Accomplishments:

You know how you start off the weeked with high hopes for all you're going to get accomplished, but then Sunday evening rolls around and you're like, what the hell just happened?

Yeah, that's me. Every freaking weekend, I swear.

Yesterday, we were going to clean this house. Yessiree, it was going to get a long overdue cleaning, top to bottom.

Well, we only ended up cleaning the front patio. Granted, it was a big job because we literally haven't done it in months. There were dead herbs in the pots left over from last summer's attempt at a container garden. When will I ever learn, it's too freaking hot for anything to grow here? Especially for someone like me, who has a totally brown thumb?

The only thing that survived was the baby saguaro that someone gave me and my aloe vera plant. Not only is that thing surviving, it's thriving, despite the strange gangsta lean it seemed to have affected and not being watered since it rained last. It had all these cute little aloe vera babies growing off one side of it. I dug the whole thing up, seperated the babies, and repotted it so it sat straight in the pot once more. The babies got moved to a couple of other pots.

All this from a 99cent Ikea plant that was originally in a four inch pot. Not too shabby.

We had to run to Home Depot to buy some potting soil, which fortunately is like two blocks away. The potting soil from last year was completely full of hairy mold. YUM. That went in the dumpster! While we were there, I asked the garden center guy for a pretty plant that was hard to kill and could survive summer. He gave a few recommendations, I picked out the one I liked (only $1.18!!!) and we were on our way.

Once everything was potted and in it's new homes, we put all the extra empty pots into big plastic totes on the back patio. I washed my resin frog statues off. Then, my husband swept all the dust and pine needles and misc. other debris that had built up out there. Everything got put back out afterwards. The end result:

Simple, yet clean.

Speaking of - check out the new summer haircuts. That's right, I shaved both of those kids today. They got their nails clipped and filed and then there were baths for everyone, including me. That alone took four and a half hours today. I admire groomers, because I'll tell you, I was tempted more than once to chuck a shivery drama queen dog across the room. Not that I ever would. I was just tempted. They don't make the task any easier, but now it's done and I'm glad. Long haired dogs get smelly faster.

Maybe later I'll go actually finish the letters for the baby's wall. I can hope.