Weekend

It has been a short (weekends are NEVER long enough), exhausting (weekends are ALWAYS exhausting here), busy weekend! Paul is going to Canada this week and is on vacation next week. Next weekend he is going kayaking with Dad for the weekend, so we had a lot to get taken care of this weekend!

Saturday we spent running errands. When we were done doing that we went to check out a couple of spots for kayaking. That evening was spent comparing PSP and Nintendo DS. Paul got me a pink toy!!! Although PSP does more and looks cooler, the Nintendo DS has more games I would play. Most of the PSP games we saw were either sports or fighting games - neither one of which I care for! I LOVE Mario games and they have a game I like called Brain Age. You have to quickly answer different questions (for example, it will put a number up and you have to subtract 7. Then subtract 7 from that, then 7 from that, etc.) At the end, it tells you the age of your brain (like for the one Paul did in the store, I think he had a 50+ year old brain. I will give him the fact that he had NO idea what he was doing when he did it!). I only got a Mario game this time, I will probably get Brain Age next time!

Sunday, we spent doing the job we have been putting off for way too long. The weather was a little cooler (around 92) so we took advantage. It was still HOT though! When they put our flowerbed in they put it to high against the foundation. So we pulled out ALL of the mulch, lowered the bed a little, put down weed fabric and put new mulch down. We spent a little extra on the mulch, but it is guaranteed the color will not gray for over a year - it looks GOOD!! It did take ALL DAY yesterday, with Paul and I both doing it (and Caleb KIND OF helping). The hardest part was pulling up all the mulch and trying to lower the bed a little at the house while still keeping it to where the water would drain AWAY from the house, and cutting the fabric around the plants!

When we finished doing that with the flowerbed we had to plant one plant. We had one that died late spring. While we were at Lowe's getting the mulch,etc., we saw that they had some plants clearanced that looked decent. When Paul dug the hole to put the plant, the hole kept filling with water. After looking at our water meter to make sure there was not a leak, then smelling the water to make sure it wasn't sewage, we think there is a spring in our flowerbed. The grass straight out from that spot and the plants right around it are really green, even without us watering. We watched the water seep back in through a couple of holes. I know from talking with the water company that this town has a lot of natural springs, so we can only assume that is what it is. That would also explain why the plant that was there last time died! Paul put the new plant there, but planted it shallow - above the water. We are going to watch it and if it starts looking bad, we will move it.

Next week when Paul is home, we have more outdoors work. This weekend it is suppose to cool off quite a bit (like mid-80s) so maybe it will stay that way all week! We are going to put weed fabric down where the poison ivy is and put the sandbox on top of it. Then we are going to put mulch down around it and maybe a little monkey grass. Then the corner we had the sandbox in we are going to put in a fish pond and landscaping (this will not be done next week I don't think!). The boys will get more shade in the hottest part of the day with the sandbox at the back of the yard because the house behind us has lots of trees. Most importantly - this will take care of the poison ivy problem am continuously having!

This fall/winter we are going to put in flower beds at the fence at the side of the house (about 20 ft long) and put Morning Glorys or Sweetpeas out there next Spring. Hopefully, what we don't get done next week, we will get done this fall/winter so we can plant when we are supposed to plant various things!