Thursday, April 28, 2011

Updates & Squash!

So many pictures! And it's bedtime, so I'd better just upload them:

Guess where I went the other day!?



IKEA!! I love it there. I bought some things, but they're secret. :)

Our garden was looking yellow and sad. We were told by several locals to water like we were trying to drown everything, and also fertilize like crazy. And it worked!



We even have several baby squash, and a tiny little tomato! Slow start to the garden, but hopefully we'll get some good stuff out of it. By the way, those tomato plants are purchased - mine didn't quite make it from seeds. Oh well. The pepper plants are coming up slowly but nicely, the okra too (although the bugs are eating the leaves badly!), and the corn makes me very proud. Yay!



In our back yard, we have a persimmon tree. I've never eaten a persimmon, but I'd love to try one. Here's a baby one:



Now, as we've discussed, Texas is a proud place. That's why you see things like this:



And on the back of this HEB truck? A Texas shaped T-bone steak:



Wonder if it tastes like mesquite?

Now, this western style thing is great and all, but um...I kinda have to draw the line when I go the bathroom and see this:



And your moment of black cat cuteness, Cats In Tub:



And yet they hate baths.

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Finally!! An Update.

I am finally taking some time to update this here blog. With pictures!

So my job is going very, very well. Cima commented that I haven't actually told what my job is. Well, I am a trainer for a Medicare Advantage insurance company. We partner with physicians & hospitals to help medicare patients get better healthcare. I am the trainer for the company, and my job is to design & deliver training and professional development classes for our employees - things like new hire orientation, communication skills, and leadership competencies. I'm their only trainer in Texas, so I'll be doing some traveling to places like San Antonio & El Paso. I was in Ft. Worth last week, actually! They don't have a training program, so I'm designing it from the ground up. Very cool! Here's my building - Thing In Sky! (my office is on the 13th floor)



The farm is doing well too, although the garden isn't growing as fast as we'd like. We think we weren't watering it enough. We're now soaking & fertilizing it on a daily basis. in other farm news, we have 2 new neighbors! 2 calves who are being weaned. I've tried very hard not to get attached to the cows in the field. They are beef cows, after all. But with these two, I couldn't resist.


Meet Cletus:





(We fear that Cletus is actually a girl.)


And Winston:




How cute!


Our little town, Sealy, is very cute. A few weeks ago they had a little festival and quilt show. Locals brought out their old quilts for display. There were some really pretty ones, like this red work quilt (white quilt with red embroidery):




This embroidered quilt was just beautiful, and very old:




I loved this Hawaiian style quilt. Very vibrant colors and lots of applique:




This past weekend we drove into downtown Houston for a trip to the Museum of Natural Sciences. It had some really....sciency parts. A Hall of Chemistry. Yawn. Also? Noel and I cracked up at the painfully obvious sponsorship of the energy display, "Oil Makes The World Go Round." What do you think? Exxon or ConocoPhillips?


Despite the few funny/boring parts, they had some really cool stuff there. We liked the Hall of the Americas, which had displays of native peoples from the Inuit in Alaska all the way to the ancient Maya! Very cool. I couldn't take any pictures in there though. Sorry!


They had some neat murals:



And dinosaurs! In Sky!






GRRRRRRRR!


They had a neat gallery of minerals, including this gorgeous opal:




Then the next room over was a gallery of jewelry. REAL jewelry. Emerald tiara, anyone?




WOW.


How about a sapphire necklace?





Rachel, here's a peridot necklace. Gorgeous!!





My favorite though, was this stunner of an amethyst necklace:





FABULOUS.

Tuesday, April 12, 2011

So Busy! ACK!

Hey! Sorry I've been so neglectful of the blog lately! I've actually been taking lots of pictures, but haven't had a chance to put the pictures up.

Life is very busy but very good! My job is great - I'm still enjoying every day of it.

Noel is also doing well, enjoying his work and meeting new coworkers.

The boys are doing fine too - Poe loves the new house because there's so much room for running!

Anyway, it's time to get ready for bed (already!) so I'd better go.

More later, I promise!!