planted

Matt and I have been doing a lot of work on the outside of the house this Spring/Summer.  Last Summer was spend doing all sorts of remodeling inside and it's nice to have a break from that for a while and do some fun stuff outside!

My mom came down last month and we had a nice day together running around town looking for pots and different flowers.  It was great to be able to spend time with her like that.  She is great with flowers and making stuff look nice outside so I really valued her opinion.  We stopped by Big Lots to pick out some nice potters for the flowers.  We headed to a nursery close by my house to pick out the flowers!  It was there that my mom learned what Matt has to deal with everyday...my indecisiveness.  I am SO bad! I don't know why either? Why can't I just make a decision and live with it. Poor lady :). I finally made a decision and we went home to start potting!

Our beautiful plants!

These are SO much bigger and fuller now! It's crazy to see how much they've grown.  I look like I am talking about a child...I love watching my plants grow!

My hard-working man did all of the planting of our new trees.  If you look back at a couple posts ago, I talk about what all we bought.  I have to be honest...it took us 5 weeks-Yes 5 WEEKS to finally get every single thing planted.  The trees got in first, then Matt randomly planted my hydrangea, and then we got all the Boxwoods planted last week.  And it's DONE! Now I reallu want to do more :).  I want a couple more hydrangea bushes-ours now is already starting to bloom and I LOVE it.

The dog doing just what I was...watching :)

Trees were in and the next step was the complete renovation of our walkway.  We knew we wanted to plant the boxwoods, but we also ended up digging up way more grass and then mulching around the bushes.  It looks great! Next year I plan on adding in some flowers throughout and in between them for some color!

Starting the measurements

My rental car while my Murano was getting her mirror fixed.  Take a look at the grass to the right of the sidewalk...get ready for it's transformation!

Grass dug up and dirt layed out.  I made two trips to Menard's to fill my trunk with dirt and mulch.  Just about as bad as Matt trying to go pick me out a pair of shoes.

Captain of the ship

15 bags of dirt!

He got soooo dirty out there!

And they're in! Cute little ones.

Now for some mulch-spreading

Finished product.  Doesn't it look great?! That stupid red lava rock to the right is getting removed next year.  I hate that stuff!

Our friends Amber and Rob stopped by

My friend Amber said, "I don't think I've ever seen you guys so dirty." Yep we sure were!

surprise party

A couple weekends ago, we planned a surprise 60th birthday party for my Dad! I worked with his girlfriend and my aunt and we planned the whole thing.  I didn't know if we would be able to pull it off...my dad can be difficult sometimes.  I knew if we asked him if he wanted to have a party, he would've said no.  Solution? Surprise him and give him no way out :).

He had been calling me the couple weeks before the party trying to figure out a weekend for all of us to  get together.  The party ended up being on Father's Day weekend too, so I felt guilty saying we couldn't come that weekend (even though we were coming I just couldn't tell him that!). My aunt told him they were coming down to visit my grandma the next week and we told him we would come visit the next weekend or he could come here.  We had Ann, his girlfriend, conjure up some plans with her siblings who they hang out with a lot.  I made some trips to Party City and got all the decorations for the party.

We had everyone get to his favorite restaurant around 3 and then they were going to come around 3:30.  The "plan" was that Ann's brother-in-law invited my dad to "come watch the golf game at Barleycorn's". Little did he know we were all there...

Gift table

Cousins

So anxious waiting for them to arrive!

And they are here!! SURPRISE!!!

My Dad said his first thought was "Why is this girl taking my picture?" We had the hostess snapping shots the whole time.  He said "Then, I saw you and I had to fight back the tears." All worth it :)

Dressing him up in all of his "60" gear

Looks good on you :)

Our gift to my Dad

Whiskey's a-flowin :)

Love you Dad! So glad we pulled it off :)

team iron

I am so excited to be a part of Kiwi Fitness.  It's a hobby-turned-passion.  I am really starting to see people, regulars and new-comers, get stronger and actually enjoy getting their workout on. It's awesome! It's a community now and everyone is so supportive of each other.

We just started our Summer Session I in which we spent this week having our members and new people signup for a time slot to do a fitness test.  They basically came in, partnered up, and were tested on 6 different factors of fitness.  We did number of push-ups (on toes) in one minute, number of sit-ups in one minute, how long they could hold a hover in perfect form (easier said than done!), sit and reach, number of squats with 60 lbs in one minute, and the "Beep Test". The Beep Test was a shuttle run where they ran back and forth to a series of beeps which progressively got faster and faster.  It was a true test of cardio endurance.  Let me tell you, I randomly decided to do it with them after not working out for 4 days or warming up (and NEVER running!) and I am SO SORE!  I did other classes this week on top of that and that makes me one sore lady who doesn't want to get off the couch now.

Everyone who did the fitness testing made a goal that they want to acheive. We changed our schedule for the next 6 weeks to promote everyone to reach these goals.  We split up the members in groups of 15 separated by the specific goal (strength, cardio endurance, flexibility, core strength) and paired them with an instructor to act as a motivator and mentor over the next 6 weeks.  SO cool! I am so excited for this.  I emailed my group today to get them excited for these next 6 weeks.  My group's goal is "strength", so I will spend the next 6 weeks pushing them to get more BodyPump classes in and encourage them to add a CXWorx class (core) in as well while helping them get more out of these classes.  I will be pushing them in class to get to their next level.  We will re-test in 6 weeks and see where everyone has come! The members are eating this up.  They are so excited to have an opportunity like this.  I will be there to hold them accountable, help them tailor a routine to get stronger, and push them past their limit.  It's cool because we have people of all fitness levels: 0-45 pushups in a minute, 11-115 laps in the shuttle run, 0 sec-3:00 on a perfect hover.  I have a huge variety of people in my group and I am excited to help them do what is best for them to get to their finish line.  

We did not let them pick "lose weight" or "lose inches" as a goal...that will come once they start working towards a specific fitness goal :)

Go Team Iron!

little green ones

Look at this!

Whoa, I have little baby tomatoes! I went outside to water my plants tonight and saw these cute little guys hiding.  I gasped so loud that I'm sure the neighbors are calling the police.  I am so excited! Number 1- I am excited that I haven't killed them yet and Number 2- I am excited to actually have little tomatoes starting to bloom!

I will try not to get too obsessive with these tomatoes, but they are kind of the highlight of my day right now :)

life lately

What's been going down at the Dunn household lately?

-Matt is loving his new supervisor position at UPS (and I am loving his new hours).  He has moved into a different department than he was in and is learning a lot.  Like usual, he has worked in this position for a week or two and then his partner is out of town this week so he has to man the ship alone.  He has done this two other times in other departments.  I guess they trust the guy :).

-I am still madly deeply in love with my new car.  She is great.  I get so excited when I get to drive her somewhere.  It's still so new to me and I get excited to show her off.  I hope that new car/new leather smell never goes away!

-Our trees and shrubs get delivered this week!  We went back to the nursery last week and made our final decision...

1. A "Brandywine" Maple tree for the front left of the house

2. An "Ace of Hearts" Redbud tree for the front right of the house- I didn't realize how much I loved redbud trees until this Spring when almost every house in our neighborhood had one in full bloom. They are beautiful!

3. A "Limelight" Hydrangea plant for the back corner- I love hydrangeas.  We weren't planning on getting one, but when we changed our mind on putting a tree up by the entrance we had a little left over in the budget and I ran straight for the hydrangeas.  This one will get pretty big (5-7 ft tall and 4 ft wide) so we are putting her in the back yard in a corner where Matt ripped out some old weedy trees a couple months ago.  We are going to let her grow wild (well while still-looking good of course).  The flowers' blooms will start out green and then fade to a light pink at the end of summer.  I am so excited for this one!

4. 5 Boxwoods for the outline of our walkway to the house.  We ended up getting the 2 gallon tubs so they'd be a bit more mature since they grow slowly.

We are planning on having a landscape party this weekend.  I am calling it a party because to be honest, I am not that excited about digging really big holes all day. It makes me feel better if it's a "party".  

-I am almost to the end of the 12 weeks I have been orienting a new RN on the floor. She is wonderful.  It is SO cool to precept someone.  I am the one shaping her.  Yes, she will go and do as her own style is once she's on her own, but I took a lot of my ways of doing things from my preceptor and I have noticed my orientee doing the same.  It can be exhausting, but I know it is all for her and for our unit.  I feel good about teaching her the basics, the right way to do things (follow the policy), and ways to get on people's good side as far as being helpful in your downtime etc.  She is getting so much better at talking to docs and catching little things (which usually turn out to be the most important thing) on assessment.  Everything she needed to work on in the beginning is now coming full-circle and she is great.  Other RN's have been coming up to me saying how my orientee reminds them of me and how awesome of a job she is doing and will do.  Warms my heart :).

-I planted some tomato plants last week.  My favorite thing ever is a fresh garden tomato.  This is my first time ever planting my own tomato plants.  Cross your green thumbs they survive!

-We went to visit my Dad's side of the family a couple weekends ago.  We went to see my Nana Sue and to spend time with the family. I was finally able to meet my baby twins cousins! They are 8 months old and the sweetest babies ever.  I can't imagine having twins, but my cousins make it look easy.  I love those babies!

And just because he's cute...

curb appeal

Matt and I stopped by a nursery by our house last weekend to search through their stock of trees and shrubs.  We talked about doing some landscaping this Winter and then the mixture of a super-mild Winter and the beautiful March we had really sparked our interest in doing some landscaping.  Our current landscaping setup is plain and boring. We are the only house in the neighborhood without a big mature tree in the front.  I really think it will jazz up the "curb appeal" and really just make me more excited about our house if we add a little green out there.

The guy at the nursery was so helpful and knowledgeable. We ended up spending at least 2 hours there (it was supposed to be a motorcycle ride up there, look real quick, and leave) and got a really good idea of what we wanted.  After talking with Toby (guy at the nursery), we decided we needed to do the "big" things first.  We knew we couldn't do everything we had planned on this year, some will have to wait until next year.  He encouraged us to pick out our largest items and get those planted this year so they'd have the most time to grow and mature. Great idea Toby!

We have narrowed it down pretty close to what our 2012 plan will be...

1. Medium/Large sized tree for the front of the house off to the side a little (hopefully will add some pizzazz, color, and shade to the front)

      -Brandywine Maple-nice green leaves throughout the Spring/Summer, bright red leaves in fall, perfect size, moderate-fast growing

2. Shrubs for in front of our walkway 

      -Boxwoods (cute little green shrubs that will spruce up our front yard...I'll eventually plant some colorful flowers near them to add some color)

3. Small/Medium sized tree to go to the left of the front door entrance

      -Evergreen (I am not a fan of evergreens, but I have started considering it more because of how easy and low-maintainence they are)

      -Buckthorn (I just remember this name, I actually forget what it actually looks like)

      -Althea (Pretty flowers. Downside? We might have to trim this guy down every year)

4. MAYBE a nice little Redbud tree on the right side front of the house.  I love redbuds, but it may not be in the budget for this year.

That's all for this year.  We eventually want to add some Spring bulbs, Fall mums, hydrangea bushes, pavers and mulching. I also want to do a little island with some perennials (hopefully some zinnias!) in the front side yard. We need to spruce up around our mailbox too, but that may wait until next year.  

The plan is to get everything delivered next weekend so we can get to work! Wish us luck :)