YARD-A-POLOOZA!!!

Today is our Yard-A-Polooza! Bill and I are going to tackle all the outside house maintenance, yard work, and other such things today! Yay! I LOVE working in the yard, it is just super hard to do while watching and talking with Little Dude, so having John and Bill around the 3 of us can tag team Little Dude and get tons of work done! Whoo Hoo!! We are going to:

*Power wash the house
*Power wash the driveway
*Wash the windows
*Mow and trim the lawn
*Trim hedges and bushes
*Weed the gardens
*Plant my rose
*Spray for bugs (luckily, I can't do this job this year!)
*Spray my roses for black spot and beetle defense (or this one!! yay!)

I also got a new rose bush that I am so excited to plant-it is yellow and red striped!! COOL!!!! I have about 6 rose bushes now, and though I am pretty sure I am allergic to the rose thorns, I still love working with them and taking care of them. I love the look of blooming rose bushes. Yes, every time I get pricked with a rose thorn, I break out in an itchy red bump. Smelling roses though, and having them in the house doesn't bother me at all, so go figure, I'm weird.

I'm also super excited to teach Little Dude more words while we are messing around in the gardens. (My plan is for him to help me, hopefully it won't turn into this). His words and speaking abilities are improving by leaps and bounds everyday and I love hearing new words come out!! I also have to say he is pretty good about following direction and coming when I call, but I still get nervous in the front yard with him because of all the cars that think they need to RACE to get the the park in our neighborhood. Sigh. One day Bill and I are going to build a speed bump to slow people down. Heehee.

At any rate, I am excited to get the yard going, and if you can't tell, it is crazy early on a Saturday for me to be up-in fact, I am already showered and dressed and drinking coffee while everyone else here sleeps. For some reason I just can't sleep. I don't know if it is because of yesterday's evening events, or if it is because getting up to pee a gazillion times during the night somehow gave me energy, but at any rate, Mom is up, and I am enjoying the quiet.

A good, old fashonioned Barn Raising.....

So on Tuesday of this week my neighbors had a lot trees taken down and since they were just going to get rid of the wood bits left after the tree stumps were ground down, I decided it was a great way to get some free mulch!

Yesterday, Bill, Little Dude and I went over to start filling out our wheel barrel with some mulch for my flower garden. Then our other neighbor's son came over and started to help shovel mulch. After John got home, he came over and started helping too. Then Amy and Alan got out extra tools and their wheel barrel and an awesome pitch fork (we just had shovels) and started moving mulch as well. THEN Caroline and the kids, Cole and Keely came over to hang out and give moral support. By then Randy came over to open the gate for everyone moving wheel barrels (he had back surgery a little while ago so he couldn't do any lifting). By this time our whole little block of neighbors is helping and hanging out, all the while moving VAST amounts of mulch across the street to our yard!

We got more mulch than I had ever thought we'd get (I seriously was going to quit after getting enough for the flower garden), but with all the help, we had all of it moved in no time at all! And, even better, got to spend some really awesome quality time with all of our awesome neighbors. Alan even said after we were done that it was time to "raise the barn".

I have to say, seriously, if I ever did win the lottery, I could never move to a new house. I just couldn't leave my neighbors! And on the flip side, if a number of them start moving away, we are moving in a heartbeat. Isn't it wonderful how a great group of neighbors can make or break a neighborhood? Bill and I talked about it last night after all the fun and togetherness: we would choose this house and the sweet neighbors we have any day over an awesome new house (where toilets don't decide to flush themselves...story for another day) with bad neighbors.

No, you know what? I already have won the lottery. I have been blessed with an awesome family, a warm house, and super great neighbors that I think of as extended family. What more could anyone want?

I didn't take any pictures last night; I should've! But, here is a picture from back in Nov. of Amy, Caroline and me and our kids and Blake, Randy's son. The fire truck came to check out a reported fire in the park, which ended up being nothing, but they were so nice and let the kids explore their trucks.


Have a blessed day!

How to Garden With Kids

I got this from the April 2008 Parenting Magazine. It is so cute and so true that I just had to share it. While I read the article I was laughing out loud, so I hope you all get some good chuckles as well! Enjoy!

How to Garden with Kids
When our fantasy collides with Real Life, by Chris Jordan *Chris Jordan blogs as Notes From the Trenches on The Parenting Post at Parenting. com

1)Go to nursery and pick out heirloom tomato plants. Because heirlooms must be better, right? Surely they have survived this long because of their juicy goodness.

2) Bring plants home and unload them onto front porch.

3) Leave them sitting there until the following weekend, because buying them at the nursery was enough gardening for you.

4) The next weekend, go buy some gardening gloves.

5) Leave plants on front porch.

6) The following weekend, put on gloves and go out to plant the tomatoes. Discover a couple of shriveled-up green stems.

7) Go back to nursery and buy more heirloom tomatoes. Come home and decide to plant them right away.

8) Find a nice sunny spot for the pants and put them in the ground.

9) Feel very proud and gardener-like. Decide this might be the hobby for you after all.

10) Vow to water them every day, in keeping with your new gardener identity.

11) Two weeks later, realize that you have forgotten all about the plants.

12) Pull out hose and turn it on as quietly as possible.

13) Supersonic, bat-like hearing enables kids to hear the hose, and they come running.

14) Children beg to use the hose and promise to water the plants nicely

15) Acquiesce against better judgment.

16) Once plants are floating in a pool of muddy water, tell children to stop watering them.

17) Wrestle hose from child and get a face full of water. contemplate "accidentally" squirting child in the face.

18) Remember that the neighbors are probably watching. Turn off hose and discover children splashing in the mud.

19) Briefly consider bringing them inside to clean them off. Remember that it is only noon. And that you've already cleaned the bathtub this week.

20) Spray children off with hose in spite of their protests.

21) Remembering neighbors, say loudly, "Oh, I thought you WANTED ME TO SQUIRT YOU! I'm so sorry, OH PRECIOUS LIGHTS OF MY LIFE!"

22) Put hose away again. Discover wet children rolling in dirt.

23) Question will to live.

24) Successfully ignore them for 3.2 seconds. when they decide they've had enough of being outside, hose the children off.

25) Forget about the neighbors and yell, "If you'd STOP COVERING YOURSELVES IN MUD!..."

26) Leave hose lying across the driveway for husband to run over when he comes home from work.

27) Repeat this scenario semi-weekly until the plants finally die.

28) Buy some super-delicious tomatoes already grown by someone else who has no children, or more patience, or both.

29) Vow to remember that you are not a gardener.

30) Until Next year, when the spring air renders you amnesiac.

31) And you find yourself buying several flats of some vegetable plants, wondering how hard it could possibly be to take care of them.....


HAHAHAHH!!!! Oh my goodness, I hope you guys have a wonderful Friday and a great weekend!