June 13 of 30

I had to take some pictures of Sean in his cute Birkenstocks. I just love this above photo.

This afternoon after running some errands, we hit the pool. It was nice and refreshing for the hot weather we've been having, even if my mom keeps the pool at like 95 degrees!

I just love this picture of my father with Sean. My dad is absolutely adorable with his grandson.

There was some construction today at my house. The backyard was finally dug up!

This is the cute little entrance way to my backyard. I like how the leaves go over the fence.

And here is a shot of the before. What a jungle, eh? (I'm missing the roof of the play thing for Sean in this photo. It's sitting in our garage. We got this from family friends, and we haven't washed it down yet. However, Sean is still too young to be sliding on it. But this is just to show you how tall the weeds are growing.

Just look at the mess. This is a mess from 7 years of no maintenance. That's 2 years of us living here (until we found someone to do it), and also, 5 years of the man who lived here before us, he maintained it for 25 of the 30 years he lived here, and then the last 5 before selling, he just neglected it.

I have a really tiny backyard, but it's cute. I do have a stone patio area that you don't see in this photo. My backyard ends where the bushes are. (The grey thing beyond the bushes is my neighbor's BBQ covered - I actually met them today for the first time ever! They came over to the bushes to say hello & meet Sean. Now that I can actually access my lawn, I chatted with them! They fell in love with Sean!)

Here is the men at work. Moving out stuff that is garbage. There was a lot of broken stones, etc.

And when I got home this evening from my parents house, I had a backyard. With grass! It looks like patches right now, but it will look like grass once it all "mends" together. We have to water it for 3 hours straight per night for 2 weeks. Jamie's in charge of that. We have a sprinkler, which I think that if it gets too hot, I'll be running through it! We had an area put down with stone blocks (not what you see above - that's the work Jamie did last summer), but next to it, where I can put a sandbox or baby pool for Sean. This way, we can leave it out, and it won't destroy the grass! I can't believe I actually have a backyard! I can't wait for Sean to be able to play in our backyard!

Fire on the Mountain & Black Onyx. Part of my birthday present from Jamie, for the Chevron Scarf. I'm getting them in Medium Weight. What do you think of my choice in colors?

Finally - my Interweave Knits Summer 2007 arrived in the mail! Weekend reading!

I also received a wonderful little birthday package from Rhoda in the mail. Thank you Rhoda.

So now I'm on Ravelry, but I haven't had time to do anything but set up my profile, and add a few friends. I will sit down soon and start adding projects and stash, and needles. I promise!

I had two returns to do today (Baie & Toys R US) and also went to Chapters to pick out some books with a gift card I got for my birthday. I managed to get 5 novels for 23$. Wow. They were all on sale, and with my Chapters card, I got an additional 10% off. I got some books I'd never heard of before, but that looked interesting, and some titles I'd heard of before and wanted to read. I have just a few more chapters to go in Knitting Under the Influence. I'm liking it a bit better now, but it's still not that great of a read. We'll see what happens when I finish it, if my opinion changes. I have a ton of books I want to read this summer. The summer hasn't even begun yet. (Next week!)

Not Spending It Report:

Money Spent:

- Credit for a return to the Baie of about 15$ and change refunded to HBC Credit Card (whatever 13.99$ plus taxes equals to)

- Credit of 23$ and change from Toys R Us refunded to MasterCard (Whatever 19.99$ plus taxes equals to)

- 23$ gift card at Chapters (gift!)

- $26 at a General Type Store. Ok, I cheated. But it's my birthday on Saturday. I wanted something from the craft supplies section, I needed some Father's Day cards (they had cute ones!) and also, I got some ice cream dishes (so cute!) for when we have guests over and we have snacks or desert, and also, a table cloth for poker night (last one ripped) and a table cloth for our outside table, so we can start BBQing and eating outside! I spent cash, so it won't be on my credit card.

After today's little splurge at the general store, I will be EXCELLENT the rest of the month. I blame it on my birthday.

ps- I'm now 19 lbs down since the beginning of March. Why is it soooo much easier to lose weight in the summer months? Now that I'm losing a considerable amount of weight, I need a new bathing suit. However, that will wait til July, when I'm done with Not Buying It...! (It's hard!) (Really quite the challenge!) (Besides my little splurge today, I've been REALLY good!)

pps- To my SP10 Group - Friday is your last day to flash your stash, to be entered to win a prize!

pps- It's too damn hot to knit.