Pity party for me.

Last may we came out to Indianapolis to look for a house. We knew we only wanted to rent... so our options were limited. Well, we looked and looked and we finally found the house that we live in today. Yes, it's pretty cute with a sweet little cottage feel, but why didn't we look around the yard last year and think, "Wow. That's a lot of yard work. Wow". I don't remember the thought ever going through my head as we were signing the lease. Why oh why?

Now, I feel like a weeder by profession. Just "letting the yard go" is not an option. I can't stand to go outside and be surrounded by weed infested flower beds. I just can't do it. So, instead of playing baseball with the kids and going on bike rides, I find myself spending all of my outdoor time WEEDING. I'm done. I'm ready to Round-Up the entire yard; echinaecha (a cookie for the first person to spell it right: it wasn't in spell check), tulips, daffodils, ferns, lillies, everything. Anything to get rid of the weeds. Of course, we could always hire someone to come and do our yard work, but then there's A) the cost (which would not co-exist well with a resident's salary) and B) The yard care guy would never make it to other yards because ours would be so time-consuming. So here are a few pictures to enjoy of our beautiful yard. It is for once all weeded at the same time (well, almost).

FRONT YARD (small flower bed):

One more patch in the front yard:

Here's where the real weeding starts. I could spend (and have spent) 2 hours just in this section. When we first got here last July the weeds (you know those poky ones?) were easily as tall as I am.

More in the backyard. That big planter box used to have a pond in the middle. When we got here last year it wasn't running and there was a dead mouse in it. So, we took the pond out, threw it in the forest and filled in the big hole. With dirt from the forest. We love that forest. Our last Christmas tree resides in the forest now too, all shriveled and dry. So do all yard clippings, lawn mower waste, etc. As long as it's something plant-related, we throw it in the forest. I don't love the Poison Ivy and Poison Sumac in the forest.
Wild strawberries grow in here during the summer. Too bad they aren't bigger than my pinkie finger otherwise we'd eat them!
More in the backyard. See that cute little cobblestone walkway? It doesn't look so cute after you have sprayed Round-Up in every single little crack and crevice. Oh, and the moles think it's fun to dig tunnels under the rocks and move them up and down all the time. Hmmm, I wonder. Does Round-Up work for moles too?
There is a rose bush under our bedroom window in this picture (which you can't see). I have yet to see roses bloom from it. But then, we've only been here 9 out of the last 12 months. So maybe they'll bloom yet.

This flower bed is the longest in the whole yard. It stretches all the way to the road. And, no, I don't weed this one. It's too much. This flower bed divides the front yard from the backyard with dirt on either side of the fence. We plan to grow pumpkins along it this summer. Here's the flower bed on the other side of the house, the side that no one sees. I take the "If you can't see me, I can't see you" approach. It's never been weeded.Search's hair looks much like a weed also. How's that for bed-head?

Spring is Springing!

It's amazing! We can go outside without a jacket... and not just to get the mail! Sunday was nice and warm (in comparison) so we got to go break in the backyard for the spring. But evidently until we get some new sandles, snow boots are still our shoe of choice.
Watch out, it might stick!
My youngest currently lives in flood pants. The kid won't stop growing. My oldest currently lives in pants with holes in the left knee (all of them, in the left knee. Any guesses?) Spring can't come any faster, because with spring comes shorts. With spring comes throwing away holey pants and packing away ones that are too small. Destroy, look up! Surprise!
Yesterday was just a taste of the weather to come because tonight we are supposed to have snow. But, it was a nice appetizer!

You think it's cold?

Apparently one of our outdoor faucets has a leak. Actually it looks like more than a leak. Actually I have no idea what happened. All I know is that, unless we use a blow dryer for 3 hours, we won't be getting this hose out there until spring!

Oh what do you do in the summertime?

Here we are playing in the mud hole that mom dug for us. It's especially fun after it's been raining because we get exceptionally dirty. We even like to do summersalts in the mud. We also like helping Dad mow the lawn and helping mom weed. We even have our own gardening gloves! Search is afraid of the lawn mower and we are both afraid of the coyote that we've seen from inside.

We each have our own bug box which we can collect bugs and plants in. Mom won't let us take the bug boxes inside because she says the bugs usually end up missing. We can't figure out why she doesn't want the centipeeds, spiders and beedles in the house because they're already in there anways. We are really good at killing insects with baseball bats, yelling at the birds not to eat the birdseed and making sure that the deer don't come around when we're outside. We also enjoy juice popsicles everyday after Search's nap and we have a F-I-T if mom forgets to freeze the popsicles. We love it here and have lots of room to run around and discover new things. Best of all we are learning how to play with each other really well and have decided that we like each other for the most part. We even like waking each other up from naps just to have someone to play with. Mom throws a F-I-T when we do that though, so that's probably off the list for now.