Happy Friday!

Good Morning!

I'm finishing up a busy week (wait - aren't they ALL busy weeks?!) and have lots to do, but I wanted to do a quick post to say hello and wish you all a great weekend!

Travis has been sick all week but is feeling better now - hooray! Mum and Dad are in Aruba on vacation (MUST be nice!) and I'm upset about three Idol issues...

1) Allison got voted off (I was SO hoping for an Allison-Adam finale!)

2) No Doubt performed and it was... bad. I used to love me some No Doubt back in the day before Gwen Stefani sold out...

and 3) Paula Abdul lip synched. I mean really, you're judging a singing competition and you choose to BLATANTLY lip sync on your first ever performance on the show? Lame. You look good for your age Paula and you sure can bust a move, but geez - sing already.

I don't have tons of time to write, but encourage you to visit me in some other spots around the blogosphere for some good juju...

We are celebrating our niece Lily's first birthday party this weekend - and I have been busy crafting away and getting things planned for the party. If you're so inclined, check out my craft blog HERE to see what I've been up to!

It's been a great week at work - very productive. We've had a lot of great groups of students in the building participating in workshops and classes. Check out my work blog HERE to see how Grandville Avenue Arts & Humanities is transforming lives in the Grandville Avenue neighborhood.

Stop back by over the weekend for photos from Lily's birthday party! Hugs to you!

Front Yard Update

Are you sick of hearing about my gardening adventures yet? No? Okay! : ) I planted some summer bulbs and some annuals out front last night.


The house looks hilarious from the front right now because this one little bed looks AWESOME, and the rest still looks like trash! See...?


Here are some close-up's of the flowers... just for fun...




One bed down... now it's time to tackle... THIS! Wish us luck!

Roehm's vs. the Back Yard (and the front, too!) - Part 2

So the tearing up of the back yard continued through Saturday evening, and the boys managed to remove ALL of the brick and fieldstone, see?!

BEFORE


AFTER

Note: Apparently I didn't take a final photo of the yard ripped up. After I posted this I realized there's still a lot of field stone in this photo. Since then, all that has been removed. Good job, Travis and Seth!

On SUNDAY we tackled the front yard - well, a small section of it. We decided to begin with the side bed that runs along the driveway, I didn't take a before shot of it (what was I thinking?!) but it looked a lot like the rest of the front of the house does, like this...


We did a lot of digging out of old plants, weeds, etc. and then removed some excess dirt. We used some of the old stone and brick we had dug up to re-shape the bed, left a small existing shrub in place, and laid down new top soil (we actually need to pick up some more of that tonight to finish it off)


I also snatched up a great deal at Lowes on some geranium pots for the front steps. I love me some geraniums!


And yes, the steps desperately need painting. One thing at a time!

In non-gardening news, there's not much to report. Travis is under the weather with an upper respiratory bug, but at least it's not the swine flu!!

Note: I am so, so tired of hearing about the swine flu already. I understand it's an issue, but geez - talk about over-the-top media coverage...

Roehm's vs. the Back Yard - Part 1

Spring has sprung and it's time to deal with our disaster of a back yard. We've met with landscapers, come up with a design, will be replacing the fence, etc. But before the landscapers can get in and get going - we needed to rip up all of the old brick and field stone first. And by "we" I mean Trav and Seth. Thanks, Seth, for helping out!





It's really amazing all the work they have done - that's a lot of brick and stone to haul! And they're STILL going as I type. More back yard adventures coming soon...

Cookies & Beans

Here I am, resuming regular posting as promised! : )

Alison's wedding is over and done with, Spring is (sort of) on its way, and I've been in especially good spirits this week. I'm looking forward to some time at home soon, working on the house.

This week has been crazy busy so far with it being the first week in a new session of programs at the YMCA (more about that later). I've been working 8-8 most days, and am certainly looking forward to the weekend! With Trav running between both of his facilities getting lessons started he's been swamped as well - so we haven't had time for much other than work, eat, and sleep.

I did, however, want to give you an update on my seedlings...



Looking great, right? Those tall guys at the front are the green beans. They are about ready to move outside to harden off, and get planted in the next couple of weeks I think. I figure if nothing else, we're going to have ourselves some green beans this season!

We're also going to be eating a lot of cookies over the next few months...


This is only half of our stash!

A couple of girls from Trav's work were selling girl scout cookies and the combination of Trav's love for girl scout cookies and recent news reports about girl scout sales and fundraising profits being way down due to the economy this year, we ended up with about $40.00 worth of cookies! Yikes! This is not looking good for the weight watching... : )

Hope everyone is having a wonderful week!