Come Visit...

I'm over here today...

My New & Improved Yard!!!

I love a well-maintained home.  I don't need to have anything fancy or something so elaborate, but when we do things to maintain our home it just gives me the warm and fuzzies.

While we were in Florida we had two major projects done at our house...we had a new driveway and walkway put in and we had someone come and Spring Clean our yard.

We have had plans for over a year to have our driveway redone because it was broken and had started to sink a little lot.  We had to gun it to get into the garage because of the bump that was created from the driveway sinking.  We also needed to have our walkway redone because it had also sunk.  Luckily, Rondell's uncle does this type of work and he was able to do it for a reasonable fee :)

Another thing we pondered this year was to have someone come to our house and Spring Clean our yard...rake really well, edge the beds, and clean up the weeds.  I just happened to mention this to my neighbor Lyndall who then told me that she does just that!  She agreed to work on our yard while we were gone...what a blessing.

I have talked about what my yard used to look like here.  Over the years we have tried to keep up with the yard and we have done a descent job, but we were ready to take it up a notch...and take it up a notch she did!!!  Just look:

 She edged...she mowed...she weeded...she mulched...we love her!  Here you can also see the new walkway and part of the driveway.  

Here's a before shot.  You can see the how the walkway is lower than it should be and that caused people to have to take an extra big step to get up onto our porch.  You can kind of see the driveway and how cracked it was...we were always afraid that someone was going to fall (I actually did a few times).

 Another shot of her edging and mulching work.  You can also see where our driveway now properly meets the garage...no more bumps before pulling in (which we are still kind of trying to get used to).  Also, the bare flower bed used to be the home of a HUGE hosta that Lyndall divided and put in the back (you'll see that in a sec!)

 Look at that beautiful smooth driveway!  Disregard that it's time to mow :) 

She made a much more defined space around our mailbox post...something my mom was going to do this year.

More great edging!  This area is on the corner of the house.

 I once did a post here about how the side of our house was overgrown with weeds and bushes.

 Now it looks like this.  Lyndall cut down a ton of bushes that we had growing on the side of the house.  It looks SO much better now and it's a little lighter in the basement because there aren't any bushes blocking the windows.

 She had to put down some grass seed in front of this bed because the grass was dead due to the overgrown bushes.

 She edged behind our deck and cleaned up my decorative grass (I'm not sure the proper name...brown thumb!)

 She did an amazing job behind our garage.  It was covered in weeds and just needed some edging and TLC.  She turned over the soil, edged and mulched...and this is where she put the divided hosta the used to be in the front.

This part made me gasp and almost brought a tear.  She landscaped this area that simply looked pitiful before.  Now it has definition and looks absolutely gorgeous!

So there you have it...my new and improved yard that I'm just in love with.  It is so refreshing to have some things checked off of the To Do list.

I am grateful for Lyndall and Uncle Larry for all of their hard work!

Now I just have to decide what flowers to buy :)

April Instagram Photo A Day

First, I just have to tel you how excited I am that I was able to create a collage!!!  I used Picasa and it was a bit time consuming & it's not perfect but I'm so proud of it.

Second, I'm so excited that my friend Amy told me about this Instagram Photo Challenge.  It was a lot of fun to capture these little moments (and give into my obsession with Instagram!).

Third, ENJOY!

1. In my kitchen. 2. I love colored pens. 3. Cards I need to send. 4. I love this girl. 5. My tiny devotional...I bought a few for some friends. 6. My traditional Good Friday fish lunch with my mom that I forgot to take a picture of...these were the condiments. 7. Checking out my yard. 8. Gift card from a sweet friend. 9. People say she looks like me. 10. Cold outside. 11. The plate from my morning bagel. 12. Bath time. 13. Found some extra change in my desk drawer. 14. Feeling gloomy. 15. Not-so-good sunset shot. 16. My favorite - sunflowers. 17. Blah...Diet Coke. 18. Look at all that hair! 19. Post it. 20. It's supposed to be 'ringtone' - love Draw Something! 21. Sun tan lotion for Florida. 22. Snacks and supplies for the trip. 23. Caleb's idea of veggies - "it has corn in the name Mom." 24. My friend fixed my swimsuit for me :) 25. Checking out the prep for our new sidewalk. 26. Gray skies. 27. Destin, Florida. 28. At the pool. 29. Mmmm, burgers. 30. A little bummed from reading The Hunger Games.

Stay tuned for May...

Where Have I Been?

Here:

We have been on vacation for the last ten days (and preparing for vacation before that)...in our Happy Place...DESTIN!

I debated about whether or not to blog while on vacation and decided just to sit back and enjoy the time with my family.  I did take quite a few pictures and uploaded a few to Instagram, but for the most part I was computer-free.  I did get a chance to catch up on over a week's worth of blogs last night (though I didn't leave comments...sorry!).  I was up until after 1 a.m., which for me is VERY late :)

I'm going to take a day or two to regroup and then I plan on getting back on this blogging bandwagon...it's been too long.  I have my April Instragram pics to share, a Destin post, and I have to show you some home improvements that we had done while we were gone!

So...what have you been up to?