Extra Brownie Points For Mr. B

(I am having an issue with blogger tonight, please ignore the fact that all my photos are at the top and not mixed in the text like normal)

I may start to sound like a broken record soon, but boy, oh boy, this past weekend has been BUSY!! Friday night Special ManFriend Mark had a double-header on the north end of town. I quickly swung by the house pretty barely slowing down and throwing open the car door for Murphy to jump in orderto make it uptown for his second game. The bad news is that the other team didn’t show up and I drove all that way for nothing, the good news is that we went out to get a pasta dinner in order to help me ‘carb-up’ for the following morning.

The bell clock tower sound of my alarm clock jolted me awake at 4:15am on Saturday getting me out the door in time to cross something off my 30 before 30 list… I RAN A HALF MARATHON!!! Holey Moses, it still is shocking to me today! I had planned on catching the bus to get to the race that morning, but quickly realized that when I checked the schedule the night before, I was looking at the 4:30PM route! Oh man, what a walk of shame into the bedroom to wake up Mark and ask for a ride. Weekend brownie point numero uno for SMF.

Brownie point number two came not too long after, as I came jogging around the corner somewhere between mile 5 & 6 and there he and Murph Dog stood cheering me on …again at mile 11 again at the finish line… love. Below are a couple pics the photographers took during the race, you will notice I have the phone to my ear, I was trying to have my parents there with me as I crossed the finish line (they really wanted to be there in person, but had a prior commitment).

After the race SMF and I went back to the house and I quickly showered and found myself in bed for about an hour. While I slept, he got to work! Remember the project he and TJ did on the trellis a couple weeks ago? The story keeps getting better. We have been dreaming of exactly how to finish this space for quite some time now, and I think we are well on our way! Mark dug out the sand, laid slate, filled the gaps with healthy soil and seeded the entire trellis area in one afternoon.Brownie point number three. I cannot wait to see how it looks when the grass grows in!

On Sunday we got up early to finish up on our projects including tearing out the garden box ( a decision I really struggled with, but ultimately came to as I couldn’t keep up on the weeds like I wanted) and prepping the back of our house for a new garden space (one with much less maintenance). We also decided that since we had borrowed a friend’s truck, we should do a quick dump run… who knew that 2 loads of lumber, garden box posts and leftover kitchen remodel supplies could cost so much to throw away. $120 later, we were garbage free (well, except that backer board I forgot about in the shed, sorry Mr. B).

We are pretty excited to get the grass back in shape a new tree planted in place of the garden and a new look for our backyard. If you have any ideas you think would work well for this new garden space of ours, leave a comment below!

Bueller?.....Bueller???

Ok, it is true, I have been MIA for a few days. It is not that I haven't been thinking about blogging, things have just seemed extra crazy recently. I am learning to balance life with writing about life and I promise to get better. Here is what you have missed while I was living and not writing... Our little Murphy Boy is no longer a puppy. Last week he officially turned 2! I cannot believe how big he is, I still remember bringing him home weighing right around 20lbs; half of that being extra skin waiting to be grown into. He recently weighed in at a whopping 61 lbs! I don't want to be lame about this, but it makes me a little sad. We celebrated his big day with his version of Disneyland; doggy-daycare. I checked in on him many times via webcam and could see he was having a great time with all his friends. After work/daycare, he and I drove out to the eastside to watch SMF Mark play softball. By the time we got home (8pm or so) Murph Dog was so tired he could barely stand up to eat his dinner. A good day indeed. Murph and I when he was 4 months old (above) and him today (below) This past weekend we had Mark's good friend from GU, Kara (great name I know) in town. She is such a character, we knew she would be up for pretty much anything that involved fun. We started the weekend eating a feast of seafood the way it is meant to be eaten; with melted butter, potatoes and LOTS of corn (my favorite!). Check out my hot Special ManFriend(below)...delish! Saturday happened to be the Solstice Parade in Freemont, here are some of the sights... Nope, those are not costumes, that is body paint! All of a sudden hundreds of people started running out of the crowd and lining up on the street--- Then we saw this being rolled our way!! This are from the 'Art Car' exhibit... I saw more strange things on Saturday than I have in a long time, maybe ever. But walking away we decided that in this age of all digital, all the time, it was really refreshing to see true creativity in other mediums. That is our life this past week in a nutshell...Talk to you soon!