... bugs, sweat and tears ...

So, whilst on vacation this week, Gregg agreed to fix up the front yard. We have been wanting to do it for 3 years now but there never seems to be enough time. We decided to start on Thursday. We put a game plan together, set our goals and suited up for the task at hand. Let me just say this - had we known it would take us 3 days to actually get it done I think we would have declined and chose to spend those days doing something we enjoyed. Sure, we wouldn't have then had the satisfaction of the beauty for years (or at the very least - months) to come but there would have been a LOT less complainin'. Ohhhh the horror. The BUGS. The sweating. The aches and pains. The sunburn. The BUGS. The blisters. The filth and dirt and grossness. THE BUGS. I started off by having mini panic attacks as each spider crawled by, each slithery thing slithered, each daddy-long-leg stilted around, each fat, nasty worm wormed and each "bug" crossed my path. By day two I had calmed down slightly - still shrieking at the sight of each insect. And by day three I was slinging worms across the yard on sticks. It was magical. 

Our mission: 

Front yard foundation clean-up: Rip out 2 shrubs/bushes, 2 trees and stumps, rake out gravel and shovel it away, rip out all roots and make nice nice with the soil - even out, edge the beds and line with stones, blanket the beds with weed prevention roll thing, plant beautiful goodness and top with mulch.

Sounds easy enough right? We were thinking a day ... maybe a day and a half. HAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA ignorance was bliss. 

Day one: Trees and bushes ripped out, cut down and bagged up, beds full of gravel and nonsense... in need of a good raking

Note for future: always buy way more mulch than you think you'll need

 The creature on the foundation was just one of my many foes...

Such a big help... watching from the window all day

All cleaned and lined... guess who's in the window...

Well doesn't this look like crap?

Much better...

After two very long and very tiring days of hard work we finally reached "the fun part"- or so I thought. We headed out to buy some grasses & flowers with a list of a few must-haves but mostly we were wingin' it. We clearly had no idea what we were up against...

oVeRwHeLmEd...

There were just so many adorable choices it was very hard to settle on anything - we chose a few favorites along with our list-makers and got out of there in just over an hour

Now comes the placement... it's just like page layout!!

We agreed on our layouts and started diggin'. 

It's hilarious that I thought it would be fun to plant the flowers. I guess if our bodies weren't broken from the 2 prior days we would have enjoyed it much much more.

I think we did a decent job considering we have no clue how to garden. We read the care instructions and all that but I'm sure we did a few things wrong ... and who really cares? It's only a few flowers and if they die we'll rip them out and put a friggin pot in their place. Hahaha just kidding (not really) - but it definitely looks more inviting and home-sweet-homey - which is what I have wanted all along. Trial and error, kids, trial and ERROR.

I hate the dirt. I hate bugs. I hate being dirty and I hate sweating. But I did torch a ton of calories and manage to get a base tan so I guess those are two pluses. Blisters and aches and pains will go away but the satisfaction of completing this project will last ... well at least for another day or two I'm thinkin'.

Here is the humble, little transformation:

BeFoRe...

AfTeR...

Motrin. Motrin. Motrin.

 

... my favorite days...

Boy do I love vacation time. Normally we try to take the same two weeks each year... but being unemployed really takes the stress-work out of it for me. Vacation? WHY NOT?? Go ahead, Sheri, you certainly deserve it. Ugh. Anyway, I am getting side-tracked here, ahhh May vacation. We don't do anything fancy or exciting. We are still strapped with bills and living expenses - you know the drill. But we enjoy every single second of the week. We go to our favorite places, watch our favorite movies, cook our favorite dinners and enjoy our favorite "vacation moods" together. It is just really nice to see Gregg relaxed and not dead tired for a change... getting decent amounts of sleep and being able to enjoy life daily rather than having to squeeze in a few hours of fun on the weekend in between errands and yard work. 
Man, vacation is rad. 

Here are some pictures that don't exactly depict 'vacation' ... but they are like a little walk through our days ... 

... my favorite shade of sky

... hehehe

... a little treat for me

... can't leave Mystic without fudge I suppose

... nothing to say about this one, I just liked it

... in that napkin lies pieces of a horribly mean spider - he left my husband no choice 

but to pull over on the highway so I didn't throw myself out of the Jeep. 

I hate that spider and all his filthy pieces -and I am sorry that he made me litter.

... over the Jamestown Bridge

... and the Newport Bridge. 

It was 96 degrees that day but once we passed the center of this bridge 

the temp dropped about 15 degrees. Unreal. 

... classic shot

... I'd love to have a house down here (or a castle)

... beautiful Brenton Point - a favorite spot

... I love the face he's givin me. I think we named him Barnaby.

 ... we enjoyed these days immensely. I only wish there were more of them.

Cheers!

Happy Vacation to you, Gregg. You deserve 52 weeks. 

xo

... pasta lungs

Here's a boring fact for ya! I have gone through at least 237 exercise routines since I was about 18. (That was completely exaggerated). I get bored and move on after anywhere from 3-6 months. I hate me a RUT. The one thing that has been consistent throughout my days of flailing activity is my pasta lungs. I have strength, I have endurance, I have pasta lungs. What the hell are pasta lungs? My definition is this: Pasta Lungs = what I believe any overweight Italian's lungs feel like when they walk more than 10 steps. Now, I am Italian but thankfully this condition isn't because I am 440 lbs overweight  but rather that I developed asthma in my early 20s. Mild, yes, however seemingly more annoying as the hours tick by.

I mostly have trouble breathing when I get sick, have allergies or when it feels like a humid armpit outside. I hardly ever use my inhaler -normally I just push my lazy lungs to their limit. But I have been noticing that the little fellows are slacking harder than usual these days. Gregg and I went for a short hike a few weeks ago and I found myself having a ridiculous amount of trouble as I Gandolfini'd my way back on the incline. So much so that I will never go again without my inhaler. Same goes for our bike rides. A couple weeks ago I had the same shocking experience on a hill that seemed to be tiny until we were practically begging our way up it. Naturally we were both laughing at our level of fitness but privately I was trying to catch my breath for what felt like an eternity but was probably 5 minutes.

It's funny how I treat that inhaler like a pack of half eaten mints. Every time I change pocketbooks I see it in there and yet don't transfer it to the new bag. Laughing to myself like I don't need to bring this with me, I never use it. And that immediately curses the upcoming events with some sort of breathing disaster. So the point of this uninteresting tale is that I will bring that ugly, yellow and orange, plastic, portable paramedic with me from now on. No matter how big or small my purse may be, there will forever be a seat for the little guy. Who knows - it just might save someone a harrowing call to 911.... Which would actually make a way better blog than this - so actually let me just rethink this whole thing.