Tree's and "Scrubs"

The weather has been more than awesome for the last few weeks.  The landscaping season has begun!  And trust me - I have noticed.  Steve is no-where to be found for the most part of my life.  That's okay though, because there has been lots of progress in his world...

...and this is where there is supposed to be pictures of trees and shrubs but my internet is so slow now a days that I cannot possibly wait any longer for these pictures (not) to load.

In other news, I have been doing really really bad at my meal plan.  I tried and I still have those recipes in the back of my head.  I have recently joined a Zumba class 2x per week (M/W @ 7PM) and I am playing soccer as well.  Work has been getting busier (whoop whoop!) and it makes it difficult to make supper and eat on time when I am going to be doing some good exercise after.  I am in a pickle.  Steve cooked tonight (we ate after I got back from Zumba) and we were supposed to have chicken sandwiches.  I didn't tell him that though so he made chicken, peas and egg rolls.  Everything was yummy except he went a little salt happy on the chicken.  I couldn't finish mine.  I am realizing that since I started eating slightly healthier that I am noticing the amount of salt in a number of foods.  I have always really loved salt so I think this is progress.

Anyway, I am beat.  I am going to finish watching the Canucks KICK SAN JOSE'S ass and then go to bed.  LONG day at work tomorrow!

Toodles!

Food - my second love

There is no doubt that since I have gotten married, I seem to be a little "squishier".  Blame it on the wine, beer, chips, and my forever love of pasta.  I have always been the kind of person to eat what I want, but normally am relatively active.  Marriage kicked activity to the curb as well - hanging out with the hubbie on the couch and powering through a 5 hour Criminal Minds marathon sounds so much better going for a run.  I have recently decided that all this nonsense needs to stop.  I have started to  track my eating and have been SO hungry for a week!  But I have made a few yummy recipes and I am going to share with you my May meal plan.  I only planned 2 meals per week (suppers only) because having a meal planned for every.single.day. is slightly intimidating for me and I probably would fail bitterly.  

Yesterday was the first day of my meal plan and I made the following: 

Rice with black bean sauce

BBQ'd chicken breast

Green salad with red pepper, apples, green onion, and raspberry vinaigrette.

Cucumber slices

This was a super meal, and would have been complimented wonderfully with a glass of red wine - but I resisted.  I was also going to make Black Bean Soup today for the rest of my lunches this week - but today was 15% off Tuesday and I did not have all my supplies.  I do realize that most people WANT to shop on this day - but I despise busy grocery stores and would rather pay more money than to deal with that.  

Today I cheated and we had leftovers - except for a meat.  And this is where I went downhill.  I had a microwave thing of ginger beef in the freezer, so I warmed that up.  I know it is brutal, but I actually ate very very little of the meat and leftover rice and made a extremely large plate of veggies with hummus.  YUM!

Here is the rest of my plan...

May 4: Greek steak wraps

Boasts an arrangement of colourful vegetables with slices of steak grilled to perfection.  Topped with a wee bit of goat cheese.

May 9: Spaghetti with spaghetti squash

Janis, this squash stuff better be good.  I may make some noodles to keep the hubbie happy...

 - I also plan to make a huge amount of meat so I can whip up some lasagne's

May 11: Pork chops, veggies (whatever is on sale), and yams

I will make potatoes for the hubbie - he doesn't like yams.  

May 12: Possibly, pork sandwiches.  

May 16: Vegetable fritatta with ham

I made 2 large hams for Steve's birthday so I'll put the leftovers in here!

May 18: Enchilada Casserole

Looks soooo good

May 30: Vegetarian Tex Mex Pepper with pork, chicken or steak.  

*I don't do vegetarian.

So there you have it.  My life in meals.  

I'll keep you posted on how it goes!  

Also, it rained today again so no landscaping is being completed.  Which in turn means that I am one day further away from my dream yard.  Sigh...

New Loot!

On February 28, 2011 I took on a new position in the small town that I live in, Taber.  The main factor for me moving was the decreased driving time, as my drive was about 30-40 minutes per day, with many many extra minutes in the winter.  With the winter's seeming to get longer every year, and the storms seeming to get worse, I thought it was a good move.  And it still is...however I do miss going to Lethbridge!

I like Taber, but it has very little to be desired.  We have a few (small) shops which all seem to be dropping like flies since Walmart came to town.  I'll go to Walmart when I need to, but generally I despise it.  One of my friends, Michelle, recently got married and moved to Vauxhall.  Believe it or not, Taber trumps Vauxhall - hands down.  The only thing Vauxhall has going for it is Wendy's (not the regular Wendy's..but a glorious small town drive thru with the most amazing real fruit milkshakes).  Luckily for me, Taber is between Vauxhall and Lethbridge so when Michelle went to the big city on Saturday, I hitched a ride.  

Look at the loot I got!  I am so excited to plant flowers to brighten up my dirt yard this year!

These candle holders are from Michaels.  I had quite a few coupons that I printed off before going so they were relatively cheap.  I just spray painted them white, bought some candles from the dollar store, and called it a day! 

I have a new love for lanterns and I bought this one at the Superstore.  I would like to eventually put it outside on my beautiful patio table with a large white candle inside.  So cute!

I bought this pot that I liked a lot (rhyme) from Winners - $12.99!

This was also from Winners, but it is MUCH larger and was a wee bit more expensive. 

Well, I hope you are all jealous of my exciting purchases.  Since it snowed this weekend again (boo!) and everything is still a bit sloppy out here, my husband and I hope to build a new computer desk ourselves (oh my!) and organize our office!!

Crash this!

If I lived in the USA I would spend a lot of time in a Home Depot or Totem, in hopes that I would run into a beautiful man with a video camera who asked me if I can take him home with me.  And then I would take him home with me.  

If you are not familiar with the bath/kitchen/house/yard crashers shows on HGTV or DIY or whatever network they are on - that is exactly what happens and that is exactly what I need.  

The

Let me introduce to you...the downstairs bathroom.

From the outside - the previous owners LOVED shiny panelling.

The toilet.  I know that it looks scarier because it is so dirty, but I am not lying when I say it is so gross and I probably have not stood fully in this bathroom ever.

 The second photo was actually taken from above - not inside the bathroom.  How you ask?  Well, the downstairs bathroom only has a partial wall!  There is no need for a fan folks - the smelly air can just flow freely into the rest of the basement.

So right now you may be wondering if there is a sink to wash your hands after making the air all smelly.
 

There is!  This time however, made out of particle board.

So now you see why I need the assistance of those beautiful people with video cameras at home improvement stores.  Not only do they do a smashing job, they do it all for FREE!  With a trip to New Zealand in the works for next year, we cannot afford this renovation for a while!

Candace

Welcome!

Approximately 5 years ago I met my husband.  I always figured I would be marrying a farmer with lots of cows and land, but instead I settled for a landscaper (I love you steve!).  My husband started his own landscaping company quickly after we started dating and it has been growing ever since.  We got married in October 2009 and bought a small farm in January 2010 with two old houses and blank canvas yard waiting for us to make it beautiful.  We fixed up the house so it was livable and moved in March 2010.  It has now been one year and our landscaping has since consisted of mowing down the large tree-like weeds that seem to sprout out throughout our front and back yard.  Steve has promised me that he will schedule our yard into his busy schedule this year.  I am quite excited to have a patio to sit on rather than the ruminants of a torn down garage foundation!  

With this blog I hope to give you a view of Steve's landscaping projects, before and after pictures, landscaping tips (which I will get from the boy's of course), as well as some of my own home & garden projects.  I am so excited for the summer coming up and am hoping that it is much much warmer than last summer.  

Candace