And we're done

With yard projects for the rest of this year.

Thursday was Joe's birthday and he took yesterday off. We spent the morning cleaning and finishing the back patio. Last night it finally cooled off some so we sat outside and had a beer and enjoyed our new patio.

Before:

After:

One year ago today...

I started this blog with this, this and this post. I can't believe it has already been one whole year - time certainly does fly.

Thanks for reading and here's to year number 2!

An easy meal

What do you get with left over chicken, rice, eggs and frozen veggies? Homemade chicken fried rice!

Ingredients:
Rice
3 eggs
1/2 cup - cup of chicken (diced)
1/2 bag of frozen veggies
soy sauce
plum sauce (optional)

Directions
Make eggs like you would for scrambled eggs. Once done, set aside on plate. Place frozen veggies in pan and cook til heated. Add diced chicken, rice and soy sauce. Cook til heated through.

I also added 2 tbsp of plum sauce which I had on hand from another recipe. I was super surprised at how good this was and how big of a meal leftovers can make.

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to all the Dad's out there.

And to my Dad - Thanks for being the best dad a gal could ask for! Wish we could be there to celebrate with you. PS - Thanks for the call this morning!! :)

Does it ever end?

Last weekend Joe and I finally decided to tackle the other side of our front yard so it matches the other side.

I was thrilled to have help this year and Joe actually started Friday when he got home from work. I had borrowed "the claw" from a friend last year and Joe used that to start. However, by Saturday morning, Joe had rented a tiller which made life oh so much easier.

Not only did we "rip up" the front yard, we also ripped up some of the backyard. When we bought the house 2 years ago (I can't believe it has been 2 years!!) there was a kennel in the back that we haven't done anything with. We've debated about what to do with that area and finally decided to rip it up and lay rock (similar to mom and dad's backyard). However, that is still a work in progress.

Here are some before pictures:

Front yard before

Front yard before

Old kennel area

Kennel area minus the super heavy brick

Joe and Tony working hard

After

Yes, this is still what that area looks like. We wanted to get the front accomplished and this will be our next project. Right now it is covered with tarp and has now turned into a little swimming pool because we finally got rain. Now for the "after" shots of the front yard!!

View from front door

View from sidewalk

After lots of bags of mulch, rock, more mulch and more rock we finally finished around 3 pm on Saturday afternoon. We were both ready to do nothing and nothing is what we did for the rest of the night. I woke up Sunday, surprisingly, not as sore as I thought which meant I must have spent more time supervising this year.

Anyway, Joe and I love our front yard now, although he does have to grow some grass along the rock. Hopefully if it stops raining, we'll be able to tackle the back this weekend and then no more yard projects until next year.

The 100th post

Yep - this is post number 100 and next week will be one year that I started blogging. I suppose if I wouldn't have taken that one, nice long break from blogging, I probably would have hit #100 a little bit sooner but oh well.

You'd probably think that I would do something "memorable" for the 100th post but nope - just gonna throw it out there that this number 100.

Hostas - the new weed?

Seriously? Can they get any bigger? I actually dug out this one because it was so huge and I had to jump on the shovel to split it. It split into 5 or 6 hostas, I don't remember exactly. I dug up two more and figured I save the front ones for next year.

This one is coming out next year!!

The other thing I don't like about gardening is how quickly they die. This is a beautiful iris and they looked so nice for about a week. Then rain came and they're all dead.

Thankfully, this little pot always has flowers in bloom and I love it. If I didn't have to plant them every year, I would have a whole yard full of flowers like the ones below:

Congratulations Derek

Hi Derek,

Congratulations on your graduation. Joe and I heard the party was great and we wish we could have been there to celebrate with you!

Way to go Derek!!

Love,

Brooke and Joe

Happy Anniversary

Happy Anniversary...

Uncle Artie and Aunt Lori - June 13th

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday...

Amy Lou - June 4th

Uncle Mike - June 19th

Joe - June 25th

Savana - June 28th

Hope your days are fabulous!!