Our yard... in the works

Saturday May 23rd

Nathan, (in our elders quoram presidency & friend) came out with a rototiller and tore up the yard. 

Cort, (another friend from the ward) came with him and raked behind him. I would have been out there too, but I was the photographer at an anniversary party and then had a recital rehearsal with vocalists at work. 

This is after Nathan and Cort left Saturday. Previously out yard was completely taken over with weeds. 

And on Monday the 25th we had about 7 guys from the ward come out and help us with the yard.

They raked up the clumps of weeds,

and raked and raked

raked some more, and leveled our the yard

We had some ladies helping us too, they weeded out the flower beds

The men "fixed" the sprinklers... this was hilarious. He only "tapped" it with the shovel. All the sprinklers were fixed or replaced, aimed and set. They also showed me how to clean out the little filters and adjust the different types of sprinklers.

Raking and rolling the yard. 

Seeding the yard...

Seeding some more, I think we have about triple the recommended amount of seed out there. Or at least what it says on the bag to use. 

This is what the yard looked like after they left. 

Rylee definitely approves, no weeds, and now it's flat and safe for Joseph to join him out there.

The true "After" picture that includes the newly weeded flower beds. 

That evening we had a big downpour of rain... which made it the perfect day to seed the yard.

The sky after the storm... and without the trees we can see so much more. I can't wait to watch some thunderstorms! Although we do plan on replacing the trees with something, eventually. 

May 28th

The garbage guys,didn't like the giant pile of trees. They left us a note! 

Bro Griffith came by, unannounced (Cousin Landon joined him) and started to load up the pile. I caught them, snapped this picture, then joined them... I don't think they intended on being caught, or joined. They have Rylee to thank for that... he let us know someone was up to something.

Grass on Day 5 after we planted

The grass yesterday, May 30th

And the grass today.

Thanks so much to all our helpers out there, you have made the yard accessible for Joseph and we can't wait until it's lush and green back there. THANK YOU!

Bye bye trees...

The scouts in our ward come out to our house and removed the dead and mostly dead trees out back, as well as weeding the flower gardens in the front. I didn't get a head count but my guess was that we had a party of 15 young men, and not-as-young men working in our yards.  We are so thankful for their service, and amazed at how quickly those awful trees disappeared.

They felled a tree before I could even get a real "before" shot of the backyard.

The trees were really dead and really light. They had 2 chain saws going at one point. We had them take out the green ones too, they were dying,  it was kind of an all or nothing deal. 

The one with the chainsaw is my Uncle Ron.

The young men carried the trees out front.

And they all fell down.

Down to stumps now.

They were able to get up 3 or 4 stumps... but the stumps killed 3 shovels first.

They were finishing up to a gorgeous sunset.

Some of the young men attacked the front garden.. at least 3 inches thick with grass and strawberry plants.

Weeding out next to the house.

I had sweet neighbor girls help me plant some bulbs from Mom & Dad's. (Gladiolas I think, we'll know for sure once they bloom)

The damage... that pile of trees and other assorted things they found hidden in the trees, plus 10 or so bags.

The next day I grabbed a picture of the yard, sans trees. 

This is the picture I put on instagram and Facebook.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU to all that came out and helped us, I wish I could thank you all by name...I'll learn them all, eventually. 

Roofing!! June 2014

Roof top delivery, best decision ever! Those materials are crazy heavy!!

The scary part...at least for me, was the scraping off the old roofing. 

I was VERY aware of the edge and kept well away from it.

Ready to roof!

Rooftop selfie!

Progress!

Mom & Dustin doing the corners.  I don't like the nail gun... but I helped out.

We had so much help, neighbors, friends, family, home teachers and missionaries come and help us roof our house. Thanks so much, we sure appreciated the help and the roof looks amazing. So good in fact that our insurance guy asked who we had do it when he came to take pictures. 

DQ celebration when the roof was finished!! 

November: 30 days of Thanks

{From instagram/ Facebook...sorry if you've already seen this}

Day 1: I'm thankful for my darling husband, he's the best! 

Day 2: I'm thankful for family. 

We're glad to spend time with them this weekend.

Day 3: I'm thankful for our safe travels. Yup, that is snow.

Day 4: I'm thankful for my job(s) that help me support my family.

I love teaching piano lessons & preschool!

Day 5: I'm thankful for great workout companions. our 6:30am group is the best! Thanks for keeping me motivated and making it so much fun to work out. P.S. I'm "Leah's daughter" if you were looking for my name, haha. 

Day 6: I'm thankful for this snuggle bug, especially when i had a headache, put my shirt on backwards & a marker exploded in my back pocket kind of day.

Day 7: I'm thankful for friends who help me find yummy gluten free foods, thanks Missy they were delicious! 

Day 8: I'm thankful for audiobooks, Joseph & I can enjoy "reading" together, we're reading Harry Potter right now.

Day 9: I'm thankful for my parents

Day 10: I'm thankful for modern medicine.

Day 11: I'm thankful for all the men & women who have served or are serving in the military. Thank you.

Day 12: I am thankful for awesome doctors, Joseph & I both have great doctors.

Day 13: I am thankful for music!

Day 14: I am thankful for goals. Hard work & dedication pay off, I reached another fitness goal!

Day 15: I'm thankful that the church has the LDS library app! I love having my scriptures, manuals, music, magazines etc...all at my fingertips and not weighing down my bag.

Day 16: I'm thankful for good music & variety. 

Day 17: I'm thankful that I work with a book addict, that way I can preview Christmas books before I buy them.

Day 18: I'm thankful for gluten free play dough, no more rashes!

Day 19: I'm thankful for humor, laughter is always the best medicine... or chocolate.

Day 20: I'm thankful for my talent and love of photography. P.S. Jessica is beautiful!

Day 21: I'm thankful for my new warm down coat, it's suddenly freezing here! P.S. sorry no head, I was sick in this picture.

Day 22: "In every job that must be done, there is an element of fun." -Mary Poppins. I'm thankful for the 100's of people I see every week at work most of them being children.

Day 23: I'm thankful for hot chocolate & the sweetie that brought me this today!

Day 24: I'm thankful for temples. 

Day 25: I'm thankful that the DOL stopped doing testing (written or driving) it significantly decreased the wait time. I was in and our in about an hour! 

Day 26: I'm thankful for temple marriage, and the knowledge that families can be together forever.

Day 27: I'm thankful for technology. Because of this I am able to communicate with my amazing husband, while spending most of my days in another city away from him. It's great to send & receive emails or texts (from the iPad) 

Day 28: I'm thankful for my family. ALL of you! This is my great grandma Johnson, we were lucky enough to spend some time with her and Bill this week.

Day 29: I'm thankful for beauty, if you look for it, you can find beauty in anything. It was crazy cold all day but the frost covered everything was pretty awesome...except on my car- not so awesome!

Day 30: I'm thankful my job allows me to be home for the holidays.