Inch By Inch

Our yard is moving ever closer to becoming mud-less.  Not that I ever hope to have it entirely mud FREE, but LESS is wonderful and I’m happy with that. 

The backyard just makes me happy.  What?  You don’t understand?  Let me just show you:

BEFORE:

And ya’ll have seen some of the AFTER shots, but here’s the inches that have gotten covered this weekend.  The inches that are covered with 18+ tons of crushed gravel.  HELLO GIANT PATIO. 

 

Next project: Find something to do with that leftover pile of gravel (like sell it to the neighbor) and power wash that unsightly mud line left over from the rain splatters during the time of the reign of mud.  Oh, and clean up that plastic and build some steps up to the playground, which will effectively cover the remaining major dirt area.  Yippee!

Methinks it’s high time for a celebration.  Perhaps a cookout.  In our backyard.  Wanna come?

FYI for future reference, ticking me off would be a very bad idea.  Not to discourage you from coming to previously mentioned celebration or anything but, see that pile of gravel in the last picture up there?  That is a little less than HALF of what my lonesome self and my faithful shovel started with at 9am this morning.  At 11:30am, when KC got home, that was about what was left (I say about, because he did help me finish up the last bit) and when we quit at noon, that was the pile that was left.

In case you didn’t catch that, three hours of shoveling and raking.  I’m guessing about 9 ton of gravel moved…and trust me, it didn’t move by itself (although I found myself wishing for that a few times).  Not only is that a killer workout, my right hook just got a little more powerful.  BWAHAHAHAHAAA

What Happened?

*Disclaimer* My tone may be a little down in this post.  It’s not been a
sunshine-y week for me, I guess…but this is my mood this week, so if you prefer bright and happy, just leave now.  If I wait till all is happy and bright again, it may be a long time between posts.  Like it or lump it…life ain’t always “UP.”  So if you keep reading, remember you’ve been warned and if you dare try to lecture me about it (or lecture about it/me to anyone else) this is not the week when I just lie down and take it.

*MOVING ON*

It has been an odd week.  It’s been so busy that on Tuesday night, it felt like I’d already been through a full week and I thought it was Thursday night.  Tonight it really IS Thursday night and I can’t figure out where the week went and why I haven’t blogged.  Well.  I can tell you why I haven’t blogged. 

I’ve been B.U.S.Y.  Being Unusually Stressed Yout.  LOL.  (well, couldn’t come up with a Y word.)

Monday was my daddy’s birthday (Happy Birthday, Dad!) and I was so busy it completely slipped my mind.  I’m such a terrible child.  Mom called to remind me on Tuesday (thanks, mom, but you should have called to remind me on SUNDAY!  LOL).  NAYWAY.  I made a special trip down to their town and took them both to Lunch on Wednesday (double whammy since Wednesday was their anniversary). 

Anyways, {GUYS, LOOK AWAY NOW!} besides feeling guilty for my utter forgetfulness, it’s also been a week of PMS…must be making up for the last few months when the PMS has been pretty low key. 

{KAY…YOU CAN LOOK AGAIN} and the kids…eeeesh.  OFF THE CHARTS.  Don’t know what Munchkin’s problem is now, but since Sunday, she is doing things deliberately to get in trouble.  Writing on the walls, playing with water in rooms where water doesn’t belong and making a wet mess of everything, super super bossy, getting up after being tucked in bed (wayyy past bedtime) and playing with her toys…serious defiance issues going on and I don’t know what caused it, but my mood is not in the mood for it this week.  I don’t know what she’s thinking except I know she knows what she’s doing, because each time, she’s explained to me exactly what rule she broke AND the reason for the rule (and these are not new rules either)…the only thing she WON’T tell me is WHY she feels like acting this way all of a sudden.  *sigh*  She’s got a TON of toys and things, but at the rate she’s going, they’re ALL going to be in temporary banishment in my room before much longer.  I might have to find a new storage place for “temporary banishment” cuz my room is starting to get cluttered.  LOL!  K-man has been better at school than he was, but he’s been up like the last 18 nights in the middle of the night….just sitting there crying until I go in there.  Nothing wrong, he’s just gotta potty.  I’m like, hey, no biggie, don’t cry about it, just get up and go and stop crying about it.  Like I said, this is not a good week for my patience level.  But I’m workin on it.  Needless to say, I’ve been praying quite a bit this week.  LOL!  Mostly that I don’t go off the deep end…sometimes it works.  Not complaining, really, just stating facts.  They’re good kids, I’m not forgetting that, just having a hard time this week trying to be patient with these out of the ordinary behaviors.  *sigh*  This parenting business is tough!

Then there’s my de-stressing time…in which I’ve been doing digi-scrapping (yeah, instead of blogging.  LOL).  I’m putting that stuff up over on the Always Faith Designs Blog (at least one of my blogs is getting updates, right?)

Oh and let’s not forget the working my tail off on house stuff part.  Today especially.  I filed about a thousand and one trees worth of paperwork.  Have I mentioned that I haven’t filed since 2007?  That’s two years, people!  And before that, the files were a bit scattered, a few years of this stuff in that box and a few years of this other stuff in this box….that kind of thing.  Definitely a mess.  Which was why I kept putting it off.  ALL STINKIN DAY I FILED.  My back is KILLIN me.  KC says it builds character. 

Close your eyes for a second so I can roll mine. Kay.  I’m done.  (BLESS HIS HEART!  LOL)  Really, he’s great.  I love him.  Even if he does give me a hard time.  *GRIN*

Nuff about that.  (Oh, except to say that all the OLD files are now neatly organized together and ready to pack away and all the –semi-CURRENT files are in the filing cabinet and –mostly- sensibly organized –Mission accomplished).

Weeding the landscaping?  Well, let’s not talk about that either. My fingers still hurt.  *note to self, please buy new gardening gloves.  Ones that have the fingers worn clear through will not be much help*

Sister’s night out on Tuesday night.  Now that was fun!  I was SO ready for that one! 

Laundry…ohhhhh the laundry just NEVER goes away.  *SIGH*

Well, this post is making me tired.  I’ve got to start blogging more regularly so that my posts don’t so closely resemble to-do lists…or rather, HAVE DONE lists. 

LOL!  In brighter news, only a few more days till beach time!  YAHOO!  And then only a few days past that till back to school time.  YOW.  Got too much to do. 

I Played

In Photoshop. 

A challenge from FaithSisters to take a Humpty Dumpty template (a template that fell apart) and put it back together again in your own way…

SOOOO much fun. 

Info/Credits are at Always Faith Designs.

The original humpty dumpty template is there, too.  =) 

Weekend Recap

Friday night: Married Couples Night at church. 

Saturday morning: Went yard junk saling in the morning.  Found ZILCH.  Nada.  Bummed out.  Then KC’s mom came by and got the kids.

Saturday afternoon: KC and I went to Ryan’s birthday party.  He turned 13.  But he wasn’t feeling so hot, so he wasn’t really able to join the party.  When we left the party, we couldn’t handle being kid-less, so we took a couple of the teen guys from church with us and also went and picked up a couple more teen guys (I was totally outnumbered) and went to the town down the road and played Lazer tag.  One game we played against each other and the other game, the six of us played against a large group of kids/adults.  We made a good team I guess, since we worked together and beat the other team by around 10,000 points.  LOL!

Saturday night: KC, the four guys, and I, came back to the house and I fixed pizzas and then we went and played tennis and hung out and then we came back to the house and a couple of the guys stayed the night and KC took the others home.  And that was like a couple of really bad run-on sentences .  YOW. 

Anyways.  It was fun.  And now I have the itch to go play more tennis, only it’s a little complicated when you have kids…I’m wondering how it would work to bring my laptop and play a movie on the edge of the tennis court for the two kids to watch.  That would give us about an hour if we’re lucky.  LOL!!!  OH WELL.  It’s one idea. 

Sunday: Whoa.  Two extremely serious services.  Intense.  Don’t know what to say about it other than that. 

Today (although Monday is most definitely NOT part of the weekend): Math tutoring, tried to get caught up, laundry (I decided when I was folding all gazillion pieces of kids clothing, that instead of putting it all away, I’d pick out their clothes for the beach and stick those in the suitcase, so now I feel like I’m a step ahead and only had 2/3 of the clothes to put away in their rooms….LOL), paid the bills (and got them in the mail), went out and bought dishwasher tabs because I was flat out (AND did the dishes), vacuumed the house, emptied the trash (and cleaned the kitty box), played a game of GO FISH with Munchkin, clipped the dead flowers off the flowers in the front porch boxes, ate three square meals, cleaned up after three square meals, took my vitamins, more laundry, checked my email and wished for more time to play on the computer, and I’m sure I could come up with more items that were accomplished today but I’m ready for playtime and since it’s like 9:43, it’s getting really short. 

I have an incredible urge to do some photoshoppin….so see ya!

A Full Weekend

I’ll come back and post pics of some of it later, but I was working on these from Saturday and couldn’t resist going ahead and posting a link over to them.  *GRIN*

This one down below….

Well, it was so appropriate.  *GRIN*  I think it might have been one of my favorites.  LOL!

Anyway.  They’re all up here.

Oh yeah, and my business cards came.  They turned out SOO cool.  I feel all important.  I said I FEEL all important.  That’s not the same as BEING.  HAH.

I’ll be back maybe tomorrow to finish up the weekend recap.

August Photo Hunt

Well, here we go again!  Click the picture to go to the sign up and see the list.  I’m playing again.  Having too much fun to stop now!  LOL!  Care to join me?

July Photo Hunt Blitz!

Well, I couldn’t find one, so I made up my own, and then found another one so I did TWO.  Here’s the first one that I made up, and the other participants are Sherrie, Jules, Leann, and Kelly, who I haven’t checked yet to see if she finished or not.  The second hunt is below this one.  So here goes:

1. A hat
   
   Shopping in Pigeon Forge…I tried the hat on her…JUST for this picture!  LOL!
   
   
2. Something Furry
   
   Snowball up close…
   
   
3. Warm
    
   I love hot tubs.  Especially after a chilly walk up the hill from the pool…at 7:30pm.
   
   
4. Space
    
   The sun is one of the easiest pieces of our solar system to catch on camera.  And that’s part of SPACE, right? LOL.
   
   
5. Something Yellow
   
   I used this list item to complete one of the photo editing class assignments and for the second one, I got a little corny.  LOL.  Sorry.
   
   
6. Hands
    
   KC’s hand on the steering wheel.  MMM.
   
   
7. Stripes
   
   The Stars & Stripes
   
   
8. Something Triangle Shaped
   
   The doors on the building below (#13).  Actually, more like an X, but if you look at the shapes inside the X, they’re triangles. 
   
   
9. Death
   
   Some random graveyard.  I picked it because it was super old and I LOVE super old graveyards.  Yeah, I know.  I’m weird like that.  I think the first picture (the tall headstone in the middle) might have been a confederate soldier (at least, there is a confederate flag right in front of his tombstone).  But I’m not sure because these graves were so old that only a FEW had any writing on them…most of them were just rocks placed in the ground.  Or maybe it was a war graveyard and they didn’t have names for them, they just buried them.  Who knows.  The second picture must have been the rich folks in town that could afford to have a name put on theirs.  Mr. Goode died 100 years before I was born. 
   
   
10. A Lock
    
    The lock on my trusty camera case
    
    
11. Wrinkle(s)
    
    The leather on the van seat
    
    
12. Something Blue
    
    The Blue Ridge Mountains
    
    
13. Repetition
    
    This building is a STUDY in repeating objects: windows, doors, those three things on the roof…
    
    
14. Something Irritating
     
    Let’s see…let’s go over the things pictured here that irritate me.  Electric lines that interupt perfectly good pictures.  Red lights.  And those little signs that say No Turn On Red.  Those are generally at intersections where you would really LIKE to be able to turn right on red.  UGH.  But I don’t.  USUALLY.  And I especially watch for traffic cameras.  HA.  Had to throw that in.  LOL!
    
    
15. An Emotion
    
    Excitement/Joy/Laughter
    
    
16. Tool(s)
    
    K-man’s tools.  He got these for Christmas 2 years ago and as evidenced by the many dents and nicks, has spent MANY hours playing with them in the last two years. 
    bang bang bang “Can we fix it? YES, WE CAN!” bang bang bang   - K-man
    
    
17. Black & White
    
    Black (the new van) & White (the old SUV in the background)
    

 

Part Deux (this one is from Phun with Photography and the post with the participants who completed it is HERE.)

1. Disney character
    
   Cinderella in front of Melissa & Doug’s Castle.  LOL (I borrowed munchkin toys for this shot.  Seriously…they’re not mine.  hahaha)
   
   
2. someone in uniform
    
   This was an interesting one to get…she saw me taking her picture and I wasn’t quite sure how to explain what I was doing…so I opted to just keep moving…LOL…then KC called me down and said “HONEY, TELL HER WHY YOU’RE TAKING HER PICTURE!”  So then I had no choice…lol!  She laughed.  But at least she didn’t throw me in cuffs or anything…haha
   
   
3. work of art
   
   The adorable birthday card that Kelbs (a girl at church) made for the munchkin’s birthday.  It pops up.  Totally cute!
   
   
4. A word spelled with unusual lettering
    
   A word on the back of a truck when we were coming back from Ohio…
   
   
5. a hat
   
   K-man’s hat hanging on his bunkbed. 
   
   
6. a tree native to your area
   
   I *THINK* this is a River Birch.  If so, then it’s native to our area.  If not, hopefully one of the other trees in the background will qualify.  Otherwise I’ll just have to get an A for Effort.  Haha.
   
   
7. a bug
   
   My arch-enemy – the June Bug (well, that’s not the correct name for them, but that’s what my momma always called them.  I think they are actually Japanese beetles.  Whatever, I don’t like them.)  My ferns are looking green again, but I spotted another one the other day, so I guess it’s time to Sevin again.  Oh, and this was a GREAT grand-daddy one that we found in the cabin in TN.  HUGE.  That railing it’s perched on is a 2x4. 
   
   
8. library/book
   
   I like to call this one “Reading – Interupted”  (a scenario that is frequent around here)
   
   
9. sign in more than 2 languages
   
   Couldn’t find this one, so had to google it and snap a pic of the screen.  LOL!
   
   
10. money/ foreign currency
    
    The foreign currency that KC’s Aunt framed for us for Christmas last year.  If you’ve never thought about using foreign money for house decor, it’s veryyy cool looking!
    
    
11. a pool
    
    This picture makes me laugh because K-man looks to be pointing at his foot…in front of the ONE FOOT sign in the kiddie pool.  LOL!
    
    
12. the colour purple
    
    On our back deck…not sure what kind of flower.
    
    
13. a window - or looking through a window
     
    The view from the back window-paned door….
    
    
14. crying
     
    Puddles of sadness
    
    
15. a fruit
    
    Watermelon in our fridge.  This thing has been here about 4 weeks.  Anyone have a clue how long they can sit in the fridge and still be good?
    
    
16. a sport
    
    Take your pick…the sporting goods aisle in K-mart…haha
    
    
17. sky
    
    Fireworks in the sky – July 4th
    
    
18. license plate from another State/Province/Country
    
    Some random tag in Virginia.  THEY weren’t out of state, but I was.  LOL!
    
    
19. Height
    
    The Longaberger building in Ohio.  HUGE…there is definitely some height going on…check out the little fence along the road in comparison.  hahaha!
    
    
20. Music
    
    The Dan Tyminski Band on stage at a bluegrass festival.
    

And that’s it.  WHEW.  I left probably half the pictures to the very last couple of days.  I am such a procrastinator.  LOL!

thanks for looking!