Father's Day - bittersweet

Yesterday was June 20th -- Fathers day for every man who impacts the life of a child and get the privilege to instill spiritual and life lessons to their children.  A day to celebrate the men in your lives.  For our family however, it is a rather sensitive "holiday".  I love my dad and our relationship has grown dramatically over the past 10 years....it has grown from kind a strangers to a friend I know I can count on if I need something fixed or just need some help. My dad is not a man of a lot of emotions or words and it took me a long time to realize that he says "I Love You" by installing a new water heater or picking me up from work when my car's in the shop.  As our relationship has gotten better I've wanted to make a bigger deal of Father's Day than in the past. HOWEVER...

Yesterday was the anniversary of Donnie's father's death.  As much as I want to celebrate my Dad and just show him my appreciation; there's a twinge of "should I when my husband's dad is no longer alive?".  In fact Donnie hates fathers day...probably due to missing his own dad.  I can't imagine losing a parent, but I pray that one day my husband will be able to enjoy that day...maybe when he becomes a father.

I wish I could have met Donnie's father, as he's been gone for about 12 years and having never lost a parent...it is a difficult thing to empathize with my husband. God Bless You, Donald Edlin, and may you be celebrating in heaven with our Jesus!

Pasta, Pasta, Pasta

Merry Christmas ... early

As my husband has been working almost every Friday for the past 3 months in Evansville at the Whirlpool Factory.  About a month ago there was an "employee" sale on KitchenAid materials...so one day he came home with the following...

* Pasta Roller
* Pasta Cutter
* Fruit & Vegetable Food Strainer & Food Grinder
* RotoSlicer and Shredder
* Handheld submergable mixer

The pictures above are first attempt at making light wheat pasta. It was a lot of fun and I think Donnie looks cute in my apron.  Thank you honey for the surprise!

3 tons ... Really?

I'm a project kind of girl; and Donnie and I love doing projects around the house together. We aren't typically the type of people that just lay around on the weekend.  We probably fit more activity into 2 days than some people do all week. That being said...some projects just are NOT fun.

As our house was vacant for over a year there was a lot of overgrowth and things that just need spruced up.  We've been using a chain saw and have our parking pad 1/2 full of the debris of the trees we chopped up.  We also have a rock garden right beside the deck.  This rock garden has seen better days...there are bare spots, dead plants that needed to be removed, etc.  

This weekend we went to Earth First to check out the prices of retaining wall rock and how much it would cost to 'freshen' the rock garden. It's about 300 sq ft of space.  They said it would take about 3.5 tons of 1 1/4 river rock.  WHAT!  3.5 tons really that's over 6,000 lbs of rock. It just so happened that the delivery guy was available..so the next three hours was spent with quality time on some rock.

The delivery driver followed us to the house with 3 tons of river rock and in one swift motion. DUMP.

Since there was  a dump truck in our driveway we asked him if he'd take the brush covering our parking pad. So for a small extra fee, the driver and Donnie load up the dump truck. 

After that physical task in some nasty weather on Saturday...Donnie and I spent the next two hours shoveling about 2 tons of rock and spreading it out.  We still have one ton to go...but the body can only do so much in 90 degree weather and icky humidity.

Before Pics...

If you come to our open house on the 4th of July you'll get to see the finished product.  It was probably one of the most physically demanding things I've done. 

One of my passions

So I have a passion and most of my dear friends already know what this passion is.... it is to organize. I took an extra day off from the long weekend to organize and oh how much fun it is.  I got a label maker on Black Friday last year and today was one of the days I've used it plenty.

I've got a craft room in the basement and it's been full of boxes and plastic containers for the last two months...so today it was cleaning and labeling while trying to keep Jack and Rocky from playing in something they shouldn't.

Let's just say I've had a blast today and long for the days when I might be able to have a career organizing.

The house is becoming a home...