YIP - Week 17

Monday, May 7th

This week is teacher appreciation week at school and since my kids all have such great teachers I wanted to do some fun things for them to say thank you.  I forgot to take pictures of the other things that I did, but on Monday I sent a little bucket with some marshmallows, graham crackers and chocolate bars with a note that says "We need s'more teachers like you!"  I wish that I could give them all thousands of dollars for treating my kids so well, but at least I could say thank you in a small fun way.

Tuesday, May 8th

We were busy putting some new plants in the yard this week.  When I dug in the back yard to put in a butterfly bush I dug up a cool old pipe.  Corban worked for quite some time with a screwdriver digging out the dirt that had totally clogged the old pipe.  What a great treasure!  Once he got it all opened up he  ran away talking to himself and said, "now we can finally play pirates."

Wednesday, May 9th

Gabby complained to me today that she doesn't like Wednesdays.  She says that all of her friends love Wednesdays because it's early out day and they get to spend the whole rest of the day playing.  But she knows that when she gets out of school on Wednesdays she has to clean.  I make them do an extra job on Wednesdays as well as cleaning up their rooms.  I tell her that if she just kept things picked up that Wednesdays wouldn't be so bad.  Oh well.  I'm just a mean mom.  Lucky for her she got to attend her first Activity Days after school and then had piano lessons, so she did get some breaks from her horrible chores!

Thursday, May 10th

I was very proud of myself today.  I have been getting allergies since moving back to Utah and last summer I finally went to an allergist.  He put me on some nose spray that helped a lot, but my prescription ran out and I needed a refill.  Today I walked into the allergist without an appointment and asked for a prescription and also asked for a shot that the doctor had spoken of that helps to kick off the allergy season.  They gave it to me and I left.  No biggie for most people right?  It is a big deal for me who hates appointments and hates doctors offices and normally wouldn't do that, but I was tired of not being able to breathe!!  Now I can and I am very happy.  The shot really hurt for a few hours by the way.  Not fun!

If you are wondering why I am taking a picture of my couch in this post it is to tell a funny story that happened to me last night/today.  Gabby has a funny habit of waking up in the middle of the night to use the bathroom, but walks around lost and confused instead of going right to the bathroom.  I usually see her wandering and grab her and make her go to the bathroom and then put her back to bed.  Last night she came wandering in and I made her use the bathroom and put her back to bed, but she didn't have any underwear on and so I put some new undies on her and she fell right to sleep.  As I walked back to bed I noticed the downstairs bathroom light was on.  I went down and turned it off.  Then I noticed the living room light on also.  So, I peaked into the living room and turned off the light and went to bed.

The next day (today) I was cleaning up the house and doing my usual mom things.  My sister, Tera called me and I talked to her while I did my dishes.  Then I walked into the living room and smelled the very distinct, very pungent smell of urine.  All the images of last night popped into my head and I realized that poor Gabby had peed somewhere in that room and I needed to find out where.  It didn't take long for my nose to find the location right in the center of my red couch.  Ick!  I am in the process of trying to get it all clean.  I had to take it all apart and I am still wondering how to get it out of the foam part - it stinks.  :(

Friday, May 11th

Multiple picture day because there were a lot of fun things that happened today.  Quincy got to ride to the fire station on the back of a fire truck with her preschool!  How fun is that?

Gabby's class had a "Mom and Me Tea" this afternoon.  The kids all performed some great songs and Mrs. Diderickson had some very nice things to say about the kids in her class.  She had things decorated so nicely and we all got some yummy cookies, brownies, cupcakes, eclairs and fruit.  It was very nice.  She is a fabulous teacher (like I mentioned previously)!

Saturday and Sunday, May 12-13th

Happy Mother's Day!

All this week Bump has been purchasing and planting different plants around the yard.  He gets this way in the spring time and uses Mother's Day to justify his purchases (which I don't mind a bit).  This year we are trying out some hydrangeas over by our hostas under the pine trees.  We'll see how they do.  We also lined the pine needle beds with rocks to make it look like it was meant to be there.  I really like how the whole area looks over there now.

I saw on a website some landscaping that I liked and one thing that I felt would help the look of our front porch area was some different height plants.  So, we bought a few boxwoods that are triangle shaped to put in front of the porch for some added height.  It doesn't look like much, but it really makes a big difference.  You also can't see in this picture, but we planted a bunch of petunias all around the plants that will fill in these front beds.

I have also been inspired for years with the window boxes of Europe.  As a tribute to my sister in Germany I did plant a few window planters at my kitchen windows.  I haven't figured how to do some permanent ones on our soft brick house yet.  But the color is so happy and fun and the flowers will fill in more as the days go on.  I want to get some for every window on my house!  We'll see how these go first.

I even am trying to fill in the sandy, malnourished dirt spot by my back door.  If I can get these lavender plants established they will do wonderfully here.  I love lavender and can't wait to see these fill in!  

We have more flowers around the yard, I haven't taken pictures of them all yet.  We have planted some roses and columbine around our light post out front and petunias all over different  parts of the yard.  We have such rocky, terrible soil and I wonder how anything makes it in our yard.  But we try and will keep on amending and trying until we have the amazing yard that both of us dream of.  I'm grateful that my hubby and I are of like minds on this.

Yesterday we went to Bump's parents and cleaned all of their windows as a gift to his mom.  I was jealous and would love to clean all of my windows too.  It'll happen.  I wish I could do the same thing for my mom, but she lives a bit too far away for that kind of thing.  She'll just have to settle with a card and gift certificate this year at least.  It's funny how I still look at mother's day as a day for my mom, not for myself.  I got to sing in church today with my 3 little kids.  We sang "Mother Tell Me a Story" from the primary book.  It's a sweet little lullaby and the kids did great!  My kids and Bump are cleaning my house because they know that makes me happy.  And it does.  I had a great week!