Possibilities

When Kenan first started talking about planting a garden this year, I was more than a little bit skeptical. I figured it would be an expensive and time-consuming project for two people with already busy lives and hectic careers. Not until today, when we planted the garden ("we" is an exaggeration; I believe I provided drinks and moral support) I started to understand. Gardens are the essence of faith. You plant seeds or small sprouts in the ground, water and tend them carefully, and hope that they will grow and thrive. Now I'm getting slightly philosophical, but perhaps that is the reason so many farmers are devoutly religious: no one understands faith better than a farmer. Anyway, I was also the official photographer, so here are lots and lots of pictures. Also, thank you a hundred times over to Mom and Dad for showing us what to do and being right there to do it with us.

This was just me trying out my photography skills

Making rows

We are just looking cute, not really helping :)

Row #2

It was such a beautiful day - look at all the wildflowers that popped up in our yard

Drink break

We planted potatoes using sprouts from my Grandma's garden (all the way from Iowa!), so I gave them a special name :)

Our first garden!

Planting

See? I planted a couple of plants

Harry the turtle, our garden mascot

Madison was very curious and could not resist getting involved in the planting - at one point she dug up a potato sprout that Kenan had just finished planting!

The final step - watering

Texas Aggie Baseball

We went to College Station this weekend to catch some Texas Aggie baseball and had such a good time! We weren't able to make Saturday's game due to the freak weather we had, but Friday's game was great and of course the Aggies beat Texas Tech. 

Ahhh, Olsen Field

I got to soak in the game and score it - my favorite part

I love being able to share something I love so much with someone I love so much

Daddy's 1954 Ford Tractor

Saturday's weather was very cold and nasty, but Madison didn't mind

Stuff

Daddy, that post title is just for you :)

This weekend Kurt, Mandy and Cade came for a visit. Kurt helped Kenan put up the remaining fence wire he needed, and now the garden fence is complete! That means we are ready to plant!

3D Is Hip

3D movies are all the rage now! We went to see Alice in Wonderland in 3D IMAX Thursday night with Erin and Brad - it was great! Here are a couple of pictures of exactly how cool we looked in our glasses:

We're stylin'.

Side note: our goal to see every movie nominated for Best Picture in 2009 turned out to be a bad project. If you haven't seen the movie Precious, I strongly urge you not to. I had to watch a Disney movie before I even went to sleep, it was so disturbing. So x-nay on that one. We're trying out The Hurt Locker soon because I'm pretty anxious to see a movie that managed to beat both Avatar and District 9 (which, in my opinion, should have won). Peace out!

Nothing in Particular

So this weekend was very lazy - for me, anyway. I spent time with my most favorite hobbies: books and movies. Saturday Kenan and I went to see Avatar because it's been out for two months and the crowds have died down (relatively speaking) and we wanted to see what the fuss was about. Believe me, now I get it. We saw it in 3-D IMAX, and it was an experience not to be missed. We're thinking of seeing it in the theater for a second time, and we've only done that two other times in history (Walk the Line  and The Departed, which, not coincidentally, are two of the posters in our media room). So if you haven't seen Avatar yet, get thee to the theater before it's too late! This year we have a goal to see every movie that is nominated for Best Picture. There are 10 and we've seen about half of the list so far.

Also, Kenan was hard at work on the garden today - here he is doing some welding with this past year's gift from Santa:

 Putting the cap onto the fence post

 

Grinding down the edges of a cap - see the sparks flying?

You can see the flame from the welder really well in this one

 

The love of my life

We clearly need at least one new vehicle around here - you all saw my post when my car turned over 100,000 miles, but we have a new milestone that tops that one for Kenan's truck:

 

The irony is that I will be the next one to have a new vehicle, not my darling husband - but don't blame me. Seriously, I tried to convince him he was next in line, but there's some odd bond between men and their trucks that I can't seem to process, so I'm not going to complain. I already have it narrowed down to two different models ;)

A week from tomorrow and February will be gone! We leave for St. John in 46 days!!

Gardens and Mesquite

This weekend Mom and Dad came to visit and we had lots of excitement: our breakfast area furniture delivered and Kenan's garden tilled up. Here are some pics of the fun:

 

  

Here are the breakfast table and benches. They are made entirely out of mesquite - the table legs are made out of tree trunk sections. It fits the space very well and I'm so pleased with it

Here is the start of our garden this year - I did a picture from this angle and the one below to show the size of it - it's really big!

 

  

Kenan dumping some dirt into our clay-like soil to get the ground ready for planting

Kenan tilling to mix the soil together (that's Daddy on the left)

Baby, It's Cold Outside

Unless you're living in a cave (I take that back - ESPECIALLY if you're living in a cave), you're aware that we are currently having record-setting low temperatures in the Texas Hill Country. We bought Madison a very soft blankie for Christmas and she wears it around like a cape - it's so cute! I took this picture below last night - a dog warm and snug in a bed and a nice crackling fire is my idea of heaven on a cold night (yes, that is a book on the hearth - what's a fire without a good book to read?). Snuggle up!