Do-It-Ourselves Landscaping is FINISHED!

After getting a landscaping quote from a company, Justin and I decided we could save quite a bit of money by doing all our landscaping ourselves. Here are some pictures from our adventure. (You can click on any picture to see a larger version.)

Before pictures:



First, we realized we needed to get the boulders in place before we started adding soil to build up the beds. Who wants to wait a week for delivery and pay delivery charges when we have a 4Runner that can hold 1500 lbs of boulders?! So a worker at the store used their tractor to lift the boulders into the back of the 4Runner, then we just had to get them out and into place--easier said than done. We decided to just roll the boulders out of the car and onto the dirt. Then, so we wouldn't damage our lawn, and to help the boulders slide, Justin put down metal sheets and wood to get the boulders where they needed to be.


I then dug a trench and buried the drain pipe so it wouldn't be going right through the middle of the front bed. Next, I realized how hard the soil had become so I spent a day using a shovel to turn over all the dirt in the beds to loosen it up. Because the soil was incredibly packed, it took all day to just turn over the soil. The only problem after was that the clods of dirt I dug up were still hard clods of dirt shaped like the shovel. We spent a couple hours trying to break up the clods to get nice soft dirt, but these dirt clods were hard as rocks. So Justin ran to Home Depot to rent a tiller. (Since it was 10:00 at night, these pictures aren't too great--they don't accurately show how large and hard our dirt clods were!)


We worked til after midnight that night to get our soil loosened up so we could add the new top soil that had been delivered earlier that day and dumped on our driveway--rain was expected that night, and we didn't want our new soil turning to mud and running off our driveway.

We also had our deciduous trees delivered by the same company, but we still needed to buy our pine trees and all our shrubs and bushes. So another day we found two 5-foot colorado blue spruces and some shrubs while we were out on errands as a family. Amazingly enough, we got everything in our car, and even had room for some Costco groceries!

We did lots of planting the next several days before our mulch was delivered--7 trees, 24 bushes.


After several more trips to find the last few shrubs and flowers, we finally finished up and spread the mulch. We're finally done!

Picnic at the Park

We had a lot of errands to run today so we decided to pack our lunch with us to eat while we were out. We had a nice break at the park, and Justin even got a nap and a short massage from Lexie.

Yet another UTI

I took Annie to the doctor today after she's been vomiting for 24 hours. We've come to know her subtle (and not so subtle) signs of a UTI even quicker than before. And sure enough, it was confirmed at the doctor today. This is UTI #14 in the last 2 years. That's an average of about one UTI every 2 months, but since we've been in Nebraska, they've been coming about every 40 days, and only 28 days since her last one.

We have an appointment scheduled with our new urologist here in Nebraska, but since there's only one (!!!) the soonest we can get in is November! So after Annie's 10 day round of antibiotics, her pediatrician is going to start her on prophylactic (low-dose) antibiotics until we can get in with the urologist.

Our previous urologist in Austin had suggested prophylactics, but since we didn't want her on long-term antibiotics, we decided at that point to try some other natural things, like increasing her water and trying to give her baths even more frequently. The UTIs seemed to be less frequent, but now they are just as frequent as ever, so we'll try the prophylactics at least for 4 months and then see what the new urologist says. We will be grateful to get these UTIs under control since they are probably the main thing right now detracting from Annie's quality of life.

Summer Haircuts

I cut Annie's and Molly's hair today. I got sick of making Annie scream every morning trying to comb out her tangled curls, so I cut off about 4 inches of her hair!



I only took a an inch or two off of Molly's, but it made a huge difference--especially when she insists on wearing it down most days.



Lexie doesn't need a haircut yet, although she has many crazy hair days. She usually just needs to stay out of trouble...

Annie's Pulmonology Appointment

We visited Annie's new pulmonolgist here in Omaha today to help solve some of her sleep issues. Annie has sleep apnea that is rather noticeable to us when we watch her sleep. It's been going on for years, but now that she's getting older and shouldn't be taking naps during the day, especially at school, we've decided to find out what's causing her apnea and what might be needed to resolve it.

The pulmonologist today said Annie does have large tonsils and with her low muscle tone in her neck and throat, suspects that is what's causing the apnea. But of course they want to check everything out, so she'll have a sleep study on August 20th. They'll do a full EEG to watch her brain and seizure activity throughout the night, and also monitor her breathing, heart rate, and lots of other stuff. They'll even have leads on her legs to see if she might be having restless leg syndrome. It will take 2 whole weeks to get all the results back from the study, and then they'll be able to determine what kind of treatment will be best.

Today the pulmonologist suggested that most likely she would benefit greatly from a tonsillectomy, so that's what we're anticipating, but we'll see what else the sleep study shows. The good news is that they can piggy-back her tonsilectomy with her tendon lengthening surgery that she'll have sometime in September. Hopefully we can get her apnea resolved and have a happier and more alert Annie during the day!

She's With Me

This is a beautiful song by Collin Raye, written about his granddaughter with neurological disabilities. It really touched me since we have our own daughter with Aicardi Syndrome, a severe neurological condition. There aren't many songs out there about children with disabilities and their impact on people's lives, and this one seemed to be just so perfect. I love this song.

Lexie Starts Nursery

Lexie turns 18 months old this week, so she attended the nursery for the first time at our church today. Surprisingly enough, she went right in and had no problem with Dad leaving her. The leaders said she did great, not one cry or whimper. I can't believe she's old enough to go to nursery! She's probably one of very few kiddos to have to crawl into nursery--she's still not walking, but continues to make progress. Her therapist is surprised each session at how stronger she is getting.

Molly's Naps

As a 4 year-old, Molly is no longer taking regular naps during the day. Even when I can tell she's tired, I can't convince her to take a nap--it has to be her idea. So lately I've been discovering the house rather quiet at times and tip-toe around to find out what Molly is up to. Occasionally I find her in her bed napping, but other times, like today, I find her in more unusual places...

Our 9th Wedding Anniversary

Nine years ago today we were sealed for eternity in the Bountiful, Utah Temple as husband and wife. What a blessing it is to know that we have an eternal marriage and that our children are sealed to us.

Annie's Dentist Appointment

Annie had a dentist appointment today, which is always rather traumatic for her. Annie doesn't tolerate anything in her mouth, so she screamed in terror through the whole cleaning as the dentist tried to get rid of some of the staining. So much of the staining now has become ingrained into the enamel, so it is nearly impossible to remove. For more information on why Annie gets such bad staining on her teeth, check out her Frequently Asked Questions page.