our third wedding anniversary was yesterday and it was great. josh and i decided shortly after we were married that instead of shopping for several gifts on birthdays, anniversarys and christmas that we would either pool the money we would normally spend on one joint gift or save it for something bigger in the future. well, three years into it we're still spending money on our house projects and they're still some of the best 'presents' we've 'received' from each other. this year for our anniversary, we decided to finally do the patio project we've been talking about since we bought the house 3 years ago. josh woke me up on tuesday morning to go with him to home depot to pick up everything we'd need and bring it back to the house. we ended up getting nearly 1800 lbs of materials into the back of my truck (a truck that is only supposed to hold about 1000) and it was riding low but we drove carefully and slowly so no damage done (hallelujah!). we got sand, edging, spikes to hold down the edging, pavers, finishing sand, grass seed for other parts of the yard, various weed/bug killers for our several yard problems (those pesky clovers and violets are taking over!) as well as two 4"x4"x12' posts and two bags of concrete to put in a permanent badmitten set for the back yard (much less expensive than i originally thought (about as much as a cheap badmitten set which we have already bought 2 of because they break quickly) and it will be so much easier than trying to untangle the net everytime we want to play. later on i took a trip to menards to got a new hanging basket for my shepherd's hook in the front yard (some of the only 'gardening' i do on my own and it really doesn't count since i just buy it and hang it). in a few short hours we went from patchy, dead, unusable lawn and lots of supplies
to a very rectangular hole in the ground with somewhat flat ground with sand on top
to what is now a very nice patio that just needs chairs and maybe some potted plants
thanks to our very nice across the street neighbor for his help laying the bricks and to my very patient husband that asked for my opinion a couple of times and then when i was wrong showed my why he was doing it his way. Once the rest of the sand is packed down and the grass grows back in you'll never know it was a formerly wasted place only usable only by rocknelou.
our other anniversary 'splurge' was dinner with both sets of parents at hana yori, the very delicious teppan restaurant on grape road (for those of you that don't know, they cook the japanese food right in front of you on a huge flat grill and give you a bit of a show while they're at it). we had a great time with our parents even though i very nearly lost an eyebrow during the show! we had such a good time that i forgot to take pictures (still not sure how that happened) but it is somewhat dark there so the flash may just have blinded the chef who did a great job. our food was plentiful and delicious and my leftover rice and veggies was still good for lunch today. thanks mom & dad and mom & dad for going with it, we had a blast!
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