My New Front Flower Bed

It has taken weeks and weeks of slow moving progress, but I can finally show you what I've been working on!  We had a small raised bed in the front under the kitchen window.  (I, of course, did not take a before picture.  That would take way too much planning on my part!)  But here is what it looked like after I had started working on it.  You can see the pile of dirt up by the house.  That is the original flower bed minus the pavers.

Our neighbors gave us some mulch a while back and we used it for other places around the yard.  What mulch was left we piled in this bed and that ended up tilled in with the rest of the dirt.  (My friend Dawn pointed out that the mound was right under the cross.)

I had a LOT of pavers to move and grass to remove.  I thought it would ease up after I got that part done, but no such luck.  The original pile of dirt was full of rocks and I didn't think it was going to be good soil for the new plants.  Unfortunately, that dirt was so compacted it was a bear to break apart.  As I chipped away at it, we took several loads and dumped in the back yard for a future project.  

My sweet hubby helped me on Saturday getting the last of the old stuff out and then tilling up the bed.  I had bought a couple of bags of gardening soil and he tilled all that together.  Hopefully, that will help the plants have a good chance of surviving.  They need all the help they can get with me taking care of them!

Throughout the whole process we dug up all kinds of things.  Kentucky is known for rocky soil, but big chunks of concrete was not what we expected.

This is what we had to dig up to plant the very first plant.  We were really wondering if it was a sign of things to come!

The rock path is made out of rocks we dug up when removing the grass.  Believe it or not, there are even more!

We ended up with a couple extra bushes and decided to plant them in key places to hide the crawl space entrance

and the a/c unit (if you look real close you can see the little bushling).  I need to make another run to Lowe's to get one more bag of mulch to finish off these areas.

We purchased smaller versions of the plants to keep the cost down, so it looks a little barren at the moment. 

I can't wait to see it once they grow a bit!

Living thru faith,

Misty

Our New Porch Light

Remember when I told you about our upside down porch light?  Here's a picture of it when a bird was trying to build a nest on it.  Silly bird!

Last week I ran across an awesome deal hanging in 

the lighting section at Lowes! 

5 buckaroos!!!

It was regularly $33 and marked down to $9.97 on clearance.  Turns out it was the last one and the display model.  While the guy went to get what he needed to take it down, my friend Dawn encouraged me to ask him to mark it down more.  No way, I thought!  But sure enough, 

he gave me another 50% off!

I had planned on spray painting it black, but when we held it up by the door it looked good with the brass on the door.  Since I can't change the brass (it's encased in the window), I have to learn to live with it. It has black brush like strokes in it and blends everything together.

I just love it...and it's right side up!

Living thru faith,

Misty

Sarah's Mermaid Tail

Sarah has started growing a mermaid tail at every baseball game.

It started happening at one of the first games of the season.

Unfortunately, when the game is over it disappears.

(Even though she doesn't want people to know she's a human.)

:-)

Living thru faith,

Misty

Spring Break Pics

I am finally getting around to showing you some of the pictures from our trip to Florida over Spring Break.  We left after school on that Thursday and arrived in Vero Beach late Friday night.  Matt didn't have to be at the sports village until around noon, so we were able to take the kids to the beach for a little bit before lunch.  

After we dropped Matt off, we headed up to St. Augustine to stay a couple nights with my friend Cindy and her family.  Cindy and I have been friends since 8th grade, but haven't gotten to spend a long amount of time together in probably 15 years!!  Through the years we've been able to get caught up and stay in touch through facebook.  It was such a blessing getting to know her family, too.  

We enjoyed going to church with them Sunday morning and then touring a little bit of St. Augustine after lunch.

Brian loves lighthouses and finally got to go up in one while we were there!

We even got to spend a little time on their beach before we left.  (Of the three beaches we visited on this trip, their's was my favorite!  It is amazing how different beaches can be!)

After visiting with Cindy and her family we headed back to Vero Beach to watch the boys play baseball, spend some more time on the beach, and eat more seafood!  (We just don't get good seafood in Kentucky!)  

Matt's team was undefeated for the week!

One of the things we did on Matt's day off was head down to Ft. Pierce.

(to eat seafood, of course!) 

The last couple of days the waves were huge (in our standards at least).

The beach in Vero was very "shelly".  

Every time the waves came up they brought shells.  There was a line of solid shells you had to walk over to get to the water.

 The week was a nice break from everything else going on and it was wonderful getting to spend time together as a family!

Living thru faith,

Misty