Memorial Day weekend 2014

We had a great Memorial Day weekend!  I was looking forward to the extra day off work for a while, and we were able to accomplish a lot.  Saturday Col took Mendon to the dog park for the first time while I had a "coffee" (I don't like coffee) date with my two college roomies.  That afternoon I headed off for Rach's bachelorette party.  I enjoyed trying hoop dancing for the first time (although I didn't really dance at all...it took the whole hour to learn how to properly hoop!) and have the bruises on my hip and back to show for it!  We enjoyed some relaxing time with snacks and gifts before heading out, enjoying dinner at TRATA.

Sunday after church we worked at home underneath our deck.  Col especially has been wanting to do something underneath because while it's not tall enough to be a usable space for adults, it's half dirt, half grass which leads to a messy dog and wasted space.  There were some pavers left over from the previous owner, so we decided to spread those out and put down stone in between.  My parents' new house has a ton of stone that they don't want, so we formed the perfect partnership for our outdoor projects!  I am disappointed that I didn't take a before picture, but I'll post a partially finished picture soon.

We walked to the town parade in the afternoon that goes right near our house and brought Mendon to see how she'd do.  She was a perfect angel with all the attention she got from kids and adults, however she does not like drums!  Once they were in front of us she was shaking like a leaf, so we reassured her that she was ok and decided parades probably wouldn't be in her future.

Monday we headed out to my parents to pick up more stone and had a picnic with the extended fam.  We came back early that evening and worked outside more before sitting down to bust out the adoption update paperwork.  It was a great weekend, although tiring!  I need another day to rest up!

when the beautiful causes pain

Tonight with the help of my parents, we cut down the tree in the front of our house.  While right now it's beautifully blooming and welcoming spring, it was unfortunately planted too close to the house and is/can cause problems.  When we first bought our house the inspector said we should remove it because the roots could affect the foundation, the branches tear our screens, the siding would be discolored from the tree blocking it, and I can't plant anything in the flower bed since no sun or rain would be able to nurture it.  At first I was against taking it down, because it does bloom beautifully for a short while in the spring, however that isn't worth the long-term issues that we could have.  Branches are growing through the screens and into our living room when the windows are open, and I'm over not being able to see out our front windows.

I was initially just going to blog about saying goodbye to the tree, but I had a deeper thought and decided to run with it.  How often in life do the beautiful things cause us pain?  Especially today in our society, where "beauty" is everywhere but is often anything but.  And I can't help but think about how adoption is such a beautiful way to grow a family and representation of Christ's love, however it isn't all happy and comes from and causes pain as a birth family chooses a different life for their child, or a child is orphaned, or a birth family's rights are removed.  And how much more does this also represent the gospel, the fact that we are wholly, unconditionally loved, given freedom from our sins and life eternal, yet for this to happen Jesus had to endure the greatest of pain by death on the cross before the beauty of the gospel could be complete.  Something to think about.  I'm thankful God can remind me of these things amidst every day life.

life lately - a random recap

Man have I been neglecting this blog lately.  Although, I'm not as awful as it seems, as I have had many topics, ideas, and musings swirling around in my head, but unfortunately none of those made it down on paper, or keyboard, in a timely matter (if at all).  And so, here is a hodge-podge post about our lives lately:

We've watched multiple dogs - all within a close period of time.
[After which I got sick of walking through the front door and only smelling dog, so I did a thorough cleaning of all the floors and baseboards, including washing them on my hands and knees (made mom proud).  I vacuumed and febreezed all the furniture too, as those two littles got up no matter how many times we said no.  Love them dogs, but not the smells that multiples of them in one house seem to make.]

 
We had our first fire of the year in our new fire pit.
[Which we got in the spring and just put to use.  Summer always gets away from me...]

We completed more yard work.
[Where I got carried away with my non-electric hand trimmer and majorly trimmed half of a bunch of trees off since they are over our fence.  Col loves the end result and feels it opens up our yard a lot.  Even though we can see more light through to the neighbors' back yard, I like it too.  He said he knew that if I got going, I'd have it all down.  I can't help it; once I start cutting, my arms just keep moving!]

We attended our first Adoption S.T.A.R. picnic as a waiting family.
[I loved seeing the large turn out, meeting another new waiting family - who had a connection to us through our adoption of Mendon! - and seeing all the kiddos.]

I attended a seminar for work on social media.
[Which got me really excited and shouting to myself in my head, "I can do that!," over and over...until I remembered that at the moment, I do not have time to do that as I'm still working double duty.  But, once I'm able to fully transition, I can't wait to implement what I learned.]

Col's grandma had her 80th birthday.
[We celebrated with his mom's whole side of the family.  Another fun day of watching all the kids play and eating good food.]

I've had friend and family time.
[Bills training camp with a community group family.  Roomie time after an emotional day.  Visiting the newest community group baby.  Bridesmaid dress shopping for Rach's wedding - woot!  Redwings game with Col's fam.  Firemen's competition.  Lots of relaxing at home.]

We started obedience training with Mendon.
[She's actually quite well-behaved, and Col has done a great job training her.  But it's free through his work, so we thought, why not!  It can't hurt, and she'll love more time with other dogs.]

We've had moving on the mind for all of our parents.
[We've been assisting Col's rents with going through/selling stuff from their attic and garage as they prepare to move...sometime.  And we've been keeping up on my parents as they "moved" in with grandpa today, and will hopefully close on their new house soon.]

I'm working on organizing, re-arranging, and going though many areas of the house (again).
[I honestly think I'm nesting.  While I love myself a good organizing project any day, why else would putting clothes away turn into taking all of Col's clothes out of the closet and rearranging them by color while he and Mendon enjoyed a nap?  And check out Col's new tie storage solution!]

our house

We did some more yard work this weekend, this time concentrating on the front.  It was so fun buying mulch and picking out hanging baskets of flowers for our very own house!  Two different neighbors already commented.  Other than the over-taking tree that needs trimming, I'm happy with the curb appeal :)

yard work

We enjoyed another home-owner responsibility today: yard work!  After a trip to Home Depot (it's funny, I always thought it was such a boring store and didn't understand why it was so essential, but since we bought our house, we've been there countless times and I'm always thinking of something else that we need), Col mowed the lawn for the first time with our [gifted used] mower, and I raked, pulled weeds, and tackled the major over-grown mess that was creeping onto our property from over the fence.  I was waiting to see if it would bloom and be pretty, but it's just a bunch of sticks that I can do without!  It was hard work, but at the end of the evening, we were pleased with the results.  The best part was watching Mendon "help."  She saw me pulling everything down and decided to chew/yank at weeds and sticks.  And my favorite: while Col was mowing the backyard, she walked behind him in the newly cut rows!  

 

[halfway there]