This morning's project

I find that when I have coffee right away in the morning, I make big plans. One cup, and ziiiing! I've written myself a to-do list with about twelve projects on it. Feels pretty good, actually, like I can do anything I set my mind to. Unfortunately, few of these ideas come to fruition. Perhaps this is because my list generally contains such items as "Organize all books on all the bookshelves" or "Unpack 15 boxes." These sort of things would probably be difficult for a person on speed with no children to distract them to accomplish, let alone an inexperienced stay-at-home dad with three high-maintenance ratlings.

As I made this morning's list, one project revealed itself as a perfect fit for my day. It has cooled off considerably here, so the outdoors was breezy and pleasant. I had two little girls and a dog who needed some fresh air, and the sun was shining. What better thing to tackle than a little gardening?

Our brand-new enormous backyard has a number of beds in it. They are mostly dedicated to shady-type plants and groundcover. There is one little plot, however, in the middle of the yard, in full sun, that would make an excellent garden. Our landlord has given us permission to landscape as we see fit, so we have decided to transplant the perennials out of that area and plant a little herb garden and some tomatoes. I decided I was going to get some of the daylilies that were taking up space out of the way.

Our lovely herb garden, surrounded by perennials and random groundcover plants.

One of the other plants in the plot. This stuff is everywhere!

Below, my lovely helpers, Mary and Julia. (Jules is excited...can you tell?)

Daylilies extracted. Initializing transplantation sequence.

The ratlings got bored and decided a victory dance was in order.

Miss Mary, showing some tummy and probably whining, by the look on her face.

DUNNNN!!!!!

The girls got distracted by some books, so I was left to finish by myself.

And here's the tree that Grandpa and Grandma planted while they were here. It's some kind of pine tree - I can't tell them apart very well, so I don't know what kind. Grandma Beth is probably groaning as she reads this.

Mary, who knows something that you don't know!

Sarah's new hydrangea. ("I can't believe we're living in a Zone 5!!")

And a pretty trumpet-vine that was living here when we moved in.

From Memorial Day...the last Hurrah as Minnesotans

This was the photo Mike posted to Facebook today. He called the girls downstairs for lunch and here's what he got. Julia also insisted that "Mary" is no longer her sister's name....instead she is to be called, "Skunky."

I should buy stock in the JCP photo department!

Here's the latest pics of the kids. I wasn't impressed with our photographer today...but I'll peg that up to my being too picky since we had such wonderful picture-taking ladies when we lived in Duluth. At least she managed to get one with all of them looking at the camera.

She wanted to know if I had ever considered the JC Penney portrait club. There must be some sort of commission when they suck you in...regardless of the gimmicks, we could chair the JC Penney portrait club. We have taken so many pictures of our kids there over the years that I should have invested before we had Julia.

At any rate, here are the pictures from this morning. We are so blessed to have three cute and healthy kids. They were rewarded with a trip to the mall playground (YES, our mall in Ann Arbor has a playground!!!!) And a piece of a cinnabon. I was afraid to look up the nutritional value of a cinnabon....I bet the calorie count is in the thousands.....

Grandma Mitzi

Well, we're in Michigan, now. The packing is done. The last few boxes were labeled, 'random crap' (thanks for the help, Jessi...). The truck came, the men picked up our stuff, they smoked a bunch, and then they finished the job. They drove it out here and met us a week ago today. More men came and put the boxes in our house. And for the last week, we've been unpacking like fiends. There is cardboard everywhere and I have been wearing pajama pants because the seventeen boxes in my room have yet to be unpacked, and only one or two contains clothing that fits me in this glorious post-partum perioid.

Moving is the second least-fun thing I have ever done. The least fun I've ever had?

Hands down, missing Grandma Mitzi's funeral.

I knew that moving out here would mean fewer trips to Minnesota and I would have to make the most of my family time during the three or four weeks I have off. But I didn't anticipate needing to come back home less than a week after I left. Turns out that Grandma passed away last Friday and the funeral is tomorrow...and I can't get out of tomorrow's day of orientation because it's all the stuff on Labor and Delivery. Sad. I hope everything goes well and I miss you, family! Grandma, I know you would understand. You'd probably yell at me someday if I skipped an important day of orientation and spent $500 to come home for your funeral. Yes...I'm pretty sure you'da yelled. Good thing you taught me well!

Love you and miss you, Grandma Mitzi!


I'll see you on the other side.

New jammies!

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Memorial Day Weekend Part One

This picture should be entitled, "So you think YOU'RE having a rough day?"

It's a picture of a crayfish whose arm got stuck between the beams of the dock. That means he probably met a very ill fate. Or he is swimming around in the lake like a pirate with only one arm. Arrrrr. Ahoy Maytee. I'm the dreaded pirate Oneclaw.
Here's the first round of photos from Memorial Day Weekend 2010. Phew. With all of this packing, there hasn't been much time to do anything else, especially blog and organize photos. My dreams are filled with visions of stuffing little objects around the big ones into boxes and then finding the roll of packing tape. What happened to the Sharpie marker, Honey?

I know, it's absolutely riveting.

The truck comes to pick up the contents of our house on Thursday morning. That's tomorrow. Oh my we have a lot more to do before the end is in sight. Good thing we ran out of boxes to fit all of the beer. It may be old, but if it's cold, it just doesn't matter.

"Don't hate me because I'm beautiful."

Mary

Mom and Dad's "Critter Cabin" where we stayed

Psymuhn kept watch while we were swimming

Luke's new favorite book is "The Very Hungry Caterpillar" ooooooooh..

Gramps and Gram took us to Embers for a big family dinner. What fun!

Gramma Beth gave Luke his first try of ice cream. Let's just say it was a "blast."