A Lil Hard Work and a Whole Lotta Play

I'm excited about this post. Really, really happy about it. Not only did this weekend seem to stretch on and on but we also had a perfect mixture of work and play. Productivity gets my blood flowing. Unfortunately productivity has been at an all time low lately when it comes to getting things accomplished around the house. This weekend was exactly what I needed to kick me into gear. To top off all the hard work we had plenty of play. It started a lil like this.......

Riley's employee, Tracy, had some major tornado damage and was in need of a lot of help getting things cleaned up indoors and outdoors. She lost her fence, garage door, front windows, pieces of her roof, the tree in her front yard as well as gaining a layer of dust and fiber glass that needed to be cleaned up inside. A group of administrators, managers, physicians, nurses and spouses met up at her house early Saturday morning with plenty of gloves, tools, rakes, and plenty of energy and manpower. Oh and water....and donuts. Can't forget the donuts. ;) Matt, Heather and BJ showed up to help as well which was nice to be able to catch up with Heather while we did some cleaning. It just made it all the more real while digging through debris in Tracy's front yard when we found bricks that had been chunked through the air and literally planted into the ground as well as a huge 2x4 that had been driven into the dirt. Incredible force of nature. I wish I'd taken before and after pictures of the house. It was awesome how much of a difference was made it just four short hours. It felt great to be a part of such of a hard-working and generous group of people.....

I had dropped off Hallie for a morning with Nanny and Carmen. She had a full belly and tired eyes by the time I picked her up. She went straight down for a nap and I got to work on something very necessary. My car. One hour later I had removed every last speck of cracker crumbs, dried fruit, milk spots and sticky unidentified substances from my seats. Every piece of trash was disposed of and the bows and shoes that had accumulated in the backseat were removed. I kept on going and going and going until every surface of the car had been sanitized. Holy moly, how I let it get that bad I'll never know. I continued my cleaning spree indoors until Riley pulled in. He was sunburnt and sore from swinging a sledge hammer. But that didn't stop him from putting us both to work outside. The weather has not been cooperating very well lately so we haven't been able to finish the house painting process. That all changed this weekend. We were able to paint the house AND more! Hallie was up and running on a full tank of energy later in the afternoon just in time to open the package that had arrived on the porch for her. Cousin Aaron had sent her the final animals to finish out her zoo collection. We were in business thanks to Amy who is a certified zoo animal stalker. If it weren't for her efforts our zoo would look pretty sad. But no longer. Check out Hal and all of her pals!!!

"Mom, I kinda think you might be more excited than I am"

Riley had been doing a lot of talking and thinking about "finishing one project at a time." We've been known to jump from room to room and project to project without finishing something completely. While we were in the middle of painting he suggested that we do some landscaping. I was jumping up and down waving my hand saying "me, me, me!" Heck, I just wanted a break from painting with that brush. So we loaded up munchkin and headed out to pick up some rock border and mulch for the front of the house. It wasn't hard to find some great entertainment in the gardening tent outside. 

We made a few quick and surprisingly easy decisions and were loaded up and back home working before I could say "when is break time?" This picture I took of the flatbed truck loaded down with bags and bricks says it all. Let the landscaping begin......

The trim on the house had already been given a rough coat of dark brown but we still had to do detail work and put a second coat on......

Here is a before picture of the color. Not that it was all that bad but the trim was this peachy color that we weren't too fond of with white guttering....

Riley removed the big bush full of bees in front of the left side of the house. The guy is all about making things "symetrical" and this bush was ruining his vision. So it had to go. I kinda think he just wanted to use another manly tool. Hehe. It really does look a lot better minus the big bee bush and it allowed us to put a border around the other bushes on that side. I haven't taken an official after picture yet because I've still on a mission to add color to the front of the house as well as furnish the porch. When we get to that point (which will hopefully be very soon) I'll share some more pics. For now I've got plenty shots of our busy landscaping apprentice.....

She was having some trouble staying put and keeping away from the edge of the yard so I asked her nicely to please "sit on a rock".....so she did.

At that point I felt like a meany so I went inside and brought some fun back outside with me. This is after she emptied her bowls of water onto her pile of crackers and smushed them into the sidewalk....

She was lathered in sunscreen because of the plentiful sunshine we were blessed with but I guess she saw it fit to cover up a little bit more....

"Haven't you heard mom? Empty mulch bags are all the rage this season in fashion."

Once it was time to spread out the mulch she got to work pushing it around with her tiny hands. With all of the work going on rest breaks were very much needed for the landscaping cutie....

If she's going to keep up with her daddy then she's going to have to get used to putting in a full day's work on the weekend. It felt good. It felt real good. 

Us girls were ecstatic when we found out we had plans that evening to go Hallie's boyfriend's (aka Steven and Rachelle's house) for a cookout with friends. Yippee! A nice relaxing reward after a day in the sun. We made sure to leave enough time to get Hallie all prettied up in pink. After all, Kyler had been asking his mom if he could "take Hawie for a ride in da Jeep."

I swear this girl is as much in love with my camera as I am. She sees it around my neck and does things like this.....

Silly girl. Each tree in the front yard received a big hug and a kiss. I can only imagine that she was practicing for her date that was right around the corner. We were excited to find our new friends Chris and Lauren already there with their two cute kiddos. We were sad that Lily was gone but there were plenty of friends to get busy playing with. The two sweet girls enjoyed their hotdogs inside together...

Then it was time for fun in the backyard in the Jeep.....

Kyler took Hal for a spin but I think she let her true colors show and he bailed on their date....

So lady-like ;)

I just giggle everytime I look at this next photo. It looks like he's getting an ear full from Hal gal...

Steven grilled some delicious burgers and we somehow managed to eat them after us girls had stood inside and devoured the smorgasbord of appetizers that Rachelle had made. You would have though that everyone would have full bellies by this time....well, everyone did except for these two food beggers.....

"I'll get the bananas if you grab us a burger to share."

We sat outside by the fire while the kiddos played until they began to wind down. They all picked a couch of their own and stretched out to watch Nomeo and Juliet. This movie watching quickly turned into toy scattering and mess making....which then turned into one very cranky and tired Hallie. This was one of those occasions I mentioned in my previous post when we had to make an early exit because of a meltdown. In her defense it was well past her bedtime but I must say that these nightly tantrums are not going over well with Riley and I. It was after 9:00 when we got her home and into bed. She passed out before I had closed the door to her bedroom. 

A well rested and chipper young lady emerged from her crib on Sunday morning with an appetite for Jesus...and Cheerios of course. I have had this unhealthy obsession with this dress that's been hanging in her closet just begging to be worn....

At first glance it appears that I am supporting a certain state school that has an affinity for orange. This is not the case though. Notice the fuschia colors on top and the bow....it tones down the orange a bit, dontcha think? ;) Either way, OSU colors or not, this dress makes my heart go pitter patter. I'm still obsessed....

Pastor Charlie gave a wonderfully inspiring message which kept my mind off of what was to come that afternoon. An insanely long run by myself. The word dread was not even appropriate to describe my feelings. It was something worse. But by the grace of God I was sent an angel named Shawna. Hehe. We ran into her as we were leaving church and I invited her to join me on this ridiculous adventure. She is running the half marathon as well and was needing to fit in one last long run before the race. Hallie was all for my plan to hold her nap off for awhile until I left for my run. My two sweeties laid down right as I was dragging my feet out to the car. I may have been imagining things but it appeared that they were attempting to make me jealous of their sweatpants and loungy-ness. ;)

I met Shawna and Kate (who had also agreed to join) at the trails. I was feeling very blessed at that point having gone from planning to run by myself to having two friends willing to train with me. All in all, it was not bad at all. Plenty of talking and a few rest breaks made the nine miles fly by. I figure if I can run nine at this point without training then four additional miles won't be too out of the question. After all, Laura and I have a lot of catching up to do so we've designated our 13.1 miles as time to chat. The long Sunday afternoon run seemed to ignite a fire in me....a fire that has long been put out by self-defeat and insecurity. I miss running. And thankfully these girls have reminded me why I love it so much. I told Riley I would have definitely been singing a different tune had I ran by myself.

Sleepy head was still curled up in bed when I got home. The endorphins were flowing full force so I hopped up on the ladder and got to painting alongside my painting partner. We got quite a bit finished before Hallie woke up. I was outside doing some trim work when I heard Hallie squealing through the house. The squeals were suddenly drowned out by the sound of a couple Harleys coming around the corner. I looked down the street to see my dad and Uncle David cruising toward the house. Too cool for school. ;) Perfect timing too! Hallie ran outside and stopped dead in her tracks when she spotted the two rumbling bikes complete with biker dudes decked out in their biker gear. She didn't really know what to think at first and it was pretty comical watching her facial expressions. The two biker dudes had  taken a road trip to Shattuck to visit grandma. Aw, what softies....bikers going to visit their mom (in-law). How sweet. ;) It was two men and a baby all over again and I watched with delight as the two of them provided entertainment for Hallie. 

Hallie was initiated into their biker gang yesterday and I'm proud to say that she is one tough chick. And she's got the gear to prove it....

She's got the talk to go with the walk as well...

It was a nice treat to see these two dudes in Woodward. I told them next time I'd feed them well before they headed back to Enid. Hallie and I hope they take us up on the offer sometime soon!

Our weekend fun wasn't over yet! Katie and Luke invited us over for a cookout and we happily obliged. At that point I felt like I could eat an entire cow and I'm fairly certain that Hallie always feels that way so we made our way over to their house to find this smiley little angel waiting for us....

Riley stayed behind at home for awhile finishing the paint on the front of the house. We watched the girls run around/ crawl around in the backyard while catching up. Hallie and Aunt "Ka-yee" got some quality hangout time in....

She was not shy about exploring the entire backyard. She ended up soaking wet and muddy after putting her hands over the sprinkler and squirting water everywhere. Here's a pic of the little stinker pre-sprinkler fun....

Everything was so pretty and green with the sun shining on us. It was the perfect evening with those silly little cousins. Carmen was on the hunt for any yummy grass and sticks she could get her hands on while munching on her banana through her mesh teether. She was lovin' life....

Goofy girl

Papa Bill and Riley rounded out the crowd and we chowed down on hamburgers and beans. Luke's grilling was top notch as usual and Hal loved her grilled hotdog and banana. ;) As great as the perfect weather and great company was....I'm sad to say that the night ended a little too much like the night before. Cue meltdown for absolutely no reason....cue flailing in the front yard while screaming for "nanny!!!!"....cue flopping on the ground inside and burying her face in the carpet while screaming....cue multiple attempts to distract her from her pity party. Alas, we decided to spare everyone the screaming and headed home. Wouldn't ya know it, the moment we got home she transformed into a quiet, peaceful little gal. I just shake my head. And I'm still shaking it as I type this. But I don't want to end on a tantrum/meltdown note because this weekend was so much more than that.....


.....it was helping out those in need.

.....it was family.

.....it was friends.

.....it was fun.

.....and I can't forget to mention sweat. It was lots and lots of sweat.

Life is good. Good is life.