While I Had A Chance.. Front Yard Spruce Up

Today I was in a great mood and spontaneously bought some fall plants for out front. I haven’t paid any attention to the front yard in a while and it showed. Everything was dead. D E A D. It’s a little soon for Halloween decorations so I knew for a while I’d have to spruce it up a little for the rest of the year.

I ended up getting a corn stalk, 2 cabbages, 2 mums and 2 pretty plants I’m not familiar with. I wanted to surprise Aidan when he got home from work and I got it done just in time. It looks much better out there now with plants that are pretty and alive! Tomorrow I plan on getting a few more things, like a fall door mat and a fall flag and maybe another mum or cabbage for the big planter. It will look even cuter tomorrow when he gets home and I’ll take a few pictures.

As far as the back yard,  everything except the roses are done for the year. I have some lavender to transplant from the front yard and will just clean up the really ugly stuff. I might get a mum or cabbage for back there too but I’m not 100% yet. As long as the front looks good (better) I am happy.

Well. That’s all I have for today. Have any of you done any fall gardening? I’m glad I finally started getting it together after 2 months lol

The Power of Paint

This weekend we finally made a move towards getting the living room and upstairs hallway repainted. I say finally because the first time I mentioned that we wanted to do this was back in March. Yeah, well.. Slow and steady wins the race, right? I’ll tell myself that :)

Anyway, we picked up the paint and Aidan got the supplies to fix this part of the wall that was destroyed by the baby gate:

When we got home from Lowes he got started on the wall repair right away! He ended up having to remove a huge section of the plaster, as well as some of the lath. It was a big messy job but he made it look easy. One part of the trim was damaged so we will have to replace it, I think there is some in an upstairs closet we can pull out, otherwise we are screwed. This house is 100 years old so they don’t really make the same stuff. We will figure it out though.

Anyway here is the wall after stage one of the repair:
After that is finished up we can prep the walls and then paint. OMG I am so excited to get this done. I’ve been here for 11 years and haven’t painted these areas since I moved in, because it is such a big job. After the walls are done I’ll move onto the stairs and trim. It’s going to look so nice in here. Or so much better anyway! I’ll update as we go and show some pictures of what the room looks like before and of course after. I also have a few ideas I want to copy so hopefully I can write about that too! Hooray for home projects, they are my favorite!

Getting My Write On

The other day I was being too hopeful in saying I’d write again the next day! And it figures now that I finally sat down to write I’d get a pop up that my computer needs to be updated and will be done automatically in XX amount of time. So annoying! I think I may have changed a setting correctly though so hopefully this thing wont just shut down on me mid-sentence.

Anyway– things here have been pretty freaking awesome in terms of the baby. He’s adjusted to the house well and everyone seems to adjusted to him. He is sleeping so awesome and I don’t want to jinx it at all so I’ll say it’s probably a fluke but he’s only woken up twice in he past two nights. Holy shit. For real, that happened. Twice :)

Henry (blog Henry — I still need to figure that out) has been a little jealous or a lot jealous but he’s doing okay. He has been stomping his feet more and yelling “I’m mad!” quite a bit but that’s to be expected. We are careful to spend extra time with him one on one but are cautious not to overdo it because a) it’s not realistic b) I don’t want him getting any ideas that he should get all the attention all the time

*computer restarting* grrrrrrr

Okay, I just logged onto the desktop! I always forget I have this thing!

Where was I? Oh yeah, Henry is being jealous but he does like his brother enough to give him lots of kisses and want to hold him at least once or twice a day and I think that’s a great start. The big kids aren’t jealous or at least they aren’t acting out this week like I thought maybe they would. They’ve been calm and out of trouble since the house party night (as they should be) but I guess I was expecting the worst as that’s all I’ve been getting from them for the better part of the past two years.

Regina is starting a Cosmetology course at the local vocational school in the fall and I received a bill for the kit she needs. Over $400. Ugh. I am now trying to figure out how to pay for that. She’s not Aidan’s daughter so I don’t want to ask him for that although I know he’d pay it, but I want to figure it out on my own. Also her Senior portrait proofs came in and need to be ordered and they are running over $250+ for packages and that’s the smallest sized packages. This year is going to be expensive. Sigh.

Aidan has been so great about doing stuff around the house. He’s been the main cook and cleaner for almost a month now and I know it’s probably getting to him. I clean what I can and Marshal actually helped me the other day, but in the kitchen all I can really do is load up the dishwasher because my belly used to get in the way of the sink and now that it’s gone there are stitches in it’s place. In another week I should be in good shape though so I’m looking forward to getting back into life.

As far as my body healing and stuff goes, I feel great. My energy levels are pretty much what they used to be but my body is sore. Engorged breasts, stitches, aches and pains, swelling. They will all pass soon and as each day goes by I am feeling better than the last :) Hooray for not being preggo anymore, my body just hated that!

I weighed myself yesterday for the first time since leaving the hospital and I have already lost 16 of the 18 pounds I had gained since my first OB appointment in December. That made me feel AWESOME! Of course that first appointment didn’t take into account the 10 or so pounds I gained during the first 2 months being pregnant but holy cow, I still think it’s awesome for a weeks worth of time!

39 weeks 5 days

1 week postpartum

Please ignore the messes in the background of the photos — as well as my super awesome outfits

So I’m feeling pretty dang good, emotionally and physically and that’s way more than I ever expected. I would like to write everyday again, but I’m just going to do the best I can. If it’s every day then awesome, if it’s not I know I’ll get to that place again someday soon :)

I hope you all are having a great day! It’s crazy hot here and if you are also dealing with a heat wave I hope you are at least staying indoors with the AC blasting!

I Think Today Marks the Last Day of Spring..

Good morning! Happy Saturday!! I hope you all had a really nice week and have some relaxing time scheduled into this weekend. All it seems I want to do around here anymore is relax but when it gets down to it my mind wanders to the things I could be doing or should be doing instead of resting. There really isn’t too much that I should be doing but there is a lot I could be doing.. If I had the energy! Do your brains go into hyper drive the way mine does?

Aidan’s boss gave him the thumbs up to work from home while we wait for this little baby to come out and meet us. That was great to hear when he came home early yesterday. Even though he was confident that it would happen I still thought his boss might say no way! I’m glad it worked out though :) It’s really great that he works in the IT field and can work from home, it’s come in as a benefit on more than a few occasions!

The weather is going to be pretty blah around here over the weekend with a lot of heat, humidity and rain storms predicted. Summer sure came quick around here, there has been very high temperatures and a lot of humidity for quite a few weeks! I think summer is official starting tomorrow but it certainly feels like it already. Maybe this undesirable weather will be good and I’ll actually get some cooking done. Maybe I should throw in the towel on thinking I’ll have a freezer full of food when the baby arrives. I tend to come up with big plans and mean well but never get them done. We’ll see. I did get the vacuuming done yesterday and it immediately made me (and the house) feel much better. Seriously the air feels lighter in here lol. Two weeks is a long time to skip on vacuuming and it was certainly the longest I’d gone without.

The infant car seat arrived on Thursday night and we pulled it out of the box last night :) Woo hoo we really have all the things we need and it feels great! Aidan will be putting it in the car sometime in the next few days, which will be nice to have done but stink because I won’t have any room in the back seat. How the heck am I going to get the kids to all of their same day appointments? Something to figure out but not the end of the world. I’m so grateful just to have a really nice car that works and is reliable so although it won’t fit all of us at once that’s not anything to get upset over!

Well, I don’t have too much else that I can think of writing about today so I am going to wrap it up. Again, I hope you all have a really nice weekend and do some relaxing! Everyone needs that from time to time or more often ;)

 

Feeling Very Much Better Today.. a post without cursing ;)

Okay, well I feel much better than I did yesterday. I suppose venting helped a lot. Cleaning Marshall’s room helped even more. Don’t worry, he did 75% of the work. I delegated and kept it moving as well as kept him motivated to follow through to the end. Of course there is still laundry that needs doing but I think it’s down to the last load or two. We washed everything and even though it took a while the smell is gone, I’m not worried about breaking my neck when I go down there and I’m not furious anymore.

Maybe I overreacted but I strongly believe that even if I wasn’t full of raging pregnancy hormones I would have flipped my shit. A person can only take so much, you know?

Other than cleaning Marshall’s room with him yesterday we got quite a few other big jobs accomplished around here. Aidan was working from home because he didn’t sleep well the night before and when he was finished up for the day he went outside to work on the patio. We had two privacy panels that were falling apart so he removed them as well as a tree/shrub/bush thing that was huge and annoyed him and our neighbor. I wasn’t attached to the tree but it did provide a privacy factor that is now gone so that kinda (but not really) sucks. I also think the tree was a breeding ground for stink bugs so we will see if there are less of them this year.

After everything was removed I was honestly unhappy about it because of the lack of privacy now between my and the neighbors yard. There is no denying that the panels had to come down, half of the slats were missing from previous months and it looked terrible and was rotting out, but now being exposed to my neighbors trash cans the view feels even worse:

The first photo is where the two privacy panels were. Aidan luckily kept the posts up. At first we were thinking we’d let our clematis grow up the post and hang the ferns on them but after seeing it and how terrible the whole area looked I kinda freaked out a little inside. Aidan cleaned up the area but it still looked terrible. I told him that we would need to replace the panels at some point because of how awful it looks but each panel costs over $100 and on the opposite side of the patio there are 3 more that we will need to do. $500 + is not something we really want to spend there right now.

So while I pouted Aidan suggested the brilliant idea of getting lattice to put between the posts.. It would add some privacy, cover up the mess and provide a large trellis surface for the clematis to climb all over. Plus it’s far less expensive than panels and relatively easy to install. He rocks my socks! I thought his idea was brilliant and looked up prices. To do both sides it will cost a whopping estimated total of $60. Yeah baby. We went over to Lowes and picked up the supplies, except the lattice, which he will get today.

The second picture above s where the tree was removed. There is a lot of light in the kitchen now and zero privacy. I’ve never had a curtain on the window that faces the tree because it served as a screen so we picked a cordless shade up while we were at Lowes. I have two other windows in the kitchen but I didn’t get shades for them because they are blocked by my backyard and even looking in there isn’t much for people outside to see because they are so high up off of the ground. Will it look weird only having one window with a blind? I don’t think so, that window is on a wall by itself so I think it will be okay. Also if I added them to the other windows I think the blind would get gunky from the sink and the stove.

What will we put in that spot that the tree was in? I have no idea for now and the stump will need to be grinded down before anything can be planted anyway. I am not going to worry about that spot until next spring at least, maybe fall. That will give us enough time to see what type of sunlight we get there now and get a few ideas of what would visually look best. The spot is an important one as it’s the view from the street so I really want it to be well thought out and look nice when we are done with it. As of now, it is a work in progress and obviously looking like a hot mess but not rushing to simply fill the space will pay off.

Well, I’ve gotta get some stuff together that we are having picked up by the trash company. I hope you all have a great Friday and thanks for reading!

New Addition to the Yard

This weekend was super productive (on Aidan’s part) and the yard is looking so, so good. I wasn’t really much of a help to him but I did try to keep him company while he got the front yard and a good deal of the back yard in better shape.

We actually went to a local nursery yesterday morning and picked out a dwarf Japanese Maple (Red Dragon) that we are both overly excited about. It was the one we both really liked because of the leaves and we felt lucky that the nursery had three to choose from. Before we went too crazy and started buying other plants (they had a ton of awesome ones) we paid a small fortune for the tree and headed home so he could plant it. Once everything is done that we already have started we will go back and explore to pick out some other plants.

Here is a picture of what the trees leaves look like up close. They are beautiful! The leaves are soft and flowy and were compared to feathers by Regina. I couldn’t agree more! The leaves will be purplish red in the spring and summer then turn crimson red in the fall. The tree is a total upgrade from the burning bush whose leaves were only red in the fall. As of now, the tree is still very tiny, maybe only 2 and a half feet tall but over the years it will mature to 5-6 feet tall and wide.

We won’t be around to see it mature for more than half it’s size, but it’s perfect perfect for the space under our front porch. Right now a few of our tulips are little a bit taller than the tree but when it is full grown it will probably look like this. The one we picked has one as it has similar shaped branches. Hopefully the next owner will love it as much as we do and won’t rip it out!

I thought Aidan was going to have a really hard time digging out that burning bush we were replacing the tree with but the roots ended up being very shallow! It was a lot of work, don’t get me wrong, but it wasn’t as big of a hassle as we were believing it would be. I’ll post some pictures of the tree sometime this week. I haven’t taken any yet and we ran out of mulch so the bed looks a little funny. Plus, I hate taking pictures when the neighbors can see.

In the backyard Aidan trimmed some branches off of the full size Japanese Maple and even though it was only a few it made a huge difference. There are three branches he will be taking off of the Cherry Blossom tree too but I asked him to wait until all of the flowers have fallen off because they are so pretty.

Aidan also got a big section of the yard tilled and ready to seed. We had sod installed a few years back but it didn’t take well so he’s been working on sections since last year. The yard isn’t big, but the netting that the sod was in gets wrapped around his tiller so he has to stop frequently to rip all of the plastic netting off. It’s taking a long time but the new grass that he seeded last year is perfect, so it’s worth the time.

The planters still aren’t done but they should be soon. I’m being patient because he’s been doing so much otherwise. My main concern is that we won’t the seedlings in the ground but at this point that is for him to worry about. I’m not getting stressed when the garden is his project to begin with.

Anyway I have a super busy week ahead and even though it will make the time go fast I am sort of dreading it. I’m going to be exhausted by Friday, which is Aidan’s birthday and the only day I don’t have an appointment. Marshal has been suspended from school for 10 (yes TEN) days, so that is just another thorn in my side about this week (and next.) I’ll write about that fiasco at another time during the week though.

Well, happy Monday, I hope you all had a great weekend and the week ahead will be a great one, too! Did you do anything interesting or have anything interesting planned for the days ahead? Let me know :)

 

Front Yard Flowers

Yesterday I put on my brave girl pants and took a few pictures of the plants I put out front of our house. I always feel so silly taking pictures of my house! We don’t live on the busiest block in the village but there are enough neighbors to see me and wonder what in the heck I’m taking pictures for.

This is my favorite shot because it shows just about everything when you are at the side of my house. Of course the only people who get this view are me, Aidan and the mailman but it looks nice for us :)

That bush in the middle of the bed is going to be removed. It’s a burning bush that I bought many years ago; it turns bright red in the fall which is pretty but the novelty has worn off. It gets really big and is apparently invasive so we are waiting on a quote to have it replaced with a dwarf Japanese Maple. That would still give the red effect I love in the fall but would make the bed look a lot nicer. Plus it would be a lot less work.

As for the bed — right now there isn’t anything in it but the bulbs I planted in the fall, but look at them, I’m so proud! Tulips and hyacinths and a lot of them, too! Of course they would look better if we had fresh mulch down (and those bags of lawn soil weren’t there ha-ha) but we have to get the tree planted (if it’s affordable) so I don’t want to have to mulch twice.

Moving on, or over, to the stairs you can see all of the planters I filled and have been talking about. This is the first year that I tried the “thriller, filler, and spiller” approach and while it didn’t turn out as easy and successful as I was hoping I think they look pretty good for my first try. Also in my planters is a pot of decorative grass that should turn back to green soon but I’m not sure when or if I have to fertilize it to make that happen. I need to re-arrange the pots still but haven’t thought of it until looking at these photos.

After I took these photos Aidan moved the desk off of the porch and hung up my other two Boston ferns. I just love these ferns, especially hanging from the awning, I mentioned before that I stole the idea from a previous neighbor and it has been my best stolen idea yet.

We centered the other two over the left side where the seating area is and it totally changed how it feels out there. It feels really nice sitting on the porch! Woo-hoo! I’ve been here for 11 years and haven’t ever been excited to go sit outside.

I’ll talk about the seating area in a future post and show the actual porch once I have a few more things completed. I need to get the plants for the large planter I got for under the mailbox, order the new mail box and then get and install the new house numbers that we finally picked out. We also keep talking about the need of a new storm door and front door but I’m not sure when we will get to it. We also have painting to do and wood to replace, but for now it’s better than nothing :)

My porch isn’t fitted with any fancy seating but it is fitting for us. I’d love to get a nice set but it isn’t in the budget nor does it make sense since we will be moving in a few years and won’t know if it will fit at the new house. I’m really happy with how the front is coming along. It’s far from perfect but it’s definitely the best it’s ever been!

Mostly About the Boys

My dumb cat got himself locked outside overnight and I only feel halfway bad for him. Of course if he were missing or got injured I would feel terrible but he was just wet and shook up when he came crying at the back door this morning. He was a stray when we took him in many years ago so being outside isn’t anything scary or new to him but after being so spoiled for this long I’m sure it wasn’t the vacation he was dreaming of. The thing about this cat is that he is super annoying with the going outside business. Once the weather gets a little nice he constantly lurks by the door for the chance to be let out or to sneak out and it really gets to be annoying. It’s even more annoying when we do let him out and he immediately wants to be let back in.

Anyway — I am certain that I slept better than my adventurous cat did last night. I woke up only twice and fell right back to sleep after looking at the clock both times. I truly was exhausted from staying up the night before. Maybe that is the key to getting back on track with the sleeping, staying awake until I’m somewhat a zombie. I’ll keep that in mind ;)

Marshall this, Marshall that: it’s always a good idea to cuss out a teacher..

Marshall is home today — he was given an external suspension for cursing at a teacher after she told him to leave the class due to an altercation with another student. And I said yesterday his behavior has been good. Actually, this isn’t that big of a deal in terms of his behavior and the Vice Principal, who I’ve grown rather close with over the years because of Marshall, complimented his behavior changes he has shown. He had to suspend him though because telling a teacher to pretty much fuck off is frowned upon by anyone.

I talked to Marshall about it and like many of our conversations about his ridiculous habit to curse in every single sentence I think he just blew me off. He wasn’t be disrespectful about the ordeal and he took responsibility for it (which is great for him) but when I suggested he apologize to his teacher he wasn’t interested. I’ll get him there though. I mentioned that he has a good reputation this year and it would be awful to ruin it so close to the end of the year, he recognized that I was right and even said that it felt good for that to be true. Today I’ll be cutting off the wifi until he gets some chores and some school work done. It’s not going to be a vacation day for him, like many of his previous suspensions were, I want him to rather be in school than here with me doing stupid work. I’m catching on finally.

Plans for the weekend: Aidan will be MIA..

This weekend is going to be somewhat busier than last. Aidan is going out with his friend on Saturday to celebrate the friend’s birthday. Then on Sunday we have to go to that friends daughters baptism. I’m not a religious person at all and haven’t had any of my own children baptized or christened or what have you but it’s his best friend and it’s important to them so I’m not objecting. I just hope it doesn’t take up the day. Aidan made a mess of the back yard and still hasn’t finished the planters so I want him to get it done. I’m so mean. Really I’m not but it’s only a matter of time before looking at all the bushes he dug out really starts to get under my skin. He knows this about me though so I’m sure he won’t ignore them for too long.

***

Well, have a great day. I’m going to try taking a few pictures of my flowers over the weekend and put them up, I’m really proud of my planters and want to show them off ;) Do you have any plans for this weekend? The weather here in PA is supposed to be great and I wish that for all of you, especially Sylvia — melt snow, melt!

 

 

Getting the Yard in Order

Yesterday Aidan stayed home from work because he got about as much sleep as I did the night before. It was pretty nice out so he started the winter clean up in the yard and did a really great job getting all the left over leaves and trash out of the back and front yards. We don’t have a very large piece of land but it’s still a lot of work to get it looking nice. Now that it’s almost all cleaned up he is going to focus on getting the raised garden bed built. We have plans to visit each of our families on both Saturday and Sunday of this weekend so I doubt anything will be done then, but after that I’m sure he’ll be busy for a few weekends.

We tried some vegetables and herbs last year in pots and for the most part were successful. This year we are going to expand on the peppers and tomatoes and try some lettuce, onions, beans and add a few more varieties of peppers and tomatoes. He is really excited about all of this and I am excited too but this project will be his baby for sure. I’ll post some pictures and updates as the project moves along.

As for me with the outside: I am itching to get some pansies into the planters out front but before I can do that I have to drill a few drainage holes in the planters. I forgot to pull out the little tabs last year before adding the soil and while the plants lived I don’t want to chance it again. After that I’ll be adding pansies and then as more flowers become available I’ll add some more. I’m so excited to get some lively color out there to take away from the brown pathetic looking grass :)

It’s supposed to be nice today so I might just get the planters done. I am starting to see pansies everywhere so I think they will be able to thrive even though it’s still on the colder side. We have a doctors appointment this afternoon and I told Regina we’d go try to sell some of our clothes at Plato’s Closet (finally) and then maybe I’ll stop at Lowe’s for the pansies which is right around the corner.

Right now my porch looks a little like Sanford and Son’s because the old desk is sitting out there. I’ve got to call for a large trash removal but before I can I’ll need to pay them for the last one we had done a few weeks ago. I hate going to the post office because it’s out of the way but really need to get on it. Maybe I’ll just have Regina run in while we are out.

Well, have a great day and enjoy the weather, if you are lucky and it is getting nicer out like it is here.

It’s Finally Friday

I don’t know about you but I am soo glad that this week is finally coming to an end. This has been the busiest week I’ve had all year and ironically it’s also been the slowest going. Usually when I have a lot of appointments or meetings for the week the days fly by but that hasn’t been the case this time around. Today the only appointment I have is therapy from 8am-9am and then I am done for the week! Woohooo. I can’t wait to get back to the things I haven’t been doing like cleaning. I’m just kidding I’m not really excited for that but it will make me feel better if I actually get any of it done.

All of the desk parts are here and I am excited to get it set up this weekend. Also the curtain rod will be moved and I can get the other panel in place. It’s been driving me crazy having mismatched panels but not crazy enough to attempt moving the rod myself. Maybe if I had more time this week I would have but I didn’t, so I didn’t :)

Well, that’s all I have for today. I have to get dressed and straighten up before the therapists get here. I hope you all have a great Friday!