Decorating 101

last January during the new year sales, Hubs and I picked up a sweet little TV for our bedroom. I really wanted one of those flat ones so I could hang it on the wall with an LCD mount and have it out of the way. Plus, we had snakes at the time and there was just no room for the Tv other than where the snakes were or on the wall.

Then we found a buyer for our snakes. A lady who works at the SPCA and who breeds corns. It was a match made in heaven. She got some nice breeding snakes at the perfect age, and I got the top of my dresser back!

At first, Our TV looked so small and lonely sitting on the dresser, but last week I found this tree thing. its fake, but Since it was only 2 bucks, I picked it up. It EXACTLY matches the one we have downstairs, BTW.

With the little fake tree there, the dresser looks so much better! At first I was really uncertain about having the tree in the room, just because the design of the room - polka dots -doesn't immediately bring to mind the image of plastic trees.

But you know what? It works. And other then when I have to dust off the tree, I love it.

When it comes time to dust it, believe me, I will hate it's every leaf!

LOLz

Still.NOT.An.Aunt

Yea, you read it right. I am still not an aunty! My brother is now seriously struggling with the decision whether to go back to work or not. I kind of think he should go back to work, cus, you know, money is pretty nice to have. But of course, this is not my decision, so i am staying out of it!

I was wondering. A few bloggers i have read actually blogged about their delivery, live, as it was happening. How does one go about finding out if the delivery rooms have wi-fi, and would it be rude of me to bring my laptop along, just for the slow times, so i could update on twitter and stuff!

I was thinking that even though I have my sweet spotted laptop bag, I might borrow my father in laws new Zero Halliburton briefcase, cus it has a hard exterior and my laptop bag is soft. (my father in law actually bought the briefcase to store his medications in while they are traveling, it keeps the prescription copies and the notes and all the pills in the same spot, so it is easier to get through customs!

Since I don;t know how hectic the actual labour will end up being, If I had the hard case (will a 17 inch laptop fit in it even? I will have to go measure) ..if I had the hard case I would not have to worry so much about it being banged around while moving from room to room .

I better ask J first if she minds me bringing the laptop, then worry about the rest of it!

If I won the lottery

Here are the first ten things I would do with the money I got if I won a lottery of one million dollars or more :

1. Pay off my mortgage
2. Pay off my student loans
3. Take the kids on one of those Disney cruises
4. drop the kids off with MIL and go on a cruise - just me and Hubs - to somewhere with green water - as long as I did not get sea sick on the Disney Cruise
5. Go visit Sheila in Missouri.
6. Bring Sheila back home with me so she can got to coffee with me.
7. Make the Dog Whisperer teach Smokey to leave the bows in her hair alone.
8. Hire a maid or cleaning service.
9. Never do laundry again
10. Buy myself a new car. Hubs can keep the old one.

What would you do?

Last day of Summer vacation Part 2 ; Getting Ready

The school supplies have been bought and labeled. I was somewhat surprised this year with how reasonable the school supply lists were, but it still cost me close to 60 dollars to out fit each of the boys with the pens, paper, binders and new school shoes they needed.

Blake's back pack is the red one - he needed a new one this year, Parkers is the Black. His is still somewhat usable from last year though it will need replacing sometime during the year. parkers school shoes still fit him, but again, he will likely grow and need new ones sometime after Christmas. I was a bit surprised seeing how much more Parker needed in terms of papers and books than Blake did.

Parker's back pack

Blake's back pack

The boys lunch kits are out and ready to be filled. They will have to carry them to school becuase there is just way too much stuff in their back packs already! Thank goodness the first day of school only comes once a year!

We will have to be at the school by 8;30 tomorrow. I need to stop at the office and get the boy's birth certificates photocopied and help them find their classrooms. I still have no idea how I am going to keep Logan occupied all day long. he is so used to having his brothers there to play with!

Last Day Of Summer vacation : Part 1 : Weather Report

Of course, because this was the very last day of summer vacation it rained all day. The boys spent the day indoors generally making a pest of themselves. We popped two bags of popcorn (Times like this I wished I had invested in one of those popcorn machines) coated them with dill pickle seasoning and watched a movie. What else is there to do on a rainy day anyway?

Yesterday my MIL took the boys to an outdoor pool for four hours, Blake managed to get stung by a wasp - again!

I would like to think that this summer has been fun for the boys, but to me, it all seems to have passed in a blur. It seems like just last week the kids got OUT of school, and yet, the days are getting shorter and there was a bite in the air with this mornings rain that reminded me just how close winter is!

Air travel

I have talked about my sister on my blogs before, but I will do a quick summery for those of you who are new!

At the age of three my sister contracted the Henoch-Schonlein Purpura virus. This virus can range in seriousness form causing mild feelings of unwell to death. The strain my sister caught cause her kidneys to completely shut down. She has had several transplants and just recently celebrated her seven year anniversary with her latest kidney - a cadaver donation - PLEASE PEOPLE, SIGN YOUR ORGAN DONOR CARDS! Trust me, they DO save lives.

In any case, one of the long term problems my sister has dealt with - in addition to the transplants and the stroke she has had, is high blood pressure. In the past two years, her blood pressure has been very difficult to control. She has to carry a blood pressure monitor with her wherever she goes.

In March, she is planning on taking a trip to Texas with one of her girlfriends. Her doctor assures her that he can sign papers stating she is allowed to bring her medications on board, but he is unsure if she will be allowed to bring her BP monitor on board as well, what with the tightening of security since 2001.

I have seen a few things in my Google searches that worry me in regards to her being on an airplane and having high blood pressure. her doctor assures her that it is safe for her tot ravel, but i am really concerned that without her monitor she might run into some trouble, and at eighty zillion feet off the ground, little problems can quickly turn into huge problems!

Have you traveled with a BP monitor recently? Were you able to bring it on board?

Silver Dollar Vacation!

I know, I know I had a vacation a few weeks ago, but how can two nights camping on a rock covered ground, tenting with wasps and brushing sand out of my hair even hope to compare to a vacation in Branson??!

It just cannot.

You see, Branson is not JUST a vacation, It's THE vacation! With Shows, including the Shanghai Circus, the Grand Jubilee and Amazing pets (Just to name a few, there are a LOT of shows!), you can fill your days up just by going to shows.

But you won't want too, becuase then you would miss Branson's famous Silver Dollar City Theme park!

There are many different Vacation packages, and a good assortment of lodgings to choose from. Myself, I would choose the cabins at Grand Mountain, but if you are into more pomp and luxury, you can choose to stay at the Presidential Condo - which is only a short walk away from the Silver Dollar Theme Park!

Because Branson offers such great affordable packages, it is an excellent destination for the family - but Branson, the Live Music Capital of the World, is also an excellent destination for couples!

Irony : How I love thee

I WISH I had air conditioning!

The past week it has been hovering at the +40 mark. (which is very hot)(TOO hot!)

I had boiled two racks of ribs and soaked them in marinade for 24 hours, and last night hubs grilled them on the BBQ. We took them over to his Mothers house ( remember they are only three doors down) and we had them with Yummy macaroni salad ( his mom makes hers with boiled eggs - its SO good!) and fresh garden vegetables. During our meal, Hubs dad kept teasing us about how hot our place was. (They have A/C, and their house was so nice to be in after the past week of heat). Over and over, Hubs dad would start a subject just to bring it around to the point where he could again point out that we did not have A/C. Even when it was time for us to leave the wonderful climate controlled air of their house, he could be heard yelling down the street to us " Hope you are able to sleep tonight with all this heat!" and laughing.

Needless to say, I was part way ticked off, and partway jealous.

Until about twenty minutes ago when Hubs father called and asked him if he wants to run into the city with him. Seems the a/c compressor thingy for their A/C is broken!

HAH!

Is it mean of me to hope that the store is closed by the time they get there?

LOLz!

Sadness - A Book Review

A Sharp Tooth in the Fur
Darryl Whetter
Goose Lane Editions

A story contains three main parts. A beginning, a middle and an ending. In those three parts you are introduced to the characters, The main "problem" of the story,and finally, see the resolution to the problem. Without those three things, you cannot have a story!

So, when I received A Sharp Tooth in the Fur in my mail box for review from the MiniBookExpo, I, not surprisingly, expected those three elements!

A Sharp Tooth In the Fur: Thirteen provocative stories offer lots of sex, a bit of violence, and a wickedly clever exploration of human nature.

FAIL.

I made it half way through this book. I simply could not go any further! Not only did the stories lack any type of character introduction, there is no clear problem and absolutely no endings! In fact, I was three pages into the second book before I realized it was the second book! That's how convoluted these stories are, even the fact the names had changed did not clue me into the fact it was a completely different "story".

When I signed up to review books and saw that we were allowed to review books honestly - including negative reviews, I assumed I would never write a negative review. I love books!! Every single book I have ever read has had at least one good point! At least one spot that made me laugh or cry or gasp in shock. I honestly believed that!

Until this book.

SEE!

Click to make bigger.

I told you I have the right version. After all, I updated it from the link facebook offers! AND STILL I CANNOT UPLOAD PICTURES! It's not like I am trying to upload pictures of Wilmington NC real estate! I'm trying to upload pictures of my boys having FUN!

My eldest son is part monkey, we are sure of it, although I do not remember getting friendly with a monkey... Anyway. He was AWESOME on the wall, just amazing. In fact, the dude running the wall times him climbing up the HIGHEST difficulty and he was up to the top, ringing the bell in 34 seconds!

I WANT TO GET THE PICTURES UP.

What really worries me is that I have been using FB for a while now, and this is the first time they have done an update like this. What if the problem does not get fixed and I have to wait a YEAR for the next update to have it fixed! I will be stuck spending twenty minutes per every five photos!

Oye. I am SO not amused by all of this. Also? I quit. I QUIT. I will check again tomorrow, maybe it will be fixed then, but for today? No more photos!

I'm about to blow my top

It's very difficult for me to write concisely when I am this upset. But holy hell, I'm PISSED OFF!!!

a few days ago I took 100 photos of the boys and us going to the fun center. The light was horrible in almost all of the photos (it was 3pm, the light was almost directly overhead and BRIGHT) so I have spent the past few days fixing them up in photo shop. I am still not done fixing all of them, but my sister asked if i would just put up the ones I am done so she can see them! I agreed and flipped over to Facebook to get them up.

Except, Fb has made some sort of change in the way they do their photo uploading. it says I need java 1.607 or something or my computer will crash trying to upload the photos. So I updated my java, to the exact version facebook requires and started selecting pictures. I have gotten like FIVE up int eh past HOUR. Each time I upload a pop up says this is a trial version for evaluation or some such crap, and the upload fails!

So even though I have the right version of Java, facebook is acting like I asked it to put on some sexy costumes and parade down Broadway Avenue for cash!

I am SICK of it! I have a lot of photos that need to go up. A huge portion of my family ONLY see the boys through facebook photos, and yet, I cannot get them up. Facebook has offered a five at a time upload for those of us who do not have the right version but it TAKES FOREVER!

AND? I HAVE THE RIGHT GODDAMN VERSION!

Dear Post Office

HURRY UP!

Gah!

I have been waiting for weeks for a few things to appear in my mail box.

First up? The boy;s birth certificates. I sent away for them in July, and the lady at vitals and statistics said that upon their receipt of the forms, they will have the certificates back to me in 7-10 days.

Second? Six weeks ago I claimed a book on the blogger book expo, and other bloggers reviews are coming in, but i have yet to receive my copy! Sadness!

Third? Everyone else is getting their Dave2 stuff, where's mine? I just KNOW the post office stole my Dave2 Zombie shirt! I know it!!

It's not like I am asking a lot from the post office. I did not order a big Bob stroller! All I want is an envelope with their certificates, and two packages!

GIMMEE

What's in a name?

Tonight I took my middle son out for coffee. of course we combined out trip into the city with several errands. During one of our errands Blake found a twonie on the ground. he asked the man closest to it, the only other person close to it other than us, actually, if it had fallen out of his pocket. The man said no, so I told Blake he could keep it.

Lucky for Blake, the shop across the hall (we were in a mall) from where he found his two dollars, was a candy specialty shop. I suggested we go in and he could pick a candy to enjoy while we had our coffee. He did, and we left the mall, our errands done, ready to enjoy our time together.

The place where we coffee has a bank of four machines set up. Since Blake had change, I allowed him to use one of his extra quarters in one of those candy machines. He chose jelly beans. Once we were back at our table we started talking about the upcoming school year and he started showing off my using the jelly beans to make the first letter in all of our names.

He used M for mom.

I asked him if he knew my name and he nodded yes, saying, it's mom! In a tone of voice that clearly said - you are so silly mommy!

No, I said, my REAL name - what daddy calls me, do you know that name?

Oh, he said, it's Honey, right?

And, It's done?

Ahh eBay, you make me so sad.

Read here to catch up!

So. from the first e-mail, I had underpaid the seller 13.40.
The second e-mail reports I have underpaid the seller 10.00.
and now the third e-mail? Apparently I owe her 3.05.

Dear imbluepaintred,

Okay, I went to the Post Office and mailed the books. The cost of shipping was $5.71. + you owe me $2.00 for Shipping & Handling (which inclues packaging supplies, gas and going to post office). So You owe me $3.05. So if you would be so nice as to pay that I will leave you nice feedback as soon as that is done. Your package is on it's way. Thank you, Richard & Jan

- mtx_shockwavz

Now, let me say this. I do appreciate that the seller was willing to communicate with me through this ordeal, but, THEY filled in their listing wrong, and I suffer for it. Why though, the HUGE difference from the first email to the last? I hear all the time how a seller will charge a very low amount for the item, but get their money back VIA shipping, and I do believe this is the case. The fact that the prices changed so much between first and third? That proves it to me.

I replied to the seller already, replying that I will indeed pay the additional 3.05, but that I will also be leaving honest feedback for her. Point to her though - I will also have to mention she has good communication skills in said feed back.

I'm thinking along the lines of " Shipping was a big hassle, seller communicates well" with a neutral feed back as opposed to a positive.

Sound fair?

MAD - VERY MAD

I have been dealing with eBay for quite a while now, and though I am nervous each time I make a purchase, I have never had a bad experience, until tonight.

See, this afternoon my granny, the one with a brain tumor, who is leaving to BC for a few weeks before her next cat scan - which no one expects to be good, phoned me and asked me to locate six books for her. Two Nora Roberts trilogy's.

Of course, I told her I would find them and make sure I had them in my hands when she returned home at the beginning of September. I found both trilogy's very easily on eBay and had my pick at which seller to buy from.

The one trilogy was 9.99 buy it now and 4.76 shipping - keep in mind, I scrolled to the bottom of the eBay page, selected my country, and the shipping is automatically calculated for my postal code.

14.75 for the books and shipping is an excellent price so I clicked the buy it now and paid immediately.

Then, five minutes ago I got an email from the seller (keep in mind the seller has 100% positive feedback)

Dear imbluepaintred,

How did you come up with the $4.75 postage. It will not let me ship to you. It only allows me to send to you Priority Mail which is $16.15 + $2.00 S&H. I have to print your receipt, your shipping label, my packaging and the custom forms. So you need to pay $18.15 for the shipping, not $4.75. That is why I ask all international bidders to ask me shipping & Handling before bidding or before paying. It cost me $4.80 to send just here in the US. So, you need to send me another $13.40 before I can ship the books. Postage is outrageous. If you would have asked before bidding I could have given you a choice to bid or not to bid. Go back and look at the auction at the bottom. It tells you just what I said about asking before bidding or paying. I will be awaiting the extra $13.40 so I can ship your books. The only other option is Express mail which cost more. First class mail is only for plain envelopes as in #10 regular envelopes. Thank you, Jan & Richard.

- mtx_shockwavz

I replied immediately. With a screen shot and this note :

Please see attached photo. This is the price YOUR listing gave me for MY postal code. I will not pay an extra 13.40 for shipping, you can either reimburse me my money or ship it as per YOUR listings price. Either that, or I shall have to send this to eBay disputes.

Shannon

Here is the screen shot, click it to make it bigger.

I refuse to pay more for shipping. There is NO WAY I would pay 18.00 shipping when I could have bought the books for the same cost (14.75) from six different sellers. In fact, the other trilogy my granny wanted? I got that also for 14.75 - this one had a lower price for the books - 5.00 and a higher price for shipping, 9.75.

As I have never had a dispute on eBay before, I am looking for help. Where do I go from here?

Also, In the time it took me to write this post, the seller came back with this :

Dear imbluepaintred,

I am going to package these books and take them to the post office tomorrow and get a price, I do not know why PayPal & USPS can't let me have the option of First Class Mail online. This has me stumped. When I look it up on ebay it says one thing and when I look it up on the USPS site it won't let me offer First Class Mail. So, I will go to the Post Office in the morning and get back to you with an actual price from the post office. It has me stumped. It weighs about 1 pound and should be about $10.00 for First Class. One book would be about $4.75 first class. So let me check it out, so I know for sure. Thank you, Jan

- mtx_shockwavz

Again, While she seems to have come down on what I will "owe" her, I refuse to pay more than what her listing said I was required to pay. Also? I'm not sure how to respond to her. Should I email her back right away and repeat that I will pay no more than I already have, or do I await her email tomorrow and tell her then?

And when she still says I have to pay up, how do I get my money back so I can order the books from someone who has the RIGHT shipping info, so that I have them here for my granny when she returns home?

August Tenth

On August tenth, unbeknownst to us, (at the time) Our puppy was born. While talking with the boys last week, we came up with a plan to celebrate her first birthday.

Smokey is not all that into toys, she loves to play with empty boxes and toilet paper rolls. She Likes bones and rawhides, but only chews them for a few minutes a day before ignoring them. She has a nice soft bed, and isn't interested in getting intofutures trading, so we decided to stick with what she likes best of all.

Food.

We made her a "cake" tonight. It is a piece of Lamb and Rice rollover sausage with a baloney wrapped carrot in the center for a candle. It is in the freezer right now, and when i take it out in the evening for her Birthday "party" I will pour Puppy Gravy over it. We will sing happy Birthday while she barks and begs in impatience for her treat, and most of all, we will make sure she knows how much we love her.

Oh Em Gee

I just read the most amazing news EVER.

Avitable, from www.avitable.com holds a weekly contest. (well, he is holding just one last contest, so if you want in, head there NOW) The winner of last weeks contest was announced tonight, and by God, it was ME.

And the prize? The prize was a freaking iTouch!

I was SO shocked that I screamed out loud when I read my name. I'm glad I am not one of those people with cool phones and stuff that can read blogs while traveling 'cus I screamed So loud that we would have been needing a truck accident lawyer!! LOL

As it was, it took the baby more than half an hour to get back to sleep, and two hours later, the dog is still sitting at my feet looking at me worriedly!

I absolutely cannot wait to get my new toy in the mail, although, hubs and I will be sharing it becuase he was the one who gave me the correct answer to Avitable's contest!

Do you ever.....

...get totally distracted from what you were doing by accidentally clicking the "stumble" button instead of the "new window" button?

Well I do! I wanted to open a new window and instead stumbled onto a site full of funny signs! I did not think to bookmark the site so that I could link to it, I ended up typing "funny signs' into a search engine. here are some of the funnier ones!







You can even find some funny digital signage

*sigh*

I took this photo about an hour after arriving at the campsite. Hubs was still putting up the boys' tent and I was supposed to be making the bed in our tent. Sure, Camping is nothing like Outer Banks rentals, but just looking at this photo makes me happy. i can almost smell the campfire, and i can taste the marshmallows (Of course, i have a bag of marshmallows open at my side, that might have something to do with it!!)

Camping is something I have done since I was an infant, and it is something we have done with our children fromt he time they were born. Poor Blake had the misfortune of being born in April and he was only two weeks old for his very first camping trip! (we took him in may, it was still pretty chilly out)

Logan was about three, maybe four weeks old when we first took him. But since he was born in June, it was a nice trip for him!

I wish we could have stayed a lot longer..

Journey to the center of the Earth 3D

Last night my mother in law took the boys overnight. Good for me, becuase that way I did not have to wash all the sand out of their hair, good or her, 'cus she likes cleaning!

Hubs and I took the opportunity to go to the theater to see Journey To The center of the Earth, in 3D. I've never been to a 3D movie..well I've never been to a 3D anything, to be truthful, so it was Quite the experience!

(Hubs said that most 3D movies don't have a story line, its just a movie mashed together with images that will "jump out at you" and that JTTCOTE was different in that it had an excellent story line. I agree)

We were reclined in those awesome theater chairs watching the movie, and I was so amazed! there were several times I brought my hands to cover my face, certain I was about to be hit in the face! I even reached out one time to try and touch the hand of one of the actors as it 3D'd it's way towards me!

It would be way cool to have home theater seating and have the television do 3D shows so that I could watch this type of thing all the time!

(although, I did end up with quite the headache and a bit of motion sickness from the movie, but it was so good, I fell the discomfort was well worth it!)

OUCH!

Do you read my "mother" blog? The one that started all of this? It's Bluepaintred.com, if you don;t and today I posted this photo:

This is just oneof the many many bruises dotting my skin. Each one of them is about the size of a quarter, and they were caused by ROCKS. If you want to read more about it, click the link up there.

I'm SO sore! Sure we had a great time camping, our site was so close to perfection, I cannot even begin to explain the many reasons it rocked, and the weather was awesome, but dude, sleeping on ROCKS makes me think very seriously about asking hubs to quit his job and go to one of those massage therapy schools so he can rub me down and make me feel better!

I am wearing and OLD, OLD pair of cutoffs becuase when I tried to pull on a pair of jeans yesterday afternoon, they were too tight on my bruises for me to be able to stand the pain! AND I DO NOT WEAR TIGHT PANTS!

I am in seriously BAD shape!

Location! Location! Location!

When we first moved to this house (in October) we had our computer desk set up in the living room. our living room is not that big, so the desk took up a lot of space. By the end of January's, though, we had completed the basement - it was unfinished when we moved in, we build two bedrooms, a bathroom, and created a HUGE family room. We moved the computer and the desk to the basement at that point, creating a sort of home office.

When the computer was in the basement, I rarely went on it. And until I got my laptop, I blogged very seldomly. Now, My laptop and Hubs are side by side on the kitchen counter. I can now read blogs, surf the net AND spend a lot of time with the boys and hubs.

What I want to know is this : Where do you keep your computer? Where are you reading this from right now?

Even MORE to save for!!

Hubs saw a commercial for an HP laptop yesterday and he is now determined that he MUST have it. You see, this new laptop is a touch screen. Sure it sounds cool, but the laptop he is on now is perfectly fine!

Anyway. As we speak, I am saving up for my new puppies vaccinations and her spay operation, then I would like to save up for a shed. I do believe the shed will go buh bye as hubs doesn't particularly want a shed, so he will feel that saving for his new toy is the better choice.

What I should do is go out and get some budget software and keep track of all our expenses. when you keep track of what you spend, it is way easier to see the things you are wasting your $$$ on, and therefore cut them out, saving money.

That way, we might be able to save for both the shed and the laptop!

Choose your own adventure... MOVIE?

So we rented The Reaping last night. (Thats the one where a biblical plague starts happening in the small town of Haven)

As in most movies, The Reaping began with Movie Previews. One of the previews was for the sequel to the House on Haunted Hill. Now, I wasn't the biggest fan of the first House on Haunted Hill, but the fact that the sequel, when played on Blu Ray, HDTV, is a choose your own adventure movie.

Yes, you read that right. You can choose how scary you want the movie to be, you can choose who you want to die, and even HOW they die.

How freaking cool is THAT??

Let me tell you a story.A story I like to call FAIL

It was a dark and stormy afternoon in a small town in Saskatchewan. The wind was blowing, and the rain came down in Sheets. In fact, the rain came down so fast and so hard that the storm drains in the streets exploded, flying high into the air. After the rains came the hail. And more wind.

When the storm was over, the small town Saskatchewan homeowner (that would be me) rushed outside to check for damages. At the time, she was more concerned for the pool and garden, but soon that worry was overshadowed as she looked towards the house where her patio lay.

The patio has never pleased this woman, it was put in with little thought and even less preparation, and so the little bistro table the woman liked to sit ant while she drank her coffee was weebley and wobbely. After the rain storm, the homeowner noticed something, something very worrisome.

It was water.

A six inch deep puddle of rain water laying on the patio that was sloped TOWARDS the house instead of away from it.

This the homeowner knew, had to change.

So instead of hiring someone who actually knows SOMETHING about garden decor, the homeowner stupidly assumed it would be an easy task to lift the FIFTY pound blocks, add more dirt, slope it properly and put the patio blocks back in.

FAIL.

*****

The above story? That was a true story. And it has been almost a MONTH since that fateful summer storm. How do you think my patio looks right now?

If you said "like this"
You would be right. Check out the sweet squares of dead grass where the patio blocks have been sitting. Today, hubs and I went back there, determined to get it done, once and for ALL.

Get it done, so I could once again enjoy a coffee on my sweet bistro table:

But after an hour of poking at the dirt, and shoving blocks around, Hubs and I realized we were in WAY over our heads. My Father In Law said he will be over bright and early Monday morning, and by bed time, the patio would be done.


Pffft. I'll believe it when I see it. I wish I had an extra few hundred bucks to waste on some cement. And someone to ready the ground for the cement. And someone to POUR the cement.

Interested?