I don't know which one is more expensive...vacationing or gardening.
2007-07-30
12:37 a.m.
Tuesday morning we are off for a two-day excursion to Birmingham.
So far we have planned to spend Tuesday day at the local theme park/water park. At 5:00 or so we will round everyone up (Oldest Son's friend Brandon is going with us) and check in at the hotel, clean up, and go to the Melting Pot for dinner at 6:30.
Dinner at the Melting Pot is a belated happy birthday dinner for Oldest Son, and I made sure to tell them we were celebrating that when I made the reservations. I don't know what or if they'll do anything special. At least we know it won't be the sombrero.
I'm sure after dinner the kids will want to head out to the hotel swimming pool for a couple hours while Hubby and I veg poolside.
Wednesday we HOPE the kids will sleep in a little, and then we'll spend the day at the hotel pool, letting the kids wear themselves out, while Hubby and I tag team on naps. That evening we'll be attending the city's minor league baseball game.
We're splurging on the best seats available behind home plate, so OS can see the catcher's every move. We'll be in the first row, the first five seats, to the tune of $56 for all five of us. I swear, you can't beat the price of that entertainment.
I looked at various places to visit during the day Wednesday, but they all sounded outdoorsy and hot. When the boys fretted that they wouldn't have enough time to swim at the hotel, I decided not only would swimming on Wednesday be cheaper, it'd be cooler, too.
We're attempting to do this mini vacation on the cheap, but just those two days, with food, will be around $1200. We are staying at a pretty nice hotel, but it's only an extra $60 a night over the other one I was considering, and it has a hot breakfast and a very nice pool. We decided it was worth it to pay a little more and stay there.
The kids are beside themselves excited at this little two-day outing. Right now I'm in the mind frame I'm always in before a trip, be it to my mom's or across country: Oh, My God, there's so much to do. Laundry to do, house to clean, yard needs cut, etc. etc. etc.
I'm reminding myself no one will be coming in to my house to check out the state of the laundry nor the grunge level on my floors.
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Hubby and I have been putting in lots of sweat time in our yard, and it's finally starting to pay off in both looks of the place and our dispositions. We both detest yard work, but when we work together we can get it done so much more quickly and appreciate each other at the same time.
Last night we finally bought the rocks and plastic to rock an area in our back yard. There's a triangular area between the back of the house and the sidewalk and the fence that was just growing weeds. I'd say it's maybe nine or ten feet by about six feet. We can't get the lawn mower into the area, so we've just been hitting it with the weed eater.
It's an area that we thought would take about 12 bags of rocks. It took 32. And really needs about three more to have good coverage. And since the dogs tore up the plastic sheeting in a few minutes of unsupervised time last night, today I had to reshovel a bunch of the rocks. And I planned just how I would kill the dogs with each drop of sweat that poured off me.
Tonight it is done, save for the other three bags we think it needs, and I'm just loving walking out there and seeing how neat and tidy it looks now. Unfortunately, Trixie, our pea-brained dog, remembers there's plastic under there, and commenced to DIGGING in it tonight before I "redirected" her. Gah, it's always something. I do NOT want to be having to replace a bunch more plastic and reshoveling more rock.
We still have one section of the front flower bed that needs plants planted and mulch put down, but Lowe's was out of our mulch. Darn!:) Maybe a truck in with more next week. Allrighty then, see ya!
Actually, I'm ready to get that done, too, though it'll be even more sweating. Hubby wanted to pay someone to do all of the flower beds, but I insisted I wanted to do it so I could have the satisfaction of knowing I did it. And what's done I am DAMN PROUD of.
Hubby actually planted the tree on the opposite end of the front flower bed, and now I see him tenderly leveling mulch around it after he waters it and commenting on its growth. He's hooked, too.
Last night I was sitting on one of the benches in the front yard while Hubby hung up a new hose reel, and I told him it's official, I love this house more than any house I've ever lived in. I love the look of it, the location, the wide open space between us and our neighbors, the floor plan, everything we've done to it already and every plan we have for the future of it.
My dad worked for an oil company, and we moved a lot while I was growing up, and I never became attached to a house like most people do. In our almost 15 years married, Hubby and I have owned four different homes ourselves. While writing that I stopped to count, and there are 13 homes and five apartments I've lived in. This house is different and special, and I love it so much. On that sappy note, I'll say over and out.
1 comments so far loki-katt - 2007-07-30 22:18:02
You've come quite a ways for some one who once professed she couldn't grow plastic plants. :-) I really miss my yard and garden right now. Between work and school I don't really have the time and when the kids get in there and muck it up I don't have the inclination. Sometimes I putter in my mother's garden...but it's her garden. Not the same. Enjoy! It's some of the best therapy I've every engaged in...aside from journaling.
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