beautiful day

Today was such a beautiful day that K, my roommate, and I, spent the entire day doing yard work outside. I am slightly burned/tanned, but she got a serious burn! We just didn't notice as we worked away!

We mulched...with the $2 Home Depot special :) This is our newly laid mulch and our freshly planted purple begonias. I'm not going to talk about the begonias--too many bad memories! Just imagine digging for 30 minutes in clay--for those tiny little spots of flowers!

I spent time watering my new tomato plant...look at how big it has already gotten! My better boy is getting bigger everyday and soon I'll have to get the tomato cage for it!

I sprayed Round-Up on all of our weeds. Within 2 hours, look at what happened!

Then, I finally got up the nerve to tackle the herb garden, with K at my side. We planted basil, cilantro, oregano and parsley. They are now lining our small patio in some cute green pots, and when I sat out there this evening reading a book (sadly not studying for the GRE), all I could smell was the basil. The plant on the left is another tomato plant, because after much discussion, we decided that one plant might not be enough. So there's our Bigger Boy, though he's much smaller right now!

I'm exhausted...what a marathon day! After dinner we cleaned out and reorganized the pantry, so it's more workable. But I am the good type of exhausted, where you know you've accomplished a lot. We still have a few projects to do--installing racks on the back of the pantry door & lights under the counters in the kitchen, and getting furniture to decorate our patio. I also need to pull up the weeds that are hopefully dead by now! My goal is to have most of that done by my surgery--in just about 2 weeks!

I've been attending a new church the past few weeks, and in the first few weeks I've been there, I've felt more plugged in and involved than in over four years at another church. I'm excited--that's the community aspect of church that I've been missing and I'm so glad to finally be discovering it.

I did go grocery shopping today, but I didn't do as well as hoped. First of all, I was exhausted and starving from the day, two things that make a bad combination. Also, I came across an incredible deal this weekend--99 cent/lb. boston butt. However, my meat was mismarked, and so I got 10 lbs. of meat for $3.88. Yeah, that's right! So, I let it cook all day in the slow cooker with some seasoned salt and by dinnertime tonight, the meat had fallen to pieces off the bone and was incredibly tender. However, I had to get the necessities for my dinner--buns, BBQ sauce and baked beans, none of which were on sale. I usually wouldn't cave and buy things not on sale and not without a coupon, but I was so tired that I just got it to be done.

So here's what I got for $18 this week at Publix: grapes, lettuce, buns, BBQ sauce, baked beans, pasta roni (3 boxes), 4 jars of peanut butter (best deal ever!), package of DenteStix (for Windy & Diamond), 6 pack of water, 1 can of soup, 1 jar of salsa, frozen dinner and some other things I can't remember right now. 

And my best deal of the weeks was Earth Day at Walgreens--I got my favorite color/brand hair dye (retails at $10/box), dish soap & chocolate covered marshmallows--all for $2! And the best part was I had a gift card from easy savers last month, so I paid NOTHING out of pocket! It was a fabulous day for me there!