My Busy Week

I started looking at the pictures on my phone and realized this week has been busy.

Thursday was Valentine's Day. Joseph asked me (using a tone that indicated he thought it was a stupid idea) if I wanted flowers sent to my work. He has never sent my flowers. I don't think he has ever even bought me flowers. And I'm not complaining. I am a cheap person and flowers die. But it could have been one of those disastrous moments for husbands who say the wrong thing. (Seriously, I can't tell him to send me flowers. That's one of those things you just have to do if you're going to do it. Or just don't. But don't ASK.) Plus, we've been married long enough that he should know to get me candy. Or better yet, chocolate covered strawberries. What am I going to do with flowers?

He made up for it. I didn't want to go out, knowing it would be crazy, so he made me dinner.

Flowers that he picked from the garden. (Yes, that is chocolate milk in my cup. We own Nesquik and it's mine.)

The filet was made with a balsamic reduction, asparagus, baby red potatoes, and some bread. It was seriously good.

Way better than flowers. He dipped more and I'm pretty sure I ate 15 in one sitting. It was a pretty good Valentine's Day.

The weekend was spent in the backyard. I am just a little sunburned.

One project was finishing Kristi's dresser. I didn't get a decent "before" picture but here it is prepped to be painted.

It doesn't have knobs yet. Kristi was thinking of painting the drawers different colors or maybe doing some sort of stencil on the front. Flowers, or maybe an inspirational saying. For now she's going to leave it gray.

Katelyn and Brian invited us to an 80s dance at their church. I didn't really have enough time to find an outfit, but Katelyn looked great. 

I love watching Joseph dance. I wish I would have taken a picture. He makes his dancing face and his moves are worthy of a sitcom. 

The final project of the weekend was the fence. Joseph has been wanting to fence off the garden area so Micah doesn't do his business in there. Plus, he thought it would add a little visual interest.

We had a few struggles with the placement, getting it straight, and the hard, rocky ground, but I think it looks nice.

We let the chickens out and they immediately settled down next to each other.

I can't remember if I mentioned that we got chickens for Christmas from Joseph's sister Katrina. My friends HP and Deni were asking me what I named the chickens. I told them I didn't know. They said they needed names that went together, like Thelma and Louise. I said how about Deni and HP?

HP is on the left. Deni is on the right.

Deni does not appreciate having a chicken named after her. HP is honored.

I texted them this picture and said, "HP and Deni are BFFs."

The weekend ended with a birthday party for my nephew Talon. The little guy is nine. He is my third oldest nephew. They make me feel so old. I'm bummed that I didn't get a picture with him. But he had better things to do than to hang out with old people.

Kristi's Project

My sister Kristi has been telling me I need to help her with a couple projects for awhile now.

I am more than happy to help, but you have to put something on my calendar. (I blame the delay on you, Kristi.)

We finally made a date to get together this Saturday. Her dresser is sitting in my kitchen, primed and ready for paint (it probably took an hour to tape it off and five minutes to spray the primer on it). The other project she wanted to do involved my Silhouette machine.

This is a modern style coffee table. I really didn't help with this at all except show Kristi how to use my Silhouette software. The design is completely hers. And she did all the painting.

That is my kind of project...where someone else does the work and I can blog about it.

Here is the section she painted pink. The cut-out shapes are from my Silhouette machine. Then she painted the whole thing black.

Isn't it lovely?

The weather wasn't really cooperating. The day we actually get together to do a project is the day it rains in the desert. So we'll finish the dresser this coming weekend.

It was fun going to the paint store. The two guys there (TWO) were totally flirting with Kristi. One of them gave her a whole bunch of stir sticks and one of those can opener things....for free. Yeah, yeah, stir sticks are free, but I'm pretty sure those can opener things are like....two dollars.

Dirt Sifter

Last weekend we planted some more trees for J. They are just little trees, hardly more than twigs. I hope they make it through the frost, because J has informed me that if they die, he is planting more trees.

Heaven help my back.

We had to dig a hole (obviously), but then we had to put the dirt through our dirt sifter to get out the large rocks so we could use the sifted dirt to plant the tree.

Our dirt sifter held up well over the years, but alas, it has died.

The original sifter was just wood screwed together with chicken wire stapled to it. We wrapped the chicken wire around the wood and stapled the heck out of it, but there were a few times I had to go back and do some more stapling because it was pulling out.

So I did a little research and a little planning and created a new, improved dirt sifter.

We used wood glue and brackets in addition to the screws.

I wanted handles this time for easier lifting.

I was hoping to find longer metal pieces, but these will do the job.

We wrapped the chicken wire up the sides and stapled it.

I still want to cut out the handles so that it's easier to carry, but it's usable now.

J has wanted the rock removed from his garden area, and he has also created some large rock piles as he has moved rock around over the years. We got a couple quotes to have rock removed from certain areas, and hired a guy to come out. He took the first load to the dump and said it cost a lot more than he anticipated. He didn't finish the job, so I wasn't very happy, but we weren't going to make the guy work a job at a loss. Plus, J said he doesn't want to make a habit of making enemies with people who know where we live.

These areas used to be covered in rock. There is still rock in the back corner, but J said we'll just take care of it.

Do you see the tiny little stick trees? The one in the middle is one of the new ones. The other two were planted last year. The other new one is on the other side of the yard.

This area between the arbor and the shed was an area where J had been dumping rock, so it had been a huge pile. I can't complain with the amount of work that was completed, so I don't feel too cheated.

That black thing partially in the photo is J's composter. I can't remember if I mentioned that he got that for Christmas. He was really excited about it. I don't really get it, but it was nice to make him happy.

All Dressed Up and Places to Go

This week was pretty fun. My friend Deni got us tickets to a symphony. (I posted that conversation here.)

The pictures were not great because it was dark and the stage was kind of far away. Plus you were not supposed to be taking pictures, so I was trying to be stealth.

It feels so good to be so bad.

It's always fun to get dressed up and go out. I was not prepared for the large quantities of old people. There were a few young people there, but grey/white hair was in the majority.

On Saturday we had two birthday parties. Abby's little daughter Adilyn turned two, and Johnson's little girl Kherington turned one.

Next time I should probably get toys in a box...but the wrapping job will be just as bad.

Eh.

Before the parties, on Friday, I had offered to bring Abby dinner. She is pregnant and miserable, so we were trying to help out. J needed to go back home to work on a project with an approaching deadline, but I helped Abby with some of the party stuff.

I helped glue these cups. It is a Mickey Mouse themed party, can you tell?

I used my PhotoShop skills and created this sign for her. It doesn't really make sense because it was outside at a park, but I don't argue with stressed out pregnant mothers trying to get stuff done for a birthday party that's happening in just a couple hours.

J was the temporary balloon holder until Abby told us where to put them.

What a cute little family.

I feel kind of bad posting this...I haven't given the pictures to Abby yet. But obviously not bad enough to prevent me from doing it.