New Curtains

After almost one year of living in this house, I finally put up curtains! I bought the fabric from Ikea for $2.99/yard and made them with fusible webbing since I don’t have a sewing machine. Then, I used curtain clips at the top just in case I didn’t make the bottom perfectly straight. I can just adjust it at the top by clipping more or less fabric!

This fabric is nice because it adds some interest with the pattern, but it’s still a light color that will go with anything. Also, you can see that it allows some light in even if we leave them closed. The best thing about them is that they were cheap!

Recruit Moiseve

Lee has been in the Police Academy for two and a half months! He’s almost halfway through - time goes by so quickly. From what I gather, he has mixed emotions about the experience. He loves what he’s learning, but it’s physically stressful and some of the classes are boring. His favorite day is Thursday, when he gets to shoot and learn defensive tactics.

Here’s Lee in a pose (you can ask him about it):

Isn’t his outfit cute? And his boots are so shiny. Apparently, his boots are the shiniest in his class. Currently, he is learning Spanish phrases to use out in the field if necessary. His favorite thing to say to me is “Manos arriba!” which means, “Hands up!” I don’t find this as amusing as he does.

Click here for one more picture of Lee.

Trash the Dress Part II

Time to take the plunge! Click here for more.

Trash the Dress

We finally did it! We took the plunge (literally) and did our trash the dress photo shoot. It turned out great! First, we went downtown and I wore a normal dress. We did some shots around Santa Fe Depot with Lexie. Then, I changed into my wedding dress and we posed on the train tracks until a worker yelled at us. We then left and went to the beach. Let’s just say, the water was a little cold…

Click here to see more images!

N.R.A. for F.R.E.E.

Free year membership to the NRA. It means you get the cool sticker and actually show you care about your 2nd Amendment Rights.

The Garden: Then & Now

A little picture progression of our garden:

In the back we have zucchini squash, snap peas (climbing up the teepee), bell peppers, jalapenos, lettuce & spinach (seeds), and one eggplant. The rocks mark where the tomatoes were going to be planted.

Now the tomatoes have been planted. You can notice the lettuce & spinach grew up. They are fast growers - the lettuce is baby greens, so they should be picked when small. You can also see that the snap peas in the back have died Oh well, maybe next year!

Here, obviously, the tomatoes have grown quite a bit. We removed the snap peas and spread out the zucchini squash in the back. I actually took out two zucchini plants and put them in a different area. We grossly miscalculated how much room they would need.

By now, there are a few tomatoes growing on the vines. There are also several zucchini growing. It’s so exciting that everything is growing so well. The biggest problem is with bugs in the lettuce and spinach. Even with pesticide, they are getting eaten. Next time, I think I will grow these in pots.

Memorial Day Weekend 2K9

This Memorial Day weekend, we decided to take a camping trip. Since all of the campgrounds in Big Bear had been reserved months in advance, we had to wing it for a campsite. So, we went to the Big Bear Discovery Center and bought ourselves a wilderness Adventure Pass, which gave us VIP access to yellow stake campsites throughout the area. What is a yellow stake campsite, you ask? Well, it’s basically a campsite in the wilderness marked by a yellow stake. They are up for grabs on a first-come-first-served basis and you must have an Adventure Pass to use them. The problem is, though, that they are along crazy dirt roads in the most random spots and you don’t know if one is taken until you get there.

Luckily, when we rolled up to our first yellow stake option, the people who were camping there were packing up to leave! We were in luck! We were relived since it had taken us 20 minutes to drive 2 miles on the dirt road to get there and we didn’t really want to drive another 30 minutes to the next site.

This type of camping was a first for us, since it was a remote area with no facilities around. There was a picnic table and a fire pit. I guess the next step in the rugged scale for camping would be to hike in to our spot. I think I’ll stick to the yellow stakes for now. The good think about this Adventure Pass is that we can now camp in any of these type of spots throughout Southern California for free!

Click here for more!

The Camping Toilet*

Enter the Camping Toilet. This beauty is an example of man’s genius, the epitome of inventive creativity. No other camping toilet can compare to the comfort and style of this outdoor throne. And during these economic hardships, the price (of $5) is right. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the natural surroundings as you take care of your business and the camping toilet takes care of you.

*Patent Pending

Pup Update

Lexie is growing quickly. She is now almost 6 months and weighs over 30 pounds. We expect her to get a little bit bigger, but not much.
She can sit, lay down, fetch, shake, roll over, place (stay), and crawl. We are working on playing dead and stick em up. She gets distracted easily, so when we’re at the dog park, she ignores us when we tell her to come. But she’ll come to us every time when we’re at home.

I like this picture because of her cute paws hanging over the edge of her bed. Her favorite thing to do at the dog park is to instigate other dogs so that they will chase her. Also, she likes to try to sit on dogs that are smaller than her. She’ll turn around and stick her butt on them.

Garden update…

Here is a garden update for you. We are now at full cap. We have Snap Peas, 2 kinds of Lettuce, Jalepenos, Eggplant, Red Bell Pepper and 5 kinds of tomatoes(Orange Russian, Spitfire Hybrid, White Beauty, Vintage Wine and Cherokee Chocolate.) In a few months we will have a whole salad in the yard, we’ll just go outside with a fork and dressing.