Weekend in MN

Spent the weekend in MN with my sister and her family. Little Mikey had his baptism and I was attending as his Godmother :-) He was a little bit restless when the Father was preaching and we were up on stage. But he was really good when it came to his part - where the Father blessed him with the holy water and raised him up (like in Lion King...!).
It was also Bob's birthday this past Saturday. Funny enough, my brother-in-law Scott celebrated his birthday when he was in Tulsa right before Thanksgiving last year and this time, Bob was up in MN for his! I bought a balloon for him as well as a cake. He couldn't remember the last time he actually blew out candles on a cake. Neither can I! My birthday is coming up in 13 more days! But going back to the balloon, little Mikey just loved the balloon! He would pick it up (it was held down with a clothes pin) and put it in a spot, laugh and/or smack it, and then pick it up again and put it down again elsewhere. It was quite comical to see since he did this almost all day long! He is growing up so quickly!
Off to Iowa tomorrow. My laptop is still down :-( So I'll try to update my blogs whenever I can while I'm on the road.

I'm getting good at this!

Put up another light fixture today! I was able to guess the correct breaker on the very first try! Although, it did take me two attempts to get the light working. The wires were not making good contact so I had to strip off more wire casing and then, with a few more twists here and there, ta da...! It works! I also bought one of these yellow lights. They are suppose to work better in repelling bugs from being attracted to the light fixture. I won't be able to test it tonight since I will be off to MN to see my little nephew! He is having his baptism this Saturday and being his Godmother, I guess I'm suppose to attend milestones like these :-)
Here's how the front of the yard looks now, with mulch under the big tree. I was not able to pull the trelis out from under the tree, so I decided to plant some climbing rose cuttings from the backyard. Hopefully it won't die while I'm gone! You're suppose to water it a lot during this critical planting time. Well, like Bobby would say... Jesus will take care of it!

All done!

Like my little nephew would say... "0'done!" Yup, finally finished mulching the front yard. Well, didn't quite mulch under the bushes yet. I'm still debating if I want to keep them or not. I'm worried about trimming them again, since I was quite lucky to get away the last time without getting electrocuted!
Found out today that I have a flat in my wheel-barrel! My favorite (well, one and only) wheel-barrel! It was a house-warming gift from my in-laws. And it's a 2-wheel rover! Vroom vroom... and it's got a flat! I haven't quite figured it out yet, whether if there's actually a hole somewhere or if it just needs air.
Cleaning up the garage has been another big project. The tools organizer has been a really good buy! And I also started my own little recycling area - newspapers, other paper, cardboard, glass, metal, plastic, and old batteries. There is a curbside pick-up service but it's almost $100 a year for that! No wonder no one wants to recycle here! There is a drop-off service a few miles away, so I think that would be more cost effective for us.

8 bags of mulch later...

... and I'm still not done! I didn't think it was enough, but I was hoping it would be. Looks like I'll have one more trip to Lowe's before the end of the week. Phew! Thankfully the people in the garden area don't know me yet ;-)
I finally hung up my first light fixture! Bought this little chandelier for the foyer and the hallway upstairs. Bob's step-dad helped me with the one in the foyer. And so with the little knowledge that I learned, I took on the challenge to put up the one in the hallway upstairs. I think it took me over an hour to get it up! And it was quite a work-out running up and down the stairs to get to the breakers. But it's done and it works! I did accidentally sheared off some of the copper ground wire. Hmm... what does that mean??? The previous light fixture that was up there had burnt marks in the insulation! So it can't be any worse, can it???

House update

I was tempted not to work the yard this morning, as I had to practice my golf today. As I pulled up to the golf course, it started to drizzle! Can you believe that! Well, I was determined to practice since there was hardly anyone there. It actually ended up being a pretty nice day!
The front yard/garden is looking a lot better without those holly bushes. As of this evening, I have already gone through about 20 bags of top soil! I still have to clean up around the borders. But once that is done, I'll just have to put down some weed-control fabric and some mulch and that should be good enough for the rest of the summer!









I planted a couple of asian lilies in the backyard. We always brought these flowers up when visiting mom's gravesite back in Malaysia. So I figured this would be a nice touch. The cucumber plant is doing really well! It's starting to flower and it's also starting to curl up the back deck instead of the trellis! Yikes!
I was trimming the hedge by the front of the house today with our new electric trimmer. I ran the extension cord from inside the house and just when I thought: hmmm... I'm awfully close to snipping the cord. And then... Bbzz! I see a spark! Yup, I trimmed the cord! Thank goodness I didn't electrocute myself! :-s

Light fixture

We changed out the old light fixture in the foyer today and boy, it was a little bit more "interesting" than we expected! The breaker switch would not come go back on fully after the new light fixture was installed. Our neighbor volunteered to come over to check it out, but eventually, I called a random electrician that I found on the internet. Mike listened patiently to my problem and started giving me free advise over the phone! And the great thing about it was we were able to get the new light to work!!! How awesome is that! The light worked... the advise was free... and no one got hurt! :-)
Earlier in the morning, we saw two hawks in the backyard. Looks like the male hawk is starting to build a new nest in one of the trees out back. You can hear him break branches from one tree and fly up to the nest. Pretty neat. The pic is a little bit blurry but I was able to take it from our kitchen table. The male hawk is the one on the right.
Later during the day today, I took my in-laws to the Philbrook Museum. They really enjoyed it. The garden was in full bloom - a lot different from when Bob and I were there earlier this winter. And the bees were busy collecting pollen!

What a day!

We had a really productive day today! While Bobby was at work, my in-laws and I were busy staining the deck. We ran out of stain so I had to make another trip to Lowe's. And after 4 1/2 gallons of stain, we were all done and the deck looks great! It's amazing how much stain the wood was soaking in.
After we were done with the deck (and lunch), we proceeded to move towards the front of the house. Bobby and I weren't very fond of the holly shrubs out front and so after some convincing, Bob finally agreed to help me take the holly bushes out. The mud wasn't making things any easier though, but after lots of shoveling and clipping, we did it! Here's the before and after pics. The house looks so much better now! :-)We headed out to the golf course for a quick tour. The golf course looks so pretty in the spring...!

Successful trip to Leawood, KS!

Another top 20 finish! Guess our move to Tulsa has been good for me. The golf lessons and fitness training is finally paying off! And ok... I should probably mention that Bobby was a good caddy too. We were laughing quite a bit on the golf course, even after a bad shot!
We have a habit of holding hands while walking both on and off the golf course. When one of the regular caddies on tour saw us the first time, he started shaking his head and said "No, business only!" and when he saw us again on Day 2, he said "For the love of God, STOP!". I just had to laugh!! :-)
My in-laws are in town this week. It will be great to have some help with stuff around the house!

Leawood, KS

Driving up here from Tulsa, I actually drove into Missouri and then, cut back west into Kansas. The golf course is located right off the State Line Road. Missouri had some interesting exits - they were alphabets! And what happens when you run out of alphabets? You use two of them!

The rough on this golf course is thick! We spent a good amount of time today during practice looking for golf balls in the rough. So the key this week is to keep it on the short stuff!

My laptop is acting up again. I guess it doesn't like connecting to other wireless connections. Who knows... :-s

Office is done!

Finally finished painting the office this past Friday. It took me a day to get the walls done, but then it was quite tricky when it came to the trim. I tried using painter's tape but the white bled onto the Aqua Smoke blue. So needless to say, it was quite a chore!
But the hard work paid off. We love LOVE the room! As well as our new steer hide :-) And in case you're wondering... a steer has been castrated, a bull has not.
As for the garden update, the tomato and cucumber plant has found their new home - in the back deck. Still waiting for those home-grown veggies!

Computer fixed!!

Ok... kudos to my tech support, i.e. Bobby. All he did was run this program that I had been ignoring (clicking "cancel") for the past few weeks. It was some Microsoft program that would check software authenticity. Yes, my windows software is legit! But I guess it finally had enough of the cancel button. Back on track now! I better back-up my data... Thank you, honey! :-x

Missed by 1...!

Missing the cut is one thing, but missing it by 1 shot just drives me nuts! It will always make me think back about the ONE shot that I could have saved - the coulda, woulda, shoulda! Hmm... that doesn't make the week before in Brownsville a fluke, does it??
Well, my laptop started acting up last week. I haven't turned it on since I've been home, so we'll see how that goes. Thankfully Bob has a personal laptop at home. What on earth did we do before laptops and the internet?
When I left Tulsa, the grass was still quite brown and dormant and the trees were just starting to sprout their leaves. Now, 3 weeks later, the backyard is completely green and the trees are FULL of leaves! We've had a lot of rain recently. I guess it would be a good time to transplant my tomato and cucumber plant, and perhaps clean up some of the front and backyard :-)