Mary, Mary Quite Contrary.....

....how does your garden grow?
With sale priced flowers
And short spring showers
And pretty blossoms all in a row.

Ok, I just have to take a minute to brag. Since we bought our new house I've been addicted to looking at flowers EVERYWHERE we go so I can get some good ideas on which plants grow really well in my area, so I know what to plant in my flowerbeds. There are thousands of different flowers to choose from, so its really hard to make a final decision on what to buy. Our house has absolutely no flowers anywhere except a few tulips that only last a few weeks in early spring.

I've been perusing all the stores and nurseries locally, and not so local, to compare prices because flowers and shrubs are expensive, and after buying the house we are pretty much broke. So here's the good part, so far I've bought roughly 75 flowers/shrubs, not including our garden vegetables, all on sale, and even better yet, on clearance. I bought 36 4" geraniums all for $1 which normally cost $4 apiece, I got 6 1 gl sized Asian lilies for $1.44 which normally cost around $8 a piece, I bought two peonies at $3 a piece, some gladiolas for $1.50 a bag (bulbs), some lilies of the valley for $1.50, a bleeding heart for $3, and some tricyrtis hirta for $3. All these flowers/shrubs are perennials, not including the geraniums because I needed some color really quickly in my front yard because it looks so drab with all the dumb juniper bushes all over the place--which I'm tearing out next week by the way.

My total spending for the year so far on flowers/shrubs: $65

My total savings on all those plants: $161

I saved myself almost $100!! That is the way to shop for plants--to always look for sales and clearance plants because even though they may be small and sickly looking, they will grow into mature plants just like any of the other good looking plants, slowly, but surely. I can't wait to see my flowers bloom! Happy Planting!!

We Bought A House

We bought our first house about three weeks ago. We just moved in last weekend and I have to say, what a breath of fresh air it is to be free of living in an apartment! Its a cute little red brick home built in the mid 50's. Its been kept up with, but needs a ton of updating inside and out. The neighborhood is awesome with no through traffic and really friendly neighbors.

It has been a lot of work owning a house that is so outdated because we pretty much have to replace and redo everything in it right down to appliances, carpet, paint, plumbing, even the yard is outdated with junipers and other poky bushes. Its a nice starter home for us with three  bedrooms and we are right next to an elementary school along with everything else we would ever need right down to the I-15. We are very blessed to have gotten where we are since Stephen and I first met, and we couldn't be happier. We have big plans for our home and can't wait to get started!

Where's The Lint Trap?

This picture makes me laugh every time I look at it. This is 10 months worth of lint that I never cleaned out of my dryer because I didn't know where the lint trap was (long story) so after Stephen got home from Georgia, we were driving home from a night out and I told him I needed to clean out the lint trap, but I didn't know where it was. I joked with him that it was probably going to be 3 inches thick and this is what I pulled out, haha, it looks like some animal hide.

Before and After

I have been growing my hair out for the past three years, and finally decided it was time to chop it off. I cut off a whopping eight inches, and I miss it:( Here is the before and after.

Weekend Getaway

I've been meaning to get on here and make some updates since Stephen came home a few weeks ago, but life has been going a million miles an hour since then. We have both been keeping really busy working, and playing catch up for the last six months we finally caught a break this last weekend for our anniversary.

I have had our anniversary all planned out since February. I was so excited to have an entire weekend alone with my handsome husband Since he's been home from Georgia we haven't really had a weekend to ourselves. I planned a romantic weekend getaway as a surprise for Stephen for our anniversary last week. I sent him flowers at work the day of our anniversary as an invitation to come with me to Park City. Little did I know that his work buddies would make fun of him for having his wife send him flowers, haha.

I made a basket full of goodies with the theme "you are sweet". I won't go into detail, but I put little notes on a few candy bars that describe Stephen--some were cute, some were funny, and some were just between me and Stephen, I made chocolate covered strawberries, I wrote him a poem that actually rhymed (I was pretty proud of myself because I don't do poetry), and put in a homemade gift certificate. Stephen even came home from work a little early Friday so that we could spend more time in Park City together. We stayed at a B&B called the Silver Moose Ranch, and actually got upgraded to a larger room for free when we got there. This was my first time in Park City and Stephen hadn't been for quite a few years, so we spent the evening out on main street window shopping and eating out.

The next morning we had breakfast and headed to the outlet mall on our way back to Salt Lake. My plan was pretty successful, and we had a fabulous time! I wish we could do stuff like that every weekend.

 We found this guy on main street. His name is Frans the Bear.

 I brought stuff to make Shirley Temples with. Cheers to three sweet years!

 Stephen's goodie basket

Girls Night: Washburn Style

Friday night I hosted the Washburn family's first girls night in my tiny apartment. There were eight of us squeezed into my itty bitty living room/kitchen, but that didn't stop us from having fun. We started the night off with a little car accident outside my front door (thank goodness it was none of our cars), followed by Chinese take out. I was a little worried I didn't order enough food, but we had plenty to go around, and Dragon Diner is one of my favorite Chinese restaurants. For our "craft" we made little terrariums (really succulent bowls), and finished off the night with cake and dessert in celebration of our birthdays.

I am so glad we decided to do this and that we could all get together including Wendy and Julie who are cousins. It was very nice to finally be able to meet them in person and get to know them a little bit. The circumstances we had to meet under were really sad, but I am so glad I could give them a little break from dealing with funeral arrangements and sorting through Aunt Judy's things.

My sister's have been doing girls nights for quite some time in Twin Falls, and I love to get together with them when I come to visit. When I come home, back to Utah, I tell my sisters-in-law about all the crafts we've made and how much fun we have when we have girls night and craft days, so they all decided they wanted to do one too. I really shouldn't compare my families, but they are SO opposite each other; it cracks me up. I have fun with both family gatherings. My sisters in my family are more serious crafters, and really get together to have dessert and chat. We talk, and laugh, and tell each other whats new in our lives. The Washburns are pretty much the same way, but MUCH louder, haha, there's no chatting--its talking to everyone, over everyone, and lots of laughter. I love my family! And our terrariums turned out SO cute; what a fun project!

Early Morning Scare

I have been up since 5:00 this morning. I woke up to a strange beeping noise coming from, what seemed like, the kitchen. At first I thought I had just dreamed it, but as I laid in bed waiting to hear it again, sure enough there was a beep, but only one. I was confused because it sounded a lot like a phone that was running out of battery, so I went to the kitchen to check my phones, but they were plugged in charging for my upcoming day for work. I had never heard this noise before and was just befuddled. I went back to bed hoping to fall asleep again, but to no avail. Twenty minutes later the beeping started up again. I laid in bed waiting for it to stop. It did for another 10 minutes before it started again.

By 6:00 am I laid in bed waiting for it to go off because it sounded like the smoke alarm. I got up to disable the smoke detector and had a hard time getting it off the wall. Once I did I took the battery out, but the beeping kept going, so I put the smoke alarm back on the wall to investigate the source. I text Stephen a few times because the beeping was getting more and more frequent than when it had started an hour and a half earlier. I was starting to get worried I was waking the neighbors, because the beeping was so loud and I couldn't turn it off. I went to the spare bedroom and the only thing that was plugged in was the printer, so I unplugged it hoping it would quit. It didn't. It got more and more progressive when I remembered there was a carbon monoxide detector behind our couch. I moved everything out of the way, and sure enough, the carbon monoxide alarm was the culprit. It kept flashing telling me to get to safer air. I was freaking out by this point because I couldn't think of any source where this poisonous gas could be coming from, and there was no way to turn it off. Besides, what was I supposed to do, go stand outside in the freezing air in my pj's and slippers, and then what? I have no clue what I am supposed to do in this situation!

I remembered back when we moved into the apartment last year Stephen tried to disable it, but had no idea how to do it. He tried unplugging it to put it in the closet, but when he took it out of the wall the alarm sounded, so I didn't want to take any chances with a full blown alarm going off this early in the morning. I took two pillows off my bed and covered the alarm to muffle the beeping so I could get some sleep. I scooted the couch back against the wall to make the pillows stay in place, and laid back in bed. The noise stopped a little while later, thank goodness! But I didn't ever get back to sleep before I had to get up for work. How annoying.