An Early Spring Garden

I know that it is only February but here in Texas we are currently having lots of 70º days already, this is amazing, the sprinkling of 35º days stinks. Over the last few weeks it has been getting steadily warmer, where you can get away with shorts on the weekend, which is making it hard to not leap into Spring. When it is warm I want flowers on my patio. I decided that I would wait until I got back from San Francisco since it would be crazy to plant flowers when it is snowing. That is just crazy talk. But once I got home and it was 70 I couldn't resist anymore.

When I went to Home Depot to grab a few flowers I decided to give myself some ground rules:
-a budget of ~$10
-no vegetable or fruit plants
-nothing I will be sad about if it dies due to cold weather
-don't go nuts

Once I had set the ground rules I decided that I would go and see what I could find. I was pretty impressed with what they had and my ability to not go crazy. I spent $11.25, it was the last snapdragon that put me over (I couldn't resist... it was pink). The only thing I would be super sad to loose is the tulips but they are pretty hardy in the cold so that shouldn't be a problem.

So what did I buy:
-3 red tulips (they came as a pack, $4)
-2 pink snapdragons ($1.24 each)
-small yellow pansies ($1.24)
-small purple pansies ($1.24)
-pink petunias ($1.24)

Looks like spring

Dirt pots waiting for the veggies they will grow

I will be sure to keep you updated on their growth but for now I am loving them when I take the dog out everyday. I hope they it doesn't get too cold around here but I am sure that it will I just hope they survive. I didn't plant much so that I didn't have to carry all of the plant inside and then get bugs or frogs in my house. I can't wait for spring to get here so that I can plant more stuff.

January BarkBox

In January, Lily got her second BarkBox. I was pretty excited since the December one was amazing. I will admit that this one fell slightly flat for me. I wish it would have been better but I plan on giving the toy away and tossing all of the treats. 

In this box we got:

A kong like toy

Cookies for the toy

Turkey Liver Jerky

Some other cookie type thing

First up the kong thing... it has a different name but I was so unimpressed I forgot. The treats that came with the toy fall right out so I don't know if it should be difficult but it definitely wasn't. It also smells a little like funky rubber. Lily is unimpressed with it. I think I will give this to my mom's dog the next time I go home. 

She does like that she doesn't have to work to get the treat out.

Now the treats: I am going to toss both of the cookies. Probably because they make Lily toss her cookies. This doesn't really work well for us. I am not sure which cookie it is but none of them really go well for her so I don't want to keep them. I considered giving them to a friend but I thought that was just a tad rude say here these make my kid sick so do you want them? 

Final verdict: this box is a bust. I wish I had good thing to say about this but if I had to choose today I would probably cancel the membership. I am looking forward to the next box here in a few days.

A&M v LSU

Way back in november, I scored some tickets to see the Aggies play the LSU tigers. I was pumped about going. They were great seats and it was a chance to get to see my friend Megan from St. Louis. It was so fun to finally see a game in Death Valley. The game was terrible and the weather horrible but it was fun to hang out with the girls.

Ordinarily I would write something long about this but I think it might be best that I just share the photos and give captions. This post has been running around for about 6 weeks so it is time to get it out there. 

Heading out of Dallas!

After the worst parking experience ever I finally made it to the tailgate... the only aggie. 

The team marching in

I ran into my BFF Jenn at the Aggie tailgate, we are soaking wet... Yay rain.

Mike the tiger, what an awesome mascot

The band made a dragon with smoke...

Fighting Aggie...  Block T  Whoop!!

A little makers makes everything better!

Wet, cold, and sad that the Ags cannot get it together

I am so glad that I was able to go to the game, it was so fun to see the Tigers play. I have long been an LSU fan but my true allegiance lies with the Aggies. In the end it just wasn't the Aggies day, but getting to see Johnny play twice this season was wonderful. I would have written so much more but let's get real I don't have much else to say about watching the Ags lose in the cold rain.

Cowboy Boots

So a few weeks ago I realized that I had been in the state of Texas for over a year and I had yet to find some boots. I will admit that I thought I was too cool for boots when I was in school at A&M, turns out I was wrong. It took me a while to decide what I wanted, actually it took me a while to figure out what I could afford. I would have loved a pair of ostrich boots, but those are like 700 a pair. That is insane.

My friend Sarah and I went one Sunday after church to see if we could find something, we went to Pink's Western Wear (website). I didn't really know much about them but they were close to my house so I figured why not. I definitely scored big on that one. The guy that was helping us was amazing. He showed me how to determine if the shoes fit right or if they were too big or small. I will admit that I was doing it all wrong in the beginning so I am glad that he was there so that I didn't buy the wrong boots.

I will admit that I am in love with these boots and I try to wear them as often as possible! I opted for taller boots that look good either over my jeans or under them. I have worn these with a dress and they looked good then too. I paid about $175 for these which is expensive for shoes but they should last about 10 years since they are cow leather. I mentioned my desire for ostrich boots and the guy told me that they weren't worth the money since they wear out quicker since bird hide isn't that good. Fun fact.

I am looking forward to wearing these all over the world and showing that I am officially proud to be a Texan!

Bark Box: December Edition

Over the last several months I have seen several ads for Bark Box. I then asked around and the majority of my friends that own dogs were interested but I didn't know anyone that was currently getting it delivered. I wasn't really sure if I wanted to pay about $20 a month for more stuff for Lily that she doesn't like or won't play with. Eventually after much internal debate about it, I found a deal in November where it was 15 a month so I grabbed a six month subscription. Then it was time to wait... it took forever for it to get to my house.

Once it finally got to my house Lily and I sat on the floor to open our new present.

She was a little skeptical at first, I don't think she knew what was happening but once she smelled treats she was in.

Is this for me?!?

In this box we got:
-Puptato Chips: dried sweet potato chips
-Hare of the Dog: apple treats
-Planet Dog Treats:
-Licks
-Busy Buddy toy

Mom… I want these snacks

No more pictures time for yummies

Lily loves the Chips and the Planet Dog treats. She thinks the toy is neat but she doesn't seem to be super interested in toys right now. This might be because Thomas tore up tons of our toys and I put all of hers away so we shall see. I like this because it doesn't have stuffing and the squeaker moves around, they say that this should give the toy a longer life. We just tried the Hare of the dog treats, she ate it (which means she might like it). I thought they smelled kinda strong but if she likes it we will use it. As for the licks, I have no idea what we are going to do with this. They are for endurance dogs, kinda like the gummy cube things that runners eat during marathons (maybe). I think I might try to see if I can use it to get her to take her heart worm pill which is such a pain.

Fun new toy!

All in all I thought this was a win for us. Lily is pretty particular about her treats and her toys so for her to like most of what we got I think this was worth the money. I am pretty excited to see what we will get next month. If I had to decide today if I was going to keep the subscription I would go with a yes but I will let you know when I get closer to having to get a new one.

Homemade Hand Scrub

As you know I am in love with the idea of making something homemade for any present or occasion, this has often been wrought with difficulty. I find that the idea is amazing but in the end I don't ever make it or when I do it is horrible. Once I tried to make these awesome vases for my family and they were the ugliest things that I have ever seen. This taught me that perhaps pinterest is not always right and definitely not as easy as it claims.

But, I don't mind trying new things and it had been about two years since the vase incident so it is time to try something new. My friend Kate came into town and since we didn't really want to go out we figured that we would stay in and try a craft. We decided to make a gardener's scrub for my family, you can see the original post here. I was pretty excited about this because it seemed really easy.

I way over bought on the ingredients

Since this only requires two ingredients I was pretty excited about it, but I had no idea how much to buy since there weren't really any measurements. Yes I know this makes me a nerd because I want to know exactly what to add and in what order but either way I figured this out. I pretty much followed the blog on what to do.

So pretty and useful

A couple of hints:
-The sugar doesn't dissolve so base your sugar needs on the size of the container.
-A knife is much better than a spoon at mixing the stuff.
-Try not to get this on the threads for the lid, it will make it much harder to open the next time.

Once Kate and I made the first two of these, I realized that everyone was getting one. I really liked this it made my hands really smooth and soft. I am not sure how long these will say good but I don't think they will grow anything.

This is one of the better pinterest gift ideas that I have seen and the execution was pretty close to what the original blogger said she did. I will be sure to keep these in my back pocket for gifts for friends or thank you gifts for things. I would definitely give this the Hannah Seal of Approval, let me know if you try it.

Dream Cafe

I am sure by now you have been waiting to see where Saumya and I would try for another post-doc dinner. Well we had picked several different places and kept having to cancel our dinner on the day of for different reasons so we decided to try breakfast. We opted to get together before work one morning, which is pretty hard since that means you have to been up and after it. That is fine and all but of course on that morning Lily decided to take longer than I liked to do her business. Eventually I got to pick up my girl and we headed out for breakfast.

We decided to hit up Dream Cafe, which I hear has a fabulous brunch on the weekends but this was a weekday so we settled for just regular breakfast. It was a great day for sitting out on their patio, it had just rained so it was cool and it wasn't really humid. We did make sure that we sat under an awning so that when it started to rain again we wouldn't have to move.

She had the granola encrusted french toast. I tried a bite, it was pretty good. I hadn't ever had something like that. I don't know that I would make it at home but it was pretty good. I do think that I might order it at a restaurant.

I opted for the Belgian waffle with a side of hash browns. The waffle was really good. It was whole wheat and I didn't mind which is really saying something since I am a firm believer in the fact that desserts should not be made healthy. Yuk. Anyway, back to breakfast. The hash browns were normal, nothing exeptional. I love breakfast potatoes but I cannot make them to save my life at home. I always try to order some so that I know if I should get them again the next time. They are sooo good.

We both really enjoyed having breakfast here, I think we will be back soon. Hopefully, once it starts to warm up and the mornings aren't crazy cold we will hit this up again.