Team Welch: Linda & Mark

Laura got him this bubble blowing doggie toy. It's very cute. He actually got bubble toys from me, mom/dad, and Laura/Jeff for Easter. Mine was a cheap one from Walmart that never even worked. Stupid Walmart! The one mom/dad got is a rocket launcher bubble machine. All three were still in their packaging last Saturday when I had him, so I dug around and found a screwdriver in Jeff's toolbox. The toy manufacturers actually screw the toys into their boxes now, not just those stupid twisties. Then I stold the batteries from Laura's TV remote. I didn't try to put together the launcher, I'll leave that one for Jeff. Dylan loved the bubbles outside...

and Jeff thought it'd be cool to play with them INSIDE as well. D really loved that!!

Things have been crazy busy for us. Here's a few updates and a few random thoughts.

Did you know that Twinkle Twinkle has a second verse? I didn't until watching Your Baby Can Read DVDs. Aidan is doing so well with the DVDs/books and Dylan just started them too. Aidan already knows every word he sees, and he's only been watching them a few weeks.

Garden work - I estimate that Mark and I have spent thousands on grass and landscaping since we moved in. It blows my mind to think of that much money on dirt. I do buy a lot of flowers and shrubs, but our grass has been so messed up lately. Not only from Blarney, but from all the construction going on out there. When Mark did the shed, we had to plant tons of new grass (thanks Dan Klubert for your professoinal services!) and since then, we also had to do trenches and Mark took Jeff's truck back there a few times. We have gotten truck loads of top soil and peet moss, etc. It's crazy. As I'm typing I am so happy that it actually rained. It takes me about an hour to water the new seedlings each night, which is not time well spent and I have been doing it for about 3 weeks now. Most of the seeds have sprouted, but there are still some bald patches I just can't seem to get filled in. Also, it's not even officially summer yet and I'm already sick of watering the 3 flats of annuals that I've planted. Every year I say no annuals, but every year I just have to buy them. I love walking up the front walkway and looking at them. But I hate the time to water them. I am not looking forward to getting our next water bill!

I am so excited that I ordered my MoH dress for Marie's wedding. I can't wait til you all see her dress, it is sooo lovely. Her mom and I had a great time dress shopping with her too. Wedding planing is moving right along. Marie, we need to keep up the pace though!

For Mark's birthday, we went to Mongolian BBQ last weekend, just us two, to celebrate. It was nice for the two of us to go out on a "date"

Marie's birthday was also this month. Happy birthday girlie!

Mark painted the back patio doors. What a project that turned out to be. He scraped and filled all the ruts with putty so it'd look better. Man oh man does scraping and sanding make a huge dusty mess in the house. The door does look good though.

We have two toads (I think they are husband and wife, but Mark says I am nuts) living in our garden. I call them Mr. & Mrs. Peepers. I water the area they live in nightly as I'm watering the grass and flowers. They have made a home underneath a bag of top soil I have in the garden, so I guess that will become a permanent fixture since I am certain they will die without my bag keeping the ground underneath it wet. Again, Mark says I am crazy, but it's just who I am.

We've also been working non-stop on our garage re-do. So much work and it's such a slow process. It's finally coming together, but it seems it will never get done totally. Mark re-textured all the walls with a venetian plaster technique, we then primed and painted it. I don't like painting, but it is at least something that I can do to help out. Mark bought a very expensive table saw with a granite top! Any boy reading this is saying "yeah!" and any girl reading this is saying, why don't I have granite in my kitchen but Mark has granite in his garage? He is going to make custom cabinets for the garage - yes the garage. He said it's cheaper than buying them, which I guess I agree with. But again, I question my old kitchen cabinets and am wanting new cabinets in my kitchen, not my garage. The storage will be nice, I must admit. He also bought this stuff called slat wall, which I will say is cool, but kinda expensive. I guess it's the modern peg board. He did get some "used" from a wholesale house which I was thankful for. I'm just hoping that it gets done soon so that the extra stuff from the garage that is sitting in my living room can go back to it's rightful place. Plus, I must mention the dust again since Mark cutting cabinets and the slat wall makes such a mess in the house. Once the garage is done - that table saw is going up in the shed where it can get as dusty as he wants it to be. We took a vacation day too, to help us get a jump on it, and it worked out so nicely that Mark is taking the first Monday of each month off too, to get this stuff done. Oh the joys of owning a house.

It's been so nice to sleep with the windows open lately! The only thing that sucks is Blarney can hear the neighbor dogs barking, then he gets up and barks back. Can't they have their conversations at 3 pm when I am at work instead of at 3 am when I am sleeping??

Marie and I took Dylan out to his first trip to Honey Hut the Friday before her birthday. I have some pictures which I will post later.

I called Meliss from work one day to ask her something and she put Aidan on the phone. He said to me "Um, Linda, I love you, Bye bye" I told her I should call him every day because it was so cute to hear that from work. It made my day!

I'm happy to have my guest room back in order - finally. We couldn't put the Christmas stuff away this year since we were planning for the insulation job. Once that was done, Mark had to build a "deck" for the attic crawl space and once that was done - back the Christmas stuff went. So glad to have a guest bedroom back! No one really uses it, but I enjoy walking down the hallway and looking at a clean room.

Marie, Ray, Mark, and I broke out the fire pit this weekend and roasted marshmallows. The guys didn't hang out too long, they went inside to watch DIY channel TV, but Marie and I stayed outside all night, just hanging out. Lovely evening!

Our major grocery store, Giant Eagle, has a Get-Go gas station connected to it. They started a promotion that you can earn Fuel Perks of 10c off per gallon of gas for each $50 you spend inside the store. The grocery store also sells gift cards to hundreds of restaurants, stores, etc. and you earn gas money on those items too. Since Mark and I spend at least $100 at Home Depot each week, I've been buying the gift cards from Giant Eagle and getting fuel perks. I have not paid one cent for gas for as long about a year. There is a limit of 30 gallons per transaction, and since I always have enough fuel parks to get the gas for free and my car only holds 20 gallons, we bought two 5 gallon gas cans. Now, we get 30 gallons each time. The money spent on the gas cans has already paid for itself. On the bottom of my receipt, it tells you how much you have saved the past 12 months - over $600. What a great deal. I love bargains.

Let's talk TV for a minute. Mark and I were behind 7 episodes of 24 on the DVR. We made a commitment to get them all done before the 2-hour season finale. What a great show that is! Mark and I have also been watching Dancing with the stars. We didn't have time to watch the finale show until Memorial Day, but I was ticked off at the winner. I'm also excited that Jon & Kate started up this week and so does Tori & Dean. I'm also hooked on Daisy of Love, which fortunatly I can watch from the kitchen while doing dishes and not miss anything. I have also been DVR'ing the old 90210 shows off Soap Net, but I have about 20 on the DVR and no time to watch them, so I think I just need to give it up.

We saw the new Star Trek in the theater. I'm not a die hard trekie, but it was really good. I want to see the old movies too, and have been searching for them on Dish. We did get Nemesis, but Mark said that movie came after they "jumped the shark" We took a half a night off from house work to watch it in honor of his birthday. That's how I am able to catch up on my blog, while watching the movie. It was kinda lame, but I was happy No 1 and Deanna got married. So sad that Data died. Back to the theater, I can't wait to see Wolverine. I have quite a list of movies I want to see when they come out on DVD.

That's it.