full house

wow. what a crazy week it’s been here in the happy household. i had a total of six houseguests–my bedrooms were all full and there were non-bedrooms that had to be called into use! i had a fabulous time.

my cousin arrived on friday night. he has really gotten into biking in the past few years, so when we took him out for dinner that evening, we biked downtown. he thought it was pretty cool (and really, it is) to be able to bike to dinner and back. the next day, we went for a longer ride, about 45 miles round trip, to a nearby town for lunch and a bit of exploring. there was a pretty strong headwind all the way there, but it made the trip home that much sweeter. it was a great day–i think that’s the longest ride i’ve done so far this year!

for as much as i enjoy doing interior decorating, my sister loves to garden. and my yard was in desperate need of help. ever since we bought the house a few years ago, i have just despaired about the yard, not knowing what to do with it to make it look better. it’s lumpy, there are giant, scratchy cedar bushes stuck in the middle of the yard (for no apparent reason), past owners of the house chose to install gravel beds around the entire exterior of the place, making planting almost impossible and not really discouraging weeds all that much. and really not looking pretty. i had mentioned these woes to my sister and i think she had seen photos of the lawn before, but when she arrived on saturday evening, she gave me a hug, then turned around to survey the yard and said, “wow. this really is awful!” and started planning immediately.

on sunday morning, i took everyone out for a canoe ride. we packed sandwiches and snacks and had a picnic between the three boats. there were a few sandhill cranes and other birds and we saw some fish and turtles as well. in the afternoon, another family friend arrived and the party was complete! after church that evening, we picked up some pizza and headed over to watch the fireworks. an ice cream truck pulled up to the park. some of our friends with a toddler had joined us for fireworks and when he saw the truck, he said, “ice keem truck!” i was kind of wishing that i had a fudgesicle, so we went over to the truck together and got some ice cream. i think that’s the first time i’ve ever gotten ice cream from the ice cream truck! :)

monday, we worked on the yard most of the day. my sister and brother-in-law (who is good at overall yard design) and i went to a local greenhouse to get some plants. my sister is very good at listening and figuring out what it is that i like, even when i’m despairing that i don’t really like anything and i don’t know what i want and don’t know what will grow in my yard, she just says, “ok, how about this?” and somewhere in the conversation, she’s able to pull out truths like, “hmm.. apparently, you’re not really all that keen on flowers, you just like interesting foliage. especially in weird colors.” and “ok. it seems like the trick for you is to just find a few plants that you like and then buy lots of them so that there can be repeating patterns.” my sister’s personal style is to buy a little of this and a little of that and mix it all up into an attractive jumble with lots of blooming things of different heights. but everything she said about my style was true–i just wasn’t able to put it into words before she did. after figuring that out, we ended up purchasing some big cannas with boldly striped leaves, some elephant ears of the velvety black-purple variety, and some little spiky green grasses–some solid green and some a floppy yellow and green stripe that reminded me of the muppet who sings “mah-nah-mah-nah” along with a few other random varieties to put into pots. and then, at target, we found these great giant lime green pots that were on sale and bought three of them. the next day was spent digging and potting and cutting down the itchy bushes and moving a giant landscaping rock that had been mostly buried under one of the bushes (it took five of us all gathered around the rock to move it). and now my yard has some hope! i’m very excited about it and keep hoping she’ll come back again in the fall or next year some time to do some more stuff to it. :)

our family friend asked if she could make cheesecake for us. (“um, yes.”) that was delicious. we did a puzzle together (it’s what my family does. but somehow, i don’t own any puzzles myself yet. weird.). we watched dvd’s of the electric company and …. finally found the myrna sketch!!! it’s a cartoon that has stuck with me for forever and if you’d like to see it, find the 3rd electric company dvd and watch the third episode on that dvd. it’s a cartoon that is supposed to explain the properties of the apostrophe-“s” combination and it became part of my family’s vocabulary (somewhat like “whooooo is it? it’s the plumber! i’ve come to fix the sink!” which is on the first electric company disc.)

the last two days of my family’s visit, mr. h-s and i had to work, and my sister and her husband drove off to visit a high school friend, and all of my other guests had gone home, leaving mom and dad to entertain themselves. i think they didn’t mind. the last day they were here, new windows for our dining room arrived and my dad was able to help get those installed. it’s the first real structural change we’ve made to the house (and the first really significant chunk of change we’ve dumped into a single project) and it is so exciting! we’re replacing some jalousie windows (the kind with slats of glass) with casement windows (the kind that swing out with a crank). they will be much better at keeping winter weather out and much clearer to look out into the yard through. they’re not yet all trimmed out, but they already look sooooo much better!

oh, and i also finally chopped off my hair! it’s off of my neck and it’s a totally cute cut and there are just so many new, fresh things that i just had to write this long, loooong blog entry and tell you about all of the happy stuff that went on this week! (i didn’t even mention the trip out to the greenhouse in the country with miniature trains and two whole greenhouses dedicated to only hostas (along with all of the other tons of greenhouses!)