Southern Hospitality

As we were watering our garden the other day, our neighbor invited us over on Sunday to pick blackberries!! I was so excited. I have never picked anything before and I have never tasted blackberries but I was excited for the chance to get to know our neighbors and try something new.

Before we got to pickin, we were given a tour of their property. Our neighbors have about 50 acres and they are beautiful acres. They have a stocked pond, a running track, wild berries, a vegetable garden, a beautiful peacock, a chicken coop, a trampoline, a basketball hoop and a baseball field. It sounds like a great place to raise three boys!

We were given supplies, and a few instructions and headed our. It was hot. We were up to my neck in foliage. The plants have thorns. And I still had fun!

We picked close to a gallon of blackberries! Thats more than I know what to do with but they suggested to freeze some. So let me know if you have any good recipes for blackberry use!

We were pleasantly surprised when we were greeted with exotic iced tea, and two salad options. They have a very talented son whose hobby is cooking large meals on Sunday. We sipped our tea, chatted with our neighbors, and enjoyed the weather.

It was a great Sunday!

LIFE @ 3349

Spring has never been more visible for me than it is this year. It is so obvious and I'm sad that it passed me by every year without notice.

The wildflowers out here are outrageous! They are everywhere and every week, its a new type of wildflower. And I must say, I enjoy picking flowers in our yard for small fresh bouquets around the house. These are a few of the different ones we have had in our yard. ***pictures by Neil***





About a month ago Mom and Dad Shanks came down and helped us with a vegetable garden and I have waited a little while to show it because I was not sure that it would be successful. Well, now I'm all giddy about it because it is growing! and its growing fast. We have not gotten any vegetables yet but its still exciting for a city girl who has never kept anything alive!

We have tomatoes, cucumber, spinach, jalapeno, cilantro, and zucchini squash

BEFORE AFTER


These are the zucchini squash. They even boom yellow flowers.

It has been fun watching it grow but it has resulted in an ongoing water fight. This guy thinks he can spray without consequence.

We have some regulars that hang out in our front yard. Rexx does nothing.

I also planted geraniums about two months ago..... and they are still alive too! Something about the air out here I guess. I have not watered them once, though we have gotten a lot of rain.


Well, these are all new life at 3349. Hope you had a great spring also.

Beach to Bay Marathon

We spent this weekend in Corpus Christi, TX. My family and i ran a relay marathon. Most of us are not really runners so our goal was to beat the last place from last year...lol. A relay marathon uses six runners each running one leg of the race. I ran the second leg which was 4.69 miles.

This is a picture of My cousin Liz and her husband Gabe. They went to school down in Corpus Christi and have been running the race for like 10 years. Liz recently had a baby so she decided that it would be a great year for a family run...... oh ya, Gabe's team WON!!!

So, we all hoped that it would be nice weather. Last year it was 99 degrees but this year it rained and rained and rained during the 2nd, 3rd, and 4th legs. although I preferred it to the heat, it was out of control! Considering our inexperience and the weather, we did ok. We finished 95th of 300 womens' teams. And we won best costume!

This is the scene you get for most of the run....except the 2nd leg (my leg).

It was a lot of fun and we are planning our trip for next year...any takers?

Special thanks to Neil who drove us around all over town and waited in the parking lot for two hours!

Class of 2010!

This weekend my sister graduated FROM COLLEGE! She graduated with a degree in Criminal Justice. Its still a little hard to believe but we celebrated all day! We had a great dinner with family and friends. Its always so great to see our big family get together for EVERY occasion. Here are a few pictures to celebrate Megan's graduation.