Paint The Town

Back in April we volunteered to participate in "Paint The Town". The Neighborhood Housing Services put take applications of people who are unable to afford, or physically unable to paint their homes, and then takes volunteers and places them with each homeowner to get their home painted. This was the first year Watermark Landscapes participated, and I must admit, it was a lot more work than I thought it'd be! Not that I didn't know painting a house would be a big task, but I guess I forgot about all the prep that went into it. Remember we volunteered for this in April, and the paint day was June 13th... needless to say, Ryan has been EXTREMELY busy lately, so it was up to me to get it all put together. Luckily my dad helped me a TON.

First we went to the house to spray it off, and scrape off any peeling paint. My dad of course has a client he thought he'd ask to help out... DPC... A painting company! I kind of felt like a cheater at first, but honestly, they were volunteering and wanted to do it. So, by the time we got there, they had already sprayed the house off, and my dad and I were left with the scraping. A week later we went back to do the prime coat, and caulking... This time when talking to the owners, Kelly and Carla, they mentioned something about sod and some bushes that we might put together a bid for them on (considering we were a landscape company). Keep in mind that the past few weeks around here have been CRAZY weather with totally random downpours. Not the best painting weather. But, we managed to finish the prime coat just as it started to sprinkle then pour.

The week heading up to June 13th, I put together the missing supplies that we'd need, and got some donations put together for the owners... The Turf Co (Darwin McKay) donated the sod, and Quiznos gave us a discount on food to feed all our volunteers and delivered it... It was AWESOME.

June 13th! My dad of course got there before I even did, and started right away. DPC (Jim Doufas) decided to volunteer and help us a TON by spraying the body of the house. In the meantime, everyone I thought, plus some showed up! Lyman Belnap (Dad), Ryan, Cathryn Griffin, Dustin Pinther, Mark Johnson, Rebecca Johnson, Eric (her friend), Eric Belnap, Joe Emily Aaron Micheal and Jacob Piscione, and Matthew Ferguson. Seriously, amazing that they all showed up right around 9 am on a Saturday when there were so many other things they could have been doing. We literally finished putting in sod, planting flowers, rose bushes, removing bushes, and PAINTING THE HOUSE about 30 minutes before it started to pour rain.

Thank you SO much everyone... If just one less person showed up to help us, we literally wouldn't have finished in time. It was a great time helping out the community and spending time with people we care about!! Also, thank you Mom and Adria for watching the kids the whole time... Couldn't have done it without you either!

He Did It!!

So, life is awesome, and we've been busy, but CASH SLEPT IN A BIG BOY BED!! We have been trying and trying since around the time Marley was 2 months old, and he has refused to do it. But, last night I got him to sleep in the bed! It took me laying by him for 40 minutes, but he finally relaxed enough and fell asleep... He even stayed in bed all night until 7 this morning. I'm so proud of our buckaroo. He's getting to be such a big boy! He says and does things every day that make me laugh outloud. One of my favorite things is what he says when he wants something... We are trying to teach him "Please may I... _________" So, he says things like "Please may I have some hold you?" Or "Please may I have some open the door?" It's adorable.

Let's see... Marley is almost a year old and I can't believe it. She is simply adorable and a big huge bundle of personality. I remember when Cash was little we would tell him "trouble" or "danger" or "no" and he really did a good job of avoiding those things after just a few times... NOT Marley. She finds it absolutely hilarious to play in the dog water, water cooler, dog food, etc. She will look at me, laugh and then go for it as quickly as possible. It's so funny. She does say a few words... She says: dog, hi, dad, bye bye.... and when she plays peek a boo, she covers her ears, not her eyes. It's really hilarious.

Also, I have to brag about Ryan... He just landed a job of a lifetime!! We found out last week (on our anniversary actually), and he starts tomorrow. He's really excited, and I'm so proud of him. It was nice to see him do a drawing, he hasn't done one in awhile, and he's so artistic and talented. It's going to be a 3-4 month job, so I am expecting not to see much of him this summer, but I'm so proud of him and to see this job completed, it's totally worth it.

For our anniversary I set it up through my dad for Ryan to drive a race car at Meridian Speedway on their practice night. He didn't get to tear it up like he wanted to, but it was still really cool for him to drive in one and on the track. The only problem is he now really wants a race car of his own.

I'm going to put up some pictures of some fun things... With all the ups and downs, I really love life.