I Love Yard Work!

I should have taken a "before" picture!

Or rather, I love working in the yard!  We’ve been busy sprucing up our back yard the last few weeks, and it has been rewarding to see it all come together.  It wasn’t terrible to start with, but there was a lot of room for improvement.  We dug out all the flowerbeds where weeds had taken over before we moved in, and our biggest project was planting a garden.  The preparation of the soil for our garden could never have been done without our neighbors, Jerry and Mitch.  They spent a lot of time and manpower helping us mulch, as well as deliver and shovel horse manure, and finally till the soil.  In total, we planted zucchini, squash, eggplant, cucumber, tomatoes, cantaloupe, watermelon, along with four different kinds of peppers and five different herbs.  I’m crossing my fingers that at least some of them produce.  The temperature here has been perfect for being outside; I’m trying to soak up as much of this weather as I can before it heats up.

Nancy, Mike’s mom, came out for a visit this past weekend.  She’s always such a pleasure to be around, and her being here was especially great since it allowed Mike and I to plant all the veggies while she watched the kids.  It also happened that this past weekend Noah had his first baseball game of the season.  To be honest, I think the coaches and the parents weren’t too sure how well the game was going to go, based on the boys’ practices – but they surprised us all and did incredibly well.  They won 6 to 0, and Noah hit his first triple and scored a total of three points for his team . . . needless to say, he was quite excited!  

Sharing a seat on our new patio furniture.

Amelia LOVES to play doctor!

Girls Weekend

I went to a girls’ weekend with the women on my mom’s side, which we try and have at least every two years.  This one was a request from my Grandma Dorothy for her 75^th birthday, which was last July 19^th (this happens to be my mom’s birthday, as well).  Considering it’s March, it shows how difficult it is to coordinate everyone’s schedules.  I almost didn’t make it . . . between Amelia getting pink eye the day before I was to leave and Mike’s flight home being cancelled the afternoon of my flight.  However, my awesome neighbor, Rayna, watched the kids until Mike got home on a later flight, and I was able to make my plane.  I was so happy I got to go, since we had such a fun time!  

I’ll be honest; most of our weekend was dedicated to playing cards, which included staying up until 3am on our final night together.  I know that sounds crazy, but you’ve got to understand how much we all love to play cards and how much we have fun doing it together.  In addition to playing cards, we had a lot of delicious food!  I would say “delicious meals” but most of our favorites definitely do belong in the “desserts” category.

After being a “grown-up” for a little while now, I realized how amazing EACH of the women in my family are.  It was so inspiring to be around such fun, positive and intelligent women.  I believe my Grandma Dorothy deserves a lot of credit for that.  She is such an inspiration, and I look up to her very much.  She not only raised wonderful daughters (and two sons) but helped teach them to be wonderful mothers!  I think anyone in my family would agree that she has always lived by the saying, “if you don’t have something nice to say, don’t say anything at all.”  This saying has definitely been passed down through our family and is something I say to my kids and to myself.

Best in Show!

I realized I never gave an update after the Pinewood Derby.  I think partially because it was a bit of a rough day, especially for Mike and Noah.  Unfortunately, on all four races Noah’s car came in last, not just a little bit last . . . but a lot last!  We didn’t know what was going on; because of the rules, we weren’t allowed to look at the car.  Well, after the race when we got the car back, the tape on the underside (which was holding the extra weight in) was connected to one of the tires.  So, every time the tire rotated, the resistance from the tape slowed it down.  It was really hard for Noah to lose every race, but even harder for Mike since he felt responsible for adjusting the tape to add more weight at the weigh-in the night before the race.  We left after the last race because Amelia was worn out and Noah was definitely ready to go.  However, the next week at our den meeting, one of the other leaders informed me that Noah’s car was voted “Best in Show” by all the other Boy Scouts and that he had won a trophy.  Noah was SO excited – he has wanted a trophy of his own for years, so it really turned the Pinewood Derby into a positive experience!  We owe a big thank you to Grandpa Ray for helping Noah design it; he has a gift for making cars!

Ray built this 1932 Hot Rod that Mike and I got to drive away in after our wedding reception.

We spent our weekend doing “Honey Do” projects, the largest of which was refinishing the kids’ play structure.  It took most all of Sunday, but we got it done.  Amelia was under the weather most the weekend, which resulted in her taking a four-and-a-half-hour nap, making it possible to finish the project so quickly!  I also started planting in one of my flower beds; it was so fun to spruce up the back yard.  I’m definitely motivated to finish the rest of the planting.

Before.

After.