Backyard Shenanigans

You know, we do not live in a particularly rural area and we have a dog that spends quite a bit of time in our backyard. And YET our fenced in area seems to call to all the creatures in the area - "Come! Come and you will make her crazy!"

I do not do nature. And sometimes this house involves WAY TOO MUCH NATURE.

So far since living in this house:
* I have had to break up 3 cat fights (we do not have any cats).
* We've had to save cats from our dog 3 times. One of those times required a call to animal control.
* We have witnessed several birds get taken down by hawks. Several. One on our front porch. While we watched helplessly.
* We've had a turtle 'knock' on our front door. My Beloved relocated it to the bayou behind our house.
* We've had to run off opossums after they've been spotted by the dog.
* We've had a raccoon in our trees in the backyard. 
* There were the rats...
* I had to run a little yippy dog out of our backyard who spent the entire time barking at ME, the homeowner. 

And that brings us to this weekend. 

Friday while my Beloved is getting ready for work, Atticus starts barking at something with dedication. Daniel heads out to the fence line and discovers the offender.

A turtle.

Of all the fence lines in all the neighborhood, this turtle had to pick ours. We assumed with it digging a hole and planting it's back end in it, she was probably laying eggs. Alice was very excited about seeing the turtle. "He's soooo cute!! I wub him!"

We come back in and eat, which only takes 30 minutes, and when we go out to check on her again, she's gone! The hole is covered back up and the turtle has vanished. And it's all my fault because I made Alice go inside the first time. Obviously. 

Now what?! I feel like these potential eggs are our responsibility! Do they need a warming light? I'm googling gestation periods of turtles, which according to the Internet could be anywhere from 60 - 90 days. I can barely remember if I fed the dog. This is not going to work.....


Now let's talk about Saturday....

Daniel had graduation so he was out of the house early. I get up and let the dog out. As I'm looking over things, I notice a dead adolescent opossum on our porch. 

Sweet baby Jesus, why does this keep happening?!?? 

I keep my eye on the dog and as soon as he gets to the porch I open the door and rush him in. Luckily he isn't the most observant and didn't seem to notice it at all. I text my Beloved and send him a picture because it's one of those things that if there wasn't a picture you might be tempted to think it's made up.

Nope. 

From my vantage point (INSIDE), it doesn't look like it's hurt. It looks like it got a third of the way across our back porch, which is not easy for a little dude, and decided, "nope, that was just too much" and keeled over. 

I am positive it was not there the day before, however, it is already attracting flies. 

NOPE!! 

Daniel calls between ceremonies and as we're talking I mention it's hair looks funny. It's either wet or mangy, I can't tell. He suggests calling Animal Control to check to see if they want to handle it. So I call the weekend non-emergency number and explain what's going on. I ask if that's something they would prefer to handle and she says 'yes ma'am'. Hallelujah. I tell her exactly where it is and how he can get into the backyard. She says the guy has two previous stops and will hit ours last. 

Cool.

I open the front door to watch for him. I see his truck pull up and I go the bedroom to put on some shoes so I can go out to talk to him. The dog is barking at the truck. I look out and don't see him so I head to the back porch and the dead thing is gone!! I turn around to see the truck drive off. He was like a dead animal scooping Ninja. 

Side observation: This is yet another example of my doubt in Atticus's ability to be a beneficial guard dog. He spent the entire time barking at the set of tires he could see from the front door and completely ignored the shovel carrying man on our back porch. Seriously. 

I appreciate them coming so swiftly, however, I have some questions that would be nice to get answered. How did it die? Should we be concerned? 

What is it about our back porch that screams to the dying animals, "this. This is where I want to die." It's a lot of work to get on our porch!! The lady next door has no challenging obstacles!! Why can't they die there!?!? 

I just can't.

Until next time......

Grown Up Stuff

Just Me: Yesterday, I got to spend all day at the doctors office. All by myself. So, kind of like a vacation! 

I posted this picture on Facebook and had some questions that made me realize I've probably never explained how I'm doing health wise. 

Since having Alice, I've been diagnosed with "lupus like autoimmune" issues. Autoimmune issues are super hard to definitively diagnose so I am being treated in hopes my symptoms don't reappear. This means I  have to take a drug that could cause some eye issues in the future so I get to see a Rheumatologist and an Ophthalmologist every six months. Lucky for me - they have offices in adjoining buildings so I can schedule them on the same day. This visit included an eye exam so I had to have my eyes dilated. My second appointment was later in the day so I was able to let my eyes rest before I drove home. 

My sweet Beloved took the day off to stay with Alice. He's a good man. 

Along with the autoimmune diagnosis, I am also still on blood thinners (and will probably be for the rest of my life) in order to prevent future clots. Since I've had two major clotting events, my Hematologist feels this is wise. Blood clots suck so I agree. When the tests results came back after Alice was born, I was diagnosed with Antiphospholipid Syndrome which means I'm prone to clots. So we're doing what we can to prevent those. 

And all in all - everything seems to be working. I'm not an easy patient and sometimes I feel I wouldn't have any issues since I'm no longer pregnant. A few weeks ago I had to go off the blood thinners for a few days for some dental surgery. While I was off, my feet started to tingle like when I was in the hospital. It stopped when I started the pills again. I guess the doctors do know what they're talking about. ;)

Homeowner Woes: We're having foundation issues.....again. We've had several companies come out to tell us what was needed. I didn't like one company and the other company said we need to put piers under the entire house which means furniture and flooring would have to go so they can jack hammer holes.....all for $20,000. And that's not including replacing the floor and fixing repairs. 

This makes me nauseous. 

We've been told to have the plumbing checked so over spring break, we had a leak specialist come out. He looked at a few things and said he didn't need to do the long, expensive test because he could tell there was a leak somewhere. And then he told us to call our insurance company. Bless him. We didn't even think of that.

Turns out some of the repairs might be covered. Hallelujah!

The insurance company sent out some plumbers who spent all day locating several leaks and today, we had a structural engineer out to take measurements. Alice helped. She's such a curious little thing!

If he comes to the conclusion that the leaks are the cause of the foundation issues, we might get some assistance from insurance to help cover the costs of repairs. That would be simply amazing. 

It'll be a few weeks before the results from his measurements come in so now we wait. 

I still have some old posts to post so don't get discouraged! I'll let you know all about the fun we had during spring break! 

Until next time......

Pieces of Home

Today's RAP photo is 'stained'.

This is the first piece of furniture we refinished and it's still my favorite. It's a dresser that used to belong to my grandmother. I used it all through college. It's the perfect height with deep drawers. I think it's perfect.

After several years of wear and tear, it needed a face lift. We stripped it and stained it and now it lives in our kitchen. It holds our kitchen linens, baby food, aprons and a few party items. 

It's BEAUTIFUL.

The KIR photo was 'utensil drawer.' We have a lot of utensils.

We do not have enough drawers in the kitchen to accommodate our collection. Last year at the Rodeo, I found the two vases in the top in the top right picture. They work PERFECT. I love the colors and I love the story behind them. I purchased them from Brookwood, a community for adults with functional disabilities. They are a lovely addition to our kitchen.

Until next time.....

The Mailbox

My Beloved came home last week and brought the mailbox in with him. Apparently some lackluster punk of a child thought it would be 'cute' to knock our mailbox over. 

For the record, it's NOT cute. It's RUDE. It's a violation of our home. And in the event it happens again and I find out which lackluster punk of a child did it - there will be tears. Parents, don't let your kids grow up to be lackluster punks. Seriously. 

So my Beloved 'fixed' it until we could get to the weekend. 

Poor mailbox.

I knew Daniel would have to dig this up and I also know he HATES this plant. Has since we moved in. But when we moved in, it had cute little yellow blooms and his wife is crazy so it stayed. So I say "I think it's okay if you dig up the plant. I can let it go."

His response "oh, I was planning on taking it out!" Good thing I was okay with it. ;)

He had a terrible time attempting to dig out the plant and had to dig around old concrete and loads of rocks. The previous owners of our home must have spent a fortune on rocks. For real. 

The night before he dug up the mess, we ventured out to the Home Depot to buy the replacement parts. I am a girl so I shop by what's pretty. My Beloved is a boy and he shops for what's 'affordable' or 'reasonable'. Blah. He ends up picking out a regular mailbox as opposed to the mailbox that says 'indestructible' with an illustration of a bat hitting it on it. I don't want death but if some kid decides to destroy our mailbox again, I'd like them to end up hurt. Like arm-in-a-sling-for-a-month-or-two hurt. He also skips over the pretty posts and goes with a regular old post.

In case you didn't already know, I can be a bit of a pill. And I can be a little snarky. 

As we're checking out, the post rings up a lot cheaper than he thought it should be. I say maybe it's on extra sale because it's so ugly. This garners an eye roll and a deep sigh.

He did manage to get it in the car.

Alice had no problem with it.

Only when he dug up the mess, he discovered this type of post would not work. So we got to go back again and get the pretty one. :) Yay!

The weather wasn't unbearable so we watched the Dada work. As we're watching, two neighborhood dogs show up for a visit. 

They were getting unruly so my Beloved thought Atticus needed some time in the house. Only this made the stranger danger dogs follow them in to the garage. As I'm shooing them out of the garage, the larger dog stops at Alice's stroller and licks her face. 

"Hey!" I say, "that's not your baby! Shooo! Go home!"

Oiy vey.

They eventually move on and my Beloved gets back to work. While he was putting the post together, I got the mailbox out of the box.

Alice helped.

She lost her mailbox privileges when she bent the flag. 

Now we have a new mailbox! We still need to put numbers on it and maybe add some more dirt but for now, it works! 

And it was an adventure! 

Now for the challenge photos.

RAP "I don't care".

It doesn't matter how many times I tell her that's not how a lady sits, she simply says "I don't care." I spent lunch trying to get her to keep her feet off the table. Babies.

The KIR challenge is Kid's room.

And her's is my favorite.

Until next time.....

Leafy

We have these growing on our back fence. They usually only bloom in the morning. My Beloved doesn't like them; they're in the way and bit unruly. 

So of course, I love them. :)

Corner

This is what our street corner looks like right now....

It's lovely.

Not really.

And I got another notice from the City. 

Guess what it said?!

If you guessed our water will be "interrupted" again on Thursday, you guessed right!!

Another trip to Nana's for us.

Yeesh.

A Week in Review

We had a short week!

Which meant we had a LONG week.

Let's break down the highlights.

Monday my Beloved got to stay home for Labor Day. But it was less than relaxing. It started out fine! And then things went wrong. Horribly, horribly wrong. First, Atticus wanted out; then I hear him barking with intent. I go to check and sure enough, a cat is on the porch. A very skinny, sickly looking cat that apparently has a death wish. All I kept thinking was "of all the porches in all the neighborhood, you had to die on mine." Atticus and said cat proceed to tussle before we can get the dog in the house. In his defense, it was HIS porch and he IS a dog. Daniel checks out the cat and it doesn't look to be freshly hurt. Hurt yes, but not by our dog. So he calls animal control knowing they probably won't send anyone out on a holiday. Sure enough, the poor cat is just going to have to keep dying in our backyard. I spend the next hour bawling over a cat that isn't ours and what a horrible world we live in that people would discard a pet so flippantly. 

We pack up to run an errand. When we return, we have no water. Again. I only discover this after I go to wash my hands after giving Alice some snacks. Again, my Beloved calls the city. By the way, when you call the city on weekends or holidays, you call the police dispatcher. Fun times. She sends out the on call guy to check the water situation. He finally arrives and Daniel heads out to talk to him. It's taking forever so I head out to check. The on call guy is leaning on his water-turn-offer device chatting with my husband. You see, he's having a hard time getting off because his boss is out on paternity leave and his elbow hurts. So he asks Daniel to help him turn the water off. Seriously. Apparently we have a busted pipe somewhere and the water just isn't getting in to the house. Oiy. 

So we pack up our child who is now sporting a pinwheel beard we have no way of cleaning off and head to Nana's. Her TV is magic.

Tuesday,  Daniel heads to the house at the crack of dawn to meet his parents so he and his dad can fix the leak. (This is where I take a break to mention how thankful I am that he has his dad in his life to help with such things. It makes me happy.) They're able to locate and fix the problem pretty quick. Meanwhile, the cat was staggered out of the yard. After the water is fixed and turned back on, Daniel decides to rest before he cleans up. Side story - they're doing construction in our neighborhood. It's a mess. It sucks. It has caused a MASSIVE water leak at the end of our street since the beginning of the long weekend. My Beloved decides to clean up only to discover the water has been turned off again. This time by the city FINALLY fixing the MASSIVE leak. Seriously. 

He decides to call Animal Control to come get the injured cat so they can humanely take care of it. We hate to see things suffer. Well she shows up, takes a look at the cat and asks Daniel if he has a pet carrier she could borrow. Umm.....excuse me?! Apparently she forgot her pet carrier when she got the "go pick up an injured animal" call and had to go back to the office to get it and then come back to get the cat. Had I been present, I might would have caused a scene. I don't do animal control; however, I'm PRETTY SURE the FIRST thing you should pack in your 'Animal Control' marked vehicle is a pet carrier. 

I'm losing faith in our city employees.

I spent all of Wednesday removing items from our child's mouth. A magnet, pages to a book, the computer plug, a Post-it-note pad and a nail file. The nail file caused the biggest fit but luckily she immediately located the baby saline bottle and started chewing on that.

On the upside, Alice and the dog did play nice all day.

Thursday I had a doctors appointment which meant we got to visit with our L&D friends. They love seeing our girl and we love visiting them!

Friday meant the Exterminator was coming so Atticus (who HATES him) and the baby (who is indifferent) got to go to the Post Office with me.  I asked how it went and my Beloved tells me we have Roof Rats. Come again? You might remember our rat dilemma. Well, they went away! We were happy! A few weeks ago we started noticing acorns on the porch. This is odd considering it's screened in. So Daniel points this out to the exterminator who examines the poop and announces we now have Roof Rats. I mean, come on!!!! (Apparently ground rats have round poo and roof rats have pointy poo - now you know.) So the acorns are their snack. Our back porch looks like the floor of a steakhouse meant for rats. 

All this nature is messing with my blood pressure. 

That brings us to today. We got up very early to meet our friend, Libby with Captured Moments to take some family/1st birthday pics. I can't wait to see them! She did SO GOOD!.

Here's a sneak peek from my phone. This picture is mine, don't judge. ;)

Such a cute little mess she is.

And tonight we got to attend a NICU reunion at the Children's Museum. She loved the bubbles!

And now we're going to bed. 

Until next time......

Hopefully things will simmer down.....

Krispy Cleaning

Yesterday I cleaned the baby's room which meant all the cute stuff I put on all the shelves had to come down. I put A LOT of cute stuff up! Yeesh.

While I was dusting, I came across her little lace crown. I ordered it off Etsy when she was born so we could have pictures taken with it.

She was so tiny!

And now look.

Such a big girl.

As I was cleaning off shelves I went through a box of cards I have. They're mostly congrats, get better, what a blessing cards. They made me emotional. Then at the bottom of the basket - I found this and snorted.

This was the name on a flower arrangement sent to me while I was in ICU. At least they got the first name right(ish)! That's impressive! ;) 

Until next time....

Nature

When we found our house, this gate is what sold it. For me that is. :) It's magical even when it's not in bloom. 

My Beloved has mentioned several times the gate is in bad shape and should be replaced. This causes me to have a mild tantrum so it has remained. I think he's hoping for a hurricane to come and take it out so it won't be his fault. He'll just to have to replace it with one just like it! Silly boy. 

This is all very ironic because I don't like outside. At all. So the gate is simply something I admire from inside the house where there are no bugs. Unless I have to take a picture of it - then I venture outside....quickly.

And now that the back fence is exposed to the world, I should probably stop going out there in my bathrobe. Whatever. 

I'm grateful for our very own Secret Garden gate, a sleeping baby and some chores checked off. Now it's time for a nap. ;)

Until next time....

A blooming arch

Day 20 - Clean

A bubbly bowl full of bitty bottles.

Clean. I like a mostly clean house. I'm not a fanatic. I understand we LIVE here so dirt and mess happen. We also have a dog so we'll never have clean floors again. These are things I've come to terms with.

However, I am NOT okay with sharing my home with rodents. No ma'am.

About a week ago the dog started barking at something. My Beloved checks and says it's nothing but really it's a small rat on the porch railing. Nasty.

We had the exterminator out and he put out some poison and set some traps in the attic. We haven't heard anything from the attic and since I'm up at all hours of the night, I feel this is my responsibility. I have great hearing and I've heard nothing. The exterminator suggests they're UNDER the porch. Yes, under the porch is better. 

Traps set, we're good to go.

Fast forward to Monday. We're having mom over for dinner and I look up to notice a few HUGE flys in our kitchen light. I jokingly say "you'd think we had something dead up in the attic!" And then we got quiet and looked at each other. 

My Beloved - "I'll check the trap."

He comes in from the garage and proceeds to get out a garbage bag and gloves and assures me "everything is fine." Liar, liar - pants on fire.

Now I'm in TOTAL freak mode with visions of our baby being carried off by a group of disgruntled rats in the middle of the night. Months ago when were having foundation issues, Daniel had to cut a hole in the kitchen to reinforce the cabinets. I also had visions of rats flying out at my face at 4am when I'm mixing bottles to avenge the one that went for the peanut butter. 

Because my husband loves me, he fixed that problem.

We're laying in bed that night and I say in all seriousness "it's just so gross! The house now has death in it." And he laughs because his wife is a CRAZY person.

I don't keep a dirty enough house to have RATS! Gross! But we live on a water way so it's going to happen. It doesn't mean I have to like it. One bit. 

Until next time...

Day 13 - Sound

Let me start by saying we're not early risers. And we've been blessed with a child that feels the same way. She ate at 6ish this morning then back to bed she went!

So at 9:30 am when the you-know-what hit the fan - she slept right through it. 

Here's how the day started....

At 9:30 am the door bell rings, the dog goes BERSERK and my Beloved springs out of bed. 
"It can't be 12:30 yet!" I say in my cold med drunken state. (The Exterminator is set to come at noon.) "No - it must be the city" he says. While he throws on some clothes, the neighbor calls to let me know it's the utility guys trying to get in to the backyard and she knows we have a big dog. 

I'm sure by now the whole neighborhood knows we have a 'big dog' - he barks his head off every time the mailman drops off the mail or they pick up our trash. EVERY TIME. 

So now we're up. We can't complain - it's almost 10 am for crying out loud! But we were sleeping good. 

As I'm getting in the shower before they city decides to cut the water off to fix the leak  I say "I'm going to need some coffee."

My Beloved - "You and me both sister!"

The city fixed the leak without having to remove our fence. The exterminator came and went. Daniel took the dog for a walk through this adventure. Atticus HATES the exterminator. 

After all the commotion, we left the house for a bit. The dog was working my nerve! And I've decided why Daniel is his favorite! When he acts up, I spray him with the water bottle (which might as well be acid with the way he reacts) however my Beloved gives him a treat to shut him up. Yeesh. 

The leak is fixed. The house has been debugged. We've had a cupcake. And now it's almost time for bed.

Until next time....

Day 12 - In the Distance

This week my Beloved is on Spring Break and because we are proud homeowners he's taming the backyard. And this is about as close to the Outside as I care to get...

our yard today

The previous homeowners of our house spent a small fortune in yard care. We are not those kind of people. We've slowly removed things that we don't care for. Mother Nature killed other things. The dog managed to destroy a few things. My Beloved has spent many a day moving rocks. The previous homeowners also liked rocks. A lot. 

My Beloved is in the process of building a storage shed in the backyard. This process is currently on hold due to the fact that we've found a water leak that the city will have to fix right in the area a shed is supposed to go. That'll be fun! 

When we moved in, the yard was set up for entertaining. I like to entertain! But Inside. And now our priorities have changed. We have a dog. We have a baby that will eventually be a little girl who might want a swing. We aren't gardeners. We like simple. So we're purging the backyard, so to speak, in a hopes that things will be more manageable. 

4 years ago

And who knows what our yard will look like in another four years! Hopefully there will be lots of grass, an open porch and a swinging little girl. 

But all that's in the distance. ;)

Until next time....

Day 28 - Upside Down

I made it to Day 28!! HOLLA!!! 

And let me tell you - it's been an upside down kind of day!

To start - last night my Beloved lets the dog out and says "crap". Awesome. I ask what's going on and he says Atticus is chasing something. Ok, what? He asks if I really want to know. Again, awesome. Turns out it's a rat. A nasty, disgusting RAT. AND it was on the roof of our porch!! That's TOUCHING THE HOUSE people!! NOT OKAY!

I spend the entire night dreaming of the Rat King running off with the baby. 

Luckily she was still in her bed this morning. Thank the Lord.

So I'm talking to Mom on the phone this morning when I notice a brown creature in our backyard. I immediately think "that's one HUGE rat!" but on closer inspection, it's only a small Chihuahua. 

I can't make this stuff up. I wish I'd had my camera with me. 

So I put the baby in her swing and head out to the backyard in my robe and slippers. Don't judge. Today was SUPPOSED to be 'Jammie's All Day' day - but Alice messed that up. More on that later. 

I head outside, turn the corner and notice not only the rogue Chihuahua attempting to wiggle back under the gate - but now he's brought his little friend! No sir! Our backyard will NOT become the cool neighborhood hang out for the local runaways while their parents are out. Not happening. So I'm talking to mom (who is laughing at the fact that I'm getting barked at by a yippy little Chihuahua IN MY OWN BACKYARD) and looking for something to block the bottom of the gate. I turn around and yelp because there the rogue thing is - barking at my feet. Yeesh. 

It's too early for this. 

I chase the dog back through the gate and put a long planter in place to block his way. 

Alice naps and I get a few chores done. When she wakes up I go to change her and she decides to pee all over herself before I can snap her new diaper. Now I have to dress her. I love dressing her but on days we're not going anywhere - it's just so much easier to leave her in the jammies. The constant Sock Battle is exhausting. However the Princess had other plans. So instead she's wearing a menagerie of items. 

This is her own doing.

Now it's 'Hot Mess Day' - cuz Baby Gurl lookin' a hot mess, mmmkay.

And Momma needs a drink.

Thank goodness my Beloved stopped for caffeinated. 

I didn't have this much excitement when I was working. This staying home stuff is exhausting. ;)

Until next time....

His Promises

When I was little and would get scared, I would run to my Mom. She would always read Hebrews 13:5-6 to me, pray with me and the fears would cease. It's my favorite verse and my favorite promise and something I needed to be reminded of today.

Hebrews 13:5-6: For God has said "I will never leave you, nor forsake you." So we can say with confidence "The Lord is my helper, so I will have no fear. What can mere people do to me?"

A few weeks ago, my Mamaw brought me this key chain. She didn't know the significance of the verse to me but funny things just work out that way. ;)
My LEAST favorite verse (probably I shouldn't have one but I'm human) can be found in James 1 ~ 'Consider it pure joy, my brothers and sisters, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith produces perseverance.' Yeah, I don't like that verse at all. :)

Today I'm thankful I believe in a God who loves me and comforts me and provides for me - even when I fail to ask. I'm thankful He loves me more than the stars and the sun He taught to shine. I'm thankful my Beloved and I both have jobs and live in a house and have food on our table. I'm thankful we're insured and loved and supported. And I'm thankful to be resting in His awesome grip and to be confident that this too shall pass. Or at least working on being confident this too shall pass. ;)

Count it all joy.....count it all joy.....

Until next time.....

A Sunday at Home

This was the first Sunday in a while that we got to be home and today my Beloved and I spent the day taking care of our house. We cleaned and vacuumed and dusted until everything sparkled. Now, soon after the floors were spotless the dog entered the room and that all changed. The joys of living with a beast! :)

We had to run an errand this evening and I snapped this picture. It was such a pretty sky! I couldn't resist.

Today I'm thankful for Sundays at home, our DVR, Harry Potter 7.2 and the inventor of the vacuum. I'm thankful for a pretty sky, my Daniel and our home - dog hair and all. :)

Until next time...

Day 28 - Flowers

The previous owners of our house spent a pretty penny to make our yard look exotic. And thanks to Mother Nature, a dog and our lack of desire/time to maintain it - it no longer resembles something out of Home and Garden magazine. We removed plants we didn't like and got rid of plants that were bad for dogs. And then Mother Nature killed what we had left. In hopes of replacing the 'pretty' parts of our yard, we planted a few Hibiscus bushes in the front yard. And so far they've survived! Regardless of the fact that we currently live on THE SURFACE OF THE SUN.

Here is one today!

It's so pretty! :) I really hope we don't kill it.

Until next time....

Day 23 - Sunflare

When we were house hunting, my aunt and I accidentally found our house. :) It was a For Sale by Owner type deal with a website attached. We drove home, pulled up the site and the first picture is this gate. And I fell in love. It's so magical! A gate Anne of Green Gables would dream up stories about. A Secret Garden gate that holds in all things magical. I'm telling you, I was sold! The inside of the house was fine too. ;)

The gate isn't in pristine condition and Daniel mentioned replacing it a while back. I had a fit - "that's the main reason I bought the house!" This made my Beloved roll his eyes to the heavens and say "oh great."
SEE!! Doesn't it look magical?!

Until next time....

Day 13 - Yourself with 13 Things

Travis thinks this might be stretching it with "yourself" since it's only my hand but we're just going to go with it! This is our Fridge.

On it there are 5 birth announcements, 1 engagement picture (their newborn child is also on the fridge, this probably means the engagement picture can come down but I like it) 4 pictures of children I love, Library Hours (again, I like to be prepared), a noodle drawing Tami did for me in High School and a post card from Alaska. You might have noticed that those are not the only items on the fridge, only the highlights.

Until next time...

Sinking Sand

Owning a home is a blessing and a curse. It's fun to decorate and have a space that's YOURS. But cleaning it all the time isn't all that enjoyable. And eventually the fun place to decorate falls apart. Right now I fear our house is slowly sinking. The house had foundation issues corrected with the previous homeowners with the exception of one section of the house. That would be the sinking section. Our Kitchen. So there's cracks in the floor, the walls are shifting and an entire cabinet section is coming down (which means my dishes are now on the floor of our guest room). And I'm trying to handle it with patience. But patience isn't my strong point. And I don't do well with living in chaos. This is an expense we are expecting to have to come up with soon.

So last week when our bathroom sink started leaking in to our bedroom, we were a little unprepared. It soaked some of our carpet and popped tiles in our middle bathroom. We didn't know where the water was coming from and had to spend some time searching. Daniel comes in to the kitchen on Saturday morning and says "I think I'm going to have to take the mirror down". Again, I don't live well in chaos. And by this time our bedroom looks like our bathroom threw up all over it. And now he wants to take the mirror down. It's a REALLY big mirror which means lots of bad luck if it breaks.

There's a scene in Turner and Hooch where Tom Hanks comes home to a DISASTER and in his shock he just starts scrubbing a counter top. I kind of felt a lot like that. I just picked up a rag and started cleaning the kitchen.

Luckily they located the leak and the mirror didn't have to come down. It was an easy fix. But now we have to fix a tile floor we didn't plan on having to fix and decide what to do about the carpet that has seen better days.

And I need to vacuum. And there are weeds in the flowerbeds. And our house is still sinking. And.....