I have been known to kill a cactus. I have never really had much interest in gardening except maybe a slight curiosity about vegetable gardening. I think it's pretty cool to cultivate your own food. I have never tried it myself, but would like to some day. Except for all that work. Which brings me to my weekend.

I knew when I bought this house I would have some caretaking to do. I knew somewhere in my head that it was going to be a big job. It didn't really sink in as to what the hell I got myself into until this weekend. I hit the dirt and hit it hard. Kyle and I took a walk around our property talking about all of the plans we had and I was completely overwhelmed. How would we ever find time to do this? Or anything else in our lives since it apparently will be spent entirely in our yard. And quite frankly, I don't hate gardening...I think pretty flowers are cool. But there are many other things that I would rather spend my time doing.

Anyway, this weekend. Pretty much I cleared one flower bed. ONE. I have too many to count, but I got one cleared of hundred of thistles. And then I broke out into some weird red spotty stuff. I am an outdoors girl, so I do keep a look out for poison ivy and I don't think I saw any. Never the less, my arms were covered in red spots. My mom, the nurse, told me to scrub immediately--now--with soap, water, and washcloth. I did as I was told--for once in my life--and the spots were gone by this morning. Of course I had to go out and finish that bed today and the same thing happened. I guess next time long sleeves?

The weather was quite warm here in WNY, so forget the long sleeves. It hit 87 Friday and 84ish today. Let me tell you about that sun though--hot as balls. Yep, I said it. BALLS. I guess next year I will have to start earlier. It's really hit or miss around here though. It's either cold or hot. There is no mild, in-between temperature.

The count so far is 3 flower beds down (Kyle and I tackled the other two last week) and at least 6 more to go. Seriously. Maybe I'll be done by fall.

Other news that you don't care about...I am a serious neighbor watcher. If you are my neighbor, watch out because I'm watching what's going on. I'm not like snoopy, or weird window lady, but if I see weird cars or people hanging around I keep my eye out. I guess I am a one-woman neighborhood watch. Since I don't live in a neighborhood I don't really have that much to watch. The house next door has two rentals and there has been some activity over the last 9 months. People moving in and out. Today a family moved in and I am excited to get to know them. I introduced myself and found out that they have 3 kids ages 9, 4, and 2. I haven't met the wife or the two younger kids yet and don't know anything besides that they are "temporarily" moving in. But it should be interesting having toddlers and preschoolers around.

We blew up the pool that my mom gave Kaela for her birthday--it was a huge hit! We liked it because it has a canopy over top, they like it because it rains from the canopy.





And the cars are always a big hit. We don't have a paved driveway, so the grass is pretty tough to get around. If you can hitch a ride with someone at least sitting in one place is a little more interesting.

Last thought...Cam was just yelling from his room. Sometimes he is just so darn cute I don't know what to do with myself. See that window in the picture right above the canopy to the left? Both of those windows are in his room and his bed overlaps the left one a bit. He's not used to having the windows open so tonight as I was cleaning up the pool, he stuck his head out and said, "hello", but in a funny voice that doesn't translate in text. I had to turn away to laugh and then turn back to sternly tell him to go to bed. So, yelling from his room tonight ...I went down and he was concerned that his night light wasn't on. I had to explain it was still light out and when it got darker it would turn on. Turned out, it just wasn't pushed in all of the way so he was happy and jumped back into bed. He was just so young and innocent throwing himself in there. I just want him to stay little forever. But then I quickly thought...ok, maybe not but I will be sad when he no longer wants me to come and check his night light for him.

Last week was a tough one weather-wise. Wednesday there were high gusts of wind and all of the schools in the area were closed. Friday we had about 5-6 inches of freezing rain and ice (no area schools were closed, but Kyle's school finally called a snow day!) It was the most beautiful, treacherous weather I have ever seen. Because of all the ice, it just stuck to the branches and the snow piled on top. It made us very happy to live in an area where we can see all this beauty...and, admittedly, not near a Target.

This is his account:

Well the Canucks finally gave up a snow day. What did you do? I continued to plan out lessons following strict curriculum guidelines. See descriptions with correlating pictures.



















Lesson one: P.E. : Shovel heavy wet snow (it was so wet, it was blue with water)



























Lesson two: Science: Note weather patterns of dark cumulus nimbus freezeth myassuth off clouds.













Lesson three: Science again: Rubbing one's head with a plastic laundry basket creates Static Electricity












Lesson four: Language Arts & Visual Arts: Writing while your brother performs scenes from Shawshank Redemption












Lesson Five: P.E. & Helath: Having a snack and giving free kisses (note the lower lip extensions while waiting to say MMMah)
















Lesson Six : Kisses.





Here's to one more snow day.....

I'm free! (That's three for all of you that don't speak toddler! Hmm...is three years still toddler? Yikes, I think he's a preschooler now. Uh oh, bring on the baby thoughts...)


Pat Pat Rocket and Construction Helper Toolset were both hits (for both kids!)

You can't have too many hair accessories...




Did I mention that they both enjoy the tools?



Unfortunately, Kaela had a fever last night and off and on today. Yeah, today was a rough one for me. I had to do this:


And look at this all day:



And it was the perfect day for it because outside really looks like a winter wonderland. It snowed all day--nonstop. Luckily, our friends Nick and Renee walked their snowblower over and did our driveway. I love friends. Actually, Renee came in and we chatted while the boys did the driveway.

This was a bit of a cool day, but we weren't sure if the weather would hold out, so Grandma and Grandpa came over and we cleaned out the flower beds. I have no idea about flowers--cutting them back seems so wrong to me! The kids couldn't be left out so, we all pitched in. Cameron loves to be a helper!








My little fix-it boy.

















That's the clothesline in the back. Never thought I'd be hanging clothes in October...or ever.


The kids love following me around with their vacuum.























Kaela loves playing in the kitchen. And our lovely primed walls that are waiting to be painted.