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| I had three wonderful friends give us large boxes of hand-me downs. I am so grateful!! |
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Steve's handy work with the shelves and all of the clothes organized and put away. :) |
Here is what we have been up to, besides the normal school, dance, soccer, piano routine.
First, Steve started consulting for this company in Draper at the beginning of the summer (which is a 45 minute commute each way, something neither of us are used to) and they have kept him pretty busy and working late--a couple of times until midnight. As a matter of fact, Steve came home at 5:30 on Monday, we had dinner and he wanted to go to the park as a family. The girls were in heaven and said, "we like it when Daddy comes home early." I told Steve and he shrugged and said, "you mean on time." The long hours have taken a toll on all of us, but we are grateful for the work.
The garage . . . I felt like we moved in and dumped all of this stuff in the garage. Last summer we managed to buy some cabinets off of KSL and install them, but Steve hasn't really had an opportunity to spend time out there organizing and cleaning so for several Saturdays this spring we spent time out there. I love working with him and I think he appreciates my support. He did ask once, "are you nesting in my space?" Possibly, but I think he enjoys the results and will hopefully now have more of an opportunity to work on the Datsun and projects he enjoys.
Then this was supposed to be a spring/summer project, but turned into a summer/fall project. We just put the railing up today. Isn't it wonderful!! I'm really looking forward to having a space this winter that isn't snow packed and the shade it will provide during the summer--I'm so glad we did it, even though it has consumed a few weekends (we payed someone to build the awning, Steve and my Dad did the electrical/lighting for it and then built the deck and installed the railing).
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| We bought paint for the posts and to redo the door, but I think that will have to wait until spring. The deck is so nice-I can see us eating breakfast out there once in a while not just barbecuing. |
The before with the crazy maze like stairs.
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| Steve gave the girls a piece of styrafoam and the old deck screws and the girls had a blast. They know exactly where to get Daddy's screwdrivers and have spent a few hours out there building (at one point they told me it was a leprechaun trap). |
The yard has been another fall project of mine because it was too stinkin' hot to be out there during the summer (I know I lived in Tucson, but we had almost a month of 98+ and being pregnant I have every right to say it was HOT!). We worked really hard on it last year and then this spring we had to deal with some vole and grub issues which killed sections of the lawn and of course weed control is still an issue when bringing a lawn back to life. So I spent several days out there digging up crab grass so much that I filled our large green dumpster twice. Then Steve sprayed for the remaining weeds. Finally, I spent a few hours raking the dead weedy areas and the dry spots and over seeding those areas again. I wanted to get the new seed in this fall because it is the best time and then we can do the pre-emergent in the spring and hopefully the yard will be easier to maintain next year. It really is looking a lot better (you can see how dead it was in this post or the before patio pictures above, taken when we were looking at buying the house).
Oh and not to mention I have been working on primary stuff like crazy--it's a busy time with the program, new year preparation--classes, manuals etc., and 7 baptisms all in November so I'm trying to get stuff done in preparation for my leave of absence.
So here's for hoping October has a few relaxing weeks then Halloween and a new baby! :)