Final day!

 

 

 

 

It doesn't feel like 2 weeks have gone by already! But the clean up, clear out overgrowth project is done! Mom wanted a clean slate of rock and grasses with lots of low maintenance to start from.   She is planning a few tweakings of her own and adding a few more pieces.... but the hard heavy work is DONE! I think it looks great! The back water feature looks beautiful, (you can't see the rug) and We ate lunch on the back deck for the first time since she moved in.  

Day Five

 Arborvitae's brought down the property line, bottom barrier for rock that is coming.

   

Arborvitae for the backyard to create privacy screen.

 

 Pond & water feature going in. Carpet? We all said "What?" Apparently it protects the plastic liner from the rocks.  After the concrete is dry, they will cut out the carpet.  They say we won't even see it. 

I'm going to look to make sure. LOL!

Pathway coming soon!

  Building it up to concrete it in, Creating the flow of water.

 

Boulders and weed barrier for the front yard, placement is not finished!

Hope ya'll enjoy the transformation!

Day Three

 It just amazes me how different it looks with the wisteria and big bushes gone.  

The lattice work is demolished!

 Back Deck, all grossness gone, hole for the water feature dug. 

 Trenches dug for the sprinklers and electricity.

 Back yard looks so open now, It's really not very wide.

 Oh the wonders of a little back hoe.. I want one!

 Getting ready for Pond.

This was Day Three of clean up, clear out. Getting ground prepped for sprinkers and lights.

Mom J's Landscape Remodel-Day One

Hi Shanan & Rusty,
So I wanted to document Mama J's yard transformation.  They say it will take two weeks! This was day one and the men from Forest Landscape got to WORK! John and I went and salvaged some Hostas and ferns and some cottage stone for our yard.  Basically everything goes.  The yard was bare at the end of Day one! Check the pics!!

 Front Yard Before

 Decision making, or what stays where?

 Lattice by Driveway

 To the back yard

 Back yard corner

 Thru the gate from the front yard, turned around and looking back.

 This is all going!

 Front and south? side

 Front walkway, Pond in front is full of leaves.

 Backyard view from deck

 side yard going to front again. You are not going to believe the ending!

 Root removal

 2 hours later

 Used to be where she stored the garbage cans.

 John demolished the lattice work!

 After 6 hours, this was the front yard!

 To the right of the driveway!

 back corner-after

 Water feature going here,,,

Mother's Day Cards

 

This was my mom's card! I forgot to take a picture of the inside!

 

This was Dani's card, I got inspired! :)

 Her two sons names and birthdates on the tags.

 This was my Mother-in-Law's card!

Been Awhile

Ok, so I am having fun at my job, sue me! lol.  I have been also enjoying weekends off like normal people.  I just finished the first wedding event at center since I was hired.  What a blast.

So I have a beef:  The new biggest trend is this "Gluten Free diet" and how much better people feel on it.  Every time some says to me, "Oh I can't have that piece of pie, cake, cookie, frickin banana or fresh snapped green bean, I can't have gluten." I want to scream.  Seriously people, just moderate what you eat.   Some people are allergic to peanuts, but that sends them to the hospital.  I googled gluten/allergies and not once did I see that it is life threatening.  Ie: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gluten-free_diet

I just don't get it.  Yes, I will probably end up with diabetes in a few years, so i snack on apples instead of potato chips.  I drink milk and soda pop. I also drink 2-3 bottles of water a day.  I eat protein, carbs, & vegies at most every dinner. None of that has killed me yet.  Gluten free, my a**!

Wikipedia says "The exact level at which gluten is harmless is uncertain and controversial. A recent systematic review tentatively concluded that consumption of less than 10 mg of gluten per day is unlikely to cause histological abnormalities, although it noted that few reliable studies had been done." AND "People wishing to follow a completely gluten free diet must also take into consideration the ingredients of any over-the-counter or prescription medications and vitamins. Also, cosmetics such as lipstick, lip balms, and lip gloss may contain gluten and need to be investigated before use. Glues used on envelopes may also contain gluten."

The more I read about it, the more angry I get.  FOR REAL? You may not be able to lick envelopes anymore because they may have gluten.   Now, If anyone out there is deathly allergic to all things containing gluten, I apologize if this offends you.  I would never bring a live yellow jacket up to someone who was allergic to bees to see if it would sting them and they would go into shock.  But this is my blog and I can vent how I want to. 

If you don't enjoy sweets or cake, no one will think the worse of you if you say you don't like cake. I personally love brownies for my birthday cake instead.   If you don't like lettuce because it tastes wierd and has an icky texture than that is your opinion.  However to say you "can't eat that, because it has gluten" is being so overused that I want to scream.... just say you will pass on the cookies and pie! No one will think anything worse of you and you won't be falling in with the fads and trends of this new falutin' gluten free stupid, head smacking, ridiculous, DIET!
Now that I have told you how I really feel, Have a wonderful Mother's Day!





 

Blah Blah Blog

So there you are... going down the road.. and in the midst of laundry, dishes, grocery shopping, 4 legged kid feeding, litter box cleaning, house vacuuming, all day working, your husband loses his job.
 
Yikes! What the hell do you do? Well, You don't yell at him for one. What good would that do? You don't speak to him for awhile until you are not angry at him anymore.. Then you make Honey do Lists- Like Monday, Make bed, do dishes, let dog out to pee, take a shower, take your pills, make yourself lunch while I am working. Oh and he made dinner all by himself the first night.  Tuesday's list - you forgot to write, so you came home and made dinner, ignored the laundry still sitting in the washer, he'll find out that it starts to stink  if you leave it too long and then you have to rewash it.  Ate dinner and watched the dvr episode of Glee. Went to bed. But then the next week comes...Now the roles are reversed, he sleeps in when you leave for work, he does the laundry, when you come home the bed is made, dishes are done. Things are getting done... but being a woman, and having done ALL those things for your entire life...its hard to adjust that someone else is doing them.  The tasks are not done exactly like I would do them, but still he did a pretty good job of it.

So while I feel like the husband with a wife at home, I guess you could say that I am dealing with it better than I would have expected a first.  Now a couple of months has gone by and I am past the honeymoon stage at my job, over the first big event we put on.   Things slow down to mundane at work too.  I am so ready for spring, summer, anything with sunshine and no more rain. I want to dig in the dirt, plant flowers, spray off the moldy deck, vacuum out the truck, clean out the shed. 

Oh wait, no I want to be 100 lbs thinner and head to the beach, not work for a week, drink mai tais all day even tho I hate the taste of rum, just because of the hot buff, gay cabana hottie that keeps bringing them to me.  Then I want to go to the casino with 10K in my hand and win 10 million and come home, bulldoze my house down and build a new one, never have to work for the rest of my life and start a boot camp farm for troubled kids who are having disciplinary problems at home.

Ha! Aptly named: Musings!

Night friends!

Love my Fred

So here is the Valentine's day card I made my husband.  We sing the song to each other all the time. It's our thing. lol