German Au Pair Weekend

This last weekend Andrew and I housed two German Au Pairs whom I met a month ago at a local park. Martina (the one on the left) has been here for 6 weeks and Marina (the one on the right) has been here for seven months. These girls have so much energy and are enjoying their time in the States. I am benefiting from their visit because Martina shares her German chocolate with me!

Andrew and I took them to downtown Walnut Creek on Friday night to see our night life. Then I took them up to Davis to see a "college town." While there, we stopped by my friend Nick's house and he and his girlfriend went shopping downtown with us. Then the girls and I moved on to shop at the Vacaville outlets. We shopped until we dropped.

It was a great weekend and unfortunately I am pretty slow at picking up German. Martina and Marina both couldn't believe that Americans really do dress up their dogs. Of course I had to put Teenie in her pajamas and LuLu in her skirt. Now Marina wants a Shitzu.

Auf Wiedersehen

Baby Smooshy

My mother's friend Anne just became a proud mother of a 7 week old pug. They haven't named him yet, but as we all know I was quick to choose a name for the little fella. With Teenie and LuLu's help, we decided to call him Smooshy until he has a permanent name. He is so adorable. Our family wishes you the best on your new arrival and I hope he learns to sleep through the night soon.

Does he want baby clothes?

Happy Mother's Day

Happy Mother's Day to all you mothers! Andrew and I love our mommies very much! Andrew's parents stayed with us this weekend and helped us work in the yard. We planted our first tree, a Sophora japonica (aka. Japanese Pagoda Tree), and put in one row of shrubs along our side fence. While I planted my new plants, the Hursts worked hard on leveling the rock portion of our yard to prepare for our garden labyrinth. Ellen ripped out our not too happy Bougainvillea and has the wounds on her arms to prove it. Here are some pictures taken while it was raining, hence the bad lighting!

Our first tree! I've hugged it many times already.

Here it is in our yard. Ellen and I started digging the hole while Andrew and David ran to Ace Hardware and of course we dug the hole right where a drainage pipe was. Andrew helped relocate the pipe so we wouldn't have to dig up the whole yard.

I planted a flowering quince in the back, left corner of the yard. I also planted some perennials that I got for free at our local nursery. I can't remember their name right now.

I was so happy to plant my clytostoma vine this weekend. It is an evergreen, violet trumpet vine. I hope it is happy in the corner.

I hope all had a great weekend and I am ready for another weekend (I think it is going to be a long week)!

Spring Cleaning

Andrew and I have been gardening like crazy around the house. My Nana and Grandpa mailed me a great copy of the Sunset Gardening book. I am hooked now. My Nana and I visited some nurseries in Sacramento to pick out plants/trees for our front and back yards. There is still a lot to do, but here are some photos of our progress so far.

Teenie and LuLu enjoyed our back bed before we banned them from messing around in it!

Our newly planted back bed. We planted ceanothus (wild lilac) because it will grow big and tall, tolerates little water, and has beautiful spring blossoms (blue/white).

Ceanothus up close.

We are still working on getting rid of the gravel and fill dirt.

Front of House BEFORE!

Front bed NOW! (New Zealand Flax and Gardenias)

Front side area BEFORE.

No more Palm Tree! I planted Flame Callas along the wall (I know they need more shade, but I am testing them out) and Birds of Paradise under the front window.

Closer up.

Well, that is all folks. I have Clytostoma (Violet Trumpet Vine) on its way for the front, side fence. It was a bit of a dissapointment to plant the plants and have it look so small. I always have visions of the plants full grown. Time will tell. I also ordered a Sophora Japonica (Japanese Pagoda Tree) for our backyard.

Take care and enjoy the Spring sun!

Save The Date!!!

We will be hosting a HOUSEWARMING PARTY for all of you to attend!

Save The Date: Saturday, June 25, 2005

Where: Shannon and Andrew's House (Discovery Bay)

Time: Open House (12:00pm - 4:00pm)

We Can't Wait To See You

Invitations will go out soon!

Happy St. Patrick's Day

I hope everyone has a great, green day. I made "green" lemon bars for our neighbors today (ahhh the fun of having a day off during the week). My Nana brought the lemons with her when she visited last week. The second picture is of a print my Nana and Grandpa gave to us as a "house warming" gift. The print used to be in their house. We love it and found a great place for it inside of our house. It is great feng shui because it has the fish swimming to the right so your eye connects both rooms. Maybe it isn't necessarily feng shui, but it has great chi!

What a Weekend!

This last weekend, my Grandparents came down from Sacramento to see our house for the first time. We really enjoyed showing them around town, eating at my favorite restaurant, and choosing plants for our front/back yards. We can't wait to see them again. Here are some pictures:

Showing them the backyard.

Nana shows me the ropes for using Sunset books.

We had to do our research online to check Contra Costa's Tree Planting Guide.

On Sunday, Andrew and I had our hands full with projects around the yard.

Andrew fixed the sprinklers that were leaking.

We then built a fence to keep Teenie out of the garden since she dug up the whole thing the day after we built the boxes. It looks a little ratty, but I promise we will paint it and make it look nice with climbing flowers. I wanted to paint "keep out" on it since it looks like a kid's clubhouse. Andrew and I like it because we built the gate for our second rental house in Livermore and it has lots of personality.

Here is my new lemon tree. It is a Eureka lemon tree. I found out that Meyer lemon trees are hybrids and they are a cross between lemons and some other type of citrus like an orange. If this is false, please let me know, but I am sticking with my "pure" lemon tree!