Gardyn

So as you may recall from La Primavera (Spring) I had planted some flower plants, well yesterday I discovered that they had broken the surface!!!

I'm glad my mom suggested planting seeds b/c it is very fulfilling to see these tiny tiny seeds sprout up knowing that I took care of them and helped the process. Now hopefully they'll continue to grow and make pretty pretty flowers so the hummingbirds will find our porch and come use our pretty pretty feeder we have.

I have a very fun idea planned for these tiny sprouts but will wait to see if it is successful before sharing.

If you haven't noticed yet, all the titles are related to music, this one is no exception. Thanks to my super cool sister I was introduced to POGO who probably isn't everyone's cup of tea but I find some of his things very intriguing and find myself craving a listen every now and then.

In honor of today's title, here is "Gardyn" by POGO.

Jailhouse Rock

I've watched many documentaries lately. Many, many, many documentaries.

Several of the last few have been about people who have been wrongly convicted and how messed up the process was that led to them spending many years in jail and sometimes death. I have also learned that any side of the story can be convincingly told so I try to keep it all in perspective.

There were two about people who received the death penalty despite evidence that they were innocent...I dunno, it seemed like a sucky situation. Both were from Texas...go Texas. Then one from California about cops who were after child molesters and ended up arresting and convicting like 6 innocent people (2 married couples and 2 single dads) for 12-20 years each. All of those ended up being overturned in the end. They found the evidence proving one of them was innocent in a detective's garage. Excellent.

I just hope I'm never involved with something like that.

Under Pressure

At Disneyland there are signs for every ride indicating who can and can't ride. These signs are very important to me.
If there was a height limit, something about speed or dropping, or you couldn't be with child I was OUT!
If pregnant women, handicapped people, and people holding babies could ride something, I was set.
On the It's a Small World ride, they literally roll the wheelchairs onto the boats. I was pumped about this ride!

Now, I am claustrophobic.

There is a submarine ride that follows the Finding Nemo theme. On the warning sign at the beginning of the line it warns that if you can't handle enclosed spaces you shouldn't ride. I figured I'd be fine..

No matter how spacious it was, as soon as I was in my seat and they closed the hatch, my blood pressure went through the roof. My logical side kicked in and told me to chill out...my illogical side was panicking that we were going to sink, run out of air, that we'd be trapped in this cartoon like submarine till we all DIED!!!

Once the ride got going and the pretty music started playing I was able to chill a little bit. I focused on taking pictures and pretending that we weren't under water b/c knowing that brought on all of the illogical thoughts of being trapped and wanting to scream "WE'RE ALL GOING TO DIE IN HERE!" I pretended that the stuff outside the window was just some Disney magic and was really just a video. We were NOT under water.
This illusion I'd created kept me from hyperventilating and sucking the limited amount of precious oxygen out of the air where it needed to be to keep me and the small children alive.

So parents, you're welcome! My delusions saved your children.

My Sweet, My Lovely

Continuing the current trend of pulling pictures from last year at these times, these pictures are from our first trip to Belton to see Lincoln's niece before he left for California. I think Lincoln really enjoyed it because it gave him a chance for Em to actually warm up to him and they got to play a bit.


While we were there, Ashley was telling us about this song she had that would make Em cry. Lincoln was so intrigued by this idea that he immediately got on his phone and went and found this song and downloaded it. We're not sure why it happens, whether it's just such a pretty song or so sweet..but it did indeed make tears come to her eyes and she got very still and was listening intently until I made Lincoln turn it off.
It made me sad to see her so solemn but at the same time it was a little funny that Em, who was a year and 2ish months at the time, was so moved by a song (or for w/e reason) that she'd cry. Kids are so interesting :)

Here's the song called "My Sweet, My Lovely" by Plumb

You and Me

A year ago Lincoln and I took our engagement pictures. What a fun day :)


This was our Save the Date. Aw...good times :)

When In Texas

This used to be the closest beach to my house...look at me now :)

This is by where me and Lincoln got married. I still love it. Love the town. Love the building. Love this little beach. Love the lake. It was perfect :)

Too Cool For School

I had to document this. It was a priceless moment from my first year of teaching. I always tried to figure out why they'd get the wrong answer so I looked at this for a long time before I got it and then I laughed out loud and grabbed my camera.

Happy Friday!

Oh and I love the sucking up at the top with the "<3's Mrs. Ward." That didn't help her grade.

Hey Soul Sister

Today I spent a great deal of time watching the MTV Woodie awards which is just an awards show for college style music (get your mind out of the gutter.)

I have to say that I must be getting old b/c most of that noise doesn't really suit my tastes anymore but I can see why college age kids eat it up.

ANYWAY, why did I watch in slow motion pausing every time the lights were up, inspecting every face in the crowd? Oh that's right, it's b/c my super cool sister was there at SXSW at the show. She's pretty much the coolest person I know and I live vicariously through her. She's super creative and works for an advertising agency in Austin that does all kinds of crazy cool stuff that I feel semi associated with just b/c my sister works there.

This is my favorite example of one of their campaigns they did. (Before Reagan worked there but still cool)





On top of that she's much braver than I've ever been and I'm super proud to call her my sister. When I was scared out of my mind to venture to a big state school she took on UT like a champ and graduated in 4 years like a pro. Even when I was scared out of my mind that Austin would chew her up and spit her out she showed just how strong her character was and came out stronger on the other end.
I know younger siblings supposedly look up to the older ones but I look up to her.
I still get all teared up when she goes back to school or when we leave Austin or have to say our goodbyes...I'm just a mess when it comes to stuff like that.

ANYWAY, I say all that to say this:

My sister is cooler than your sister.

No exceptions.

The end.

Paint With ALL the Colors of the Wind

Not just some...don't be cheap.


Yes this is yet another post about Disneyland...but when the most exciting thing I did today was go drive around the block JUST b/c the parking spot closer to our apartment was open and I like being able to see my car (and there was a 10 pound bag of potting soil in the trunk that I didn't really want to haul across the apartment complex) there's just not much to discuss.

So..Disneyland. This was our view while we waited for the World of Color show and upon visiting this same location in the daylight, it is a pretty cool place to take a little girl who loves her some Disney princesses b/c during the day this is apparently where they all come. At one point I thought it was just the same girl changing dresses to pretend to be another one. But the families eat out on the porch at this restaurant and the princesses come and all say hi. Pretty cool (if you're a five year old girl.)

For me I just kept thinking how hot they must be with all those layers of tulle and the makeup and the shoes and on top of all that they had to be super sweet with their sweet voices to all the kids. I guess that's why they did short intervals...eesh.

I also just watched the World of Color on YouTube from the angle it was MEANT to be viewed from and didn't recognize the show at all. Next time we go, me and Lincoln are getting there when the gates open to get those stupid reserved seats so we can see it from THIS view. It was still pretty cool but from where we were you could not see all the videos. Plus our version had some TRON business thrown in at the end which was ok I guess, it gave everyone a very definite "leave early" moment.

Anyway, if you have 30 minutes of your day to waste away and have no intentions of coming to California to see this for yourself, have a look. If you'd rather be surprised by the awesomeness and have no idea what to look forward to on your hypothetical trip to Disneyland California Adventure, don't look.

La Primavera (Spring)

I figured I'd celebrate the beginning of spring with a couple flower pictures. Although...there have been flowers blooming here since I got here in October BUT certain trees/plants are starting to bloom as it's getting a tiny bit warmer. How these plants can tell the mild difference between 50 degrees and 60 degrees is crazy to me, but they do.

Today I went to WalMart and got a packet of flower seeds to plant and hopefully watch grow. I wanted to get bulb flowers but couldn't make a decision between two kinds. One that came with five bulbs and the other came with TWENTY! I didn't want 5 OR 20 plants, just one or two so I moved to the seeds that were much cheaper.

So tomorrow morning I'm going to plant my little seeds and hopefully not be totally disappointed in a couple weeks. Lincoln's tomato plants we planted in one of those upside down hanger things seem to be doing well. He has 5 sprouts coming up and they're about 2 inches tall. My potted ivy plant is doing okay...I've had him since my 20th birthday and he's been neglected and loved and always has held on. But for some reason he doesn't love California. I should probably start using some miracle grow on him and hope that gives him a boost

When I Say I Do

2 years ago today my friend Allison's sister Rachel got married. Today she is getting her wisdom teeth out but I thought I would commemorate the day with this picture. The title was their first dance song, good stuff. It's not very often that I'm in front of the camera...it's even rarer that I'll tolerate the picture that was taken.

This picture was edited once upon a time...I don't remember what exactly I did but I think it involved opening Allison's eyes and removing a card from under my dress shoulder strap.

Allison came and spent a week here in sunny California for her spring break and over the past week has inspired most of my posts. Now that she's gone back to reality so have I...which is quite uneventful. Since Lincoln is 100% (by military standards) not deploying in August and we'll be here another year and a half (again, military standards) I've opened up to the idea of finding a job. Ideally I would like to get a job working with kids in some way. Had looked into being an assistant or working at a daycare.

I learned quickly that apparently in California you have to take a certain number of classes to be qualified to work with children in any form. So either I figure out how to do that or go back to the drawing board and keep looking. There's no extreme hurry, just something to get me out of the apartment and prevent me from becoming a full blown hermit.

Best Days

A year ago today Lincoln met his niece Embree for the first time. He'd just gotten off a plane from Japan and was exhausted. He asked me why I was taking pictures and I told him that one day he'd want to remember the first time he held his niece.

Today was my "I told you so."



This also marks his 1 year anniversary of being in the states consecutively. After his leave at home he road tripped to California where he's been stationed ever since. It's a nice anniversary to celebrate :)

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

A week ago today we traveled to Hollywood. This is the oldest set of footprints that I took a picture of and it's Judy Garland so, yeah. Lincoln also asked that I take this picture for his mom who loves The Wizard of Oz.

Lincoln brought to my attention that I may have over reacted to the scariness that was Hollywood and I very well might have. Maybe we'll venture back to LA during our stay in Cali and find something to enjoy :)

Special post coming tomorrow as a wonderful anniversary will come to pass :)

A Very Merry Unbirthday To You!

I love these paper lanterns, so whimsical and fun.

One day I want to have a garden with a place to have dinner outside under shade trees with lights strung all in the trees. Or candles in mason jars hung all over. Quilted tablecloth. Mix matched chairs. Just an idea.

A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes

There were very rare moments when I was able to find angles or hidden walkways where there weren't 500 other people trying to take pictures.

This was one of those times.

World of Color

(that IS in fact a song, it was playing when I took this picture)

Technically this picture was taken last night but I figured as a finale post for our Disneyland adventure I would put the "finale" pictures from the evening. This is called "World of Color" at Disneyland California Adventure. It's basically fireworks but with water...and sometimes fire. I hear there's something like this in Vegas, but never having been there I'll just take their word for it.

I can say that this show is pretty awesome and I'm sure it's even more awesome from the FRONT! Which apparently, Disney sucks everyone for all their worth and if you want to see this show from any decent angle you have to get a FastPass as soon as the park opens just so you can sit/stand in the prime areas of concrete that they rope off later and call "reserved."

Still very awesome and something I look forward to watching again with Lincoln next time I go to Disneyland.



After the water show we ran to the other park. Which by the way, I thought I was being clever trying to knock both shows out at once but apparently it is a very popular idea so we were herded with the other cattle/people to the other park and shoved into a roped area with thousands of other people so we could stand and watch fireworks over the castle.

The fireworks were very cool. One of the biggest "Disney" moments was when Tinkerbell came out of the mountain and flew (via cable and harness) in front of the castle while the fireworks were going off. You can see her in this picture. She's that larger glowing dot under the fireworks.

This girl (or boy) deserves some kind of medal of bravery b/c I don't think there's any amount of money that could make me suit up in some fairy costume (probably highly flammable), suspended from some wire, and "fly" many many feet over the ground WHILE things are blowing up in the air around me. I'm sure she (or he) was very safe but still...I get nervous with fireworks over my head or anywhere nearby...much less being shot AT my head.

It was very Disney magical and what not. It was a lovely predecessor to being herded again like cattle towards the Fantasmic show.

The Fantasmic show was pretty impossible to capture on camera from our prime standing position (again we weren't allowed in the "reserved" section of sidewalk) so no pictures of that. But there are hundreds (literally) of pictures I'll post to facebook and probably use as an update over the next week or so.

M-I-C-K-E-Y----M-O-U-S-E

[Today] we headed off for a 13 hour day full of Disneyland business. Our plan was to knock out DisneyLAND in one day and then try to catch all three night shows. California Adventures water show started at 8 and lasted about 30 minutes, then Disneyland had fireworks at 9 and their Fantasmic was at 9:15. I was bound and determined to kill ourselves over this so that on our second day we wouldn't have to hang around for hours and hours just to see the shows.

Anyway, we got there shortly after the park opened at 8 (around 8:30) and left shortly after my right foot fell off (around 9:45.)

It was my first trip to Disney with my good camera and as fun as I hoped it would be, it was equally frustrating trying to snap pictures without someone walking in front of me. Plus I didn't have a cute cute little girl dressed as a princess to pose in all the pictures like this one.



Maybe one day :)

or maybe one day we'll have our niece with us and I can just mooch off of her cuteness.

Let's Go Surfin' Now

Everybody's learning how.

I will say that the surfer's are rather fun to watch while spending an afternoon at the beach. Yesterday it was especially wavy and they were having a ball out there. We're heading out again today, we'll see if they have two good days in a row.

The World is Black, The World is White

One of the few pictures of an animal that I snapped at the zoo. First time seeing a panda, woot woo! He was pretty cute.

Hollywood is Dead

Today (we'll pretend this isn't backdated) we ventured 70 miles North to the famed Hollywood in LA. Getting there was easy...finding a parking spot wasn't bad...fighting the thousands of tourists and making sure I didn't loose my purse in the process was another story.

All of the "nice" Hollywood stuff is all in this ONE area. When you venture away it's all very run down and dirty. I'm sure if you're a native or you know you're way around you see it a completely different way. But as an outsider coming in knowing nothing of Hollywood, it was kinda disappointing. Wish we could have seen it back in the day when it was booming.

We did get to see the Kodak theater which is lovely, and we did get to see the footprints at the Chinese theater and we got to walk along the stars on the Walk of Fame. It was nice and we had Lincoln there to protect us from all of the crazy people who were talking to themselves or yelling at strangers.

I watch way too many episodes of Gangland and in every episode there is some cop saying that when someone asks you "where you're from" it's called "calling you out" and they're really asking what gang you're associated with. So the entire time we were walking around I was terrified someone was going to "call us out." We even wore green as a neutral color (a little extravagant, I know.) We went to the Ripley's believe it or not museum and had a nice time roaming around and then we headed for our car. It had been an uneventful day thus far....and then this guy on the corner trying to sell tours asks Lincoln "where you guys from?" I about lost it...my heart started racing and I thought I was about to get shot. I'm sure the guy was asking a completely innocent question in a tourist saturated environment where everyone was from somewhere other than Orange County but at the moment my mind was going nuts.

Lincoln was very level headed, knew I was freaking out, so he told the guy we were from around LA, lived in the Orange County area. The guy started talking about random stuff that didn't really make much sense and after "accusing" Lincoln of being from somewhere else and Lincoln told him we were from California he just said "alright, well have a nice day" and we were on our way.

I was panicked...ridiculously so. Even thought this guy that had been ease dropping on the conversation was following us. I told Lincoln I wanted to go in a store and calm down a second before we walked down some sketchy street to our car.

Once back in our car I wanted nothing more than to see our beautiful little town again, but alas, we took a wrong turn and ended up driving through straight up East LA where all the Gangland episodes are based...SUPER! AND we caught every stop light...even better! Once we made it to the highway we drove right past Skid Row and passed the exit where The Soloist was based.

Anyway...we made it home and nobody followed us or burned our apartment down in our sleep so I assume we're going to be okay.

I'm glad we went but I'm glad we left. That is all.

Dreaming of the Osaka Sun

Today we went to the zoo and I was reminded how hard it is to take a good picture of a moving object (animal) and how easy and wonderful it is to get right up on some flowers or a tree and snap a pretty picture. I did get a couple of cute pictures in but this one is probably my favorite. It was in the Japanese garden that had a koi pond with turtles and ducks and of course koi.

Tomorrow's adventure includes the usual tasty Sunrise Cafe in the morning (NOT getting an omelet...going for the MASSIVE burrito!) and then venturing to LA to go duke it out with the gangs. Red or blue, red or blue.....or gold. Decisions decision.

A Few of My Favorite Things

Okay, maybe not a few, but one.

I love these palm trees. They put all the other palm trees to shame.

That is all.

Alice in Wonderland

This picture was taken about a year ago. Every time I look at it I'm reminded of how blessed I was to be able to work with such a wonderful group of people. I was so pumped about Alice in Wonderland (the Tim Burton one) coming out that on the day it came out I made costumes for everyone out of construction paper or got props at Wal-Mart so we could all be a character for the day.

I miss teaching.

It's a Beautiful Day

This is the street to get to our street. It's probably one of my favorite things, right up there with the ocean and beaches. Due to mud slides every inhabited inch of this place is landscaped. Along this road there are random gardens and "park" type places along the side of the road and flowers flowers everywhere!

On a sunny day everything is super green, and if you happen to catch the sun at just the right place, all of these trees turn orange from the sunset, and if you face the other way you can see the ocean. It's a pretty wonderful little area in our neighborhood.

From the Halls of Montezuma

Lincoln graduated from Corporals Course last Friday. I'm such a people watcher so I kind of enjoy these types of events to observe the native's behavior :)

I never get used to the types of noises that marines make when they're all congregated together. Lots of "hoorah" and grunts.

And what IS proper etiquette during the National Anthem? Standing- yes Hand over your heart? Never really know for sure. Some do...some don't.

The people who attend are pretty diverse as well. Lots of co-worker marines. A couple wives. A couple little families. A couple girlfriends. There was a girl not much older than me with two small boys sitting in front of me and when the ceremony was over one of the little boys sprinted straight for his daddy and was immediately scooped up into the cutest bear hug. If it wasn't creepy to take pictures of strangers I would have snapped a picture of both their faces.

Oh and I was pleasantly surprised that at the end of the ceremony all the corporals stood up and sang the Marine Corp Hymn. Very entertaining :)

Ohhhhhhh Mexico

For over two weeks I have been craving some tasty Mexican food and a margarita. We allow ourselves to eat pretty much anything we want one day out of the week...Saturday. So THIS Saturday we looked up a local Mexican spot and headed out. It was delicious, totally hit the spot. Cute spot too. We ate out on the patio which is too hard to say no to when the weather is always fantastic. They even have little space heaters everywhere so when a cool breeze starts blowing it's still wonderful. There was a guy out there strumming away on his guitar. It was quite lovely. Would definitely do it again :)



As if anyone had to guess...today's title comes from James Taylor.

...and I CAN do the sewing (pt. 2)

I finally finished the apron. Here are the many many pictures

Pinning on the trim that I made out of striped fabric.

The main pattern with trim

The pleated border I decided to add to make the top part bigger

The skirt

The pattern called for one fabric with a hem but I didn't like that you'd be able to see the "wrong" side so I added a different fabric for the back of the tie

Voila. Finished. (For now...I plan on making the pleated border thinner but that can wait.)

Wasting Time

So it's late, and I haven't posted for today yet...soooo here's a filler so I can have more time and devotion to post about the apron I just finished.

These are called birds of paradise. They are everywhere here in California and when they're fresh and bright they are fantastic and the most intriguing plant I've ever seen. They straight up look like birds. But once they peak and their petals start to wilt, they're just kinda sad...like an old bird molting. I think this one classifies as a mature adult. Got a few age spots going on. You can see some "gray hairs" in the back. But all in all, beautiful flower.


Title taken from Dave Matthews Band's song "Stay"

Snip, Snip, Here, Snip, Snip, There

So this blog has officially motivated me to do something. After posting about my apron I decided that it was time to MAKE the apron. So, Monday I unfolded all the fabric for the first time, unpacked the pattern for the first time and went to work cutting out all the pieces. Then yesterday after I got home I went to work ironing everything and laying it all out to make some big decisions. I'm happy with what I've decided on and couldn't wait to start pinning and cutting things out.

Can't wait to start piecing it together and finally see the finished product. I've wanted a cute apron forever!!!




Title taken from The Wizard of Oz.

In [8] Years Time

Not only is it Texas Independence day (GO TEXAS!) but 8 years ago today I agreed to make things with Lincoln official. I love that it's something we look back on and laugh about how ridiculous I was. I was utterly sickened by the title "girlfriend." All I saw were a bunch of stupid high school relationships that were crap and I didn't want to take part in it so we were together without being labeled.

Anyway, 8 years later and we have the best titles yet. Husband and Wife, and loving every minute :)


Title derived from Noah and the Whale's song "5 Years Time." It's a lovely song, go download it.

When The Moon Hits Your Eye

like a big pizza pie, that's amore.


After Lincoln had to drop 10 pounds in a matter of days we decided that maybe we should just start watching what we eat and maybe that wouldn't happen again. This pizza has very few calories (off the top of my head I really don't remember) and was absolutely delicious. The crust is razor thin and for toppings all it has are the sliced tomatoes, fresh mozzarella, and some spices. Absolutely fantastic.