Antique Roses and Homecooked Meals

On Monday morning, Bill from my office (probably the sweetest, yet craziest old man) came around the office to all the girls and dropped huge vases filled with pink and red antique roses he cut off of his wife's rose bush. They are beautiful! I thought it was so nice for him to decorate the office with fresh roses! Well, with the roses came ants. All day Monday I was in a never ending war with about 5 ants. When I would see them crawling around my desk, I would flick them but they always seemed to find their way back.

Besides that, the flowers are so pretty and smell wonderful. My favorite part of them is the 4 or 5 buds I still had on mine. This morning I got to watch a full on bud open up to be a precious little dark pink flower. I've never really been that into plants, I always manage to kill them, or worse, leave them hanging on for dear life for months. Such is the case with the rest of the plants I have in my office. I started with one little aloe vera plant in a coffee cup that I inherited from my friend Rebecca who used to have my job. Well, that one little plant turned into 4.. all of which were in this measly little coffee cup. Last summer I was trying to personalize my office a little bit, so I found some primary colored plastic pots in the CEO's office that were empty. Now, these pots are nothing to get excited about, I mean, they are the plastic pots you are supposed to put inside a much prettier ceramic pot, but my little aloe vera plants didn't know any different and loved them just the same.

I separated them all into their own pots and even bought a new plant at wal-mart, I don't know what it's called but it is a little succulous plant that had little bitty yellow flowers all over it when I bought it. I seriously thought I was doing really well and maybe beginning to develop a slight green thumb, little did I know I have the most high maintenance aloe vera in the world! I should just be proud they are all still alive! When I looked up "how to take care of an aloe vera" everything I read said "lots of sun", and "a little but of water." I realized that this is exactly the opposite of what I had been doing--I had the little coffee cup on the farthest point of my desk from the window, and I watered it everyday. When I read this, I changed the location of the plants and placed them by the window, don't worry I closed the blinds in the afternoon, and I watered them about 2 or 3 times a week. All of my poor little plants turned grayish brown and wilted. I moved them back to where they were and began watering them again and the came back to life. My other mystery plant dropped every single one of its little bitty yellow flower (the reason I bought it) all over my desk and they never came back.

About 6 months ago, I moved offices to one in the very center of our building with no windows. The best light my mistreated plants get is from the awful fluorescent bulbs above me--who thought those were a good idea? They are the worst things in the world! Anyway, so all of my plants are holding on and for what I don't know. I've tried to give them away so many times because I feel bad just throwing them out. Well, I still have them and they all look sad, but now with the antique roses, I feel like everything in my office has livened up a little bit! That is a picture of my sweet little bloom I got today! I know you are all jealous of my view of a file cabinet! :)

So one of my goals as a wife, and eventually a mom, is to be able to plant flowers and actually have them survive. I want to make that a hobby.. I just don't think I've made it that far yet in my domestic wife transformation. I will say however, that I am very proud of myself for getting better at one of my other goals, cooking. You see, Brandon absolutely hates eating out, even on the weekends. I came from a family that lately we eat out for every meal--and yes, that includes breakfast most days--and I love it. If Brandon does this for an extended period of time it literally makes him sick, no joke.

So through the process of dating and marrying him, I've learned how cooking really is much healthier and remarkably cheaper. Cooking has always been one of those things that I know about, I mean if you consider having the ability to follow a recipe and have it come out edible as knowledge! What I have really been striving to do is be able to come up with my own dishes, or just know when to put a little more of this and little less of that to make the flavor just pop. Well, I'm getting there! I was so proud of myself last week for not eating out at all (seriously, the last time I ate out was a week and a half ago) that I thought I would come up with some other things to make for this week. I think the biggest learning curve comes from trying to come up with new things to make with only the things I have at home, rather than going to get 1 or 2 things at the grocery store.

Monday night, I made this amazing chicken basil pasta. I got the gist of the recipe from a website, but the special added touches came from yours truly. The boys LOVED it! (We had Bryan and Lauren come over for dinner). I think this is now my favorite dish that I've made so far! Last night I totally just came up with this on my own, and while it was a little on the spicy side, it was still good! I marinated some chicken over night in this Caribbean jerk marinade, then I pan seared the chicken, added more marinade and some steamed broccoli, mixed it all together and topped some rice with my Asian-looking concoction. It was pretty good for deciding how to make that chicken 30 minutes before Brandon got home.

Who knows what I will make for dinner tonight, or even if I will make anything, all I care about is if I get to eat! :)