Yard Pictures

Ok, so these pictures REALLY don't do it justice - I took them with my phone this morning, but here are the promised pictures of our yard work (or at least some of it).

Obviously, this is the front yard - the only work we did here was refreshing the mulch in all the flower/tree beds and grass cut. I've still got to go get a plants for the planters on the porch.

This is one of the 2 large beds we planted stuff in. You can't really see all the plants from here or the tulips and hyacinths that I planted over the winter that have looked gorgeous until this week.

Again, not a good picture, but in the very back corner you can see a new bed that we made and planted the hydrangeas in. This was where I had planted tomotoes last summer that killed the grass and then the dog has just made it worse over the fall and winter. Hopefully, we can keep the dog out of all of the new flower beds this year, thanks to a shock collar!

A Weekend of Work

Sam and I joined the whole neighborhood Saturday in deciding to get some of our spring cleaning in the yard completed. It was such a great day - sunny but just cool enough that you didn't get too hot. The whole family (smoothies in tow) loaded up in Sam's truck and headed to Lowe's to get a few things. Well, a few things turned into 3 hydrangeas, 7 euonymus, 5 (I think) indian hawthorns, 10 bags of top soil, and 1 confederate jasmine. And the worst part is that was only the first of 4 trips to Lowe's that day.

The girls (Sophie included) had a ball playing in the yard and "helping" us. We started by Sam digging all of the holes and me planting them. Once everything was all planted, I headed back to Lowe's and loaded (or had loaded) 15 bags of mulch while Sam cut the grass. We finally called it a day at 6:00 pm and we could hardly stand on our 2 feet. Sam was up at 7 the next morning and at Lowe's to get our last load of mulch. We finally finished everything around lunchtime Sunday. It was a lot of work, but the end result was so worth it. I'll have to take pictures and post later. Last night I thought, we finally have a yard that I am proud of! It looks amazing! Only 1 1/2 days, 16 plants, and 60 (yes, that's right) bags of mulch! Now, I'm just waiting on the end of the pollen so I can clean our porch and furniture and it will be perfect!

Let's just say that after almost 4 hours of tennis (1 1/2 cardio-tennis plus 2 hours playing after) on Friday, a full day of yard work Saturday, and half a day of yard work Sunday, I AM SO SORE! I definitely got my workout in this weekend!

Another Trip

This past week, Sam and I had to go to Boston on a business trip for a week and Sam's parents, once again, were so generous to keep them both the whole week. They had a fabulous time and got to do all of the things that Mommy and Daddy don't normally let them do. Needless to say, they have had a hard time this week getting back to Our rules, but we're getting there.

When we got home Sunday afternoon, the girls were so excited to see us, and the feelings were mutual! We missed them so much! Anyway, that night while at the dinner table, we were telling them both how much they had grown while we were gone. Anna really did mature a lot while we were gone. She is trying to be so big. Maybe I will try again on the potty training? oh, maybe not! Then I looked at MM and told her "I think you have grown, like, a whole foot!" Yes, I realize that the "like" is very confusing to an almost 5 year old! Well, she starts laughing and tells me, "Mom, I don't look like a foot!" How funny! We laughed forever about that one.

Last night, while playing with the puppy in the backyard, MM had been playing with the puppy's tennis ball. She was throwing it up as high as she could and then letting it hit whereever it landed. Well, you guessed it, one of those times she threw it in the air and WHAM! right on the forehead! Again, we laughed forever on that one. I mean, what are the chances of a 5 year old throwing a ball high in the air and (while watching it the whole way down) it smacking you right in the head!

Work Work Work

Well, sorry for the lack of posts lately, but if you read my eariler post about our change of plans at work and if you have read my post of what we "do" at work then you can probably imagine what I have been doing the last couple of weeks. I am just now starting to feel like my brain is wrapped around what all I have to do before August 17. It has been pretty tough trying to manage my time with my new responsibilities and still keeping up with my previous duties - Sorry, mom, I've not been very good at it at all so far! I promise that I can do it and WILL do it! It will help when the girls start going to school full time on June 1. As much as I am sad about not being able to spend that extra time with them in the afternoons, I know that this is a sacrifice I have to make - that's what a family business is all about. I am so fortunate to have a wonderful dad that allows me to do all that we do and wants us to spend as much time with our family that we can! He and Sam work sooooo hard and I am forever grateful that they make this sacrifice for all of our families!

Anyway, other than work, we survived the 3 week stretch that Sam was out of town - Whew! I think the girls sensed my stress and they were so good and played so nicely together that whole week with very few fights - it was so nice - I pray everyday that they will be the best of friends one day and learn to love to be together. I have no idea what it is like since I do not have a sister so it's so hard to help them understand. They are so different, which I am so glad for, but their differences are what make them argue - all.the.time!!! I keep telling myself, "this too will pass!"

This week has been a big week for the girls too. First, MM had a great week at horseback riding and is loving it again - it is so wonderful to see her comfortable with the horses that she loves so much. I think she was really struggling internally (and therefore, it was being exhibited externally in other ways - pitching fits, being ugly to friends, etc.) with how to handle being a little afraid and hesitant of the animal (horses) that she loved so much and to learn to respect that they can be unpredictable. This week she finally loosened up and rode just like she was doing before her fall and I could see it written all over her face how proud she was of herself and that her confidence in herself had been restored! Praise God! I was struggling too - only I was struggling with how to help her through her own struggle! It was such a fine line of being too overbearing and making her ride every week and just letting her give it up, which in Sam's book was out of the question until she got over her fear! Also, the pool opened Thursday at the club and we had planned on going until the weather looked a little "ify" and Anna was diagnosed with Roseola. She was not contagious anymore, but I can just imagine the look on parent's faces as I let my little rash-infested child into the sess-pool baby pool! Oh, we would be the talk of the town! "Can you believe her? Exposing our children to whatever that little girl has?"

The last big thing is that the long-awaited playground at the school that backs up to our neighborhood finally opened this week!!!! YAY!!! It is also a community playground when school is not in session and it has been PACKED all week in the afternoons! You would think that there is not a playground anywhere in our town just by seeing the crowds out there. We have been so deprived - just kidding! These are pics of the girls on the playground - sorry for the quality - it was on my phone and it was about to rain.

Up To No Good

We have been enjoying our time together as a family the past couple of weeks. Sam has been out of town during the week for the past 3 weeks, so to say that I am exhausted is an understatement. I don't realize and probably don't appreciate how much he really helps out at home until he has a stretch of traveling such as the last several weeks. He has been to North Caroline on a business golf trip, then to Las Vegas for a show, and now he is working another show in Gatlinburg. He will be home Thursday and I'm not sure who is more excited - me, him, or the girls! With him being gone during the week, we have spent as much family time together on the weekends.

As for Mother's Day. . . woke up normal time, did our normal morning routine, took MM took horse back riding lesson (had to makeup for the rainy day), and then were going to have a picnic at the park to celebrate Mother's Day before Sam had to hit the road. Unfortunately, the weather did not hold out for the picnic - right after we decided to forego the park and just have a picnic at home, the bottom fell out! It was still fun and a great time with my family.

As for work. . .we've had a bit of a change of plans at work. Samantha (who has been with us since she was still in college) turned in her notice to go back to school this summer and fall. And you ask, what's the big deal? Well, the big deal is that I get to take over most of her responsibilities in addition to what I already do! She has a HUGE job of getting all of "stuff" together and coordinate our biggest trade show of the year. While I am a little nervous having to take this on, I am comforted by the fact that I did this same job prior to her being hired - we have only quadrupled the size of the company since then!!! So wish me luck! The girls are having to start back to school full time in a couple of weeks though so that I can have the time I need to get it all done. I just hope that I am able to take some half days like I've been doing so that I can take the girls to the pool!

We Survived!

YEAAAAA! We survived the crazy week! We woke up at about 6:00 am Eastern time and had to drop Sam off at another show in Birmingham to help our other employees tear down booths and bring back a new lawnmower. This, I have to say, is a huge advantage to doing what we do. One of the factories that we represent at the shows is Poulan which makes lawn care products. We have to order samples of products for the shows and we usually sell them customers at the end of the show so that we don't have to pack it up and ship it back. So Sam, after a very long 2 summers of cutting the grass in our huge yard, decided to order one of Poulan's riding lawnmowers in to the show and pay (at or below cost) for it instead of selling it. I may actually volunteer to help with the yard work with this lawnmower . . .well, maybe not!!!!!

Thanks to Sam's mom for keeping them all week - I know she is probably still trying to recover! The catering at the house was FANTASTIC! We had a FANTASTIC show! Hopefully, this show is a sign that maybe we are coming out of this awful economic time!

The girls were so glad to see us and we were so glad to see them! It was a nice break (although we worked our tails off), but a very much needed one. I feel refreshed and ready to take on the months to come (terrible two's are on the way)!

Off We Go

Everyone, please wish my mother-in-law good luck as Sam and I leave first thing Monday morning for one of our bi-annual trade shows. I know, it sounds wonderful - a trip without kids to Orlando for 7 days, but let me assure, this is no pleasure business trip mixed with a little business! Obviously, we are having the leave the girls in the care of Sam's parents for the whole trip. The girls are thrilled to be able to spend the whole week with Nanny, but I'm a little sad and will miss them so much. It will be a well-needed break from them, but not really a "break". The one good thing that we discovered last year is that we (just like vacationer's to Disney) can rent whole houses in a neighborhood that is nothing but vacation rental homes. And most of these homes are better than the average person's residence - complete with a pool, hot tub, cinema room, billiards room, and about 6-8 rooms and almost as many baths. So that does make it a little better than having to stay in a hotel and go out to eat for every meal. We have hired a company this year (after learning last year how hard it is to try and cook for 30 something people after a long day at work) that will be bringing us fully catered dinners just as we arrive home. Last year, by the time we got home and started cooking, it was close to 10 before we ate and then we had to be up at the crack of dawn the next morning. It was exausting, but it is exhausting regardless of the cooking part. We (the women) are soooo excited that we can actually come home and kick our feet up instead of going straight the kitchen!

Just to give you a little insight to why these weeks are so hard and exhausting:
1) It's like going to market in the retail business, but we are in the hardware industry and WE are the ones setting up all the booths
2) We will be setting up booths in about 40 different locations (that is not the number of booths, just "locations". This means physical labor, putting together all sorts of things, "setting" the product so that it looks like a store (i.e. The Home Depot), labeling everything with prices, making it all look "pretty", cleaning it up, etc. We usually get to the convention center around 7:00 in the morning and work all day until around 4:30.
3) On Thursday, the show actually begins and we have to "man" all of the above booths and sell our product to store owners/buyers/etc. This is not physically hard, but it is just draining, especially after all the set-up. It's a lot of standing around chit-chatting with the numerous (hopefully) poeple to come by the booth. Talk about SORE FEET ! The shows last through Saturday from 7:00 am - 6:00 pm. Now you know why we don't want to have to cook!
4) As soon as the show is over on Saturday (and I mean to the second), we have to begin the tear down process! Every new person in this business is always amazed at how it takes days to set it up and only about 4 hours to tear it all down! It is mass chaos!!!! People throwing stuff, boxes flying, big fork lifts flying around moving huge crates around! You better be on your toes or you will get run over or hurt!
5) And this is only the beginning for our office because as soon as we get back the next week, we (or should I say Maria) begins placing all the orders that we received from the show.

That is about all that takes place during our show weeks and we are glad that these big shows only come 2 times a year! As much as it is hard work, we all work hard during the day and play hard at night! We have a great group of people that work with us and we enjoy (and appreciate) their help more than they can understand!

This post is more for those of you who have always wondered what we (and my parents) do for a living. This pretty much sums it up since these shows are what provide the income for our company for several months to come! Sorry if this bores you to death and is not about our precious girls, but oh well - now you know!