Long time, no see!

So, it's been over 2 weeks since I've blogged. I've been in a bit of a funk lately and just haven't felt like blogging. Plus, I just can't figure out anything worth blogging. It's probably my mood. I'm still in the job market and have had no luck whatsoever. There's not much open in my area. I've just now started to get a little depressed about the whole thing....I've really let it get to me. I've been out of the job market for too long and now I'm afraid I may have missed my chance. This economy really is terrible!

In other news, Jason's been hard at work trimming our crape myrtles and a few other trees. He took out an entire bush behind the garden and things are starting to look better. The garden is growing nicely and we've already harvested several squash, zucchini and green beans. We decided that we both hate peas so he pulled those plants up. They weren't producing much anyway. It's so hot here (highs in the 100s for several weeks now and no rain) that I have to water religiously. Thank goodness my city isn't in water restrictions yet. They practice "year-round water conservation" so I can't water between 10am and 8pm any day of the year. Our backyard is burning up so we're trying to water at night to give it a fighting chance of surviving August.

We've also bought paint and fixtures for the 1/2 bath. We haven't started that project because Jason wants to get other things done outside first. There are so many other projects that we want to start but we can't until I find a job and can bring in a second income. I think that's the depressing part.

My brother has been in Afghanistan for a few weeks now and I've already mailed him a package. He got it in 4 days which has got to be a record! He's doing well out there and has been able to call my parents a few times with a cell phone he bought there. He was at Bagram Air Base when it was hit by rockets but luckily was on the other side of the base when it happened. I pray for his safety every single night.

The most exciting news that I have is that we are going to Maryland on the 1st. We have friends there and we are really excited to visit. Jason was there on business a few weeks ago and said the weather was amazing. We plan to go to Ocean City to check out the Atlantic and an old fashioned board walk, spend the 4th at Antietam battlefield, and then a day or two in Washington, DC. I'm sure that's not all that we'll do, but I'll have plenty to blog about when we come back on the 7th!

Thanks for hanging in there and reading. I appreciate all 3 of my readers!

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Green Monster: Redo

Remember the green monster I tried? It wasn't too bad, but I decided to change things up to see if I could make it work as a post-workout drink. This time, I blended:

• 1/2 cup unsweetened Almond Breeze
• 1/2 frozen banana
• 1 scoop milk chocolate protein powder
• 1 cup spinach leaves

And that's it. I didn't add ice, because I didn't want it to be too much of a smoothie. I like to drink my protein a little quicker and this was the perfect consistency for me. It was more chocolatey than anything. I enjoyed this one and will definitely be making it again!

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Our first harvest!

The garden has come along nicely and we finally were able to pick a couple of the zucchini.

They look nice, don't they? But let's see them in comparison with my arm!

They're longer than my forearm! And just let me say that this was a really hard picture to take by myself. Here's a look at our garden today:

The squash and zucchini have taken over the whole thing! Since before, we've braced the tomatoes and the sugar snap peas. Out of two red bell pepper plants, we have one pepper growing so far:

Both pepper plants look kind of sad, but when Jason went back to the store, he said that their plants look the same. I thought something was wrong, but apparently not. Here's the spinach:

It's about the size of the baby spinach that you can buy in stores, but I'm going to let it get bigger. The squash plants are coming along nicely:


The squash plants are a little smaller than I expected, but they bloomed very quickly. They are devoting more of their energy towards growing their fruit, so they haven't grown in size recently. The real stars of the show are the zucchini plants:

Looks a lot like the squash plants until you see the size of those leaves compared to my hand:

They're huge, too! And here's a couple pics of some zucchini that isn't quite ready to be picked yet.


Our green beans are growing quickly and finally have little blooms on them. No beans yet, but when they start, we will have tons of them.

The sugar snap peas are a mystery to us. We don't know what to expect from them and they haven't seemed to grow any bigger recently. Jason put some stakes in so that they wouldn't grow out of control, but.....they haven't.

And finally, we have one tomato growing on a vine.

Hopefully, we'll have more coming soon!

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