Arbors, Ali, Apples and Amphibians!!??

Sev and I enjoyed a nice, peaceful weekend at home this past weekend. We were sad that we missed Christophers first big race, but we needed a weekend HOME! We started the weekend off Friday evening with some BBQ for dinner. After dinner we came home and sadly...like two old people....we fell asleep rather quickly. We woke up Saturday morning and lounged around for just a bit before Sev left to pick up some hours at work (with a FULL summer class schedule he is trying to make up work hrs.). I started my house cleaning! I did...gosh, I don't even know how many loads of laundry...sad, I know. Cleaned our bathroom, cleaned our bedroom, cleaned our kitchen, organized our pantry, folded laundry, cleaned the guest bedroom and bathroom, put away laundry and took a break to play for a minute or two with Ali. Around 1pm I met Sev at Lowe's where we priced the material for an arbor...something I've been wanting in our backyard since....well...before we even bought the house, lol. We walked around Lowe's and I sketched and re-sketched some ideas, we priced and repriced materials. Finally, we could no longer ignore our growling stomachs...so we headed to chic-fil-a, for an AMAZING peach milkshake!!!! ...well...really we went for lunch, but I enjoyed the shake VERY much!! Then we headed home to do a bit of yard work and mull over the arbor idea. After we organized the garage a wee bit, sev did some weed eating...weedeating...ugh, is that right?? ANYWAYS, after he did some yard work and I did a little vacuuming, we decided to go and get the material for our arbor!! We...well...Sev worked until dark. I take credit for planning the arbor and making sure we got the right amount of materials and made sure sev had the materials he needed while on the ladder...but he did all of the building work. At one point I left Sev's side as his right hand man and washed the siding on our house...it was yucky!! Later, I left to pick up a pizza and a movie, Benjamin Button (which I enjoyed, but sev said was wayyy toooo long). Heres a pic of Sev in the beginning stages:

When the sun began to creep behind the house....the night creatures began to surface!!!
I took my camera and caught some of the little green friends in action!

Here we have Kermit (very original, yeah I know) he's sitting on the side of our house...waiting for his next meal:



And here we have Jobba (I don't know how its spelled, I'm not a star wars freak...but its jobba as in jobba the hut?! again...very original...but come on LOOK at this toad!!). Jobba is in the process of praying, why? Because Ali has spotted him! I zoomed in to take his picture...but this toad is actually the size of a pea, seriously...a baby baby toad:





And lastly we have Izzy...she is in the process of blending in with her surroundings!! She did a nice job, not once was she spotted by The One with the Long Tongue ;-) :



And here we have Ali...he is surveying his surroundings and keeping us all in check!

I went to water my apple tree at one point during the evening and LOOK what I found, to my delight!!! (and surprise, I didn't think it was possible to have fruit w/ only one fruit tree):



After an enjoyable dinner out on the patio, we headed inside to call it a night. We fell asleep about 30min into the movie I had rented. We woke up Sunday morning and laid in bed watching the rest of the movie before either of us got up and ventured out into the kitchen for breakfast!! LAZY but it was NICE!! After breakfast we headed back outside. Sevy worked on the arbor until around 3pm while I helped as best I could between battles with the weeds in my flower beds....I won that war!! Around 4pm sevy left to go fishing and I finished doing some laundry and then cuddled with Ali on the couch. Sev got home around 7pm and after watching the season premier of Army wives, we went to bed.

Sevy working on the arbor Sunday afternoon:


Ali is allllllll tuckered out, he has been working HARD people!!


I came home from work this afternoon to find this!!! My completed arbor!!!!!!

The arbor will be painted and plants will be hung...but so far it is exactly what I wanted!! I'm in search of some hanging lanterns too! What a nice weekend we had!!

oh and ps. baby brother came in 13th in his first race!!! We're just thankful he came out alive and with minimal scratches!!! Way to go keek, he made his sis proud!!!!