For You, Dear Husband...

It seems like only yesterday that we were cruising around town in your blue Probe, young, wild, and free, with this song, our song, blaring on the radio....

Happy Anniversary Belovedest.

Finished at Last

Sometime this past winter, as Todd and I were making a list together of all the projects we needed to do before we put the house on the market, I suggested that when we got ready to seal our deck this spring we should also go ahead and strip off the old sealer from our patio and re-seal it with the good stuff (ie: the right stuff) as well. Long ago, as in way back when we first installed our patio, we used a particularly hideous water-based type of sealer and ever since then, our patio has not looked as spectacular as I feel it should.

So Todd, despite some ominous misgivings, but being the loving and obliging husband that he is, called around to some concrete places and found a store that sells a special stripper specifically made for the purpose of removing old sealer from concrete. And then he bought the kind of sealer we should have used in the first place and we borrowed a power washer and we were all set.

I was so, so excited!

And we were so, so naive about the length of time it was going to take to complete this project.

We thought, you know, maybe four hours tops to get the entire patio stripped to the bare concrete. Twenty hours of nearly non-stop power washing later, our goal was accomplished. Todd actually went, at one point, and borrowed another power washer from a different friend so that we could work together at the same time. I'm pretty sure that both of us never want to see a power washer ever again! And I'm also pretty sure that both of us right in the midst of it were thinking, "Why are we doing this again? Why are we slaving away on a patio that is attached to a house that we are selling in less than a year? Why did we think this was a good idea? Are we crazy?"

But I was able to put the new, glorious sealer on it last week, and our patio looks a-mazing! We definitely weren't crazy. The current beauty of our patio right now makes all that hard work so incredibly worth it!

The Finished Result:

One of the surprise side effects of all the power washing we did was that our patio actually turned the color we had originally been hoping for in the beginning. Bonus!

We kicked off our sealing party last Sunday by also putting the waterproof sealer on our deck. I'm super pleased with the way it turned out too. It sort of deepened the nice color that our deck was already:

Can I just say how happy I am with the way this project turned out one more time? I feel giddy with excitement over it! And it's nice to think that whoever buys our house in the future is going to get such a fabulous space for entertaining. Another reason all that hard work was worth it!

Tea Party

A few evenings ago, I stumbled upon a little neighborhood tea party happening in our garage:

Aren't they cute? I love that the boys had no qualms about taking part in a little girls' tea party and just jumped right in. Isn't that great?

Did you notice the wicker chairs and table they are using? I got those for twenty bucks at the flea market this past Saturday! They need quite a bit of TLC before they're really usable, but the price was right, and they'll be perfect on our patio once I get around to cleaning and painting them - which will hopefully be in the near future. And speaking of patios, our ginormous patio and deck sealing extravaganza will be completed this week - yay! - and I'll be posting pictures later. I'm so excited!

Iris Turns Four Today!

Pony Pals

Remember a few posts back I mentioned that one of my favorite things right now is Lydia rocking out on her rocking horse?

Well, I have a new favorite thing:

How cute are the girlies rocking out together??

This is their joint obsession at the moment, and they usually follow the same routine - rocking facing our stereo, listening to their favorite Seeds CD, with the blankies along for the ride.

I LOVE it!

Fabulous Fritz's

This past weekend we renewed our summer Friday night tradition of going out for ice cream after supper. Our favorite place is Fritz's - outdoor seating, great oldies blasting on the radio, and fantastic custard style ice cream - we love this place!

This particular trip was special, not only because it was the first of the season, but because Lydia got to eat her very own ice cream cone all by herself! Fritz's makes these tiny little cones that are absolutely perfect for small girlies, and Lydia was over the moon with excitement because she got to eat a cone just like Iris and Daddy.

My little ice cream cone eating trio - pretty cute, aren't they?

Small Town City

Todd took some fabulous pictures of downtown Lincoln during his visit there this past weekend. Photography is fast becoming a favorite hobby for him, and, well, I'm probably a bit biased, but I think he definitely has some real skill. Enjoy!