And Just Because

I made this and thought it turned out so cute so I wanted to post it because I love it and I love my hair being blonde again. Oh and apparently I love my denim jacket because it made into like every picture (almost as popular as the now infamous fedora). 

The Garden of Tyson

Its that time of year again when I start seeing all the new plants coming in at the nurseries and I start dreaming of growing huge fruit trees that will produce so much fruit that I will be able to go to the local farmers market and turn huge profits on them. Its true I once grew a lime tree then told the liquor store that I frequented that I would be back to sell them limes, the biggest juiciest limes they had ever seen. They kind of laughed like they didn't know if I was serious or just a weirdo. I suppose I was a bit of both. And in case you were wondering that Lime tree (named Limus, RIP) died and rarely ever produced any limes and the limes that it did grow were so small that you needed to use 3 in one vodka tonic. Anyway every year I get excited about trying to plant new plants so this year I decided we would buy some and let them be Ty's plants. Maybe try to teach him some responsibility and get him on the right track to growing plants with a green thumb, like his dad. Going to buy the plants was just not meant to be for me to do because I went 3 times to attempt to buy his plants and every time something random happened and I came home with nothing (one I went to Home Depot and they had no fruit or veggie plants, next time there was an incident with Ty and him throwing up all over himself because he chocked on a peanut he had been storing in his mouth and the 3rd time I went to get the plants before my run class but traffic was so bad, I ran out of time and just had to leave)  Luckily, Patrick came home the next day and able to help us purchase the plants  do the actual planting.  I of course was on hand to buy all the fun gardening accessories at the Dollar Tree. We got Ty a fajita pepper plant, a hybrid tomato plant that's supposedly easier then regular tomatoes to care for and a strawberry plant. I wanted a jalepeno plant too but its not something Ty could eat and the purpose of his plants was so that he could grow then eat what he grew. 

I love this picture of Ty, I think I've mentioned before that he sticks his little tongue out when he's concentrating on something just like me its so cute.  This was him before the planting began. 

Here he is with his strawberry plant. 

Prepping the pots with soil to transfer the plants (but mainly still just interested in the strawberry plant I think because it came in a pretty little pot with strawberries all over it.)

Helping dad. Isn't this such a sweet picture? Ty just thinks the world of Patrick and anything Patrick does is way cooler then anything I do, mostly because dads stuff involves tools and tractors and dirt. 

Here's the tomato plant. Its already bigger then this (its been a week) and the pepper plant is huge now! 

See? Still obsessed with the strawberry container. 

. 

Probably Ty's favorite part about his new garden, he gets to use the hose everyday.

Payton is helping Ty too. On a side note, Payton loves playing with Ty so much. She follows him around everywhere and playfully jumps at him and runs with him. They're like best friends. Paris, not so much but she is super tolerant of him now. 

And finally here is Ty watering his plants and he looks like such a big boy. We try to water them everyday and Ty is always checking on them. I really hope he learns something from this experience and I really, really hope we grow so many peppers and strawberries and tomatoes that we can go sell them at the farmers market and make a huge profit or at least enough so I can buy me a new lime tree (and then turn a profit with those limes). 

Bluebonnets

Not a whole lot of explanation needed for these pictures. Every year about this time our state flower, the bluebonnet, starts making an appearance. As a Texan, nothing makes you love the state of Texas more than the highways covered in bluebonnets that just look like they're showing off. And this year with all the rain and warm weather, they are awesome. Anyway I've never taken Ty's picture in them before so I was really excited to do so. Not wanting to have to pull over on I-35 and risk our lives to get the perfect shot, I was on the hunt for a nice patch. Driving home from somewhere, my husband turned down the wrong street and I was rude to him about it something along the lines of "this street doesn't give you a light, how are you going to make a left turn across 6 lanes of traffic on Slaughter Lane?" Well it just so happens that this idiotic move that my husband made took us right past a perfect bluebonnet patch with no traffic and no large families of Mexicans trampling the flowers (yet). So the next day I dressed Ty in one of his Easter outfits and the 3 of us went out to get the obligatory Texas Bluebonnet pictures.

Project 366 Week 12

I'm having to use a new program to do my weekly photo collages because the one I was using for some reason went out of business or was taken over by google or something. It's a little different but it works.

'

March 18th- Brought Ty home a cupcake from the bake sale that the church ladies were having after the early service. He was so excited. He tried to eat it like a corn on the cob (he also tries to do that with ice cream cones now too. Not sure why he turns everything sideways to eat)

March 19th- Patrick came home from his 2 week stay in Arkansas at a super cool hotel that had all these different kinds of cereal that he was able to steal and bring home to me. Incidentally he also stole 62 Starbucks cups with their lids from their coffee bar, I only got 12 of them though. 

March 20th- Rainy day, here are Ty's new rainboots. They're camo print and from Walmart. I think they're cute. Sure they're no Hunters but he's 2 I will buy him the Hunters later when I know he can wear them longer. 

March 21st- Our usual bridge on the walking trails was totally covered by the creek. It has rained so much lately. Payton did end up swimming but kind of got caught in the cureent just treading water until I pulled her out. 

March 22- Me and Ty had to go pick up my mom from her school. Ty asks all day now "where'd grammy go" 

March 23- Here's my big boy filling up his watering can to water his garden we planted for him to take care of. I will blog about that separately. 

March 24th- Ty's first pictures in the bluebonnets. I think they turned out so well!

Whatevs

I haven't been in a very bloggy mood lately. I guess I haven't felt very inspired to do a post about how wonderful my life is because it just hasn't felt that way lately.  Now don't get me wrong I am so very grateful for the life that I have, for my son and my husband and my mom but I've just felt kind of down lately and felt as though things just haven't been going as I would have liked them to so I didn't want to write posts of me whining. I would like to say though that my husband's piece of trash truck broke down again this week and required $1600 worth of work bringing our grand total in just one month of $6000 worth of repairs to that truck and I'm just tired of it.
But anyway luckily my husband has a good paying job and we have my parents who are so helpful and supportive during our hard times. So here are a few pictures and updates of things that have been going on lately...
Patrick taught Ty how to change a tire today. My spare needed to be taken off and the regular, newly patched tire be put back on so here are some super sweet pictures I got of them changing my tire.

I am getting in such good shape again and I am totally buff now. I workout 6 days a week with my bestie Hoss and she’s getting in great shape too and I’m so proud of her. I am also so thankful that I have her back in my life again. She is just such a good friend and I’m just sad that we went most of our 20s apart. I had an old friend that I no longer am in contact with. Someone asked me the other day if I ever miss her or think about her and my answer was absolutely not. Which is exactly how I know I did the right thing in getting her out of my life. Hoss makes me happy and I look forward to seeing her everyday, my husband even really likes her. This is the exact opposite of how it used to be with my old friend. Patrick couldn’t stand her and just thinking of something she said or did would raise my blood pressure. Hoss is a good friend and one that will remain in my life forever. Plus, we are going to opening night of Hunger Games tomorrow and I may or may not be so excited tonight I won’t be able to sleep (we love that book!!) She is my Peeta and I am her Katniss (and only those who have read the book will appreciate that reference)

Ty is doing really well. He is speaking almost exclusively in full sentences now and its just so cute and still a little strange. 2 months from yesterday Ty will be 2 years old. I realize he talks and acts like one of 3 or 4 but how the hell is my baby about to be 2. I still remember seeing the positive pregnancy test. It irritates me that time goes so fast. Anyway its time for me to get into full on party planning mode because this party is going to be huge with a ton of guests.

Ty took a book with him on the playground yesterday. I fear that by instilling the importance of reading in my child, I have created a nerd. I told him he would get beat up carrying that book around on a playground. At least he’s got 2 cool, non glasses wearing, well dressed, used to be the life of the party parents; he maybe able to hone in on some of our coolness, right?

Oh yeah and one more thing, Patrick was outside with Ty yesterday and my neighbor, who is a stay at home mom, came over to them. She told him that she was a member of the Southwest Austin Mom’s Club and that I should join. Now my husband being the sweet guy to strangers and impertinent person to me that he is said this “oh yeah Lauren was a member of the Aiken Mom’s club and LOVED it” oh that husband of mine. I suppose he just wants me to join to see how long it takes for me to be kicked out and to get a funny story out of it. There is NO way I would ever, ever join another mom’s club after my experience in Aiken. Just thought I needed to post that since it did make me chuckle. 

Project 366 Week 11

March 11- I have been missing 6 of my favorite dresses for over a year. Between moving all the time its easy to lose things and I had finally come to terms with never seeing them again. I honestly thought I had taken to the dry cleaners and just left them. However on this day I had to go to my storage unit and I noticed a laundry basket that looked a little out of place and there were my dresses. I seriously wanted to shed a tear of joy I was so excited. Anyway here's one of the dresses that was found. I got it in Myrtle Beach and it couldn't have ever been replaced.

March 12- Just checked into the hotel and as per usual Ty had to go straight to the phone and call his dad. 

March 13- At the zoo checking out the monkeys.

March 14- Playing on the volleyball court at our old Mary Moore Park.

March 15- We went to have lunch with Oma and Opa today. Here is Ty meeting my mom's creepy life size doll, Bett Lou. He wasn't too sure about her but none of us are and that's why she still lives with Oma and not at our house. 

March 16- I got home from my workout to find my child looking like this. He's mowing the lawn with his shirt off. Its seriously one of the funniest things I have ever seen. 

March 17- St. Patrick's Day green beer. This is actually the 1st time I've actually ever been out for St. Patty's day and I had a blast (I will do a separate post on it later)

Trip to Dallas

We took a trip to Dallas this week while my mom is on spring break from school. Emily had tickets to see the Myth Buster guys do a show of some sorts that was in Dallas and she was going with my uncle Mark. So since I recently found out that Plano had a new H&M store I figured Ty and I could tag along, visit Mark, visit the H&M and then visit the zoo. It turned out to be a really fun trip and 3.5 hours in the car is nothing for Ty these days after his 12 hour days driving to and fro South Carolina. 

I believe I've mentioned before how obsessed Ty is with suitcases. Obsessed as in I now not only have to avoid the toy section in Target but also the suitcase section because if he sees one, he must push/pull it as he is doing in these pictures. 

Ty insisted on pulling the little suitcase and wearing his backpack. When we were walking out, all of the cleaning ladies were laughing and saying how cute he was. Once he passed by them and their carts, he stopped, turned around and waved bye. 

Then we made it to the zoo. This is Ty's 3rd zoo to visit. He's been to 3 zoos in 3 states. Not bad for an almost 2 year old. I think I've also mentioned before that I want to try and visit a zoo in every state we live or visit its just a kind of cool thing for Ty to have and to be able to brag about someday. 

The Dallas zoo was big, probably the biggest one we've been to so far but it was also the most crowded. And I mean crowded. I understand that its all of Texas's spring break this week but come on, its Dallas there are a million things to do there did everyone have to go to the zoo? We went early, right after it first opened so it wasn't too bad but when we left people were lined up to get in like it was Jurassic Park and they were getting to see real dinosaurs. It was ridiculous. 

The zoo had these iron animal statues all over the place. I swear Ty was more interested in them then the real animals. All he wanted to do was climb on them.  

Trying to get Ty to pose for a picture these days is almost impossible. Gone are the days of my smilely little baby who was more then happy to just sit still and smile. Now he just wants to run away and not look at the camera. As seen in these pictures. I liked my outfit though so I put them on here anyway. 

Here's another posed picture that I tried to get that was a fail. That's why I have so many candid shot where no one is looking at my camera, they just don't work at the moment. 

Here's Emily playing with Ty. 

Oh but here's a decent picture we are both looking at and smiling for the camera. Plus you can see an elephant in the background too. Best picture of the day. 

Ah but the sweet baby didn't last long. And he's off again to go see the animals on his own. 

I think Ty liked the leopard the best this time. Its very similar to the alligator exhibit that he loved in South Carolina where they were right up against the glass so he could see them perfectly. The leopard kept coming over to see him too, looked right at him so he thought that was pretty cool. 

Here he is saying "kitty". The leopard did look a lot like my parent's cat the way it moved and its mannerisms. Pretty cool Ty recognized that.

So there you have it, our trip to the Dallas Zoo. We all had a great time. Our next zoo is the San Antonio one. Yay for zoos!