Thursday, May 28, 2009

my love/hate relationship with Utah

Usually in the autumn, I start to feel a little heartsick for Ohio. Utah just doesn't have the vibrancy of fall colours that I grew up with and the trees change so quickly here. Lately though, I've been feeling those pangs of heartsickness again. Maybe it's because I haven't been back in almost 3 years and I'm overdue for a visit. I'm not really sure what it is. I honestly never thought that I would end up living in Utah. In college, I even tried to avoid dating Utahns and Idahoans because I always wanted to move back to Ohio and all those Utahns I met were deadset against ever leaving their beloved state. Then Adam swept me off my feet, married me, we played rock/paper/scissors to decide where to live, Adam won, and so we made Utah our home. Part of me loves it here. The mountains are amazing! I like the contrasts in southern Utah. I really like how the sky is blue all winter--in Ohio the winter is mostly overcast and gloomy. I love how both my family and Adam's family all live so close by. Sometimes I want to scream, "Where is all the green???? What on earth am I doing living in a desert?" Then I look around at all of the things that I love: my family, my friends, the mountains, my green backyard and, I think to myself, "I can be happy anywhere because I have what is most important: my family."

Friday, May 22, 2009

My Front Yard

Let me preface by saying that my dad is an amazing gardener. My dad really should have been a professional landscaper instead of working at American Standard. Growing up, we always had amazing yards, vast gardens of fruits and veggies, and paths. When my parents moved into our basement five years ago, our yard was terrible. The people who lived here before us really wanted a nice yard (there were signs of this) but just had my gardening skills (not a good thing!). So, Dad really had his work cut out for him.


Last summer, Dad told Adam and I that he was ripping out all the grass in our front yard since it was all crabgrass anyway and putting in gardens. I have to admit that Adam and I had our doubts about this one, but, everything I've ever seen my dad do has turned out beautifully, so Adam and I agreed to his crazy plan. We now have no grass in the front yard. Last summer, Alex and Dad started by putting in a concrete walkway in a sunburst pattern. I'm amazed that Dad let Alex help w/ the concrete!! Anyway, I'll just post some pics because my description cannot encompass how incredible my front yard is looking.



When you walk out my front door now, this is the what you will see. Since it is still spring, the seeds haven't started growing in the boxes yet, but soon we will have vegetables. Sunflowers are growing in front of this part of the fence and to the left is lavender and to the right are rosebushes. Everything will smell soooo good!






Here is a better view of the path and the planter boxes. Also, Mom and Dad are hard at work planting seeds. We'll have 12 different kinds of squash, 3 types of peppers, 2 types of carrots, turnips, garlic and a ton of tomato plants. Along this part of the fence is a grape vine, 6 different clematis and a rose bush. I'll post updates as the summer goes on. I thought it turned out really incredible tho--go Dad!

PS. Erin, are you proud of me? 3 blogs in one month lol

Monday, May 18, 2009

Ashlee's 4th of July dress



For whatever reason, I like to make Ashlee a new 4th of July dress every year. I just finished it last week and thought i'd post a few pics of her twirling around in it. I will really be sad on the day that she doesn't want me to make her dresses anymore. She absolutely loved this dress because 1. it has blue in it 2. it is perfect for twirling!

Thursday, May 7, 2009

Erik's love of dirt

I know, it's been a really long time since I blogged, so, you think i'd catch you up on life in the Talbot family. Heck no, I'm going to describe Erik's new love: *drumroll* DIRT aka potting soil! you've got it! Dirt! I have a large potted plant in the front room that Erik is very attracted to. Every time I have set him down today, he immediately crawls over to the plant, and stuffs the dirt in his mouth as fast as he can. It's SOOOOO gross! I run over, grab him, and then he starts to scream and cry and scream and cry and scream and cry until he has made it back to the plant. is this what having a 1 year old is like????