Long Weekend Happenings

Erick and I had so many things planned this weekend...nothing super exciting just a lot of things we needed and wanted to get done since we had an extra day.
Saturday Erick had an appointment at the Apple store to get his computer fixed. Since it's in Omaha I of course said..."I WANT TO GO!!" Anything to get out of Lincoln and find some fun shopping. The Apple Store is in this cute outdoor shopping mall that has ALL kinds of fun stores, many of which I have to stay out of because I can't afford anything but window shopping (I can only salivate at the Coach store) I walked with Erick into the Apple store and only made it about 5 feet before I was stopped by a massive display of ipads. That was as far as I went. I REALLY wanted one...REALLY REALLY!! Luckily for me and my credit card I overheard one of the employees say they didn't have any in stock and you had to order it. I wanted to throw a little temper tantrum.

I had to get out of temptations way, so I left Erick and walked down the row of stores, stopped along the way to drool at the Coach window and kept going. I was a little bummed that the Cost Plus store had closed. It was one of my favorite places. They had all kinds of fun stuff, mini ketchups, food and snacks from all different lands. But alas, it was closed...in it's place however was another of my favs. Old Navy. I picked up some cute flip flops and yoga pants and had to leave so I didn't spend more money. Erick had to leave his computer so we headed back home...but first a stop at another of my FAVORITE stores from home. WHOLE FOODS! They are the only place that has my favorite pickles. Bubbies Kosher Dills are my most favorite and since I only get to Whole Foods once in a blue moon so we had to go. Erick calls it the Hippie store because there are so many organic things there. We hit one last grocery store for some carne asada meat and the girls pool and we were on our way home. After we got home we started in on our backyard....more of that below.


Sunday was our low key day, we made some Carne Asada and Chicken breast for dinner and to take to our friends who had just moved. It's always delicious. My family always had Mexican food for Sunday dinner so I felt a little closer to home by making my own mexi-food.


Monday was a BUSY, BUSY PRODUCTIVE day. It started so early. We had some work done on the front and back yard and the guys showed up pretty early...there goes our little bit of sleeping in. So instead we just got a early start to our work i guess. We were supposed to go to a BBQ at some friends house and I was supposed to make a side dish...since I had been craving "Monty's Potato Salad" I had to make that so I had a reason to make it. Monty (my brother in laws father) either doesn't have an exact recipe or doesn't want to give it out (no matter how much I beg!) So I had to wing it with what I know is in it and let me tell you...it is delicious! But nothing beats the real thing. I made a BIG bowl and gave away 3/4 so I didn't eat it all (cuz you know I would try)

While I was slaving away in the kitchen, Erick ran to Home Depot to rent a carpet cleaner. We had FINALLY finished painting the first bedroom for my new office and needed to clean the carpets...let me tell you, the carpets in this house are DISGUSTING and I wished we had had them super super deep cleaned before we moved in. The people before us had dogs and let them run wild. There is no real way to clean out the people who lived there before you other then replacing the carpet. Since we can't do that we've been repainting and carpet cleaning as we go. The first room to be done is my new office. It is beautiful, it's a creamy pale yellow and I L-O-V-E -Love it! I haven't been able to get a really good picture that will do it justice...So Erick cleaned out all the painting supplies and his work clothes from the closet and cleaned the carpets. It is just glorious! We finally moved the last of the furniture in last night about 9PM after the carpets dried. We took apart my old L-Shaped desk and used one of the old doors we had replaced and put it on top of my 2 file cabinets. It's so much nicer and less bulky especially since this room is smaller then the one I was in before. I just can't believe what a difference a color makes. (The previous color was like a dark teal, it was AWFUL!)

While Erick was carpet cleaning I was outside starting on our last project of the day. The space between the 2 back windows was at one time just light colored mulch that the previous tenants had put down. When we had the fence put in the guys had put all the excess dirt in that space (NOT OK'D BY ME) It was almost 2 feet high of dirt on top of mulch that was now rotting. Last summer when we came back from California we returned to another 2 feet of weeds that had grown out of the 2 feet of dirt. Slowly over the last 9 months we've gotten rid of the dirt (it's been about 6 loads in our yard waste bin to the dump) We finally got it to a manageable height and I spent the majority of the afternoon turning the soil with new garden soil and digging out the ground cover. Ace was having a great Memorial day sale on shrubs so I bought the last 5 bushes to plant in the back. They are supposed to have red blooms all summer and turn purple in the fall. Should be interesting.

In this picture you can see our Saturday project, on the right side of the yard was a 2 x 3 patch of grass that was hard to mow and there was a sink hole that started on the corner that I have more than once stepped in and turned my ankle. We decided to extend the planter to the fence. Most of the extra dirt ended up in that corner which was nice so we didn't have to buy more. I have yet to decide what we're going to put there but since it gets a lot of sun and water the possibilities are endless.

It's nice to finally be able to have some color in the back yard and not look so plain. I have my garden planted with Broccoli, Carrots, Cucumbers, tomatoes, basil, hot peppers and Blackberries. I didn't plant as much as I did last year because we will be gone at the end of the summer, right in the middle of most of the harvesting times. The basil is growing like crazy and it smells delish. We're having another spigot put in next to the window well today so I have a way to water. Last year I installed a drip system that worked really well, but I need some extra water. We aren't totally done with the backyard but for now we have made HUGE progress.