Life happens…

This is what our backyard has looked like since the contractor finished building the garage addition.

Not pretty.

This week, Hector and the guys came by to pour the concrete patio.

Yay! Finally the dogs will (hopefully) stop tracking mud into the house, and on the carpet.

This is the finished patio. We still need to paint the garage addition and put in the landscaping but it looks much better already.  The landscaping may be a spring project though. The guys had cleaned up and were ready to go home, but were in the front yard talking to hubby.

Then, life happened.

Or rather, this sweet looking black lab named Thor happened. He was so excited to see that daddy was home he bulldozed his way through the very large and very heavy plywood board we had up to keep him out of the backyard. There was no stopping him.

He went running through the fresh concrete!

Paw print after paw print after paw print…across the patio and all the way down the walkway! A lot of screaming ensued. Although it wasn’t her fault, Alex almost cried because I just had a conversation with her 5 minutes beforehand about not going down the stairs or moving the board.

The guys were able to kind of fix the mess.

There are a few paw prints the guys missed.

We love Thor anyway.

I found this guy, a katydid, hanging out on my kitchen ceiling this weekend. I caught him in a cup and called the girls to check it out, then we released him back into the urban jungle.

I have been trimming up the overgrown bushes and lavender in the backyard. It’s not trimming season but it needs to be done now because it already looks like a jungle. This tri-colored bee was begging to have his picture taken too. Also known as an Orange Belted Bumble Bee for obvious reasons.

A sunny sunflower in the backyard “garden”. It’s really just a small spot that we planted some seeds in to see what would grow. The pumpkins are coming along. I hope we have a few for Halloween.

I received a canning lesson from my dear friends this weekend. Dill pickles (spicy and regular), dill green beans, carrots, beets, squash and zucchini. Over 60 jars in all. I hear canning is making a come back these days. It’s a lot of work. So, why the canning lesson? I want to make jam from all the  Bing cherries I pitted then froze last month. I am thinking about making honey butter too and give both as Christmas gifts, along with homemade bread. Ok, bread machine bread, but still better than store bought.

Life happens everyday.