Dirty girl

Who's got two thumbs and got really dirty playing in the yard this weekend?

This girl!

What I did this weekend.

Chris has been gone for about two weeks now. It's been a long couple of weeks, but I have been keeping busy.  I've had a couple of girls nights/days with the "Army wives" and I don't know what I would do without them!

Ice cream at Grand Ol Day last weekend.

It's been a steamy few days here. Friday, Saturday and Sunday all saw temperatures in the low 90s. I took Friday off and worked in the yard.

Here's are the before pictures. Taken Friday morning.

Look at all the pretty plants on the step waiting to be planted!

Crooked stepping stones and barren wasteland on the side of the house.

 After a day's work, here's what it looked like Saturday morning:

Nothing much has changed here.

Notice that dirt pile behind the grill?

It's all from this side of the house! Friday, I dug the dirt out and put in this brick wall thing with bricks from our old fire pit.

 Now end of the day Saturday:

I dug out all of the wood chips to put around the plants and put in stepping stones.

I got about half of the stepping stones in before I pooped out for the day/weekend. I knew I wasn't going to finish this weekend, but it was still hard to walk away from!

It's hard to see, but here are the plants and the woodchips.

Closer pic of the plants at the back.

I was totally exhausted by the time the end of Saturday came around. But it is worth it! I'm going to finish this phase up in the next couple of weeks and then move onto a small stone patio using the old stepping stones. I'm going to buff after I get done moving all of these patio pavers around!

I made myself take today "off". At least from yard work- I puttered around the house cleaning things up and doing laundry. Then I headed over to meet some of the Army wives for dinner tonight.

I finished the night skyping with my hubby:

Chris was sprayed with pepper spray today as part of training. Poor guy.

All in all, it was a pretty good weekend. :)

Late night science and arts 'n crafts

Chris's unit left today. It's been a very long day.

A group of wives got together for brunch after they departed to commiserate and drowned our sorrows. I'm glad I had their company and that buffer before heading home!

At brunch one of the wives mentioned filling a jar full of jelly beans that her son could eat one of everyday! I loved the idea, but know jelly beans wouldn't last long around me, so I adapted it to pennies!

After they dry tomorrow I'll fill up the 'Til we meet again jar and watch that pile get smaller everyday from here forward. Every day is one day closer to his return.

Oh, and the "science" part of this project was cleaning the pennies with salt and vinegar. :)