I'm Back (With Some Pretty Flowers)!!

I hope no one is having a heart attack right now, but yes, I'm hoping/planning/trying to get back into blogging. It occurs to me that with a baby coming, I really should get going again.

Since just getting started is the hardest part (except when it comes to labor...), I am starting with a nice quick blog about a kind service I received. You remember the Mother's Day flower box Lee and the girls made for me a few years ago? Well, check out the pretty flowers:

Due to our very limited budget these days, I hadn't planned on being able to have flowers on my porch this year. Brynne, sweet girl that she is, had picked and planted some weeds for me. (I really wish I had a picture of the weeds.) But we were all resigned to the fact that we wouldn't have flowers. Until Tuesday... I came home from a doctor's appointment Tuesday afternoon to discover some flowers had been left on our porch. I immediately planted them in my two porch planters. Brynne was okay with getting rid of the weeds and was excited for the flowers too. So now here's what my porch looks like:

I decided to take one more picture to show all the color in my yard right now. Pretty flowers make me so happy!! We have received countless acts of service in the past year as we've struggled financially, and right now I am SUPER grateful to the person/people who left flowers for us!!

P.S. You may have noticed I changed the look of my blog. For now I just chose another template and made sure it had pink for my baby girl who is soon to arrive. I must admit, though, that "Dread Pilot" isn't quite as dreadful with a pink background... :)

A Few Good Projects

I've been working hard at a few projects to try and further beautify our house and yard. First, I got some flowers to put in the planter box Lee and the girls made me for Mother's Day. I also sanded, stained, and waterproofed our bench for the front porch. Anytime I say "I", by the way, it really means Brynne and I. She is my #1 helper. It doesn't matter what I'm doing, she wants to help. When she found out I was going to take some pictures for my blog, she volunteered to be in each picture for me. :) I wish I had taken the pictures earlier in the day when the sun was shining and the colors were more vibrant, but you can still get the idea:
Today I found something I've been looking for for several months -- a patio set that would fit on our tiny patio but was big enough for four people to eat on. I honestly didn't think there was such thing, but I saw an ad for someone in Layton selling a perfectly sized set for only $50. I called my sister Alyson (who lives in Layton and happens to be getting over pneumonia, but who still stepped up to help out -- thanks, Aly!!!) and asked if she'd go take a look at it and get it for me if it looked nice. Aly ended up picking it up for me, then she met me in South Jordan to get it to me. I drove my friend Denise's van since it would never fit in my car -- thanks, Denise!!! I (I mean, Brynne and I) cleaned it up a little more and set it on the patio. Isn't it perfect?!! (Now we just have to hope the Spanish Fork weather doesn't rip it apart...)

I also found a great deal on a bench for our backyard. I really want a cast aluminum bench. I have found several that would be great options, but they are all $130 - $200. If I'm going to spend that much, I want to make sure it's exactly what I want. I also have to make sure I have that much! :) So I had decided maybe I wouldn't be able to get a bench this summer. That's when I found one on clearance for $26. Mind you, this is the kind of bench that looks really nice but is actually quite cheap and weathers quickly. I decided that as long as the bench lasted this summer (and we might be able to get another one or two years out of it if we're careful) then it would already be worth the $26. I somehow managed to put it together myself (don't tell Lee I can do all these things by myself!). I think it's great, and so does Brynne:

The final project is one we just completed this evening. We planted a vegetable garden! We have two small planter boxes, and I set out to plant my own garden for the first time. I (I mean Brynne and I) planted cucumbers, zucchini, string beans, lettuce, peas and strawberries. I am quite anxious to find out if things even grow. This picture looks like some boring beds, but I'm really hoping to have a picture in a few months of the same beds full of yummy veggies. (Keep your fingers crossed!)

This last picture is just a cute one. We helped my sister Alyson in her yard a few weekends back. Unfortunately, Alyson has an abundant supply of snails in her yard. Alyson thinks they are pests; Morgan thinks they are pets. :) Morgan seriously carried her snail around for a good hour. She kept stroking its neck, and I swear the snail loved it and thought it was in heaven. Morgan was very sad when she had to put it down, but Aunt Alyson was quick to point out that it would probably be happiest in a special place a good 30 yards from her house. :)

Landscaping -- Here We Come!

When we bought our house 1 1/2 years ago, it was obvious the landscaping had been done at one point; but, unfortunately, it had not been kept up. It certainly didn't help things that we spent all last summer in Rawlins and didn't take care of it at all. I wish I had a picture of how bad it looked when we got home -- some weeds were as tall as me!

Anyway, we decided to totally redo the landscaping. Last fall, we pulled up every single weed and covered the yard completely with black tarp. We get strong winds through the canyon, so we had to put down lots of rock to hold the tarps down. Here is a picture of the yard in front of our house (complete with tarp):
Here's the back of our house:

This is the view standing at the back of our house looking out over the back yard.

And here is a picture of the patio. It is cracking lots of places and falling apart -- especially in the back corner by the far window well you can see. In fact, we have had flooding in the basement through that window well because the pavement has sunk in and creates a slope that leads all the water straight into the well. Every time it rains now, I have to get a ladder and a bucket, and climb down in the well several times a day to empty the water. This is one of the main reasons I want to do the landscaping right away -- with all the spring rain coming, I really don't want to get all my exercise by climbing up and down a window well...
We had planned to do all the landscaping ourselves, but we've decided instead to have a professional company come do it. I met a guy who lives close to us and is willing to give us a good deal. I'm hoping to have some "after" pictures posted within a couple of weeks!!!