I wish I had more time to blog but I just don't have the kind of time that allows me to sit down at the comp and do this all day long. A full-time job and a 4-year old don't allow for much. Not to mention that hockey season has started... game on! Let's see, what is going right now? Kid has the flu with a high enough fever to keep her from going to preschool. That caused me to leave work early on Monday and stay home on Tuesday. Because of that, I returned to work today only to find a load of emails to respond to. Most of the time, I'm copied on emails just to keep me in the loop. Not this time. Most of the emails required my response and I had to spend too much time dealing with all of that. Mix in a few meetings and my day was much longer than I would have liked. What do I get the rest of the week? Thanks to my boss being on vacation for the next 2 days I get to spend most of my time in more meetings while also trying to make a deadline tomorrow afternoon. Do I love it? The job has its perks so I won't complain. But in the meantime... argh!

One thing that I don't have to worry about at least is the backyard. We're happy to say that we are done with it finally... well almost. We got the last of the grasses (no, we're not growing that grass) a couple weekends ago and got them planted. Now that the planting is done, I can get the remaining sprinklers for the drip system done. I had never really done a drip before so it was definitely trial and error. There were certain types of sprayers that I tried at first but because of the amount of water pressure we get in certain areas, they didn't really work. Then there was the issue with the type of drip hose I was using. I decided to replace the original with a different kind to reduce the amount of water needed per cycle. Now that I got some things figured out, it seems to be working alot more like i had planned. Hey, plants are growing, that's all I know.

Are we excited about it? I know the dog is. The other day Coach and I were back there and I was digging some more trenches for the rest of the drip and he kept following me around. He started running his laps and started getting winded and just plopped down. I sat next to him and then laid face up on the grass. He just rolled over on his back and we just hung out for a minute just enjoying the new lawn. Now if only the kid wasn't sick I'm sure she'd be out there with us. Oh yeah, that and the storm that just came through.

Here are before, during and after pics. We have more pics of the finished product that are yet to be taken. We kinda wanted to wait until all of the plants were in before we finished our album but just haven't had the chance to do that as of yet. I tried to get some pics of the same side of the yard so that you can kinda see the dramatic difference. What do I love most about having the yard done? Not having to worry about sitting around and watering it. I love having the sprinkler system and the timer that goes with it. Do you know where I can get some gadget that does the same for kids?

Backyard Update... 7/25/09

One of the things that attracted us to our house when we were in the market was the fact that we had endless possibilities witht he backyard. The house itself was in good shape but there was nothing out back but dirt and broken concrete. For the last month now, we've had one project after another in the yard. We started by redoing the patio concrete, then moved on to the patio covering, and are now working on the lawn area. We've mixed in some painting here and there and are coming along nicely. The best part is that it's been a family affair. Here are a few pics to show some of the progress:

We had a couple of huge truckloads of dirt delivered the other day and I've been out there shoveling some into a wheelbarrow and going back and forth. It's been quite the workout and Ally's been pitching in with her shovel as well.

We've had a great time doing this so far even though working outdoors is just not that fun. At least it's been breezy over the past couple days, that's made a big difference. Just this morning we had a crew of a few over that were helping shovel in some of that dirt. We started with about 10 yards on Thursday and I was able to do one by myself. But we must have knocked out about 8 cubic yards today with the crew we had. Now that was a workout. In fact, I'm so impressed with how hard we worked and what it's done for me physically that I just had to brag a bit. Hope you enjoy the following real-time pic of me as I can't guarantee that I will keep this up for too long. After the project is done with, I'm going to need a break.

Yes, that's really me, I promise!!!!!