Monday, October 25, 2021

Landscaping Part 1 of ?

 Hi,

Warning..photo heavy!! 

Well for starters, I'm feeling much better. Thank you all for the cards and well wishes. I have the best peeps, family and friends around!! I'm so very blessed and thankful! 

I've been meaning to post about our landscaping for some time. When we were first on the hunt for a new house in the Toledo area, one of our prerequisites were trees! We wanted something cozy like we had on Stonewood or Curtis. Well, we landed up falling love with the floorplan of our new home and realizing the yard would need a lot of work, we went for it. Paul was pretty excited about a clean slate in the yardwork department...that man loves playing in dirt. 

For starters back in May, we bought some trees for the front yard. I can't believe they built the house and didn't put one tree in the yard, either front or back. 

  





Notice all the stone along the front of the house. We like mulch because Paul loves his bulbs and I do too. Daffodils, tulips, and the dahlia tubers. So, can you believe he moved ALL the rocks? We used them in the landscaping for the backyard (didn't have to pay the landscapers for them) and he lined the fence with them, now he doesn't have use the weed eater along the fence. 



The previous owner had some huge dogs and he worked 3rd shift. He liked to leave the side door open so the dogs could come and go. He had a side door put in through the laundry room. Our problem with that is there's no way to get to the front of the house from the side. You have to either use the front door or open the garage. Our solution? Move the fence to behind the side door so now we can come and go to the front with ease. 

before


and after..


On to the backyard...we hired a landscaped company. Since our backyard has a pretty good sized slope, we wanted a retaining wall. 
The corner has a drainage hole and we aren't the only ones whose yard the rain drains into. You can see by the slope of the fence, how deep the slope is. Paul fixed that fence too 😍



before

after

Here's a video showing our backyard early summer. Not a bush or tree in sight. 



Paul told the landscapers that I wanted a little water feature in the backyard somewhere. They decided to work on that first. 







Just so happens it's right outside our bedroom window. Some pics were taken through the screen in there. In the summer at night, we get to open our windows and listen to the waterfall lull us to sleep, it's a little bit of heaven 😊.

They then moved on to the retention wall. Unfortunately, the stone the guy ordered looked like sidewalk cement and we were quite disappointed that we didn't get to choose the color. We then ordered a different color which took an additional 8 weeks to come in! So this project that was supposed to take 2 weeks is now into it's 3rd month. Plus, I'm not sure the stone looks that different. Oh well, it will be so worth it when it's done! 


outline of the steps and wall

digging out for the wall

encased barrier for the waterfall so it doesn't callapse during rain etc. 












Paul having fun with new plants.


Well, it's coming along nicely and we LOVE IT!! I'll post more pics in a week or so after I get back from my girls trip to Disney.

As always...thanks for stopping by. 

Wednesday, October 6, 2021

An Update..

 Hello! 

Well, things are certainly looking up!! In spite of the fact that I've been in the hospital twice in the last 3 weeks. 

After they let me go home on the 24th, the following Wednesday they did more blood work, my numbers were back up and they decided to admit me again. I landed back in there on Wednesday the 29th, one week later. It was quite a bit unnerving as I went in in the afternoon and they didn't have any beds. I was in a "holding" room in the emergency room. Now they explained it wasn't due to an overrun of COVID patients but a shortage of nurses. 

I finally got in a room about 9:30 pm. They told me no food or drinks after midnight as they might be doing a "procedure" in the morning. 

Morning came and no one really had an idea as to what this procedure might be. Some speculated a scope, others a liver biopsy. 

Late morning the GI doctor came in. Nice guy dressed in black scrubs. We chatted for about 30 minutes and he said after all the blood work and information from me, like no pain etc. he's 99% sure it's from the Augmentin antibiotics I was on. He said he didn't want to do a liver biopsy as he felt there was no need and my liver IS working, it's just really pissed! He did say it will heal! Yay!! Unfortunately there isn't really anything we can do other than wait. They are continuing to do blood work every few days and my numbers are gradually coming down.  

Before the GI doctor left my room, I had to mention that I had tickets at the end of October to go on a girls trip to Orlando and did he think I could go? 

He said "GO! HAVE FUN!!" Universal, Wild Kingdom and Hollywood Studios, here we come! 

I'm feeling my usual guilty self. Jenn and Dan's babysitter quit the first of September. The sitter and her husband babysat together but he took a full time teaching job at Bowling Green and she didn't want to do it by herself. So Paul and I decided to help out for a while. Well, little did I know I'd land up in the hospital and he'd be watching two little ones under the age of 3 by himself. 

Luckily I'm on the mend and I'm able to go over and help him out. You forget when your kids grow up, how it was when they were little and you were in your 20's and not your 60's lol! These kids make it pretty easy though, they're so happy go lucky and Elliott is always ready to help.  

We celebrated Paul's birthday on Saturday. Steve and Laureen came and Laureen baked an awesome lasagna! Jenn and Dan brought a cake and we sang. 

Since then, Elliott gets a kick out of singing happy birthday now to all of us! It's lots of fun! 

As always...thanks for stopping by.