Outdoors....

When we bought our house, it had professionally installed landscaping--- that was well groomed and maintained--- but was not as flowery and colorful as I want..... so, I invested in a few more flowering plants, and after about half of them died and I bought a few more plants that didn't live.... I still have some that are alive.... If you know me, you know that me and plants don't get along. I kill everything!

Ok... check out this HUGE rose bush in front of our window. I hate that thing. I spent forever trimming it in the spring, and got several bleeding cuts and scrapes from it. It has wild thorns and is a 'you know what!' I really want to rip it out and replace it with a place to sit, but it's not in the cards yet.... so check out how much I cut it back this week!

You couldn't even tell there were two other bushes in the before pic could ya???

Did you go back and check?? If not, do it! There are two bushes hiding to the sides of that rose bush! It was massive and just got huge in about two months....

This is the pile to be hauled off!!!  I dominated that thing!

It is covered in bees and June beetles all the time, and blocks my hose spicket.... and now...

it's tiny! I love it!!!

Anywho... here are my LIVING flowers!

 Ok... now it's time to vent.... See our patio table.... yeah, see it? You're not supposed to be able to! I bought that cover and put it on about six weeks ago ( I know--- wrong season. Most people are UNCOVERING tables and that's when I put mine on... I know, I know... weird.) .... well, with the tiny bit of wind we've had, the corners of my chairs tore holes in six spots until they all connected and made this HUGE hole. I'm so mad! Not that it's a huge expense, but it took a long time to find a cover for a 6 person table... you wouldn't think it was that hard, but that's why I just got a cover--- I couldn't find one last season!

Now I need some advice. Refer back to the very top picture:

Last fall, Cam and I painted our shutters a charcoal gray. We have to paint our front doors (long story, but we have to paint them).... I'm thinking about painting the inside door a gray that compliments the shutters.... now, the storm door--- do I make it black again, or do I paint it white??? opinions?? Ideas???

I would REALLY like a black inside door and white storm door....what do ya think?

Too much for our little house?

I know the black would be hot... but it would be SO pretty with a white vinyl decal on it! And we do have hopes of adding a roof to our stoop soon.....

Comment with your ideas and opinions, please!

Thanks!



Water...Water... Everywhere

The word 'water' in this house is starting to be a 'bad word.' Since we moved in a little over a year ago, we have had water:

- leaking from behind the fridge (hole in a tube for the ice maker/water dispenser)
- dripping from the stairwell ceiling, but a contractor couldn't find a single hole or weak spot on the roof
- shooting out of the sides of our toilet from a broken seal....and we have a high-efficiency/powerful toilet, so water SHOT out at a high rate of speed! haha
- leaking out of a broken water line in our front yard..... THAT wasn't expensive at all!

and most recently....

- soaked into our carpet from a hole in a hose for our shower, which also soaked boards and insulation behind our access panel. We have no idea how long it had been leaking, but we guess about a week or two.

Can you see the wet carpet? The darkest area was soaked, and then the damp carpet stretched out about two feet from the wall. Several days of fans, bleach water for the mold, coffee and baking soda to take away the musty smell, and lots of airing out....we are finally back to normal.

I am so sick of the phrase, "Love, there's water _________"

I'm also sick of having to take showers at other places..... which we've had to do for two separate occassions now!

What's ironic is that we have all these water leaks INSIDE the house, but can't get a drop of rain outside!

Cam and I had been out for a gator ride and came home to this.... It had been so long since we had seen it that I had to take a picture! He laughed of course!!! Luckily, the previous owner put in soaker house in the landscaping, so we turn it on several times a week and our flowers/bushes look great!

Anniversary

On June 12, Cam and I celebrated our 2nd wedding anniversary. For our first anniversary, we didn't buy each other gifts. We had just moved into our new home and considered the mortgage and deed our "paper" gift to each other, as well as some really sweet cards and notes to each other. For year 2, the gift is supposed to be cotton. It didn't take me 5 seconds to decide what to get him!

On our honeymoon, we ate at "Buca De Bepo." Although Cam loved it, he couldn't remember the name of it and just called it "Del Boca Vista," like the retirement community that Jerry's parents move to on Seinfeld. (We both really love that show!)  Randomly, when we got home from our trip, the first episode that we saw was the episode where his parents move there! Anyway, I hunted around online and finally ordered him a shirt from cafepress.com.....

We always get him an XL for the length, but their XLs are HUGE! We had to exchange it for a smaller one.

Cam had a more difficult time picking out my gift, and we finally bent the 'cotton' rule a little bit. Instead of cotton, he got me something that sews cotton. I've been wanting a sewing machine for months now and I finally got one! I'm learning how to use it and hoping there are many projects in the future.... pillows, tree skirt, new curtains, decorations, etc.... I'm so excited!

We had dinner at Applebees with a gift card that we had hung on to from our wedding!

An anniversary gator ride is becomming tradition :)

 These two years have been great! They have gone by so fast and we know there's many more years ahead of us.

Children's Museum

My grandma will be 87 in August and hadn't ever been to the Children's Museum.... so of course we wanted to take her! Karter hadn't been either, so it was a lot of fun!

he thinks this is hilarious

digging

making faces out the train window

watching Bumblebee transform

poor kid.... we were all short

miniatures

Add caption

The donation coin roller was just as fun as the exhibits!

We were all exhausted, but had a great day!



Baby Emma

My cousin Brooke had a beautiful baby girl on May 18. (I know, I'm a little behind!)  Emma was born just into the hours of her grandpa's birthday and is absolutely adorable--- and TINY! She weighed 5lbs 13 oz! She is the tiniest baby that I have ever held, but both of her parents are teeny tiny so we weren't surprised!

For anyone that doesn't know my family, we are extremely close. Several of my aunts spent every Sunday evening at my grandma's house, so all of us kids spent hours every week playing together. I also have a cousin that is just 15 months older than me, so we spent a ton of time together--- sleepovers, dance class, shopping.... we did everything together! (The baby's mommy is this cousin's little sister.) To say some of grew up more like siblings than cousins would be an understatement. We played like sisters.... and fought like sisters... To others, saying that your cousin had a baby doesn't seem like that big of a deal, but for us.... it means a lot! We joke that the babies are more like nieces and nephews than 2nd cousins.... It's just crazy to think that OUR kids will be 3rd cousins! Our family is so much closer than that! We've tried to come up with names for these babies.... surrogate nieces and nephews??



Proud Grandma




Getting baby fever....



Great- Grandma

long toes...

Cam said he felt like the Hulk with his hands

Memorial Day

On Sunday before Memorial Day, some of the women in my family met to take out fresh flowers to the cemetery.

Miss him every day




I made these flowers : )


On Memorial Day, Karter invited all of us up to play in his pool! It didn't take long for it to turn into a water fight!

Somehow, my brother-in-law had control of the hose most of the time! haha

Graduation

My youngest first cousin graduated high school this year. I remember my brother and sister waking me up the morning he was born to tell me that my aunt had had her baby and then practicing the word 'congratulations' on the way to school so that I could tell his sister when I got there..... so for him to be 18, graduated and moving to college just seems crazy!

He had a party complete with DJ and tons of food! Karter danced the night away!

He is so gentle with babies!

Have to sneak in a pic of us! : )