Wow, things here have just exploded!  I am cleaning like crazy this week.  Everything that we have been waiting on has decided to all show up ahead of when we thought.  Our shower door wasn’t supposed to be in until next week and we thought the same thing with our cabinets.  We brought the shower door home last night and the cabinets will be here Friday.  This is so exciting!  I was bummed out that we have not made any progress on the house in over a week and thought it would be another week or so until we did.  Now my parents are coming down this weekend to help us install the cabinets. Also my sister, brother-in-law, and their 3 kids will be stopping by for lunch Friday on their way to Tennessee.  This is so so so exciting for me because none of my family have been down here since I moved a year and a half ago.  They are all way over due to see first hand where I live now!

Blake is still doing his ride-alongs this week so that means I have to try to get things ready for company by myself.  He will help me get things cleaned up in the house so we have room to work on the cabinets.  Right now it is such a construction mess!

  This is what it looks like right now.  There are boxes everywhere and tools spread all over. 

I will have lots of great pictures to post next week after the weekend.  Until then I have to get back to cleaning!

Literally!

  This is the empty lot next door to us.  From this distance it almost looks peaceful and pretty.  We need to take a closer look!

  Here we are where our yard meets the empty lot.  The lot will probably remain empty because it is a big hole.  It would be hard for anyone to ever build a house here.  That has its pros and cons…trust me.  The owner of the subdivision is supposed to keep all empty lots mowed.  He has yet to mow this so far this year.  So the wind is blowing all of the weeds seeds right into our yard.  It has been a nightmare and I need help.  Just so we really know what we are dealing with lets look even closer!

 This one is about as tall as I am.  I would love to know what I could use as a natural weed killer in my flower beds.  I have been using Roundup but I have to use so much of it.  I really don’t like using chemicals like that but I have never heard of any natural remides that work and won’t hurt my flowers.  Not to mention the cost of buying the Roundup!  So if anyone has any thoughts on this, please don’t hold back!

  Here is an example of how thick they are growing in my plants.  I can only pull so many before I will be right back in bed with a hurting back.  The weed I am fighting the most is Johnson Grass.  I never delt with this in Ohio.  Some of this country living is still so new to me.  Between this and the clay here I might pull my hair out!

Today is Blake’s first day on his ride alongs.  He is going to school to be an EMT and he has to have some on the job training this week.  It is going to be a long week for me!  He will be gone from 8-6 the next 6 days and also has his usual class from 6-10 two nights this week.  Today is a class day so it is a long one.

I am still trying to figure out what I am going to do this week.  I will do a little more packing and cleaning to get us ready for our move.  Our goal is to be moved in by my birthday.  My birthday is 1 month from tomorrow; I think we should have no problem getting finished by then.  I will just be glad when this week is over and we can get back to working on things.  Not to mention how much I will miss Blake this week!

We didn’t really do much of anything this weekend.  We just tried to spend some time together and relax before the long week ahead.  We didn’t do anything for the holiday.  It was a little rainy here so we just went out to eat.  I hope everyone had a great 4th!

Blake had this old work bench that we were going to get rid of.  It was really old and really well made but one of the legs was broken off.  He was just going to burn it to get it out of our way but I really wanted to salvage it.  It was so pretty with its dove tail joints and hard wood. 

That was when I got the great idea to cut it in half and put new legs on it.  A little purple stain and now I have the cutest potting bench to go in my potting shed!

My first project is growing fresh herbs from seeds!  I will really enjoy having them to cook with!

I was really excited to be able to recycle the table.  Blake got this from his uncle who got it from a friend who’s father built it about 100 years ago.  The poor guy; I bet he never thought it would get stained purple when hewas building it.

Friday morning we were out working on the fence Blake is building when I tried to convince him to take me to Louisville to go shopping.  I am still searching for matching chairs for our dinning room table and I wanted to go to the Pottery Barn were they have a table just like ours.  Blake insisted that he didn’t want to go there.  So I said the only other one was in Cincinnati.  So surprisingly he said then lets just go up there and stay the weekend with your parents.  I was a bit homesick last week so he really knew it would mean a lot to me! 

We quickly decided to let our trip be a surprise to everyone.  I couldn’t wait to see my mom’s face when we walked in.  Blake took me home to do laundry and pack while he finished working and then we left when he came home. 

We really needed a break from everything because we have been working ourselves to death.  We didn’t have much to do on the house because we are waiting for all of the doors to come in right now so it worked out well. 

When we got to my parents house my mom was so surprised she was confused.  She couldn’t figure out why I was there or how I got there.  We had a great visit with everyone and enjoyed a relaxing weekend!  Saturday my little sister and her daughter went to the outlet mall with us.  There was a Pottery Barn store there.  They had the chairs that I had seen online but we decided the were a little too casual for the table.  We ended up having a great time shopping anyway!  I got a few shirts at the Ann Taylor store for a great price and Blake got a few sports t-shirts. 

Sunday we went to church and my brother-in-law preached since the pastor was out of town.  He had a great sermon on the biblical view of abortion and homosexuality.  After church we went out to eat with my sisters and their families.  That evening we had dinner with my parents then went hiking at a local park.  It was all so much fun! 

We did a bit more chair shopping while we were there and we think we may have found one at Pier1.  We are at least hopeing it will work until we can afford something else.    

Our internet has not been working and it is driving me mad!  I probably won’t be posting much until I can figure out how to fix it.  It is a problem with my wireless router.  I have tons of pictures to show everyone what is going on but I guess they will all have to wait until we are up and running again. 

Sorry for my short departure the past week and a half.  Our internet has been down and we just got around to fixing it. 

Over the past week God has blessed us so much.  Last Thursday we plowed up our whole yard and put down some grass seed.  Most of the yard was just dirt so we really needed to get some grass down before we move in.  We worked so hard that day and it was really hot outside.  God has blessed us almost every day since then with some rain.  I think we only had to turn on the sprinkler 2 times.  Then today just a week later we have grass sprouting!  What a great blessing!  

Another thing I am thankful for today is that Marley is doing wonderful after we had him neutered last week.  He has healed up very good.  He never even acted like he was in the least bit of pain.  He has even started walking with me this week.  We have walked 2 miles every morning this week!  Chloe and Blake are jogging 3 miles.  I am thankful that my back is healing and getting stronger each day!

What are you thankful for today?

The zoo was really hot!  But we had lots of fun.  Even though it was really hot we did get to see lots of animals.  I haven’t been there in years so I felt like it was the first time there.  They have changed a few things since then.  I did happen to get a few pictures.

  We really liked to watch the Elephants.

  Here we are trying to cool off in the shade.

  More elephants!

  Sigfried and Roy’s white tigers!

  The baby giraffe exhibit just opened the day we were there.  They are supposed to come and eat right out of your hand but they were just a bit shy on opening day.  They sure were cute though!

After the Zoo we stopped by the new Ikea store.  I didn’t find any chairs there but we had fun looking at everything especially the baby furniture!  No I don’t have anything to tell anyone but maybe (hopefully) in the next year!  We have to get the house finished first. 

The rest of our trip revolved around going to my brother’s graduation on Saturday and his party on Sunday.

  My grandma made such a pretty and yummy cake!  She formed the roses out of sugar!

The visit was great!  Oh and how could I forget…we ordered our kitchen cabinets too.  My mother helped me design the kitchen and we bought them from my Dad’s store.  It will be about 3 or 4 weeks before they are delivered.  My parents are coming down to help us install.  I am so excited because they haven’t made the trip down before. 

I am supposed to be packing the car and getting ready to leave in the morning.  Blake is at school and so that leaves me to do all the work.  Somehow it always works out this way whenever we go away.  So I am washing clothes and cleaning out the car…

It is weird because we are leaving the dogs behind.  I feel really bad because I know they will miss us.  I will miss Chloe so much!  I have never been away from her since we brought her home over a year ago; she is my baby!  We moved their crates in the house and Blake’s parents will let them out and feed them.  We decided to let them sleep there tonight.  It feels so weird not having them here!

BUT since we don’t have them with us this weekend we are going to go to the Cincinnati Zoo.  I am excited because we never really get to do things like that.  Also we are going to stop at the new Ikea store that was just built between Cincinnati and Dayton.  Hopefully I can find some chairs to match my new table! 

I guess I better go finish packing.  Have a great weekend! 

We have been wanting to go see a concert for some time now but every time one has come up that we would like to attend something has come up.  While listening to KLove the other day we heard that Spirit Song was coming up soon and so we thought we might actually get to go.  It is a concert at Kings Island that is a 3 day event.  We will just try to go on Friday because that is the day that has the groups we would like to see the most.

We really want to see Casting Crowns and Jeremy Camp!  Blake has also never been to the park before and you get admission to the park and water park with the concert ticket.  The park is not too far from my parents house so we would probably just go there and stay the night after the day there.  The concert is July 11 so hopefully we will just about be done with the house and be ready for a small vacation.