It Finally Happened

 As you may or may not know, three years ago, Clint and I bought a two-year old house. Here in Utah, when most people build a house, they move in first, and then put in their yard. The original owners of our house never got around to that part, so when we moved in, there was no yard, just a lot of dirt, and rocks. 

-Well, no more.-

I'm happy to report that as of last Friday, July 15th, we finally have grass!

 Putting in a yard with minimal hired help is a long tiring process. We tried to do as much as we could by ourselves.

Clint and my dad started in April moving rocks and installing the sprinkler system.

After doing as much as we could on our own, we had to hire out the rest. Someone to pour cement, build a couple of rock walls, bring in topsoil and grade the yard, and finally, someone to curb around the flowerbeds.

Here in Utah, the housing market is booming. We called 100's of landscapers who never called us back, and those that we were able to get a hold of were booked out for weeks/months. I'm an impatient person. When I'm ready for something, I want it right now. This was a hard wait for me. Finally, bit by bit, over the course of three months, we were able to get everything done.

 After months of waiting, once things got started, everything seemed to happen all at once, and almost too quickly.

On Monday the topsoil people finished. Tuesday the "Curber" came. Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday we (and when I say we, I mean Clint) installed 1,567,899 sprinkler heads.

In fact, we were up until 3 am most nights trying to get everything done and ready for sod.

Our neighbors were awesome and also helped.

We had one neighbor that came over every night to help. Our other neighbor stayed up late combing the dirt to make it smooth and remove any rocks.

Speaking of sod, it was scheduled to be delivered Friday night, and we would install it Saturday just in time for the return of our three older children who were attending a church youth conference.

WRONG!

The sod trucks pulled up a little after 5:30 am Friday morning (Who needs sleep?)!

There was no way we could keep the sod outside in the heat and sun all day long, so after going back to bed for a couple of hours, Clint and I began laying sod.

We had some awesome helpers. The first to arrive was a sweet neighbor lady, no bigger than me, who came with her two children. Together we carried the large HEAVY (who knew grass could weigh so much) pieces of sod over to Clint who then put them in place. We worked for over two hours and finally finished the smallest section of the entire yard before muscle fatigue set in and lifting another piece of sod was impossible.

 When I was wondering how we were possibly going to lay 20 more pallets of sod, more neighbors showed up to help -This time men! 

 They kept coming and coming and before I knew it, there were 10 men out there taking time away from their family to help us lay sod.  Each came on their own without being asked.

We were so grateful.

 When we began laying the sod, we noticed that there were a lot of unusable dry crumbly pieces that fell apart when you went to pick them up. This was not good. We knew we had ordered a little bit extra (a little cushion), but with all this bad sod, we wouldn't be able to finish the entire yard, and would have to wait (ugh! that waiting game I "love" so much) for more to be delivered. 

Somehow, even with several pallets-ful of unusable sod, we had just enough -just enough- to complete the yard. It was a miracle!

At the end of the day, as we sat on the patio looking out over our new yard eating Cafe Rio (that a thoughtful friend brought us), we were dirty and exhausted, but happy and very very grateful.

Two Months!

It's been two months since my last post. WHAT?!

Life has been crazy-busy, and I plan to blog it all.

WHAT HAVE WE BEEN UP TO?

For starters, we've (and when I say we, I mean everyone but me) been working on putting in our yard -FINALLY! After 4 summers without grass, I'm so ready.

 My dad came and helped Clint put in sprinklers. It was a looooong process, that took almost a month to complete.

 Then we had cement poured for a sidewalk, patio, and a basketball court.

 And of course, for memory's sake, we had to add our hand-prints to the fresh cement.

They go in order left to right - Clint, mine,#1, #2, etc

Next, we replaced our crumbling rock wall with a new sturdier, prettier rock wall

We also had a retaining wall built in our backyard.

Things are moving right along. We are so close to being able to feel cool, soft grass under our feet.
All we have left to do is to hire someone to come scrape the rocks out of our yard (there are only 1,459,678,577 of them), and spread topsoil. Then we have curbing and finally sod!
Stay tuned!

Ramblings

Last Friday I realized that I hadn't posted one single post all week.

So let me give you a little update:

p.s.- this picture has nothing to do with anything.  I just think it's cute and my husband is HAWT!

1. We've been sick - Mentally and Physically Sick

Some have had Bronchitis and others have had made-up stomach aches.

The Bronchitis I can handle, the anxious pretend stomach aches I can't.  It is physically and emotionally draining to cure the "I don't want to go to school because___________, so I'll pretend I have a stomach ache or I'll worry so much I give myself a stomach ache. Once school is underway, this child is miraculously cured!

Hallelujah! It's a miracle.

Except it's not. What it is is exhausting. We've talked with school counselors and teachers.  We even visited the doctor- you know, "just to make sure". Finally I just had to put on my mean mom jeans and tell this child that if he/she wasn't throwing up and/or if there was no fever, he/she was going to school! With a grand finale of "AND you better not call me "sick" from school because I will not come pick you up."

There may have been some finger wagging and head bobbing when we had this little discussion.

After a tons of crocodile tears and a lot (I mean a LOT) of whining, finally everyone is back in school.

Hallelujah!  Now that's a miracle.

2. Speaking of exhausting, The hubs and I have been planning out our landscaping.

When we bought our house three years ago, it didn't have a yard.  Our realtor told us it would cost us around $5000 to landscape it. HA! What he meant to say was that it would cost us around $5000 times 6. 

Since we can't afford that, we have decided to do a little at a time. Last year we spent way too much on dirt. Doesn't that sound like an oxymoron? You buy dirt to add to the dirt you're trying to cover up with grass. Yeah weird, but if we didn't, our grass would be half a foot below the sidewalks, and that could cause a lot of sprained ankles.

This year, we are installing (by ourselves) the sprinkler system. Before you do this, however, you need to map out where everything is going to go - flower beds, rock-walls, patios, basketball court (yes that will come eventually), and the garden spot.  This was hard- way too many decisions. BUT I think we came up with a plan that will eventually give us an awesome yard.

3. #3's first dance, Preference, was on Saturday. I posted a photo on Instagram and I'll post more photos here on Wednesday. I had to laugh when #3's friend took the words right out of my mouth by commented: "They grow up so fast!" Boy do they!

4. We've lost another library book. 

UGGH!

If you happen to see the book Ellie and the Good Luck Pig will you send it this way please.

Thanks!