Michael's Birthday, My Dream!

BEFORE the DREAM

Since we have moved into this house almost 7 years ago I have dreamt of doing some great garden designs and landscaping projects that would take years to complete. I have even gone as far as taking up my trusty 3'x2' graft tablet and drafters ruler to draw up these designs so I could show Michael how beautiful this place could be, but my dreams are SOOOO much bigger than my wallet!! One of my big dreams is to get some kind of pathway from the front entrance to the side gate. There are some drainage issues we have had to look into because of where the "natural" path to and from the two doors are and it is exactly where the rain drains away from the house and pretty much half the yard. If you know how much rain we get here you know how IMPORTANT it is to keep this drainage as is. So we have gone back and forth about ideas and what I want, what he wants and all that stuff that can't be avoided when two separate minds that think creative and practical collide!! LOTS OF ARGUING!! Any who Michael finally asked me for Mother's day if I would like a new grill or rocks for my path, the new grill had not been purchased yet and we had not planned the cook out when this all happened but I asked for the rocks, mainly because we would HAVE to get a grill eventually with those stupid birds nesting in the old one. Any who he was out of town right after Mother's day so I took it upon myself to pick up the rocks, big sale, couldn't pass up. I also knew that if he thought about it too long he would change his mind. Which often happens when he has a laps of judgement and gives me what I want in order to get me something for an "important" holiday. Okay so I trapped him but what ever he offered I took. These rocks sat in front of that window for at least a month while more colliding of the minds took place. I gave, he gave and we finally settled on something we could both live with! HURRAY!! So my pathway is done and even more. Michael decided after hand digging sod up for 3 or 4 of the rocks that my idea to rent a sod cutter was much better! He was on such a roll with the sod cutter that we decided to go ahead and cut the path down the length of the house AND extend the back patio too!!

He wanted to do all of this in baby steps but once we got the sod cutter it was just 15 min and we were done, so why rent it again for the 2nd and 3rd baby steps (#2 the length of the house, #3 patio) So another pallet of rocks and lots and lots of hard work and sweat and it looks AWESOME!! Although we still need a 3rd pallet of rocks but time caught up with us and the patio will have to wait!!

AFTER, the dream is REALITY!

Michael did all of this on his own birthday too! What a guy, he really is my hero. As luck would have it our neighborhood was having their annual picnic so we got to enjoy a block party after we finished up. I told Michael that we invited the whole neighborhood and had his party catered with Rib Crib Barbecue (I love BBQ, I think Michael's warming up to it living with me for so long but I know he really likes okra now)!!

In the middle of getting pieces of sod put back between the rocks (we concluded this would be the best way as you can't keep Bermuda out of something like that and it would be easy to run the mower over top of the path too) we got rained on! It didn't last too long but long enough to make it even more humid than it already was and REALLY miserable to work in. We finished with the front walk and decided to get ready for "Michael's" party. So Sunday we finished with the rest of the path. I couldn't tell Michael enough how grateful I was for all of his hard work and sorry for not doing anything special on his birthday! Although I did prearrange for a sitter either Friday or Saturday he turned it down.

FINISHED with the front!
All yesterday (Monday, June 14th) it rained and rained A LOT!! So we got to see what needed to be tweaked in the path to keep the flow of water going. As you can see in the back all looks pretty good, the water is draining off to the side, but it does have to go under the fence so the path all up front is submerged!

We couldn't figure out a really great way to make the path kinda curvy but the dog had worn a really nice path in the grass that we followed. I think it turned out nice. Thanks Isabelle!

I'm hoping some day that all the grass between the house and path will be gone and filled with Hydrangea's and Azalea's boy those are beautiful and something you can't grow but indoors in Colorado. The half moon in front of the house will be a flower bed, it will definitely be a trial and error garden but my other flower bed has done really well so I guess if I just keep reading my gardening books and figure out what will work best there won't be too many errors!


Lots of rain, but drainage is good.

Hunter's first and second lost tooths!

Last week during VBS Sunday night Hunter FINALLY lost his first tooth, I say finally because I took a picture of him when we found out it was first loose and looking back that was over 2 months ago!! The tooth fairy brought him $5 and Michael had a cow! He said, "I use to get nickles and dimes, don't you think that's a little outrageous?" Well unfortunately yes but when Samuel lost his first tooth (although does that really count when a tooth is pulled by the dentist)
Michael was out of town and I don't usually carry cash but happened to have $5 that day. So for a first lost tooth it is $5 additional teeth a gold $1 coin! Yesterday when his second tooth came out (yep when he finally pulled the first we found the second was also loose) only a week later it came out and he was just as excited to get the $1 coin as the $5!

I just noticed he's wearing the same pj's in both pictures!! EWW I'm pretty sure they got washed within the week ,I hope!! That kid loves his Mario Brothers!

Back to Quilting

Well it's been a while since I have quilted or pieced anything resembling a blanket lately but I finally picked up last years quilt class project (One Block Wonder) that I took for my birthday and added 14 blocks to it!! Although most of that time was spent unsewing those lovely triangles I show a picture of. Each of those triangles is a set of two sewn together and chain stitched to save time!! HAHAHAHA save time my WHAT!! Oh well, the book doesn't give a lot of detail of finishing the quilt, just make your blocks and keep making them till you have the size you want. Not one to want to waste too much time on making blocks I had measure the bed it was going to be on add all the borders and such and do all the math that goes into figuring out the size of quilt I wanted so 48 blocks down 28 to go!! At this rate maybe I'll be done by summer 2012.

I did get a little craft doohickey done along the way, it's for the back of a car seat so the kids can put coloring books, toys, markers (found that crayons melt in a hot car, I know I wonder myself how I get through the day with three kids still alive at the end of the day)and drinks and other junk in all the cool pockets but for some reason all that crap still ends up on the floor!! So much for my great idea in keeping the car clean and organized!! I bought enough fabric to make three and after getting this one done and put in place only to find out he's not really using it I'm really not wanting to make the other two! Maybe it's just him (Samuel) he's my messy boy and when it comes time to help pick up you'll find him working harder to avoid doing any of the work where as Hunter is a MASTER at picking up and Gabe even helps some. So maybe I should go ahead and make another for Hunter and see how he uses it. He won't use this one it's Spiderman and he is SO OVER Spiderman, he asked for Mario Brothers but I have yet to find any kind of fabric with them on it. Can I be in charge of new fabric lines for boys, cuz the pickins on boy fabrics really stink!! Even if you make a mostly blue or green quilt it will have some kind of flower material in it!!! And what isn't flowers is for baby boys!! Come on people get with it, boys, guys and men like quilts too, just not all flowery. Okay rant is over moving on!

New Toy!

Michael was gone for a week after Memorial weekend and boy did it get HOT here! So I splurged and bought the boys a slip n slide, well worth the $20 I paid for it!!

Garden is GOOD!

Tomatoes getting ready and my cool onion!

Here are some of the awesome goodies we have been enjoying lately from our garden! Our Peas this year did awesome since we planted 3x's as much and a little earlier finding out from last year that they don't do well in this heat. So many more plants are needed in order to harvest enough for everyone to enjoy! We had so many the boys would actually sit and watch cartoons while eating them raw! What a great snack and so healthy too.
My yellow squash (as I had labeled in my growing tray) turned out to be zucchini so now I have WAY too many zucchini plants and will have to get rid of some. But they are producing really well just too well and taking over half of the garden.

We are done with the radishes and turnips as well, didn't get any turnip greens something got to those before they were ready!

We've got tons of green beans and have enjoyed plenty of spinach (while it was still relatively cool) now were ready for the tomatoes, peppers and okra to start ripening. I can't wait to make brushetta!!

Just had to add pictures of my new grill it's like a Cadillac compared to our old grill which took some of my hair off (huge flame ball singe me as I opened it one day) then some birds decided to make it their home and bring in some nesting supplies!! I finally got Michael to pick up a new one after I asked some friends over for burgers on the barbie!! And Gabe after I unpacked from the lake! He loves hats and got into the hat box as well as the tub to get his fishing pole and I swear I didn't set this up he just pulled the suitcase out and sat in it while he was fishing!! I snapped a couple of pictures as I was on the Internet (he was behind me) and then the moment was gone!