Breaking News: Sod is Taking Well to New Home!

Alan wanted to give this weeks sod update. According to sources (Al), the sod is taking extremely well in the backyard. Any concerns have been washed away by the excessive watering and pruning on the part of Alan. All that work over the past two weeks seems to have paid off though, the grass looks great but then again, I might be a little biased.

The lazy days of summer...

Charlie has been such a fantastic dog lately!! He always had a great personality but now he is so good at sticking around the cottage and listening. Well except when he swam after the canoe and almost tipped Alan and I into the water. But still, he was just trying to be with us! ha ha I hope his days of adventures around the bay and chasing families of ducks towards the main channel are behind him.

Just for a moment...

I was sitting on the deck this past weekend when this beautiful Blue Heron decided to land on the rock in front of the cottage. I happened to have my camera right beside me and was able to get this picture.

On Duty at the Lake

City dog meets country dog! Charlie has shown a lot of flexibility in what he is willing to protect our yard from. In the city, it's dogs, cats and birds. At the cottage it's dogs, cats, birds, squirrels, chipmunks, bugs, frogs, toads...you get the picture. He's an equal opportunity guard dog. In this particular case, he's bagged himself a squirrel. I didn't know those little things could sit so still. If you look closely in the tree, you can see him setting on a branch. In one of the pictures you can see the neighbours dog supervising the squirrel round-up. He's an expert himself.

Did you know it's cottage season?!?!

And now...Yard work!

Well it seems we have taken it to heart the advice of others on how to pass the time until we get our daughter by finishing all those projects around the house. We decided to fix up the backyard before the warm weather hits and while we still have money in our pockets!! ha ha After a couple weeks of deliberations over what should be done back there, we opted to take out the patio blocks and sod that area. We moved the patio blocks between the garage and the fence (nothing would grow there anyways). Initially we had tossed around the idea of building another patio with stone but decided to put that money towards "beautification" in the form of landscaping(flowers, shrubs, features etc) We will restain the fence in the next few weeks and the backyard will start to look really good. I'm also going to pick-up some hanging baskets to put on the fence posts and get some annuals for the planters. At this time I want to say a huge thank-you to Chris, Sean, Patrice and Alan's dad of course, for helping us out. How could Alan have done it without you?? I've included some pictures of 'Les Boys' hard at work.

The new sod...

Laying sod is hard work and taking pictures of the people doing it is even tougher!! I had to keep getting out of the way of the hose and the roller. Geez!!

The yard transformation process...

Before the yard 'transformation process'...

Who lives here anyways?!?!?

Just when I thought my streak of bad luck had run out...it came back! In case some of you have wondered where I have disappeared to for the past two week and half weeks I was in the hospital...again! I left work on the 18th of April to take Charlie to the vet for his follow up appointment for his surgery when I started to have the same symptoms as last year. Yes, the same thing again! Alan took me to emergency where they finally admitted me overnight to see if things would correct themselves but alas, no such luck!! I went under the knife again. I have been recovering at home fore just over a week now because I don't want to rush things and end up back in the hospital. Alan is scared to death that this could happen when we go to China. I really hope that God or Fate or whoever is not that cruel. Missing work and slowing down the career-make-or-break project is one thing, hospitalized in Beijing well that's completely different and slightly nightmarish!

The garden...

Last summer my neighbour at the lake (Karen) and I decided to purchase some bulbs. Last fall I spent I don't know how long planning and planting those bulbs only to have to wait all winter to see if I actually did it right! It was a lot of guess work on my part mostly because my gardening instruments included a wooden spoon and a stick. I have no idea what happened to my actual tools. Anyways, this Spring everything seems to be growing. The crocuses have come and gone already and now the tulips and a few other things are getting ready to bloom. I guess I did it right!! ha ha

Charlie's Recovery from Surgery

As some of you know, Charlie underwent hip surgery back in April. He is doing much better now. The fact that he can walk around by himself is fantastic...a miracle! Charlie had to wear the dreaded cone for two weeks because he wouldn;t leave his stiches alone. To quote the vet "I've never seen a dog go after sutures like that!" Yes, another example of his OCD personality!!

House Projects...

Alan working hard on the new flooring in the entrance way.

Welcome!!

It has taken me quite awhile to get around to putting together a blog I guess I spend enough time on the computer already! Anyways, here it is! I hope I will be able to keep everyone up to date regarding what is happening with the adoption process. Right now our current status is: waiting. I'm pretty sure that status will stick for awhile. As some of you might already know from talking to us there has been quite a slow down in the process and I can't even begin to speculate when we will actually go to get our daughter. On the positive side we will have lots of time to get things done around the house. I think Alan is booked up until sometime in August!! God willling we'll have no time for home repairs next summer!!! I have plans for myself too. In case anyone from work is lurking around I will be committing myself to finishing the big project and in my spare time I will be working on the nursery. I'm not sure if this blog is going to be our permanent website but if it should change, all members will be contacted. Yes Mom, I will let you know.