Oh, my poor, sad little blog. I have been neglecting you for lack of anything meaningful to write about. Or at least the gumption to write down any meaningful thoughts I've had.

The summer has been nice, both weather-wise and otherwise. ("Nice" is not a very descriptive word, but that's all I've got right now.) We've taken a long weekend with my extended family, a long weekend to visit friends in Nashville and will soon take another long weekend with Bret's family. I think next year we're going to do something, just the three of us. Hopefully go away for a whole week, which we haven't done in ages, and never since Lauren's arrival.

Lauren is in a new school because her old one closed (with less than a week's notice) and we like it even better. I think she does, too.

We have spent a lot of time this summer talking about changes -- jobs, houses, etc. and it looks like all will stay the same, at least for now. That's okay with me. There are many good things about where we are.

The only other news I have is that somehow I went from a 5+ year old phone that I barely knew how to use to a BlackBerry Storm that I really don't know how to use. It's kind of a fun toy, if a bit unnecessary. Sometimes you need something like that, just for the heck of it.

More House Pics

As promised, here are some after/still in progress photos of the landscaping.


This is a VAST improvement over what the front of the house looked like when we bought it -- orangish-red double front door (very Brady Bunch), same color shutters and massively overgrown shrubs everywhere. I built that stone wall a few years ago and am still pretty proud of it.

Found the rock in the side yard and decided it belonged in the front. That thing was seriously heavy.

My folks bought me the trellis for Christmas. You can't see it, but there is a plant at the base of it that's just starting to climb up.

They're a little sad now, but these 3 blue maid holly bushes should fill in nicely...hopefully it'll happen soon. We still need to define the edge of the beds and plant more grass.

The Great Landscaping Project of 2009

Here's what the front of the house looked like before the tree guys came and removed 33 years worth of overgrown shrubs:

And here's what it looked like when they were done:

Lovely, eh? Here's more.

Before:

(I kid you not, the short, stubby shrub on the left was the size of a Volkswagen.)

And after:

The other side of the house before:

I don't have an "after" of that, but you get the idea.

Things don't look nearly so bare as they do in the "after" pics here. Next time I'll post what it looks like now, after Bret spent 3 days spreading 7 cubic (cubic, right? I don't do math) yards of topsoil around the foundation, and then mulch on top of that. I planted 3 new shrubs and 5 perennials last weekend in the front and hope to plant some more this weekend.