So long!

When we moved into this house in September 2008, I knew the outside needed a fair amount of yardwork to be done. A few projects were tackled over the years (removing some ugly ground cover, relocating one bush), but no progress was made last year due to my bed rest. I decided to work on it this week. I have always thought that Paul would be the one to remove the rest of the ground cover and some mostly dead bushes, but he's been a very busy guy over the past almost 5 years, and that isn't going to change any time soon. He's trying to work full-time whenever possible plus prepare for interviews and somewhere in the next few weeks needs to help Nadia make her car for the AWANA Grand Prix. That means I need to tackle the stuff around the house myself. I probably should have waited until the weather returned to spring like temps (it felt like summer yesterday and today), but I'm not complaining, as I'll take warmer than usual temps over colder than usual temps any day of the week!

Yesterday I removed one bush, and today I removed four more plus some evergreen ground cover. I actually even got two of the stumps out! The other three stumps can be hidden. I'm not feeling the need to dig them up. This yard work should help me toward me weight loss goal! I'm going to need to buy more flowers this year. I feel silly that I waited 4.5 years to say farewell to these bushes. The only time I see that side of the house is when I'm mowing the lawn, but I'm sure our neighbors will appreciate the improvement, and if it helps us sell our house, it's well worth the effort! I think Paul is going to borrow his dad's truck one night so we can get rid of all this yard waste. Yesterday I forgot to put sunscreen on the kids, but I remembered today as their cheeks were still rosy from spending so much time outside yesterday. Now that the grass is turning green again, I feel confident I can get a nice picture of Oliver and skip taking him to a photographer. 

I've said it before, but some times it seems there is a conspiracy amongst the children to make sure their parents don't sleep well at night. I remember thinking that when Ian was younger and not sleeping well at night, on the rare night that he slept well, Nadia, who is usually our best sleeper, would have a rough night. It happened again last night. Oliver slept through the night for the first time in weeks (he slept from 7:45pm to 5:45am), but Ian, who now usually is a good sleeper at night, was up every hour starting at 3am. The first two times Paul took him back to his bedroom. I let him join us in bed at 5am, and Paul let him come downstairs at 6am. Normally the earliest we let him in our room is 6:30, and the earliest we usually let him come downstairs is 7:00. The reason he couldn't sleep well was that he was hungry. He sat at the dinner table for over 2 hours and only ate a little bit of the hamburger I had grilled and didn't eat any macaroni and cheese that I made. You would think that would be a very child friendly meal. Nadia scarfed it down. He had a VERY large breakfast this morning and took a longer than usual nap this afternoon. He actually was nodding off while he was eating his sandwich at lunch he was so tired. Last week I let him try ice cream for the first time in his life. I was so excited as I thought he'd love it. Wrong. He didn't like the fact that it was cold. Oh well. I am certainly not going to make him eat ice cream. He's adjusted better to wearing shorts than I thought he would although when I first put them on him the past two days at first he tries stretching them down to his ankles. He keeps asking me if the shirt has "big sleeves." I guess that's what he calls a long sleeved shirt.