PLANTS, PLANTS, PLANTS!

Many of you don't know this about me but I am a plant fanatic! I love plants and all of the wonderful things that they can do. Recently my attention was called back to grafting. Plant grafting is such a cool technology and can really open up your eyes to how amazing plants, these living organisms, can grow and thrive under non-natural conditions. I am from the city of Fresno, California. In Fresno we have a hidden treasure called the Forestiere underground gardens. This place is incredible not only for the plant life that has thrived there for over 100 years but also because the entire house was built underground! Baldassare Forestiere was a great horticulturist as well as an environmentalist and an engineer. In Forestiere's garden he has many fruit trees, however there is one very special tree. It is a citrus tree that he grafted 7 times! So now this tree has been producing 3 varieties of oranges ( Valencia, Navel, and bittersweet oranges), 2 varieties of lemon ( ponderosa and sweet lemons), a grapefruit variety, and an italian citron called cedro for many years. This tree produces all of these fruits by itself! This is such a fantasy because one day it would be nice to be able to go and sit by my grafted tree and read and whenever I felt like having a healthy snack I would have 7 different choices right above my head!

Forestiere is such an inspiration to me! It makes me want to try my hand in grafting something so amazing! I encourage everyone to get outside and learn something about the living organisms that sustain our lives as we know it! You might learn something that could blow your mind!

If you are interested in reading more about Baldassare Forestiere here is a link to a great article about his underground wonderland!

http://www.undergroundgardens.com/amazingfacts.html 

Have a fantastic day and stay green!

Summer is the Season!

So summer is here and I have a knack for plants and all things green. I thought I would post this for those of you who may be wondering what fruits and vegetables are in season during the three main summer months (JUNE, JULY, and AUGUST):

Fruits:

Cantaloupe, apricots, blueberries, cherries, figs, grapefruit, grapes, limes, peaches, plums, raspberries, watermelons, and strawberries.

Vegetables:

beets, bell peppers, corn, cucumbers, eggplants, green beans, okra, radishes, summer squash, zucchini, and tomatoes.

*Check out the pictures to see some of the other things that are good to get at the store during the summer and maybe even try growing yourself.

GO GROW SOMETHING!!!

A new ME

Hello!

It has been a year since I last wrote something and there has been many things that have happened in life of course, because it has been a year. I have finished my first year of grad school! GO ME! I somewhat forgot how big of an accomplishment that really is for me. I have no motivation for school anymore but somehow I dug deep and motivated myself and rocked my first year of grad school.

My boyfriend has been home now for about 5 months and it has been great and also rocky at times. I have been trying to understand who I am now with a boyfriend. I have been in places where I have allowed that fact to consume all of my thoughts and I have been in places where I feel sad for how my life has been. I have felt like all I do is sit around and wait on him. All of these places have been a dangerous road for me because I have never dealt with any of these feelings before. I have been quite a nightmare to my boyfriend and for that I am truly sorry. I have been trying to find my place in this new life that I am now a part of. It is no longer just me going through life but it is now me and my boyfriend. I haven't found that happy medium yet where its a partnership. I have only had either the ALL mindset or the NOTHING mindset for over two years now and so I am working to find that middle ground. The transition that we have been making for the last 5 months has been a very bumpy one but I am finally looking at things with a different perspective. Part of that perspective came from him when he said we just need to look at things like we will be together for a long time and the other part of that perspective came from church last Sunday. We talked about what a courageous woman of God looks like. One of my favorite verses that we talked about was Proverbs 31:30- "Charm is deceptive, and beauty is fleeting; but a woman who fears the Lord is to be praised" This verse has been coming up for me all week and it is now a new goal for me. I want to strive to be a woman that is just so utterly beautiful on the inside that it cannot be contained and people will have to see it. I want to be a woman that can support her friends and significant relationships, with respect and with understanding. I don't want to be a woman that nags her friends and is unhappy because she is so worried about what everyone else is doing. I want to be a woman that keeps herself busy so that her days are filled with worth. I want to be a woman who loves and fears the Lord so much that it is noticeable to those that are around me. I just want to be allowed to walk through this journey with the ones I care about. 

This is how I want the new ME to look like. I want to enjoy life and love all that is around me. I want to be less concerned with how things look and more concerned with how well I can live today.

Changes and Frustrations

Life is always changing and it's always moving forward. One of the most frustrating things about it is when people just let life move on without them. Or when life moves on without someone who has no power to move with it. The worst part is watching it happen to someone you care about and there is nothing that yiu can do about it. I have always been the type of person to move on and keep looking forward to how the next chapter in my life will go. It keeps me excited and hopeful for the future. I am always refusing to be content with the way things are if I am not happy with the way things are. Sometimes the point that I am at in my life cannot be changed but that is when I try to find things that I enjoy. Hobbies, extra curriculars, etc. It keeps life interesting and fresh and better. Routine is good but change is so much better. So as I move forward in this new chapter of my life with graduate school at LSU, I am realizing that I don't necessarily want to still be in school but it is so good for my future and the opportunity was unreal. So, instead of being unhappy that I am not done with school I am embracing my circumstance and I am looking for new hobbies. I have recently taken an interest in geocaching and I have a fishing pole. I am happy with those things and I am going to continue to find things that I enjoy and hopefully get back into playing ball soon. I'm still waiting on my boy to come home and I know that life will get so much more interesting and exciting. A lot more adventures await us!

D'Kory's Back

So for anyone who has been paying attention to my blog Kory has been home for about three months now and it has been GREAT. We have had some ups and downs but I can't even tell you how good it feels to have someone in your life that you know cares about you just as much or more than you do about them. Yeah he has a lot of work to do to get back to a place where he can be proud of his life and all but I will be there helping him any way that I can and just giving him someone to lean on, abuse, scare, have a friend in. Here is a current picture of us.

Zimmerman Vs. Martin

I know that this case has been over for awhile now and that this may seem like it's a late reaction, but I have done a lot of thinking, listening, and reading about this case and here is my opinion. I'll say it once and that will be all I say. I just read an article in the Fresno Bee about the case. It talked about how race became the biggest issue in this case when all that needed to be decided was wether Zimmerman acted in self defense or not. It also talked about how the black community today always points the finger at the white man, and back in Martin Luther King's day he always said that yes, there are problems in the white mans world but there are also problems in the black mans world. That responsiblity needs to be taken for the way people live. Instead of always pointing the finger at somebody else. The article also states that African Americans only make up 13% of the US population but between 1976 and 2005 they were responsible for over half of the murders committed in the U.S. These things don't prove or justify anything when it comes to this case. The fact of the matter is a young man who was not even yet 18 was shot and killed by a man almost twice his age because he was profiled, stalked, and then harassed before killed. Whether Martin was beating on Zimmerman or not when someone has a GUN it trumps in the column of feeling like your life is in danger. Why couldn't Zimmerman have just pulled out the gun and said step back or I'll shoot you? Anyone with some common sense would have at that point stepped back. I also think that if Zimmerman's life was in danger he would have looked a lot more banged up than that. There was a man who was assaulted in a bar and lost half of his skull and the ability to talk. That is a man who had the right to act violently because his life WAS in danger. A child of America died for the wrong reasons and it's never going to be a good situation and people will always argue over this case. There are car accidents where people driving in the dark hit somebody who is running across the road and they get sent to jail for manslaughter. So, my final opinion is that the verdict was the wrong one in this case.

D'Kory 2

I haven't been on here in awhile but D'Kory the boy who really has my heart right now is still not around and everyday he isn't it gets harder. I can't get him off my mind. He called tonight and it's been awhile since we have talked and both of us were going through withdrawals I think. I knew he was struggling not being able to talk to me and Jenna. He told me something today that is going to stay on my mind forever probably. I have thought it for a long time but now that he has said it too I know that it's really a real feeling. I knew it was real before but now it's set in stone and I truly believe it's a God thing. He and I have a long way to go in that area but I knew in my heart that it was from God. It's crazy when I know it has come from him but it is so affirmed in my heart that I can't doubt it for a second.