Nearly a Perfect Saturday

I love Saturdays!  I think most people do for different reasons.  Mine is because I have time to work on our lawn and garden (which is the same thing for Rosie :)).  Not that I like the actual work so much, in fact most people who know me know that I'm a bit on the lazy side, but I love the results when stuff gets done and the house looks a little better than it did before.
Today I got up early (8:15am which is early for me on a Saturdays) and took Buddy to get groomed and get his back leg checked-more on that later.  Then I cam home and started assessing what exactly I was going to do with the old pavers I got from Mom's house.  I started a bit on Monday and found that things weren't going to work out as easily as I had thought and I was granted some inspiration to use some blocks I bought a while ago and never used because they didn't look right where I thought I was going to put them.  The worked really well as a transition from concrete to pavers and took up the space under the gate that was going to leave a gap quite nicely.

Of course, it's not a day of working with a hammer for a Biggs Man without wacking a finger or thumb so I got that out of the way right at the beginning.

I've still got a lot to do before its completed, but at least I got rid of all the tumbleweeds and got a few pavers down.  It kind of goes with out saying that lawnmowing got done it between laying pavers as well and the push mower never saw the light of day.  I'm sure most people would have progressed much further than I did but I'm okay with it taking a bit of time.

Remember the lazy thing up above!

Oh, about Buddy... He for whatever reason started limping yesterday and we still haven't been able to figure out whats going on.  Can't really see anything wrong and he doesn't limp all the time - or at least its not as noticeable.

Rosie Allergy Day

Rosie went to the doctor today to see if an allergy of some sort could be causing her issues.  She went into it with much trepidation and was only comforted when the ordeal was complete.  I say ordeal but as far as I could tell there wasn't much to it.  I had intended on taking the digital camera with us but forgot all about it this morning.  So Iphone pics will have to do.
Here is a picture just after they poked her with the samples.

Here is the after picture...

All in all it went relatively well and the food allergies were fairly benign.  There were only a few items that she reacted to at all.  That is until you go to the pollen allergies on her right side.  That lit up a bit.  Bermuda grass seemed to be bad.  Unfortunately, dog was one of her allergies, but to me it didn't seem terrible.  Cat and Mites were much worse.  Maybe we can scan her results later and post those as well.
The doctor reminded me of a chiropractor that I went to on occasion.  Once they have you they just keep telling you that you need to make follow up visits for the rest of your life or, "You're going to DIE!"  Okay, maybe it wasn't that dramatic, but it still drives me nuts when they tell you that you should continue appointments so they can get rich.
That's what I heard anyway.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ROSIE!

To my friend, companion, love, and wife.  I love you Rosie and hope you had as good a birthday as you were able.
We weren't able to go out to dinner because that would have ended up being only for me anyway.  After debating for hours on whether to upgrade her phone or not, I came home empty handed.  I felt guilty even though I know you'll be happier with what you said you wanted it just doesn't seem right to me for you to get new lights in the kitchen for your birthday.
And birthday months I would rather not talk about, because this year you treated me to one that I just couldn't match.  I know the flowers were good earlier this week, but the chocolate mousses were obviously ill conceived and I couldn't ever really cook you breakfast in bed (shaking up an energy drink hardly makes for breakfast in bed).

And with all this you still seemed so happy tonight with just the FB wishes and a call from your family members.
I'm glad you had good friends around to make you feel special as well.  They know who they are:)

Family Reunion Zip Line

I came across some video I had forgotten about while downloading pictures.  ENJOY!

I think that is one of the biggest smiles I have seen from Christina.  Like a kid walking out of a candy store.

Sunday Dinner with Mom

We had Mom (and Chloe) over to our house for dinner today since we have moved to every other week's for family dinners.  It's nice to have her over occasionally so it's not just us sitting on the couch in front of the TV and we can remind ourselves how civilized people take dinner.  We don't always sit in front of the TV, but most often do.

Rosie formalizes dinner a bit more when we have guests as well and today we had Rosie's Olive Garden.  On the menu, Spaghetti with Meat Sauce and Sausage, House Garden Salad, and Garlic Bread.  For dessert, Chocolate Pudding with fresh Strawberries.

We shared a game of Sequence as well which John won.  Pretty rude when you consider both women are celebrating their Birthday months.  Someone really should explain to him how this works given that he was thoroughly pampered during his birthday month.

Landscaping Saturday

Well it was much more than that but most Saturdays are that for John.  He usually mows it with the riding lawnmower but the blades are now bent (a separate story) and John doesn't like the way it cuts so the brainiac decided to use the push mower on the front lawn.  It seemed a good idea while he was making a pen for his sister to give as a gift because he had time while he waited for coats of super glue to dry on the pen, but it was a lot of work.
Needless to say the much bigger backyard was cut with the rider.

(I cheated and used an old picture but it pretty much captures what John's Saturday's are.)

We also had the joy of babysitting Everett for Jay & Kendra while they attended the temple.  That was fun though John spent most of the time out filling Rosie's shopping list in anticipation of Mom's dinner with us tomorrow.
It was funny because when Jay & Kendra came to pick up Bubby, Jay asked the question, "How was mowing the lawn with the push mower?"
He had seen the lines in the lawn and that the push mower had been moved and put the pieces together.
John's answer, "It won't happen again!"

I will post more often! And I'm calling everyone else to repentance :)

I read a blog the other day that motivated me.  It was a picture a day blog and the concept, to me anyway, is fantastic.  You take one picture a day that tends to represent that day and post it.  I'm going to try it.  I fairly sure that I won't be successful everyday, just as that author wasn't, but I like the idea.
My picture today is of someone I wish would post more often because I really thoroughly enjoy her posts and she is one of the inpsirations behind me blogging.

REPENT YE!  REPENT YE!  YE BLOGGING SLACKER :)

Please don't get mad at Rosie.  She doesn't know I took her phone to get the pictures and certainly doesn't know I'm posting this. :)

Native New Yorker with Bubby

I finally downloaded old pictures that I've had on my phone and figured they would make good blog posts.

This is from Native New Yorker.  We went to dinner with Mom, Jay & Kendra and of course Bubby.  It was all fun and games until Everett bumped a glass of water into Aunt Rosie's Coach purse.  We spent a little while trying to dry everything and still had a great time out.  This picture was taken jsut before the fated event.

Birthday Girl

While Rosie's niece was here visiting she celebrated her 16th Bday.  We took her out to Olive Garden which she seemed to really enjoy up to the time that I told her that she should try a Pepperocini.  I don't find them at all hot, but they are spicy and have a bite to them.
Apparently they are hot and Uncle John is a jerk!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BETH!  Sweet Sixteen!