Another fun Memorial Day Weekend!

Chad's family takes an anual camping trip to the Coos Bay area every memorial day weekend - here are some pictures from the last trip.

{Little sissy wouldn't come out of the trailer all weekend}

{Jolene wheelyin'}

{Chad and his neice}

{Chad's mom absent mindedly jumped on the back of a bike with Chad - we could hear her screaming all the way from the parking lot}

The 'Garden'?

Here's what i'm good at - grass and gravel. SOO easy to maintain and keep alive (well the grass atleast). Last year i tried my hand at some flowers and some veggies and after a series of unfortunate events - i have YET to keep something alive. In 2011 I planted a couple of vines, some azaleas, a few rhodies and a variety of veggies. I was doing decent, not flourishing but atleast maintaining, until we housed 5 puppies. By the time the puppies found new homes there wasn't a single ground level plant still living. The vegetable garden was luckily out of their reach but unfortunately didn't survive me leaving town for a week in August. So here i am again, starting fresh - and look at my situation:

{Hydrangea No. 1 - Pretty Sad}

{Hydrangea No. 2 - Very Sad}

{Hydrangea No. 3 - Happy!}

What the heck?! All planted the same way, at the same time, within 5 feet of eachother. How did i manage this? I will have to do some hydrangea research and get back to you.  Here is my other plant for the year - i'm thinking 4 is my limit, if i can keep them alive i will try more next year.





The Filler

First, a little about myself. This blog is in no-way intended to be a cheap stab at my mother. She is a great 'woman'. She raised 4 kids, is a super neat freak and had dinner on the table every night - but for whatever reason, I was always more interested in being a dirty, outdoorsy, ruffian, hooligan and she never forced me otherwise. The recent turn of events that has caused me to change my ways is the fact that all the women in my boyfriends family are super-freaks of nature. We are talking great jobs, impecable houses, manicured lawns, and well-mannered children type of women who can pull 5-course meals out of their asses. Im afraid that if i don't change my ways these women might recognize that I am dating way out of my league and encourage Chad (boyfriend/golden child) to raise his standards.

{Here we are at the mall last Christmas}

This picture brings me to my next point. We have two dogs. Chad's dog, Peter, is a Border Collie/Coyote cross - aka - long haired mess. My dog, Riley, is a vicious blue heeler. After she bit the neighbor (Chad's sister) i had no choice but to take her to a less populated area (my parents house) to live until further notice. When she was knocked up by my brother's visiting friend's Border Collie, Chad and I mutually decided to keep one of the friendlier puppy versions of Riley, Tally (aka long haired mess No. 2).

{The reasons why i slave constantly to keep a clean house}

Well, more to come - but it's  beautiful day... i should probably be washing windows or something.



The beginning...

Well this is just your standard documented journey of a girl, raised as a boy, finally taking the steps to becoming a woman at the ripe age of 26. For whatever reason, I have been able to put off the transformation for so long that now I have no choice but to force myself to learn it all at once:  Cleaning, cooking, baking, sewing, crafting, photography, kids, and general homemaking. I have to admit that i have some natural ability in the cleaning department but, until recently, limited to no experience in the other categories. I would like this blog to be a documented journey that might be useful to my daughters someday (although i plan on having only sons.) Hope that it is helpful to you readers (if any of you come along) and, ideally, maybe you all can also be of some help to me! To be continued...

Here i am.... obviously eager to get the learning started.