Facebook Can't Help Me Now.

For quite some time now, I've been posting pictures of my attempts at getting my little New Mexican Casa up to par.  While this is great, and fabulous, and amazing, and wonderful, and convenient, and... Well, it is a royal pain in my hiney to keep clear track of my progress.

As for me, I've always enjoyed blogging.  Correction: LOVED blogging!  Suffice it to say, I never really had much to - say.  It's always just about random aspects of my life: Marriage, motherhood, being a homemaker (rather, learning to become a homemaker), etcetera.

Side note: I love that word despite Blogger's spell check recognizing it in either version of the spelling.

Back on track now, Heather.

After discussing with some of the-most-incredible-women-on-the-planet-in-our-secret-Facebook-group about things that others would see if they really knew us, I confessed that I always wanted to keep a blog and write a book.  Of course, I don't have the personal confidence in my verbal abilities to do such things.  And I honestly don't feel I have a lot of interesting topics to discuss.  However, the-most-incredible-women-on-the-planet-in-our-secret-Facebook-group suggested that I keep a blog about all the gardening I've desperately been trying to do while on an extremely limited budget and paired with extremely limited knowledge.  These most-incredible-women-on-the-planet-in-our-secret-Facebook-group give me a little bit of lift under my wings, so here I am.  My first post.  With my poor grammar, spelling, and limited vocabulary.  But that's alright.  You can correct me and I'll learn!

Just please be nice about it because I tend to write how I speak.  When I'm inebriated.  And have no inhibitions whatsoever.  Which is rare, Mom.  Just an FYI.

*insert nervous chuckle*


*insert mild throat clearing*

SO, first post, eh?  How about we start at the beginning with some pictures of the condition our home was in when we first arrived.

This is May 2007 after some very MILD trimming of the completely overgrown pyracantha bushes.

You can see the dead pyracantha branches on the ground by the light pole and the living bush on the wall to the right of the gate.  That bush was taller than the peak of the roof over the garage and entry to the courtyard there!  *shivers from memory*

Then we brought in and filled up this big guy:

Not only did we fill it up.  But we filled it up and dumped it twice!

So here they are.  New Mexican Casa 2007 vs. 2011 (as of approximately one hour ago):

I just have to say: I HATE PYRACANTHA BUSHES.  I'm pretty confident Bad Boy (aka: my husband) hates them more.  Especially when they started out taller than the house and the root system ran nearly the length of the wall with roots the diameter of an elephants leg.  Alright, I don't know if that's really how big they were in diameter.  But it was pretty darn awful and took Bad Boy all of four summers to get all the roots out.  The last one was just yanked up earlier this month.  I think I pissed him off so he had to chop something up.

This picture is important because it shows how many weeds we had to deal with.  Something that took us years just to get where we're at now.  Of course, it also shows quite well, that children and landscaping rule my world even to this very day.

*Note to self: Start cleaning up your crap before taking pictures for blogging.*

This is the backyard. There's not much to say.  We've killed and burned and killed and burned until the majority of the weeds have been vanquished.  However, walking back here is not quite that safe yet.  Goatheads, or puncturevine as you may know them, blanket the entire area and is the reason we haven't set up the swing set out back yet.  You can see it there on the right of the 2011 picture.  No.  It's not the same one as seen in the 2007 picture.  And yes.  That trashed piece of junk was tossed as well as the fridge.  Well, the fridge was recycled by our electric company and we received $30 back for our trouble of taking it to the driveway.  *giant grin*

Unfortunately, we did lose the big beautiful tree behind the playhouse.  *weeps*  I'm sure that will have it's own blog post.

PS - visit www.goatheads.com to learn all about the nasty beast of the puncturevine.  Our feet still hurt daily and our dog limps constantly.  I wonder if they make shoes for 100 pound dogs?  Hmmmm.

This would be our courtyard.  As for now, it's my courtyard.  I'm in love with the potential of the area.  I love that it will be solely grass and flowers.  I miss the tree.  But it died, so it had to go.  So now I visualize a lush lawn with little children running through an old sprinkler at the end of a hose and I'm in heaven.

I am pretty confident that the courtyard looking like it never had two trees and giant bushes occupying the area are prime examples of just how often I piss off Bad Boy.  That had to be lots and lots of sawing and hacking and Tim Allen gruntin' going on out there.

And here's the front entry.  Flowerbed railing is black.  The rose bush is bigger.  There are lights.  And bulbs are working their way out of the ground.  I cannot WAIT to see the progress by the end of the Summer this year!

And last, but most certainly not least, you can see our children.  Then and now.  This brings tears to my eyes. The Literary Musician was four and one half years old back then.  She's now going on puberty.  *insert sarcasm*  The Diva was nineteen months old... now she'll be off to kindergarten in the fall.  And Li'l Sausage hadn't even been a thought in my mind back then.  Now I'm planning his third birthday two weeks from today.

And yes.  We do call him "Li'l Sausage".  Bad Boy came up with it from the moment we had an ultrasound and he rejoiced about the fact that there would be another male in his world.