Grateful Lately

We have been really busy this summer. How did that happen? Sure, the kids have been swimming a lot and staying in their pjs a lot, but I feel like we have still had a lack of down time, evidenced by the fact that I really just want to sit down and read my book, but have not had the time! Between primary, us leaving for a month, helping out some friends, meeting the new families that have moved into our ward and leftover PTA duties, I have felt kind of swamped. We leave today for Nebraska and Utah and I will be so happy to just stare out my window at empty space and corn fields.

Rangers fans much? We went to a game the other night and found our new favorite seats. Top tier, behind home plate. Shade the whole time and a nice breeze.

The boys have been crafting. Parker learned how to make "paracord" bracelets from his friend, Camden (you can see one on his wrist in the photo above). He has been so nice, helping Miles learn and making bracelets for everyone.

I have slacked on my Grateful Sunday posts lately, but I am so grateful for the blessings in my life lately, including:

• my new car. Oh, that car is amazing. Air conditioned seats, remote start (read: air conditioning blasting into the car before you even open the door). It feels like a totally different animal than my old Yukon, which drove like a beat-up truck. We loved it well.
• friends who have helped me distribute Six Flags tickets to over 200 kids from our school. Made more difficult, of course, by the fact that school is not in session. I set up times to pass them out at the library every day last week and some dear friends stepped in to take a few shifts. Hooray for generous people.
• my healthy body. As I was sprinting through the grocery store the other night, I was struck with gratitude that I am able to do all that I want to do, physically. I would love to have more energy and drive to exercise, but that will come in the fall, hopefully, when Miles is in school. I would just prefer so many other things to working out!
• a long vacation from the heat and the busy-ness that is here at home. I am really looking forward to unplugging and spending time with my favorite people. We hit the road this afternoon!
• our new backyard, which brings me so much happiness and peace. It is beautiful and I am thankful to Neal for forking over the bucks to get it done. I love it.

Backyard Before and After

We moved into our house in the Fall of 2009 and the yard hadn't changed much since then. Our lot is .89 acre and the majority of the backyard was wild, vine-filled brush. We had visions of what we wanted it to look like (the neighbor's yard), but we soon realized that the work required was beyond our capacity to accomplish. And we also started to suspect that the yard was the reason that the previous owners sold the house. It was quite overwhelming. Neal had added some food-producing plants and we  had torn out a few ugly bushes, but we called in the real deal yard crew for the clearing of the old yard and the installation of the new one. I am so pleased with the results. I added up the approximate number of man hours this took to finish: 360. In other words, we could never have done it ourselves! Our yard is now a relaxing place to be, with vistas all the way to the back and about three times as much grass (and mowing) as we had before. Behold!

These first two pictures are from before.

AFTER!

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 From the back of the back yard, looking toward the house. The trampoline had to be moved to the front of the yard so that it wouldn't affect the new sod. We have  yet to find a place for it. I vote the curb. :/

Look! Flower beds and mulch! We already had a lot of stone, and it was all able to be reused, which saved us a lot of money.