Front Yard Landscape

This is what our house looked like when we bought it last year. We have spent the whole summer working on re-landscaping the front yard and we are mostly done.

First, we started by adding a rock wall. There was a big slope in the flower bed and rocks were constantly falling down the slope so we(Ben) dug the dirt into two tiers and now there is a flat bottom section and then a top section. The kids were a great help in bringing rocks over to place in the wall.

We started by thinking we could move all of the rock out lay new weed barrier down, rip out the plants and then put the rock back on. We spent three days trying to deal with the rock and it is the WORST stuff to work with so in the end we hired a guy with a skid loader and dump truck to come haul all of the rock away. Then we bought mulch to use instead of rock and I love the mulch look much better.

Here is a close up of the finished rock wall and some of the plants. You can't see the plants really well and they are all very young. I can envision what it will look like in the future with mature plants, that is what I am excited about.




This is the view from the street. We added more walkway to the front door instead of the two foot path that hugged the house at a 90 degree turn. We still need to plant some trees on the side of the house and about 10-15 feet to the left of the current big tree. We will also remove the big tree that is right in front of our house. We plan on doing that next summer. I am so glad to have this much of the project done.

Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon

This past Saturday Ben and I ran the Georgetown to Idaho Springs Half Marathon. It was my second one and Ben's first. Of course he was faster then me even though I have been training longer and more frequently. It was a great race, much better then the one I did in June. The course had a few uphills but nothing too terrible. My friend, Michelle, ran with us and we all ran together until mile 7 then Ben took off. At mile 10 I was feeling really good and Michelle wasn't so I ran ahead of her. Ben finished in 2:04 and Michelle finished in 2:12, I would like to tell you what my time was but the official race report doesn't have my time. I am pretty upset about it. I emailed the race director and he is looking in to it, but I don't know if I will ever find out my time. I am guessing between 2:07 and 2:10, it would be nice to know for sure. We had a good time and Ben is already talking of running another one in November.

Our Neighborhood Geyser

Last week, I looked out our front window and noticed a lot of water running down the gutter. It was strange so I stepped outside to see where it was coming from. Four houses up the street and across the street, the road had buckled up and was spouting water about 1 foot in the air. The kids and I walked up to look at the little spring from the road. We walked back to our yard and immediately the road burst and a geyser of water began spraying in the air. We had our own Old Faithful. It was quite the scene, people came out from all over to see what was happening. The city was really slow in getting a water employee over and the geyser shot in the air for a full hour. When they finally shut the water off we lost our water for the evening but they had the whole thing fixed in about five hours.

The water was shooting up and over this house and their house flooded. They had some rocks along the side of their house and all of the rocks were washed to the back yard by the force of the water. I felt bad for them but I was also really glad it wasn't our house.

A Splash In the Fountain!

We went to a museum downtown and then ate lunch at the city park. When we were leaving we passed a large fountain with kids playing in the water. My kids really wanted to stop and play so I pulled over, they got soaking wet and had a blast!







After they were done playing they stripped down one at a time and I wrapped this blanket around everyone so we could get home and get some dry clothes.

20 minute Skirts

A few weeks ago my friend Amy had this link to a 20 minute skirt on her blog.

I checked out the link and have been wanting to make a skirt. So, yesterday my friend Tammy and I got together to make some quick skirts. We did have a good time and it was pretty easy but not 20 minutes. I guess that is to be expected. It took me 45 minutes but that also includes interruptions from five kids(I watch two of my neighbor's kids three days a week).

This is Tammy modeling her new skirt. She also made one for her daughter and is going to make two more for her other girls. I think the little girl skirts are darling and a bit closer to 20 minutes to make.



It is an elastic waist which makes it easy but also made the skirt very full right at the hips, not a place where bulk needs to be added. So I went back and added darts inside to pull the fabric in. After tweaking it many times it turned out pretty good.



I added the ribbon on the bottom because I think it is cute and the skirt is a little on the short side for me when I just cut the 45' fabric in half.



I had extra fabric so I made a skirt for Madeline. I put her skirt on and five minutes later I thought, "I better get a picture before she gets too dirty." Woops, five minutes was just to long to stay clean. I guess the yogurt look is kind of cute.

Outdoor Light Makeover

The lights outside by our garage were not the best looking lights. They were dirty old brass that looked a bit sad. We were going to replace them sometime down the road when they became a financial priority. But really, there are so many other things ahead of outdoor lights I don't know when they would become a priority.


So, this past week I took the lights down, took them apart and painted them black. It was tricky to put the lights back together because there are so many little pieces.


I am excited about the new look because it looks a lot nicer and only cost $2 for some spray paint, you can't beat that!

Run the Rockies Half Marathon

Last Saturday I ran the Run the Rockies Half Marathon in Frisco, CO. It was a fun and grueling experience. My neighbor, Michelle, and I have been training together which has been a lot of fun. We drove to Frisco Friday night and went to dinner. Then we bought ice cream, got in our pajamas and watched TV while eating ice cream. It was a fun evening!
Here we are before we started running. My neighbor Michelle is in the gray shirt and my friend Liz from church also ran with us.



The first half was awesome! It was down hill, beautiful scenery and it went by really quickly. The second half was awful. It turned uphill and the high altitude plus going uphill made it difficult to breath, I had a really hard time catching my breath. From mile 8 to 9 it was all down hill which was a nice relief except for the fact that when you reached mile 9 you turned around so mile 9 to 10 was up hill, it was pretty steep for the entire mile.
The blessed finish line!!!!!! I finished in 2 hours and 15 minutes, 16th out of 36 people in my age division.



After the race I had a weird asthma attack of sorts. I have never had this experience before. It took me 20-30 minutes before I could breath normally again. Overall it was a great experience and I learned a lot about running a half marathon. I am going to run another one in 8 weeks with some other friends so hopefully I will be able to improve and have a great experience again!