New Years Resolution

So, as I think I said in my first post, I've started a Tea Garden for my New Years Resolution. Now, this is a perfect resolution for me on so many levels. 
First off, I've always had terrible luck with plant growing. I go to the nursery, buy the best looking plant, take it home, water it, and it dies. Now, honestly in the past my focus and determination were nottt the best, so the plant deaths were obviously going to happen. 
That's another reason why I wanted to start this garden though, to strengthen my determination and concentration on different tasks. There really is always something to do when you grow plants from seedlings. (Or any gardening in general)....:

• You can always go and try and find more seeds to grow. 
• There's daily watering. 
• I monitor my plants progress pretty heavily, even look at them under a magnifying glass almost daily.
• There's trans-potting/planting (I've decided to only keep my plants in pots rather than planting them into the ground, because the soil my house has is not the best and also I would like to not exactly what is in there with my plants-helps the heavy monitoring I like).
• Once my plants are big enough I'll have to keep track of their feeding schedule as well. 
• You have to make sure they're getting enough but not too much sunlight, or water.
• Watch out for bad bugs!
• I keep a schedule of when they should be sprouting.
• I also chart their progress almost daily.
• Along with the charting I try and take pictures of my plants growing as well.
• If you're growing something you want to harvest you have to keep that under control in whatever way needed as well. 

Needless to say, there's a lot to be done. And I love it! I look forward to taking care of my plants, and seeing their progress, it's totally nerdy fun.
Today I got my first sprout from my Dahlia plant. SOO happy.
Now i'm not sure if there are any usages for Dahlias besides the general flower uses...but nevertheless it doesn't matter to me anymore.
At first I started this garden with the intention of only having plants you could make tea out of, hence the name 'Tea Garden' I keep throwing around. Tricky, huh? ;P After going to this wonderful nursery with Patrick though, i decided that I needed more seeds, more plants, more EVERYTHING. Now it's a 'Tea-ish Garden', which is going to be absolutely beautiful once it is in full bloom. I'm beyond excited for that.
  Right now I have a nice amount of plants starting out, but I'm far from done planting:
(Oh, I also plant them in groups. :P Things got a little OCD when I was trying to organize everything... )
Group 1 is Chamomile, Lemon Balm, Echinacea (purple coneflower), and Catgrass -the original garden/tea making guys (yeah, you caaan make tea out of cat grass...I'll let you know how it actually tastesss later. o.o)
This group is pretty much established, but still very small plants.
Group 2 is Dahlia, Foxglove, and Sweet Pea (The pretty flower group that is just now starting to sprout).
And Group 3 contains Sunflowers, California Golden Poppies, and Delphiniums (No progress on them yet, the Sunflowers should start sprouting next Tuesday though, and by the 28th of January all my plants should be sprouting/sprouted).
Now I do have other seeds 'on deck'. I'm waiting until February/March to plant them because they don't tolerate the cold as much. Thooose are a couple kinds of tomatoes, and moonflowers. I'm sure I'll get more soon though. I have a list of plants I want. :3
I'm so happy with the way things are going, my concentration is getting better and I have so much to show because of it. It feels wonderful. :)
Here's a little sneak peak of my gardens inner workings, The Progress Chart:

This isn't as much a new post as it is me trying to figure out if this blog will work on my iPad. It does. Now, off to class.

It's Sunday, of a holiday weekend.
School starts Tuesday.
Patrick's out of town.
I'm broke.
I'm tired.
I'm not doing much at all today.
I want to put on my comfiest sweats, sit by the fire, and watch a movie. I'm thinking something Alfred Hitchcock-y.  Maybe get a little foot spa action going on (thank you, Santa). Definitely  put some water on the stove for tea...
This weekend has been really wonderful. Saturday I woke up and took care of my plants (they're doing great!) until I could pick up Patrick. Little intermission for plant pictures, hold up...

They're such happy plants. I never knew that I could pick this up and do so well at it! I love my new hobby.

ANYWAYS. Then we went over to Nick's for the morning/afternoon-ish time, they played music and I listened. Then we had yummy grilled stuffed burritos and drove to Sac City. We were supposeddd to walk around looking for my classes, but there was no parking and it was almost dark, so we went home. I guess there was some Winter Formal dance for Franklin on Saturday so Ian was all dressed up, and there was a buncha awesome, good food at my house when we got there. The boys (Ian and Jake) had to wait foreverrrr for their dates, but everyone got there eventually and had a good time. After everyone left I took a nap and woke up to Patrick watching American Gangster or something, haha.
Then today I woke up early and drove over to Patricks' in my pajamas to have breakfast with him and his family. He was playing music with his guitar/koass pad set up when I got there so I listened to him for a little bit, and then we played Mario Cart. Moo Moo Meadows is probably my favorite track. I think I do better on the race when there's a nice landscape, hahah. Patrick...doesn't agree. :p I also got to pet little Bear while he laid by the fire (he's my favorite of Patrick's cats...but don't tell Tigger. ;p)

 Bear-bear :)

Anyways, at the Bush house they make super yummy waffles, so we had those, and then drove to Starbucks for hot chocolate and a Cinnamon Dolce Latte. Yummm. When we got back from Starbucks we kind of tinkered around with the families new puzzle, a 300 piece of Mickey Mouse. I'm terrible at puzzles, but I've been working on some over the break with Patrick and I seem to be getting better at them. If I were a Sim I'd be leveling up in logic or something, haha.
Anywho, I really love laid back mornings like today's was. I really loved these past couple of weeks actually, we've been having a lot of fun. :) Winter break is going by fast, but in the best possible way.
I think I'm about ready (as I'll ever be) for busy busy school and weekday routines again though.

P.S. Bachelor's tomorrow...I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a littttle bit excited.
I mean, it's Bennnn. Ben was my favorite last season on The Bachelorette. He made it to the 'final two', and when he proposed to Ashley she said no so she could marry JD. D:

Well, he's The Bachelor now, and it actually made me like the show more/him less. I just don't know why he would want to go through that againnn, it would so suck! But whatever, it's girls night, and I'm a little curious to see who Ben will end up with. Plus, Megan and Shawn are back from Humbolt so she'll be here this week! Whoo!




Now I'm off to go get comfy, and be happy. Lazy Sunday.

And we begin...

So, the introduction post. These always seem to be harder to start than the rest, and more irrelevant to the actual blog as it grows. Oh well, I'll just start saying the basics about myself.

I'm a 19 year old girl from California. I've lived in Sacramento my entire life, apart from my young childhood. I spent that part of my life in Palmdale, until my parents divorced. My mom moved with me and my older brother, Billy, to Elk Grove and never left. I don't want to anymore. I love my life here.
I have an incredible boyfriend named Patrick who I would do anything for. We have so much fun together; always joking around and laughing. I live with my mom, step-dad, Dave, and my 4 siblings; Matt, Ian, and Katie (Dave's kids) to add onto my biological brother already mentioned. We have a very loud household, and all of us are rarely in the same place.
I also spend a lot of time with Patrick's family who I love. He lives with his parents, and two sisters. They're so much fun, always very welcoming, and they are always planning or going on trips. :) I have two pet cats, 5 year old Kitty, and 16 year old Gus. Last year I had a very beloved cat named Biggie, but he mysteriously died last August. I mention this because I'll probably mention him in the blog. He was very dear to me, and was exactly a year old when he died. I've had time to move on, but it was a really premature death and I've never really had to cope with something like that before.
More recently I've started an herbal garden so I can make my own tea. I've never had much of a green thumb, so I wanted to try and improve upon that for my New Years resolution. Besides that I like decorating, driving my little PT Cruiser 'Bonnie', hanging out with nice, laid back people, and watching Modern Family. :) Oh, and of course I should mention The Bachelor! My mom, our close family friend Mrs. Blaney, Mrs. B's sons girlfriend Megan, my younger sister Katie and myself all get together on Monday nights and have trash TV night, watching the Bachelor in the winter and the Bachelorette in the summer. I probably won't talk about that too much, but I sometimes (not proud) I get into it. :P I start my fall semester for school next week and finally have some 'real' core classes, thank goodness. In the future I'd like to go to culinary school to become a Chef, after I get a Bachelor's degree in...business, I think. I haven't settled that yet. I also start nannying for a wonderful family once a week. They have GREAT kids, a 4 year old girl, 2 year old boy, and about 15 month year old baby boy. They're a lot of fun. :) I'm so excited about this year. I really am a terribly shy person, terrified of change and the unknown, but this year I'm not letting myself be held back!
More pictures later, and less reading. Pictures are better. I'm not going to say I'm some "photographer" or anything because my skill doesn't come anywhere close to the professionals, and the social network sites have completely destroyed that professions reputation. However, I do love pictures of my loved ones, favorite things, and pretty (or pretty unique) places/items. Whatever. You'll (whoever you are, probably usually just myself, haha) get it as I post.