Now is not a good time to plant . . .

BEFORE

Last weekend, Lisa some how manipulated me into redoing our front lawn. You know, "keeping up with the Joneses". Our neighbors updated their lawn professionally last year and our newest neighbors are in the process. Lisa has been discussing it with them, and I think it got her thinking that our yard (bushes etc) needed to be updated.

Here is a quote from my neighbor a couple week before to give little background on our take of yard work and maintenance. "Your lawn looks like the Sahara . . .I think you might get cited by the fire department for creating a hazard" Needless to say we don't have a sprinkler system and we don't do much for it other than have a service mow it occasionally.

Back to the point, Lisa has me working all day Saturday in the heat of the day without a cloud in the sky. She told me what to dig up and what to plant, but she had to do it from select angles so that she could stay in the shade to avoid the heat. I on the other hand was cooking in the sun. For those of you that are not currently in Houston, we have been setting heat records the last few days with 2 days ago hitting 104 (hottest day in June ever for Houston).

I almost finished the whole thing in one day except that we needed to buy more plants so I finished up the next morning. The yard looks pretty good now. I think Lisa is no longer embarrassed with our yard. Later that evening we ran into our Neighbor Ann (an empty nester that has an immaculate lawn). We proudly tell her about all the work we did like we did something special, and she says

"Now is not a good time to plant"

AFTER

Colin's first visit to the dentist.

Today was Colin's first dentist appointment. He got xrays, a cleaning and an exam. I will be honest there was some crying involved but over all I think he did quite well for a 1 year old. He has 8 teeth and no cavities! We both really liked the dentist.

Letting go...

It's hard to believe it but, this past weekend was the first time we left BC overnight. My mom came to our house to watch BC overnight while we attended Colin's grandmothers funeral in Dallas. BC had a great time with his Mimi ( I don't even know if BC knew we were gone). I think it is going to be difficult (for me) to let BC go to mother's day out. He starts in September but I know he will like playing with the other kids there.

Howdy Y'all

Howdy visits the Caughrans . . . BC's cousin Howdy spent the week with us last week after baby Colin's birthday party. 6 months back, BC wanted to have a sleep over, but mom said "not until you're 1". Remembering that, BC asked to have a sleep over after his first birthday. Per his request, we asked Aunt Ashley if Howdy could sleep over at our house for a few days. Of course she said yes.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it was (not really). This was Howdy's first trip away from home on his own, and Lisa's first time to watch two kids at once. For those of you who do not know Howdy (who am I kidding no one reads this), he is a very sweet boy that is very loving and loves to play with BC. BC also loves to play with howdy. They had a great week playing and hanging out. Lisa took them to the pool, the zoo and the park.

Having Howdy over was a major strategical error on my part. I was not thinking of the consequences when I approved this sleep over. I quickly realized my mistake after the first day. Lisa had become baby crazy. I didn't realize that this was her two kid test run. . . I need to be more careful in the future.

Here are some pics from the pool when howdy was in town.

Baby Colin and Howdy at the splash pad.

Howdy on the blue slide. We had to promise that he wasn't going to ride on the blue slide again before he would agree to go to the pool.

Burn me once, shame on you, burn me twice, shame on me.

This is just a random post on the happenings of the neighborhood. The Caughran family was just an observer of the events. . .

This past weekend was a nice and relaxing weekend full of golf, chores around the house, the pool and the movies (The Hangover, go see it). But for a friend of mine, it was a very fiery weekend. His first (yes first) bout with fire was with the peaceful sun of a lazy Saturday afternoon. He went to the pool to enjoy a few rays, swim a few laps and take in a good book. What he didn't realize was how relaxing the pool would be. 3 hours later when he awoke from his unplanned slumber, he found that the peaceful sun had cooked him like Kramer on Seinfeld (see pic). But as I stated above, this was only his first bout with fire.

Later that evening while drinking on the back porch, he decided that the stump from the tree he lost in Ike needed to be removed. He didn't have a chain saw or a proper axe, so Diesel was the logical choice. He sent his brother in law to the local dump to get some tree branches and with the diesel he proceeded to make a makeshift fire pit on top of the stump. As the night progressed he continually had to add more diesel and wood to keep the fire going. As the easy, small branches ran out, he had to start breaking larger branches so they would fit in the pit (think burning hole in middle of the grass). He starts to break a large branch by putting his foot on the middle and pulling up on the end. As he is doing this I state to the other observers "That is a bad idea, he is going to pull that branch into his face". Not two seconds later, the branch breaks and instead of hitting himself in the face as I had predicted, he fell backwards stumbling until he fell and rolled through the fire. Don't worry, he didn't get hurt, his base tan from the afternoon protected him.

Just another peaceful weekend at the creek . . .

Big Pimpin'

BC is starting early charming the ladies.

This past weekend BC had his first coed party at his house to commemorate his first Birthday (there were chaperons, what kind of parents do you think we are?). Lucky for him some of his friends (Naaman and Val) hooked him up with his first 6-pack. He didn't hesitate to show it off to the ladies. It instantly attracted two cute twins. For those of you that were not at the party, picture a combination between a Coors light Twins commercial and the E*Trade baby commercial. Needless to say, the boy is a natural ladies man.

Outside of the 6-pack, Colin got a bunch of great gifts from his friends and family. He also got a few digits and with his mom's help, he might be able to line up some play dates in the future.

I did learn that I need to keep an eye on Naaman and Val, because once Colin is a teenager, he will know who to call to get some 6 packs . . .