Productive Weekend... where's the rest...

Productive Weekend

Let's just have a relaxing weekend at home.... That was the plan. Here is what we did instead. Saturday morning, we woke up at the crack of dawn to go to a nice community yardsale. The neighborhood was so crowded with cars that we decided, like most, to park on the side of the road and walk through. We found a few treasures, mostly clothes and a few toys. The best find was a racecar style four wheeler for Emma. We couldn't wait to get home, and test it out on the cul-de-sac. The fourwheeler would have to wait for a quick breakfast at the newly reopened McCalls Restaurant. (You may remember that a single passenger/piloted airplane crashed into the the entrance of the restaurant 7 or so months ago.) McCalls has been a family favorite for birthdays and large family gatherings over the years. We are glad to see it reopen this week.

Once at home we unloaded and proptly hit the street. Steven alternated between his four wheeler and bycycle, sharing with a neighbor, Trey. Emma learned quickly how to drive her green, purple, and pink racecar. I stayed close and showed her the ropes. We had a blast, and got a little pink during our 20 min test drive. Adjouring to the shade of the back yard swingset, we watched as Chris mowed the yard, then tilled the barren areas in preparation for the landscaper who promises (for the third time) to aerate, fertalize, lime and seed the yard on Monday. I hope he likes working in the rain.

Emma, lulled to nappy time by her baby swing, slept for two hours. This gave me the perfect opportunity to finish my longtime work in the flowerbed. I planted 23 perinials that guarantee to bloom for three seasons of the year. Then I dropped 14 bags of mulch. Soaked in sweat and caked with dirt, I went straight to the shower. Chris made dinner while I chased the kids around the living room. We were all in bed by 9:15. Relaxing weekend at home, right?

Today was a little slower paced. We all slept in, ohhh 'till about 7:40... We did our weekly grocery trip to Wal-Mart while most were at church. While Emma napped, Steven and I workd on his "Independant Project" for school. He decided to do a presentation about snakes, complete with flash cards to read from and a picture of our temporary pet snake. A few weeks ago Steven and I caught a 12 inch Brown Snake in the new flower bed. We kept it a few days, and even fed it an earthworm after some internet research. We let it go before Steven got too attached. It obviously made an impression. The presentation is due in a week, and he is done. I'm a proud mama.

After a few finishing touches on the flower bed, we headed out on a family bike ride. I towed Emma in a trailer. We had a great time, despite how out of shape we are. Steven spun circles around us. We we panting and grunting up the hills, and he never broke a sweat. I guess we need to do it more often. Back the the ever popular swingset we went to unwind. Chris stayed behind and straightened up the garage. The rest of the day was more relaxed. Lots of playing and tickling. What a great weekend!!!

Here are some pictures of the goings on from the past week and weekend...

Emma riding her new racing 4 wheeler

Steven riding his bike with Amy and Emma

Emma riding her scooter / 4 wheeler

Our Puppy Doo!!!

The completed wall and mulched bed...

A closer View...

We hope you are all doing well!!

The birthday week of bad backs and sickies...

What a week it has been. Things really do happen quickly, so let me catch you up on the events of the last week or so. To start things off, Emma ended up getting hand, foot, mouth disease. She had a fever for a day or two, and then got little blisters on her hands, feet, and around her mouth that laster about a week. It is caused by a virus that you mainly get as a kid, and usually do not get again, kind of like chicken pox. Little beknownst to me, I had also never had the illness, but rest asured, I have had it now. I got really beat down Friday, April 3, and came home from work. It had me out of commission until Sunday afternoon, and by then my fever broke and the blisters came. That part sounds worse than it is, as the blisters were the size of a pin head, maybe a little larger. I got a few on my feet, maybe 15-18 on my hands and a hanful inside my mouth. (that was a treat) I did go back to work that Monday, so life got back to another semblance of normal. We looked forward to the arrival of my birthday weekend, and the coming of my parents to visit with us. They arrived on Friday, April 10, but my dads back was messed up. (he did get to retire on the 3rd of April by the way :>) ) I also did something at work on Thursday of last week to tweek my back as well. It was only moderately injured, and then I played golf Friday, (shot 85), and that night after dinner while I played with the kids and visited, it really began to hurt. It was pretty miserable most of Saturday as well, and my dads back was so bad that they went back to Virginia. We did manage to go eat that night at Outback Steakhouse with me, Amy, the kids, Doug and Trish, and Em, Jody, and Tommy. It was nice, but my back still was mesed up. I went to urgent care on Sunday and got some steroids and muscle relaxers, and things have improved greatly. I did go to work Monday, but tried to take it easy. I also can't golf or lift weights until after Wednesday according to the doctor, but that was no problem, as I really just want this to get better. I took a few pictures from this weekend of me, Amy and the kids from my birthday weekend, and a picture of a lizard that Steven found too. I guess that is about it for now. I will go ahead and wish my parents an early 40 year wedding anniversary. It is really warming up here and should be 75 – 80 for the whole next week, so hopefully we can get all of our yard work done we are in the process of and just be able to enjoy it. Hope everyone is well.

STEVEN AND DADDY ON MY BIRTHDAY

ME AND MY BEAUTIFUL WIFE ON MY BIRTHDAY
STEVEN'S LIZARD HE FOUND ON THE DECK STEVEN HOLDING MY BIRTHDAY BALLOONDADDY AND EMMA AT OUTBACK

THE FUTURE PRINCESS...
HOPE EVERYONE IS DOING WELL. WILL POST AGAIN SOON!!

Happy April everyone

I am doing pretty well on the making sure I get at least a post a week right now, so I just wanted to start by saying I hope everyone is having a good start to their April. It is hard to beleive that we are already on the 4th month into the year, and it is flying by so fast. I want to start by saying happy belated birthday to our Niece Gabrielle. I know we sent a card and gift on time, (I hope it got there on time), the belated is because the posting date is after the B-day. My birthday is coming up as well, and maybe I will get a walker and some motrin for as old as I feel..., just kidding. Things are good here, Emma has just had a little of a runny nose, but seems to be much better today, so hopefully that is on its way to being better. Now I know why it is hard sometimes to post more than once a week, not much changes sometimes!! We did however do some major yardwork this past weekend, which we hope will payoff this spring. I have some before and after photos, as well as some of the work being done I will post. It has gone from cluttered and crappy, to spaced out, colorful and beautiful. Once the seeding and mulching is done buy the end of the weekend, I will post some more photos of the completed work. Here are some photos so far and of this past week.

This is me getting ready to pull bushes out of the ground with the truck...

Amy and her dad working on breaking the roots free as I pull...

Above was the way it looked right after the wall was done with the plants all bunched together, and no fill dirt behind the wall yet...

Here is the bed as it looks now from a distance...

Here is a view from up closer

And even closer...

As you can see, we did a good bit of work to the bed that my wife planned out, and it looks good to start. Hopefully, when all done, it will really be something. I also tilled the whole yard where there were spots of no grass, or hard as a rock spots, which was basically 1/2 of the yard. I will post next week after we get fertilized and seeded, and hopefully it will look even better and I will have more to say. See ya.