Snapshots of Summer

This summer has flown by.  I'm still scratching my head how it is the end of July already and I'm still a month behind on the blog!  Quickest way to catch up is just to share snapshots from our month:

(This has been the wettest summer I can ever remember.  Our backyard has turned into a swamp multiple times.  There have been roads shut down and several cars stuck in water multiple times -- not ours, of course!)

(So how's our basement held up?! Surprisingly well!  We had one night where our basement flooded in the middle of the night, but receeded by morning.  We only knew it had flood by the water line and items being wet -- all the way into the laundry room this time!  We lost nothing, and are thankful that we now only have issues when the city's system is inundated with water.)

(That "pond" between the trees is our neighbors yard.  We are high enough that we only had issues in our backyard. This has been the first straight week of no rain and their yard is still a little on the squishy side!)

(The rain finally stopped and we were able to join Sara & James at the pool!)

( Bean was hesitant to get in at first.  I finally just had to force her to go in.  I put her on my lap and did a bouncy game until she was fully in the water.  She then realized she could just walk around on her own and had fun the rest of the afternoon.  She slipped and went under a couple times, but I was right there to pull her up whenever that happened.)

(Just checking out a magazine while eating a banana.)

(Mmmmm, more icing??  More coookie??)

(Selfie with Momma!)

(Our neighbor's granddaughters come over to play with Bean (and now James) and oftentimes bring their old toys over for Bean.  Her new favorite hand-me-down is a Dora doll.)

(Teaching James how to properly play the Kazoo.)

(For my birthday/father's day, we did a join gift and got an ice cream maker attachment for my stand mixer!  I've only made 1 batch of ice cream -- strawberry.  The ice cream was delicious, but I learned that next time, I'd blend the strawberries into more of a puree than just being chunks.  It made the texture weird and was hard to scoop.  I just got ingredients to make a snickerdoodle concoction from an ice cream book from Sara.)

(Steve got some virtual reality Conan phone viewer online for free.  He got to tour Versailles from the comforts from our own home.  I was skeptical about it until I used it.  It's actually very cool technology.  You can "look" all around the room and see all around.  It messes with my eyes, but is still neat!)

(Bean is now discovering the importance of sunglasses... Or maybe she just likes the fashion??)

(Exploring outside)

(Confession: We go to BWW's A LOT. I'm ashamed to admit the amount.  In reality, it's not that much, but for us who never eat out, it's a lot. Anyway, we love that Bean can be completely crazy and it doesn't interrupt anyone's dinner because it's already noisy and full of tv distractions.  We've recently made the decision to take Bean to Disney this fall.  Only issue is that she is afraid to ride things like animals on a carousel or the little mechanical horse at the store.  She kept asking to ride this machine in the corner, so her and Steve hopped on it.  We'll call that a small win!)

(A couple of weeks ago, I noticed some bumps on Bean's legs.  I thought maybe they were mosquito bites, but there were a lot of bumps all over - even in diaper area -- and some where small like a pimple while others were big like a hive.  Then I realized she had a fever 101.9.  I called the doctor and there happened to be a cancellation within the hour.  So I took her.  She wasn't diagnosed with anything official -- maybe a UTI that is revealed as a rash or maybe some reaction to something?  She was put on a heavy duty antibiotic.  The bumps went away in a few days, but the fever stuck around for almost a week.  She's done with the antibiotics now, bumps are gone, and fever is gone.  She's been really sleepy and having some tummy issues now, but I'm thinking it is just from the medicine wearing out of her system.  Sheesh kids!)

A Big Mulch Porject

We got really lucky when we bought our house, in the fact that all the front landscaping and been professionally done.  Unfortunately, not all of it had been kept up.  The first summer we lived here, I spent a lot of my time outside pulling weeds, laying landscape fabric, and putting mulch (purchased in bags from Menards) all around.  Then the next summer, I spent zero time on the landscaping since I was pregnant and had other things to accomplish.  This summer, we kicked it into high gear and both of us spent a lot of time outside working!

We had a goal to fix all the landscaping just in the front of the house.  For a couple weeks, I would spend a couple hours each day outside working on pulling up the landscaping fabric I laid a few summers ago (weeds were poking through and we deemed it a lost cause), pulling weeds, and trimming all the bushes.  On the weekends, Steve would work outside with me and he would cut and prep all the edges for the mulch.  We had most of the area ready for mulch by the July 4th weekend.  We took advantage of that 3 day weekend and had a huge truck load of mulch delivered from Resource Recycling the Thursday before (we got a discount for advertising for them on Facebook!).  We were able to spread the mulch quickly in that same evening.  Only, we didn't even make a slight dent in the mulch pile! We quickly changed our goals and busted our butts to get a ton done that weekend!

We ended up getting the entire front landscaping done, as well as the landscaping that rounded around the side of our house.  I'm pretty sure that area hasn't been touched in 5+ years.  Steve cut out about a foot of grass along the edge while I spent my time weeding.  After a section was all weeded and edged, he'd lay Preen down and then mulch.  There were a couple of bush/trees that drive Steve crazy.  They were overgrown and hide the house.  He wants to just tear them out, but I compromised with trimming them way down.  This project wasn't even on our to-do list, but after a quick decision and an hour of work.  That area looks tons better!

So what about Bean?  Well, she is an absolute trooper!  She is pretty adaptable to going with the flow.  On the days where I'd work out in the yard during all the prep work, I'd take her jumper outside. She'd play in it for awhile.  Then I'd put her down for a nap and continue working while she slept.  On the weekends when Steve and I were both out in the yard.  I'd work along with him during her naps.  When she was awake, I would have her play on a blanket in the yard for a little bit.  But the blanket play wasn't the best solution.  She liked to pull at the grass and swallow/choke on it. So usually one of us was playing with her while the other was working.  A couple of times while we were outside, the neighbor's grandkids would come and play with her on the blanket.  They all loved it!

So usually I'm fairly good about doing before and after photos, but I didn't get many before photos.

(Bean hanging out on the blanket playing.  The first couple of times we had her outside, she wouldn't go off the blanket.  She didn't like the feel of grass so we didn't have to worry.  But then she got adventurous and would not only go off the blanket, but would eat the grass!  Or at least try.  She had one attempt that resulted in a huge gagging fit that nearly put Steve over the edge.)

(Before photo of the mulch freshly dumped!)

(Here's a good in action shot.  You can see Steve's edging and my weeding!  Notice all the weeds in the back corner?  The entire landscaping from this edge all the way around the house was just covered in hundreds of weeds.)

(Close up of the weeds.  We also tore out a bush that wasn't doing much since it didn't get good sunlight.)

(Debating on whether or not we should tackle these bushes. There are three of them that hide the side room on our house.  We've tried to trim them in the past, but haven't had much luck.  We decided to really cut them back, just wasn't sure how to get it done.)

(Steve started with using the loppers, but wasn't having much success.  He went to set up our little chainsaw while I took over the loppers.  He was able to cut through the thicker branches with the chainsaw while I continued trimming one branch at a time. )

(The finished product.  We wanted to trim them down even more, but then they just wouldn't been heaps of sticks.  So we decided to leave some leaves on, even it it looks strange.  Ha.  Notice how half is mulched and half is awaiting mulch.  Steve also had to finish the edging along the side on the right.)

(After doing all the landscaping on the front and right side of the house, and even putting some in the back.  We decided we were done with the project for this year.  We were burnt out from all the work.  We probably spent about 3 weekends and two solid weeks on this project.  I could've gotten it done quicker without Bean, but we still exceeded our goals! Our neighbor took the rest of the mulch off our hands.

(We still have a few things here and there to work on - like weeds popping up in the patio sidewalk.)

(When we worked on the landscaping a few summers ago, we only got the landscaping done just to the right of the blue door.  We never got to in front of the window, or around the side of the house.  Our original goal was just to get done to the front living room window.)

(This opens up the house so much!)

(We got the mulch all done along the side.  If we were overachievers, we would have continued in the back around the patio with the grill, but that didn't happen.  I guess there's next year?)

Snow Daze

It seems like this past month, all we've seen is cold white stuff everywhere.  This has been one of the most brutal winters I've ever remembered.  Feet of snow and subzero temperatures has become the new norm.  Bean and I have been holed up for most of the month.  We don't get out with the freezing temperatures, so I try to make sure I have everything organized and ready for errands in the "warm" temps (like 20s, ha!).

We have had lots of firsts this winter (along with just experience winter with Bean).  One day, I woke up to the doorbell and a five year old in his pajamas on the coldest day of the year.  He and his cousin were staying with grandma next door and somehow locked themselves out (the cousin was probably 12+ and half naked - only shorts and tank on).  I didn't believe their story of "we thought the mail came", but whatever.  I came to the rescue - literally.  I had to piggy back the older cousin to our house (he had NO SHOES!).  We almost made it halfway when I lost my balance and down we went.  The kid was covered in snow and ran the rest of the way into my house.  I'm still laughing over that one. . .

Growing up, I never had to worry about snow digging up our yard.  In fact, I made fun of neighbors who had reflectors and sticks marking their yard.  We learned that lesson the hard way.  After a plow ripped up a good foot of our yard, we now have reflectors marking the edge.  We had to buy the extra tall ones so they wouldn't get lost in the feet of snow we have.  One day alone, it snowed 9"!  That was on top of another 3+" and before another 3+".  Supposedly another 5-8" is coming?!

Steve has gotten his entire year's quota of exercise done in the past few weeks with all his shoveling.  For his birthday, his parents got him a snow blower!  It arrived on Friday and he already has gotten 1 use in on it.  Instead of taking 2ish hours to shovel (that was for the 9") it only took him about 30 minutes outside.  Even though he ended up blowing snow all over himself, he enjoyed the much quicker (and less physical) process.
We had lots of concern when buying our house due to the 17 year old furnace.  So far it is pulling through!  We got a new thermostat system (The Nest, we highly recommend it) and it tracks our energy usage.  I think so far the record is almost 15 hours of heat used in one day.  Yikes.  We are ready for that number to be declining! We keep our house set at 67, but in reality, that means our living room is anywhere between 61-63 degrees.  We use lots of blankets and I get in lots of snuggles with Bean.  (I like the excuse of "I'm too cold to do stuff"!).  Back to the Nest - why I love it -- you can change the thermostat from your phone.  Meaning, when I'm snuggled under blankets and still feel cold, I just reach for my phone and bump up the heat.  No more having to get up and walk to the dining room.  Yes, I have become that lazy!  (It's also nice to bump up the heat with your phone right before getting home and walking into fresh hot heat.

So for now, I will continue to snuggle with my baby and stare out at the frozen tundra that is our front yard.

(Check out the city workers that came and fixed our yard after the plow tore it up!  I'm not sure how they knew, or if they were just driving around checking out yards, but we'll take it.  Thanks city people! Also -- what the heck is that green stuff. I'm not sure I'll ever see it again. . . )

(I had to share this picture.  Look at all those cute little birdie tracks right outside our door.  There are still signs of life out in our tundra.)

(Woooo!!  Steve breaking in his new snow blower. - thanks again Mom & Dad Ackerman!)

(What a goofball!  Bean just chilling out on the counter in her Bumbo all cozy under her blanket while Momma made dinner.  This girl's sweet coos and giggles are the absolute best!)

Hard Work in the Yard

Even though I am the primary mower of the yard, the yard tends to fall more under Steve's department.  At the beginning of spring, he did all the research on what applications our yard will need.  He even went ahead and purchased all the correct formulas for the entire summer (thanks Menard's rebates!).

The biggest issue we had with the yard this year were dandelions!  They were everywhere!  After 2 applications of weed & feed, the dandelions have finally disappeared.  And another issue we had to hurdle - the motor on our mower went out!  Last year, Steve winterized it (burned out the gas, drained the oil, etc).  This year, he sharpened the blade, put in new oil, put in the gas, and . . . it wouldn't work.  The motor was all locked up.  After calling my dad for advice and research, it was decided a new mower was needed.

We decided that we'd put a little more investment into this mower (the old one was purchased on a whim in TN and we went with the cheapest model).  This new mower is rear-wheel drive and is self-propelled. I think it has shaved some of the time off mowing the yard (maybe because it's bigger and moves quicker).  Now that I'm in my 2nd trimester, I still mow the front yard which is relatively flat.  While Steve mows the side and back yards which are hilly and have ruts in them.  We'll keep up this deal until I feel like I can't mow the front anymore.  But honestly, with the self-propelled, all I feel like I'm doing is walking around with the mower.

Here are some pre-treatment and post-treatment shots of the yard!

Before the Weed & Feed:

(Backyard is mainly weeds -- always has been.)

(This picture is after the first round of weed & feed, but before the second round which finally got rid of all the dandelions.)

(More of those wonderful dandelions next to the garage.)

After the Weed & Feed:

(Back yard weeds have finally been tamed and it looks more like a yard.)

(We need to mulch under the trees, but no more dandelions! This is the same section as the 2nd picture in the "before" section.)

(Front yard -- no more dandelions or jungle look!)

(Don't be deceived by the old mower in the background and the new mower in the foreground -- our new red mower is a beast compared to the puny old one.  I'm just thankful for the self-propelled feature and having a mower again!)

Storm Clean-up

Over the weekend, my AWESOME parents came to visit.  They braved the 100+ degree hit and helped us clean up our yard, cut down and trim tress, and haul all the debris to the edge of our yard for city pick-up.

Because of the storms that went through a couple of weeks ago, the city of Lima decided to do a debris pick-up free of charge.  We wanted to take advantage of the offer and clean up some of our trees to be hauled away.  We knew the pickup was this week, and only had one weekend to get the stuff done.  We were in need of supplies (and muscle power, especially since I am not allowed to get sweat or dirt in my eyes) and my parents came up with tools in hand.

They brought a wheelbarrow, chainsaw, pole saw, rakes, clippers, my sister Sara, my niece Emily, and my brother's dog Reese.  My parents' were dog-sitting for my brother and if we wanted their help, the dog came as a stipulation.  Ha ha, even though we are not pet (Ramses doesn't count as a pet, he's a family member) we enjoyed Reese's company.  She's a really good dog and just laid around most of the time.

Their visit also happened to correspond during a very busy time for Steve.  He had to work 12 hours on July 4th, 14 hours on the 5th, and he did 9 hours on the 6th.  My parents arrived early afternoon on the 6th and got to work before Steve came home.  Once Steve came home, he took over the pole saw while my dad prepared the chainsaw to cut down a dead tree in the back yard.  The tree had 2 trunks not a whole lot of space to fall down. My dad (who is an engineer) knew which direction to make the cuts to cut the trees down.  They didn't fall exactly where he had planned, but it worked.  Mom and I watched with our hands over our eyes as we were predicting all that could go wrong.  But luckily, things went smoothly.  The tree got cut down and hauled to the debris pile out front.

We (by we, my parents and Steve) would only work a few hours outside at a time.  We worked a few hours Friday late afternoon and then a few hours Saturday morning.  My parents were the first to wake up on Saturday and went out to work without letting us know.  Did I tell you how AWESOME my parents are?  We all went outside soon after they did and got busy.

We weren't sure if there were restrictions to the city clean-up, but figured we might as well put it all out there and then we'd take care of whatever they didn't take.  This morning, as Steve was getting ready for work, I heard a truck outside.  I got up and called Steve over to the window where we watched the cleanup.  A dump truck and a backhoe showed up and went to work.  The dump truck driver parked the truck in our driveway and then he went and dragged the limbs and such into the road where the backhoe picked the stuff up, drove to the dump truck, and dumped it in.  Our pile filled up an entire dump truck!  As soon as they were done with our pile, an empty dump truck showed up and the full one went on it's way.  Thanks City of Lima for taking care of our debris (Steve thought it was pretty cool we got a bunch of trees trimmed and hauled away for free, but then I reminded him it wasn't free, it's what our taxes went towards -- ha!).

(The 2 trees in the background have been dead since we moved here.  We have a couple more trees that are dead, but this is the only one that is in a safe enough area to be chopped down by ourselves.  My dad mastered the chainsaw and took them down.)

(First tree fell a little more to the left than planned, but it worked.  When he cut the second part, it fell straight into the evergreen trees.  He had to make a few more cuts, and then he and Steve were able to pull it away from the evergreen trees without harming them.  Whew.  Thanks dad!)

(No more tree(s)!!  The stumps are still there, but we'll deal with that at another time.  Next on the backyard list is trimming all those bushes -- which are thorn bushes-- as well as clean up around the garage.  We predict the backyard will gain almost another 1/3 of the area once the weeds and such are cleaned out.  We plan on focusing on that in the fall when everything is dead and comes out easy.)

(Debris pile in the front.  Most of the limbs were from Steve trimming the trees with a pole saw.  Then we had a couple limbs fall from the storm.  My mom also went crazy raking all the small twigs from around the entire yard.  All we knew was to put "storm debris" on the curb and the city would take care of it.  We weren't sure if it was supposed to be chopped up, tied together, so we just threw it all out.  Our pile was the biggest on the street.  There were just a couple of neighbors who had small piles.)

(The pile grew after we added the chopped down trees.)

(Backhoe dropping limbs into the dump truck.  Steve was a creeper and would place the camera so that they couldn't see him watching through the window.  The guy in the lawn was the dump truck driver.  He pulled the stuff towards the road so the back hoe didn't have to go into the yard.)

(The pile is all gone!!  They did a really good job and I don't think they damaged the yard at all -- which wouldn't be a big lost seeing as how the rest of the yard is dead.  We will just have to rake the edge and can put the stuff in our yard waste container for next week's trash pickup.)

Trees and Wind Don't Mix

The afternoon of my LASIK surgery will not be forgotten.  As I lay on the couch with my eyes closed (per doctor's orders), I could hear a storm brewing outside and my mother watching what was going on through the windows and on the radar.

After it had calmed down and moved on, my neighbor rang the doorbell to check if we were alright.  My mom went outside with her to survey the damage -- a section of a tree down in our front yard; sticks and branches down everywhere; and a large limb down that fell in the neighbor's driveway, feet from her van!  After I hit 4 hours with my eyes closed, I got to go outside (with my awesome wrap around sunglasses) to see what all I had missed.

Thank goodness for God's protection!  My parents' brand new Prius (by new, I mean 2 weeks old!) was outside in our driveway under a tree, but there were no limbs anywhere near the car!  WHEW!  We had thought about pulling it into the garage but that was after the rain had started and I couldn't go outside and my mom didn't want to go outside.

With the help of our neighbor's son, we got the limbs all cut up, piled up, and put on the edge of the road in hopes of the city picking them up.  We got mixed information as to whether or not the city takes care of it.  We'll find out soon enough.

(Limb down in the front yard)

(Same limb down in the front yard)

(Neighbor's son helping with a chainsaw -- thanks Jon!)

(We didn't take pictures of the limbs down all throughout the yard, but I took pictures of the piles.  This pile is on the back patio.)

(Here's another pile form the backyard.)

(Here is another pile next to the garage.  This is also where the big limb fell close to our neighbor's van, but we didn't get a picture of the crime scene.  We have a green garbage can provided by the city that we can fill with sticks, leaves, weeds, grass, etc.  Steve did break up some of the branches and filled the can quickly with them.  The rest we will just pile up next to the cans in hopes of the city picking it up -- and not fining us!)

(Another wind fatality.  This tree in the middle of the rose bushes had a wood stake helping to hold it up, but it hasn't fared well over the years and the stake broke in the wind.  We will be re-staking it in hopes of saving the tree, but it may be too late.)