Sara's Birthday

Ken, Stephanie, Holly, Dave O
Nathan, Mom, Me, David
May 9, 2008

More Gardening

It is an exciting time in our garden. Since it is the first spring we have spent in this house we are still discovering new plants that have been established here. Before making too many changes we are going to see what is already here.
This was our side-garden back in the Fall before we could really see anything growing. 
Here is the same garden at the beginning of the year when it snowed.
After some pruning it sure filled out with roses, lilacs and irises.
Aren't they beautiful! What a wonderful surprise!
Under my kitchen window we built a box for herbs.
This is the beginning of a flavorful garden. Sage, rosemary, lavender, parsley and basil are just the beginning.

Gardening

With spring approaching there are a lot of opportunities to work and play outdoors. For the last two weekends we have been clearing out more weeds (and the dreaded bamboo) from our yard. With the help of my mother, David and I cleared out a large area in our front yard in preparation for some landscaping. We tried to salvage the roses and various other non-weeds, but mostly it was an effort to get the bamboo out that someone thought was a good idea to plant near the house. David did most of the pulling and digging out of the bigger roots while my mother and I did the smaller ones, loosening the soil in preparation for planting. It is a work in progress and I will post pictures of that and of our kitchen.

It is such a pleasure to buy perennials for a house that belongs to us. It feels like we're building towards something. As Dave's dad said to us yesterday, we're "really making it into a comfortable little house" for ourselves. I am starting to see what the potential is for the front yard and David has some great ideas for the back yard. It is so much fun to see it grow and evolve into something more than what it was before. I am happy to be building up an herb garden and a large pot with lettuce for the year. We don't have a large amount of room, but I hope to make the most of what we have with a balance of edible vegetation and pretty plants.

This is what we started with...


We cleared out all the weeds in front of this part of the house and put up the metal sheeting to protect the wood and foundation. Soon this will be all covered in plants. My hand was in the picture to block the sun. I already bought some plants to fill in this space.

Going to the Park

We had the pleasure of taking our niece and nephew to the park this weekend. I guess I didn't realize how much there is to do at the park. They played on the slides, on the large train, in the water throwing rocks (that was very fun, apparently), and then on the swings. There were plenty of interesting questions. Ian insisted we go up on the slide, but David and I told him we were too big, Dave convinced him but Ian told me I wasn't too big. Cara loved posing for pictures, shouting "cheese" every time she could see the camera pointed at her.

Catching up...

Oh my! I am so behind. We painted the kitchen 3 weekends ago. The following weekend my mom, Holly and I went shopping at second hand/antique stores with Marie (she needed some furniture to fill up her house) and I found a wall hanging that is perfect in the kitchen, you would think we picked our wall colors from this tapestry.
Then my mom and I cleaned up most of the front yard and pruned the rose bushes. There is so much to do but we are enjoying the process. This term isn't as time-intensive for David so he is able to help out around the house a little more. With the help of Dave O, he pruned one of the trees in the front and took out another one that was hanging over the roof and dropping a lot of debris. It was too close to the house and it looks so much better now.

Last weekend we went to Portland. I went shopping with Kelly and Marie on Saturday and Sunday while David and Brandon hung out. On Saturday Brandon's friend, Justin, brought over Rock Band and the guys played ALL DAY. Big surprise! While us girls spent most of our shopping budget on clothes and shoes. LOL. We had a blast. Saturday night we met up with the guys at McMinamins' St. John's theater for dinner and a movie. We saw Charlie Wilson's War. Good movie, but kind of depressing how badly we messed up on that one. We stayed up late playing more Rock Band. I got to try the drums for the first time and it was fun. HARD, but fun! More shopping Sunday and then the drive home. Overall we had a great time, not very restful but a great time.

I'll post house pictures soon. I just wanted to catch up a bit.

Setting up the Craft Room

While David is busy with his new full-time job and full-time school (he is working so hard), I have been fixing up the house some more. My mom came over yesterday and helped me organize the craft/spare room. Up until now it has been a catch-all for random boxes that we didn't have space for yet. I am so glad we got it cleared out so now we can actually use the room. In our apartment the second bedroom was just basically storage. We didn't have enough actual room left over to do anything with it. This one is very different.

I am so excited that I can finally have a place to leave my crafts so that I can get back to them later. I never seem to find time to do any scrapbooking (I still have my wedding to do) because taking all the stuff out and putting it all back was most of the work. Now I can just leave it there and get back to it when I can. I am really looking forward to it. I also have all my sewing stuff in there and everything is all organized into drawers. 

On the book shelves we have various music books, craft books and board games. I couldn't believe how many games we had because at the apartment they were spread out through different rooms. I think we still have one more box of games somewhere. I set up my music stand so I can start practicing my flute again. I miss music too. Once we remodel the dining room I am hoping to move my piano from my mom's house to this house. It would actually fit right now except that I don't know where we would put it while we are tearing up the brick and once it is in place I don't want to move it.

These are the before pictures:

Snow Day

It snows here sometimes, but it rarely sticks. Today was a gorgeous snowy day. We went for a walk at about 2pm. I took my camera...
Our cute little house covered in snow.

Train wheels lined up, covered in snow.

Train

A bird house in an old tree in our back yard.