Friday, May 21, 2010

Hello Again


Wow! It's been a long time since I've posted anything! We've been very busy around the Maxwell house and have some exciting things taking place right now. I'll use this post as a quick recap of what we've been up to over the last couple of weeks.

We've had lots of playing outside! Even though the weather has been a little too wet for our tastes, we've managed to get outside quite a bit. We've played hopscotch




We've played soccer...pretty sure we've got a future star on our hands!


We've been to watch my little cousin play soccer (and score a goal!), but Bailey was preoccupied with the little girls...I think maybe they were dancing?


While outside we've had some encounters with the animal kingdom.

This little guy was hanging out in our front yard when Bailey and I spotted him. She thought he was very cute and we even got to watch him eat a leaf.

Then one day while we were planting some flowers we found this cute little fella in our back yard!

Bailey was very concerned about where his mommy and daddy were. When I told her that I didn't know she decided that we would have to be his mommies! What a sweet little girl. We caught him in the box and went and let him loose in the greenspace in our neighborhood.


Speaking of the animal kingdom, we have a temporary guest in our house. One I was not at all happy about originally, but I have to admit, he is kind of cute. Nick's AP Psychology kids all had to take a mouse home and train it for their final project. Since they had an extra, Nick decided to bring one home and train it as well. Bailey likes to look at him and he's not as gross as I thought he would be. However, he will be leaving once the project is over, no pet mouse for us!


I sold a house to a high school friend and her husband. They are a very neat couple and met while she was doing mission work down in Brazil. They were great to work with!


We bought Bailey a big girl bed! It's still in the box, but here's a picture of what it will look like.

                                                        

Bailey and I had a girls night and ordered pizza and watched Finding Nemo in my bed. We had such a good time!


And for some really exciting news (for us anyways) -- we have an accepted contract on a lot out in Victoria Estates here in Georgetown! We've always known that we wanted to build on some land one day. I had envisioned us out on a couple of acres, but to be able to afford that, we'd either have to be way out in the county, which I didn't want, or we'd have to wait quite a while longer. I stumbled across this lot and found out that it was bank owned and they were obviously ready to get rid of it! This is such a beautiful neighborhood, and one that we normally wouldn't be able to afford to buy land and build in, but let's just say, I feel like we're stealing this! It's a gated community with a 57 acre lake! And we're not far from the lake at all!! The lot itself is a little less than an acre, but we love it! The lot is really wooded right now, but we're going to slowly clear the trees off ourselves so it will be ready when it's time to start building. Our plan is to start construction in about two years. Even though it's still a while away, I'm completely obsessed with looking up house plans now! And dreaming about our kitchen. That's the one area Nick and I want to splurge. I don't care if everything else in the house is normal and boring, I was a great kitchen!! The next time we go out there I'll make sure to take some pictures to post.

Monday, May 3, 2010

Seeing Green

I have brown thumbs. I love flowers, I want to have a pretty yard, but I have brown thumbs. Actually, the problem usually stems from the fact that I forget to water flowers, but either way, flowers don't stand a good chance at my house. But this year, I'm hoping I'll be seeing green. See, I have something that has inspired me. Something that has made me want to do better, and remember to give my plants a drink when they're thirsty. That something is this...






doesn't look like much now, but those are my lilies...that I planted...LAST YEAR! That's right, something that I planted last year is actually coming back this year. I know, that probably doesn't sound like that big of a deal to most of you, but for me...it's huge. So these lilies are my inspiration. I want to give them pretty friends. Instead of these



that I had to dig up because they did not live to see another spring.

Aside from planting and remembering to water flowers, we're taking this green thing one step further this year. Nick and I are planning on building a raised herb garden!! That's right, us, Mr. Unhandy and Mrs. Brown Thumb, building and planting. It's crazy. We were hoping to build it this past weekend, but, of course the monsoon like rain kept us from that. We're also going to have another raised bed for a few vegetables.


We're just going to grow some bell peppers and tomatoes here, but we're also planting more variety of things at my dad's house. He has a large garden (and actually knows what he's doing) so we thought it would be better to plant everything else there. I can't wait until I can just walk in the back yard and pick some fresh cilantro or basil, or go pluck a nice ripe tomato off the vine. Here's to hoping I have a summer full of nice fresh produce at my fingertips!