Happy Father’s Day!

Okay so it is a little belated, but the sentiment is still there. I’m so lucky to have an amazing husband and even luckier that he is a fabulous Dad to both my boys. I saw this video this morning and could not stop laughing, it totally made my Monday morning.

Being this kind of Dad my one day embarrass our kids, but hey I have come to learn that is some of the fun of being a parent. These Dads are cool, they share in parenting, these  dads change diapers. So. Sexy. Okay not the diaper part, but the sharing in everything part. People without kids don’t understand, but they don’t need to. The right kind of women love and appreciate these men, and since they are the ones that put out, they really are who matter most.

I love it because I can see a little Zippercow in all those Dads. In fact St. Johns Bay is Zippercow’s (self imposed) work uniform. King of the grill, lawn, splash pad and electronics. He’s all those things and so much more. I’m sure there is NOTHING I could do to show him how much I truly appreciate him.

But I do.

The same is true of my own Dad. He was (and continues to be) a wonderful Dad who gave me an appreciation of music and ridiculous comedy. There is an endless list of things he taught me, and in all of that I managed to learn how to find the perfect person to spend my life with.

To both the Dads in my life, my Dad and my wonderful husband Happy Belated Father’s Day!

I Love Spray Paint!

Who doesn’t right? It’s messy and fumy fun! I’ve done a number of projects with spray paint, but I particularly enjoyed this one. I decided I wanted to have a bunch of potted flowers. Given my track record with plants it seems ridiculous, but I kept alive some petunias last year so how hard could it be right? If you’ve ever noticed pots are expensive and in order to have a lot of them, well… you have to spend a lot of money. So I thought I would take a bunch of the black pots we already had for our various trees and shrubs (which are all dead, seriously I can’t take a hint!) clean them up and make them purdy.

Start with miscellaneous pots (cleaned) and an old appliance box to protect the driveway.

 

Rough them up a bit so the paint will stick. Wipe off any dust before painting.

Pick out your favorite spray paint color. I wanted something fun and this Rust-oleum stuff is great, the nozzle allows you to spray in any direction! Read the directions on the can for drying times.  Don’t forget to accidentally stand in front of the breeze so that you paint your legs and feet too.

The dark color required multiple coats for good coverage. You don’t need to get the inside as thoroughly as the outside, just the top part that might be seen after you get the soil in. The same is true of the bottom too. And then you get this!

Yes, my growing skills are awesome aren’t they? My gardening prowess aside the pots turned out pretty cute.  There are SO many possibilities! Great for outdoor weddings or to brighten up an otherwise dull yard.

Cookie Monsters, Delivered!

We live in a pretty friendly neighborhood. We have good friends down the street and between here and there all our neighbors will kindly wave as we pass in our cars and exchange general pleasantries if we should see each other face to face, which doesn’t happen all that often.

One of our neighbors is particularly friendly (which I suppose is useful in his line of work) and sometimes will chat with Zippercow about their various yard projects and what not. He is a supplier/distributor/salesman….okay, I can honestly say I don’t know exactly what it is he does, but he does something with snack goods. So over the years we have gotten bags of free chips, coupons for $ off or in some cases free (!), crackers and other various sorts of snacks. This makes him very popular with the kids.

And today he delivered.

While getting the kids out of the van after picking up Little Moo we have this brief conversation

Friendly Neighbor: “Hey! I have a van full of stuff that you guys need!” (okay, now I can’t recall his exact words, but it was something in that vain)

Me: I look at him skeptically and laugh “Oh?” His tone tells me it’s something I don’t actually need.

Friendly Neighbor: “I have a van full of cookies, we just bought such and such (okay I don’t remember the specifics) so I have a ton of product. I’ve given it out to the other neighbors too.”

Well how can I say no to free cookies in front of the kids? He got me.  He’s good. He must be VERY good at sales (or whatever it is he does).  The kids wander over and collect some packages of cookies and they are on cloud nine.

I’m sure I sound ungrateful, but I’m not. Just scared for my willpower. There is a reason I only get small one serving sizes of cookies while out with the kids and I intentionally don’t buy packages of cookies that sit in the pantry. The only reason there are still the WhoNu cookies in the pantry is because they are GROSS.  The kids are super excited though, so we’ll just say, “Thank you neighbor!”.

**what should have actually said was “Hey neighbor, you have any bell peppers in the back of that van? Because man those suckers be expensive!”

Home Grown

Now that the fence is done (ish) we thought we would try our hand at growing some of our own produce.

Um…

So last year I managed to keep a couple drought tolerant plants alive (for the most part) so clearly I am an expert on the subject don’t cha know.

Not really, so I am trying this year. Zippercow, who grew up in his mother’s garden, keeps telling me that it isn’t that hard and you just have to try and see what works in the area. That sounds easy until you are the one fingered for killing all the plants (or hell, failing to get them to grow) and pouring a bunch of money down the drain or in this case covering it in dirt (can I try my hand at a money tree???).  So despite the entirely childish meltdown I had about this ( in Home Depot nonetheless) and am, to this day, embarrassed about, I am going to give it a try.

We had some left over materials from our fence so Zippercow got to pull out his fancy fence building tools and fashion me this.

It’s beautiful isn’t it? My husband is so handy. Except…now I will feel even worse if all that comes of it is wet dirt.

Thanks to my friend who had extra tomato plants I have a few things that might stand a chance. I hope.

We also were given some seeds from my friend. My friend rocks! I needed something to mark our rows with. I wanted to paint them all pretty (you know, like you’d see on pinterest?) but wanted to get them out before I forgot where everything was. And if you may remember, our yard is FULL of rocks, so easy peasy!

Little Moo is beyond excited about this process and since he is our veggie eater (I know right?!) he wanted to help plant and water. My skills are about matched to his so maybe together we can get a couple of plants to grow?

Wish us luck!

Fencing in the Herd: Final Chapter

This is it, what you’ve all been waiting for! I know, I know. You have all been losing sleep anticipating this reveal, but fret no more, because it is time!

Sadly he’s not down on one knee with romantic proclamations of love, well…he is but not for me.

His grasslets. I think he loves them more than me. Sigh… I digress.

Our fence is done! I suppose there is still the staining and a little trimming to do but the most important part is done!

The herd is contained! See that little spot of white with a circle around it. Yes, that is Littlest Moo, far from arms reach but safely in the yard! Just in time too because unlike his older brother he is a mover, he should actually be called “Littlest Moover"! The fence definitely rates pretty high best investments for our family (and sanity).

We are very happy with the results and I can still see the alfalfa fields over the top of the fence. So I can keep the kiddos in AND still get my view!

This wouldn’t be possible without my wonderful husband, this guy (my awesome brother) who helped the hubs out a ton,

and Shawn at Skyblue Handyman Services.

Now I just need to teach Little Moo to stop opening the fence and letting his brother out…

Still Here!

Bad Blogger!!! Okay, so we've been a little busy AND we've been having some trouble with our website. I'm sure it is something that won't take long to figure out, but we just haven't taken the time to actually figure it out. I am (in my head) working on a couple posts that I will put up soon. The fence is done (aside from staining), we have weight loss news and...oh yeah, I'm going to be 30 in 33 days! And since this is mostly to let you all know I haven't lost interest in the blog here is our son.

Yes, those are sandals and santa socks.

Hmm....now where did those skinny capri-alls go?

Oh My!

Years ago, as I much too quickly outgrew clothes, I decided to keep some of my “skinny” jeans. Of course they aren’t actual skinny jeans, but those from my “skinnier” days that were kept in a tote along with my maternity clothes marked “Mandy’s Someday Clothes”.  Much to my pleasure I have started to fit into some of those jeans and upon further inspection discovered that I have a wardrobe full of jeans in the size I am sooooo close to fitting into. Score!

Well….maybe?

Given that we run a rather tight budget I was more than ecstatic to discover I might not have to buy new jeans and that I just have to tough it out a couple more pounds. Until I realized that almost 30 year old me is not interested in wearing jeans where my crack is hanging out. What the hell was I thinking? Oh I know, I was young, but looking at the stash of jeans I see a number of pairs that are low rise with a bunch of zippers and pockets. They were definitely trendy at the time and I wouldn’t say they would seem outdated now, except maybe for the current version of me. Don’t get me wrong I’m not ready to hang it up and get “Mom Jeans”

(best SNL commercial EVER, by the way)

Quite the opposite. I still want to find a pair of smokin’ hot jeans that make me look sexy as hell  (heck maybe I will own a few) but they most certainly won’t include a view of my crack.

Oh and I absolutely will be passing on the shirts that expose my midriff.

*So close to many reveals! Our fence is almost done and both Zippercow and myself are closing in on some personal weight loss goals!