Landscaping Update -- Take 5 (Plus Some Randomness From My Day)

First, the landscaping update. As always, there have been a few delays. We were hoping to be basically done by today, but the "basically done" got moved to tomorrow. The only problem is that a load of rain is supposed to come in tomorrow and last for a week. It's going to be a close call, and I'm trying not to get my hopes up...

Meanwhile, lots has gotten done everywhere else. Today they tore out our old stairs and started building new ones. They are only partially completed in the picture below, but you get the idea... It'll be nice to see the patio when the sand gets worked in and it gets cleaned off.
The mulch got put in and spread out almost everywhere (not in the very back yet, where we are waiting on a few more plants to arrive at the nursery). When Lee and I planned to do the yard by ourselves, we were just going to do an edging close to these boxes and then put in basic rock. This is much, much more beautiful! Aside from the tree, there are two green bushes and one smaller red one that will all grow to be 3-4 feet (wherever we decide to keep them trimmed to). The other items are flowers that will bloom throughout the spring and summer. The flags show places where some other flowers will be planted (once again, waiting for the nursery to get what we want). The one-foot area right by the curved edging will be my "play area" where I can plant whatever I want.

This is obviously the porch area right in front of the house. Those plants wrap all the way around the side of the porch. Supposedly they will grow together enough in a few years to be a hedge. I'm not sure how tall we'll have them be, but we can play with that when the time comes. Just in front of them you can see some of the perennials that were put in. And, once again, the one-foot area in front will be my "play area" to plant what I want from year to year.

I, like many people in the world, am a lilac fan. I love the scent of lilac. It bugs that they only bloom once and for not too long. Most of the rest of our yard is full of things that bloom off and on all season, so lilacs didn't really fit into the plan. Well, our landscaper saved the day with a great plan! He put some lilac in a little corner area we have behind the stairs on the side of our house. (The white board with writing on it is part of a concoction Lee put up for me to try and lessen the amount of snow that blows down into the stairs. If the board weren't there -- and I suppose we could take it down now -- you would see pretty white slats that are the railing around the stairs.)

And here is my attempt at vegetable gardening. At first I planned to have three boxes that were all twice this size, which means my actual bed space represents 1/3 of how much I planned to have; but I think this will be okay. It's hard to say how much we'll grow since we've never had our own garden before; but at this point it will simply have to be enough!

That's it for the landscape update. Now for a quick note on my mental state these days. I woke up Morgan this morning and told her she would be having pizza at school today. I knew she would be excited and figured she'd wake right up. Instead, however, she proceeded to get really sad and tell me that they had served pizza yesterday and that she had been so upset that they had sent her to the office to eat and calm down. Poor girl! If I'd known, I would have told her to get the pizza and not eat the home lunch; but we've never had that situation before. Even though I look at the calendar each day to see what they are having, I got my days mixed up. I felt REALLY bad!

Then, this morning I took Brynne to preschool and drove to the gym. That's what I do every Tuesday and Friday. Thursdays, however, I usually go to the temple. I was about a mile into my run when I suddenly realized that today is Thursday and I should have been at the temple. Oops! I usually go swimming after the temple, but realized I could just finish my run instead and then go to the temple afterwards. I am really losing it!

Vacations are fun, but how long til I get my brain back (what little I still had)?