Decide what you want and GO for it!!

Ok, this post is about my obsession. I am OBSESSED with planning my yard, mostly my back yard. Here is my plan:






Every spring, I pull it out and revise it so it will be oh so perfect. Then I obsess over it, thinking about it non-stop until it snows. Some of this year's new additions include a "pet village" on the side of the house, for our dog, future hens and future rabbits. I'll build their houses like little cottages complete with mailboxes and flowers in front and a walkway. To do the yard the way I want, will cost about $25,000--yes, 25 grand. So I decided I had to find a way to get the ball rolling while having no money to spend on the backyard (Thank you Todd for working so hard so I don't have to work and we have lots of stuff and money to do other things, just not laptops and backyards:)). SO...I found on Craigslist (my friend craigslist...whoever Craig is, thanks for the list!) there are lots of people with extra dirt they want someone to haul away. Step 1 in my plans...get dirt to make raised flower beds and help with soggy fencelines. So, the other day I borrowed Ryan's truck (we need a truck) and I went, just me and the kids, to load up the truck with dirt. It was an older guy from South Korea who spoke little English. The boys played on their trampoline, Baby slept in the truck, and I shoveled dirt into a wheelbarrow, took it over to the truck, and then shoveled it up into the truck, until it was full. The guy said in his Asian accent, "strong American woman!" Then when Todd got home we dug up the weeds in the back corner of the backyard and unloaded the dirt. Here is the beautiful sight of free dirt:

Now all I need is 20 more truck loads of dirt... But to buy the amount of dirt I need would be over $1,000, so we'll go for the manual labor (AKA FREE). Now, I had to find out how to get a sprinkler system. If we did it ourselves and just bought parts, the parts are about $1,500. To have someone do it is about $4,000. I can't start the backyard, though, until I have dirt and a sprinkler system. So, I looked in the yellow pages and noticed that the landscaping contractors didn't have websites. This is where my talented husband comes in the picture... (Side note, today Nathan decided to tell me the 101 things Daddy was good at. One was picking hairs, eating junk food, cutting, and of course computers, and other things. He said the one--and only apparently--thing I was good at was cutting Daddy's hair.) I called one guy and asked if he would be interested in trading a sprinkler system for a website. We're meeting with him on Monday. Then I called another guy, and we're meeting with him Mon. or Tuesday. Then Todd said I couldn't call any more. Wahoo!! Anyone want to trade flute lessons or babysitting for a laptop?? So, I will update the progress of my backyard. Here are the "before" pictures:

Here are the weeds I cut down-- there are 2 piles and another in the trash can in the background:
The flags and white lines are the layout of the flower beds, stream, patio, walkways, everything:

For rocks, they start at $5 a piece, so the kids and I went to the mountains and got some free rocks (my arms are sore):

This brings me to Case in point #2:

As many of you know, we have wanted to adopt a girl from China for about 10 years now. I've wanted to adopt since I was a teenager, knowing that there are many children out there that need homes. Right after Todd and I got married, we went to an open house meeting on adopting children in orphanages from foreign countries. I felt the Spirit very strong, and knew this is something Heavenly Father wanted us to do. China has been one of the most stable countries for foreign adoptions, and though very expensive, is one of the cheaper ones. But, China has a rule that both parents must be 30 to be able to adopt. However, when the youngest of the couple turns 29 1/2, you can turn in your first application. Todd (he is younger by 2 months) is 29 1/2 Nov. 30. We can turn in the first application and start our paperwork for the "dossier", or the official application that goes to China. We can't send in the dossier until Katherine Lily's first birthday, because, as you may be guessing, China has a lot of stupid rules and another is that your youngest child must be a year old when you turn in your dossier. Anyway, we have been waiting SO LONG and I can't believe that we are almost about to probably turn in our first application to get things going! There are many other stupid China rules, but I think we may have those covered, but we'll see. The cost for adopting is quite high, so if your family would like to do a fundraiser this Christmas season (or anytime) to donate toward the adoption costs, we wouldn't turn you down! I will list at the end some fundraiser ideas we are doing. After we turn in our dossier, the wait right now is 2 and a half years from the time you turn in your dossier to the time you go to China to pick up your daughter. If you get a special needs child though, the wait is only 4-5 months. I'm really excited that Katherine Lily will have a sister. Sisters are so much fun and no girl should go through life without one! Todd wants everyone to know that nothing is FINAL yet. We are going to pray about it to make sure that it's right. Here is the adoption agency's website: http://www.chinesechildren.org/

Here are the ideas we came up with for fundraisers...do you have any other ideas?

Write a book (Christmas carol, todd’s recipe book, conflict resolution lessons)
Kids night out (date night daycare)- weekends in Dec. have kids come to your house to be babysat while the parents do Christmas shopping. We fed the kids mac and cheese and last year had 10 kids 6-10pm and made about $100 each night
Sell stuff- todd’s éclairs, websites
Do a kids carnival
Do a candle or vinyl lettering party as a fundraiser
Kids sell lemonade
At Christmas, we wrap christmas presents
Sell sam’s candybars
Ask businesses to donate stuff for us to sell (and people)—auction
Garage sales