So last week, mutual kids played softball at the park behind Sam's
Sadie and I went with HM and sat and ate snacks and watched the game
Even invited my friend V and her kids along for the ride
Good times

While we were there, there was this yellow lab
And she was friendly as anything
She'd lay down with the kids
Cuddle up to people
Even played hide and seek with the little kids in the bushes
She seemed like  really cool dog

So can anyone predict the ending to this story?
We go to leave and owners are no where to be seen
So we're getting into the car
HM opens up the back and she jumps right in
So we took her home
She hung out in our front courtyard
Swam in the fountain
And swam in the pool with us

We were going to put an ad in the paper
But the second day she was here
HM came home and asked where she was?
She's not in the backyard????
And there was a big hole chewed in our fence
And no dog to be seen

So if you've lost this dog:


We don't have her

Okay, back by popular demand :)
This is the finished product of our beautiful side yard :)

They did end up putting little bit of dirt in the boxes
But for the most part, we are in need of DIRT
I guess we failed to mention we wanted them to do that....
But other than that, it's done!
Isn't it beautiful?

I still can't believe that all the rocks from those stupid flowerbeds
Covered our entire yard....
Who knew there was so much there?????

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And in related news....
Wall Guy came to work today!
He's using a jackhammer to cut the roots back
Ah, the neighbors must be thrilled....

Our yard is so exciting these days
The landscapers are supposed to finish today and OMGosh
Look at it!

K, these are the BEFORE pictures
But just imagine all this nice green "grass"
DEAD AND BROWN

k, can you see it from this picture in the back there?


Okay, so first they took all these white rocks:

And put them in bags
And man, there were a TON of rocks here
Who knew???


Then they leveled it (by hand I might add, I was impressed)
And trenched it for sprinklers

The rest of the yard still looked like this:


Then they built boxes and made spots for fruit trees
Then laid down a liner
And put the rocks from the beds around them
See the screen?
They sifted the gravel to get all the crap out
Very smart....
So we have "clean" rocks now

Today they have leveled and put the gravel down on the rest of the yard all the way to the fence
... ya... and we still have probably 15 bags of gravel left over....

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The pool fence
Well
Is not so impressive
They guy doing it is kinda.... hmmm
He comes and goes and works for a few hours
and then leaves
and has been working as long as the landscapers
But not a lot to show for it
Some... but not so impressive

So here is our wall by the pool:
BEFORE:
See how it looks like it's leaning to the side?
That's not an illusion or anything
It really was leaning

And now:


And ya...
that's it for now...
He says the roots need to be blocked
Otherwise they will grow into our pool
and ruin it
so he's doing a barrier wall to block them
But ya....
Not much progress....
So more updates hopefully soon....

This last weekend
HM, Me, Sadie
4 boy scouts
and 3 other leaders
Went up to Camp Kern to paint cabins at Scout Camp


We drove up early Friday and stayed until Sat afternoon
I have wanted to go camping all summer
And this was... kinda like camping
Can't really say we camped when there were hot showers, real toilets
A ceiling fan and real beds in the cabins
But hey, we did have a fire, and we did make s'mores

When we were in Texas I finally found Sadie some overalls
Which I have been dying to get and I was so lucky to find in time for this
I just put her overalls on her and that's what she wore all weekend
Sadie loved all the dirt and would literally ROLL in it,

put it down her shirt, on herself

EVERYWHERE

HM's general response was: She is Filthy!!!!!!!

My response was: I know, isn't it cute? I took lots of pictures



Several of the men commented on my ability to "let go"
But seriously, nothing so cute as a dirty baby I think
But I'm sure that is a unique line of thinking among new mothers

It was very beautiful up there though
Sadie and I stole the Ranger--like a ATV tractor thing
And drove up as high as we could go and took these pictures
Try driving an ATV straight up a mountain while holding a one year old on your lap!
HA!
We sure had fun


While we were up there I attempted taking pictures of Sadie
All in the flowers and such
And she would NOT SMILE
Or really even look up
She was too busy investigating the dirt etc
So this it the only one where she is even looking up

I guess that's how it goes right?
It's been pretty quiet around here lately
We went to Texas so we were saving up for that
I had my little "condition" so Sadie and I were just relaxing
And we hadn't really done much with the house
I mean we worked on it constantly for like 3 months I guess
But we were done with the basics
And trying to decide what to work on next....

Our side yard is still wilderness:
Gravel, dead weeds and heaven only knows what else
(tiles, broken toys, burnt up invoices, nails, you name it!)
Someday it will be mostly HM's workshop for his business
And then the end of it is for my garden
I wanted grow boxes
With some kind of watering system
(I'm not that good at watering...*sigh*... fussy plants don't like that)
And I wanted more fruit trees
And I wanted all the dumb rocks out of my flowerbeds
Which I was banned from working on anymore
HM said we already had enough rocks we didn't know what to do with (lol... very true)

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So we were going to do it ourselves
Make it a Saturday project
But one day we thought: hey, why don't we hire someone to do it?
HM is in this organization called ITEX
And he's done a lot of ITEX work lately
It's a bartering system where you kinda trade out work
Only you can pick from ANYONE in the organization
Not just the person you did the work for
So we thought: hey, we'll do it with ITEX
(which is really like play money anyway)
But I called 5 companies
Only 3 called me back
Only 2 actually showed up
And only 1 actually got back to us with a bid
He wins!
But that was oh like...hmmm....2 months ago?

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So then HM met this other guy
He came over and looked at our poor poolside wall
Which looks like it will crash over any day
from the weight of the dirt and the palm trees beside it
And said he could fix it!
And use most of the wall pieces for materials
And gave us a really super cheap price to do it!
But then this happened and that happened
And he wouldn't call us back
And then we were in Texas
And ya....

So today we find out......
Wall guy can start tomorrow!!!
Yay!!!
He's coming at 6am!!!
Yay for HM getting up to greet him!!!

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And then I come home, check my email and....????
Landscaper guy wants to start tomorrow!!!!!!
LOL LOL LOL....
YAY!!!!!
So in a week or so I might have a garden!!!!!
YAY! YAY!
YAY for CA growing seasons! LOL....

So ya....
Construction day at our house it seems....
Par-tay....

So we got back from our Texas vacation this week
I know, it probably wasn't the greatest ideas to drive 22-24 hours straight
What with my "condition" and all
But eh... it was fine
Actually the drive THERE was really hard on me
But the drive back was a breeze... even though it was longer...
(Never trust those GPS things, they screw you every time)
So here are pictures from the trip
Steph (HMs sister) took a bunch too
So these are a small sampling:

The drive to Texas:


So happy to be out of the car
(and such cute pigtails!!!)


Boggie is so fat these days there is no room for his tongue!


Papa Gambling on the Horse Races (as always)


The Stockyards in Fort Worth
--they do this every day just for the tourists :)