Green(ish) Thumb

Yesterday I decided that I had ignored my yard long enough. I have been wanting to get out and do some work for weeks now but never seem to have a full day of nothingness to spend out in the yard. Yesterday morning I sent Bryan on his way to do some electrical and I put on the garden gloves. I opened the front door only to see 3 landscaping business cards fall to the ground. Huh, is my yard really that bad? Nah, they give those to everyone.

The landscapers that originally did the yard were bush happy. That's fun when they are little cute bushes but baby bushes grow up to be big bushes and things tend to get a little crowded. So I am getting rid of some of 'em. I easily removed 2. They were easy to get out and I admit I was pretty impressed with my 'rip the bush out' skills. Then came time to get rid of this monstrosity.


I hate the desert one. It is ugly, pokey, and catches every feather, fuzzy, and piece of trash in the neighborhood. I nievely took on the task of trimming off 5,872 double edged spears. I found all kinds of stuff in there: candy wrappers, mailers, and yes, 2 landscaping advertisements. It was a lot of work. I had it down to the trunk and got stuck. Bryan had to help me get the roots up when he got home. We proudly stood by our trash for a while and waived to neighbors.


We just hope that this bush can recover now that there is a little more room on the side of our house.


As I was pulling some weeds in the back I noticed something odd in the garden (ok, fine, the big sectioned off space full of dirt that is supposed to be our garden when we get with it and actually plant something)


Gross, what is that? Some funky type of mushroom? I don't want to touch it! It was stuck in the ground big time! After unearthing it I discovered that it was this:


It was in the back yard when we bought the house (a major selling point :) and we had forgotten that my little nephew buried it months ago when he was over at our house. He has been placed back in his rightful spot. Guarding the backyard.

So maybe my thumb is a little green but mostly my arms are cut from the huge bush and my hamstrings are sore from leaning over. Yard work is not for wimps.

You are what you eat

I bet you have heard the saying ‘you are what you eat’. Let me assure you that it is true. Take for example the time when I sweated sweat that smelled like Cool Ranch Doritos a day after I ate them. Don’t believe me? Here’s the story.

I ate Cool Ranch Doritos yesterday. Mmm, boy were they good. I didn’t think that I ate a ton of them; in fact I was very proud of my self control. Well, today when I was working out I started to notice a not normal smell. What is that smell and why is it staying with me wherever I go? Yes, after some detective work I figured out that it was me. I also figured out the odd smell was in fact Cool Ranch Doritos smell. My sweat smelled like Doritos. I can’t decide if this is cool or disgusting (I am definitely leaning towards the disgusting). This does raise some interesting questions though.

Is this healthy?

Am I a freak or has it ever happened to anyone else?

Since sweat comes from blood, does my blood smell like Doritos right now? What about my tears? This has to be throwing off the pH of my body!

I recently bought a ton of pears and am eating them like crazy…if I smell really carefully will my sweat have a tint of pear smell to it?

Sorry if this was an over-share post but I am really concerned about this! Correct me if I am wrong but I don’t think the human body is supposed to have a cool ranch musk to it. Excuse me while I go detox…

A one liner update

It’s about time for another post but I got nothin’. I guess I will just give everyone an update on our little family. I am tired so you only get one liners.

“No honey, just because you are now in charge of the scouts and will be camping once a month does not mean that you can get a truck” (Me to Bryan)

“Why do I feel like no one is listening to me?” (Uttered many times this week at school)

“Ahh! The carpet is on fire!” (Don’t ask. Thankfully, no permanent damage)

“For Halloween lets turn off all the lights, hide in the back room, and watch a movie so we don’t have to hand out candy.” (That was my idea but we started feeling guilty so feel free to come over and get candy on Saturday night)

“Are you trying to wake me up in the morning when you are getting ready for work?” (Sorry hubby, I thought that I was being quiet but for some reason when I try to be quiet, I end up being louder)

“Brother Martin, come trick-or-treating with us!” (After learning that he has never been, some youth in the ward invited him. However, I do not believe I was invited.)

“We can’t go look at them because then I will have to have one!” (Regarding the cutest puppies that were being given away for free…Bryan wanted to just go ‘look’ but I stayed strong and we are still puppyless)

So maybe I missed 'em a little

Today was back to school after a week off. I will admit that maybe I missed my students a little (emphasis on the little). They are just so unpredictable which makes life interesting. I try not to cloud the internet with ‘teaching stories’ but this one is classic. It happened today.

We were working on a lab so I was walking around as students were talking and working. As I walked by a lab table I heard, “Mrs Martin....” she saw that I was listening and finished her sentence very quietly so I wouldn’t hear. Her partner said, “What?” and I walked away pretending that I didn’t hear.

“Mrs. Martin is a …” again she said it so quietly that I couldn’t hear her. I decided to approach her and ask what she was saying (she is a very nice girl and even if she was calling me a name odds are that I have been called that before :). “Oh,” she said, “I was just saying that you are a Mormon. Right?”

“Yes, that’s right. How did you know?”

“Oh I just can tell. It’s pretty obvious.” Now almost every one is listening and all chaos breaks out.

A different student, “Your ministers on the bikes knocked on my door at 6 in the morning over the break. That is not cool”

“Six? Are you sure? And they are missionaries not ministers”

“Yeah, well, it felt like 6 to me”

“I really doubt that it was 6. You mean it was like 10 and you were still sleeping so it felt like 6?”

“Yeah but they were cool so it’s all chill”

(I didn’t know that people still said ‘chill’)

Meanwhile someone in the back row is giving me some sort of odd hand signal (as if it means Mormon Pride or something) and yelling “You are LDS?! So am I!!” By the time I acknowledge him he had already busted out his Book of Mormon from his bag and was having his lab partner read some scripture from Moroni out loud.

Another student is asking what the difference between the Book of Mormon and the Bible is. I let the Mormon kid take care of that one. He did a pretty good job.

The whole thing made me smile. Like I said everyday is so unpredictable. It almost makes me excited to go back tomorrow. :)

Why must all my Friday nights look like this?

I went with Bryan to do some electrical work. It was Friday night. That's the usual around here (ug). He told me I was a 'good little helper'. I learned how to replace a breaker; however, I think that I will just stick with screwing on cover plates and putting together fans. We went and ate frozen yogurt after. That was our dinner. We then watched the biggest chic flick I could find. I can sleep a happy girl tonight.

Evidences of a needed break

Thanks to the Mesa School Board I get this next week off of teaching (October Break). I am so excited. I really need it; here's some evidence.

We bought an armoir off of Craigslist on Monday night. I didn't get to see it in the daylight (cause I haven't been home when there's daylight) until Saturday morning. Thankfully I still like it natural lighting.


On Thursday night I fell asleep in my school clothes with my contacts in. Friday morning I woke up late, my contacts felt like pieces of sand paper glued into my eyes, and I had a parent teacher conference that I was already late for. I really hope that parent didn't notice the pillow lines that were still on my face.

The other day as I was pulling the trash barrel off of the curb my neighbor came out of his house and told me that they thought we moved out because we are never home. I just forced a smile and said, "Nope, we just go to work early and come home late."

Yesterday morning I got into my car only to have it smell like rotting fruit. After some investigating I figured that it probably had something to do with the cantaloupe in my trunk that I had bought and forgot about a few days earlier. Oops.

Yesterday the first ever bubble bath was taken at our house. Sadly it was not me soakin' in the tub but our bathroom blinds (cleaning). I was so jealous.


I say that's some pretty good evidence of a needed break. I am looking forward to this week. Don't you just love little vacations?

Shopping

I am blessed to have a husband that will go shopping with me. I can’t decide if it’s because he is such a nice guy or if it’s because we are so busy that we rarely get to see each other and he wants to spend time with me. Maybe it’s both. Whatever the reason, we sure have learned a lot about each other within the walls of stores. Take today for example. We went to an awesome furniture store. I love this store. I hope that I still like it in 10 years because that’s how long it is going to take me to save up to buy something from there! The store is an old barn. Here was part of the conversation as we walked around:

K: I love this store. Look at that entertainment center! I love it.

B: This is a cool building. Look at the ceiling, the beams, wow. Look at this ceiling!

K: What do you think about the red color on this dresser?

B: They had to build so many supporting beams.

K: YOU ARE NOT EVEN LOOKING AT THE FURNITURE!!

B: WELL YOU ARE NOT EVEN LOOKING AT THE CEILING!!

At this point we just looked at each other and laughed. Hey, at least we were both happy looking at something.

The next store we went to was a decorating/crafty store. When we got back in the car Bryan said, “Wow, there were no other husbands in that store!” It’s true. How sweet that he would go with me. Before today I wonder when the last time was that a boy had been in there...

Other shopping observations: The speed of a man walking is directly proportional to what type of store you are in. Take the grocery store. Bryan insists on pushing the cart and for some reason feels the need to walk super slow behind me. He claims that he doesn’t know when I am going to turn and doesn’t want to be in the way. So I find something, pick it up, and have to wait for him to catch up to put it in the cart. I have even developed a little hand signal for him to hurry up (and I am sure an annoyed facial expression to go with it). The mall is the same way. However, if we got to a place like Home Depot I am honestly sprinting trying to catch up to him. Actually, I usually end up loosing him and have to search up and down the aisles. I pointed this out to him the other day and he just laughed.

I must say that I am looking forward to a lifetime of shopping adventures still ahead.