Busy Busy!

well, e graduated! he's officially a bomb technician! whoa! we're all at the new house now, settling in and doing some home renovations (a fancy way of saying we're caulking and painting lots of stuff haha!). e's brother is in town to help out and spend some time with his favorite JP and i've been a bit preoccupied and haven't had a whole lot of blogging time!

thus far we've begun smoothing out the landscaping around the yard, which includes:
-moving around some really large rocks (as big as your head!) to form a sort of logical outline around part of the yard
-planting my plants! tomatoes, peppers, herbs, fig tree, blackberry bushes, watermelon, okra, corn, and a WHOLE bunch of perennials! we even laid out seeds today! egads!
-pruning, shaping and feeding a peach tree, plum tree, and lots of bushes
-filling a raised bed with wandering jew dug up from all over the yard and some lilies too
-transplanting 3 rose bushes (which may not survive haha!) and a handful of other randomly placed plants to spots that make more sense
-uprooting ten (yes, 10) of the same type of bush that died. we're talking a big heap of sticks stuck in the ground. whatever this plant was, it did NOT like the climate here. and the previous tenants planted 10 of them. what?!

INSIDE the house we have:
-painted the lower half of the kitchen and dining room
-caulked and touched up the baseboards, chair rails, and door frames in the same 2 rooms
-painted the back door
-put up shelves in the laundry room (thanks dad!) and spackled the holes from where the racks once hung at some other time
-sanded, primed and painted the bathroom cabinets in both bathrooms (it was sooooooo needed)
-stripped wallpaper, sanded, and primed the walls of one bathroom (also desperately needed! the wallpaper was scary haha!)
-caulked and repainted the baseboards, doors, and door frames in both bathrooms

our plans for the next few days include:
-planting 5 silver maple trees throughout the yard in various places (they're still baby trees)
-use the last of the rocks to finish the "outline" in the backyard, to separate the wandering jew from the lilies in the raised bed, and to mark off another small bed in the front yard
-finish painting the second bathroom and adding a fun (removable!) border
-possibly building a container for composting out of materials left by the previous tenants
-hopefully finding a color i like for the walls in the master bath

do you see why i haven't been online!? so much to do before baby calvin comes in 3 months and there's so much i'd like to do before e starts a normal work routine and while his brother is here to help! his bro leaves monday, so we have a busy schedule until then! pics will be up once i have before and afters all ready to go!