A Large Task

My wonderful husband has been working on our landscaping the last few weeks. It has been a long time coming, since the previous owners had no interest in keeping up on the house. As I have mentioned before, we are spending time and money on improvements for the outside of our house. First things first...the horrific, overgrown bushes! (Please ignore the terrible paint and roof.)

I left AJ in charge of taking picture and this is what I was left with! He was pulling them all out by hand. As in-using trimmers to get all the leaves out of the way, but then rocking the base back and forth until the roots finally snap. Very hard work! I am proud of him.

Here is what it looks like after all the ones in the front were removed. I think it made a huge difference! We plan to put different bushes in later, most likely in the fall. We still have lots to do to the soil before we can plant anyway. The people who lived there before thought it was a good idea to decorate the beds with crushed brick?! Who knows, but it is an awful mess and we have to clean all of that out and add new soil. That is not a fun or easy task either. But until that day we will just enjoy our bushless house.

We definitely need to get the exterior painted and the roof replaced. We were trying to hold out for some hail, but I don't think that's going to happen. So we will probably give in and get it replaced. It is 14 yrs old and already has bad hail and wind damage. We have had it patched already and just recently lost another shingle. Poor roof. Does anyone have a preferred painter or roofer they can recommend? I'm very leary of getting this done by someone who does not come highly recommended. Oh yeah, and I prefer them to be cheaper. But I have yet to find that too. We are very much do-it-yourselfers, but AJ would have to take time off of work and that is not really an option. So in the meantime we will pray for hail. (Sorry neighbors.)

This is a picture of my brother and grandpa hanging out on my mom's dock one last time before he headed back to Florida. Much time was spent here fishing and just hanging out.

My brother, his wife, my mom and sister, us and the grandparents got to play euchre one last time before they headed back. We were so sad to see them go but I know they needed to get back home. Fortunately, we will be visiting them in September. Yay!

He loves his great grandparents! They are so much fun!

Ari and AJ at the boat, once again. He loves the pool!

An Infestation and No Air

It has been close to two weeks since our air conditioning has worked. Surprisingly it hasn't been too uncomfortable. Let me restate that...it hasn't been too uncomfortable for me, but AJ on the other hand has been missing it. His car doesn't have air conditioning and his windows don't work so his drive home every day is pretty hot, especially since he is wearing a suit. Then he comes home to no air and has a hard time cooling off.

I on the other hand still sleep under our sheet and down blanket! Our house has been averaging a temperature of 78 degrees. Mmmm the warmth.

There have been a few moments when I thought I was going to loose my mind. However, it wasn't from the temperature!

We had been keeping our windows open to get any little breeze we could, but they didn't have screens. Our house was being taken over by insects. This is no exaggeration.

There were ants marching in one-by-one and taking over our pantry, food dish for Annie, our master bath, Annie's room, and our office downstairs. We had a wasp/spider nest that was built in our closet that was made of mud! (It looked like a wasp nest, but there was a mother spider and about 5-6 babies living in it.) Not to mention the random ones that flew in just to be greeted by our fly swatter.

I spent most of my days fighting off bees, wasps, spiders, and ants. And spent most of my nights sleeping with one eye open, stricken with paranoia that I was going to find one in my bed. I get the eebie-jeebies just thinking about it!

We finally got screens in and have been able to manage pretty well since then. Still finding some wasps here and there...moving so slowly from being trapped in our house.

My wonderful husband took care of all the ants for me. That was a large task.

Now back to the air story...

We have already pre-paid for an annual check-up on our air conditioner but they told us we had to wait until July 10th to get someone out there. Well we waited about a week or so and AJ decided to call back and beg them to come sooner. So they are coming to fix it next Friday. Well so we hope. Our unit is 14 yrs old, and I'm pretty sure it just needs some freon. I guess we'll find out in a week!

As of late

Sorry for such a long delay! Since my internet access is limited, I usually try and post on days I am at work. However, work has been extremely busy and I haven't had any extra time to mess around on here. Anyway, we have been up to a whole lot.

My grandparents are in town from Florida for the rest of this week, so trying to spend some time with them.

Went to an Indians game. Thanks Amy, Keith, and Luke for such a fun time!


Had a garage sale. A successful one at that! For not selling baby clothes or toys I would say it was pretty decent.


Tearing out some bushes. (Pictures to come)

Gardening. We have six tomato plants, one squash, one red pepper, and some green beans. Surprisingly all is looking very good! (Pictures to come)

And of course keeping up with the little guy!

This picture was from last night...eating dinner in a large bowl. Hey whatever makes the kid happy! Haha

These other pictures were from a few weeks ago when it was freezing outside! I didn't think Ari would get a chance to wear his new hat and Colts jacket that we found at a garage sale. These were my favorite finds! I couldn't pick which picture I thought was the cutest so just had to post them all.