Vegetable Garden

Every since I can remember, my family has had a vegetable garden. I have wanted one of my own since we moved in our house but last year we moved in in May and we were past the planting time frame. 
I went to Home Depot the other day and picked up a couple pots and vegetable plants to start a small garden. I finished planting them and was so proud. My plan was to start off small and grow more and more each year. 

Chris saw how excited I was and said that he would build one a real garden for me. Nice! We have rabbits in our backyard so we needed an above ground garden. Off to Home Depot we went again!

Picking out the wood!

 Got all of the wood cut and making sure it all goes together the way it is suppose to.

 Had to move it to the backyard to finish putting it all together because it was really heavy.

Dogs supervising! 

Mixing the different kinds of dirt together. (This was a pain) 

Garden is in place and half way filled!!  

This is where we learned a lesson the hard way... we had filled the box with all of the dirt and then I thought about our sprinkler system. Our convo went a little something like this...

Me- I wonder where the sprinkler head is.

Chris- Why did you just know think of that?

Me- I don't know but maybe we should turn them on and check...

I did not take any pictures of this part because Chris and I were beyond annoyed that neither of us had thought of this before hand. Needless to say, the sprinkler head was right in the middle of the box and sprayed dirt ALL over the place when it came on. We had had enough for the day, ordered pizza, and went to bed! 

We woke up Sunday morning ready to figure out what we were going to do. We ended up removing all of the dirt, moving the box to a different spot in the yard, filling it again, and then planting the plants. Below is the final product & I love love love it!! 

We are growing green, red, and yellow bell peppers, okra, 2 kinds of jalapenos, cucumbers, and strawberries. I can't wait for them to start growing and producing! I will definitely post an update in a few weeks. 

Meal Plan

I'm back!! I have missed blogging so much lately but just have not been able to find the time to do it. I just got home from the grocery store with lots of new stuff (I have to stop going while I am hungry!!!) and was planning to make dinner. My husband was on our back porch watching baseball when I got home and he asked what was for dinner. I told him enchiladas and he went said how about I grilll... WHA??!! He loves to grill but we worked in the yard yesterday and today and I figured that would be the last thing he wanted to do tonight. So, here I am relaxing and enjoying that I am not making dinner! 
Speaking of dinner, this whole not blogging thing also means that I have not been meal planning for a LONG time. This may sound silly but I get a lot of anxiety when I haven't planned or we don't have what we need for dinner at home. This is my first "real" week back into meal planning and I am so excited (maybe I need to get a life, ha)!
On the menu this week:
Sunday- Grilled pork chops Monday- Chicken Enchiladas Tuesday- Spaghetti w/bow tie pasta Wednesday- Weekly date night to Matt's Thursday- Chicken Enchilada Roll Ups Friday- Saturday- Plans are up in the air. Either way, we will be going out to eat with family! 
If you post your weekly meal plan to your blog, please leave me a comment letting me know! I love to look at other meal plans. I frequently run out of new ideas for dinner. 
& what is a post without pictures... here is a bit of what we have been up to. More to come later this week!

{5 for Five}

Here we are... another Monday... a Monday that I should totally have off being that I am a school teacher (& have had it off every other year that I have been teaching!!!). Instead, right about now you can find me at a near by high school in our district, freaking out about this presentation that I am having to give very soon. This presentation would not be a big deal if it were not for the topic, partner, audience, well everything really. I will leave it at that and move on with this glorious day. 
Our weekend was AMAZING! I woke up this morning and woke up my husband just to tell him how awesome this weekend has been! He looked at me like I was crazy for waking him up and quickly fell back asleep. I laid there with him on one side and our 2 dogs on the other and couldn't have imagined  being in a happier place. 
This weekend included: -ordering pizza Friday night and falling asleep on the couch -sleeping in on Saturday, doing a little shopping, completing house projects, trying a new burger place that we had seen on Diners, Drive-in's & Dive's, and watching our favorite Saturday night show, Lock Up, till the wee hours of the morning -sleeping in again Sunday morning, having brunch at an awesome cafe near our house, helping hubs finish our dining room table, meal planning/grocery shopping, grilling pork chops and mentally trying to prepare myself for tomorrow (I really need to figure out how to post a collage of pictures...)
Last Monday, I linked up with Jenn & Jessica for 5 for Five. I wanted to check back on my goals for last week and then post my new 5 for this week!! I found myself thinking about these goals as the week went on and it did stop me from doing somethings and really pushed me to do others. 

So, goals from last week... if they are green I was successful and if they are red I wasn't...
1) Drink only 1 Coke Zero a day (or any soft drink for that matter!). I am going to go ahead and give myself a yellow for that one. There are 7 days in a week and I was successful 6 out of the 7. It was a rough week and I think know I deserved a second when I got home from work on Friday.  
2) Walk Ziegen at least 3 times this week. FAIL. I have excuses but that's just what they are... excuses. This will be on again next week!
3) Spend no unplanned/extra money this week (ie. random Target, Old Navy, Hobby Lobby trips...). I should have been more specific with this goal... what I meant to say is Monday-Friday no extra spending. That goal totally went out the window this weekend. (This really should be red but I like the color pattern I have going on here)
4) Promote my Scentsy business at least 5 times this week! You can click here to look around or shop! (Does that count as one??)   Easy! I can talk about Scentsy with anyone, anytime! 
5) Leave work by 4:30 at the latest every day this week.   There were many days that I could have stayed a lot longer than I did but enough is enough, I needed to go home.
So there you have it, my 5 goals from last week. Some went well others not so much. Here are my new goals for the week...
1) Drink only 1 soda a day (for the entire week). 2) Walk Ziegen at least 2 times this week (let's start small and then build up). 3) Spend no unplanned/extra money the entire week.  4) Start a food journal and write down everything I eat for the entire week (M-S). 5) Show a random act of kindness for someone. This can be anything that I choose!
I love this link up and the fact that it makes me step back and think about my choices. Stay tuned this week because I have a very very exciting post coming up (hint hint... giveaway)!!!! 
Happy Monday and say an extra prayer or send a positive thought for me and my presentation right about now! 

5 for 5!

I had a fabulous weekend!! Lots more to come on why it was so fabulous in my next post. I am skipping out on posting our meals this week because our meals are either boring or something that I/we make and I don't have a recipe for. So, instead of posting our meal plan, I am teaming up with Jessica from Fantastically Average for 5 for 5. This is my first time participating and I am so glad I found it. I find that I hold myself more accountable when I write it down. If this is new to you, click here to read all about it and leave a comment if you decide to join in!! 

1) Drink only 1 Coke Zero a day (or any soft drink for that matter!).
2) Walk Ziegen at least 3 times this week.
3) Spend no unplanned/extra money this week (ie. random Target, Old Navy, Hobby Lobby trips...).
4) Promote my Scentsy business at least 5 times this week! You can click here to look around or shop! (Does that count as one??)  
5) Leave work by 4:30 at the latest every day this week. 
These may seem like simple goals but are definitely things that I go back in forth with in my head! I know I NEED to do these things, but I either don't want to or don't make the time. 
Hope everyone enjoyed their weekend!!! 

WILW

I haven't linked up for What I'm Loving Wednesday in a really long time! I have been sick on and off for the past few weeks and it feels so good to be feeling 100% better! With that said, there is a nasty stomach bug going around our school and has hit my class. I have sent many kids to the nurse this week and most have ended up going home. I am PRAYING that I do not catch this nasty bug! On to what I am loving lately...

I'm loving that I took Friday off! Originally a friend and I were going out of town for Spring Sprint for Scentsy but our date was cancelled and moved to another day. I already had a sub lined up so I figured I would still take the day off!

Along with that, I'm loving the new Spring/Summer Scentsy catalog!!! I will share pictures of new warmers and descriptions of new scents soon! If you would like a copy of the catalog (either by mail or email) leave a comment letting me know.

I'm loving the new curtains we just ordered for our living room/eat in kitchen area. They have not come in yet but I have been looking for the perfect curtains for a few months now. I think I finally found them when I found these. I will be sure and take a before and after picture to post. 

I'm loving the awesome weather we have been having here in DFW. I am not a fan of cold weather and would choose rain/fog/cloudy funk (which is what we have had lately) to the miserable cold!
I'm loving all of the babies pins I have found. I swear, at the rate I'm going, I will have our entire nursery planned for either a boy or a girl before getting preggo!

Baby fever...will it ever go away?!?! 
Have a great rest of your Wednesday!! 

Feb. Goals

I am back and feeling 100% better! Getting sick and it lasting on and off for 3 weeks or so is exhausting. Today was definitely a MONDAY and I don't want this post to turn negative so please know that I am enjoying my fourth second glass of wine and waiting for The Bachelor to start!
I started the year by posting my yearly goals but want to focus more on some month to month goals rather than the entire year! I missed January because I was caught up with the holidays, getting back into the swing of reality & school, and then got sick. So, here we go with my Feb. goals. I decided to keep them short since it is a short month...
1) Some kind of exercise 3 times a week. This can as simply as taking our crazy, energetic puppy on a walk. It really is more then I have been doing!
2) Not spend more than I have budgeted for my fun money for the month. 
3) Keep up with grades. Every 6 weeks I say to myself that I will NOT get behind in grading and will be prepared for progress reports and report cards.
4) Drink more water and less soda. I would say 1 coke a day but that went out the window Feb. 2nd... oops! 
So, those are my goals for Feb. I hope I achieve all of them and WILL do a follow up at the end of the month. & because I don't like post without pictures, here are a few of my favorite valentine's day pins from pinterest... you can follow me here.

(Love this ladies blog, she has such fun decorations!!)

Weekly Meal Plan

I have to give a shout out to MLK, without him, I would be teaching a comprehension toolkit lesson to my first graders at this exact moment. Then we would be rushed to clean up, line up and get to specials because we were so engaged in our lesson and lost track of time. 
Instead, I got to sleep in till 9, watch the inauguration, catch up on all of my blogs, take an hour long bubble bath, listen to our puppy cry (all morning), and plan our meals. Days off from work are awesome and normally productive but my production level is down today... I would love to say that our house is clean, laundry is done, and all of the dishes are put away but that has just not happened and probably won't. My to-do list has been pushed to the side and I am relaxing ALL DAY LONG! I am getting ready to head to the grocery store which is seriously one of my favorite things to do (I know, strange). The meals that I posted about having last week were all amazing! I did change it up a little bit and did not end up making the soup. It wasn't cold enough and I didn't feel like putting that much effort in. 
Here are our meals for the week:
Monday- Stir Fry
Tuesday- Matt's Mexican Restaurant  We used to have our out to eat nights on Wednesday. It was the perfect night, middle of the week and helped us get through the rest of the week. Well, I got an email from Matt's the other day and it said their specials were Tuesday nights. 
Wednesday- Breakfast for Dinner This is one of my favorite meals for dinner and we have it for dinner every other week or sometimes every week! 
Thursday- Oven Baked Chicken Fajitas My husband loves to grill but with him getting home late each night, we would be eating later than I prefer. I have been searching for meals I could make that would be similar to grilling (but definitely not the same). I hope these are as good as they look. 

There is no point in posting our meals for Friday & Saturday because they will most likely change according to our plans. 
Have a great week!