Hmmm, what have I been up to?

Seems like we've been busier than ever now that Justin is out of school for a couple weeks before summer school starts. We made some new UTPA friends, surprisingly our neighbors that live just a few houses down from us are also a UTPA family and moved here last summer just like us, they have two small children & we've enjoyed hanging out with them a couple times. So good to find some English speaking folks that don't live very far from us! They've introduced us to some other families who are new to the Valley also, it's nice to see that everyone else feels the same way we do about living in the Valley! We've been doing a lot of work in the yard and around the house. Justin trimmed our palm trees (all 6 of the small ones) & used the chain saw to cut one out that didn't make it because of the freeze this winter. He also cut down some of the trees in the back drainage ditch that are trying to move into our backyard. I held a garage sale on Saturday & sold most of the baby clothes and stuff I had been hoarding. It was a challenge bartering with all the hispanic folks since I don't speak a bit of Spanish! Just as things were really starting to shape up around here our dishwasher, which is only 8 month old, pooped out on us. Unfortunately the Sears repairman can't come out to check it out for a couple weeks so I've been spending A LOT of time hand washing dishes (which I really hate!). On Sunday, as we were enjoying a leisurely Sunday afternoon at the house, we heard a "drip, drip, drip" coming from the kitchen....unfortunately a pipe in the kitchen ceiling was leaking! We called our home warranty company & immediately shut off the water. We were without water Sunday and almost all of Monday until the plumber came out and repaired the pipe. Now we have a damaged section of ceiling in the kitchen that will need to be fixed, thank goodness Justin is handy & thinks he can fix it. I never knew how important running water really is until I had to go without it for over 24 hours! What a mess! Work has also been keeping me very busy with new jobs and new challenges every day...and I did find some time today to make some cute new shirts for Annabelle, she wanted an Olivia shirt and a Max & Ruby shirt so I made both, they were easy to make and turned out really nice! Annabelle is REALLY enjoying spending time with her Daddy now that he is home more often. Hopefully this summer we will have some time to take some short mini-vacations in between the summer session and fall semester starting up again!

Story Time Graduation 2010

This morning was story time graduation. Annabelle made a really cool graduation cap, got to walk up & shake hands with Mrs. McCook & pick up a diploma. They were also taking pictures but Annabelle refused to let them take a picture of her, she's so shy in public but as soon as we left the library she became the "mouth of the South" and wouldn't be quiet! Story time takes a break now for a month or so, we'll miss it!

Frosting Glass

So, what's the newest craftiest thing I've been up to you might be asking? Well, I frosted the glass on our front door for privacy. I've been looking for a privacy solution for our front door for months, people would come up to the door and look right into the house. I didn't want to hang a curtain & block the natural light coming in the window. I found Gallery Glass etch at Hobby Lobby & painted it on with a sponge brush and then dabbed it with a paint brush to give a more "frosted" effect. It looks just like stained glass & only cost $2.25! Now on to more glass etching...glasses, windows, dishes...the possibilities are endless :)

Frogs & Flowers

Annabelle & I went to story time today, the theme was "frogs". Annabelle was disappointed because the book read today was "Down by the Cool of the Pool" which is one we already have in our home library, it's always a big let down when they are reading a book she's already familiar with. We did get to make a cool frog & hang out with some new kids at the park this morning. I took Annabelle to a different park yesterday afternoon to try out some swings since our park doesn't have swings, she was so excited to try them out but got scared when she realized they are a little to high up for her & her feet don't touch the ground. I told her our swing set in our backyard will have much lower swings so that made her even more excited to get the new swing set. Our flowers are in full bloom as you can see with the pic of Annabelle in front of the purple bush. Days have been getting hotter & hotter down here, it's been in the 90's most days - thank goodness not in the 100's yet!

Rolly Polys & Popsicles

Lately we've been spending a lot of time on the patio. Annabelle's two favorite things to do on the back patio are catching rolly polys & eating popsicles. Funny because my little sister, Leslie, used to have a rolly poly farm when she was little. Annabelle has even named them (like Leslie named hers) last night she told me they are Eeny, Meeny, Miny & Moe! She is quite the rolly poly herder. Since we've had so much rain the polys are flocking to the patio to avoid drowning not knowing that they will soon be herded by Annabelle. Hopefully we'll keep getting the rain so I don't have to spend my mornings watering the new yard!

Home Improvements

Our house was freshly painted when we bought it in July, unfortunately whoever painted it painted over all the eve vents. Justin decided it would be a good idea to replace them since no ventilation is getting to the attic. He replaced 5 this weekend - now only like 20 more to go :)

Our Grass is GREEN!

After over a week of rain, our grass is finally green!