Landscaping

Finally our backyard is starting to look like a backyard. When we moved in, it was full of very tall weeds and iris plants. Matt took a pickup load to the dump of just plants. They had not been taken care of and were very over grown. Once he had the back yard empty of greens it was time to dig out all the rock around the yard. The family that was here before us put rock in every place possible. He had many ideas on how to do it but finally put his Jeep to work. I was no help this summer with a baby on the way, so he has done this ALL by himself! He then had some edging put in, and we moved a few plants around plus my Mom and Wayne gave us a few! Thanks to them we got one area of the fence covered with plants and mulch. We also picked up some lilac bushes from the greenhouse. The sprinklers will be next and then on to some grass, I know Hoss will be very happy to have some grass and a dog door!


June 2007 - The Start

Using the Jeep as a landscape tool!

All clear! No more plants!

Planting lilacs.

Here's how it looks today!

Some really nice new furniture

We've been getting some questions about the baby's crib, so we thought we would share a picture of the latest project from the McKenzie Fine Furniture Company. My dad (Don) built this for the baby and we're lucky to have such a nice bed. I'm sure it will be put to good use. We'll see how long it takes the baby to climb out! Thanks for such a cool bed, I'm sure he'll love it.

Baby Update

He's growing like a weed! We just had our 29 week check-up and had another sonogram. He is measuring at the size of a 32 week old baby, so he's a big boy. Some how, they can judge weight from the measurements and they think he is about 4 pounds. Our nephew Thaddeus was at 2.5 pounds at this stage, and he was a big boy! Thad, your cousin has you beat. Get ready for some wrestling, sumo style.

It's a Jeep Thing

I was reading Linda's blog the other day and she was talking about things that reminded her of spring. Well, this is it for me. The top is off the Jeep and it's time for some fun in the sun. Dad, notice carefully, the front hoop on the roll bar is removed! That's kind of an inside joke with us. My jeep had an akward roll bar that came down next to the windshield. It was a knee knocker and really just in the way. For Christmas, Dad bought me a grinder with a cutoff wheel and said he expected that roll bar to be gone next time he rode in the jeep. It's out of there, so thank you very much for the grinder...it was a handy tool this weekend.

Unfortunately, there's always some sort of repair or tuning that needs to be done. I missed a trail ride tonight with the local jeep guys because I discovered a fuel leak. I decided that I really didn't want my jeep to catch fire, so instead of cruising a semi-dry river bottom and getting this "pavement princess" off the blacktop with the boys, tonight I fix problems. Maybe next time!

He's Growing!

We thought we would give you an update on the baby progress. We're in week 28, so not too much longer and this little guy will be greeting us. Things are going well and Jena is feeling good. We are having a Dr. appointment every two weeks now, so it seems like that is keeping us busy. We're still not fully settled on a name. If you've got suggestions, we'd love to hear them. We do have one stipulation about names though: it has to be pronouned like it is spelled (Jena is constantly called Jenna and doesn't want to pass that on). We're also thinking about names that can be shortened (Matt short for Matthew), that way he has options. I know there was a long period of time when I really hated being called Matthew. Anyway, that's what's up.

I see debt people!

We haven't posted in awhile and Jena says we need an update. We thought we'd tell you about our weekend and a guy I've been listening to on the radio for a few years. We went to Colorado Springs to see Dave Ramsey speak. He's a Christian-based financial guy that has syndicated radio and tv shows out of Nashville. He's also had three books on the New York Times Bestseller list, including one right now. I first found him on the radio when we were in Garden City. Off and on over the last few years, we've tried to follow his plan to get out of debt. Everytime we've been serious about it, we've eliminated a huge pile of debt. The problem was, we never really stayed with it and always managed to "buy stuff we didn't want, with money we didn't have, to impress people we didn't like." That's a Dave quote that I really love. Long story short, we're finally serious about debt elimination, not just reduction. Jena and I really want her to be a stay-at-home mom and that simply wouldn't have happened unless we learned to live on less than I make. Dave's been a huge motivator for us. For the first time since college, we don't have a dollar in credit card debt, are getting close to paying off our vehicle, and have a strong plan going forward for emergency funds, investing, and paying off the house. Seeing Dave live in Colorado Springs this weekend was a huge boost. Check out his website, www.daveramsey.com. Who knows, maybe he can help you out too!

Nashville, TN

Hey all, Matt here. I just got back from Nashville and wanted to tell you about my trip. Nashville is an amazing city. If you love music, this is the place. Every restaurant and every bar has a live band just about every night! I actually had to go there for work, but it wasn't really like work. I was representing Golden Harvest at the Commodity Classic. It's a huge farm show that draws growers, media, and industry people from all over the US. The show was at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel. The hotel is amazing. It sits on 52 acres, not counting parking lots and sidewalks. There are over 2800 rooms and the convention center is 600,000+ sq feet. That sounds big enough, but they have plans to expand to over 1 million sq feet soon. You literally need a map to navigate the place. There is shopping, restaurants, bars, and even a river with a boat tour housed in the hotel. Pretty amazing place. As you can probably guess, Nashville is full of celebrities and I managed to have a brush with one. We walked into a bar downtown on Thursday night and Kid Rock and his road crew were there. They were in town for a concert over the weekend and were just hanging out. If it wasn't for the huge body guards following him everywhere, you might not have even noticed him. Just a regular dude, hanging out and drinking a beer. It was a fun night. I'm also amazed at the talented people you run into. There is a guy or gal with a guitar on almost every street corner. And they're all pretty good. It makes you realize just how good you have to be to get a record deal. The talent seems to be a dime a dozen. Anyway, cool city and I'm ready to go back!