Sunday, May 29, 2011

digging. and a bathing suit.

You know how you can tell when it's a Saturday? (Well, other than the fact that you slept in, you didn't go to work, and life was just a lot better than normal...) When you check your Reader and there are NO new blogs. I mean, seriously, people. What do you do on Saturdays that's so much better than blogging? Just because it's weekend doesn't mean I stop needing reading material. So next weekend I'd appreciate it if you could do a little more blogging and a little less...whatever else you would be doing.

But my weekend has been great, thanks for asking! And the best part is: tomorrow is a holiday!! Woohoo!! For the past two years, I've had to WORK on Memorial Day (and pretty much every other holiday, too), so I am extra excited about having tomorrow off. I love not-working. Oh, funny thing from work on Friday, though: I was chatting with one of my favorite co-workers, and we were perusing the day's headlines on Yahoo. One of them was an article about how to make money blogging, so naturally I had to check it out. My friend was like "hey, you should start a blog! You would be a great blogger!" and I was like...dude, I already have a blog. And I'm still po'. So thanks. :) This leads me to conclude that people don't actually look over your full Facebook profile any more. I have a link to my blog at the bottom of my profile. It's not a secret or anything. So I just found that to be funny.

So I have this awesome habit of coming up with great ideas and sometimes, just sometimes, I decide to follow through with them. See, I've noticed over the past few years that the right side of our house is a little naked. I'm a big fan of flower beds and gardens, and it has come to my attention that we've totally neglected that side of the house. It's more like a weed showcase. Tall weeds. So I've decided that what needs to happen is a loonnnnnng flowerbed the whole length of the house (well, up to the AC unit). Some bushes. Some flowers. Some flair. And since I also happen to be the resident Gardener, Landscape Architect, and Lawn Maintenance Expert Extraordinaire, I decided that I would just make one this weekend. Lucky for me, I convinced Matt that he should help me (and by "help me," I naturally mean he should do the brunt of all the hard labor, while I helpfully boss him around). 
 before. We cut the grass the day before, so you can't tell that normally the weeds are like...window-high.

I was super proud of myself for thinking to measure the area before we left for Lowe's, and just in case you are interested, the space was 4 ft by 28 ft. In case you don't have your calculator handy, that's 112 square feet. 112 square feet of weed-plagued grass that had to be dug up. And the soil here in northeast Georgia is not so much soil as it is rock solid clay. People who used to live in Georgia will wax poetic about missing the Georgia red clay, with a longing sigh. People who have to dig up 112 square feet of it curse and shake their fists at God, questioning the meaning of life as they attempt to move the inpenetrable earth. So that was pretty much my Saturday. Digging, and digging, and then a little more digging. Intermittently I wondered whether any of my working out helped me to be more prepared for this day of digging, and I have concluded that I don't think so. Digging requires a skill and strength I'm not sure any amount of working out could get me. 

 during: the tiller isn't even useful until ALL the grass is moved. Ugh.

So we dug until our arms were broken and useless, and then we still had to dig some more holes to actually plant the bushes/flowers in. Talk about adding insult to injury. Hey Matt...thanks for doing the lion's share of digging up that enormous strip of grass. Would you mind now digging about 10 deep holes?? Thanks... The actual planting went really quickly compared to all the blasted DIGGING. As soon as those babies were in the ground, we called it a day and headed over to my in-law's house to collapse (and nearly drown, because I was entirely too tired to bother with keeping my head above water) in their pool. Classy fact: I had gotten really hot digging (imagine that, it was 94 degrees outside...) and so I had removed my tanktop in favor of working on my tan in my sports bra. I had also gotten really dirty. Therefore, by the time I made it to the pool, I realized I had little pockets of dirt in all the...um...creases in my skin. You know. I would say the "fat rolls," but that would be totally detrimental to my self-esteem, so we'll just say the areas where my skin sometimes folds over and touches. It creates a nice little spot for dirt to gather. Anyway, it was disgusting.
 Almost-after: We didn't tidy up and add mulch until Sunday.

We had a lot of fun hanging out with our family and some friends, which included some new friends who brought their 19-month old twin girls. They were cuter than could be, and have definitely solidified my plan to have multiples. Oh also, they were British. I'm not sure how I'm going to swing that one, but I will certainly try.

This morning at church was one of those sermons where it's like surely the pastor is reading my mail... this is so exactly what I needed/didn't want to hear. And then I realize...well, he DOES read my blog, which is probably more interesting than my mail anyway (bills, *yawn*)...so I guess maybe there could be a connection there. At any rate, the message was really challenging to me, about being persistent in prayer...and then don't you just know people wanted to pray for US, which naturally results in my crying my eyes out and my makeup off and I actually had tears running down my LEGS which was a new sensation. It was really encouraging, though...I love my church. Even if 95% of the people there are pregnant. I will forgive them as long as they keep praying for me. Ha.

The rest of the day has been good, and I even managed to find a bathing suit today that didn't totally make me want to vomit. Isn't it funny how your standards change as you age? A few years ago I might have wanted a bathing suit that was totally cute or made me look (tastefully) hot. Today I settled for the one that wasn't completely repulsive. YAY growing up!! On the way to the car, I asked Matt how much money is in our lipsuction budget. He said zero. That was depressing.

But tomorrow's a holiday, I have a not-completely-revolting bathing suit, and we're spending the day at the pool. That means this Sunday night is happy, and I'm off to enjoy it!! Goodnight!

5 comments:

  1. Great addition! The right side if our house is empty too, but I haven't had the motivation to make a new bed.

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  2. I think you should probably come visit me in Florida and help me start a veggie/herb garden in one of these:
    http://www.gro-pod.com/

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  3. The next time we come visit, you can definitely put Marshall to work in your yard! I can't tell what y'all planted, and I'm probably sure I wouldn't know what they are or how to take care of them.

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  4. You are so funny, Erika, you should definitely quit your day job and go into full-time blogging...how people make money off of blogging (well, enough to live on) I have no idea! And, fyi, I DO miss Georgia red clay, seeings as we have nothing but DUST down here (it hasn't rained any significant amount since February) and nothing that you would call a tree grows here...sniff sniffle

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  5. yes to the Saturday non-posting. I am guilty of that as well and need to start posting on that day.

    I really like your blog!

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