggest Loser and The Office. Because of my lack of blogging, I will soon be flooding my computer screen with meaningless words in an effort to document the first quarter of 2010.

Get ready for our announcements, stories, and shreds of unimportant information. I promise that it will be mostly boring, but you will find at least one sentence that will bring a bit of excitement/happiness to your heart.

Announcement.

When Brett and I purchased our Costco Membership for the first time, we took a step towards growing up. Costco is kinda a big thing. It was a little scary having to be responsible for the $100 minimum purchases we would be making for the rest of our lives, but we have acclimated to shopping in a giant warehouse. But, at the end of April, we really have to start calling ourselves adults. Real grownups. Homeowners.

And I'm excited.

We are in the process of purchasing our first home and are set to be in it by mid April. As for the location, I choose not to disclose any more of my not so personal life on the internet than necessary. You know how to reach me if you really want to know. For now, I'll just say for most people, it's far.

We decided to build our home, which is a process that takes forever. Lucky for you, I'll be posting boring pictures of my framed house, followed by carpet-less floors, and finally some finished walls.

If you are wondering why you didn't hear about this news sooner, Brett and I had a mess of paperwork to sort through and didn't want to announce anything until we were 100% positive we really wanted to do some growing up. If you heard from someone other than us, I am sorry I didn't get to tell you the exciting news and we can talk later. If you are just as excited as I am, then come over and help me paint, lay tile, and landscape a backyard.

And if you ever meet President Obama, tell him things for the eight grand for me.

Story.

Like most people, we spend the majority of our money on food. So we decided to really focus on making a dinner menu and try our best to stick to it. Brett has been the most wonderful husband and cooks dinner as much as I do, if not more. However, as much as I would love to continue to praise him in all his awesomeness, I can't help but drench this blog entry with the worst dinner he has ever made.

The recipe is called Hunter's Style Chicken. It's something that my mom got from an aunt of mine, and it came along into our little family of two. It ends up being this sort of tomato "slop" on top of rice. This recipe is as follows:

Cooked rice

2 large chicken breasts cooked and cut into bite size pieces

1/2 pound of bacon 

1 large onion 

28 oz  diced canned tomatoes

1 bottle Heinz 57 steak sauce

1/4 cup sugar

Cook bacon, drain and set aside. Using 1 tablespoon of bacon grease, cook onions until tender. Add chicken, cooked bacon, tomatoes, 57 sauce, and sugar. Stir and let simmer on low until warm. Serve over cooked rice.

One evening brett gets home from work. The kitchen is a complete mess and dinner isn't made (I was probably being lazy that day). So, I offer Brett the privilege of dishes or dinner. He chooses to cook dinner since the dishes are bad, really bad. He pulls out the recipe card and starts to make dinner as I clean the kitchen. Brett gets out a cutting board and a knife, and in his best Julia Child voice gives instructions on how to properly cut an onion. I laugh.

Twenty minutes or so go by, the dish washer is running and I'm drying and putting away the remaining dishes. Pans go under the cookie making canisters, cookie sheets go under the spice jars. Brett is almost done with the "slop" part of the meal and is about to move on to cooking the rice. I bend down to put a pan away and as I come back up I notice that he left the lid to one of the canisters open (he always does that). Right and I am silently complaining in my head, I realize that the canister he left open was the once that holds the salt. I close my eyes and say to him, "You didn't just put salt in the dinner, did you?" Brett says with confused confidence, "No... oh crap!" Instead of following the directions for 1/4 cup of sugar, he added 1/4 cup of salt. I don't think we even go through that much salt in a year!

Brett leaves the kitchen crushed with hunger and falls to the ground. He just ruined dinner. My Julia Child husband ruined dinner. I get the guts to taste it, thinking it wasn't too bad. Nope, it was bad. Brett was on the ground still talking about how much that meal just cost and we aren't eating any of it.

So I did some thinking.

I poured our dinner into a colander and rinsed it off in the sink. One by one, I taste each remaining ingredient. Chicken, still good. Bacon salty but acceptable. Tomatoes, not bad. Onions horrible. So I needed to replace the onion, not a problem.

But I just dumped $3.50 of steak sauce and tomato juice down the drain. I go to the panty, tomato soup should replace the juice just fine, but dinner should have been done already and I hate going to the grocery store and I don't even have time to go to the grocery store.

Well, little does half the world know, but the internet has everything on it including a recipe for Heinz 57 steak sauce. Brett found a recipe and we were one step close to eating dinner. A little bit of ranch, chili powder, apple juice, ketchup, pepper, and Italian seasoning makes Heinz 57 Sauce. 

Dinner was served and tasted just fine.

Bon Appetite.

Unimportant Information.

I'm currently an Ulta Stylist.

I recently got a position as a stylist at an East Valley Ulta. I spent $17,000 on a cosmetology education and was doing nothing with it.

The salon is great, the girls are great,  the clientele is great. The tips are wonderful. My discount is awesome. It's close to my new home. But... I still have my full-time job with Posted Properties and am still enrolled in school full-time. I work weekends, and I occasionally clean the bathroom.

So, come see me and get your hair done!

The Apartment

Well, I figured it was about time I give the grand tour of the apartment. Brett and I moved like month ago and my busy butt hasn't had much time for blogging. On the flip side, my lazy butt spends plenty of time on Rockband. So here is our cute apartment out in Gilbert. Yay to dirt fields and empty freeways!

Carrie was here. I choose the paint colors but Carrie did the painting. I love my stripe. 

These I am so proud of. I made them. Yeah, I know they are super cute. It's fabric, styrofoam, and a little glue.

We kept the Phoenix Suns bathroom. Please shed a tear with me, they didn't make the playoffs.

My kitchen along with my awesome built in desk. I thought it was going to be in the way in the kitchen, but it's not. I totally love it.

Back to the living room. My wonderful Amsterdam Ikea photo. And those pillows on the couch, I made them too. 

The yellow wall is a hit and miss. It reminds me of a school bus, but the room had a bit of a new wave retro feel to it.

Anyways. That is honestly all I have time for. Sorry I don't have time for any elaborate stories. But let me know what you think about the yellow wall.

Moving Soon

Brett and I have been living with his parents for the last few months and will be moving out soon. They have been so wonderful and generous by letting us live in their basement. 

But, I can imagine that they are ready for us to go because we keep using all their cheese and strawberries. that sounds like an awful combination. Strawberry smoothies and cheese crisps. Just for clarification. While living here those have been our two favorite snacks.

This past Saturday, Brett and I did a bit more apartment hunting and finally settled for something out in Gilbert. It is kinda far, but we're moving there anyways. I'll have to learn to get up a bit earlier to make it to school on time, but we are excited. March 14th is our move date. So call us if you are available to help.