Big Job

Man am I sore!  I have been stressing about the lawn and the house and getting everything done.  We don't have enough time or energy to get everything done that needs to get done and on top of that we have both been sick.  Neither one of us has felt very good for about two weeks.  What was a few chores became an overwhelming nest of anxiety for both of us.  Now that we are both starting to feel better, it's really overwhelming trying to decide where to start.

Well, as far as the inside of the house goes, Andy decided to bag it all and call in a maid service.  I'm a bit embarrassed about that, but maybe a fresh start is just what we need.  And as far as the outside goes, well it's all taken care of now.

Andy's mom has become obsessed with gardening and her yard is now all done.  I was teasing her that now that hers is done she should start on ours.  I would even give her free reign to do as she pleases so she could do the things that she can't in her yard because it's so small.  Being totally silly of course.  Well she calls me up and says she really wants to come over and help.  I said okay, thinking that we would just do some weeding and be done.

What I got was her and John both, along with their mower, blower, weed wacker, chipper shredder, edger, and a 100 ft cord so we could use our chain saw out front, and 10 hours worth of work done on our yard.  We are both amazed!  The ugly mulberry bush/tree thing out font is nothing but a stump, the dead pine tree out front is gone.  The front yard is mowed, edged, and weed wacked.  The driveway cracks are clear, and all the debris was blown away by the blower.  Most of the wild plumb trees in the back are down to stumps, my garden is weeded and planted (one celebrity tomato, two jalapeno plants, and some basil), we have a compost pile now, and the back lawn is mowed and weed wacked.  And nearly everything that we cut down is now tiny chips in the compost heap.  I never, ever expected that!  I am so full of gratitude for their help.

And on top of all of that, we have the coolest neighbors ever!  We came home Friday night to our parking strip being totally free of weeds.  The whole thing!  We found out from a our neighbor to the east of us that the lady in the rental house to the west of us did it.  Then on Saturday, her and her husband came over and fixed our front fence!  It's not falling down anymore!  They had fixed the one piece that shares both our yards a few weeks ago, and I thanked them over and over again, but I never expected them to come fix what wasn't touching their property.  I am overwhelmed with gratitude, to both them and my in-laws, and so happy to have such great people living next door.  They're really nice and really fun to talk to as well.

I am so sore today tho.  I am having a hard time moving and functioning and all I want to do is drink water and sleep, but despite that, I'm functioning much better than I expected I would be.

Oh and on Friday, Lily's bark started sounding a little funny, and yesterday with all the coming and going and people, she really sounded funny.  Her allergies have been really, really bad and we started having to give her benedril again (just half of one), and I have decided that she's gone hoarse.  I had no idea dogs could go hoarse, but the way she sounds reminds me of my voice when I go hoarse.  She is not near as loud as she normally is, like a dogs version of a whisper, and then she's higher pitched and squeaky on top of it.  It keeps cracking us up!  I really hope that it is allergies, and not a sign of something worse, and that she'll get better.  How do you tell a dog that she shouldn't talk so her voice will clear up?