Baseball fever

Our son-in-law Andy and his brother Mitch arrived last Wednesday night with another couple from Peoria to take in some spring training games.  They have been gracious enough to let Mark and I tag along with them to several games and we have been having great fun.  We watched the Cubs/White Sox on Thursday in Mesa, but missed a game Friday night because it was sold out when we arrived.  Yesterday we made up for it by attending an afternoon and evening game.  Those matched the Padres and Dodgers in the afternoon and the A's and Rockies last night.  I must say my stomach is getting tired of ballpark food, though!  I need a home cooked meal soon.  :-) 

The weather has been picture-perfect for these baseball fans and I am happy they are enjoying the temps and sunshine.  It will probably be hard to return to Illinois after enduring these nice days but spring is just around the corner there....hopefully!

My new rose bed is loving the sun, too, and is now almost in full bloom.  It makes for a nice bright corner in our landscaping. 

Well, this pretty much sums up our adventures the past week:  baseball and ballpark hotdogs.  Hope you had a good week, too!

Beautiful week-end

Today was simply gorgeous!  Not too hot, not too cool, just perfect.  I could take 365 days a year of this stuff!    To make it even better, our niece Lisa and her sons Nick and Taylor came for a late lunch and visit.  It was so great to see them!  Her sons are getting so mature.  Taylor will even be driving soon!  I joked and told him I was glad I would be back in Iowa when he gets his license!  I don't envy parents out here in all this traffic.  I was worried when Matt and Megan got their license and there were hardly any cars on the road in rural Iowa! 

Yesterday Mark and I attended an LPGA event in Scottsdale.  I would like to go again tomorrow for the final round but doubt we will.  Instead we will go to the driving range and practice what we learned from those very talented young ladies.  :-)  Actually the only thing I learned was I cannot wear golf outfits like they wear!  LOL 

Our son-in-law and his brother are flying to Phoenix on Wednesday to attend spring training games for a few days.  We are really looking forward to having them here and it should liven up our household during their stay!  Thursday Andy bought us all tickets for the Cubs/White Sox game in Mesa so that should be a fun afternoon. 

Well, not a lot more has happened around here so will close.  I do have two pics from Lisa's visit today.  One has Mark in the picture and one has Nick in the photo.

Getting HOT!

The temperatures in the desert are really heating up.  Mark and I went to another spring training game (our third this year) and my car on the way home said it was 90 outdoors.  I wasn't surprised, as I was very warm at the game.  We saw a slug fest today and I lost track of all the home runs and doubles!

The plants are finally starting to rebound from that January freeze.  The warm temps are making everything start to grow and bloom.  My newly planted rose garden even had one bloom already.  The others are close behind so hopefully it will show a lot of color before Mark heads back to Iowa.


We skyped with Drew and Kayley last night.  We get such a kick out of that.  It is my salvation!  I am anxiously looking forward to my flight to Peoria on April 6th for one week.  Then it won't be long and we both will be back in Iowa and only a 5 hour drive to visit them.  :-)  I am hoping to coax the kids to come to the farm for a visit without their parents but they might not be too keen on that.  Kayley likes her mommy!  I am afraid they would get homesick because they are still a little young.

This week-end my niece Lisa and her sons ( I hope) are coming for a steak fry.  We are looking forward to that.  Hopefully later in the month we can set a time to meet them again in Old Scottsdale for dinner with nephew Aaron.  Mark would like to see them all before he leaves.

Well, that just about catches us up.  We are living a very laid back life at the moment and enjoying it immensely!  Some pics from today:

Spring Training

It has been awhile since I last blogged!  There just hasn't been a lot of action here worthy of "reporting".  Things like getting taxes done, putting up a new security light on the garage and replacing a roof tile that was damaged isn't all that interesting!  Of course that was all Mark's doing.  I either would watch him work or would go for long walks.  :-)

The weather here has taken a definite "warm" turn and I am loving it.  Not that it wasn't nice before, but now it is summertime beautiful.  It was such a lovely day today (80) that we decided to go to a baseball spring training game between the Reds and the Padres.  We aren't fans of either team but the field was close to us and we just wanted to enjoy the atmosphere, a beer and a hot dog at the old ball park.  We thoroughly enjoyed ourselves and will be going several more times, most likely to different parks around the valley.  There is a new one just finished for the Diamondbacks that looks beautiful so that is definitely one where we will attend a game.

We continue to skype with Drew and Kayley.  It makes me so lonesome for them but I just love seeing them, even if on the computer.  They are both changing rapidly and growing up!  I just couldn't stand it any longer so I bought a ticket to Peoria for April 6th for a week's stay.  I can't wait!  Mark will probably be back in Iowa by then and he and Matt are going to drive to Peoria that week-end, too, so it will be a great time! 

Well, that is about all the news I have for now.  We plan to get busy enjoying the rest of our stay here so hopefully I will be posting a bit more often with something besides working!  Below are some pics of our afternoon.  I took a picture of the little girl because I loved her pink BB glove and I think Kayley is going to need one of those very soon!  :-)

Landscaping is finally done. Whew!

New fountain in back patio

New patio fountain

Front yard with rip rap added

Front yard with rip rap added

Back yard before

Back yard after

Back yard before

Back yard after

Back yard before

Back yard after

Mark and I finally finished ALL the landscaping, both front and back yards.  It was a labor (and I do mean LABOR) of love but we are very pleased with the results!  Today it is raining in the Valley so we are taking the day off and going to a movie today!

                                     

Quick update

I have zero pictures and zero videos :-( but just wanted to add a quick update to what Mark and I have been up to lately.  We are still working our butts off, this time in the back yard.   We originally were just going to add more landscape rock to the area but after more thought we decided we didn't really like the color of the rock, thus we decided to remove it, all of it.....another big task!  I have lost count as to the number of times we have been to the city dump and scooped rock and dirt off of his truck.  Visiting the dump has almost become comical and we stay in good spirits laughing on our way to this uninviting place.  :-)  We hauled the last load today and are celebrating by going out for dinner tonight.  The area looks really good, level and ready for some brand new rock and a new color scheme.  That will happen on Wednesday with our "hired" helpers! 

We won't know WHAT to do with ourselves after this project is finished.  Perhaps we can golf, go to movies, hike, golf, visit the zoo, golf....the list could be endless.  Ha!  Mark did say he thinks I will just think of something else for us to tackle but I am thinking he needs to really enjoy the rest of his winter.  I agree with my husband. 

Well, hope this finds everyone surviving their winter.  I won't even tell you how nice it is here this week.  It is why we bought this place.  :-) 

10 ton of rock, all by shovel!!!

Our rock for the front yard was delivered this morning at 7 a.m. and by 11:00 it was all spread and nicely raked.  We did hire a very nice guy and gal to help us or Mark and I would have spent several days doing this labor.  We are really happy with the results and really pooped!   Before and after pictures below.

We are in a three day cold snap so we covered all our plants and bushes last night, even the new palm tree.  It has only been in the ground a few days and we feared the frost would kill it.  In fact, everything in the front is less than a week in the ground so our lawn looked like a Halloween decoration after all the wrapping.  We will have to do the same tonight and tomorrow night and then it gets back to normal.  We are going to the Phoenix Open on Saturday and it is supposed to be sunny and 72 which is just about perfect.  I hate to complain about the weather when my children are sitting in a blizzard.  Megan said Peoria could get up to 20" last night but I don't think it got there.   With that huge amount what's an inch or two less.  :-(  Long winter for the folks back home.

This video is for Drew.  He loves dump trucks so I know he will like this movie! 

                                            Before:  Front yard

                                            After:  Front yard

                                              Before:

                                              After:

                                             Before:

                                             After:

                                            Frost protection last night:

Stiff and sore!

Mark and I have been working on the landscaping in our front yard.  Tearing up sod is not such an easy trick in desert "dirt"!  We (he) finally got through it with the help of a rental tiller from Home Depot and then we went to work on making subtle mounds here and there.  Then it was off to nurseries for plants.  Everything is in the ground, water lines installed and now we just wait for the landscaping rock, all 8 tons of it!  Mark decided that we would be dead spreading that much rock alone so we are hiring two guys to help us.  I am grateful for that!  I am very excited to see the end result.  Will post pictures, of course.  :-)

We had hoped to attend the Phoenix Open one day but a cold front is heading our way and I don't really want to sit out there if it is too cool.  That is really too bad for the golfers because it has just been beautiful here for weeks.  If it is in the upper 60's the day we planned to attend then we will go!   It is really a fun day so the weather better behave.

When I wasn't working on the yard I edited two more videos from Drew's birthday party.  It makes me miss them, though! 

Some still pictures

More video

 

 

Greetings from Peoria

We have been here a week.  Yes, it is very cold and I hear it is near 80 in Phoenix but the grand kids are keeping us warm and laughing.  We fly out tomorrow.  It has been a fantastic week with everyone.  Matt arrived Friday afternoon and Grandpa Butch and Mitch arrived that evening.  Saturday was Drew's 4th  birthday so we celebrated as best we could considering he had a fever and later found out it was strep.  Poor kid!  The motrin kept it at bay and he enjoyed his day which consisted of presents, birthday cake and his favorite thing:  bowling!  Andy took him sledding one day.  Drew loves playing in the snow.  I went out and shot video for awhile.  I am not too used to the cold anymore!  :-)

I have lots of pics and videos to sift through but did get one edited (sort of) to enclose.  The kids love to dance and we got a real kick out of them.  More to come as I get them finished.

Still staying busy

Mark and I are keeping ourselves busy putting finishing touches just about everywhere on our winter home.  We are pretty much done indoors for now with the only thing left: putting cabinet hardware on the kitchen cupboards.  This week we started on some landscaping in the back yard.  It looks pretty rough right now with landscape rock needing to be added and some dirt hauled away but Mark did install brick edging around our little lawn and that is going to look really great when the rest of the yard is done.  I planted a rose garden in one area yesterday with Mark's help and cannot wait until the bright pink and white roses bloom in time.  Looks a bit ugly at the moment.  :-)  The front yard renovation will begin towards the end of January.  There is grass in the front and we want to remove that and have a total desert look which is easier to leave in the summer than a grass yard!

We are both VERY excited to be flying to Peoria, IL on the 12th to attend Drew's 4th birthday party!  We are NOT excited about the weather that will greet us but that is minor compared to seeing Drew, Kayley, Megan, Matt and Andy!  Matt is driving from Omaha to Chicago and then coming to Peoria in time for the party.  So glad we will get to see everyone this trip. 

Some pics of our work in the back yard.  As I said, look very tough right now but it will be better in the future when our rock work is done!

                                     Mark installing the brick edging around our yard.

                                                          Out with the old, in with the new

   

                                               The brick edging installed

                                                Another angle