Urban Garden

I was looking through my posts and was shocked to realize I didn't post about my birthday or new mini-garden. Well, here it is!

For my 22nd birthday my fiance's parents gave me soil, miracle grow, and two rather large pots. My fiance asked for permission from our landlord for me to garden and it was granted! Noah then proceeded to buy me any plants I wanted to plant (we now have green peppers, zucchini squash, and cilantro). 

I've always loved the idea of gardening but living in an apartment with no yard can sure limit that exposure time in the outdoors. 

I don't know much about gardening, so I'll count myself lucky if even one of our five plants makes it to bear vegetables. Alright, I guess the cilantro is already good to be picked but I feel a little weird about just picking it off so early. Yes, I'm strange sometimes. 

I have a mini obsession now about going out to look at them, water them, and pretty soon I'll get to add more soil because they're growing taller!

I take pictures and send them to my future mother-in-law just about every other day. 

She loves it. 

I'm hoping to keep track of the plants' progress through photos and it keeps me so entertained. 

So, do you garden? Would you ever want to? 

What do you like to grow? Have any tips?

The moral here is where there's a will there's a way. I've lived here for two years and never thought to ASK about gardening on the property. I always assumed it'd be a no. Turns out our landlord had thought about starting a community garden here but was afraid people would mess with it. He thought it was a great idea.

All in all, it's a pretty unique and fun birthday gift! 

Happy Memorial Day!

Yesterday evening we headed back out to the Lake for dinner, kayaking, and canoeing. Wow, my arms are telling me I need to get to the gym more!

It really was a beautiful, hot day and very much needed as a break. 

Hopefully we'll be able to take a few breaks again once my graduate summer courses area over!

On our way home we stopped by the local farm market and ended up buying some honey. Ahh.... I love markets in the summer time!

Lake Photos

Games, Weekends, and a Lake

While Monday through Thursday can be over-the-top busy Friday is perfect. During these summer courses, the Education Masters program doesn't have Friday classes which means every weekend is a three day weekend. I've always wondered what a difference it would make if we worked one less day and relaxed more and, well, it's amazing. 

Although every evening this week I did get some fun time in with Noah and friends. 

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Yesterday, a half hour before class the girls from the apartment downstairs invited me to come join in on a water balloon fight. That was so kind of them! I told them next time I would fill up the balloons.  We had a lot of fun and I had just enough time to get to class in an orderly fashion.

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On Tuesday night my friends and I were hoping to go to Trivia Night at a local restaurant but by the time we got there (half an hour early!) the tables were already full. Instead we went to a local ice cream joint, Kline's, and enjoyed some cones and milkshakes. Then we went to a girl's townhouse to play Sequence, a new board game.

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On Wednesday night I treated Noah to Cici's Pizza because he finished a book. I love reading but he doesn't and at the beginning of summer we made a deal, if he finished reading a book that he'd been working on for over a year I would take him out to a place that I normally would refuse to go to. He finished and it was worth it! How's that for some positive reinforcement?

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Today, after a week's worth of indecision I decided to buy an iPod Touch. I'm doing research on the use of ipads and ipods in a classroom as part of a course program for my Masters. It caused me to debate about buying one to test out apps for science, education, and math and of course for self enjoyment. It's actually plugged in as I type and while that means all my birthday money (and a bit of personal) is gone, I can hopefully get a real feel for using it for educaitonal purposes.

I am a LOVER of technology and I think it is one of the absolute best way to engage students. The more I can do in my class related to it and their interests I think the better off we'll be.

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Tomorrow I'm going with Noah and his family to clean up their lake house. I'm so excited for canoeing and relaxing on a wrap-around outdoor porch. It just screams summer! 

Have a wonderful weekend and I am looking forward to reading your posts today!

Graduate School

It seems like I'll often be catching up on posts over the weekend (like last week). I hope you don't mind getting all your comments at one time, but it's proving to be rather difficult to receive personal internet time aka procrastinating on homework time. 

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Classes are keeping me really busy and it's 11pm at night now! Whew! These days are so long. 

Although my fiance and I did find time to play Things for an hour and a half with some friends yesterday.  Noah has orientation for his summer job on thursday but if he doesn't work the weekend we may be going to our hometown to do a cleanup weekend on his family's lake house. I'm kind of crossing my fingers on it because I think canoeing around a lake is a perfect way to relax in summer. 

I hope your week is wonderful and know that I'm still thinking of you, I haven't forgotten! 

You Inspire Me

I was catching up on posts this morning (I promised I would right?) and was struck by how many of you I was nodding along in agreement with or how many times I was smiling because of something I read.

There were several posts but I'll just list a couple because I'm heading out in twenty minutes to go visit my aunt!

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First I learned about mail art. I think I simply must join in on this. I love 'snail mail' and there is another blogger, Bethany, who sends the absolute cutest packages to me in the mail occasionally. I'd love to make my mail as cute as hers.

I was also reading Bibi's post about spending time with friends on the docks. Her happiness seeped out of her post and I was wishing I could be there with her. I consider the blogging community to be this way. Even though we don't know each other in 'real life', we listen to one another, encourage each other, and spread joy in one another's lives. I know several people really well from my Reasons to Smile blog and I'd love to get to know more of you well! Sometimes when I have a bad day I like to just come home and read and see what wonderful things are happening around the world.

Then I was reading Kaylia's post about being an adult. I'll be 22 tomorrow, I'm in grad school, and I'm engaged and I don't exactly feel like an adult. I mean, I feel responsible and capable but I still feel like people don't see me that way if only because they've known me since I was a baby. It's a challenge. 

I hope you're all having a great Saturday! Thanks for sharing so much of yourselves and I'm looking forward to building a tighter community with each of you. 

A Lovely Day

I apologize for being MIA this week. Graduate school started and I can hardly believe how busy it's keeping me! I plan to catch up on all your posts this weekend though. Don't worry, you'll be hearing my thoughts. Or, maybe you should worry! Haha. 

I hope you're all keeping busy (yet relaxed). This week has been busy but not too stressful yet. 

My birthday is this weekend and I just found out that it's my "golden birthday". I'm turning 22 on the 22nd of May. I've never heard this term before! Have you? It means you turn the same age as your birth day number.

When was/is your golden birthday?