curb appeal

the area beyond our porch has two bushes and some empty space with a bunch of weeds. it's been this way the whole five years i (tiffanie) have lived here. every spring, azaleas bloom in the area and they're beautiful. so i decided to get some to plant in our only "garden." right next to our "garage" where we keep blake's bike.

while we were out saturday night, we saw a plant stand in the parking lot where we went out to dinner, and so we got some pretty pink blooms. blake picked the color :) also, we snuck over to my folks' garage and stole some gardening tools. don't tell.

this afternoon, we weeded. thank goodness we stole gardening gloves from pat, they were really helpful. those green sprouts were rooted pretty deeply and their roots criss-crossed underground. we did our best to pull up what we could.

then we rode the bike around. ok, not really. but, on a side note about the bike, two things. during all our weeks of snow, we used it to mark blake's parking spot - hey, neighbors we spent 3 hours digging out this spot, don't you dare take it while we're gone - and one time, someone ran it over. the front tire is very bent, if you haven't noticed. second thing, we took pictures of it today to put it on freecycle. please, someone come take it. please. it's been on our porch since we got married over 3 years ago.

what a safe neighborhood we live in, right? an unchained bike was safe for over 3 years and no one stole it. ok, that was three things about the bike.

ok, back to the flowers.

so many roots!

then we planted our four pretty bushes. and sorta made a mess on the porch. but who has a big outdoor broom in a one bedroom condo? not us. so, please excuse our dust.

handsome!

ok, so they need a little time to grow into their new digs.

kitty was a good gardening supervisor.

kitty has a rough life: part 4

kitty likes to lay on our stuff.


"i found this book uninspiring."

"did you bring me any gum?"

"i think we need to rethink this pattern."

"what do you mean i owe you taxes?"

"this bag smells like school."

life... edited

some people say that family blogs and facebook profiles aren't authentic because they're "life... edited." and i can see how that's true. people certainly brag about their cars, homes, jobs, and wonderful families even though they're up to their eyes in debt, spend their evenings fighting, and feel sad and alone. they only show the "good" stuff and don't show how life really is.

however. i don't think everyone who writes about good things going on or expresses gratitude for what they have is being fake. and maybe that's part of it: maybe i'm not seeing the fake people or i'm not one of them because i've spent a lot of time and energy in my life keeping away from those people and their drama. but even still, the questions i have are these:

• where's the line between being "fake" and sharing too much?
• in hopes of being authentic and "real," how does one guard against complaining or focusing on the negative?
• if we don't want to share too much personal stuff, how do we maintain a real image when we're going through tough times?

i guess the thing that bugs me the most about people being so hung up on facebook and blogs being "life... edited" is that i don't really see it. or maybe, it's that i don't really care. it bugs me because it doesn't bug me. if that makes sense. what are people supposed to post? pictures of themselves first thing in the morning with bed-head instead of a pretty easter picture all dressed up? status messages about cramps and bad breath and sweaty feet? comments on statuses saying: i don't care about your dog/kid/problems?

i joke... but i do realize that being "authentic" doesn't mean being a jerk. maybe it's about not commenting: "i'll pray for you," when you have no intention of doing so. or maybe it's not sending virtual bouquets to people you'd never talk to in real life. or not praising Jesus in your statuses and denying him in your actions.

i don't know. maybe what you post and what you comment and how you fill you profile says more about you than you realize. maybe being fake online just means you're fake in real life too.

and maybe the people who are so aware of "edited" lives are the ones who edit their own lives or fear what people think about their own authenticity.

but really, i don't expect to know the real truth about someone who isn't my close friend. i don't think it's appropriate to share your business with the world. i like facebook. i like people's blogs. i like knowing what's going on. it's light. it's small talk. it's acquaintance-level chit-chat. i don't need to know the gritty details and i don't think i should.

what an ego boost

i have a small group of Taylor friends who live in chicago and i email with them all the time. week before last, Stephanie said that they are all having a dinner party together saturday night. i'm always so sad when they get together and i can't be there (which is always). so i looked at flights and found a cheap flight for saturday morning through tuesday and i booked it!! because i've been talking with Sarah about coming for months and in order to have a place to stay, i let Sarah in on it, but the other ones didn't know i was coming!!!! it was so fun!

Sarah and i hung out saturday until it was time to go to Linnea's. when we got there, we got out of the car and saw some commotion through the window and Linnea and Stephanie came barreling out of the front door: "aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! you're here! you're here! you're here!!!!! whaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaatttt!?!?!" it was SO fun! i felt so loved!
then (the other) stephanie was arriving, so i hid in the kitchen. she came in and greeted everyone, then i came around the corner and said hi. she did about exactly the same thing: "aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!" it was so fun! they were shocked. totally shocked. i lovveeeeeddd it!

jackpot! bingo! hit me!

back in january, when my next hope of time off work was Memorial day, i jumped at the chance to take a few days off (this week) to go to Atlantic City with blake for his job - who knew i'd have a week of work for snow in the middle of february. but it was still fun to get away to a glittery hotel paid for by someone else with the promise of some yummy food and shopping (for me).

Fly the coop

Well it's snowing, or should I say still snowing. Today's blizzard warning marks the latest in a string of record setting snowfalls over the area this winter. Since Friday afternoon, some places in this area will have received four feet of fresh snow. Total accumulations for this winter are the highest recorded since the 19th century. The theme of the season has been snow, snow, snow, snow.

This area is not particularly used to snow, or at least consistent snow. For the past three winters, it has been reasonable and mild, even humid and balmy at times. The weeks before and after our wedding in January 2007 saw temperatures in the 70s, and even the times it's been cold, it hasn't come with a lot of precipitation.

There are two consequences of this: 1) one is that you get a lot of people who don't know how to behave in the snow, such as the girl who decided to drive briskly down a long, icy hill in the family Thunderbird, windows down, crying, and saying, "I don't know how to drive this thing!" 2) you have to find more to do with yourself. The second consequence sometimes leads to the first, and vice versa. What do you do with yourself when your office is closed and you can't go out on the roads and you've watched enough dramas, sitcoms, soap operas, and ball games to fill a month's worth of content? What do you do when a lap around the living room (just for the sake of taking a lap) turns into 2 or 10 or 50? What do you do after you've cleaned, after you've read a book, after you've clipped your fingernails, after you've pet the pooch? There's no great purpose to the day.

Maybe some people have elaborate solutions in their households to combat boredom. Maybe it would help to have a big garage, have a project in the basement that needs working on, have a cat that's ready to burst with kittens, have a kitchen with golden utensils and a supply closet the size of the Queen Elizabeth and a stone oven large enough to cook a horse. Of course, if I had a kitchen with gold utensils and a supply closet and a stove for a horse and all that, who would I cook for? What would I make, and how much?

Here are some activities we have undertaken to pass the time this week:

• Cleaned our house (all the usual parts plus going through drawers and old stacks of paper)
• Looked at Facebook (many, many times)
• Watched reruns of our favorite shows
• Read a little, and looked at books/magazines we might like to read
• Watched the Superbowl, and the pregame, and the post game, and even a little of the endless commentary the next day
• Checked in our on our work email
• Shoveled each car out of a snowbank (we spent 3-4 hours total shoveling)
• Drank hot chocolate, hot tea, or hot coffee, depending on the time of day
• Braved the snow last night to go see a basketball game at George Mason (which went into overtime -- great game!)
• Played video games
• Learned new cheers (a household staple)
• Walked through the snow and took pictures
• Bundled and unbundled many times for a chance to go outside
• Did many loads of laundry because of all the going outside
• Checked the mailbox a dozen times, still to have no mail
• Played musical instruments
• Got out the other day to find an open fabric store. Also got new windshield wipers for my car
• Reminisced about good old times, such as when we used to play hide and seek out in the dark when I was growing up, or when we built snow caves in our back yard. Also remembered wrestling my cousin Cameron in knee deep snow in our front yard, and playing king of the mountain on a pile of snow
• Looked out our window (like 1000 times)

This has been a very restful, quiet week (other than the loud basketball game last night). I think we're a little cooped up though. I want to do something. It'd be nice to go out for a run or go swimming in our pool. Guess we'll just have to let the snow take its course and get ready for a very green and wet spring.

sewing project

here's an unflattering picture of me at the wax museum (with george h.w. bush) in south dakota. the sweatshirt i was wearing was just that: a sweatshirt. the back says "Spartan Cheer," but nothing on the front. it's boring and constricting in the neck. so...



so.... on my only day off between new years and memorial day - MLK day - i decided to do a project. i put a zipper in the above pictured sweatshirt to make it a jacket! i searched online for instructions and it turns out... it was a fairly easy project and look at the sweatshirt jacket now!



my cheer coach friend asked if i'd do the same for her sweatshirt! wow, i should go into business! (ok, not really.) but it was fun!

what other projects should i do?