Why I shouldn't be left home alone! ;)

This is what inevitably happens when I get left home alone for long periods of time.  I start "doing things".  This is only one of my projects!  

Im also taking out the door to our laundry room and replacing it with a pocket door (which meant taking down a wall), ripping out the counter and cabinets and building a bench with cubbies for the kids--making it more of a mud room you could say.  That project is currently in the works.....everything is put back together, I just need to re-paint and build my bench!!

So, then I decided to rip out our deck and have a patio put in.....

 Nice and big, plenty of room for friends and family to come over!  We can actually enjoy our backyard now!

 Then I got a little bored....so I decided to dig up the sod around the patio and replace it with flower beds.....such hard work!  It took me  one afternoon to dig it up....

 Another afternoon/evening (I basically stayed up until I could no longer see) spreading the garden soil....

 Then yet another day buying, arranging, and planting some.....shrubs.

It all turned out really nice.  I like it a lot.  There aren't any plants planted anywhere else in my yard (front or back) so it's kind of funny.  But at least around the patio looks nice!?  Right?!

Our American Flag

 My parents came up this past weekend to help me with some yard work, and to see one of Daniel's baseball games!  It doesn't look it now, but it had been pouring rain all day!  So the game was canceled.  But my Dad worked super hard on my hard! Way too hard!!  And it looks great!  

Anyway, I've been wanting an American Flag to hang at our home for some time, but just haven't gotten around to it.  Since I had a "man" around the house (thanks Dad) I had him help us hang one up!

 I told the kids that we were hanging the flag for Daddy.  They all thought it was pretty cool!!!

 These were the potted  flowers that my mom helped me with.  I've never really planted flowers before, and Im always afraid I will kill them....so she helped me.  These flower boxes were supposed to go under the front window, but I bought the wrong brackets....so now they are on my little back deck!  Which actually looks kind of nice.  They are, however, the only plants growing in my yard currently! ;)

 Here is a quick post with lots of pictures from our Memorial trip to see my Brother and his family in Moses Lake Wa!  Enjoy