Dirt

Mr. called me recently to say that he and sister had a surprise for me. I was on my way home, but was instructed that I could NOT park in the garage. I had to park in the driveway, but go straight into the house, only through the front door and stay in the house! No going in the yard or garage. This was my surprise.

Our peach tree that J planted a couple months ago was blooming.
He and sister had visited Lowe's and spent the afternoon with their hands in the dirt.
I was greeted by fresh herbs in lovely containers on the porch.
And potted plants on the front porch and in hanging baskets in the backyard. He let sister pick out all the flowers and containers and let her decide where to place all of them.
She was SO proud of herself and her work. Definitely a worthwhile afternoon.

Playtime

We have a little demolition/reconstruction project going on in the playroom, so other rooms in the house are now getting their fair share of playtime. Somehow our bathroom gets a large percentage of it.
It's actually sister's favorite spot to practice gymnastics {even though she has a mini trampoline and a balance beam J built for her in the basement}. It's oddly large for a bathroom. Even enough space to throw the tennis ball with Lily, which is quite entertaining to brother.
Sister, who used to be quite camera shy, is always interested in having her picture taken now that there's another kiddo around.
She has a knack for jumping in front of camera right before I snap a picture, which is OK since it makes me giggle right along with her.
So what do you think about the bathroom? If you're wondering, yes, in fact that IS carpet in my bathroom. It's a little strange to me, but at least my feet stay warm in the morning. I recently read that Heloise {the cleaning queen of Good Housekeeping} has her entire house, including the kitchen, carpeted, so it could be worse I suppose.
Can you tell it was done in the 90's? Carpet, gold fixtures, and wallpaper, oh the wallpaper. It's blue, forest green, cream, and maroon striped. But it gets better. There's also a foiled/reflective flower pattern on it along with the stripes. If only it were also textured, that would really seal the deal. I hope to change some things eventually.
In the meantime I'll just have to ignore the background and focus on those blue eyes and rosy cheeks instead, which isn't too much of a challenge for me.

When There's Smoke......

there's usually fire. That, of course, is a good thing for roasting marshmallows, a candlelit dinner, the fire pit on a cool fall night, but not so much when it's in one of the walls of my house. That's right folks, we haven't even been in the house for 2 months and have already had our first major incident.

The picture above is what one of the walls in our garage currently looks like. The pipe and faucet above go to an outdoor faucet in the backyard that had been dripping. This past Sat they went to work to repair it, which included welding****.

That afternoon J and I noticed that the smoke smell continued to linger in the house. He went downstairs to find a garage full of smoke, but thankfully, no flames. We have 2 smoke detectors in the garage and both had been checked 2 days before by our alarm system company, but somehow neither of them went off. He cut a small section of sheet rock away and sprayed the fire extinguisher in it, but the smoke continued, so he cut the large whole in the pic. The hardyplank (SP???) that is between the outer brick and inner sheet rock had been smoldering all afternoon. We had been in the yard most of the day with the garage door open, so nobody noticed the smoke since it was burning so slowly and just going outside. The only reason the smoke finally built up enough to notice it was because J had shut the garage doors when we came inside.

To top it off, J and I were about to go on our first date since little man's arrival. Mom had helped us with yard work all afternoon and was staying for the evening to watch the kiddos for us. So we had both just showered and dressed to go out to dinner and a movie and ended up sweaty and dirty all over again to deal with the above. By the time everything was under control and we felt (mostly) comfortable with leaving, we quickly grabbed sandwiches at Firehouse Subs(ironic, isn't it) and ate them in the movie theater. I felt sooo rude doing that, but I excused it in my mind since I think it falls in the category of "extenuating circumstances"---house on fire and first date after having a baby.

The evening made me quite teary and I felt so shaken up by all of it. I tried as much as possible to not "what if" the night.....as in what if we hadn't smelled the smoke, what if it had started burning the sheet rock and wood...during the night, what if my mother and children had been injured while I was enjoying myself at the movies.....can you see my mind reeling? It was terrifying, but I am thankful that we are all safe and there is no major damage. J and his dad will easily be able to repair it.

Moral of the story-go hug and kiss your kids and spouse, make sure your smoke detectors are working properly, and if you smell smoke-check it out IMMEDIATELY!!

****I will give the disclaimer that J and his dad are fantastic with house projects-they know how to fix everything! Nothing like this has EVER happened to either of them in the past, and I trust both of them completely to work on any part of our home.

Call Me Crazy

Last Fall I let you know how we had quite a few major life changing events in a very short time span. I guess maybe I didn't learn the lesson at that point, because we did it to ourselves again! On top of J starting a new job recently, having a C-section 3 weeks ago, and becoming a family of 4....we have bought a new house! We have been looking for a while and finally found a house that we really love and that has almost everything we have been looking for in our home. We closed on the house when G was 11 days old and have been moving in since then. Thankfully, J has been a workhorse and our family has been immensely helpful in the moving process. Here are a few pics.....can you guess one of the reasons why we love it??

Anyone up for an afternoon of poolside margaritas?

*************************************************************

In newborn news, G had his first visit with the pediatrician today. We might not be calling him Little Man much longer--he is now 22.5 inches long and weighs 9 lbs 15 oz. Our pediatrician was quite impressed with how much he has grown and noted on more than one occasion what a big guy he is! He got a clean bill of health and we were all thankful to hear the good news.

I tried to give you some pictures of the visit, but am having issues with the pictures from today.

Evidence

So here are the pictures that I promised yesterday in my tired stupor.

This was the view from our patio after earlier yard projects this year. Not so attractive to look straight into our neighbor's house/yard. We didn't plan on clearing out our yard to put in a new fence, only to have our neighbor's do the same to their yard and voila-it's howdy neighbor 24-7.J was at Home Depot by 7 am on Saturday to rent this mean machine for $75. We had to plant 6 trees and 10 shrubs. J's shoulders and this auger had the holes dug in 45 minutes!! If we had to to handle that on our own with just shovels we would still be digging. If you are planning on planting any trees or need multiple holes dug, this is definitely the way to go. Well worth the $.

The lovely holes ready for the new greenery.

The finished product! As for the trees-3 Dwarf Magnolias in the center bordered with a Japanese Cryptomeria at each end. There 3 Lorapetalum (sp?) in a triangle formation of 2 in back and one in front b/t each magnolia (6 total) and there are Pitsporum b/t the magnolias and the cryptomeria. It doesn't completely block the view yet, but they will as they grow. What an improvement!

I'll share some pointers that our local nursery gave us. Plant in odd numbers, as in 5 trees, so that way there is a center that the eye is drawn to in the grouping. Same theory in planting the shrubs in groups of 3-the one in front draws the eye to it. Our biggest DUH moment was that we had already somewhat traced out the beds and placed pine straw months ago....somewhat good planning. We didn't even think to rake back all the pine straw before using the auger to dig-so all that pine straw was buried in dirt and we had to completely redo it. Thankfully we have a good pine straw connection. Not too terrible, but a lesson learned.

I have found that I shy away from gardening b/c I feel I don't know enough about it, but I really enjoyed this weekend. The more I make myself get out there and do it, the more comfortable I am with it. I also helped that Saturday actually felt like fall. It was overcast and cool most of the day-I started out with a t-shirt and quickly changed into long sleeves for the rest of the day!! Bring on outdoor fires and pumpkin lattes!

Rehab

I'm starting to think that our long trip to the beach was like blogging rehab for me. Isn't that the idea? Keep the addict away from the crack long enough and the desire for it will go away. Supposedly, but you know what they say...once an addict always an addict :).

We went from relaxing days at the beach where our most difficult decision was "do we go to the pool or the beach?" to incredibly busy. I think J would easily qualify for an upper management slave driver. Today we decided to get up early and start working on the yard before the kiddo was up and before the sun would fry us on the sidewalk. So we rose at 6 am to begin mowing, edging, weeding, planting, laying pinestraw...... It was rough, but well worth it. We finished around 1 pm. I'll have/try to post pics tomorrow. Here's one of my little helper transferring plants with us.

I was planning on sharing a very cute beach story, but you have to see the pics that go along with it and my computer is saying it's having trouble connecting to blogger, so I'll post that tomorrow. Promise. I really need to go to bed anyway. I'm wiped from the last few days. I just needed a blog "hit" before I went to bed.

She's sick, she's fine, she's sick, she's fine....

Well...I thought Av was over whatever she had..until she threw up this morning. This has been going on for over a week now! I think she probably threw up since she hasn't been eating much the last few days. It was only once-right after she drank some water. She hardly ate any breakfast. Still no fever and the places on her leg continue to get better.

This afternoon (after holding her lunch down) we did get to have fun time outside. We walked to the park that is down the road from our house and played there for a while. We also worked in our yard helping J take limbs down, drag them to the street, and rake the yard. Here's Av prepared to work in the yard. Outfit of choice is a Minnie Mouse leotard with tutu that she outgrew 2 sizes ago so it only comes down to her waist with the snaps hanging open, hence the skirt she's wearing with the leotard, her purple rake from the sandbox, and to top the look-oversized white sunglasses!

This is the completed "after" shot of the new sod. The before shots were posted within the last 1-2 weeks.

Milking It

Here was my little sicky last night.

She did seem to be feeling better-no fever and the areas on her leg are almost gone, but she was still somewhat pitiful. We have been on a cleaning out the house kick and after dinner we worked on an armoire in the front room that was crammed full of china, serving dishes, and a bunch of other random stuff. We set Av up on the couch with The Jungle Book in the portable DVD player.I knew she was feeling better when she got off the couch to help me dust. She loves being a helper!! What you can't see in the picture is the contents of the armoire strewn all over the front room and dining room. We separated into a donate pile, trash pile, and keep pile. Now what we're keeping is organized with room to spare. Later I really knew Av was on the upswing when I told her it was time for bed and she ran into the den proclaiming she wanted us to do somersaults. Let's just say that if she were in school, she would have gone to school today!

Now that we're adjusting to one income for a while we've found that house/yard projects are a good and free way for us to spend time together (sans TV!) and be productive. It feels great to have all of those places that were overflowing cleaned out now. It's also a great incentive to eat off of what we already have in the deep freeze and cabinets. As a result we're trying new recipes and just getting the basics at the store.

Job update-I have some promising possibilities, so we'll see where it takes us. God really has been so good to us over the week. Even though we're short a paycheck, J received an expense check this week and we got our tax returns. For an added bonus, the state caught a mistake that actually gave us MORE money on our return!! When does that ever happen?!?!

The Grass is Greener....

When you actually have grass! Now that the fence is finished, we have to take care of the rest of the yard overhaul. We decided to start with the basics..and what could be more basic than grass? Up until this year it had been thick and full, like carpet! There were even times that I thought our grass, St. Augustine, was too thick and aggressive, but after the the drought last year we now have so many bald spots in the yard that we needed new sod. Thankfully, I have a very hardworking husband who handled all this in a matter of days. He took out the old grass, leveled and tilled soil, picked up the new sod, and laid the new sod! We only got one palette for the worst spots, but it looks so good it makes me want to resod the whole yard. My checkbook, however, is the prohibitive factor here. We'll just be doing frequent watering! Here's the before. You can see all the lovely bald spots and J's outline of where the sod goes.This is an in progress shot with part of the wonderful new sod in place. I just realized I don't have a final after shot-guess I'll have to take one tomorrow. Thanks for your hard work J!!!
Well, I had hoped that the kitchen was going to magically be clean by the time I finished posting this, but that hasn't happened, so I better head that way.

Back to Work

Today I was actually in the operating room. I started a new job in the beginning of Feb. and today was the first time I have been in the OR since my old job! Lots of state and hospital paperwork had to be completed, but now it's finally done! It has been a really nice couple of months though since life has been so calm. Well, that "calm" really only refers to the job. Life, in general, has been quite hectic and it looks like the craziness will continue for 2008 with trips, weddings, race this weekend, board reviews, taking boards, etc. Back to today :). It really was a good day. I was nervous since I have worked in orthopaedics for the last 4.5 years, and I was working in general surgery today. I enjoyed it and the day went well. It was an answer to prayer and it made me feel much better about the new job. Tomorrow I am working with an ortho guy, but he is a spine specialist, which is it's own little world-more like neurosurgery.

On the home front....after spending quite a bit of money on plants over the years (and still not having a yard I am proud of) we paid $75 to have someone from a landscaping company come look at the yard and give us ideas of what to do. So, does anyone have thousands of dollars you want to give us to complete the plan:)? Why is it so expensive? Maybe I'm too cheap to have gardening as a hobby. We did decide that we do need to put down new sod after the effects of the drought last year. Thankfully J is a much better gardener than I am and he's such a hard worker. He has already marked off the areas that will need new grass, tilled it, leveled it, picked up the sod, and placed about half of the sod. That man is serious about house projects! One thing this confirmed for me is that I get frozen by perfectionism/fear. I feel like I don't know enough to do a good job, so I'm not confident in my decisions, which means I end up not making the decisions, and stay in the status quo. Yuck-I keep myself in a position where I'm not satisfied. The good part, is that even with a little bit of knowledge, I can move forward-as we are doing with the yard. J also helps since he is good at prodding me along, although sometimes he may be more like a drill sergeant :).

We went over to Jenn's house yesterday for Av and MW to play together. MW has a power wheels purple jeep. When we got there the girls hopped in the jeep together with MW driving. Well, I think Av is used to being strapped in and not having to brace herself for stops/starts/turns. When MW first hit the "gas" Av had a whiplash movement and hit the back of her head. Then MW stopped and Av went forward and hit her forehead! Of course MW was being very sweet to share her jeep and let Av ride with her, but I don't think Av will get anywhere near that car anytime soon! Thankfully we still had a great time at Jenn's with MW-the girls played dress-up the rest of the time. Av immediately found a blue Cinderella dress. Jenn even let her wear it home. The only time Av took if off was to go to sleep yesterday. That night I heard her talking in her crib saying "don't like it" repeatedly in an upset tone. I went to see what was wrong and she said she didn't like the purple jeep. She hadn't said anything else about it until she got up from her nap today. When I went in to get her she said "I don't like MW's truck. I DON'T LIKE THAT TRUCK. Let MW drive the truck." I think she might have had a nightmare about it! Who would have ever thought a powerwheel would cause nightmares! I'm sure she'll be over it soon.

I Love Spring!!!!

I love, love, love spring. I wish it would last longer than it does-fall and winter are so hard to me when it gets dark so early. I love the cool, crispness in the morning, low humidity, and long sunny days. Today was perfect outside. I love the bright, blue skies with white, puffy clouds. I love hear birds chirping. I love seeing green grass, new growth on trees, and blooming flowers. I think my favorite part might be sunsets after 7 pm instead of 4 pm!!! It makes me want to be outside all day. We're really looking forward to this spring b/c of our finished fence! The majority of the time we are do-it-yourself people..actually I should say J and his family are DIY folks, and now that I'm part of the family I've turned into one (maybe it's more that I've been required to become one :)). We've lived in our house 4.5 years and I can only remember hiring someone to work on our house 2 times-to paint the exterior of the house and repair our air conditioner. This week we bit the bullet and had someone else complete the fence. We did the gate and one side of the fence and got as far as preparing the other sides. At that point J priced out what the rest of the fence would cost us to build and compared that to estimates. It ended up we would only save about $80-$100! The guys started yesterday and finished this afternoon. It was money well worth it. Who knows how long it would have taken us to finish it. Here are before and after pics. The first 2 photos are the closest I have to before. We didn't start taking pictures until we had already started the project. You can see all the overgrowth and one of the trees we took down (the tree behind our fence that the city said wasn't dead, even though it had no growth on it, and when it was down we realized it clearly had heart rot-glad we didn't listen to the city)
These pics are after we took down the tress/shrubs that lined the existing fence. The wood fence on the left side is what J and I (mostly J) did.
And, drum roll please, the finished fence today!!!!!!!!!!!

Next project?? Landscaping! Anyone want to help me since I'm not a very successful gardener? We have so much sunlight now after clearing it all out, I think plants might actually grow now. I can't wait to spend lots of time in the backyard. It feels like a completely different place now, come on over and enjoy it with us.

Howdy Neighbor

Here are the after photos of the yard. You can see why we're trying to get the fence put up quickly. Thankfully the house behind us is being remodeled and nobody is living in it right now.You can compare these to the pics posted a few days ago to see the difference.

Av helped by carrying sticks to the street

Life with a toddler is so fun. I feel like I learn new things to appreciate daily. Av loves music, loves to sing, and loves to dance. When we're in the car and the radio is on she sings along with the music. Does she know the words? Nope, she justs makes up her own. She's not feeling well today and I put The Wiggles on for her this evening, but had the sound turned down. So since the sound wasn't on, she sang while she danced. What did she sing you're thinking? Maybe ABC's, Row Your Boat, Jesus Loves Me.....no she belted out Shake, shake, shake...shake, shake, shake...shake your booty-with her hands on her hips and, of course, shaking her booty. I wonder if she could give me lessons.

She is so girly, which to me is funny that J and I have a girly girl. She LOVES to play dress-up, pick out her own clothes, and she hates bugs (yesterday there was carpet fuzz she thought was a bug-it was 20 ft. away from her and she wanted me to throw it outside before she would eat lunch). Tonight topped it all. After her bath in her bathroom we went into my bathroom to brush teeth, but instead she told me that she wanted me brush and dry her hair and put makeup on her!!!!!! She even picked up my eyelash curler and tried to curl her lashes. What?!?! Just so you know, the only "makeup" I've ever put on her is chapstick. Now that I think about it, she did do a little of her own makeup the other day when she got into a drawer I thought had nothing more than chapstick. Turns out there was one tube I thought was gloss when she picked it up...ended up it was lipstick..Avery's self application.

"Man, I look good! I bet I could get a job at Lancome"

Full Friday

1. Had a great playdate at Darby's house this morning with lots of fun kids and moms


2. Jonathan and I finished cutting down the last trees today-making the grand total 17. At around tree 12 we figured out that J is much better at pulling the rope to get the tree down..so I was relegated to chainsaw duty..scary but successful. We are both sooo tired. I haven't been to the gym at all and have only run once this week, but I think all this yard work counts for workouts! Almost everything has been taken to the street, stumps/roots have been taken care of..so were almost ready for the new fence!!! Yeah!!!!!

This is one of the biggest trees:


Avery "helped mommy" by raking the sandbox while I raked the yard

Then my big helper made enchiladas with me

3. Now we're watching the NCAA tournament. Tenn, Davidson, and W. Virginia did some major damage to my bracket. Jonathan might have a round of golf on me this year.