Happy Halloween!

Happy Halloween!

We are getting ready for trick-or-treaters and Taylor is dressed up and ready to go. She is so cute and doesn't like her costume at all. This year she is Paris Hilton.

Promotion!

Blake got a promotion today, surprise!!! He is still going to be a
Produce Manager for Food Lion, he is just working at a new
location...Manchester, TN. He has a longer drive (45 minutes) but the
store is newly renovated and does about $14k more a week in produce
sales. He was recommended by theDistrict Manager...so I think he is really excited to have a change of pace.

Taylor is growing so fast. We have been getting her ready for Halloween. Can't wait to post pictures of her outfit! Unfortunately, we are going to have to get her fixed soon. She has shown interest in certain activities...if you know what I mean.


Hope everyone had a good weekend.

Let It Rain!

Here is a picture of the tree damage. Doesn't look like much or even that big of a limb...but it did a number! The hole in the roof has been fixed...now we are waiting to get a quote on the gutter. It's been pretty entertaining (NOT!) when it's pouring to hear the spatter on the porch. Kinda sounds like we have a tin roof when you are walking past the door. Oh well.
We are getting the tree cut down in a few weeks.

I'm loving the rain, especially since I seeded and fertilized on Sunday ;0)

Blake finished his first class last night. He has now moved on to his second class. He was excited to get off an hour early last night :0)

Pretty uneventful day. Have a good week!

Weekend Drama

The terror tree (pictured) punctured our roof and penetrated everything (shingle, 2 layers of plywood) except drywall! But, if it rained then it would of caused our ceiling to collapse. Luckily, we had a roofer come out and patch it up with a metal patch and reshingle. So that has been taken care of. Thank goodness it didn't rain this weekend! WHEW!

The gutter is mangled and unfortunately, is one big long piece, so we are going to have to get quotes on that. Apparently gutter-men don't work on weekends.

We had 3 quotes for tree removals. They were $2500, $2100 and $950. Why the big difference? One tree guy showed up 2 hours late and ended up coming at the same time as another tree quote guy. I think it was competition. Insurance will only cover $500 for a single tree removal, so looks like this is going to be fun for us, since we've decided to pay it out of pocket. At least once we get the tree removed, we won't have to worry about that again.

Other than that, pretty uneventful weekend. Blake had bookoo's of homework and I went to a bachelorette party in Murfreesboro. We cleared out the back some more and straighten up some privets that were damaged during the storm.

I'm still getting around to the after pictures. SORRY!

Tree Downage

Last nights storm brought us many presents. We heard a "thump" around midnight and got up to access the damage. The top of a dead tree fell on the back roof / porch area and has ripped off part of the gutters. The tree / limb landed on the grill and is covering the entire porch. Luckily, I don't think there is any damage to the roof, grill or anything else but we will be checking that this afternoon. Looks like we are going to have to get that tree taken down, which is going to be a pretty penny. I think Blake can fix the gutters himself, but if he can't, I guess that's why we have homeowner's insurance! Other parts of the tree (i.e. limbs) are lying all around the yard in hopes to being picked up. Joy.
Anyone know any good tree removal people?

On a lighter note, was very pleased with Grey's last night.

Have a good weekend.

Update

Project #1:
Still doing good. Privets appear to be happy in their new home...but I guess I won't be able to tell whether they'll make it for a couple of weeks. I'm still watering (except for today because it finally rained - YEAH!)

Project #2:
Seeded all of the front and sides but ran out of seed before I got to the back. Suckage. Will have to buy some this weekend and start again.

Project #3:
We started this yesterday afternoon. Blake has cleared out almost all of the very back; so I'm guessing we are working from back to front. There is a lot of bushes / prickly limbs. Blake is clearing and I'm cleaning. We have called the Fire Dept and Town of Smyrna to get burning permits, but we don't need one; just need the neighbors to not complain. We will be looking for a big whiskey barrel...not sure where to look for one at but will still be on the lookout. I don't think it's going to take as long as we both originally thought but it will suck as much as we thought!

Project #4:
Will start on this soon. Still contemplating design.

I'm glad it's Thursday (Greys!), glad it's raining and glad that we are getting closer to Halloween. Life is good!

Glad that's over!

Project #1: COMPLETE
I finished transplanting the privets. Got into a little "discussion" about where our property lines were, which delayed me by 3 hours, but everything was worked out. I had to recruit mom & dad to help because of time crunch. When I started digging, I discovered nothing but gravel underneath, which is probably why the other ones died. So, I got my parents to bring a truck bed full to replace. I'm having to water them heavy to get them to readjust. I've taken before pictures, just haven't had time to get around to the "after". Will be posting them soon, hopefully.
Project #2: UNDERWAY
I'm reseeding the yard this week (hopefully before it rains). I've been saturating the ground getting it ready to accept the seeds. I have to wait until Blake cuts the grass because once I seed, he won't be able to for a couple of weeks. After the seeds have started to sprout, I'm going to winterize (?) and weed and feed. Hopefully next year we will have better grass.
Project #3: DREADING
I am not excited about clearing out the back. I'm fearful that there are TONS of snakes and ticks and little crawly things. I'd rather wait until it gets cooler, but I know I will never get it done if I wait. I HATE cold weather! SO...I'll be starting on that this upcoming weekend hopefully.
Project #4: STILL CONTEMPLATING
I want to extend our flower bed around the house...but I'm thinking that may be a spring project, since I won't be able to plant anything right now. Blake and I agree on what we want to do, we just aren't really sure how we want it to look. It's slowly coming to us.

Needless to say, I'm glad to be at work sitting on my butt today. My whole body aches.

Hope you had a great weekend!!!! and a great week.

Weekend Post

Well, it's been a long but good week...
This weekend Blake is working ALL weekend, so I'm going to get a head start on some of the yard work. We are unable to rent a tiller so we get to do it all by hand! How exciting!
Other than that, not much going on. We are going to our neighbor's birthday party. He will be 8!!!!

Have a good weekend.

We had a wonderful weekend. The in-laws came in town and we had excitement from sun up to sun down.
On Saturday, we had breakfast at brother & sister-in-laws; went to Cheekwood and got some ideas for our garden; ate dinner at our place.
On Sunday, we ate breakfast at Noshville; went on the General Jackson; ate at Pei Wei and watched the movie, Breach.
Blake's mom had a really nice birthday...too bad his dad wasn't feeling very well.

Blake went to school yesterday and I rested. Our plans next weekend are to either aerate / seed the yard and start moving the garden over OR tilling up the privets on one side and moving half to the other side. Either project is not going to be fun, but I really want to do it before the cold weather hits. Blake has to work all weekend, so it really depends on how I can operate the machinery for the majority of the day. Hopefully, our hard work will pay off next year! I'm already ready for spring and to start planting.

I am trying to come up with ideas for our new side garden. It only gets morning sun and is in the shade for most of the day. There is a big air conditioner unit that I'm interested in hiding as well. I really like elephant ears and would like to bring some color into the garden. Any suggestions are welcomed! I'm also going to start an herb garden this winter in the house and transfer those into pots on the back porch once the weather is nice again. I'm going to start doing research soon for things I'd like to do. Another project we have to do before winter is to clear out the brush in our back yard. This will be the BIGGEST TASK of all and will be a major headache. Def. not looking forward to that. I'm putting that last on the list because I really dread it and I have a feeling there are a lot of critters (i.e. ticks, snacks, etc.) back there. I'd rather wait until the winter, but I'm afraid that it will never get done and the ground will be too hard to do anything.

Hope everyone had a great weekend and a great week.

TGIF!

Yeah, it's Friday. The weekend has officially begun. Last night, Grey's was really good. I got some cleaning done, which was good :0)
Tonight we are going grocery shopping. The in-laws are on their way in town and we are going to make a tasty menu for everyone tomorrow night. We are also thinking about taking Taylor to the pet store for a Halloween costume. I finally convinced Blake to let her have one. I'll post a picture once we buy it!!!!

Hope everyone has a great weekend.

Pretty Boring

Last night was also uneventful. We gave Taylor her Frontline...brushed her teeth, which was pretty interesting...but went well.

We are going to have about the same routine tonight...but tomorrow night is a different story with GREY's coming on. Tomorrow night will be a night dedicated to pizza and couch time. I'm so excited.

Hope you are having a wonderful week.

Uneventful

Pretty uneventful day.

I'm proud to announce that Blake and I got a full nights rest last night. Taylor slept in her kennel because she was a bad girl. She is teething really bad. I gave her a pill for the first time last night and she LOVED it. I hid it in peanut butter and she went nuts!!! She didn't cry or anything...which makes me hopeful that we haven't "ruined" her from not sleeping in our bed.

Other than that, Blake is going to do homework and I'm going to continue cleaning!!!!

I'm ready for Friday! The in-laws are coming in town and we are sooo excited. It's felt like forever since we've all hung out and we always have a great time. I'll get a bottle of wine, some nice steaks/salmon and live it up on the porch in this beautiful weather.
That's all for now. Have a good night.

Sleepy

It's been a long day. The morning didn't start off to great when I showed up late to a training session in Nashville because I got lost. Oh well...
Work was fine just long.

This weekend was great. We basically did nothing, which we haven't done in a long time. Blake caught up on his homework and played with his new baby (Apple Mac Book Pro) while I cleaned the gutters and weeded out the flower bed. I feel really productive...now I just need to tackle the inside. Last weekend I got a lot of the nasty dusting out of the way (fans, vents, window treatments) because we had my parents ladder. I really enjoy being on ladders...not sure why, just do. We also watched Perfect Strangers...which was a good movie. I would recommend it to Halle Barry fans.

Tonight Blake has school and Taylor and I are going to my grandma's house for dinner. Taylor will be getting her first Frontline tick & flea spray tonight along with a Heartworm pill. I'm really looking forward to giving her both. She has now officially learned how to jump on the bed; which is keeping me up all night. That would explain why I'm sleepy now. We should have heeded everyone's warnings about letting the pup sleep on the bed, now the reversal process is going to have to be put to work, which is a pain in the butt. It was worth it to let her sleep on the bed because it did a 180 for her potty-training wise.

Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend and a good week!