It's so fun losing weight

If I keep telling myself I'm not hungry will it become so?

I keep thinking at some point this is going to get easier right?

I'm not hungry
I'm not hungry
I'm not hungry
I'm not hungry
I'm not hungry

Darn not working

Banned From Book Club. Again.

Last night I had my "Christian" book club meeting. We read Kisses From Katie this month. This is a bit of an inspirational book about Katie who at the young age of 14 had started to feel the pull to be a missionary in Uganda. After high school she ended up going there and soon became a mother of 14 young girls.

The whole story is pretty amazing. She has her own blog here if you would like to learn more about her.

While a couple of women in our group were all like "sign me up!" I want to go and do something more meaningful! I pretty much am on the other side thinking "I can't believe nothing bad has happened to her".

Jessica was talking about going to Mexico with her church group and I have to say I was very relieved that she couldn't go because of her schedule. Foreign countries are scary! Seriously, we don't even want to go to downtown at night. Maybe I just need more "faith"?

In other book club news, we discussed The Hunger Games. Which they had all heard how violent it was and in no way wanted their kids to read it. One gal was pretty upset that her daughter who sounds like a very YOUNG 12, as opposed to my very OLD 12 almost 13 year old had read the books. Her mom had told her she didn't want her reading them but she snuck them anyways by putting a different cover over them. Apparently the girl thinks these books are real and this stuff really happened. The mom was like "I can't believe they have these books in the school library".

AND this is where Julie gets kicked out of "Christian" book club...

I said well many of the classics that the kids read are pretty violent. Just think of "Lord of the Flies". Really that's not much better than these books. I said we don't want to go to the days of banning books and burning them do we?

Pretty sure I'm not getting invited to her house for anything soon :wink:

Then on the way home I was thinking... which maybe isn't always a good thing.. isn't the BIBLE the most violent book ever? Now I'm not an expert on the Bible but I'm familiar with a few of the stories and I'm pretty sure killing your sons and brothers isn't very nice. Not to mention wiping out whole groups of people. Scary stuff I tell ya!

Bail me out?

So yesterday a co-worker who happens to be ten years younger, suggested that I was going through menopause because I said it was hot-cold-hot in the office.

Sure way to piss someone off eh?

I think some people are just not born with that little connector that tells them what NOT to say to someone. Or their momma never told them to shut it.

The Hunger Games Trilogy

Whew, I did it! I made it through all three Hunger Games books! I'm usually not into anything the last bit "unreal" but with so much hype about these books I felt like I had to read them. Plus my almost 13 year old read them all and thought they were great.

The first was excellent. The second was okay and of course I had to go right into the third since the second ended so abruptly. I didn't really like the third one but it did "end" the story.

Now to see the movie.

Did you read the books? What did you think of the story line?

Did you see the movie? Did you feel like it lived up to the books?

Birthday Party!

Well the birthday party for my mother in law went pretty well. No cried, no one cussed and no one left early. My sister in law works at Whole Foods and she got the most amazing steaks. OMG they were delicious!! If only we could afford to eat such nice meat more often. I always feel bad when she brings the food since I know it costs so much. I asked what I could bring and she told me ice cream.

So Scott and I went to the store to get ice cream. I told him he had to pick it out since his mom is a bit picky and let's you know if you didn't get something she likes. So we stood there for like 5 minutes. I'm like I think she likes French Vanilla. There's like 500 kind of French Vanilla ice cream. He finally picks one (and I got a lower fat one for us dieters) and we get in line. He had sent his sister a text asking what kind we should get and we got the response when it was our turn at the check out. She likes REGULAR vanilla, not French so we got out of line while he went and found another one. Kind of comical what we go through to try and make her happy.

But I do have to say she didn't complain about the ice cream ;)

After dinner of steak and potatoes and peas and salad and the most delicious deviled eggs (only had one) the girls and I went for a 20 minute walk to work off some calories so we could have cake and ice cream. It was a nice little break and we got some fresh air.

We came back and sang Happy Birthday and had cake and ice cream and then went home after visiting a bit. It turned out to be a pretty nice visit.

Side story on the candles, we started buying those years ago for their birthdays. My father in law insists that we recycle them. I think we have almost every number now!

I found this picture I forgot to share before when I was looking at my camera card.

Aren't we cute? I don't really ever think about Scott being so tall until I see pictures like this. Happily I've lost a bit of weight since this picture was taken.

Slow Saturday Morning

Well the rain has been holding off although it's been kind of windy. I'm sure it will show up soon. I should be outside working but I've had my nose in a book. I finished the second book in the Hunger Games series and since it ends abruptly I had to instantly start the third one. I'm about half way through and my Kindle battery has died so it's charging.

I'd be a lot farther along if I didn't keep nodding off so much. That is so annoying when you know you shouldn't even be tired and you really want to get a book done!

I'm hoping to finish it by tonight. Then maybe we can go see the movie soon. I kind of want to wait until it's not so crowded.

Today we are also going to the in-laws for my mother in law's birthday. My sister in law is making dinner again. I'm hoping it goes better than last time. The last time we went over there for my other sister in law's birthday I just wanted to have a stiff drink by the time it was over.

Please God make me be a nice old person.

Also hoping we are having something green with dinner. Tempted to bring some salad so I can stay within my calorie count.

Rain Sucks

I find this highly depressing. Stupid rain. It rained all last weekend too. We had like 2 good days this week.

Work was highly exciting today. A bunch of big wigs came in. Everyone was dressed nice and desks were cleaned up. They had a big meeting but I opted out. Answered the phone a few times. Thought others would opt out also but apparently I'm the only one that doesn't care about people's political jargon.

Annndddd to top it all off my least favorite ex boss came by for a "visit". Everyone was all so pleasant. He seriously makes me want to puke. I don't really dislike anyone more than him. Lucky for me there were plenty of people that were just loving talking to him so I could just end my lunch early and go back to my desk.

After work I took Melissa to the dentist. I had Trevor with me since I had to get them out of school early to get them there on time. We were there from 2:45 until after 6:00. Trevor was bored out of his mind. He finished reading his book. My Kindle battery died. I was starving. Phone almost died. We finally moved over to the kids side so he could at least play some video games over there. They have a table top video game with games like Pac Man and Donkey Kong and a bunch of other old school games. We played on that. Then went next door to Subway to get something to eat. Came back and played some more. Finally she was done.

I went to the gas station to get some gas on the way home and you would have thought it was ultra cheap there or something. Cars everywhere. Yeah. $4.36 a gallon. Obviously there was no other gas stations in the area. I pulled up and waited for a car to leave. Then pulled forward. Then I realized that the guy that was behind a truck at the pump (that was empty with no one around) was waiting and thought he deserved the pump I just pulled in at. I was already out and I wasn't getting back in so I just felt bad. But seriously who waits behind a truck with no one in it?

And I have to say you are a real asshole if you leave your vehicle parked at the pump while you go inside and shop in the mini mart when there are cars lined up to use the pumps.

Anyhow, I guess that's enough rambling out of me for one day. Here's a parting picture for you.

Source: a8.sphotos.ak.fbcdn.net via JJ on Pinterest

What's cooking

I'm tired peeps! We finally had a really nice day today. Nice that it was on the first day of spring. I got my back flower/vegetable bed all cleaned out and planted all my big boy tomato seedlings. Hopefully they make it. I would have taken a picture but I was too tired.

I've been doing pretty good on my diet. I'm down about 13 pounds. I pulled out my next size smaller pants and wore a pair to work today. Sadly I mostly had capri pants one size down so I'm going to have to get more pants. I'm thinking I'm just going to try the thrift store because hopefully I won't be in that size for long!

The only bad thing about dieting is needing to go to the grocery store so much. We are always running out of everything. I need to make a trip tomorrow and get some salad stuff and more fresh veggies. At least once the garden is growing I can just go in the back yard and pick dinner!

The forecast for the rest of the week is good until Friday when it's supposed to rain again and then "chance" of rain all freaking weekend. I wish it was only allowed to rain during the week while I'm at work ;)

In other news, here's a few more recipes that I've tried this past week. My new favorite websites are Skinnytaste and Can You Stay for Dinner. Great food recipes and most of them have the calories listed.

I took a chance that my family would turn up their noses at this because it has coconut on it. I was pretty much right that they wouldn't REALLY like it. They ate it though. It was good with a nice sweet flavor and not too hard to make.

Coconut Crusted Chicken Tenders

Winco has had artichokes for $1 each the last two times I've been in there. They are on the smaller size but 3 out of 5 of us love them.

Pork Chops with Dijon Herb Sauce So when I went to make this I didn't have any dijon mustard like I thought I had. I also didn't have any chicken broth left either. Oh and I didn't have any fresh herbs. I ended up using regular mustard, beef broth and dried herbs. It was ok. I think I need to try it will all the correct ingredients and a little thicker pork chop.

Funny thing about this next one. I was in the middle of making it when we had some drama going on. I thought the meat mixture was a bit watery, but it was coming out alright. When I was cleaning up a bit I realized I had forgot to put the breadcrumbs in with the meat. That would explain it! It turned out pretty good even though it didn't have the breadcrumbs in it so you could even leave them out on purpose if you are avoiding such things.

Skinny Salisbury Steak with Mushroom Gravy and Cauliflower Mashed "Potatoes"

I attempted to make the skinny garlic mashed potatoes with non fat milk. I had my ratio off though and they were way too runny. I also didn't use a blender so that might have been part of the issue. I was getting short on time and didn't want to drag that out. They still tasted fine though. I still like the other cauliflower mashed potatoes I made before better.

Source: kraftrecipes.com via Mom Taxi on Pinterest

I've got one more new recipe (realized today I need to give myself a lot of time to make it) and one more old recipe that I've made for this week.

Tonight I took what was left of the chicken cutlets and used those bread crumbs (they are whole wheat, pretty tasty!) I had forgot about and cooked them in my skillet with some olive oil. I forgot to take a picture but they were pretty good for something I just threw together. No left overs for my lunch tomorrow!

This Means War

Friday night my friend and I went to the movies and saw This Means War.

At first I wasn't really liking the movie too much. It just seemed so cheesy and I thought the fight scenes were just so chaotic. But at some point it changed up a bit and it got cute and funny. I have to say I think my favorite part was at the animal shelter. I really laughed and laughed!

I like that Reese's character was a bit dorky. But damn does she have a banging body! The scene where she is on the counter?? Nice!

I couldn't really get over how LARGE FDR's head is. Is it just me or does his head seem like twice the size of a normal head? I think he has way too many eyebrows too. Totally not attractive to me at all.

Have you seen the movie? What did you think?

The Hunger Games

My friend Diana from work gave me that Hunger Games to read. Melissa is almost done reading the whole trilogy. I decided I wanted to read it before I saw the movie, so Diana lent m her book.

I started it the other day. I read most of it last night until I couldn't keep my eyes open and then finished it up bright and early this morning. Everyone was asleep but Jessica (she had to get up early to go take a test for school) but I couldn't stop thinking about it so I tip toed into her room and read in there.

Now I'm torn between wanting to read the next book and having to read the book for book club this week. I'll let you know which one wins! I can't wait to find out what happens next!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

Happy St. Patrick's Day!

I found the pictures of Trevor a couple years ago. My mom has this little playhouse, and as I said she LOVES St. Patrick's Day and any holiday she can decorate for. She set up the playhouse and did a little photo shoot with my son and my nephew.

He was kind of afraid of this leprechaun, obviously he's not happy in this one haha.

The boys were only five here, hard to believe that was that long ago already!

And here's a sweet one of Miss Jessica! I made her this cute sweatshirt with fabric cut outs and heat and bond or something of that sort. You can't see the sweatshirt that great (I wonder if I still have that?) but she sure is adorable. She's almost a year old here. Looks to be in that "drooling" stage. 

There's a picture of Melissa in her St. Patrick's day dress I made her here

Found my picture on the Vintage Sheet Blog

They posted my vintage sheet rag wreath over on the Vintage Sheet Blog! If you've never been over there, go check out all the awesome vintage sheet projects.
If you are visiting from the Vintage Sheet Blog, here is a link to my rag wreath post and the baby shower I hosted. I used a lot of vintage sheets for the shower. 
I made the rag wreath

A bunting

and table cloths from vintage sheets.

It was a lot of fun and using vintage sheets in my decor made it very affordable!

Stress Eating

So I've realized something about myself in the last week. When I get stressed out, I want to eat. Probably explains why I'm fat eh? Apparently I'm stressed a lot!

What do you do to come with stress?

Here's my latest:

1. Call my friend and bitch
2. Drink Diet Coke instead of eating a huge bowl of something
3. Yell at my kids (sorry!)
4. Go hide
5. Eat something low cal

Pretty awesome coping skills eh?

I'm browsing the net a bit and came across this:

Five tips to overcome emotional eating

I especially love number 4 that says one way to stop stress eating is to develop a positive attitude. Umm ok. I'll get right on that.

Easy Come Easy Go

Good morning blog land! Nothing too exciting to report on from yesterday. Although I DID get my promotion AND our tax refund showed up in our bank account. Of course that means that our hot water heater is taking a dump. I swear appliances in our house just know when we have a few extra bucks. Nevermind that the refund is supposed to go towards paying our federal taxes and fixing Jessica's car. :sad face:  Nothing like taking an ice cold shower in the morning to make that other stuff be on the back burner. Hopefully it can be fixed again without replacing the whole thing, although I'm kind of thinking that is not going to be the case since Scott has fixed it about 100 times already. Leave it to us to get the model that has to have issues.

Hot water heaters: one of those things you don't really think about until it's not working.

In other news I'm down 11 pounds on my diet whoop whoop. I'm so freaking excited that the weight is dropping off so fast. I know that eventually it's going to slow down but I'm really hoping it doesn't!  I might actually get to wear something nice for my 20 year high school reunion that doesn't come from the fat section of the store.

Well have a good day everyone!

Catching Up, Recipes, Wisdom Teeth and More

I'm a couple days behind here! Time to catch up!

Sunday I worked in the yard a bit. I got a little less than half of the back of the house bed weeded. I planted the cilantro, peas and I think three tomato plants there so far. I had to stop eventually to go meet up with my sister in law so we could do the next step in our lemoncello escapades. This time all we had to do was make the simple syrup and add it to the booze/lemon mixture. While we did that we ate a bunch of grapes, some fancy cheese spread and some ritz crackers. Then my brother BBQ'd  some tri tip and Italian sausages. Oh and we drank a bottle of pomegranate wine that I had picked up on the way home on Saturday. It was all delicious. Thanks to working in the yard I was about even on my calories for the day. I didn't lose any weight that day though, just stayed the same. No surprise there! I was just happy not to gain anything after drinking half a bottle of wine!

Monday Jess got her wisdom teeth out. Her appointment was for 7:30 and they took her back about 7:45. They rolled her out before 8:30 all done. Super quick. She slept most of the day. She's pretty much miserable right now.

I stayed home with her all day yesterday and did a bunch of cooking. I made

Chicken Enchilada soup (haven't tried it yet, probably tonight)

                                                                             Source: skinnytaste.com via Mom Taxi on Pinterest

and Three bean turkey chili (made it before, it's good!)

                                                                           Source: kraftrecipes.com via Mom Taxi on Pinterest

and another batch of veggie soup (I take this for lunch every day and also eat it when I feel like I'm starving since it's so low cal but filling)

                                                       Source: kitchen-parade-veggieventure.blogspot.com via Mom Taxi on Pinterest

and a green salad.

and steamed some broccoli and cauliflower.

and made jello (sugar free is only 10 calories?!? awesome!)

and made cornbread muffins.

Those things sure have a lot of calories in them. Next time I bake something that has vegetable oil in it I'm going to try subbing apple sauce. Anyone ever tried that before?

I think I washed dishes like 10 times.

Today I went to work. We have a lot of people sick right now. Eric has been out sick for like EVER (get better soon!) and Blake came in sounding like death. He went home after about two hours. We still had a few more people still a bit sick in the office. My throat is a bit scratchy and I'm hoping I'm just psyching myself out and not really getting sick.

Now off to put away about ten loads of laundry.

                                                                    Source: calendulafitzpatrick.blogspot.com via Brad on Pinterest

College Day

Ahhh what a busy day. I'm so tired.

Got up early and took Trevor to my brother's. Then came home and Scott, Jess and I took off for Monterey. They were having a new student day of some sort so we went. After we got there we didn't end up going to any of the programs since they all seemed the same as the ones we went  to last time we were there. We did however tour the dorm rooms again (this time they had a double instead of a triple to look at) and go into the book store to buy some goodies. Jess got a sweatshirt, I got a sticker for my car and Jess picked out a banner to have her biology teacher hang up in his classroom. I guess he likes to have one for each school his students are going to and has them sign them when they go. He didn't have one for Monterey so she got him one.

We were all starving so we drove around to find somewhere to eat. We ended up at Chili's. I ended up getting a chicken salad off their lighter menu (only 420 calories) and ate about 20 chips and salsa. I actually made it under my calorie count today even with going out of town IF I don't eat anything else before I got to bed haha.

Then we went over to the beach for a little bit. It was kind of cold so we got our toes wet and took some pictures.

We stopped back by the school sign on the way back down the highway and got a picture of her with the sign.  Makes me all teary thinking of her leaving soon. I'm not missing any teeth in that picture, it's Jessica's hair haha.

On the way back we stopped at Casa de Fruta. It's like a fancy fruit stand. I got some flavored pistachios. Scott got some dried apricots. Jess got some salt water taffy. We got Melissa a peanut butter bucket and Trevor some chocolate covered pretzels. AND I got some pomegranate wine to take to my sister in laws tomorrow.

Here's my pistachios. They had a bunch of different flavors. I got tequila, garlic, chile and lemon and Scott got some regular ones.

The chile ones were SUPER hot. Those might be good with alcoholic beverages ;) I think I liked the garlic ones the best.

Well I'm pretty proud of myself for staying under calories today. I should go to bed before I mess that up :wink:

I'm a food addict. I'm thinking.

Today I've been really craving some crap food. I went and got 2 new tires for my car and while I was waiting I walked down the little strip of stores. Tire store, Home Depot, Marshalls, I smell fried chicken!! Where is the fried chicken smell coming from?? Ross, WINCO that's the culprit. Must stay out of the grocery store.

Went and walked around  Ross. I HATE how people around her just kind of push in front of you all the time. I'm looking at something and someone is just pushing in on my space. Go look at the next rack over or something? Sheesh. Oh and what else do I find at Ross? FOOD.

Scott is texting me about something that makes me upset.

I walk back to the tire place. Still smells like chicken. Ross, Marshalls, Home Depot. Home Depot has food stand outside. Damn food. It's everywhere. Tire store. Get my car. Remember I need to get bubble wrap. Drive across the street to Wal Mart.

GIRL SCOUT COOKIES outside the door. I'm over those. Go in, starving. Just want to eat something. A big bowl of something something. Doesn't even matter what it is. Walk through the food aisle looking for something I can snack on on the way home. I was looking for more pistachios since I took mine to work. Ended up by the little rice cakes. Ohhh Chocolate kind. That might work! Got some of those and left.



Count out my 13 in the car. Throw bag in the back seat so I can't reach it to get more on the way home. Slowly much them. Ahhhh. Smells like chocolate. Doesn't really taste like chocolate.

Sheesh I have a problem. I;m a  freaking food addict!

Amazingly when I get home I'm not really hungry. Those little rice cakes must have expanded in my stomach. Or I'm over my emotional eating.

I made this for dinner tonight. Petite Lasagnas. Pretty good. Probably would have been better with ground beef but then it would have had more calories right?

Mine didn't look quite as pretty as hers. She didn't put in a step for whatever that pretty green garnish is on top. Other than that it was pretty easy to follow.  181 calories for one plus 2 helpings of salad and I called it dinner.

I have about 50 calories left for the day! Drinking some more water and then I think I should go to bed! Tomorrow is probably going to be hard food wise since I won't be at work and we have a small road trip to go on. Wish me luck.

I did it! Curbing the munchies.

I did it! I made it through the day without going over my calories. That God for Diet Coke is all I can say! I may or may not have drank a really really large bottle all by myself. BUT I didn't over eat. We'll work on that Diet Coke addiction later....

After work today I went to Home Depot and got some stuff for the soil so I can work on getting my seedlings in the ground. While I was gone I left my sunflower seedlings out in the sun to let them adjust a bit. When I got back some asshole bird had snapped a bunch off. And then left them. MURDERER.

I also ran into the grocery store to pick up some nuts and cottage cheese. Thanks to Facebook and everyone diagnosing me starving at 10:00 am I needed to get some more low cal protein sources. That reminds me I was going to boil some eggs. I need to do that still.

When I got home I worked in the yard for an hour. Listened to my neighbors talk to each other. Must be nice to have such great friends living across the street. Why is it that the only people that are my age that move in around here are weird?

Did you know working in the yard weeding for an hour burns 328 calories?

Came in and made dinner. Chili Rubbed Pork Chops. Except FAIL we were out of Chili powder?? How does that happen? So I did a quick Google and found a substitution of some hot sauce and cumin and oregano. I was already adding cumin so I just added more and a shake of oregano. Didn't bother with the hot sauce. It was a bit more runny but I think they were still pretty tasty!

After dinner I worked on making myself some 100 calorie snack packs. You sure don't get very many almonds for 100 calories. 14. FOURTEEN. Not much. You get a few more pistachios, I think it was 33 or something close to that.

and some 90 calorie cups of cottage cheese. They were out of fat free cottage cheese at the grocery store. I didn't know it was possible to be out of cottage cheese.

So I got my bag packed for tomorrow. Should make it much easier to get through the work day. Hopefully I won't feel so hungry all day like I did for most of the day today!

New Diet, Cookie Detox and Healthy Food

I never got a chance to get on here yesterday. I started my new diet. I'm using the "Lose It" website. They have an app too but I spend most of my day sitting in front of a computer so that works fine for me.

You basically just keep track of your calories. To start you put in your weight and height and how much you want to lose a week (I think 2 pounds is the top) and it tells you how many calories to eat. Pretty simple.

So I've gone from eating half a box of Girl Scout cookies plus a day to around 1300 calories. Yeah Me!

I was a total bitch last night and this morning. It had nothing to do with my husband trying to finish our taxes and him getting frustrated about something I did (put in the medical we paid out in deductions to see if it would make a difference-it didn't) and he couldn't figure out how to undo and then this and that. Oh and trying to help Trevor find something right at bedtime.

I'm telling you, it's just too much to handle while you are having the cookie withdrawals.

I ended up screaming something not very nice and going to bed. Then I had to get up 12 more times to help him some more. It wasn't pretty.

So I got up this morning and damn, still in a crabby mood! Poor Trevor got yelled at to hurry up for the bus over and over. I'm definitely making myself get up earlier tomorrow. It's not fair that the poor kid gets yelled at to hurry up every morning when I should just wake him up earlier. Ahhh if only Mommy was a morning person.

In other news, here's a few things I made

Shepard's Pie Lightened Up, this is a really nice website. This recipe was easy to follow, didn't take too long and was only 290 calories for a pretty large piece. I had the leftovers for lunch today and it was good reheated too. I think it would be a little bit better with just a little more tomato something or other.

I also cooked up a batch of veggie soup. This is a Weight Watcher's recipe. I've made it a bunch of times. It's pretty filling. One recipe is 6 servings so I divided it up so it would be easy to take to work. It's 61 calories a serving. Not too bad. 

This recipe we had tonight. Easy Garlic Chicken. It said to put it in a 500 degree oven. I thought that would be too hot for my glass baking dish so I used the metal one. When I took it out it was all bubbling up. I think I cooked it an extra ten minutes because it didn't look done enough before that. I thought this recipe was "ok" nothing to write home about. I think it would be better with a little soy sauce on it. 

That pan should be fun to clean though, don't you think?

Add some redneck dipping sauce and it's delicious :)

Just Another Day In Paradise

Ok I'm just going to do a random post today since I have so much swimming around in my head.

Just joined the website Lose it! My friend talks about it all day long (we email while at work) and she's lost a lot of weight. You can have "friends" on there to help support you so if anyone is on there and wants to be encouraging my email is the same as here. I need to go buy a new scale tomorrow. Mine is just the old kind with lines and they are so small or my eye sight is getting really bad haha. Digital is more fun for blogging the loss of a fat ass though.

No fancy dinner pictures tonight. I need to go grocery shopping so we had McDonald's.

With St. Patrick's Day coming up I was thinking of this cute dress I made Melissa when she was younger. I can't find a picture (so far) where you can see the whole front (it has bows that are super cute) but my Mom took some on her porch. My Mom is the holiday QUEEN. She especially loves St. Patrick's Day for some reason. This was in 2006, 6 years ago already, hard to believe.

Such a cutie pie! 

I have some pictures of the other kids in St. Patrick's Day garb, I need to find those too to share :)

Saturday I worked out in the yard a bit trying to get one of my vegetable areas cleaned up. My seeds are going crazy! I need to transplant them soon. I've been taking them out for some time in the real world most days so they don't all croak once I get them in the ground.

So this is what I was working on.

Why yes that IS a bunch of dead stuff and a mess (hopefully my friend that gave me those doesn't read here, she might kill me). They weren't ALL dead. What's left has been relocated to the front where they might have a better chance of getting planted soon.  Threw away a bunch of garbage and  weeded this and now it looks like this.

I need to move that tree but not sure where I'm going to move it to. And maybe paint the gutter and find a downspout thing again. 

I stopped there because it was HOT. Yes, I know some of you got snow last weekend but we pay a higher cost of living for sunshine.

I ended up working on the side of the house a bit since it was in the shade. I had some stepping stones over here but there are only a few that aren't broken. I am thinking I'll get some nicer ones to put down the side and either put gravel or ground cover to grow around them. I really want to work on framing things out like the front yard down the side here but that most likely won't happen very soon.

 At least it's cleaned up a bit.

My buddy was outside helping me. He was a good boy and didn't act like he was going to eat the neighbor while he was on the side of his house. 

I had to eventually stop working and get ready to go to Scott's sister's birthday dinner. I'll post about that later since this is long enough!