Food, Fun, and Foliage

So I know my title to this post is a little strange but I couldn't think of another "f" that I wanted to use. I thought about "fupdates" but that may come across a little crass! Although it's not exactly a word, it almost sounds like a bad one!

I know I promised pictures of my finished landscaping, but there is a good reason I haven't posted them yet... IT ISN'T DONE!!! We worked SO hard that day from 6:45am-4:00pm but alas we had more to do than we imagined! The left side of the house is 1 step away from being done but the right side has given us a landscaping MIGRAINE! We hauled so much rock away from that side that I think we could have repaved our entire driveway as a cobblestone. Plus there were roots galore- We might have some tree roots growing under our house which is yet another fun thing! Then this Sunday I thought I would work on the right a little more... WRONG! There is about 3 inches of SAND under where all that rock was. Yep, sand enough for a sand box people. Ridiculous isn't it?

So now we have to figure out where we can dump all this sand so we can fill in the right side with top soil and plant all our poor plants that are just sitting in my garage. Thursday could be my work day/night but I'm not counting on it. After I finally get the rest of the plants in, we then have to spray paint the bricks my Dad gave us and put those in as our retaining wall. It's a long road but hopefully it will be coming to an end soon!

Off to another topic- over the weekend Dave and Adam were supposed to have their first baseball game of the summer. It did NOT end up happening because of the MONSOON season we seem to be in at the moment! Since the guys didn't have baseball, Tanya and I decided that we didn't want our whole Saturday to be a waste so made some quick clicks on the internet, made a phone call to St. Louis, put info into the Garmin, and BAM we were off! The guys kept trying to guess where we were going the entire 1 1/2 hour drive but we didn't give away our secret.

Finally we pulled up in front of a hole in the wall... Pointers Pizza. Let me just say it was AMAZING! They have been on the Food Network and the Travel Channel several times and we know understand for ourselves why. As you can see by the picture, this is NOT your normal pizza. It is 28" in diameter and is basically the size of 4 large pizzas! The Pointersaurus has a challenge (which we did not attempt) where if 2 people can finish all 28" covered in cheese and either 2 meat or 4 veggie toppings in an hour- they will receive $500! Since 2001 there have only been 16 teams that have acheived this, and one of the teams is from Salem. They also happen to be friends of my sister! All in all it was a fun day making memories with some wonderful friends. We (Adam, Tanya, their 2 kids, and Dave and I) ate almost half the pizza and took the rest home. Needless to say I think both families had pizza leftovers for dinner on Sunday!

HELP MY LANDSCAPING!!!

Since tomorrow is supposed to be a nice day and I actually have some free time on a Saturday, I am hoping to actually work in the lawn tomorrow! The only problem is that I need some ideas!!!

We need some taller stuff to go in front of our gas meter, but nothing with thorns cause I don't want the gas meter reader guy to get mad at us! :) We also need whatever we put there to have a shallow root system cause our sewer line is right there. There were some beautiful rhododendrons there but we had to dig them out cause they got into the sewer lines and backed up our system. NOT fun.

Anyway here are some pictures I took this morning... PLEASE give me some ideas!!!!

I need my Tami Jo!!! :)

So it's been 17 days since I posted and I was supposed to be posting once a week- I blame this on my accountability partner being in Florida and unable to 'yell' at me on-line. Kidding Tams!

Anyway we have just been insanely busy getting the house ready... we move NEXT WEEK!!! The house is going so well but it's gonna be a close one! Can't wait to get some pictures up!!! Talk to you all as soon as possible and honestly I probably won't be posting for a while because of the house. LATER!!!

~Jenna

Update on the house

Dave and I were some of the 'crazies' on the roads tonight! We had to go to Mt. Vernon to do some house stuff and it was SOOOOO bad on the way home. It took us 45 minutes when it normally takes 20 to get home. God took care of us though and I am happy to be home safe and sound!

I have to just give a little recommendation and 'shout out' of awesomeness to Lowe's. They are AMAZING!!!! From the beginning they have been so helpful and knowledgeable about everything. Our kitchen designer not only helped us with that, but tonight after we finalized the last few decisions, he walked us around the whole store and helped us find the right faucet, door handles/pulls, then even went with us to pick out lighting for the entire house, french doors, bathroom stuff, flooring, and even siding! Of course he wasn't an expert on it all, but he helped us find the right people and just gave us ideas knowing the flow we wanted to go with and the style we had picked out. We DEFINITELY recommend using Lowe's for home renovation and projects!

There is so much still needing to be done on the house, but we are so excited that God has blessed us with all the resources and people we have in our life right now! I can't wait until it's just done and we are living there AND I can't wait until I can put up the 'Before and After' pictures!!! :) Love you all!