We had some wicked wind here earlier this week. It was warm - we actually broke a record (how weird is it to have near 80 degree temps in February?!?!), and we had a line of storms that came through. Before they did, we had wind gusts of over 45 mph.  When I brought the girls home from school, they immediately noticed this:

They wanted to know why I had left the flag on the ground.  Then I noticed this:

This flagpole bracket was mounted with four screws to an aluminum support post on our house.  Notice how it’s bent? 

I walked around the corner of the house, and saw this:

No, we don’t normally store screens on the a/c units.  It actually blew out of the window frame and landed there.  Phew.  Glad that’s the only thing we lost. All of the trees managed to stay upright. 

I’m also loading my lastest flickr slideshow that shows some of the work we’ve done to the house.  Mom and Dad donated a bookshelf to us that was taking up too much room in their house.  Nearly the entire living room is made up of their furniture and rug.  Mom should feel right at home in there.  I also framed a picture from her wedding day (sans first husband) and put it on the shelf so I now have a wedding picture of my great-grandmother, grandmother, and mother.  Cool, eh?  My next project was tackling the dining room window treatments. Realizing that it was going to be at least 3 years before I could afford to do the kind of window treatments I wanted to, I went to Bed Bath and Beyond with some coupons and shopped the clearance section. I’m actually pretty happy with how it turned out and it was easy - I actually hung all of the brackets MYSELF without Mike. This meant I even used a drill without damaging the house or floors, a first for me.  Go me. 

If you can’t see the Flickr Badge, you can click this link.

There have been no postings on the blog due to the fact that Mike and I, with my Uncle Richard and some help from Mom and Dad, have spent the last 9 days outside in the yard for what we affectionately refer to as “Landscape-Fest 2007”.  Mike took the week off and I took the majority of the week off to play with 15 cubic yards of mulch (all but a tiny pile was used) and replant and plant about 40 different things.  The results are contained within Flickr.  You can view it as a slideshow, but stupid Flickr still has not resolved their issues with captions in slideshows, so if you view the pics individually, you can read my commentary on the steps we took.  I realized as I organized the photos that I didn’t always do a great job taking the “after” picture from the same location, but you get the general idea.  My Uncle slaved - well, he was paid labor if you consider beer a form of currency (and if it is, he was expensive) - and we couldn’t have done it in the time we had without his help and my mom and dad pitching in and skipping their yoga classes at the Y.  I think it’s safe to say that we are officially done with the house for awhile.  Mike has worked for 10 months straight on it, and he deserves a break.  Perhaps he can remember what it’s like to do something else with his spare time - like golf or relaxing - instead of immediately reaching for his paint brush or weed-whacker. 

I know some people love tax refunds for the fun, uninhibited spending they can provide.  Some of our friends go to romantic or tropical locations.  Others buy a new wardrobe, go to a fancy dinner, or splurge on jewelry (or golf).  Mike and I tend to avoid those kinds of things.  Although our spending is not romantic in the slightest, we tend to put tax money back toward credit card debt (that insidious monster) or dump it immediately back into our biggest investment - the money pit we call home.  So, our big investment for tax year 2006:

No, you can’t eat it, wear it, or have fond memories of frolicking on the beach with it, but we like it.  It took up the huge bare spot in the yard where the dilapidated swingset the previous owners used to stand.  Since we moved in, it’s been a big empty circle of sand and cat poo.  This weekend, we told the girls we’d take them to get some koi for the pond and a fake heron to scare off the big, live one we have that eats all the neighborhood fish (and any other small animals not nailed down). 

Unfortunately I never took a picture of the door before we started this project, but I did take one of the entryway, so this will have to do. 

And here’s one taken tonight:

Seriously, paint is the drug of choice when you are on a budget. 

Our house had one of the world’s ugliest colored doors.  This same blue that you can see in the picture was all over the front door.  Because of the financial restrictions imposed on us right now, we couldn’t just rip the thing out and replace it with something made of actual wood.  Instead, Mike painted it black - and it’s surprising what some new door hardware and thick black paint the consistency of congealed pudding can do.  I’ll have to take a picture of his handiwork.  It’s lovely.

Lily had a “sleep over” at her grandparent’s house this weekend.  Mike’s calling it just an “over”, since no sleeping was done by either Lily OR her grandmother.  And I hate to say it, but Lily has her completely wrapped around her gnawed-on fingers.  Lily is supposed to sleep in the Aerobed (mom puts it on the floor next to their bed), and Grampa is relegated to the upstairs because he “snores” and “wakes up too early” (quotes from mom).  After getting up every 5-10 minutes to go to the bathroom, check on Grammy, say she’s thirsty, ask what “that noise” was or when Grammy was going to take a bath, Lily finally gave up and went to bed.  Or so my mom thought.  Turns out mom had told Lily she wasn’t going to take a bath until Lily was asleep.  Around 10 pm, mom wandered into the bedroom on the way to the bath.  Lily was quietly “sleeping” in her bed.  Mom took a bath and opened the door to the bedroom.  There’s Lily, propped up in mom’s bed, with all of her stuffed animals, a toothbrush, and some random articles of clothing, giggling maniacally.  She announced, “I want to sleep with you, Grammy!” 

Of course my mom couldn’t say no, so she spent the evening being thrashed by Lily (she likes to sleep horizontally).  She also experienced Lily’s sleep-talk, weird grunting noises, and snoring (she rivals grandpa in that department).  At 4 AM my mom got up to go to the bathroom.  30 seconds later, there’s Lily in the doorway:  “Grammy, where are you going?” 

She was quite the holy terror on Saturday after not much sleep and no nap, but after a good night’s sleep Sunday and a great nap yesterday, she was in a very good mood. 

Mike and I got to spend some alone time with Arden, which was wonderful.  We tried to indoctrinate her into a morning cuddle routine.  Normally Lily will wander in around 6.30 or 7 and hop into bed.  We both hug her and shower her with kisses and try not to block her view of PBS Kids (the real reason she’s in our bed).  We thought it would be nice to bring Arden into bed with us on Saturday morning.  Let’s just put it this way.  Mike sings some weird song about Arden being “as cuddly as a cactus, as charming as an eel”.  That sums it up.  She screamed when we tried to put her into bed, then shoved me away when I tried to hug her, and refused to sit propped up on pillows so she could see the tv.  The only way we managed to keep her ON the bed with us was to get her napper off the floor (she loves that thing more than us) and spread it out at the foot of the bed.  I have vowed that I will wear down her non-cuddling resistance by sheer force of will.  If I can get my icy sister to submit to my hugs, I can certainly make Arden less cactus-like.