June 2nd

seriously, it's already the second of June?
I'm not quite sure where the last 3o days went,
but I'd like them back, please.
I was meaning to tell y'all about our visit with Miss Ree.
And I was meaning to tell y'all about the tulips.
And I was meaning to update y'all about how our grass grew.
And I meant to tell y'all about a ton of other things....
But somehow the calendar won.
I feel like the calendar is kicking my butt, actually.
Monday marked our second anniversary,
and today I am closer to 30 than I am to 20.
Time is flying by, but we are enjoying it.
The other evening we were looking through our picture archives from the last two years, mainly at the progress of the yard.

Here, Cory is mowing the lawn on Memorial Day weekend, 2008
(actually he was just stirring up dust trying to keep the weeds down).

and here I am mowing our lawn with our new Honda mower, same weekend 2 years later (ok, really I'm just posing with the new mower before mowing the lawn...but I did mow it!)
We discussed who got to mow it for the first time, from here on out it will be who has to mow it...and I think I know how that will turn out ;)

We've still got a little bit of work to do with the bricks on the edge of the patio, but here's how it looked as of Sunday:

Since then, Cory got my big blue stripped umbrella down from the attic of the garage and hung a string of outdoor lights around the corner. I could sit and watch the birds and hang out all day back there.

Here is a look at how it has evolved over the past 2 years or so....

july 2007 - back before we knew a patio space even existed

may 2008 - unburying the patio, cutting back a little of the green monster

feb 2009 - cutting more of the green monster and tidying the rest of the yard


may 2009 - discovering more HUGE glacial rocks and removing stuff over the hill


july 2009 - rockery in place, BBQ pad & stumps removed, everything is cleared out for the most part

Then we took the rest of the summer off. It's funny when you look through the folders of files and it says "wakeboarding/wakesurfing/on the water/more wakeboarding..." It was too hot for any real yard work I suppose.

We resumed work early this spring, as soon as the ground was thawed. On our to-do-list in a nutshell:

• remove stump from shed and repair foundation & wall.
• cement work (a few different projects in different areas).
• dig trenches for irrigation.
• install irrigation system.
• level & till up the soil in the yard.
• rake & drag to prep for grass seed.
• build raised garden beds & haul in soil.
• haul in base gravel & sand, and lay pavers for patio.
• cut pavers, set pavers.
• ask ourselves 852 times why we made the decision to extend the patio with pavers instead of just pouring cement?
• dig in bricks to edge pavers.
• mortar in bricks so pavers don't shift.
• admire all the hard work that went into laying the dang pavers and be thankful for the decision we made to extend the patio with pavers instead of just pouring cement.
• plant stuff and watch it grow.
• sit back and relax.
• oh, and mow the lawn every week or so.

We are pretty much at the end of that list, and it feels oh-so-good.