Last night's harvest!

Check it out!

Gorgeous! I'm so excited to try it all! I'm a little bummed because I pulled two poblano peppers way early, thinking in my haste that they were jalapeños. Ah well. Live and learn.

I have a bunch more growing! It's super fun to check on them - especially if it's been a couple of days! 

I'll report back on how I prepare them and how they taste. Can't wait! 

We're halfway there! (Cue BonJovi)

In case anyone wants to revisit:

Here we go!

Progress!

But, dude!

I'm kinda shocked if I do say so myself!

We're seriously halfway there with laying the deck boards down. Steve was off Thursday and Friday of last week and got the railings up. He started with the decking and got maybe 6-8 laid down? Not sure.

He told me that it'd be much easier with two people.

Sidebar:
The girls went to "Parent's Night out" which our daycare provider holds a few times a year. We've actually never been able to benefit from it due to Steve's work schedule, but this one fell on a day off! So we went ahead with it. They do outside water play, crafts, movie, jammies, etc. We get from 3pm - 9pm. I dropped them off at about 3:20 and figured I'd take my time getting home (it's 5 minutes from my house)....but I knew there was a tent sale going on.

LOL I bought a Christmas tree. It was $2! 

Ok, sorry, back to the deck. (If this gives you any insight to how I think...well...ha! Poor Steve).

ANYWAY.

I get back home and I really want to make an iced coffee and sit and chill...But he was like "this would REALLY be better with two people...."

We spent a good few hours working on it before we went to dinner. We did pretty good and got a good amount done. 

I have to say, Steve and I have put together/build many things over the years and we've never fought. Ever. 

It's still the same! We work really well together. 

We picked up the girls early (around 8:30) and they pretty much went straight to bed. 

Sunday: we woke up bright and early! Just kidding. I think we finally rolled out of bed around 8:45. I made the girls breakfast and Steve pretty much went outside to work as soon as he got out of bed. I went to help him after the girls were settled. 

We found our groove with measuring, chalking, trimming, nailing, etc. 

MR's new spot is under the deck now. 

Measuring, chalking

We had to stop around 3pm because we realized we didn't have enough 12ft boards. We have a ton of 16ft boards, but not enough of the 12's. So back to LOWE'S Steve goes. (Those guys are HARD to carry! Not TOO heavy, but really awkward!) He made it back around 4:30 and we went back at it for 2 more hours. 

They LOVED jumping in!

The girls were able to hang out for a bit while we worked! 

I should've gotten a picture after we picked up all the crap. But alas, I didn't. 

And here we are at the end of Sunday, July 28. (Noticed how we DID clean up the mess?)

We plan on getting the vinyl/plastic white covers for all the posts, and then we will use wood railings, painted white (a project for next year). So, it won't match for a while, but I don't care! I'd rather do it the way we want - so next year it'll be beautiful! lol. 

We plan to (and will give it all we've got) to get ALL the decking laid over this upcoming weekend. Steve's home Thursday - Sunday, so he'll get a head start Thursday. Since it's much easier with two people, he will likely start the stairs. 

Oh, our railing height will end up being 39 inches. The pictures all show it at 42 inches which I like, but the vinyl plastic post covers apparently don't go that high. Code is 36" which seems SUPER low to ME, but what do I know. 

There will be a lot more progress to post this weekend! Stay tuned! 

Deck Passed Inspection!

Steve worked hell week (6 out of 7 days, all 14 hour shifts) and is beat.

But, on his first day off (yesterday), he got to work and got the inspector down to take a look at our deck framing.

It passed with flying colors! 

So today he starts with the railing posts (which, I didn't know needed to go up before the decking could be laid down). 

Every 6 feet. 

He hopes to have that done today so he can start laying decking down tomorrow. We'll see!

I'll take pics when I get home to post back up. 

Summer

I'm loving this time of year.

It's warm and beautiful most days.

Girls are having a great summer so far.

Lots of swimming, playing and being outside.

Later bedtimes and more movie nights.

Night-time swimming!

Just a more relaxed schedule.

It's done wonders.

This is when I think about how fleeting time is.

Before I know it, it'll be Fall and back to school time.

But, I'm trying desperately to really enjoy the moments.

I'm trying not to be so rigid and be more flexible.

Two weeks of summer camp under our belts.

No rushing for anything in the mornings.

The girls have 4 weeks of daycare (3 days a week) before my mom comes to visit for 2.5 weeks. We are very excited for her visit!

Steve and I have a daytime date planned for this weekend, as our daycare provider is doing a "Parent's Night out" on Saturday so we can drop our kids from 3pm - 9pm. They do crafts, dinner, movies, jammies.

Steve has been doing so much side work, deck work and just finished hell week, so I feel like I haven't seen him in forever! I'm in bed by the time he's done with his day and sleeping like 20 minutes after saying hi and goodnight.

Then, right after mom leaves, school starts again! WHAT?!

Harvest

I love my garden this year. I just wish I had put down some landscaping fabric to keep the weeds away.

Ugh.

But, regardless of how the garden looks, it's producing!

Zucchini

Jalapeños

More zucchini

yellow squash

Beefsteak tomatoes

It's a jungle out here! 

I'm so proud

What I gathered Saturday

Deck Progress

Steve is making progress. And I'm impressed! He's doing this all on his own. Not much help, other than the Deck Guru who helped with planning. Papa (Steve's dad) came over to help, but we weren't far enough along for him to actually help us. <update below>

I'm honestly surprised at how much is involved to make a deck. This thing will last much, much longer than our pool! LOL. 

We've got 18 holes, all about 45"-48" deep. 

July 9th. Cement in the holes, posts up.

We've got a few HUGE 20ft beams. We're hoping to get joists up soon.

Steve says that in about 2 weeks, the TREX decking will be laid down, so that we'll be able to get up there and have a platform to sit/be up on. Railing won't be up yet, so we'll need to be really, really careful with the kids. 

I can absolutely picture Ava looking over the edge and tumbling over. 

July 12th. Here's the view from Mila's room - a bit easier to see in its entirety. 

July 12th. It will end up being 600sq ft of usable space!

Not a bad view ;)

July 15th. We have the long beam + joint in the middle. Boards have been cut flush. 

July 16th. Joists going up next

July 16th. He's got all the super long joists up and is figuring 

out to make the curve that wraps around the pool 

(this view is from the girls' bathroom upstairs)

He told me he's hoping Wednesday (7/17) will be the day he starts laying decking down. 

If not, you'll see me this weekend up there with some plywood. LOL It's going to be like 93 on Saturday. I'm going to want to get in the pool! 

As of July 17, we have not yet started with the decking. However, we were very, VERY lucky that Steve's friend, the Deck Guru, stopped over and helped him for almost an entire day. He's the guy in the orange shirt. 

Here it is, as of July 17. All the framing is done. 

Literally the next thing to do is start laying decking down. 

I'm so freaking proud of him, you guys. Like, he spent every waking moment (almost) working on this thing, all while parenting the girls and making sure they were fed and kept alive. And the house was still standing (most days). 

Here's hoping we're able to use this deck the first weekend in August. Fingers crossed! 

Bella Dog Update

Here's our 7 week update.

We are at week 25 with our Bella girl!

She is still a super chill dog.

She still sleeps a lot.

She still gets super excited about food.

She's learning to sit nicely before I put her food down.

The girls absolutely love her and I have to remind them not to hug her too hard or invade her space too much. She tolerates them very well. Her little nub wags so fast when she sees the girls.

She's definitely coming out of her shell more and her personality is starting to really come through.

She and MR play a LOT more now and it's hilarious. They run back and forth from the kitchen to our bedroom, fighting for the same toy.

She makes this absolutely adorable whine when we come home from work or if she's excited. It sounds like "hermph" and is so freaking cute.

She loves going for walks and hikes around our property. When I get her harness out, she "hermphs" all over the place and can barely keep her wiggle butt still for me to put the harness on.

We put the kiddie pool out back for them since it was just so hot out and she dove right in! Jumped in, laid down, jumped out, etc. LOVED IT!

I think we have finally figured out her gut/allergy issues she was having. She's been on fish/sweet potato food for over 4-6 weeks now and we haven't seen any red marks and she hasn't been scratching nearly as much.

No more Benadryl or steroids!

We allowed her to sleep in bed with us for a while and it was lovely. BUT, she's still not waking us up to tell us she needs to go to the bathroom, so we woke up one day with two piles of shit on the floor. Um, no thanks.

So back in the crate she went.

But, I do think she's loving life now :)

So pensive.

my pretty girl!

MR always lets her win. Yes, I realize our carpet is disgusting. It's been shampooed and it still looks gross. I cannot wait until it's time to put new floors down! 

they are playing lol

Summer Camp!

Like I mentioned in my previous post, the girls were signed up for Summer Day Camp this year. It's their first time! It's through our town/district and it's very reasonably priced.

I thought the girls would be excited to go, but as the date got closer...Mila's nerves started getting to her. She actually teared up a couple of times, which was a bit surprising to me. She's always adapted really well to situations; if we went to a family or friend function, she'd make friends easily and go off and play.

She did great going off to Kindergarten and made friends quickly.

But she told me a few times before camp started that she was afraid and nervous. I explained that "camp" didn't mean sleeping over and that it was only for a part of the day, instead of the WHOLE day.

Because she was all anxious, Ava got all anxious and nervous too (or, at least, she acted like it).

Steve was the lucky one to drop off on the first day.

The first day came with some...mixups, but in the end was great.

I signed them both up for the same drop off location - the school, for convenience sake since I didn't think multiple drop offs in the morning would be fun. WELL, even though the technical drop off is the school, a couple times a week they have different drop off locations, based on whatever field trip they are doing that day.

So day 1 Mila went to the park and Ava went to the school.

Well, since we're newbies, we didn't know that if/when drop off is at the park, the kids need to bring their bathing suits and towels.

Steve had to go back to get those. He told me that Wal-Mart was closer, so he ended up getting her a new suit AND a new towel.

They said pick up was at the park too, so he went and picked Ava up at noon, then went home and worked on the deck until it was time to pick Mila up.

Only he gets there and no one is there.

They are at the school. So back to the school he goes. (I, personally would've panicked, but like he always does, he kept his cool).

Once we got all that figured out, it's been great!

I am lucky that I'm able to drop off and pick up a couple days a week, so it's really fun to hear about their day.

The one lucky day that drop off for both was at the same location!

Mila has so far: gone to two different beaches, the park/playground, the Zoo and tomorrow she will go to the amusement park. And she's made a couple new friends! 

Ava has so far: gone to two different beaches, the park playground, and this week she goes to the water park. A police officer and a fireman also stopped last week and did crafts with them. 

We are really happy with the day camp so far. I think next year we will plan on signing them up for more than just 2 weeks.