Yard Work, Yard Work and MORE Yard work!

I made the mistake of telling Butch that I would LOVE the holly out... after he had been pulling berry bushes out all morning... so he hooked up the truck and a double yank..

 and out they would go!

For those that know me, know I hate killing plants, however, after trimming these a few years and trying to pick up the trimmings without getting stuck and crying. Well, let's just say there is NO love lost for these bushes!!

 Bye Bye Holly shrubs!!

 The after... and I really will remember one day to take a decent full picture of the before..

ONE of these days.  there were a minimum of 4 in front of the garage, 3 along the wall under the crape myrtle, then one to the left of the door, and two on the right (don't ask, not sure about that one!)

 it's so much "lighter" and brighter looking.

I know, I know, that sounds retarded, but it's how I feel about it.  I also trimmed up the crape as well and took the lower limbs all out, then Butch trimmed all the yopons back into "balls".  I tried to get him to take those out as well.  No such luck.  :(  Oh, well, I'm still doing a happy dance that all the holly shrubs  are GONE. The only hollys to remain are the corner ones - so we have 4 total left to contend with and if all goes well, they will continue to be SLOW growers and we'll keep them in their "Christmas" shape.

the plan is to put some decorative grasses in front of the garage and possibly along the blank wall.  Maybe... we'll see.  For now, we rest and chill!

Pool fun with Angela

Only the three muskateers would think to do this.  Angela, Mikayla and Grace are under there...

 There's Grace!

 And Grace and Mikayla in the "fort"

Angela would NOT squeeze in for the picture, but she's under there too :)

Grow baby Grow!!!

 This grape in the foreground was planted last year and I really didn't have any hope it would look THIS good this year.  It's year two and we're almost to the top of the pergola :)  YEAH!!  On the far side, you can see the NEW addition of the wisteria.  It is doing very well as well.  It flowered this spring, which surprised me as it had just been transplanted in the early, early spring.  apparently it really likes where it is as one tendril is already at the top of the pergola as well.  The plan is to have them cross and have grape from one side to the other and wisteria doing the same.  Then we'll have flowers in the spring and grapes in the fall.  Bonus!

Next up - do you know what THIS is?

 I had seen/read on pintrest about planting the ends of whole celery.  I really had my doubts, but there it is... a brand new celery plant from the "toss away" stuff.  I have yet to see how tall it will grow, however having seen this, I planted a second one as well - here is the evidence that it really IS celery and it really does sprout... you can see this one just now starting to sprout in the middle:

Angela and hair...

Angela went shopping with me at Target and found more hair color on sale... and she wanted to go MUCH darker... OK - it will come out in time... or maybe not - but it's just hair, and she did choose a NORMAL color, I should be happy, right/ 

it's not a lot different than before, and to be honest, I think her hair was getting faily dark with age as well... she will be my child with her dad's coloring.  Liz will remain the child with my coloring.  True to form as Liz is blonde hair and blue eyes and Angela is now dark hair and hazel eyes. 

Projects and Liz learning to solder... scary!

Many a discussion went into the last minute project for a shoebox... it included switches, Christmas lights, red paper... and a demo of how a fire spread in London at the turn of the centurly... I asked her to "pretend" she was doing something... so I got a weird look...

 Then I made the mistake of telling her I thought it was a weird face, and  this is what I got:

OMG, what have I taught my kids? Oh, WAIT - Butch is pulling a face too - good grief, they get it form both sides!!

Concert band

Liz had her spring (and last) concert on Thursday night.

I should be the LAST person to go to concerts. I just don't get it...