We Reached the Light at the End of the Tunnel

 Be prepared for a lot of photos...sorry.

We did it.

We finally laid sod.

Sorry all I post about is our yard...it's consumed much of our summer.

Travis was so excited he didn't even

wait for me to take a before picture before 

he had laid the first piece down.

The sod man was kind enough to set the sod

all over the yard so we wouldn't have to walk as far.

However, this post isn't just about sod...

it's about a miracle.

Our stake had combined with another stake to have youth conference.  All the youth

got to wear those awesome yellow helping hands t-shirts and would spend

2 days out doing service projects in the community.

One of those planned projects happened to be putting up a fence in our neighbor's 

backyard. So, not 2 minutes after we'd started laying the sod 

(which is kind of fun by the way),

we had people over at our place asking if we needed help. They informed

us that they were running out of projects for the youth.

Who are we to turn down free help?

Sure enough two young men showed up with their leaders.  

These two young men happen to be in our ward, which was awesome.

They had half the lawn laid in no time!

I did help on the first half of the yard..but I wanted to document and they

just kept moving so fast!

The second half---I basically just took photos.

But at this point, we had an army of youth in yellow shirts...

Popsicle Break.

:)

See how much fun they're having?

It got a little crowded at the end.

What perfect timing, eh?

We were so grateful for all of their help!  

Our lawn was finished in just over an hour...

it would've taken us all afternoon.

We love our grass!!

We even had some sod left over that we had the youth take next door to 

lay down on our neighbor's lawn that has been struggling a bit. 

Worked out quite nicely.

The End.

Longest Project of the Century

 

Travis' birthday was on memorial day, which meant he had it off!

Which meant we were going to start putting in our sprinkler system...

My dad, who is practically a professional when it comes to sprinklers

since he put his own in 20 some-odd years ago,

came to help, along with my mom.

 

It went pretty well, we got a lot done with their help.

(I promise I did more than just document the project...)

DONE!

And Travis got to get all wet straightening out the sprinkler heads.

All the trenches are now filled back in with dirt,

and our yard is basically all level again, 

ready for grass. 

:)

Studio C

I was going to post about our sprinkler system, 

but then we had some issues with it tonight and 

I decided it's best to have it complete before

it gets a whole post dedicated to it.

In the meantime, Travis and I have been enjoying

Studio C episodes.

Here's a gem from last night's show.

"Pain is a baby leaving the body."

-Jeremy

13.1

13.1 miles.

That's how long my race was yesterday.

My dad ran it with me.

And I got a PR!

(Granted, it was my first time running a half marathon so

there was no way I couldn't get a personal record.)

2.07:54 was my finishing time, which is 

great considering I was just planning on finishing some

time under 2 1/2 hours.

Dad and I at the finish

And these cute kids (aka my brother's kids) came to watch.

Pumpkins

Travis' younger brother plants pumpkins at the farm every year.

He's currently serving a mission in Texas, therefore he can't plant

his own pumpkins.

So Travis and I got to help his dad out this year.

It was kind of a fun experience. 

We got to ride on this thing, I think Travis called it

the 'implement,' which was pulled behind a tractor

and then we stuck the little plants in the ground as we went.

Simple enough.

However, I'd been warned about the mosquitoes in Corinne

when it starts to cool down in the evening.

They were right, the mosquitoes are awful!  I didn't get bit much,

but I really disliked them swarming my face.

As you can tell, I went prepared with a long sleeve jacket,

long pants, a hood, and I had plenty of newly purchased bug spray.

Whereas Travis was just fine in his short sleeve shirt.

Fact: I am a city girl, raised in the city.

(Photo credit to Travis)

Garden

We planted a garden.

Travis was so excited.

Almost giddy.

It was fun to go and pick out the different plants though.

It's rather experimental.

From Cantaloupe, to Peas, to Baby Boston Cucumbers.

Travis feels like he needs to go out and check on it every hour.

Nothing changes in that amount of time, in case you were wondering.

Also, we'll see if we have any green thumb in us...

you'd think since my husband grew up on a farm we'd be

certain to get some good crops.

Not sure that's completely true...or even remotely.

Also, we got our garden sprinkler line done so we can water it! 

Yay!

It's so great to see something, even if it is just

ONE thing, completely done in the yard.