When Mom and Dad Rife were here a few weeks ago, Dad said I could do what I needed to do to make the flower beds look nice. This is what I started with. As you can kinda see, no one has done anything with them in quite a while. I love a challenge:)
This tree had a bunch of rocks around it that Sean and I wanted to move so I started digging them out. What a pain. As I removed the top layer, I found more rocks, and more rocks, and..., well you get the idea. We ended up with that wheel barrow half full of rocks. The cool part, at least I thought it was cool, when I was digging the rocks out from near the tree, I found that the tree had started to grow around the rocks.
Cool, isn't it! At least I think it is, but then I'm a biology geek, so humor me. I also found several skins from last years locusts, Sean thinks I'm really weird cause I thought those were REALLY cool.
The hard part about these flower beds is that they are shaded for most of the day. Which meant we had to find shade tolerant plants as well as low maintenance ones. We didn't want to have to plant them year after year, so we needed perennials. And there isn't much variety when you look at all those qualifications. Some shade tolerant plants are downright ugly! But we did find a few that work.
We did find Bleeding heart bushes, which I love, and they are really cool, and grow in the shade. Then there are the Hostas, which the stupid deer eat constantly. I'm hoping though, that the dog scent in the front yard will deter the mangy things. I saw 2 wandering around the neighborhood this morning, eating other peoples plants. not cool. Anyway. This is what the garden looks like so far. I'm still planting some more flowers and we are going to be mulching next week. So it will be looking great. I hope.
Sean and I celebrated our 3rd anniversary on Tuesday. Nothing too special. We actually went to the temple on Saturday, something we decided that we would do every year on our anniversary. Although the trip out there wasn't fun, cause we were late and I was getting mad. We went to Columbus which is a mini-temple and you have to be there on time or they may not have room for you in the next session. Not cool. But we managed to fit :) And it was great once we got there and I calmed down. Imagine that, me calm. hmmm. 
For the actual day I made Sean his favorite chocolate chip cookie. Complete with Great Northern beans:) Can't even tell they are in there. And I gave him a 6 pack of Dr. Pepper. We haven't had time to go to the movie and out to dinner that we planned. Maybe one of these days we will get there. HA.
Sean's parents were here for the last two weeks. They drove in, in this really cool RV. After they unloaded they parked it in the back of the house, out of the way. 
As you can see from the first picture, it was close to the railing of the porch, which Einstein always sits on. So he decided to investigate.
He wandered around on the top of the RV for a while, then hopped back up on the porch when he was done. And every day after he figured out what was out there, he went back, thinking he was cool:)
STUFF IS GROWING!!!! YEAH!!!! :) You, hopefully, should see the plants growing on one end. That would be my radishes. Yummy, yummy. Can't wait 'til they're ready so I can pick them and eat 'em. Also down at that end are the onions. Another fave, I eat those right out of the garden! Brush the dirt off, clip the roots off, and munch:) Nothing like a little onion breath to endear you to your husband, right?! 
On the other end I planted the tomatoes and peppers that I started in the house. However, I think the tomatoes might be in jeopardy, they aren't doing so well. It's been a little chilly the last 2 weeks, so I didn't want to plant them, but they didn't seem to be doing too well in the house either. Soooo, I might have to go to Lowe's or Home Depot and get some bigger plants. I hate doing that, since I spent all that time and money on the first set of plants! Aaargh.
And since we have the marauding deer in the neighborhood, we have to have chicken wire and netting to keep them out, as well as the rabbits, chipmunks and moles.
Okay, I think I have finally gone off the deep end. I have agreed to do a TRIATHLON!!!! What the heck am I thinking:) Anyway. It's a 330 yard swim, 5K run, 11 mile bike ride, all to be done at the end of August. And I am unbelievably out of shape. I know, I know, me, out of shape? How is that possible? HA! Really quite easily actually. Well I need some long distance help to train for this thing. Any ideas? I wish ya'll were here to run with, then it'd be way easier. There are a bunch of us here that are going to do this thing, but their schedules are more felxible than mine, so I have to train by myself. ugh. Running just 2.5 miles is such a chore when there is no one to talk to or pace you. So who wants to train with me, long distance? Think that might work? We could compare notes:) I could bike with Kelli, maybe run with Dawn, ummmm, yeah, anyone do swimming? That part of the triathlon is going to kill me! And I think it's the first leg. I'm not even sure where I'm going to be able to get in swim shape. I think I've been in a pool a total of 5 times in the last 3 years. It's not like when I was coaching ball and could swim every other day, when we went to the hotels. Oh, yeah, that is going to hurt. Any help ya'll can provide would be great!
I got another A in Calculus! This would be Calc 2, semester 2 of the 4 that I must take to get into environmental engineering. WOOHOO! Would this make me a geek? This A wasn't as easy as the last one! I actually had to take the final this semester because I screwed up on one too many of the tests during the semester, but I made up for it on the final. YES! As you can tell, I'm just a little bit excited about getting an A. Just a little:)
I have gotten Sean hooked on ice cream cakes from Dairy Queen. Yeah!! I love them and that means I have another excuse during the year to eat them:) 
Sean's other favorite cake is cheescake, although I make it with a "twist." Under the cheesecake part is a layer of pound cake covered with Jello that has strawberries and blueberries in it. Yum. So we will totally be eating some major calories the next few days, and enjoying every minute of it!
We'd like everyone to meet Riddick, the latest addition to our family. Yes, he would be a Great Dane, 130 lbs and as you can see, pretty tall. 
Isn't he pretty? He's 4 years old and we got him from the Dane Connection which is a rescue league that works out of Pittsburgh. The girl that they got him from is moving and can't take the dog with her, so she had to give him away. It was pretty sad, but now we have our new dog.
This tree had a bunch of rocks around it that Sean and I wanted to move so I started digging them out. What a pain. As I removed the top layer, I found more rocks, and more rocks, and..., well you get the idea. We ended up with that wheel barrow half full of rocks. The cool part, at least I thought it was cool, when I was digging the rocks out from near the tree, I found that the tree had started to grow around the rocks.
Cool, isn't it! At least I think it is, but then I'm a biology geek, so humor me. I also found several skins from last years locusts, Sean thinks I'm really weird cause I thought those were REALLY cool.
The hard part about these flower beds is that they are shaded for most of the day. Which meant we had to find shade tolerant plants as well as low maintenance ones. We didn't want to have to plant them year after year, so we needed perennials. And there isn't much variety when you look at all those qualifications. Some shade tolerant plants are downright ugly! But we did find a few that work.
We did find Bleeding heart bushes, which I love, and they are really cool, and grow in the shade. Then there are the Hostas, which the stupid deer eat constantly. I'm hoping though, that the dog scent in the front yard will deter the mangy things. I saw 2 wandering around the neighborhood this morning, eating other peoples plants. not cool. Anyway. This is what the garden looks like so far. I'm still planting some more flowers and we are going to be mulching next week. So it will be looking great. I hope.
