where did our summer go?

this was our hope all summer long.  it was a hot and dry one this year!

Well... we worked on our yard! A lot! And the crazy thing is we still have so much to go, but we love what we have done so far! And working on our yard was not the only thing we did, well Marty might say that but it is because he does not love landscaping as much as I do, he is a good sport though! We made a trip back to WI and MI and spent some great time with our families and friends. We went to six flags with my sister and dad, we went fishing with my father and law, spent quality time with Grandma and Grandpa, caught a Brewers game and took the train to Chicago for a Cubs game, went to Summerfest (a big music fest in Milwaukee), did some shopping, went to the lake, celebrated our 5th wedding anniversary in Milwaukee and had a great night out at a yummy restaurant and stayed at the Iron Horse Hotel, and well just enjoyed seeing everyone and being able to hang out and catch up!  We also did lots of mountain biking, climbed a few fourteeners, logged some poolside time, hung with friends, and relaxed which is my favorite part about summer.

And now back to the yard and house projects...  We planted more things in the front yard, stained the second level deck which I never ever want to do ever again in my life, we finally got to lay some sod in the back yard (when I say "finally", for those of you that may not know the pump house in our subdivision burnt down, so our subdivision has been on half the amount of water tanks all summer, actually I still don't think the new water tanks are online yet, but we have been restricted to no irrigation all summer), and we have unloaded about 8 tons of river rock that we hand picked into our really long ditch.  Oh and we also framed out an area for our garden we will plant next spring.  So far we have the four corner posts set in the ground and before the cold weather comes we want to have the rest of the posts set and the fencing around the garden.  Enjoy the pictures! Just realized I didn't take any of the new sod yet. I will post those this weekend.

creeping red thyme throughout our steps

butterfly weed (thanks mom for showing me this plant)

this ice cream shop chair was my great antique find this summer.

the beautiful front porch my father in law built for us

we cant wait for the bushes to just grow and grow and grow! things have already gotten so big this year.

rocks anyone?

this is the side yard we laid sod in our first summer in the house

we love our back patio and our new patio furniture

ahh the staining is finally finished!

I love all the pretty colors! Thanks mom for the inspiration.

back to reality...

otherwise known as work! I just finished up my second week of school with my new batch of kindergartners and whew this is a batch! This is my 8th year of teaching already, time certainly goes fast.  And in my 8 years in this carreer, I have yet to have a start of the school year like this. Things have been a bit rough these first weeks.  Don't get me wrong I love most of my kids in my class, actually I have lots and lots of great kids, but to be honest I could certainly do without a few of them.  I just don't get how the few naughty ones can set the tone of the group.  The big question is why can't all the really great kids have an influence on the sassy ones?  Trying to look on the optimistic side of things  I have come to the conclusion that it may just take longer, way longer than expected to "train" these select few.  The only problem is so much of my energy is spent redirecting bad behavior and I feel sad for my students who are so ready to be at school and just want to learn and have fun.  I just want to feel respected by my students and right now those select few have no idea how crappy they are making me feel.  I know things will get better, well I hope they will, otherwise Christmas vacation will not come soon enough!