Mulch, mulch everywhere

We had a very enjoyable evening with one of our neighbors today. Their daughter is in Kolby’s kindergarten class at school, and they live just down the street from us. We’ve been meaning to have them over for some time and finally made the plans a reality, with a goal to bbq hamburgers and hotdogs and eat outside so the kids could run around in the yard. The weather report called for on-and-off showers and thunderstorms today, leading us to think that dinner was going to be inside, so we were pleasantly surprised after church to walk out to clear blue skies and everything drying up. We were able to do dinner outside – including marinated asparagus and mushrooms on the grill, which were oh so delicious – and then have a fun night talking and getting to know them better. The kids ran around in the background and had so much fun together. What a wonderful life!

Yesterday was quite productive. We dropped my car off for an oil change in the morning and then headed to Home Depot for some needed yard and bathroom supplies. Then we took the seats out of the van and Steph went to a park where they had free mulch – you just had to cart it away yourself. We used a painting canvas tarp to cover most of the back of the van, so she loaded it about 3-4 feet high and all the back. We spent the rest of the afternoon wheel barrowing it to the different flower and vegetable garden beds – probably 20-30 wheel barrows worth. Steph also finished up weeding a few of the beds while I added mulch to the others. Needless to say, my wrists and lower back were quite sore afterwards and again today, but the areas look so much nicer now, and hopefully this will cut back drastically on weeding.

While weeding, Steph found an approximately 4 inch little frog under one of the bushes and caught it to show the boys. They were so excited and named him “Ribbit.” He lived in a container with some dirt, grass, and a rock, until we released him under our deck tonight.

Then last night we had a date. One of my bosses invited us to his house for pizza and a movie. About half the residents I work with showed up and we had fun talking and catching up on their lives outside of work. The movie was called “The Doctor.” It really made me think about the position I am in as a doctor and the responsibility I have to treat my patients with respect and understanding. Steph and I are really enjoying these times we have together.

Friday night we met with Brad, the guy who we decided to sign with for our bathroom remodel, to go over details and to sign the contract. He will be here to do it in about a month – we are so excited. It has been fun coming up with what we want to do and we can’t wait to have the finished product. After he left, we got the kids together and watched a movie on NBC. They are trying to bring back kid-oriented movies like how they used to do the Wonderful World of Disney movies on Sunday night. This one was “The Secret of the Mountain.” It had a good story and the kids really enjoyed it. The next one is in July.

Earlier in the week we got most of the weeding done in the flower beds to get ready for placing the mulch. I also mowed the lawn for the first time and then Steph sprayed the grass for weeds. We are hoping to stay more ahead of the lawn and yard this year compared to last year, when we arrived partially through the summer and we were playing catch-up the whole time. Spring is such a fun time of year, and hopefully it is here to stay in Rochester.