new fencing

the house is coming along! last night, we put up our cedar split rail fence. it's mostly for looks, just adding a little shape to our driveway. we would like to fence in the backyard, but as of now, that is lower on the list. the front yard will be tackled next thursday. benji has four (four!) days off for the holiday weekend, and our hope is that thursday will be the day of hauling the 13-14 loads of topsoil. friday will be the day for smoothing it all out and adding fertilizer to the soil. i will likely seed the following weekend. we were hoping to go out and do something fun for the remaining days off - imagine! whether we get to the river, go on a bike ride or even just hang out as a family, this will be the time to do it!

dig bubba's rain boots

the beautifully-happy mother/daughter baskets

how sad... fireweed popping up. not looking forward to it's full bloom :(

miscellaneous

pretty poppy after a rain shower

my smiley guy

reaching for the camera

jack pictures are always appropriate!

project update

i've mentioned a few projects that we've been working on, so here is the proof. we've gotten a lot done so far this spring, (and it's just now summer) with still much more to come!

back trex deck, still waiting on the stairs, and next year we'll put up the railing. notice benji's new infrared bbq, father's day present to himself :)

benji and jackie getting the ground ready for the sidewalk

exposed aggregate concrete walkway before

walkway after, with shrubs! the shrubs on the ends and one in the middle are mckay's potentilla with white blooms, and the other two are dwarf cranberry bushes. they will get danty white blooms and little red berries, naturally. these will all be about the same size, roughly 3 feet in height.

the three in front are mountain bluet, the cute round one in the middle is a dwarf norway spruce and there are actually two lilac bushes (one's behind that one on the right). the bluets are a nice round shrub, growing to about 2-3 feet. the spruce will only get about 3-4 feet high, but will expand to 6-8 feet in width, so really nice coverage. the lilac bushes will get around 7 feet high, and i'm hoping for some fragrant blooms next year.

one of the mountain bluets is starting to bloom!

the pretty baskets my mom and i planted. lots of yellows, purples and a lot of daisy-type flowers. oh, and steps are coming soon too!

and lastly, my grandfather's dresser. i sure wish i would have taken a before picture, ha. it was more of a honey color with gold pulls and knobs. we used a sienna-red stain, trying to match (somewhat) with the trim color in our house. for my first refinishing project, i'm completely satisfied with how it turned out. we replaced the old hardware with oiled bronze pulls/knobs.

we are planning to topsoil and fertilize over 4th of july. ben has four, i repeat four!, days off so we're hoping to get it done then. so again, more pictures to come!

the night of the living jack

the sour look on his face totally describes how the night at the bed and breakfast went for us.  err, me, mostly.  i have never experienced such severe beatings then i did while trying to fall asleep with him.  whether it was because the room was incredibly hot or that the sun was still spilling loudly into the room at 9 pm (we even put blankets over the windows), mister jack-man did not want to go to bed.  or lay still.  or not hit, kick, bite, punch his mother.  when he would lay down, he would throw his boney heels perfectly into my gut and/or thighs - talk about a charley horse!  he even got a few good head butts in.  he perfected the art of pinching to the back of the arm.  i thought this was a learned habit, but i tend to think now that it is by instinct that you just know the tender spots.  he was pulling at my eye lashes when i modeled what he should be doing.  i was pelted with his sippy to my temple.  the last time i looked at the clock was around 10:30 pm, and it was still another half hour at least until he stopped moving.  i did mention it was toasty in the room, but i failed to mention that i put him to sleep in only a diaper.  around 4 am, i woke to jackie stirring.  he had been sleeping on his belly and rolled over to his back, perfectly nestling into my stomach/chest area.  how sweet, i thought, my little cuddle bug but only when he's sleeping.   wide-eyed at this point, enjoying the new sweetness of him, i slowly realized my night gown is really hot... no, no wait a second, yep, that's pee.  i just got peed on.  apparently, i had fallen asleep before jack had, and he had pulled on his diaper just enough on one side.  so really awake now, i jump to get my night gown off, pull the sheets away and all ready, jack is sitting up with his good morning, mama smile.  i quickly throw a towel down, resume sleeping position, (i'm not getting up at 4 am), but he's not having it.  he's up, ready to start the day.  i think quickly, throw a banana down his hatch, fill his sippy with some oj and pray to the good Lord that he falls asleep swiftly.  my last glance at the clock read 6 am.  however, he did manage to sleep until 9.  and again, when he woke up, he had one of those you-know-what-kinda-eatin-grins, ready for what life was about to throw at him.  i hadn't been more tired than those first few weeks of his life.

homer, oh how i love thee

twilight

this time, the excuse lies within a certain series of books.  if you've been like me, you've been incredibly annoyed by all the twilight-hype.  well let me stand up for the twilight series and tell you that it is TOTALLY worth reading!!!  i cannot even express how much i have enjoyed her books.  now, let me back up and say that i am in no way a previous lover of the vampire type.  werewolf either.  my cousin lindsey was the first to ask me about these books over a year ago, and i just laughed in her face.  hand over my open mouth, laughing at her.  "me?  read twilight"  ha!"  here i am, a year later, telling others "you MUST read!"  so yes.  i have completed all four books in just over two weeks, the last one i finished last night.  i am sad to think i will no longer have them in my life.  (but, i guess it's time to get back to reality, huh?)  

aside from my pointy nose in a book, june has been FULL of excitement.  papa frank came for a hunting trip with benji.  his four days were consumed by being in the woods, so sadly, there wasn't a whole lot of time for visiting.  they started early, came home for a bite and a snoozey and would be back in the woods for the evening.  i did manage to keep the bubba awake (mostly so they wouldn't wake him when they got home) but also so jackie could see two of his favorite dudes.  on the third and final day of hunting, they arrived home at 1 a.m. (yes, jack was still truckin around the house) with a beautiful 6'2" black bear.  too bad they couldn't have scored her on day 1.  this was on the last day, few hours before his flight left.  up at hatcher pass.

grandma d showed up two days later.  we definitely made the most of her week visit.  saturday, we visited with the jenkins and attended a going away bbq for them at their friend's home.  yes, the jenkins have left alaska... still trying to wrap my head around it!  bright and early on monday morning (6 am to be exact) we loaded up the bubba and cruised on down to homer.  this was the first place of residence for grandma d, back in '65.  homer has changed just a tad since then.  lots of tears, but man, a whole lot of memories.  we played on the beach, shopped like tourists and consumed halibut as if it were candy.  mmm.  the rest of the gorgeous, beautiful, sunny week, we played outside, shopping at garden nurseries and watched jackie run circles around us.

 

lagging

yep, i feel like i'm lettin everyone down.  here it is, another few weeks have passed and only now am i thinking of what to write as i write.  i guess i go through spells where i'm overflowing with creativeness and other times, i find myself searching for it.  i guess that's just how the process works from time to time.  i could say i've been busy, but really, who hasn't?  that's the way life is, taking us from one situation to the next.  but that's what it's all about. 

jack is a ball of fire.  really, in every sense of the word.  he is all over the place, literally running everywhere, climbing on everything (including humans) and attempting to open doors.  he is still biting, still hitting and now pinching.  it's sooo hard to stay mad at him for too long because he gets cuter by the day - i swear!

i think potty training is just around the corner.  i've thought this for a while, but what happened on sunday leads me to think it needs to come sooner than later.  i found him in his crib in a very uncomfortable situation.  (mostly, uncomfortable for me.)  as i opened his door, i was struck by his soggy diaper lying on the floor.  "whaaa?  what is this?  oh, nooooo!"  then at about the same moment, i get a whiff of... something...  not only had he removed his diaper (unzipped his jammies and obviously pulled a "hansel" [see: zoolander]) but he had removed it only to later poo in his jammies (which did not have feeties on them) so of course it (the poo) fell out onto his mattress which he stepped in, played in (under his finger nails) and possibly tasted? (oh ick, but it was on his face).  into the bath, baby mani/pedi and scrub-a-dub-dub, he was a clean bean.  but don't get it twisted, not many kisses for jackie poo (pun intended) that day.  a quick trip to home depot for the carpet scrubber and jackie's room was back to normal.   so that was sunday morning.  don't be jealous.  

papa frank arrived sunday night, and he's been fairly busy with the husband trying to get himself a black bear.  so far, they have been unsuccessful, but man, they're putting in the hours on the little su.  jack sure enjoys time with his papa.  one more person to walk on and over and another person to give him goodies when mama is not looking (ie: donuts and cupcakes) but i remember my grandpa jack doing the same thing.  

while the guys were out yesterday, jack and i just chilled out at home.  i spent some time reading (twilight series; yes, i'm totally sucked in) and jack spent some time tearing apart his room.  the following pictures are what i discovered when i checked on him, 15 minutes later...