The painting has finally begun!

But the cleanup is a bugger...We (okay Mark) is blessed to be borrowing a paint sprayer, so the primer that made it on the house (almost the entire west side plus the front porch area) got done lickety-split, but cleaning up, wow...I think Mark would say it is worth the effort...I think...

I'll post pics of our progress soon, but right now it's time to tuck myself into my bed...

Long time, no post

It has been an exciting week.

First and foremost, Hannah turned 16 this past Wednesday. It really doesn't seem possible that it has been that long since we brought her home from the hospital, but here we are. In honor of the occasion, we gave her a bouquet of 16 roses.

Her brother paid for her to go to the premier showing of Harry Potter, so she started her birthday early--we actually gave her her gifts on Tuesday night. Here she is showing her appreciation to him.

Then for the grand finale, we presented her with a cell phone. I think she was happy.

Happy birthday, Hannah. We are so proud of you!

*these pictures were extracted from the movie we took of the opening event...*

Independence Day

Today was a working holiday (at least for Mark). Today was the day he took advantage of the cooler temps and the non-sunniness and power washed the house. We're prepping to paint. The new main color is called Olivette or something like that. But before we can primp things up with the new paint, the old must come off, revealing the not so pretty original colors we had when we first began to call this place ours...here's hoping we don't have to look at it for long!
Here's my *baby* tomatoes--because my parents already bragged that they have eaten fully ripe ones...the joys of living further south!

Here's my cherry tree and the almost ripe cherries on it! Hope I have enough for a pie!