Phase 1

Before: After:
I painted the trim on our house the past couple weekends. There still are a lot of updates we want to do, but it's nice to have the red gone.

So proud

I know this is a silly post but I don't care. I found this recipe and it sounded so good. So I went to the store to buy shrimp and noticed the noncooked shrimp was cheaper. So bought it and learned how to devein the shrimp. It was then marinaded in this spicy sauce I made and then put on the skewers with the vegtables. They turned out so tasty I just had to show the pictures of the colorful dinner we made.

Uncooked...

Cooking...

Eating...

Back to real life

While we were gone we had a tree cut down. The mess was waiting for us when we got home. With the help of my parents, Alan, and a chipper, here is the work we were able to accomplish in 3 hours.

This is the ugly tree that is left. In the long term plan, this tree will come down also.Here is how big the stump is that is left: The big pile of branches my dad made before we got home:

The pile is gone!

From Hawaii

Currently I am sitting in our condo in Hawaii and decided to make you all jealous by posting pictures of the fantastic time we are having here.

Just a nice beach we snorkled at.

At the Luau.

The brothers.

The ocean that claimed the life of our camera (why do swim trunks have pockets?!?!)

Shaved ice is so good!
Another beautiful sunset in paradise.

Our hard work.

Between being a part of the Easter play at church and crummy weather Ben and I have been working hard to finish our side yard project. Last weekend we finished the retaining wall and today the fence guy came and put the fence up. Look at our progress!

This is the retaining wall on our side of the fence (notice the yard still needs to be leveled and have grass planted): This is the beginning of the retaining wall dividing our property:

Same wall from the other side:

And this picture I took with my hand over the fence to show the completed look from my neighbor's side of the fence:

Doesn't it all look so good??? Now all we have to do is rotatill (however you spell that word) up the yard this weekend, plant gross, finish the retaining wall along the back of our yard, decide what kind of plants to put in the back part of our yard, buy some river rock and we are done! So close...kind of. I love it!

Our latest project

During the spring and summer my favorite thing to do is work in our yard. Last summer we took on a portion of our yard and built a retaining wall and planted grass giving us a larger yard to enjoy. This year we are taking on a different portion of the yard and rebuilding a fence. Below is our progress thus far.

Before....

(Ok, you can't tell but the yard is slanting up away from the camera and to the right, which is why it needed to be dug out and evened.)

In the middle....

Can you see Ben working hard here? He is wearing camo so you may miss him.

I don't have end pictures yet because we are not done. Now we have to go buy the materials and put it all back together again. I can't wait for next weekend!

I must be growing up...

The other night I watched the President's address to congress and was not only interested in it, but had several thoughts of my own I told the President during his speech (he didn't respond). It's funny to me that when I was a kid I was annoyed the President's speech was on all the channels and now, I watch it willing. Weird.