These crazy plants!

When I started my job at the college just over 7 years ago, there were 4 little plants in the window sill in the office. They were tropicals and they were all about 5 or 6 inches tall. They all looked terrible. They were in tiny little pots and they were all dried out and sad. My co-worker at the time asked me if I was good with plants. She was happy when I said yes, because she didn't want to deal with them anymore.

I re-potted them all into bigger pots, and pulled all of the dead stuff off. They were happy to have some water. Since they were tropicals, they didn't need to be watered very often so I watered them every 2-3 weeks.

They looked much better in a few months and everyone was happy.

When we moved to a new building in May of 2011, I took the plants home for the summer. They were all about a foot tall by then and I intended to take them back to work when we settled into our new building.
Well, our new building only has one small window and it's covered with window tinting.

I kept the plants at my house since there was no place for them at the new building. I have had these 4 plants at my house for 2 and a half years now, and they are growing like crazy! They LOVE the screened porch, and all 4 plants have lived out there for the last 2 years from March to October.


This one is over 2 feet tall now. It turned into a gorgeous plant.
It has grown tall so quickly, I have to use dowel things to hold it up

This one is also over 2 feet tall. This one is my favorite:

This one needs more support and a bigger pot:

Then there is this one. It won't stop growing. It's over 4 feet tall now. It comes up to my neck. 

It is so tall it can't hold itself up straight, so it has help from a dowel thingie too. 

 I have re-planted them all 3-4 times now in the last 7+ years, and they all need bigger pots again this winter.

I love these plants, but my biggest problem is that I don't have anywhere in the house to put them in the winter time. They are so big now! We don't have that many windows in our house to begin with. There is really only one window where there is a place to put plants, and it's in the kitchen. I honestly do not have room in my kitchen for a 4 foot tall palm tree - or whatever it is.

Our living room is way too dark for plants, especially tropicals. We only get sun in the living room window for a few hours in the afternoon.

They are beautiful, and I love having them around. It's been pretty cool to watch them grow so big. I have never had any plant stay alive for this long before.
But now for the 3rd year in a row, I am wondering what in the heck I'm going to do with these plants all winter long.

I put 3 of them in the kitchen for now, but they will probably be moved again because they are just too big and they crowd the kitchen.
Speaking of our kitchen, I have a kitchen update coming soon!

November News

We are almost halfway through November already? Where did this year go?

I got caught up with a bad cold for most of October.............I rarely get sick, but this one got me. I finally stopped coughing and I am all better now. Just in time for the cold weather, UGH. Have I mentioned I hate the cold?

We did have a couple of really nice days last weekend. Tim and I took advantage of the sunny days and we got our patio ready for winter. We brought all of the small stuff inside, and stacked up the chairs and small tables so they won't blow around the yard this winter.

It went from this:

To this:

 It might need to be powerwashed, but that can wait till spring.


I guess its time to settle in for the long winter.


Thanksgiving will be here soon, and I can't wait to eat turkey and stuffing. My mother-in-law is cooking Thanksgiving dinner and I am more than ready for some of her wonderful cooking again this year.

Christmas is coming!!!!  Seriously, only 43 days!

The only thing I like about wintertime is Christmas. It's my favorite holiday. I love the lights and the decorations. I love the Christmas music. I love how everyone is friendlier and kinder at Christmastime.

Plans are already underway for our 6th annual Bruns Family Christmas. I'm almost done planning out my menu and I can't wait to get started with my Christmas cooking and baking.

Every year at Christmas I start baking my desserts on the 23rd and the 24th. The baklava has to sit for 24 hours before it's ready to eat so I'll make that on the 23rd. On Christmas Eve, I love to spend the entire day in the kitchen baking my goodies.  Cookies, cakes, fudge and all of the Christmas treats we love.Tim loves pie and since I'm not so good at making pies (really, I haven't tried to make very many pies) we will order some as we do every year.

This year on the Christmas Day menu is our favorite Honey Baked Ham, and I'm making a classic roast beef. My mouth is watering just thinking about it. YUM!! Of course we will have baked mac-n-cheese, green bean casserole, potatoes, and a ton of other side dishes.

Believe it or not, Christmas is already in progress at our house this week. I know it's a little early to get the decorations out. I usually wait until Thanksgiving weekend, but this year I have some minor surgery scheduled just before Thanksgiving. I'm not sure if I will feel like decorating that weekend, so it's happening early at our house this year.  

Our doggies got their Christmas present early this year. Very early.

Tim and I decided this year for Christmas we would get new dog beds for all three of our dogs. We happened to find a sale last weekend at Lowe's on some really cute and fluffy dog beds, so we got them.

The babies are happy. Here is Peanut Butter enjoying her new bed.

Mia is still living with us. We have had her for about 8 months now and she has settled in with our family very well. "Settled in" might be an understatement. Mia has taken over our family. She loves attention and she is always right in the middle of everything. She's a good girl and we really love her.

She adopted this little yellow ducky she found in Jack's old basket of toys. It's her "baby" and she loves to chew it and then fling it around the house.  Then she growls and runs after it, and flings it again. She is quite entertaining to watch.

She and Jack really love each other. Jack is constantly in Mia's face, but she seems to like him. She is very patient with him

 

She is a very good dog and we definitely enjoy having her in our family. 

Well, except for last night when she went outside and came back in all muddy and gross. 

She usually keeps herself spotless, but she can't help herself sometimes. She likes to roll in smelly gross things.

I have no idea what she rolled in last night, but she came back in looking like this:

  I'm sure she had a blast with whatever it was. I was hoping it was only mud, but I wasn't willing to let her run around the house and sit on the furniture like that.

So Mia got her first bath at our house last night.
She did really well. She didn't love it, but she tolerated it.

After she was all clean and brushed, she was still a little damp so we put her under the blankets in our bed for awhile.

She was pretty comfortable and warm. Sleepy girl after a bath.

I think that's about it for now...................I hope everyone is staying warm!!!