Exhausting, Productive Weekend

Labor Day weekend was busy and exhausting. Having my Mom here has been pure bliss. She really enjoys playing with Alex, and it offers Dana and I uninterrupted free time whenever needed to get stuff done. We've been saving up a lot of things that needed doing.

We all spent most of Saturday outside cleaning up the yard. Mowing the lawn, trimming back overgrown shrubs, edging, cutting down the weeds in the back alley, and all manner of tidying up. The effort really shows! Too bad the lawn's dying, but we never really liked it anyway.

We spent most of Sunday shopping. There were a number of big Labor Day sales that drew us in, plus we had to do our regular household shopping. I got a deal on a late season window AC for the new bedroom (just $70 at Home Depot), and we FINALLY got a barbecue grill! On Sunday night we grilled up some extraordinarily good steaks, corn, baked potatoes and salad. Nothing so good as the first steak off a new grill!

Today we split up to work on stuff. I spent the day prepping and staining some wood furniture and trim pieces for the new closet. I can't seem to get the deep, rich red color out of the stain that Russ found. I'll keep at it though. I also stained all the pieces of a nightstand I've had unfinished in the garage since we moved in. Unfortunately I lost the little bag of hardware that I had for it. I'm sure it will turn up, but very frustrating! Finally I spent about an hour planing down the door jamb in the new closet so that the trim pieces I'm making will fit flush with the jamb. Whew! What a lot of work. For dinner, Dana made lamb kebabs on the new grill, plus salad, roasted new potatoes and mixed veggies. Yummy! That woman can cook. Add a bottle of great Chianti and some strawberry rhubarb pie, and you've got yourself a dinner.

Now for some pictures:

Grandma helping Alex try some rice cereal

The first BBQ

Relaxing on Friday night after a loooong week at work