Landscaping part 2

Matt said last night that he wanted to start painting. I don't think he took it to mean that I would be taping up the dining room while he was in the shower this morning. I was ready to work! We did the first coat, waited a little while and then came back to do the second coat. After running errands this afternoon I pulled the tape off, except around the windowsill. That needs another coat tomorrow. We are also going to do the touch up painting on the walls tomorrow and start in the kitchen. We are staying busy this week! I also included a picture of the garage. Some of the stuff was taken to Goodwill yesterday, so it really does look good with everything cleaned out and the Christmas boxes back up in the attic.

When we got back from trip #2 to the library I weeded and replanted the flowerbed. I know it looks sparse now, but hopefully these impatiens will grow like the old ones did. Speaking of the old impatiens, we have one more little impatiens plant that survived the winter. I think I am going to put it in its own special pot! I also planted the marigolds around the tree out front. Marigolds remind me of my grandparent's house because they always had marigolds. (I'm pretty sure that's a true statement!) I'm also so excited that the tree is doing so well. It has been blooming like crazy and now has leaves! I was afraid that it didn't survive the winter, but it is alive and well!

Spring break!

My spring break officially started at 3:45 pm Friday afternoon. I am looking forward to 9 days away from school. I know my students are as well, and I do not feel bad about that. My first idea is to do all of the touch up painting that I haven't gotten to in the last two years. Tonight Matt and I went to The Home Depot because my aunt Barbara said that they had annuals on sale 3/$1. I am not really a fan of annuals because, as the name suggests, they only last for 1 year, but I figure at that price we can afford to replace them! Unfortunately, HD was out of them, so I convinced Matt to go to Lowe's to see if they do price matching. They had annuals on sale for $0.33 each, so I figure that's close enough! Now we have another project to add to the list!! We bought some marigolds, petunias and impatiens.

Matt found out Friday that he qualifies for unemployment. It will be nice to have the money coming in while he is out of work, but we are both hoping that he will find a job soon. He has talked to a few different recruiters, so he is getting his name and resume out there, but one told him that everyone is just moving slow. Matt is being good and helping around the house and studying for a certification test, but it's not the same as having a full-time job. I kind of understand how he feels since I don't work over the summer and it can be boring, but I also know that is a completely different situation. We are hoping this is a very short term situation!

Landscaping

Matt and I have been talking for a while about taking out the bushes out front and redoing the flowerbed. Matt wanted to wait until we wouldn't get any more freezes, and this weekend we got started. We went to Lowe's to start pricing new stone and plants. We looked into renting a tiller because we need to lay sod soon, too. When we got home I decided to start taking out some of the bushes. I asked Matt to get me some water and he decided to stay and help out. I'm glad he did because we were able to get all of the bushes out. I was just going to do a couple by myself. It's a work in progress, but at least we got started!

I am excited that our tree out front is blooming. I was afraid it wouldn't survive all of the freezes. I can't wait for it to start getting full again.