Hugs and Kisses

Rori is going through the super-lovey-dovey phase again. And I love it! She always wants to cuddle, give kisses, and BIG hugs. She has been offering "I love you"s several times a day. And yesterday, she melted my heart when she gave me a hug and said, "You're my best friend." ... Gosh, I love this girl. :)

Front Yard Makeover

As you know, I have been working in my front yard all week.  With the help of wonderful, talented, hard working, and just plain GOOD friends, we went from this:



To this:


It was a lot of work but well worth it!

Yesterday, we removed the rock that was under the cherry tree, finished mulching the landscaped area, put some more flagstone down, planted mint in the flagstone, some daffodils around the mailbox, a couple of hydrangeas, and some alyssum along the walkway up to the house.  Susan told me about Cadi's school having a plant sale, so we rushed over and I came home with some snap dragons to plant around what will be another hydrangea (a Strawberry Vanilla Hydrangea that likes full sun) which I'm waiting for the nursery to get in.

The rose bush area and the corner behind the cherry will wait until fall.  I have plans for them, but I need to wait for my roses to go dormant and for it to be good camellia shopping season. :)



Next up... the back yard!  But I need to wait a couple more paychecks first. ;)

Day Three in the Yard

We spent all of Thursday in the yard, continuing it's progress.  As soon as Cadi was out to catch the bus and Rori was set up with a movie inside, I started digging up the grass between the sidewalk and street.  My friends arrived a little later, Chrisi bringing a great lilac that she scavanged from her mother-in-law's yard (the MIL didn't want it). 

We finished digging the rest of the front, completely filling the trailer once again.  Then let Jamie take it (and the kids) off to dump it.  He kept the kids the rest of the day so we could shop and plant without worrying about them.  He's a lifesaver!

Today we added the Rosebud tree, more Hawthorne "Ballerina" shrubs, day lilies, peoni's, irises, lily of the valley, and daisies.  I grabbed a bench we weren't using in the backyard and stuck it in the corner, I'm going to have to think of what I want to do around it.  We started putting in the mulch, which takes longer than it would normally because I'm laying newspaper under it (completely wet) first.  It's a pain in the rear and slow going but supposedly it will keep the weeds away.  And I'm all about easier maintenance. ;)  We only got the very front done so far, but should finish this weekend.

This is how my yard looks now (I didn't realize I cut off the mailbox, that is where the irises and daisies are.):



I bought some "moss out" and will be applying it this weekend.  In a couple of weeks I can rake out the dead moss, then plant seed in the patch where our old weeping cherry blossom tree used to be, and sprinkle extra seed throughout the lawn.  Hopefully in another couple of months, our lawn will look as good as the rest of the yard!

I might try moving the littlest rose bush to a spot in the back yard, and put a hydrangea in it's place (since it is so small), but the other larger roses will have to wait until fall/winter.  I'll work on that area, as well as the back corner behind the cherry tree, this fall.  I plan on putting a camellia behind the cherry, as well as a few small other small shrubs and shade flowers.

Reminder

Today as we were working in our yard, a man and his little boy walked up and started talking to us. He came because he wanted to remember a friend and help teach his son a few very valuable lessons.

Twenty years ago today, his friend was riding in a car with his friends. The driver had been drinking, was not familiar with the area, and was speeding down the hill of the street we live on. As you come down that hill, there are turns and at the bottom, the driver lost control. The car flipped. None of them were wearing seat belts. They were all thrown from the car. This man's friend died, the rest were severely injured.

I had heard about the accident when we first moved here. Our neighbors, who had lived here when it happened, made a point to tell us right after we moved in (and that was 13 years after the accident happened). They were saying to be very careful to not come down the hill too fast.

Meeting this man and hearing him talk about his friend was sobering. Don't drink. And if you drink, don't drive. And don't get in a car with someone who is driving under the influence. Always wear your seat belt. Drive the speed limit. All of the above!

A work in progress.

We've spent the last two days working in the yard and it is looking SO NICE!!!

Of course, we need to start with a "before" picture.  It's embarrassing.  The lawn really needs to be mowed... and weeded... but if I weeded, it would be left with just dirt... and moss. :S



My friends are in the driveway, they are my partners in crime.  In fact, I think really, I'm just the accomplice.  They are the master minds, they do most of the work, I just drive them to and from the nursery and home improvement stores, provide the cash, and pretend like I know what we're doing, when really... I don't! ;)
Thankfully, with their help, this is how it went down...

On day one (Tuesday), we mapped out where we wanted the landscaping and dug up a bunch of my yard.
 


We filled up Susan's trailer with sod. 


We did have more digging to do, but no more place to put sod, so we went shopping!  Then came home to plant what I bought. 



This is what we had at the end of day one:



Do you see my new dogwood?  Now I have two!  :)  The first one is a pink dogwood, a "Rubra".  The one I bought today (on the left in the picture) is a Satomi.  It will flower after the Rubra, first showing white flowers with pink fringe, then as the season goes on, the flowers will turn to a light pink, then finally to a deeper pink at the end of the season.  I. Cannot. Wait! 

At the start of Day Two, Christi brought her awesome hubby, Jamie.  He lopped off the top of the hedges in front of our bedroom window. 



 I really don't like these hedges much, but they are a great screen for privacy!  And after they were cleaned up a bit, and with some azaleas in front that will grow up to cover the ugly bottom part of the hedges, it really does look a lot better.  I think I can live with this. :)



After Jamie cleaned up my hedges, Ryan came home from work mid-day to help.  I think when he heard Jamie was using power tools at our house, he got jealous. ;)  Together, they took the trailer full of sod away and brought it back empty.  Yay!  We cleared away the rest of the sod we needed to dig up (for this section), planted a few more things, bought a bird bath, and used flagstone to make a couple of cute paths through the landscaping.



So this is where we stand now:


A big improvement and we're not even done yet!  On the docket for tomorrow: Dig up the grass between the sidewalk and street.  Plant the Redbud tree hiding against the house on the left of the hedges.  Buy some more shrubs to plant up front with the Redbud.  Buy more Day Lillies to plant.  Scavenge more flagstone to finish around the birdbath.  We'll have to see if we feel up to removing all of the stones and rocks right up against the house.  If we do, then we'll be getting a few more plants to put in before long.  And then we'll top it all off with a bunch of mulch.

What we're leaving for later in the year: moving my roses from the right side of the path to the door.  That whole section will likely be left until then.  I'll be a little mix matched for now, but it will still look loads better than it has for the last seven years! ;)

Ready or not... here we go!

For some time now, I've been wanting to ask a friend of mine to help me with my yard. She's amazing. Her yards are beautiful and she has a real talent for being able to take a blank canvas and turn it into something wonderful. I saw her today and mentioned it to her, so she came over and started thinking of all these things we could do. I've run her ideas by Ryan and he likes most of them. So tomorrow morning, Christi's coming over with her pick ax to start digging up part of my yard! lol

She's a real worker and loves to have a project, once she's got one to focus on, she wants to get right to work! That's probably a good thing. And hopefully it means that my yard will be looking a lot more appealing in the near future. ;)

Excuse me as I go to bed now, I have a feeling I need my rest... ;)

Puppy Update

The puppies turn two weeks old tomorrow!  Their eyes are just starting to open and they are still unbearably cute!  They're getting chunky, too! lol  Little George is still the smallest, and Whinnie is still the biggest.  I took these pictures a couple of days ago, when they were about a week and a half.