Figuring It All Out

Just when I was starting to do a better job of posting, I was interrupted by...the new school year!  Man, I don't know how people do it!  I'm trying to figure out how to "be a good teacher," "be a good mommy," "be a good wife," AND have just a few minutes of down time.  If definitely doesn't all get done every day.  We HAVE had some exciting times in our house though during the past few weeks.  I believe I left you hanging about something exciting with the patio.  I'll get to that, because there's more than I thought. ;)

First, we spent a long weekend in Charleston, SC two weeks ago.  It was great fun for Hope and I.  Brent spent the days in a course (which is why we traveled down there), but was able to hang out with us in the evenings. Here are some highlights from our trip in photos:

Hope sat in a big girl highchair for the first time!

"This remote is so cool!  Why do we not have this at home??"

Brent and I had been to Charleston while we were in college for his fraternity's banquet.  We had never eaten at Hyman's Seafood Company though, so we decided to check it out this time.  It was a great "family friendly" restaurant (and after eating at a no-so-family friendly one the night before, it was just what we needed).  

Brent and Hope at Hyman's

Hope and I at Hyman's

These famous people may have eaten AT our table, but the pretty girl in the middle ATE the table :-P

After spotting the house at the end of the street, we decided to walk past the Pi Kapp house on College of Charleston's campus.  I asked Brent if he wanted to go knock on the door and say hi, but he declined. :)

Two days after we got home, it was Brent's final birthday in his 20s!  He was excited to learn that his present was an iPad (there were many theories about what he was getting, it was a big guessing game).

Hope is so excited to play with Daddy's iPad!

And now for the patio!  We ended up purchasing a table on clearance the weekend before we went to Charleston, so we are no longer a "bring your own chair" establishment!  THEN today I lost the firepit battle, so we now have a firepit as well!  Check it out:

Table

Brent getting the firepit ready to use tonight.

We also love football season, so when we haven't been traveling, we've been at football games either at Duke or Elon.  This is our first weekend in a while where we haven't had any major plans (other than having friends out last night).  So as you can see, we've been a little busy.  Maybe someday I'll "figure it all out" but for now, I'm trying to enjoy the ride. :)

Go Elon!

Are You Ready for Some Football?

We are bringing Hope up right!  We started off the day yesterday rooting for our alma matter, Elon!  Yes, we realized Elon had a slim-to-none chance of beating that school with the horrendous light blue color down the road, but we didn't care! Hope was rocking her Elon shirt with matching skirt.  We bought both outfits last fall, and I'm glad we went with the 6 month size on the skirt instead of 9 months because the 6 month one is still a little big which means she should be able to wear it for most of the season (with leggings underneath later of course).

Mommy and Hope

Daddy and his little girls!

I will admit that we eventually had to change the channel away from the Elon game because it became too depressing to watch.  :-/

In the afternoon we headed out to Duke for their employee appreciation game and to see Hope's Uncle David march with the band.  Hope enjoyed drinking out of everyone's water bottles so you will notice that her outfit is quite soaked in most pictures of the evening. :)

Go Duke!

This would be the evidence of the water bottles :)

Riding on Grandy's shoulders

David's out there somewhere!

Ready for the team to run in. Where's David?

The game didn't start until 7, so I expected to have to leave after the 1st quarter, but we made it to halftime!  Hope didn't even cry in the car until we were a few miles from home (this is a MAJOR accomplishment).  Luckily all the Elon games we will be able to go to this fall are afternoon games so Hope should be able to make it to the end. :)

Stay tuned to see exciting news about the patio!

Rain, Rain, Go Away

It rained all day yesterday. :(  Therefore, we were not able to finish the patio, but the boys were able to get some of the work done.  They were able to tamp the stones down (although that was dramatic because in the process some of the pavers broke and they ended up having to replace about 8 of them).  I unfortunately did not get any pictures of the tamping process, but maybe that's a good thing because they wouldn't have been happy pictures.  :)  They also filled the dirt back in around the edge of the patio.  So the only thing left to be done once it dries is the sand on top and putting on the step.  

Brent's face sums up the morning

Todd did not want to be photographed

The current state of affairs.  Looking good!

Our Yard Crashers work crew.  Thanks for the help!

I forgot to mention they also had to add some pvc pipe to our AC unit drainage to route the water away from the patio.  Another trip to Lowes!  Now if they would only put some outdoor tables on clearance, we might have some furniture out there. ;)

On that note, summer is over and it's back to reality (kind of) today with the first of 5 teacher workdays.  Cross your fingers that Hope decides a bottle will be ok today!

I'll be looking forward to seeing this silly girl all day!

Busy Bees!

I apologize now for the boatload of photos in this post.  I got a little camera-happy today :)

While Baby H prevented me from helping much with the manual labor, the boys were hard at work!  We started bright and early with the digging:

Nice tire tracks in the yard

Thankfully the guy we had dig out the area was willing to spread the gravel in the space as well.

The next step was to tamp down the gravel.

Todd manning the tamper

After some debate over the process (the laptop had to be brought out at one point to get everyone "back on the same page" ;) ), the sand eventually was spread on top of the gravel using pvc pipes as a guide.

Sandy sat at the back door ALL day.

Finally, they started laying the pavers in the modified herringbone/K/I pattern.

Started in one corner and worked out

We borrowed the neighbor's wheelbarrow, luckily it survived the process.

The final pavers were cut and laid as the sun went down.

And here's the current state of affairs:

left/octagon

right

Tomorrow we have to tamper it and put the sand over the top.  I think we are also going to use some of the extra pavers to build a step down out of the back door.  It's sure to be another exciting day in our backyard!

Never a dull moment

Baby H loved the Vera Bradley store!

She had LOTS to say while we were in there and was jumping in my arms.  She's going to be a Vera Bradley girl!

When we got home, we found this in our backyard:

They weren't supposed to deliver this stuff until after lunch (kinda like the gravel...hmmm...), but we found it when we got home at 11:30.  Luckily it was in the correct spot and NOT on the neighbors' property, I was worried about their grass.

There was a possibility that the area might have been dug out this evening, so I ran out to get the spray paint and had grand plans of roping off the area while the hubby went back to work.  Unfortunately, I instead spent the afternoon fighting Baby H over a bottle (she's NOT a fan and could care less that school is starting and I have to go back to work next week).  The area did get roped off when the hubby got home, but will get dug bright and early tomorrow morning!  Here's the current state of the backyard:

The supervisor.  She's going to go NUTS during the digging tomorrow.

Ready for an exciting day tomorrow!  Still doing a no rain dance ;)

And so it begins...

We have gravel! Good thing I was there as Baby H and I are going to the new Vera Bradley store to celebrate the last day of summer! :)

A solution

Remember the problem of how to pick up the rented tools? You can have them delivered and picked up for $70 each way, or you can rent a trailer for $30. We'll take the trailer, thanks. :) I'm a little nervous (ok, a lot nervous) about how the boys are going to get the 3 foot slab off the back of the house. "Just pop it up will the bobcat." Oh good, that should be fun. It makes me nervous because we just have a concrete slab foundation and I obviously don't want anything to happen to that. I'll be glad when this is all done. Now everyone do a "no rain" dance for Friday through Sunday please...Grandpop, we need your help again! ;)