beautiful new garden beds

Spring is just around the corner... :)
Mike was exploring various plans for new raised garden beds for our garden area back in October.  On Saturday in October, I woke up, he said he took the day off, he had found some garden bed plans online, and we were going to go to the gym and then Home Depot for supplies.  Ummm...ok, sounds good to me.  So off we went!  For the record, I love when Mike takes a day off on Saturday or Sunday!

As I picked up dog poo in the back yard(which is gross & takes forever) and cleaned out the plants from our garden this year, he was in the driveway making my garden beds.  I couldn't believe how fast they came together.  I did have to make two additional trips to Lowe's(Lowe's is closer than Home Depot) because Mike needed a few items, which you can probably imagine I was thrilled about.

Story time - I sort of hate going to Lowe's or Home Depot by myself...it causes me some anxiety because the stores are very overwhelming.  Luckily, Mike found the items he needed online so I could just go into the store, show the picture to someone, and they took me right to the location.  Also - in my experience, Home Depot has much better customer service than Lowe's.  Mike and I were in Home Depot for 5 minutes and we were asked by 5 different people if we needed help.  Also, there was an employee in practically every other aisle so it was easy to find assistance.  I had to hunt someone down in Lowe's and then he acted as though he was inconvenienced by me asking him to show me where two items were.  Nothing irritates me more than people in customer service who act annoyed by customers...that.is.your.job!  Quit being annoyed by your customers!

Here are the pictures of the garden beds - aren't they spectacular?  I wish we had a bigger yard so I could have more garden beds.  Next project will be to make a compost bin of some sort...hopefully!

Before

One done!

All done!  They are filled with dirt now in case you were wondering.

lovely holidays

How were your holidays?

Ours were lovely and spent with my side of the family in NE.  We were able to see all my immediate family, a good portion of my extended family on my Dad's side, & some of our best friends.  We had a lot of fun, lots of laughs, enjoyed delicious food, & endured ridiculously cold temperatures.  ;)  It's always hard to say goodbye but it's very nice to be home again...although the temps have been cold in NM too.  I like our "rotation" for the holidays (Mike's family one year, my family the next year, then stay in Santa Fe the next year, repeat).  I hear so many stressful stories from friends about having a billion different Christmas celebrations to go to each year...it's so nice not to have to split our time between both of our families every year.

Although enjoyable, it's always slightly stressful and a little exhausting being in Nebraska.  I try so hard to fit as much in and see as many people as I can but that can wear on me and my health.  I ended up getting a cold a few days before we left but I'm hoping it's on the mend.  Something about sleeping in your own bed makes you start feeling better immediately! :)

My company gave us Jan. 1st and 2nd off so I'm in the middle of enjoying a nice long weekend!  I was in Nebraska for about 2 1/2 weeks so it's nice to finding a normal routine again.  I menu planned yesterday for the week and plan to do some more unpacking today.  I've been binge watching some Downton Abbey today too..a pretty mello day I guess.

Hope your holidays were full of love and fun!  Happy 2015!