Yard Improvements

First, can I just say that I love renting a house.  Yes, that is right, renting, its great!  Our landlord told us that our only yard responsibilities would be to mow (lawn mower provided) and shovel the snow.  Piece of cake.  No weeding, (although I have done some and the landlord has too), no planting, no nothing.

Our yard, while beautiful is also incredibly high maintenance, or at least it could be if we were more invested in this house.  Our landlord obviously loves plants and we have all varieties scattered in every corner of the yard.  For the most part, it is beautiful, but a little too much for my liking.  But, like I said, we don't own the house, we don't have to worry about selling it in four years, so I'm not going to stress myself out over trying to make this yard live up to its potential. 

That being said, we have done some minor things, so I thought I would share.  Neither Richard or I love yard work, so I must say, I am quite pleased with our accomplishments.

Below are pictures of my little flower bed in front as well as a pot.  A few weeks ago my sweet neighbor, who works at the local plant nursery and who has a gorgeous yard, brought me an entire flat of flowers and said she had changed her color scheme and didn't need these flower any more.  She told me where to plant them and how to take care of them.  This flower bed was originally full of weeds, grass, and dead tulips.  Beautiful right?!  :)  I weeded it, added some fertilizer, and got these little flowers in the ground three weeks ago.  I am happy to report that they are still alive.  After I planted the flowers I thanked my neighbor and told her it was perfect timing because my family was coming for a visit.  She exclaimed that if we had family coming we had to do something with that empty pot and immediately brought me this fern and four flowers to plant.  I have a good neighbor.  So, thanks to her, I have these little beauties.  

Nevermind that rosebush.  It is not doing well.  I wish I could just dig it up.

The next picture is Richard's baby.  For years Richard has dreamed of having a fire pit in the backyard.  Well, a few weeks ago he bought a weed-whacker to spruce up the hard to mow places in our yard.  This little spot was one of them.  There are three steps made up of rocks that are falling apart and then a little circle of rocks at the top of the stairs.  After he cut away all of the grass and weeds we discovered that it was a great little area for a fire pit.  Richard was thrilled.  

Well, last Saturday morning during breakfast he asked Marshall what he wanted to do that day.  Before Marshall could even respond Richard said, "Yard work?  Do you want to work in the yard?"  My jaw dropped.  Richard HATES yard work, and that is no exaggeration.  But, before I knew it those two were out shoveling the remaining grass and measuring the space.  They bought these stones and some sand and spent the rest of the day creating this little patio.  Marshall had the time of his life and Richard is pleased with the finished product.

On Friday Richard finally bought his fire pit and just set it up last night with his Dad.  We are planning on building a fire tomorrow night and roasting smores.  It should be great!

 And here's just a sample of what our yard looks like.  Lots and lots of flowers.  Beautiful, but also very overgrown.  :)

Oh yes, one more reason why I am loving just renting this house...
On Thursday we got brand new windows.  The existing windows were original to the home (1951).  It was so great to have the window company show up, put them all in, do a great job, and leave without asking for a penny.  :)  I am loving the new windows and love that I didn't have to pay a dime.  :)

Don't worry, someday we really will own a home, but for now this is perfect.

St. Joe's Graduation Dinner

A couple of weeks ago we attended the graduation dinner for St. Joe's Hospital, where Richard has been working for the last year.  This dinner was to celebrate the end of residencies for their radiology and podiatry residents, as well as the twelve interns.  It was such a fun evening out.  Who doesn't like to get all dressed up and have an evening out without children?!  

Dr. Kutty with all twelve interns.  In his speech, Dr. Kutty said, "I might have to join The Facebook to stay in touch with these people." (Said in an Indian accent.)

Richard should really be writing this part of the post, but I'll just jot down what I've heard and observed this last year.  Out of these twelve interns, seven of them attended MCW with Richard and also five of them are Mormon.  We did multiple things this last year with this group of people and even though we have only known many of them for just a year; I must say they are wonderful people.  I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the wives of many of these men too.  They were all so cute with our kids, and so, so friendly.  Richard filled his last couple of weeks with these guys with BBQs and paint-balling.  Seven of these interns are moving elsewhere to finish their residencies so they all said their good-byes yesterday on their last day of work.  Richard has so been looking forward to the end of this year because he will finally get to do radiology, but he definitely had mixed feelings about all of this yesterday.  

Richard was the Transition Year Representative this last year and so he was able to work closely with Dr. Kutty, which he enjoyed.  Dr. Kutty had told Richard (he also reiterated this in his speech), that in all of his time at the hospital he has never seen a group of twelve interns come together so quickly, become friends, help each other out, and be such excellent physicians.  He spoke so highly of this group.  

Despite all of the things that Richard had to do this year that he definitely did not love; he has had an excellent year.  He has been able to learn in a wonderful work environment, learn from great physicians, and make great friends.  

So now it is on to MCW for the next four years of radiology.  I know it will be another phenomenal experience and Richard, though terrified, is very much looking forward to it.  Three of these interns will also be joining Richard at MCW for residency, so that will be great. 

Good-bye St. Joe's; you will be missed!

Indiana

After our time in Nauvoo, we once again packed up the vans and drove to Indiana where my brother's family lives.  I have been a bad sister and have not made a visit to my brother since he moved to Indiana last August.  They are just a mere 4-5 hours away, but I avoid that drive through Chicago at all costs!  So, after almost a year of them living there it was good to visit them.  They have a new little girl (not so new anymore) and it was great to meet her.  And of course, Marshall and Benson had a ball together; such cute little cousins.  

While we were there we played at a park, went to a train station, and did a lot of relaxing.  By this point in our trip we were all pretty wiped out and it was super hot in Indiana that weekend so we were mostly content to hang out indoors.  My parents also took Marshall and Benson on a little cousins outing to the local zoo.  All four of them had a blast and Marshall is still talking about it.  

Darling Annalisa.  She is eight months old and I'm positive she has a couple of pounds on Bridget.  :)

Marshall and Benson waiting for a train.

Bridget:  dark hair, dark eyes, small, serious.  Annalisa:  light hair, blue eyes, chunky, bubbly.

 

Lunch at a great little calzone restaurant.  I think they had over 30 calzones to choose from.  Afterward Richard and I treated ourselves to a smore calzone...delicious. 

Uncle Jordan, what a great uncle.  What a great face I captured.  :)

These two little boys got in lots of good uncle time. 

Another expressive face.  :)

Thanks to Ben and Lisa with putting up with all of us for the entire weekend and keeping us happy and fed.  We sure had a great time!

And, as a side note, our drive home was not bad at all considering we had to drive through Chicago.  This was Marshall's first time driving through Chicago without throwing up.  A success.  :)

Nauvoo

After my family's two day stay with us we all piled in two vans (minus Richard, he took the train down and met us the next evening) and drove to Nauvoo.  We spent a couple of days there and enjoyed every minute of it.  

When I was 13 my family visited Nauvoo.  Since then only my Dad, one brother, and myself have been back.  My two youngest brothers were so little when we were there last they probably didn't remember much.  It was great to be there this time around with all of us being much older and knowing more church history, and of course, to see the Nauvoo Temple.  It was all very special.  

Our first stop was Carthage.  The sister missionary who gave our tour was from Korea.  She was so sweet.  It was late afternoon and not very busy so after the tour we were able to sit on the benches and enjoy the special spirit that is there. 

The next day we spent visiting all of the Nauvoo sites.  Seeing as I had my kids in tow, I didn't get to see a lot, and I also didn't take a lot of pictures of what we did see, but it was still great.  I was able to visit all of the Joseph Smith sites, Brigham Young's home, Wilford Woodruff's home, and the blacksmith.  In between all of that the kids got plenty of fun and relaxing time in.

In the last three pictures you may notice a wrapper attached to Marshall's hand.  In the blacksmith shop Marshall, of course, got one of those prairie diamond rings.  We got him the smallest size, but within five minutes of wearing it he lost it in the grass.  My Dad, Stacie, and I spent a good ten minutes trying to find that thing.  Once we found it my Dad came up with the idea to put a wrapper around it to 1) keep it on his finger and 2) make it easier to find if it fell off again.  This little trick has worked wonders and I am happy to report it made it through the rest of the vacation and we still have it!

Our third and final day in Nauvoo was a visit to the temple.  My youngest brother Jordan did baptisms there and then he baby-sat our kids while the rest of us did an endowment session.  My brother, Kevin, will be leaving on his mission in just a few weeks and this was his first time going through the temple.  It was so neat to be able to share that experience with Kevin, and in such a historic temple.  

My four handsome brothers.

Marshall loves temple doors. 

It was a great couple of days in Nauvoo.  It is such a special place.  I'm so grateful for the faith and sacrifice of the early members of the church.  It was wonderful to be in Nauvoo and be reminded of all that they did.

To My Dad

Happy Father's Day to my wonderful dad.  :)

I was just looking through the pictures from our trip with them and remembered that I took this.  Made me laugh out loud.  

This is my dad at a rest stop in the middle of nowhere Illinois.  Quite a fashion statement, I must say.

Love you Dad!

 

Visit From The Toneys

A couple of weeks ago my family (parents, three of my brothers, and one sister-in-law) arrived in Milwaukee for two whole days of fun.  We made the absolute most of their two days here and gave them a unique Milwaukee experience.  It was such a fun time.  

We began with a boat tour.  This was by far my favorite thing we did.  It was a 90 minute tour of the Milwaukee River, the port, and Lake Michigan.  

Bridget must have been very overwhelmed with all of this.  She elected to spend most of her time in her stroller.

We passed under several bridges.  Some split in half and raised up and others lifted up the entire bridge while staying horizontal.  Marshall loved this.

If Richard loved water as much as I do I would talk him into retiring at a lovely lakeside condo.  I have about 30 years to convince him this is the place for us.  :)

 

This is how Marshall ended the cruise. 

 We also toured the Sprecher Brewery.  They have been around since 1985 and while they produce beer, root beer is their biggest seller!  It was a pretty interesting tour, bu the best part was the endless free samples of their soda at the end!  I had only ever had their root beer, but we tried all six flavors and I discovered their orange cream soda to be delicious!  Richard's favorite was their cream soda.  Yum, yum, yum.

 

The next day we hit up Country Spring Water Park.  Also a place I had never been, but Marshall had been begging to go swimming with my family and the temperatures weren't quite warm enough for an outdoor pool.  We had such a fun morning there.  Well, some had more fun than others.

This was Bridget's second time at a water park.  Can you tell that she hated it?!  Same reaction she had in January.  Someone always had to be holding her.  Fortunately, she was not a paid admission!  I am happy to report though that today after one hour of coaxing she ventured toward a slip n'slide.  :)

Do you see Marshall's head poking out of that raft?  Trust me, he LOVED this slide.  It was the only big slide he could go down and it was a three person raft.  He rode this time and time again for about two hours.  As soon as he would come down he would name who he wanted to go down with next.  He went with all of us at least once.  I love water slides and I am happy to see he shares my excitement.  We have fun years ahead!

That night we all went to AJ Bombers for dinner.  Hands down best hamburger I have ever had.  Richard and I had been there once right before Bridget was born and I have been wanting to go back for months.  Just as good as I remembered.  

Bridget was dancing to their music all during dinner.

All restaurants should have games.  Great kid-occupier.  :)

Besides all of that we enjoyed playing outside, endless attention from uncles and an aunt, a BBQ and dinner outside, custard from Murf's, and some of the family went to a Brewers game only to see them lose to the Cubs 10-0!

It was a jam-packed two days, but oh so fun!  Thanks for the visit Toneys!  Looking forward to next time.  :)