Here's My Reason For Being Absent.

This, my dear friends, is why I have been MIA for a week.

It all started with pulling weeds. Actually, it started with painting the house. I helped Jose as much as possible, but I'm afraid of ladders, so that help was short lived. So, while he spent the week priming the house, I decided to be productive as well. So, I began to pull weeds. And trim the bushes. Then, I began to cut down some bushes that were ugly and out of control.

It should be noted that since moving in in 2007, we have done little to nothing in regards to landscaping. We just had more projects with higher priority. I think that one time, maybe two years ago, I pulled weeds, but just enough to make it presentable. Nothing more.

So, the pulling weeds and trimming took over two nights (Monday and Tuesday) of last week. There was something, I think it may have been parsley, growing ridiculously in the bed. The root system of it was chaos. And trimming the back two bushes was a lot trickier than you'd think...because they are covered in thorns. I had to pull about a dozen thorns from my hands, and that was with gloves on.

The next night (Wednesday) was consumed by digging out unwanted trees and bushes along the side. One of my bff's, Jamie, came over to help and together we were able to remove two bushes that I had cut down to nubs and about four trees that were growing along the foundation. The stupid trees were hidden by untrimmed bushes for the past few years and were about thigh high. So, it was definately an all-night job.

Thursday is my tv night, so I didn't dedicate much time to the yard, but Friday night, I began to see my final plan in my head. However, we had other plans and didn't end up working. The threat of rain and sprinkles coming down contributed to that as well, so on Saturday, Jose and I spent the entire day outside working while my mom had the kids.

I dug out an entire bush to transplant. For about three hours, I dug a hole and carefully dug around the bush as to not damage its roots. Finally, with some man help, we were able to move the bush....two feet away to its new home. My mom laughed at me, but I wanted to be able to have the flower bed line up with the side of the house and the bush was too far over. So, we made it circle around and put it in an empty spot. I also finished up the area, spread the dirt out, pulled the rest of the stray weeds, and removed the rocks that were there.

Yesterday, we did nothing in the yard. It rained all day and we just needed a break. And I took a super long nap, which was amazing.

So, today, we took a trip to Lowes. Bought 63 little bricks (about 50 cents each), 3 bags of mulch (about $4) , 2 bags of planting soil ($2.50), and 4 containers of flowers ($1 each). And ta-da! Lined the area, mulched the area, planted the flowers (and put some in planters by the door), and done. Oh yea, and I planted grass seeds on the left where the flower bed used to be, but where we want grass to grow. And threw our chairs in front, for now.

And, Jose's got the house all primered and will be painting soon. I do believe that maybe, just maybe, we will be done with these large projects (painting the house, replacing the doors, and the front landscaping) by the end of May. That would freakin' rock! Stay tuned!