Saturday night live at the Pletchers

Come on - that is a little funny! Aw, I give up. :)

So we have had quite a week, as usual. But things are looking up. We hit a low spot with the neighbor and the yard issue, and then things started to get better. He had a long talk with my husband (who never backs down) and I think we are in a "happy place". He seems to be fine, now, and so we have reworked our project to give us as much yard as possible for the price we originally paid. Our excavator has been great and willing to do basically whatever we ask for no extra cost. He is making it look REALLY nice. He is created a nice rock wall on our property line (so that is no question) and once he is done with that, it is going to be great! He used just the rocks he found in our yard as he dug, and it is amazing how many their are! Not to mention all of the smaller rocks that he is moving for us that I am going to use for another project. Monday should be the last day of our excavation. He is coming back to clean out the top soil and remove the rock and debris, and then seed and hay the area. By Monday night, our yard will start the grass growing process and hopefully in a few weeks, we will have some grass sprouts! Yeah!

Mat's Aunt Betty arrived safely Wednesday afternoon, although it was a little adventure (of course) to get to her. As usual, nothing can go smoothly. I was to pick her up at the airport at 4pm. We left our house around 3:30 (it takes around 30-40 minutes to get there). Well, we hit traffic. They had narrowed the little highway we take to one lane and we crawled for quite a few miles. After that I got off on the exit I THOUGHT the airport was on (according to my directions), but only a little airport was there for private planes. So I called Mat's parents to find out where I needed to go (thanks Ben!) and I was at exit 27 and needed to be at 40!!! I was in contact with Aunt Betty, but I didn't get to her after all of this until 5:15!!! IT was so sad. Then I was going to take her out to dinner since she needed to wait and I discovered I had left my wallet at home. In too much of a hurry! UGH! I tell ya - it can be crazy with us. :)

But we ended up going to dinner anyway (thanks Aunt Betty) because it was so late and the kids were starved. I was very lucky - I had given them snacks and drinks in the car so they were very well behaved on our long, unexpected ride. I also was able to pick up my Cracker Barrel rocker my parents got me for my birthday (thanks!) and order the rocker Mat's parents got me for my birthday (thanks!). I already have the rocker on the porch and rocked in it several times.

Thursday and Friday Arlington finished up Bible School. She was sad when it was over. She really loved going and enjoyed the time she spent there. I know how much she misses school, and this was good for her. There was a picnic on the last day, so we all went to that for lunch, which was really nice.

Friday Cainan also had his 2 year appointment on Friday. He weighs 23.4 pounds (3%tile) and is 33 1/2 inches long (25%tile). His blood work was good, hearing, eyes, all fine. He had to get 4 shots, and needs to go back in a month for 2 more (he is still playing catch up since we brought him home last summer). He was very unhappy, but did very well during the whole appointment up to that point! He recovered quickly and I bought him McDonalds for dinner as a reward. :) That boy loves chicken nuggets and fries! But he is growing well. The pediatrician was great, we really liked her. Finley goes for her 2 year in a few weeks and then Arlington needs a school physical.

Today is was all about work around the house. We took out the ugly speakers that were in our walls in the master bedroom and Mat replaced the drywall and patched it up. He did a great job. Once I get it painted, you will never know. I had gotten a lesson at Home Depot and given all the things I needed while I was there the other day. I am telling you - thanks to this house, we are going to be quite handy when all is said and done! I am anxious to get it painted. We also tried one last attempt to remove their TV mount from the wall, but the screw is too far gone. We had to order a special tool (grumble grumble) to get it out, and it will be here in two weeks. But for now, I am going to paint the rest of the room and I can do that area last. No biggie.

We also did a little more work outside. Mat has cleared a path and built a fire pit right beyond our new excavated land. He put up stones and is going to build a few benches, but we used it for lunch today and did hot dogs on the open flame. We wanted to eat outside, but we were having a scorcher of a day, so we didn't get to do that. It will be fun to sit there and roast marshmallows.

We also cleared an area around a large rock in our yard I should say LEDGE - it is not movable and very, very large. We are going to slowly clear it out and landscape around it - it is really nice.

Mat also hung one of the two ceiling fans in our living room. It hangs a little lower than we expected, but we should still be fine. It looks nice and lights the room great! Now that we are satisfied, he will hang the other one tomorrow, and we will use what is there for our front porch. (the two old ceiling fans they had left behind).

So that is it! Tomorrow we aren't sure what all we will do. We were thinking of going to the Mystic Seaport (we can get free passes from the library) but they didn't have any available for tomorrow. Bummer. So we will come up with something.

The kids are doing great. Finley has what seems like a little cold, but I am not convinced it isn't allergies. It just started over night, and no one else is sick, and we haven't been around anyone that is sick, so I am not sure. But we shall see. If she isn't better tomorrow, it is probably a summer cold, poor baby.

So here are a few pictures. Enjoy!