We bit the bullet.

We've had a flooding problem in our backyard since we moved in two years ago.  To give you an idea of our problem, I'll give you a brief description.  Directly behind our home is forest.  The forest behind us is on a significantly higher grade than our backyard, thus all of the water runs into our yard from the forest.  Also, our two neighbors yards also drain into our backyard.  And, finally to compound the problem even further, a good 90% of our backyard is shaded 24/7.  The only spot in our yard that gets any sun at any time is where I put the veggie garden late year.

So, for the last two years we've had 1/2 of our backyard flooded from the first thaw until around August.  It's so swampy and bad back there that we cannot even cut the grass.  We have mushrooms and moss and the mosquitoes, oh the mosquitoes!  Plus, every year I fight the stupid forest trying to take over my backyard.  I am so sick of pulling hundreds of weeds every weekend that I finally got fed up.

We had a landscaper come out today to give us a quote to fix our flooding problem.  Originally, I thought we'd put in a french drain, but the landscaper said that a french drain wouldn't do anything because a) the drain had absolutely nowhere to drain to (since our neighbors' yards are both higher) and b) we get no sun to dry anything up.  So, instead we're going with an entirely different idea and I'm totally psyched about it!

We're going to put up a retaining wall in the back and backfill it with dirt to make a sort of giant flower bed.  The bed is going to have 2 Rosebud Trees on either end and a beautiful 7' Spruce tree in the middle.  Then we'll have hostas, hydrangeas, rhododendrons, and ornamental grass to fill everything in.  The backfilled garden will help keep the forest from taking over that area and also help soak up some of the water.  And finally, to finished up dealing with the flooding problem, they're going to lay river rock from the retaining wall and out 6-8' in a scalloping pattern.  Under the river rock will be a weed barricade and sand to help soak up the rest of the water.

The landscaper drew us a picture and I am soooo excited to see it when it's done.  It looks like it will be absolutely amazing.  I will definitely post some before and after pictures once it is done.  The rains and flooding we've had recently have gotten him behind (he's still not done with my parents' backyard), so he'll probably be out here in the next couple week.

Can't wait!!!  It will be amazing to have a yard that a) isn't flooded and b) is beautiful to look at!!!    

Sherlock Holmes

I mentioned earlier that Ryan and I walked around Downtown Plymouth on our anniversary.  Well, in our wanders we found a new store on Forest.  It used to be a Hallmark and I have absolutely no idea when it changed, but it's a kid's toy store and a pretty cool one at that.  So, we decided to check it out and see if it's worth taking Trina while she's here this summer.  Well, we ended up leaving the store with something for us:

 Basically, the gist is that you have to read the story that comes with it, then put the puzzle together, and then use clues from the story and puzzle to solve the mystery.  It immediately intrigued me (and Ryan too) so we brought it home and busted into it.  This is where we're at after evenings of working on the puzzle:

 It's a thousand pieces.  With no picture to copy.  It's pretty challenging.  And here's Ryan being obsessed:

Last night and tonight I had to turn the light off on him to convince him to give up for the evening and relax.  I think he's been sneaking in and working on the puzzle without me because I'm pretty sure pieces have been magically been put together. 

I was a little sad when I got home today after work and apparently the cats had decided to have their hand in working on the puzzle too.  Except, yanno, not having opposable thumbs makes it rather difficult and they ended up knocking half of it on the floor.  Oops.  Hopefully they don't get into it tomorrow cause we have a lot more done now.

Fun Filled Weekend!

Ryan and I had a great weekend as it was jam packed with fun things to do.  Saturday we wok up and did some much needed yardwork, then headed over to Jill & Aaron's house for Aaron's graduation party.  He got his MBA!!!  Wooooo!  A big huge congrats to him!  Jill put on a huge bbq in honor of his accomplishment and somehow managed to pick the first super nice day we've had in a long time.  There was lots of good food, including her grandma's taco salad.  I don't know what was in it, but it was delish especially when scooped up with Fritos!  We played jarts and ladder ball and caught up with some of Aaron's friends that we haven't seen in a long time.  It was great to see Andrea, Megan & Derek.  They crack me up!  When it got dark, we had a bonfire and roasted marshmallows to make some yummy s'mores.  Oddly enough, their friend so aptly named Ryan (not my husband) broke their splitting maul while trying to chop wood.  How did they get said splitting maul in the first place?  Yeah, we bought it for them after Ryan (my husband) broke their axe last year trying to split wood.  Unfortunately, Home Depot didn't have anymore axes in stock, so they got a splitting maul instead.  Ryan (not my husband) said he was going ot replace the one he broke, I wonder what they'll end up with!

Sunday was my 1 year anniversary.  It was a pretty chill day.  We slept in (yay!), got some lunch together downtown Plymouth and then wandered Kellogg Park.  We both laughed because there was construction going on again down there, although it's practically all around the park this year.  It was a beautiful day to stroll downtown and we even ran into a few new stores that opened up down there that we didn't even know about!  They have an entire store dedicated to olive oil.  Seriously.  They have nearly every flavor of olive oil from every country you could imagine.  After our stroll around downtown we had to get some errands done (romantic, I know).  Then my wonderful husband cooked me dinner at home, and then we delightfully ate our anniversary cake.  The cake shop we used for the wedding (Elite Sweets) gives you a free cake on your anniversary so you don't have to freeze your top layer.  We got a Baileys cake, and I had forgotten just how yummy that thing was! 

I hope everyone else had a great weekend! 

Spring has sprung...sort of...

I took these pics on mother's day of things finally blossoming:

 My beautiful purple azalea bush.  I really wish this had flowers for longer during the year because they are so vivid and beautiful.

 A few shots of the wonderful flowering pear trees that are all over Canton.  I love driving down the roads in spring here because the canopies of these tress are just breathtaking.

I also caught a giant bumblebee buzzing around!

I also took the day to finally hang up my AWESOME Cheshire Cat bird house on our beautiful apple tree.  I think this thing is so awesome and I've been getting a kick out of looking at it all week!

This picture was taken a little over a week ago and as you can see, there are absolutely no flowers on it yet.  Well, the tree is in full bloom now.  This tree takes up most of Trina's bedroom window and looks absolutely gorgeous!  I wish she were here so she could see it with all of the pretty flowers.  But, here's what it looks like today standing in her bedroom:

So, we have flowers...and we *had* warmth, but we totally lost the warmth.  So, spring has sprung...sort of.  Hey, Mr. Sun, will you come out and play again? 

I am so excited!!!

My parents took us out tonight and got us this:

Yep, that's right!!!  My parents got us a new iPad 2!!!  We are super geeked about it.  Ryan right now is watching "Charlie Bit Me" on YouTube and laughing his butt off.

My mom and sister also got one and I promised that I'd help my mom learn how to use it.  So far she seems to be doing great, but is mildly irritated that she can't get Flash on it. 

Thanks so much Mom and Dad!  We love it!!!

P.S. Ryan is how currently playing that stupid Friday song.  Maybe I need to take the iPad away from him now, lol.

Jayne's Egg Salad

It's one of my favorite meals and I am sooooo glad that she taught Ryan how to make it!  I requested that he make some of his mom's delicious egg salad sandwiches and he lovingly agreed.  Look at all that yummy egginess:

 Egg salad sandwich on untoasted bread (it's better that way) paired with a little fruit medley of strawberries, raspberries, blueberries & blackberries.

 Lunch was delicious, so I have to thank my wonderful husband and his wonderful mother for it!  Ryan made extra so maybe I'll have another for dinner...yum!

Also, as a side note: these are the most awesome pickles ever made.  I think they're a new household favorite.  They're little baby pickles!!!

Ashley's Graduation

Sorry for being MIA for so long.  We've been busy around here, and then blogger was down for a few days for maintenance.

Ashley graduated from college on Sunday, May 1st.  She graduated with high honors and we are all very proud of her!

We ended up having to be there super early, so we all sat around for quite a while and then *finally* the procession started.  Wahoo!

 All the graduates entered, and there were quite a few of them.  All the way from doctoral degrees to bachelor's. 

 Hi mom & dad!!!

 Well, there's Ashley (super blurry) on the right side of the picture with the tassels.  On her way up to get her diploma!

 And here's the video of her actually walking the stage and graduating!!!  She starts at 17 seconds.

Congratulations again Ashley!