Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Gardens

I love living in Arlington. We are right in between Dallas and Fort Worth and all the amazing opportunities and entertainment they have to offer. One benefit of living in the Metroplex is having double the fun from which to choose; two zoos, two botanical gardens, more museums than you can count, sports teams galore, and every very small town has its own festival or trademark event that they promote throughout the year. Everyone wants to attract attention and attendees, so often times things are free or admission prices are reduced! Yay for us!

In January, Drew and I checked out the Dallas Zoo during "Penguin Days" (not sure why I didn't write a post about it). Since January and February are cooler months and people are less likely to think of spending a day at the zoo, tickets are only $5.00! It was a great visit and the weather was perfect on the day we went. At the other end of the spectrum, August is quite hot and so the Dallas Arboretum & Botanical Gardens hosts Dollar Days. So, for $14.16, my friend and I were able to pay for parking, admission, and two smoothies!

We arrived early on the last Saturday of the event, expecting the place to be packed; it was busy, but not as crowded as I anticipated. The sky was cloudy and the air was a bit humid, but the fog burned off and the sun was blazing by the time we left. We only planned to stay for about two hours, but we could have been there all day! If you like walking slowly and taking macro photos, the arboretum is the place to be. I can't wait to take Drew - he'll go camera crazy! Plus, the plants are all labeled, which will make him very happy, because he believes it should be the law to display the names of flowers and plants in public places. We'll have to go back to research what types of flowers to plant come springtime. Part of me wishes I had brought one of my fancier cameras with me, but I am honestly astounded at how well my pocket-sized point and shoot performed. I hope you enjoy some of the pictures I took!

This butterfly bush was covered with bees! I think the trick to avoiding bees and wasps at home will be to have lots of flowers. Those insects didn't even care that we were there.

These purple gnomes are just like the ones in our front yard. I am glad that ours look as good as the arboretum's!

There are 4 conditions that make spiders an acceptable part of my life. 1) They must be outside, 2) They must be far away from my house, 3) They must be small and cute, 4) They must pose for pictures.

The only thing missing from this pond was frogs on the lily pads.

My Dream Pantry!!!!!!

How do you like this little teaser?

Disclaimer: My reasons for posting these pictures of my pantry are selfish. I want everyone to be jealous of the gorgeous space I have created, but, I also want you to know that it is POSSIBLE and DOABLE and not even all that bad to take on a challenge like this one. Go for it!

Have you ever imagined something in your head and then made it come into real life existence? It has happened to me before with the peg people that I have painted and some of the sewing projects I have completed. I have also experienced the imagination-to-reality phenomenon with some of the lessons I planned for my students. What a great feeling it is to take an idea and make it come to life! The biggest project I have ever dreamed up is now a REAL THING thanks to some amazing teamwork on the part of my husband and me and some of our supporters (namely, Kayla and Mom and Dad). Not to brag (except that I am actually bragging), but what you are about to witness is the epic transformation of a sad, disgusting room under the stairs into a beautiful and sunshiny pantry.

The moment that we first toured the house that is now our home, before we even closed on it, the wheels in my head were already turning- "What am I going to do about that pantry?" Here is what I had to work with:

This space had so much potential, but it was being used very inefficiently. Plus it smelled so bad, I couldn't imagine putting food in there.

I found some inspiration on Pinterest and, because I know Drew is scared of colorful walls, I even did a mock-up of my dream pantry in PowerPoint. Now, just to clarify, when I call this my dream pantry, I quite literally had dreams about black and white tile floors and yellow walls. Knowing that the pantry would be behind a closed door, my wonderful husband accepted my dream and let me run with it. We were a great team throughout the process and I learned a lot. I wasn't really happy that it took two and half months to wrap it all up, but the feeling of success, however delayed, is gratifying.

The inspiration for my dream pantry!

I know this is super nerdy, but I had a lot of fun making this.

The first thing we had to do was demolish the foul, nasty, gross room under the stairs. The cats had peed in there, the carpet was straight up yucky, and the shelves were super duper lame. I was surprised at how fun demo was and how quickly we did it. We even had time to make a run to the dump that afternoon. At this point I was thinking I would have a pantry in no time at all. Um, not so much.

Buh-bye, you filthy walls!

There was so much hair and dust and fur in these walls . . . icky!!!!!!!

Drew liked having the opportunity to admire the construction of the house. We might not like every small detail left by previous owners, but the bones of this place are solid; they stood up to the test of Drew climbing all over them.

Over the next few weeks, Drew worked on hanging new drywall. When he initially told me he wanted to replace the drywall, he assured me that it would be an easy project. Well, I have learned that just because a project is easy, it is not necessarily quickly completed. Cutting, taping, mudding, sanding, repeating. I'll admit that at times I was frustrated when other projects around the house took precedence over my pantry, but having a working HVAC is important, too, so I just had suck it up buttercup.

This is what properly puckered drywall screws look like. I did at least one of these! Probably the one on the right.

Drywall mud is so cool! I think it looks like nougat, but it just wouldn't taste the same.

We were terribly busy during the month of July, and not much work got done in the pantry or elsewhere in the house. The most important thing we did was design our shelving! It's the most important part of the pantry, and I was most eager to get that detail all squared away. 

SO EXCITING!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Once we had a few moments of spare time, we laid down the beautiful black and white tile floor. The process of laying the tiles was much faster than I imagined it would be. The worst part was cleaning the grout off of the tiles.

<3

The spacers hanging out amongst the tiles reminded me of a chess game.

And THEN, thanks to a fantastic friend who gave me a Lowe's gift card, I was able to paint the walls! The paint color I chose is called Fuzzy Navel by Olympic and it is an intense yellow. Note to all DIY-ers: even if you buy paint with primer in it, PRIME YOUR DRYWALL. I painted one wall with five coats of paint before I sent Drew to get primer before I continued with the rest. Painting in such a small space was a nice workout, too; I did a lot of squats without even realizing it as I made floor to ceiling paint strokes with my roller.

Black and white tiles and yellow walls! I can hardly stand it, it is so beautiful!

When the walls had dried, I decided to tackle the tile baseboard on my own. My mindset was positive at the start, ready to breeze right through it. It was all good until I had to break one of the tiles to make it fit the empty space on the wall. Drew had shown me how to score and break ceramic tiles when we did the floor tile. He made it look as easy as snapping a chocolate chip cookie in half. I felt like I was trying to break a diamond in my hands, leaving me feeling defeated and helpless. Many tears were shed. And not the cute kind, where you can still talk and function as you cry. These were the ugly you-know-you-are-crying-for-a-stupid-reason-but-you-haven't-cried-in-a-while-and-it-feels-sort-of-good-so-you-just-go-with-it-because-what-is-the-point-in-stopping-now?-and-then-you-start-laughing-because-you-are-crying-and-then-you-start-crying-again-because-you-are-so-frustrated kind of tears. After I was done with that special moment, I pulled up my big girl pants and tried again. If I am nothing else when I set out to do something, I am persistent. A YouTube video saved my frazzled nerves and I gave it another go, this time with success! I bought five extra tiles for the parts that would need to be cut, and I returned three of them to Home Depot, so that makes me feel proud.

Bringing out the big guns for this project. Please make sure you know all the tricks to using a caulk gun BEFORE you do your project. My hands still hurt because I didn't take the time to learn the helpful tips first.

The key to breaking the tile cleanly was to place something thin underneath the scored line. The video I watched recommended a wire hanger. Since I don't have any of those, I used a metal skewer. I still had to stand on the tiles to break them, but it actually worked, and that is all that mattered to me.

Dear small tile, You were a pain in the butt to create, and although I am happy that you exist, if you were a person walking down the street, I would have to try really hard to not punch you in the face. Love, Angie

Everything happened really quickly after I had the tiles placed on the wall. Grouting and caulking were a breeze, and then I was ready to install the shelves! Drew and my Dad did an incredible job of installing the top tracks that provide the horizontal support for the shelves. Normally, a design doesn't have more than one track to support the same shelves across both, but in the case of our oddly shaped pantry, we were rebels. When I placed a level on each shelf today, it was darn near perfect, and I love them so much for doing the one part of the installation that intimidated me the most.

And now, are you ready to see my picture perfect dream pantry?! Honestly, my only regret is that these pictures don't truly convey how beautiful it is. So, if you need to see it in real life, come by for a visit. :)

Shelving that makes sense!

I think this picture gives the best representation of the wall color.

There is so much space in this pantry that I don't even have it all filled up yet!

The magazine files that are holding my cookbooks are yellow on the inside, just like my walls!

Keep Calm and Cook On

Thus far, I have a green kitchen and a yellow pantry. What's next?! I am thinking a blue laundry room sounds good.

Catholic Match Success!

As you probably well know by now, Drew and I met on CatholicMatch.com - an amazing dating site for Catholics around the world. They are always looking for success stories to share, and so I finally submitted ours a few weeks ago. Having read many success stories before, I knew that the grammar and editing would likely butcher the perfectly fine write-up on which I spent a great deal of time. However, I was still shocked to see it for real (you can read it here), and I don't know if it is the fault of my browser or the software they use, or human error, but the mistakes seemed even more glaring, since it is my story on the line here. For real, it made my insides feel icky as I counted every missing comma, apostrophe, and pair of quotation marks. SO, for my sanity, and your ability to compare, here is MY submission:

  

In February of 2011, Angela (Angie to her friends and family) was 23 years old and living in a small town in Florida, where the average resident's age is in the mid-50s. Single, with little hope of finding any eligible local prospects, she braved the world of online dating and created a CatholicMatch.com profile. The first few days of online dating were exhausting, but since joining Catholic Match had been pressing on her heart for many months, she was determined to give it a fighting chance.

Drew was 27 years old and about to move from Texas to Miami, Florida, a big city full of strangers. His twin sister had already married a man whom she had met on Catholic Match and she encouraged Drew to join. Wondering if his dream girl could be waiting for him in Florida, he searched for ladies within 500 miles of Miami. When he saw Angie's picture, he immediately fell in love. In fact, his sister jokingly warned him, "If you don't marry her, I'll kill you."

He spent hours composing the first, brief message to send Angie, and when she read it, she knew that Drew was different from the other men with whom she had chatted. After feeling overwhelmed in her first days on Catholic Match, Angie had prayed that her deceased grandfather would pray for her experience with online dating and that she would be guided in the right direction. God must have heard those intercessions, because Drew is so much like Angie's Grandpa, it is uncanny. The power of prayer was truly revealed to Angie and her family as they got to know Drew better.  

Angie and Drew both admit to having felt rather broken-hearted when they joined Catholic Match. As the two got to know each other via email and chat, they became friends, helped each other heal from past hurts, and fell in love. After six weeks, Drew made the four and a half hour drive from Miami to Inverness on a Saturday morning. He took Angie out to lunch and then dinner that evening. The next morning he picked her up for Mass and then they went to Tampa to meet Angie's family.

They knew from the start that they would get married someday. The long distance relationship was a challenge, but video chatting daily made them feel closer together. Drew sent Angie an email every morning, asking her both fun and thought-provoking questions to help him get to know her better. They planned dates to watch movies, cook the same meals, and play Scrabble together, all via video chats. They made saying the Divine Mercy Chaplet part of their evening routine, and this helped them to keep God at the heart of their relationship. Drew's regular trips to visit Angie were a clear sign of his determination to show her just how strongly he loved her.

On the one-year anniversary of the day Angie received Drew’s first message, Drew planned an entire day of surprises based on the themes of Faith, Hope, and Charity. The day began with a lakeside sunrise breakfast, and continued as they wrote letters to their future selves and ate lunch where they had first dined one year earlier. Angie was stunned when Drew took her to church for an hour of Adoration that he had arranged just for the two of them - what an amazing gift! After a delicious dinner at a French restaurant, Drew took Angie to the lake where her profile picture had been taken and he gave her a book full of all the questions he had asked in the emails he wrote to her. Much to Angie's surprise, the last page of the book posed a new question: "Angela, will you marry me?" She emphatically said, “Yeah!” but Drew isn’t ever going to let her forget that she said didn't say, “Yes.”

Sixteen months later, Angie and Drew married in her family's parish in Tarpon Springs, Florida. They moved to Texas a bit more than a month later, where they have thoroughly enjoyed getting to spend each day together without needing computers to connect them. When they walked into the church where they are now parishioners, they immediately noticed the image of Divine Mercy above the altar, a comforting sign that they had found their new church home.

The whole Catholic Match experience seems so miraculous, from meeting when they were 1500 miles apart to successfully dating long distance and getting married, that Angie and Drew can still hardly believe that they even know each other. "It all feels like a dream sometimes," Angie says. "We believe that God obviously wanted us to be together, and he used the circumstances in our respective lives to help us realize that. It took a lot of courage to join Catholic Match and a massive amount of trust in God's plan, and it was so worth letting go and getting out of my comfort zone."

Angie and Drew recently celebrated their one-year anniversary and purchased their first house with plans to start a family in the near future.

One Year In Texas & A Kitchen Update!

Today marks one year since Drew and I arrived in Texas! We drove into Dallas late last year to head to the hotel that would be our temporary home while we apartment hunted. The lit-up skyline still holds great nostalgia for me since it was really the first glimpse I had of our future life here. Dallas/Fort Worth, or “The Metroplex,” as it is known here, is always busy and bustling with big city events and small town festivals. We have slowly taken advantage of all that the area has to offer, and living in the “mid-cities” means that we are never far from something fun to do!

I am happy to report that I really like living here. Aside from being hours away from a real beach, and having only scattered instances of palm trees, it isn’t too unlike Florida. 100 degrees and 40% humidity in Arlington feels a lot like 92 degrees and 70% humidity in Tampa; I get a good chuckle when people complain about the humidity here in DFW. Really? Puh-lease. Go hang out in Gainesville or Orlando in August.

One quirk I am still getting used to is the way Texans pronounce things. I studied Spanish for six and a half years, and I have been speaking English for almost 27, and I take pronunciation of both languages very seriously. So, it always throws me off to hear traffic, weather, and news reports, and realize that I have been saying city names “wrong” in my head, because people here just do what they want. It is Texas, after all.

Examples (forgive my attempt at phonetic spelling):
Celina – should be pronounced ce-LEEN-ah, Texans say ce-LINE-ah
Salado – should be sa-LAH-doh, Texans say sa-LAY-doh
Alvarado – should be al-va-RAH-doh, Texans say al-va-RAY-doh
McKinney – I feel like this doesn’t even need a “should be” explanation, but Texans say McKenny, and it REALLY bothers me. Kind of like how nobody says Whataburger, but rather, Wattaburger. UURRRRGHH!
White Settlement – Nothing strange about pronunciation here, just weird that a town with this name even exists.

I am also incredibly thankful for the brief period that I resided in Miami before moving to Texas. I didn’t do much driving there, but the little road time I got taught me how to use the horn of my car. Thank goodness, because although I have encountered some of the most considerate and respectful drivers here in Texas, I have also come THIS CLOSE to dying many times because of careless drivers. I now find great stress release in laying on the horn when necessary. Proud moments. :)

We have also been really busy around the house, of course (one year ago I hadn’t the faintest imaginings that I’d be writing this from my own home). Drew has taken to landscaping like a fish to water and it is amazing what he has done already for our lawn and flower beds. It is really hard for him to go to Home Depot without returning with a plant that some tender, loving care.

We had to buy these because they are called "angelface," and that was a nickname my dad had for me when I was little.

The angelface and these coxcombs are planted on both sides of our mailbox.

I don't really like the color purple much, except for flowers. These are gorgeous!

 AND, my mom visited us for a long Independence Day weekend, which was spectacular since I hadn’t seen her in ELEVEN MONTHS! She has been bitten by the painting bug and she has been busy freshening up her house in Florida, so when she offered to paint during her visit, I immediately went to The H.D. to grab some paint samples. We put five colors on the wall in a few places to gauge how they would look in different lighting, and I hate to say that after a week, I didn’t really love any of the colors and I was constantly changing my mind about them. I even read other blogs about the difficulty of choosing green paint and I thought, “Surely I can more easily choose green paint. I have been dreaming about a green kitchen for a long time and I will know what I want when I see it, because I love the color green.” THAT’S THE DADGUM PROBLEM, PEOPLE! Selecting a green paint color can drive you mad! There are so many different shades of green, and I love them all, but which one do I want on my walls?! 

The top picture is in natural lighting and the bottom is fluorescent; it is crazy what a difference the light source makes! From left to right these colors are: Asparagus, Fresh Artichoke, and Riesling Grape by Behr, and Safari Green and Spanish Olive by Glidden.

Fortunately, my mom went back to Home Depot with me and we chose a color that was kind of in between the two I was going back and forth between during my bouts of indecisiveness (I liked the Asparagus and Fresh Artichoke the best, depending on the time of day and the lighting and my mood). The color we picked is called Grass Cloth (Behr 400D-5). It has just enough yellow in it to be interesting, while still definitely being green. The color is bright yet calming, will look wonderful all year round in every season, and I loooooooooooooove it!

Ladies and Gentlemen, we have a winner!

The coolest thing about this project was that I didn’t have to do any of the work. Just kidding!! (But kind of not really.) In all honesty, I wish I could have been part of the painting effort, but I had to work all day, and coming home to a transformed kitchen was like my own Trading Spaces experience. Plus, since my Mama painted it as a labor of love, being in the kitchen is like a great big hug from her. I did get to do some taping and touch ups, though, so although my contribution was minimal, I DID, in fact, help. Freshening up the white trim, adding a new laundry room door, and hanging sheer, airy curtains completed the kitchen and now it feel like a real room. Sitting here in the eat-in nook just feels so nice and relaxing. I. LOVE. IT! I wish you all had moms as awesome as mine. :)

Having seen how much the paint and a couple accessories changed the kitchen into OUR kitchen (er, *cough* MY *cough* kitchen . . . ), I can’t wait to tackle more rooms in the house! Next up are the pantry and then the laundry room, and then the entryway and front room! And the fireplace! Eeek! I am pumped!

Now, raise your hand if you are ready for some befores & afters!

That’s what I thought. And now, for your viewing pleasure, I present to you:

 

In my opinion, this area was most drastically changed, and it is perfect. Doesn't the space look so much bigger?

No, the table is not always set, but we finally have TWO settings of our china and it is so beautiful, I had to show it off. I think we'll use it tonight for dinner to celebrate one year in Texas!

My attempt at an organized "dropzone" for my purse, keys, mail, etc.

There is one little corner up high that needs to be finished, but I was too excited to show off the kitchen to wait.

I love cooking in my pretty green kitchen!

Hopefully I will have some more updates in not too long. For now, the kitchen is the neatest part of the house and I have a lot of cleaning up to do in the rest of the downstairs! Time to go move more boxes!

Far Away

In June 2005, less than two weeks after my high school graduation, my family made a big move from Maryland to Florida. I can’t believe that so much time has gone by already! The decision to move was made just weeks before I began my senior year of high school, and so I shifted my impending college search and application process to the southeast to consider universities I had hardly ever heard of. I still applied to my dream school, the University of Maryland, but ultimately decided to attend the University of Florida, because it seemed to be my Maryland in the Sunshine State. It was imperative to me that I be close to my family, because at the time, my brother was only 7 years old and I didn’t want to be that older sister who leaves home, moves away, and doesn’t even know her siblings.

I am only realizing now, nine years later, how smart I was at the time, to make the decision to stay close to home. I had the tremendous privilege to be a Gator (and who in their right mind doesn't want that?!?!), and for five years I was two and a half hours from my family. I then worked for three years in a town only seventy miles away from my parents’ house. I lived so close that I did my laundry there, because I didn’t have a washer and dryer in the place I rented. I was able to be home for birthdays and holidays and long weekends. I could even drive home in the middle of the week if I had to.

1,500 miles makes a big difference. I haven’t been back to Florida since the day Drew and I left to move to Texas. I haven’t hugged my parents since August. I have missed weddings of close friends. A year of family birthdays and holidays has gone by. The beach is so far away! Most recently, I was unable to watch my baby sister walk across the stage at her own high school graduation. We are blessed to be able to use Face Time to “see” each other and phone conversations and Facebook keep us all updated on daily goings-on, but it has been a new and difficult sensation to feel like I am missing out from all the way over here. I love life here in Texas, but sometimes I feel so isolated from my family and friends.

I was really blessed earlier this week when my sister called and asked, “What are you doing this weekend? Can we come visit?” Drew and I visited her and her husband for Thanksgiving, which feels like forever ago, so our immediate response was, “YESPLEASECOMERIGHTNOW!” It was a short reunion, but very wonderful and full of laughs. It made our new house feel more like home to have some family here. :)

Group selfie at the park. Miracle of miracles, it only took one try.

That ant was probably one inch long. But we think he had a broken leg. :(

 

Sometimes weeds are the prettiest flowers.