And the Walls Came Tumblin' Down...

Ugh. If it's not one thing it's another around here.

I simply can not keep up with the deficit of home improvements that we've gotten behind on around here.

I had totally planned to start remodeling my kitchen (as soon as I finish the downstairs bath. If I ever finish the downstairs bath). It's ugly. Real ugly.

But in my massive frantic attempt to try and get my house to look like....well....a nice house....if was trying to scrub our old, faded shower surround back to white (not going to happen) and noticed something. Something bad. The shower surround is not quite bug enough. And the edges of the wall near the shower that get damp every time someone showers...well, they've started rotting away.

What the crap am I supposed to do about that? Well, I know what I'm supposed to do...I'm supposed to fix it. But WHEN am I supposed to do that? I can't even finish the bathroom I am working on! I spend an hour scraping dried grout off the shower floor tiles (I'm sure I've ranted about that somewhere.....but if I haven't let me just say, PLEASE, if you're going to tile anything, start wiping the grout off right away. Do not wait. It's bad.) until I had blisters all over my hands. It's getting there...but it's a very slow, frustrating project.

And I can't rip one bathroom up until I have the other completely functional.

Meanwhile, the wall slowly continues rotting away.

So I'm trying not to completely lose it....trying NOT to think about the boiler that needs replaced, the shingles that have blown off the roof. The gutters that need cleaned (and repaired). The window in the basement that is broken. The floors that are scratched and nicked. The yard that needs mown, the gardens that need weeded, the basement that is leaky, the paint that needs touched up in almost EVERY room, the gas log that won't work, and the fact that every single closet is a disaster that needs cleaned and re-organized.

Today, I'm just going to try and concentrate on removing the coupon that Celia shellacked to the floor with milk last week (so everyone will stop walking in the door and trying to pick it up. Don't you think if I could pick it up, I would?)...scrape some more grout, and try and complete the 40 or so reports that I'm already behind on this week.

Adventures in Charleston...

This is the first of my three part blogging about our weekend. It's way too much to fit in a single post! At least with the time constraints I'm currently operating under!

So last week the hubby comes home with pile of tickets to a baseball game. The Charleston Power (minor league) and we started planning a trip. His company leases a rarely used apartment in town, so his boss gave him the keys and off we went.

About halfway there he says "Oh, I'm pretty sure the AC in the apartment won't be working....Boss had to call maintenance because there was a problem with it". Oh. Okay....well, it's not that hot anyway. Should be fine. "And I'm not sure that the cleaners have been in. Boss had his assistant call because he was worried that they hadn't been there in awhile". Erm...that's another story. But really, no one stays there. It's vacant most of the time. How bad could it be?

Well, first thing I did was check the sheets. No way am I sleeping on sheets that someone I don't know has slept on. They look....wrinkly. And they don't smell like fabric softener. So we rip those puppies off the bed and try to fit them in the teeny tiny washing machine. One. sheet. at. a time.

Now, keep in mind that my in-laws were joining us on this adventure. Since I have kids....my standards of cleanliness are lowered. I mean, my house isn't filthy...but there's usually stuff out and you can often find crumbs in one room or another. My mother in law....well, she hasn't had kids in the house for many years. Her house is always spotless (well, unless my kids are visiting to crumb it up...but even then it stays pretty clean). Therefore....if I'm appalled by the filth of the place.....you can guess that she's going to be WAY grossed out.

Being brave (and having to pee) I peeked in a bathroom, screamed "HOLY CATS" and ran the other way. It was bad. Real bad.

I became crystal clear that the cleaning service had indeed totally punked out on their duties...and I really hope the Boss hadn't been paying someone to clean....because if so, he was getting majorly ripped off.

Hubby thought I was over-reacting, so I sent him in to check things out. He starts explaining that the Charleston water is bad (ha, compared to Fairmont?) and peeks around the door. He shrieks his manly version of "HOLY CATS" and also runs the other way.

I brandished a toilet scrubber at him and sent him back in. I think he scrubbed the tub with it first. It was that bad.

So the two of us cleaned like mad people to get it looking some kind of livable before the in-laws showed up (though honestly, it was still pretty bad when they got there) and I made a mad dash to the mall (did I mention Celia peed through her PullUp while napping on the way down....and I'm so bright I only packed dresses instead of more pants).

I went out just in time to meet the in-laws, apologise in advance for the stench of the hallway (the neighbors had their garbage out there!!! What kind of crap is that?) and the over all condition of the apartment.....and have a discussion with the lady that apparently lives downstairs about over what MIGHT be dripping in her apartment. I don't know lady, I've been here for 15 minutes. Call maintenance, will ya?

So, mad dash to the mall. Luckily, I walked in the door of Macy's and found super sale. I grabbed some pants (and a cute Hello Kitty shirt.....sorry, but the pants didn't match the ones she had on. I had to do it!) and ran to the only open checkout on that floor.

Which was staffed by a 92 year old woman. Who was methodically slow about , removing from hangers, checking for sensors, folding, wrapping in paper, and bagging each of the 92 items the lady in front of me was buying (not that I blame her, it was a great sale!).

20 minutes later....mad dash back to the apartment, dump the girl in her new clothes (which she proclaims "beautiful"...thank you baby) and we're off to the baseball game! (More on the game later)

We didn't get back until very, very late. Part of the problem was that we needed milk. You can't buy milk in downtown Charleston at midnight. You just can't. We had to drive all the way down Kanawa Blvd to an Exxon where someone handed me milk though a pull out drawer. The hubby wouldn't even get out of the car because he was convince someone out "bust a cap at him". I reminded him that as an uptight, white yuppie.....he should just say "shoot me" to avoid sounding like an idiot.

So the next day we had a leisurely breakfast at Starbucks, had some fun in the city (more on that later too) and headed back to the apartment for a cleaning spree.

It took Chris and I about an hour and a half to get that apartment spic and span, sparkly clean. I started thinking about getting a smaller place then and there. No WAY could we do that to our house!!!

Once we had it all clean....boy it looked nice. Classy. The Boss has really good taste in furniture. No clutter anywhere.

So I came home from a very nice trip with an unhealthy case of envy and a desperate need to throw out ever piece of clutter in my life, to deep clean and re-organize every shelf, closet, nook, and cranny in my home.

See you in November.....


P.S. On the way home, we stopped for gas and Chris fell over himself trying to get away from this dead bug. Then he fell all over himself trying to gross me out with it. Please , please, please, for the love of all things good and pure, tell me that this thing was a stow away from Florida and arrived in our state already dead or something. If we have bugs like this here in my pleasant mountain home......I may have to move.

The Emperor's New Clothes

Everyone who has ever been to my house knows that I love IKEA. And I've discovered that as far as IKEA goes, it's a love or hate relationship. There's no middle road.....

Well, last year for my birthday the Hubby and I borrowed a big ole truck and drove up to IKEA to purchase our first ever brand spankin' new couch. Since I had just painted my living room a beautiful (but impossible to match) shade of sage....I got a white couch and chairs.

I loved them. Everyone thought I was nuts for white furniture and kids...but such is the beauty of IKEA. You zip the covers off then throw them in the washing machine. They've been smeared with chocolate, colored on with pen, and had varies types of milk leak on to them.

I went through a very trendy monochromatic "everything but the sage walls must be black and white" thing.....and loved it.

But I'm kind of over it. Plus, I got new paint for the kitchen which is a slightly more grey shade of green. I've read that green shades are good for kitchens and you won't eat as much (must work only in the kitchen, because I've had no problem eating in the green living room)! Plus, the paint was only $5 a can.....and I'm getting frustrated trying to find accessories that match with sage.


Oh , and mom my was visiting...and we love to shop. Especially at IKEA. She mentioned last time she was up that she was driving this time so that she could be a few more things. So I started planning, and saving.

Because that's the other great thing about IKEA. For not very much money, I can buy all new couch and chair covers and it looks like I have brand new furniture. So that's exactly what I did.


Here's my new couch:


And the chairs:



And some fancy pillow covers to go with it:
Instant new look. Now if I can just get around to painting the living room that yellowy-gold that umm....it used to be before I painted it green, I'll be all set.

Oh, and my other big plan is to photoshop some pictures of the kids to look like comic book prints, blow them up, and put them on the wall. Very pop-art. I'm into pop-art now, having left monochromaticism behind.

This is why I keep him around...

....because sometimes, he's just so darn funny. Frustrating, but funny.

So yesterday I talked Chris into working on the grout removal in the bathroom. It didn't take him long to agree with me that the HCL didn't do a darn thing (except stink up the place!). But then he had a great idea....and got out the Dremmel. A rarely used device in my house, so sometimes we forget we have it. Anyway, after much trial on an extra tile, he found just the right tip to take the grout off but not damage the tile. I went in to check things out and after showing me how easy (but tedious) the job was....he attempted to poke me in the butt with the Dremmel.

I jumped away and glared at him that he would "rip a hole in my favorite pajamas!" (Hey, it's vacation here, remember?) He obviously didn't believe me and to prove his point stuck the Dremmel on the side of his shirt. It immediately ate the shirt up, wrapping the whole thing around it until it just couldn't pull anymore. He just looked at me with a look of shock and amazement and exclaimed "I didn't think it could DO that!" Sure enough, once he got his shirt unwrapped from the monster Dremmel, there was a big hole in it.

Anyway, since I stuck him with the suck job and it was a beautiful day, Celia and I went outside to work. And by beautiful day, let me just say I could not have made a better day myself! Somewhat cool and breezy so I didn't even have to get sweaty when doing my yard work, but sunny enough to be pleasant.

I got all the weed eating done (on a side note, my arms do not hurt when I use that thing, but for about an hour afterwards, I seem to lose all fine motor skills in my hands and arms....does this happen to anyone else or is it just me being weird?)
Then I got to spread more mulch on the last area of my side garden that needs it. I don't know if I've shared the mulch saga with you.....but we have a mountain of free mulch right outside out fence that needs spread. See, there's a guy down the street that cuts down trees for a living. He mulches them up, but has to pay a dump fee somewhere unless he can give it away to a neighbor or someone.

That's where we come in. Anyway, a few weeks ago he brought a really nice batch of hardwood mulch and dumped it off behind the fence. It makes me feel all green and environmentally conscience to use it....since it's all natural and untreated and stuff. Plus, I feel all radical, bucking corporate America and spitting in the face of Walmart and their overpriced bags of mulch. But only in the backyard. I love my black much in the front of the house so out there I'm an ozone sucking capitalist pig.....but in the backyard we're all green and earthy.

Now, this fresh, natural mulch looks great, but it has a few drawbacks. First, it's still decomposing. Which means it's got this....smell about it. Not as bad as manure or anything, but still, not all that pleasant. But only around the big rotting pile. Once you spread it out, it seems to dissipate the stink.

The other thing, it's hot. It seriously puts off some heat. Our good friends down the street put clear plastic over theirs. Between the trapped heat of the sun and the heat put off by the chemical breakdown process, you could seriously burn your hand on that thing. No joke. It steams and everything!



I'm afraid of spontaneous combustion, so I leave ours uncovered. Plus it helps keep those pesky neighbor kids out of the yard!

My mom tells me that it's really not good to put that fresh, still decomposing mulch on growing plants because it uses nitrogen that my plants need. I tell her to shush up with that science talk before my plants hear it. See, they don't seem to know the difference and are doing fine with my free mulch. All I need now is for someone to clue them in on the fact that they could whither and wilt and demand the store treated stuff (or that I patiently weed around them for a whole year and spread the mulch next year).

Here are some more pictures of my plants, doing well!

My monstrous pumpkin plants. Look at this guy! He's huge! Reaching out into the driveway even!



And in the mornings, they are covered with the huge, gorgeous yellow-orange flowers.



These are my peas that were so teeny tin y when I put them out....they've taken up every inch on the tee-pea I made them. I'm definitely going for a bigger one next year.



And here is an actual pea pod. Actual food, that could be eaten by people, growing in my garden. Amazing.



This is the final section that I finished laying down week block fabric and mulching yesterday. You can see a slight color difference between the new and what has been out for a few weeks, but after a few days of sun and rain it will all look the same. There's a baby Clematis at the foot of that trellis. It saw in a box in my kitchen for well over a month, but still looked a little green to I tossed it out there on a whim. We'll see how that works!



Here are some bright new arrivals in the front of my yard. Some lily thing...



And some summer crocus-y thing. I don't remember exactly what they are, because I didn't write it down. But I think they are pretty! And even better, they will be back next year. And multiply!



Alright. So here are the as promised photos of the front. Isn't it awful? I've got all this disorganized stuff in the back (those spikes are Gladiolas....I think they'll be fabulous when they bloom ) and nothing but bare mulch in the front. Some neighbors down the street have a beautiful patch of poppies that I'm in envy of....but those are quite tall and really don't belong in the front.....


Thoughts? Ideas?

Vacation

Well, Chris finally took some time off work! After I got over my brief panic that maybe hell was freezing over or Armageddon was coming.....we settled down to do some work.

See, our (my) big plan is that we use this week to get a bunch of home improvement stuff done...plus do some fun local things later in the week. Jordan has school through tomorrow afternoon, so we have some time to kill around the house.

Yesterday went really well. I got the ceiling painted in the new bathroom, he put up some of the lights. I got a LOT of weeding done and cut back my daisies. I have some new flowers to show you. I know some of you are wondering why I only give close ups...well....while I have some really nice individual flowers, the big picture is still a work in progress. I'll take some large shots and share with you the sad shape of of my gardens overall soon. My big problem in the backyard is that the daisies are in the front of the bed (they are too big to be there, I'm moving them next year) and the peas have grown too big for for the cute little tee-pea I built. I just couldn't fathom them being so big when they were seedlings, so I went with the 4 ft bamboo. Should have gone for the 8 ft!

The front is just kind of unorganized chaos.....which isn't a total bad thing except there are spaces of nothing but mulch, and spaces of total flower overpopulation. Give me a few years and I think it will look nice. Luckily my neighbors aren't all uppity about things like curb appeal!

Today I stuck Chris with the nasty job of removing grout from tiles. I've been working at it a little each day, but it's a messy job. Frankly I'd like to take a shower today and stay clean for awhile.

Here's my aside on laying tile. It's pretty easy. BUT, don't, under any circumstances, let that grout dry on your tiles. Start wiping right away. That's what I did with the floor (you know, after I learned on the walls how fast it dries!) and it came out beautiful. But the walls, we were too slow. And now the grout won't come off. I've found the best way it so scrape at it with a wooden shim (won't damage your tile like metal might). I've got most of the grout lines themselves looking pretty good things way. Chris is not fond of this method and is trying ti remove anything left in the center of the tiles with a grout remover. Hydrocloric acid. Very stinky. No thanks.

We did take the kids our to the rail-trail again last night and walked 2 miles on the MCTrail. It includes a really nice tunnel. Celia actually walked (okay, ran) over a mile of it! Anyway, I forgot the camera, but I promise (PRO-MISE!) that I'll take it next time to share with all of your the beauty of the northern WV rail-trails.....or more likely, the beauty of my kids playing on the rail-trail.

Domesticated Flowers

They are by no means wild. These are some very tame and well-behaved. They are also examples of survival of the fittest. I am not a gardener. No green thumbs here.


This is the Gerbera daisy in a flower pot on the porch. I love this thing....but it guzzles water like nothing I have seen before! It's also in need of some more Miracle Grow...it's looking a little dull.


These are the roses in the front of my house. They were here when we moved in 8 years ago. That alone tells you how hardy they really are!



This flower is a favorite of my husband. It's called a Red Hot Poker. He can't even look at the thing without snickering. Enough said.


This is my new favorite. It's called Nasturium. Or something like that. Anyway, my friend told me that you just throw the seeds down anywhere...preferably in the wort soil you can find. And they will grow. And don't you love it....I threw them down and they grew.



These are my daisies. They were my very first gardening triumph. I started them from seed about 5 years ago . They've been divided and transplanted many times. And next year they will move again. For some strange reason I planted them right in the front of my new bed. You know, completely blocking anything else from sight. Next year I plan to use some with tall grasses at the front of my porch and move the rest to the back of this bed.

Remember these guys? I started them from seed back in April...and here they are doing well in my garden. I'm so pleased!

Here are the pumpkins:



And the peas:



Lastly, this is a box of cactus on my front porch. Someone dropped them off a few weeks ago....and I have nothing to do with them. I don't want to put them in the yard because, well, the kids will probably fall in them. I'm afraid to throw them out in the trash because I'm afraid the trashmen might get poked. So there they sit. Celia picked one up last week and I got to remove the teeny little spines that you can't even hardly see. It was fun.


Notice that even though they've been sitting in a box for three weeks, with no soil or water, they are still growing. New little buds all over this bugger.

If it's not One Thing, It's Another.

I swear. It's impossible to get anything done around here!

After hosing out a basement rug, I made my mid-afternoon cup of tea. I got out the cream and big clumps fall into my tea.

Ack. I just drank that this morning! After a few brief moments of hysteria I realize it's not rotten cream (after all, it's CoffeeMate. Which is non-dairy...non....everything. I don't know what that stuff is...but it sure is good in tea!) it's frozen cream.

Something is going very wrong with our fridge. I've been noticing normal things (like the ice tea) getting some ice in them, so I've been turning the temp down. As of this morning, it was on 1. That's as low as it can go and still be on. When I got my frozen cream out, it was still cooling. I turned it off, then back on....and it stopped cooling. Hopefully it will start up again when it needs to.

That fridge is not very old either. Maybe 6 years? Worthless junk. I have a chest freezer in the basement that is at LEAST 40 years old. It works great. I guess they just don't make things like they used to.

We also had another impromptu project this weekend. The bathroom fan part of the fan/light fixture in the upstairs bathroom (the only usable one for just a few more weeks!) burnt up. We were afraid the motor might still be working and it could start a fire.

So off we went to Lowes to pick up a new one. I was a little excited, because I've secretly always hated that ugly thing. Chris wasn't so excited. He knew that he's be installing the thing since I don't deal with electricity. Plus I'm too short for overhead work.

We make our way to the "Bathroom Light and Fan" aisle and Jordan commenced pushing ALL the buttons and giving his opinion on which sounds best. The baby was amused. Chris and I then had to argue over a fan.

He wanted one just like the fugly thing we were taking out of there. There most basic model costs $36, but was no use to us since it was a low flow fan. That window has no window, so the fan is the only ventilation. The next fugly model was $56. The very nice modern fixture I was eying up cost $88. Chris said there was no way he was spending that much money on a bathroom light, we would get the fugly one. I said that there was no way I was wasting almost $60 on something that looks like it had been pulled out of a double wide when for $30 more we could have something that looked decent. He saw reason in that statement and we got the nice one. Understated and modern. Not trailer trash.

Later in the evening I took the kids out in the yard to garden and he got to work. 90 minutes later (after only one consultation from me!) we had a very nice, new, working bathroom light and fan. And three gouges in the vinyl floor. Chris has no clue how those got there. They definitely did NOT get there when he threw the old fixture to the floor in a manly display of anger when he finally wrestled it from the ceiling.

In any case, I'll be shopping for some new bathroom rugs this week. I'm going to re-do that bathroom in jungle frogs for the kids(mostly because the Frog Pod that I can't stop thinking abot!), so I'm thinking Lily Pad rugs. The search is on!

Curb Appeal!

Okay guys, I need some feedback! I need some ideas.

I've spent a lot of time this spring working on the outside of the house. I think it's finally starting to look decent!

Now I need to do something about our deck. It's a great deck, was a big selling point when we bought the house. It's basically like having an extra room on our house during the summer months. I haven't gotten all my cushions and curtains out because it's been a workshop while finishing the bathroom. Tile saws are messy, but we're almost done with that portion of the project!

I spent a good amount of time figuring out how to get my morning glories to climb our wooden fence. I love the look of hanging baskets and flowers on a fence....but let's face it...those can be pricey. I'm really trying to save money this year. So I got a $1 seed packet of morning glories, wrapped the posts in string (which will hopefully get hidden quickly as the vine grows!). Then I noticed we would have a problem when trying to trim around the fence.....no way to weed eat the grass, but not the flowering vine. So I cut plastic planters and attached them to the posts with tack nails, then planted the Morning Glories inside of those. They have no bottoms, to the roots can grow down and out, but the vines won't get cut with the trimmer. Here's what I ended up with:




My new conundrum is what to do around the deck. The lattice is old and falling apart....plus it's a pretty dated look. I need things that are relatively inexpensive, and pretty maintenance free. Kind of impossible, but here's that I'm thinking. Also, I must get rid of the dirty white stone. I don't like them around the porch at all. Depending on how I'm feeling, I may scrub it up nice and use if to fill the center of the driveway. Maybe. I'm not really fond of it.

Front of the porch. The porch is off to the side of our house, this part is visible from the street. I'm thinking some more of my tall grasses here, and more daisies. I just love that stuff. Plus, one day, far into the future, we hope to have a hot tub out there. Sorry, but this deck is just MADE for a hot tub. The grasses would offer a little more privacy most of the year.


Side of the porch. This side borders on our crabby old neighbor's house and gets NO direct sunlight. I'm thinking hostas here. The big, dark green ones, with just a few of the smaller, more ornamental ones throw in.


Back of the porch. Here's where I need your help. I just don't know.



As you can see, there's really not a lot of room between the porch and the swingset. So I can't have anything (like those big green hostas) that takes up a lot of space.

This is also the part of the porch that has the most lattice. You can see under it, and it's nasty in there. They covered the small, old (brick and tile) porch with plastic before building the deck over it. The plastic is disintegrating. There are also a few strange pipes sticking out and a rusty old dumptruck way under there. Both of my kids have wanted that nasty thing, I have no clue why. I'm not real into crawling under there myself to get it and trash it, so it's stayed under there. And don't get me started on the Virginia Creeper. THE CREEPER.... (sorry, you must have watched Scooby Doo as a child to really get that one)

I'm thinking I'm going to have to replace the lattice here. And maybe just mulch. If I can find a vine that can be well contained (ie, doesn't try to take over my whole porch) maybe I'll put some of that in, or maybe just some sturdy ground cover. But I don't know. It gets very little sun. What do you think?

** Sorry about those pictures! I didn't get around to taking them until twilight.

An Impromptu Project

After a perfectly peaceful evening of family fun in the backyard, we all tumbled in the house and got into our "calming down for bed" routines. Chris took the baby up to the bath and Jordan and I were just laying around in the living room.

About 8:20, the doorbell rings. It's hand-in-the-pants boy (with both hands in view today) and his older (like, I'm thinking 14) brother. They want to know if Jordan can come out and play. Uh, no. I don't even know you. Plus, bedtime at my house is 9:00.

Five minutes later it rings again. This time it's little dude (who I'm grudgingly starting to like), wanting to borrow Jordan's bike. Uh, no. That's just not something we lend out.

So I go in the kitchen to make my evening cup of tea and glance out the window to find hand-in-the-pants boy and his brother rolling around in our yard.

I walked out on the porch and said "Um, you boys need to go home. You can't play out here when we aren't in the yard" (Or, like, even when we are because I don't like you)

Blank Stares. Nothing.

"Seriously, go home. You can't play in here when we aren't out. It's not proper!"

This is met with the exaggerated sighs and arms in the air as they huff out of my yard. I'm sorry, I don't put up with that attitude from my own kids who I know and love....much less some random brats who think I'm running a public playground.

Then I realize they have drug out a bunch of our toys and looped the swings around the playset.

So now I'm heated. Furious. I make Chris empty out the Honda and find a Lowes that's open late. I retrieve some fence sections and other gate making materials in short order. Those poor Lowes guys. They're trying to close up shop and I'm making them shove fence sections into our tiny CRV. They did it with a smile though.

So here's our weekend project. Saturday all that got done was Chris drilling a hole in the concrete of the driveway, filling it with epoxy, and sticking a threaded rod in it. (The epoxy hat to set up for 12 hours) Then we played in the yard.

Jordan and I decorated the swingset with chalk and he practiced his ninja/monkey moves.



Celia didn't sleep well and was in an all around great mood!



I weeded a bunch. Here's the current state of my garden. I was inspired by Barbie Girl and my Turkey Mama friend Lee and planted tomatoes and basil in some of the driveway pots last week.

Then Jordan banged his hip on a beam and we retired to the house.

Oh yeah. Here's another reason for the gate. Hand-in-the-pants boy had a big, mean, barking dog that they leave tied up outside all of the time. Why would you get a dog and do that to him? Anyway, he is not a happy camper and I'm just waiting for the day he breaks loose and goes on a mauling the neighbors frenzy. Not in my yard puppy.


Plus he barks. All. Day. Long. Unfortunately my gate isn't going to do crap for that.

Sunday, after we got Celia down for her nap, the real work started. We got one section of fence hung, then Chris had to cut the top of the rod off at the right height.



Yow. Those sparks were hot and I had to move. How do you like my hubby's work face? Home improvement makes him crabby.



Then we got the other section up and put the latches on it. But we messed up and couldn't close the gate, so we had to take them off and start again. Re-do!



Oh, and my friend Heather made me this super cute tool-belt. Isn't it the greatest thing ever? The only tools I keep in it are the phone and a pair of scissors, but I feel very domestic and handy when wearing it. Hubby suggested once that I lose my pants and just wear the toolbelt....but I think he was under the influence of the ghetto rap blaring from hand-in-the-pants boy's house. I let him know in no uncertain terms that wasn't going to happen.



There is is. A finished gate. Take that you miscreant punks.


Stay outta my yard!

Where's a Walmart When You Need It?

Yesterday Celia and I were gardening maniacs! We got the pumpkin patch all ready, weeded the back flower garden, weeded and planted the front gardens. It was a ton of work!

We also had to take a walk down the alley to find some "porcupines" (pinecones) for Celia to play with. She loves those things.

Anyway, we called Chris and asked him to stop at the new Walmart near his office on the way home and pick up some mulch. He came home at 5:45 empty-handed.

He couldn't find Walmart.

The enormous, huge, SuperWalmart that sits right off the interstate. Nowhere to be found.

So I sent him right back out to our Walmart for mulch. I NEEDED that stuff. I didn't want ot have to weed again in a few weeks.

He got there and called me to inform me that they were out of the Cypress mulch I had requested.

His first suggestion was the red mulch. (Ewww...NO, not the RED mulch)

So we settled on black mulch.



Turns out, I really like the black mulch! I think it looks really good next to my house. I hadn't noticed before, but the cypress mulch just kind of blended in...the black is a nice accent out front. I'll need to get more for the back gardens as I only mulched around my pumpkins.

Pumpkins, in action (well, not so much). Watch them grow and take root!



Here's my little tee-pea (ha ha ha, cracks me up everytime! Me and Jordan....) I built for the pea plants. The are slowly but surely climbing up the thing. I'll post a better picture on that soon. Ignore the gutter falling off my neighbor's garage.


Now that I have the front all mulched....I need to do something about the railings. They where white when we moved in....but needed repainting. I decided that they would look better black, so I started painting one black. Then I ran out of paint. And I quit.

So we have one white rail and one black rail. Very white trash tacky.



Chris thinks we should leave them, as a sign of how we don't care about color. One is white, one is black, and we love them both the same.

I think the black mulch settles it though. The railings need to be white.

I'm not being racist here. We have all this nice looking black mulch. We need white railings for a little diversity.

What do you think?

Oh, and can someone please tell all those dandelions that they have been sprayed, it's time to hurry up and die now?!?!

Riding the Wave of Productivity

We managed to get a ton of stuff done over the weekend, and I'm still getting stuff done today.

Saturday morning Jordan's soccer team (I'm coaching) had the first game of the season. The boys played really well and I was very proud of them. We lost the game, but most of their shots were luck shots....and I think we can avoid those next time.

Then we took the kids to Dairy Creme Corner (I'm sure I've blogged about this place...but I can't find it. So maybe I just thought about blogging about it. In any case, if you ever come through Fairmont you MUST go there) and got the kids some ice cream. Jordan can finally finish a small cone, and Celia was a glorious sticky mess after her baby cone.

We came home, put her down for nap, and Hubby and I commenced to attacking our overgrown, weed ridden yard.

Wouldn't you know it, that mower started right up for him. On the first pull. Stupid sexist piece of machinery.

He cut the grass, I did all the edging. Then...umm...I don't remember what happened. We did some other stuff outside that needed doing. Celia got up and we walked over to the football field and hit some golf balls....then some dinner and more yard work.

I chided hubby into helping me clear the spot of our soon to be pumpkin patch. He was not into the clearing of weeds thing, made a rather tactless comment that he has begged I not share. I glared at him and sent him to play Frisbee with the boy.

Celia is turning into a real helper in the garden. I gave her a bucket and her little watering can and she carefully watered every patch of dirt out there.

Sunday was church, more yard work. We had another bush to remove...I let hubby use the axe this time....I think he enjoyed it. Then we took the kids over to play in his parent's yard as ours had fertilizer on it. Put the kids to bed and put up some tile.

All in all, a pretty momentous weekend in our usually slovenly lives.

So today I did my best to stay on the wave. I did the whole "move all the furniture, roll up the rugs" mopping of the hardwood floors thing that only gets done about 4 times a year. Usually 3 of them during the spring/summer. There just something about beautiful warm weather that makes me want to throw open the windows, turn on the fans, and mop my floors.

Celia and I also planted some more seeds. Peppermint, Chamomile, Sage, and some Morning Glories. She watered our little baby pumpkin plants (yes, I know. I will most likely have pumpkins in August now....someone told me I should start them so I did. No big deal...we'll have pumpkin pie in August and I'll plant more for October). She's very cute and careful with her watering...and talks to each and every one as she makes she they get the right amount of water.



Oh yeah baby. Check out that pink tile on the wall and the brown linoleum floor. Trendy. I'm starting that room (on a much smaller scale) as soon as we finish the bathroom.

Also, will someone get that girl a ponytail holder already?

Tomorrow we hit the yard as soon as the boys are gone. Hopefully we'll get those pumpkins in the ground and plant my Clematis.

"Honey, Don't Stand Still Too Long...

....or your butt crack will get stuck shut."

Huh? This is what my husband says to me as I'm putting up tile in the bathroom (that's right, after 4 months we're FINALLY ready to tile the shower).

"Don't stand still too long or your butt crack will get stuck shut"

"What the heck are you talking about?" What the heck IS he talking about? This is just another example of my, working hard, and him, staring at my butt.

"Umm, you've got some of that white goop (mastic) right...well...on your butt crack. I don't want that to freeze shut on you."

Thank hon. Thanks. We should probably let everyone know this is a hazard of laying tile....butt crack adhesion.

He makes it sound like I'm laying tile in the nude....let me assure you I'M NOT!

I did make a very bad choice and wore my new black yoga pants....boy I hope that stuff comes out!

I did have him take some pictures of my butt...but honestly, it looked a little too fluffy to post on the internet. So use your imagination. And make it look good for goodness sake!

Anyway, here are some harmless pictures of us working in the bathroom.

Here I am, squished into a little corner of our little tiny bathroom (5x8). Take note of how I level up that bottom row if tile. That's right, a couple shims, some craft sticks. It's a new technique. I'm thinking of patenting it.



I got the bottom row on and straight and much of it up. My knees were getting stiff from being folded for suck a long time....plus Chris was itching to do something other than hand me tile. So I gave him a turn.




He quickly decided that he was "no good at spreading the goop" (his words, not mine). So I put the mastic on the wall and he stuck the tile up there.

Just like Celia and her stickers.

Die Mower, Die!

Is there anything more frustrating than a lawn mower that won't start? You push the little button to prime the engine exactly 3 times, just like it says. You pull the cord, and nothing.

Not a darn thing.

You pull and pull and pull and pull and pull.

And nothing.

So you push that button a few more times. Still nothing.

You drag your son out to help you hold the bar down while you pull the cord.

Still nothing.

That darn thing never did start. Even after I kicked it.

It did work just fine a few week ago. It had been parked on the porch all winter. Hubby decided he needed to start it "just to make sure it still worked."

While it was sitting on the foam puzzle mat for the playhouse.

Oh it worked alright. Chopped that mat right up.


Since I couldn't mow the lawn, I decided I would do things backward and try out my new trimmer.

My mom send me a gift card for a new trimmer. She told me how much she loved her electric one and after some discussion I decided that's what I would get. I was initially worried that the battery would die or make it weak, but she assured me it worked on her (huge, enormous, country) yard.

So I picked up this Black & Decker GrassHog Trimmer Edger. Fancy Fancy.

I've never actually used any kind of trimmer before....I was afraid of my father in law's....it requires a strange combination of oil and gas to run. Plus you have to knock the thing repeatedly against the ground to make the string come out. No thank you.

Now this new wondrous piece of yard equipment...the string feeds automatically. It comes with two little rechargeable batteries. Easy as pie.

I'm not great on planning in advance, so the battery didn't get fully charged before I yanked it off there to try the thing out.

It was so great! I love it! I got my whole backyard done (front yard has to wait until nap time tomorrow). Then I'm going to use that edger thing and edge everything. My walks, my gardens. Everything. My yard is going to be as neat and trim as the Catholic church up the street.

Once I get rid of all those stinkin' dandelions that is.

I also planted both my strawberry plants and my peas. I know, it's late. But we've been having some really un-spring like weather up here and I didn't want my little plants to freeze.

The strawberries....I'm not so emotionally attached to them. I bought a little box of plants at Lowes for 3.97. If they grow, great. If they don't....eh, we'll try next year.

But my peas....my baby peas that I've nurtured from seeds. The first seeds EVER to grow in my house into actual plants that could be planted in the ground. I'm so scared for them.

I built them a cute little tee-pea (get it?) with a bamboo and string trellis to climb up. Then I planted them out there and left them to fend for themselves. Wind, rain, hungry cats, grabby kids. It's just not safe out there. The backyard can be a very scary place for peas.