Back Breaking Work

Our yard is almost complete. Thanks to a lot of help from family and friends, our fence was completed in 1 day last weekend. Since then, my husband and I have been quite busy w/ our yard (front/back). The front is done (shrubs, rock, fixing grass thanks to the "Evil One" aka Barley) and now we have some rock hauling and french drains to do in the back, and we'll be done! I don't know if any of you have tried shoveling and hauling rock, let me just say it's tough work. It would be nice to just pay someone to do it, but from my experience (I did the front myself!), when the job is complete, there is a bit of pride in it. Anyway, that has been my week. It will be so nice to finally be done and then relax and enjoy the privacy of our new back yard. My next venture, painting! It never ends :) After asking if it was okay to purchase some paint here some time, my husband was quite nice in telling me that he absolutely will NOT be picking up a paint brush. That's okay, the projects are small anyways. Well, my back flower beds are calling my name, they're covered with weed barrier and waiting for rock! One quick side note of good news. I believe that something finally clicked in my son and he is finally fully potty trained! This will be his 3rd day of being dry. He has been doing it all himself, no help from mommy. Today is his first official day in underwear. I am so proud of him! He gets a little hot wheel everyday that he stays dry and once it's consistent (which I believe he pretty much is), he gets to go and pick out a big hot wheel set!

EVILNESS!!!!

Yes, that is my new nickname for our chocolate lab! She's on my black list right now and hasn't quite worked herself off of it. Let me preface this with how things have gone since Friday. My son hasn't quite gotten over some weird cough, the kind that if you get a coughing spell you throw up. Well, Friday after dinner we gave the kids some ice cream in "pink" ice cream cones. They started running around the house w/ daddy and yes, my son threw up all over the carpet in my front room. "PINK" ice cream cone, mind you, stains quickly. So I whipped out the steam cleaner and saved the carpet. Well, Saturday morning rolls around and my daughter is heading out w/ my husband to a teen focus car wash and can't find her sun hat. So I head up stairs to find it and hear something that just doesn't sound right. I came running downstairs and wished I wasn't seeing what I saw. I came closer and my fears were confirmed, Barley had decided to chew 2 holes in my carpet!!!! This house isn't even a year old. She even decided to eat the carpet fibers. It took me a while to realize that she was getting the carpet in the exact same spot that my son got sick on. She is lucky to be alive right now! Thankfully we have plenty of carpet left over from construction, but I haven't found any carpet adhesive yet and haven't mustered up the energy to fix it. PURE EVILNESS! She's seems to be on a streak for some reason. Well, my weekend didn't stop there, but I won't go on a complaining spree. So I'll leave it at that. Let me end with this, Barley, you are lucky you are so cute and have been for the most part a good dog!

Liar Liar Pants on Fire!

I was trying to think of something to write on all day and thanks to my lovely daughter, she provided it for me! So my 2 kids got these huge lolly pops at a birthday party. This is only the second time I've allowed them to take some licks off of them. My daughter chose the blueberry one, as you can clearly see in the picture. I need to add a quick fact here, it has been quite some time that I have stopped my kids from sucking their fingers. Took 1 day! It has just been this last week or so that I have on rare occasions caught my daughter sucking hers again. I am very quick to threaten adding that nasty polish on her fingers again, to which she quickly pulls them from her mouth. Well, back to today. After playing upstairs for a bit, my daughter came down stairs to sit next to me on the couch. She started to ask for some cereal when I quickly noticed "BLUE" fingers. I also noticed that they were the 2 fingers she would suck on. I asked her point blank if she had been sucking on them and of course it was a no. I started laughing and held up her hand. There was no denying it anymore. She gave a me little smirk and then I pulled the camera out, now I have proof! Thanks sweetie for such a great picture!

Much Ado About Nothing

I don't have time to really write anything, but thought I'd drop a quick note on my weekend. There seems to be so much going on that my mind is forgetting simple things. Crazy. Friday we had some new friends over for a BBQ. Really cute couple and a lot of fun. They are recently married and moved here from Lynchburg, VA. Hey what do you know. Anyway, their happy to meet a couple that has something in common and "knows" the Boise area. It will be fun getting to know them. Saturday was a blur. From stopping by a Teen Focus car wash that my husband helped at, to a trip to Barnes and Noble (we messed up the times for the school book fair for my daughter, so to make it up we went to BN and bought her a book, dragons, who would have guessed). Then we had to get home because sod was being laid out back. Sunday, Mothers Day. I'll leave it at that. So here we are again, starting the crazy cycle for the week. Monday. Is it Friday yet? There are some things on the up and up. Yeah! For now I must go back to life as a stay at home mom and clean a few bathrooms, cook some cookies and lemon ricotta muffins and clean a downstairs so that we can host home teams tonight. Adios.

Just call me Mrs. Handywoman!

I don't doubt myself very often when it comes to my abilities, although deep down there does lie a little doubt. There are some things I just don't attempt for fear of messing up, could be costly depending on the job. Although, yesterday I was quite pleased with myself. In fact, I even had to call my folks up and brag about it. I have been putting off a lot of things that needed to be done with my house not for fear of doing it, more than likely because of laziness. I don't know what got into me yesterday, but I am still amazed at myself. Without any help, I assembled and installed 2 ceiling fans! Some may say, that isn't a feat, but have you ever tried to install a ceiling fan? They are a pain in the you know what! I can see why some just pay to have someone else do it. My first attempt at such a job and successful. The kids are still excited over their new fans. Don't tell my husband, but the tools in the garage are truly mine. :) Well, I'm off to start on my next ceiling fan and bathroom fixture.

FREEDOM!

In all my married years, almost 8 to be exact, I have never had a backyard. Yes, I have lived in 2 previous homes that had yards, but let me clarify. Virginia doesn't know how to grow GRASS!! A very missed "luxury" while living there. Our yards were pretty much made up of crabgrass, weeds, rock, and clay. My poor kids! Anyway, with some unexpected funds helping, we are finally putting in our back yard in our new home. Today, they are clearing the field of weeds, leveling with top soil, and who knows what else. I can't wait! Soon there will be sprinklers, grass, a fence, and yes, FREEDOM and SANITY. My children are thrilled and even our dog peers out back with yearning eyes. Maybe when it's finished I'll post a picture of our first true backyard. I can see much BBQing, playing, planting, and a fire pit in our near future.

Color!

Okay, it has been decided that we will not be switching homes anytime soon. Thank the Lord for that on many many levels. My track record of moving is quite impressive, and I'm just thinking of my married years. You should hear about all the moves growing up. Anyway, we are currently undergoing a refinance which is huge for us. Opens up some breathing room. Since there is no move in the near future of a year or so, I am desperately wanting to make my home my own. I need COLOR! Right now it's the cheapest decorating tool and does so much for a room. But, I have a problem. My last endeavour of painting my old house in VA left a bad taste in my mouth. It was the whole idea of finishing a basement, won't go into too much detail. I'll just say it was a time I'd rather not look back on, too stressful. Anyway, now I cringe at the sight of a paint brush and roller. I'm really good at it, that's not the problem. I seem to have a block now, no motivation. Maybe I just need to buck up and do it. Start off small and maybe it won't be a problem. Who knows. Now that we're starting on our yard, yeah!!!!, I would like to add a little something to the inside. Maybe a visit to the good 'ole Home Depot and some color swatches might jump start a decorating job.

"I'm Superman, Mommy!"

Gone are the days of my "baby!" He is a true little boy now and finding his own interests, no longer his sisters. Not leaving behind Hot Wheels by any means, his new adventure, SUPERMAN. He could watch a superman dvd over and over and not get bored with it. But he's graduated from just watching it to "becoming" superman. My couch cushions go flying and he rips off his shirt and starts to fly and flex his little muscles! Apart from getting annoyed by constantly putting my couch back together 5+ times a day, I can't help but laugh. When he's in the moment and I ask him to do something, he always replies with, "I'm not P*****, I'm Superman!" I miss my little baby, but I'm enjoying seeing him grow up and become the boy that he is. Now that he's starting to separate himself from his sister's interests, I am so amazed at how different the two of them are and how their little minds work. They each have "their own" way about them. It keeps my life interesting!