house stuff

We finally finished our flower beds out front! Here are some before and after pics...

Before...



During...






Here are the finished beds. It will look better in the spring. We planted iris and daffodil bulbs. The bushes are azaleas, the smaller flowers are mums and we lined the sidewalk with pansies. The dirt here is absolutely terrible so hopefully I can keep them alive.

quick blurb

Josh and I had a very productive and fun weekend last weekend while his parents were in town. I will follow up later with pics. Our yard sale was pretty successful. Our car is fixed and all that is left is to get it registered in TN. Josh and his dad cleared out the felled tree that was in our backyard, and we all pitched in to plant some flowers in the front of the house.

I was nausea free for a week and a half! Today and yesterday has been a different story, but hopefully it will continue to get better.

house purchase

Today I purchased something for my house. It's great, it's grand, it's gloriously beautiful. It's something that every new homeowner dreams of.........





















It's a dish-rack. Completely overpriced, in my opinion. However, I decided it's a must-have when I realized I was pulling out more dirty dishes than clean from my dishwasher. Shucks, I'm gonna miss handing over the task of dishwashing to a machine! I'm no stranger to dishwashing....as early as I can remember I was part of the dishwashing shenanigans at the homestead. I wish I could say it holds many fond memories for me, however I think most of my sibling sqabbles took place over that sink. Maybe not the majority of them, but definitely the worst of them. Something about soapy dishwater, wrinkled fingers, and painful towel slaps (is that what they're called?) used to bring the worst out in me. I do have one very good memory that sticks out among all the screaming and splashing. My dad was probably out at the barn, and my mom left to go somewhere. Before she did she cautioned my brother Daniel and I that we had better have the dishes done when she returned. She left, and we set to task. Daniel said he wanted to play a game. He wanted to see exactly how fast we could finish the dishes. He wanted to set a record. I thought this sounded like fun and so the fastest, splashiest dishwashing job ensued. I don't remember the details, just laughter, fun, and wet. Daniel had a way of doing that every once in a while. Making a job fun. So, while I don't expect to have anymore dishwashing, sibling squabbles over my new dish-rack, I do see more soapy dishwater and wrinkled fingers in my future...at least until it's time to gut my kitchen and put in a new one!

thank god i'm a country girl

Yesterday evening was filled with a romp roarin' good time while Josh mowed the lawn and I dealt with this:


This is the patio outside our bedroom. A month or two ago we raked up a ton of leaves...and left them here.


It has since rained and rained, creating a soppy, yucky, dirty mess. And that's not all. I may not like soppy, yucky, dirty messes, but you know who does?


That's right, nobody likes me everybody hates me, I'm gonna go eat worms! Please tell me you've heard that song. Oh, and also, I totally screwed up this photo when I was playing around with it so there's only a total of about two worms in this picture, but just take my word for it. It was like spaghetti under there. And, I will admit, considering all of the things that could have come crawling out of this mess, worms really aren't that bad, even if there were enough in that pile to start a freakin colony. I thought, wow, that's gross, but oh well I'll go get the gloves in the garage. After searching the garage, said gloves were nowhere to be found. I realized I would be handling this mess all-naturale. Yes, I know there's no 'e' on naturale, and no, I don't mean naked. I went back and looked at the pile thinking, Really? This is so gross! Then I heard a voice, one that I hadn't heard in a while. You chicken! You used to walk happily through cow crap in your bare feet! You had a front row seat for skinning during deer season, you let calves suck on your hands, you've had every imaginable dirt and gross substance on you at some point on the farm....and now you can't pick up worms? Okay, so I didn't really hear a voice, but these were some thoughts going through my head at the time. Growing up in the country I certainly have been into some dirty places. So, me and this guy had a heart to heart.


I know it looks like I'm pretending to eat him. That wasn't my intent on the photo, but oh well. My point is, I realized worms aren't that big o' deal, and I needed to remember my roots a little. And for that, I thank my little worm friends! Oh, and if you don't ever come back to this blog again, I understand! =)

so...

...this is what my living room looks like right now.



Yahtzee is loving it at his new house!!

our first house!

Here it is! Josh and I are homeowners! I'm not sure when it will sink in - maybe when we pay our first mortgage payment? We are very happy and very excited. We have started to dig into getting it ready to move in. It is definitely a fixer-upper, but we are really looking forward to doing the work and making it our own. Here's some pics from our first real work day...

The classic SOLD picture


The previous owners must have held some serious sentiment toward their mailbox b/c they took it with them. That, or it was stolen, damaged, whatever. Here we are mixing the cement to install our mailbox post.


This is my mom in law helping out. She came down from Maryland and has been the Angel of Clean. She also has packed up most of my kitchen and kept up with my dishes and laundry! I told her she is not aloud to leave. Ever.


Josh had started to change the locks on our doors, and had to use wood putty. So when it was time to go get lunch and it still wasn't dry, we couldn't lock the house, so Josh stayed while we went to get food. When we came back, this is what we found. He had set up the chairs, and found a reasonable reception on the tv. Cracked me up.


Josh is becoming quite the handyman. Since some of the wood was damaged, he had to replace it.


Great job, Josh!!


We purchased a white mailbox. I'm talking, white, cloud white. I mean, bird poop white. This a very white mailbox! The reason being is that it will be very easy to paint over once we decide what color we will paint the house. =) So here I am putting our house number on the mailbox. The box didn't come with a diagram, so what is a perfectionist to do but take out the trusty tape measure and marker to find the exact place the numbers should go?


My mom in law was laughing at my anal ways, but daggone, my numbers are straight!!!