July Randoms

Sorry I've been so bad with the posts lately, I guess it's lazy summer mode.  I've got some ideas for posts floating around in my head but they just haven't made it onto the computer yet.  Here are a few tidbits to keep you up to date.

1. Our current house project has been the parging (the area outside your house between the siding and the ground).  I didn't realize how much it would finish off the exterior of our house, it looks great.  I can no longer see any sign of foam basement or Home Hardware paper just a finished exterior.  As with nearly every other project this one has involved some hurdles and taken much longer than we imagined but we should have it finished up by the weekend.
   
2. Our grass is coming in well, there are lots of weed throughout but with it all cut it looks like a lawn.  There are some patches of just thick grass and no weeds.  The girls & I have even started running around in our bare feet with no shoes on outside, its like Heaven.
3. We've finalized our mortgage & worked out all of that business.  We ended up saying goodbye to the bank that didn't think we were 97% complete and wanted to see all the trim done first and have switched over to our home bank and have a regular old mortgage instead of a builders mortgage.  It is so nice to finally start paying off the money we have spent rather than just paying interest and now we can leave our baseboards unfinished forever if we choose.
4. We've been enjoying lots of visiting lately with close friends and extended family.  It is so nice to get together.  Sometimes the hermit in me is just so happy to hang out at home that I don't make an effort to get out and visit and I should, I enjoy it. 
5. The girls just continue to grow and play.  I'm so happy that they are so close in age and have eachother to play with every day.  I love to hear them running around and giggling or to see them sitting and playing together and my heart almost skips a beat when I hear them in another room using nice manners with eachother without any reminders.
6. The garden is doing great, well except for the carrots, I think I have two growing carrots, boo.  We've been eating lettuce like crazy to keep up with it before it bolts and it tastes good, a lot of time with home grown lettuce it tastes really bitter or just like grass but this stuff tastes OK.  This weekend I dug around and we ate our first bit of baby potatoes, they were amazing, ...amazing.  We have grasshoppers like crazy but so far they haven't eaten too much of the garden, I hope they stay away.  Tomatoes, they're coming, still green but I have lots on the plants and many more plants flowering, looking forward to a tomato extravaganza this fall.
7. Curt has been swimming 1 mile atleast twice a week at lunch time  for the last 4 months and I'm so proud of him for keeping it up.  He started with whatever he could, maybe 10 laps stopping between each one to catch his breath before going on to the next and each time he went he kept adding one lap until he was up to a mile, now he's just working on getting that mile a little faster.  He's my hero.
8. Me, I'm just doing my regular thing, reading, laundry, keeping the girls entertained, baking, thinking about but not actually sewing, on ocasion knitting, watching movies, playing in my garden.....regular stuff.
   
9. Just watched a deer walk through our back yard,... I love this place.
   
10. I've added a link on the left side to subscribe by email.  If you wish to sign up you can receive Ranch on Relaxo posts right to your inbox each day that I post them.  That way you won't miss any of this exciting business going on at the Ranch.