What happened in May

So here we are again....it's the beginning of a new month and I haven't really even said much anything at all about what we did last month.... So let me play a little game of catch up!

I think the most significant thing that happened this May was be part of  my sister's wedding. Arianna, tied the knot with Shea Larson on May 2, 2012. It was a beautiful day for a wedding. And I so happy for them. Arianna was stunning in her vintage dress and I don't think you could wipe the smile from Shea's face! You could feel and see the love between them!

Arianna has been living in Minnesota working as a photographer's assistant  and learning the ropes of the photo industry. And Shea is a recent graduate of MSU Billings in some sort of communications degree... (sorry Shea I can never remember).  It was fun spending time with them together before they both left and headed for the Big City Life.

I had the opportunity to play  "photographer" for the afternoon and I think I did an ok job.... I'm just saying... hehe. (Arianna did edit them with all of her fancy photoshop) but I deserve some credit right!

 

We also celebrated Mother's Day... and had  a sweet surprise come all the way from the East Coast.  Thats right, my best friend Kristy and her fiancé, Nate, came down for his sisters graduation from University of Montana... and while they were in Missoula he got down on one knee and asked her to spend the rest of their lives together!!! How cute is that!  Let me give you a mental picture of what he did.... Nate is a wonderful guy covered in tattoo art and he dabbles in graffiti art himself.   So apparently there is a wall in Missoula that is dedicated to graffiti and its illegal to paint over it.  So on one of the mornings they were there Nate left Kristy in his sisters loving hands... and he went off to paint "KRISTY WILL YOU MARRY ME?" on this wall.  Then Lindz (Nate's sis) and Kristy went for a walk and Lindz happened to want to take pictures right before they got to the wall.  Kristy proceeded to say "shut up"  and then then yes!!! Nate had even left a box for her to spray paint her answer in!! 

I love these guys so much and I am so excited for them.

The remainder of our month was filled with maintaining our garden and enjoying our lives as a married couple... falling more and more in love each and every day. 

April

Oh hello.... its MAY! If you are like me at all... you are probably thinking where in the heckfire did April go... I didn't even get one post up last month. Therefore I have a TON of catching up to do. So this is my disclaimer...hope you can hang in with me as I recap my April to you.

Some time this month I applied for an open position at my church.. it was kinda a longshot because I don't have a lot of previous experience at all with computers other than blogging and working my Mary Kay business.. but it would have been a full time position and that would have been SO SO NICE.. Right now I am getting about 28 hours of work a week and I am probably going to have to find a second job this summer because I will be done babysitting soon.... back to the job... I got called in for a per-interview and then a second ..... then it was the waiting game... I just prayed that if it was the right fit it would work out.. if not, then it wasn't something I would have probably liked anyway :D

I would have to say that our biggest priority has been our Raised Garden. It all started when I brought home a BUNCH of seeds and made our dining room a "green house."  Now I have a deck-full of plants anxiously waiting to be planted in our GLORIOUS Beautiful AMAZING garden.... Three weeks ago we drove our little selves to Lows to buy us some lumber.... (we had no real idea what we were getting ourselves into).... I had to have looked like a goon staring at the walls and walls of different kinds and sizes of wood! Thank heaven that my wonderful husband was there and could read boy!

Ps.. we also saw a BBQ Grill outside and bought it for my parents as a surprise early mother's & father's day gift.  David and I both really like gifting and.. lets just say it.. my parents grill was way past its expiration date and they are hosting my sisters wedding reception at their house on May 3rd (tomorrow) and I am not sure if their old grill even stayed lit anymore... So GOODBYE Stinky green rust bucket! Hello to nice and shiny!

So we got our lumber and Grill and had to load it all into my dads truck and try to sneak the grill over to my parents into the back yard without them noticing.... YEAH RIGHT..... there was no way I was going to be able to effectively help David get that GIANT grill out of the truck and around back without dropping... So we just got my dad and said SURPRISE... can you move it hahaha.

The next few weeks we spent almost all of our waking time (besides work) outside in our yard and garden. David built the garden beds while I spent 2plus hours pulling stupid dandelions... I am not kidding our yard has like SUPER-SIZED weeds.... SERIOUSLY.  We thought we would try to get free dirt to fill our garden beds, so we headed out to different building sites and started shoveling dirt into the back of the truck.... yeah way too much work and WAY WAY to many rocks... So we eventually decided to just spend the little extra money and buy good composted soil from a landscaping company!! SUCH A GOOD IDEA.... don't waste time shoveling rocks... they delivered it to our back yard and we shoveled it in the beds and it looks and feels AMAZING.. I'm telling you our plants are going to be the happiest in Billings~nodoubtaboutit!

Last week was probably the craziest of all... because we were working out in our yard tons and my friend Katie asked me to share a booth in a "SPRING FLING" craft and vender fair.... SO I was crocheting like crazy trying to have something to sell... I'm not kidding... David was dreaming that I was crocheting on the couch and all our our plants dieing around the house because of neglect... I PROMISE I DIDN'T KILL ANY PLANTS IN THE CREATION OF MY CROCHET GOODIES.

Monday I went to the Kenesiologist and she tested and attempted to clear some of my major allergies from my system. She uses contact reflex analysis to determine what I am allergic to or what I have a negative reaction to. And then resets my body to have a positive or neutral reaction to it.... the problem with seasonal/environmental allergies is that they are everywhere and in order for her treatment to work/stick I have to avoid all contact with the allergen for 36-48 hours and that is practically impossible with environmental allergies.... unless I decided to become bubble girl.. Not likely.... but I can say that whatever she did has improved my lungs and breathing a whole lot this go around... She also told me I had a small infection and virus in my system so she has me taking 10000 mg of Vitamin C and taking oregano extract. The oregano works like an antibiotic but it doesn't kill the good bacteria... at least that is my understanding.

On Friday...(the day before the craft show) , I worked from 7am-5pm.... where I found out i didn't get the job i had interviewed for...(which i was actually relieved because I had been waiting 2 weeks to hear either way).....then went straight to dinner then right back to the church for ladies night out (I probably wouldn't have gone but my mom had already bought me a ticket and there was a chance I could win an ipad so why not). Ladies Night Out was fun but its not really my kind of thing..... I mean really... who wants to hang out with 1000 women who all wear a different kind of perfume and wear way too much of it.... I was having an allergy fit! Seriously, deodorant is plenty folks... you don't need to soak your clothes in frilly fragrance! That is why I love my husband... he noticed my allergy to fragrance and he stopped wearing lots of Cologne....is that how you spell it...? Ihavenoclue! But he is the sweetest most caring man in the world and I love him to death! ___ oh and if you are wondering, I didn't win the ipad or anything!

OK SATURDAY: I had to wake up early because I was so spent the night before that I couldn't even function to price everything. So I got up and got to work on organizing my crafts. The show started at 10am and went till 4pm.  When I got to the venue I was shocked at the size of the room.... they had us (50 venders) squished into this small conference room!!! And it was a complete bust.... I didn't sell one item! NOT ONE... there was like no traffic at all that came through the show and I got the feeling that the ones that did show up were overwhelmed (like me) at how close together everyone was. Katie had offered to watch my stuff while I then had to head over to my sisters fiance's grad party... and man was I sure glad to have some space!!  David came back with me to the craft fair to clean up and we headed off to church to finish out the day the right way!

That is what I love about church... even when I don't want to go... or think I am going to fall asleep during the sermon because I am just plain exhausted... I can go and worship a God who loves me even when I fail. And it made my day so much better.

And on the last day of this wonderful month of April we celebrated my sister with a Bridal High Tea Party. It was a fun and small relaxing time where we showered Arianna with lace and drank yummy tea. I was so inspired by this event that I am going to have to plan my very own tea party and have everyone over and we can wear big hats and pretty dresses! yes I think so! 

Mid Week Thrifting

So on Wednesday I decided to go to Montana Rescue Mission (MR.M) to see what I could thrift... and when I usually go there I look for new planters and mason jars because I am OBSESSED with planting and gardening... not sure if that is even a strong enough word!  As I was meandering through the crowed isles I have have my arms full with a jar and a few gardening books when I see a fish tank...!! SO EXCITED.... I immediately relieve my arms of its clutter and start examining the tank and all of its parts!...

You must know that growing up my parents had a large saltwater fish tank.... it was so beautiful and i guess somewhere deep inside me had really missed having a fish tank! When we moved to Billings we didn't take the tank with us.. way to much work to try and transport fish and all... but we did have a smaller tank for the rest of my growing up.

Funny story... when I was in the third grade my school had a "SCHOOL CARNIVAL" and each room was a different booth and the hallways were decorated and there was a cake walk ... and this particular year there was a FISHING BOOTH... it was set up in the main hallway between the upper grade classrooms and the gym by the bathrooms... I don't know why I can remember all that but I do... so don't judge.. And this booth was a kiddie pool filled with goldfish (you know the feeder kind.. not the real nice looking ones) And you would pay like 4 tickets to play an activity and then the prize would be a gold fish.  Well my mom was so  against us getting fish that we couldn't play that one... but as the evening progressed my Grammie had come with us and we all know how good Grammies are at spoiling their grandchildren.... and I was pretty good at asking hehe...  She took my sister and I around the booths and when we passed by the Fishing booth we got to play... but because it was close to the end of the carnival we were each given 3 goldfish as our prize! haha YAY For awesome Grandparents.

We took them home and then put our smaller tank together and named our fish... and they went on to live a long life... my mom had thought that they would be dead in a week but she was wrong..dead wrong.  They lived at least until I was a freshman in high school!  However, all of my friends' fishes were dead within a few days. I secretly wonder if the only reason they survived was because my mom was so against us having them in the first place....? But it was probably due to the fact that our goldfish lived in a heated 20gal tank with a filter and air.... but I am going to believe that God had a little lesson in there too :D

OK Sorry... big bunny trail..AND now back to MR.M.

So I decided to buy this $6.99 2.5 gallon tank and take it home. I thoroughly scrubbed it and cleaned it up good... but I was so excited to find that the air pump and tank filter worked beautifully... So I dove my little self down to PETS MART and bought a male beta and a moss ball. I spent a good amount of time wondering the fish section trying to decide on the perfect fish for our tank... but all of the ones I really wanted were schooling fish and they need bigger tanks so I decided that one beta would get to have the best life in a whooping 2.5 gals all to himself..

YES... a MOSS BALL... he is a little green round puff of moss that rolls around to the warmest parts of the tank filtering out alege by eating.  I named our  Mr. Marvin... he is a party animal! (not really)
And our beta is BOB... David named him. He swims around and attacks his reflection so I think I am going to try and paint a cool background poster for his tank... So I spent a total of $20 and now we have a cute little low maintenance pet/room enhancer! and I LOVE IT. I just hope I can keep him alive..

on the shelf at MR. M

All Clean

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Its March Already?!

Wow its already the middle of March and I feel I haven't blogged in FOREVER! The last couple of weeks have been so LONG but they have gone by so FAST! I am never sure how that works... I mean time is constant... there will always be 60 seconds in a min, 60 min in an hour, and 24 hours in one day....  but it sure seems to have sped up dramatically the last few months! Does anyone else feel that way??

I was attempting to do the February Photo Challenge to take one picture each day.... I WAS Doing so good but then I just didn't do the last 2 days!! WHO DOES THAT?  I am going to blame it on the fact that the picture we were supposed to capture on 28  (money) was the picture I was most excited to take. I had been waiting and looking forward to it ... well the 28th came and I went to go take a picture of all  the foreign currency I had been collecting from my various trips to Brazil and Ethiopia..... AND IT WAS MISSING!!!  AHH i was so upset that I just didn't take the picture at all... thus I didn't complete the challenge.... Now I am pretty sure the money isn't gone... it probably just got moved out of place when we moved upstairs... But here are the 27 pictures I did take :D we will never know what the last 2 would have been.

Since we have moved...

We have painted the kitchen and it looks way better! I chose "sunken pool" for the top half and "seal gray" for the bottom! I love painting and making things look WAY better! I still need to do some touch ups but I haven't had the time or energy to make that happen. I did, however, buy some fabric to  make cute retro kitchen curtains! Now if I only had a place to set up my sewing machine....and then learn how to thread it.  BABY STEPS People!

I have also become semi-obcessed with plants and gardening! I don't know when it happend excatly but I so LOVE watching things grow. I feel like having house plants warms up the home and makes it feel like there is life! So I bought a tropicalish tree at home depot when I was looking at paint a few weeks back! I'm not exactly what type of tree it is because my mom threw her tag away when we were planting her... yeah its a her and WE named her Pippy Long Leaf! hehe... She is super cute and green.... and looks magnificant next to our BIG window and entertainment center!  if you look up at day 25 of february you will see a picture of her.

I have also turned our "dining room" into a gardening room haha.  We don't have a table for our dining room so I put a wire shelf next to the window in there and have started seeds for our vegetable garden...(that is if we can still use the back yard).

~side story: the way the agreement is in the house that we rent is that the bacement apartment has the use of the back yard and the upstairs uses the front... but when we moved upstairs we offered to do all lawn care for less rent and the took it... So I am thinking that since we are the lawn care providers we will be able to still put the garden in the back like we were planning last year.  However we have to ask Doug.. (the new guy downstairs)  if he cares... but I really don't think he will because he works like 10-12 shifts all week!! SO BRING ON SPRING

these are the cucumbers.... arn't they cute :D

I planted 4 different kinds of tomatoes, zucchini, gourds, cucumbers, green beans, broccoli, and herbs.... and it has to be one of my favorite  things to watch them grow!  When the seedlings come up you are supposed to thin them out by pulling out all of the weak plants and allowing only the strong ones to keep growing.... AND this is the hardest thing for me to do! I feel like a murderer... plant killer..plant killer... plant killer!!  And i couldn't go through with it..

 SO I decided I would separate each on and plant them in their own spot and then give them away to my friends who want to try their hand at gardening! One of the Best things I have found on Pinterest is using old news papers to make your own!!! SO AEWSOME... when I was growing up my paretns and I would always start seeds and then when we had to transplant them we would go out and by peat pots.... but that gets expensive so this is like the best idea ever!!!! So my mom and I did that last week and my plants are going to be so happy to be moved into them and have a little more room to stretch their roots!  If you want to check a tutorial on how to make your own go here!  I used a soda can instead of a soup can but it works the same :D... haha then I post  a picture of the ones my mom was doing with a soup can haha !!

 Well I hope that you all are having a wonderful March... and I hope to be posting some more book recomendations soon.  Blessings on your weekend :D