Visit from Mom and Dad!

Mom and Dad came down to visit us this weekend and we shopped til we dropped, saw one really good movie (Rock of Ages – so good!  Had to stop myself from singing along with every song) saw one not so good movie (This Means War – what is the appeal of Chelsea Handler anyway?  I think she is so annoying) ate tons of good food AAAAAAAND got to pet some penguins at the Idaho Falls zoo!

Here’s Dad doing what Dad does best… grilling steaks!  They were sooooo good!

Roxy and Hurley could not get enough of my parents, it was funny to see them fighting for their attention!

We went to the zoo to see the penguins and it was such a cool experience to be able to play and pet the penguins!  They were black-footed penguins from South Africa!  So fun!  We got a special treat too, cause they brought out two of the baby ones for us to play with! 

Heat Wave!

Holy cannoli, it has been soooo hot here!  Everything is growing super fast, which is nice, but it’s also been a pain trying to keep everything watered! 

My rose bush is blooming already!  And they are gorgeous!  The combo of my Dappled Willow tree and my rose bush is probably my favorite thing in my yard, I just think they look so cute!

We had some “issues” with the zinnias in the front flower bed, and by “issues” I mean they all died, so we replaced them with these cute pink dahlias and things are looking much better now!  However, the zinnias in the side flower are doing awesome, they are like two feet tall!  It’s so weird!

The garden is coming along nicely too, we already have a pepper coming and we are going to have a TON of raspberries even though it was the first year they were planted!

Have I ever mentioned how much I love my husband?

I’m pretty sure I say it all the time but I just think Jordan is the best!  Guess it was a good thing I married him huh?  Take for example this weekend:  he has a cold and has been feeling sick but the stud muffin had signed up to run a 10K with his brother and sister and so he still ran it – and he came in under an hour!  And then after that, he came home and whipped up some curtains for our bedroom… like it was no big deal.  Sometimes I wonder if there is anything he can’t do…?  (the answer is yes, he is terrible at cleaning… )

These came from a pin I found on Pinterest… here it is below.  He did pretty dang good!

In other news, we had our first garden casualty… the basil just couldn’t make it.  But we also had our first corn stalks come out…

And we finally have GRASS growing on the western side of the house!!  Hooray!  It’s not just dirt anymore!

Dad, check out my Sweet Peas!

Just hanging out…

It was a solar eclipse this weekend… so I borrowed Arden’s welding helmet so I could watch it!  PS, the eclipse took A LOT longer than I thought it would… it all happened veerrrryyy slllloowwwllyy….

Getting soooo close to having a real yard!

Each weekend Jordan and I work on our yard and I have to say, it’s looking real good!  Check it out for yourself…

This year instead of paying a greenhouse like $60 for some planters that we don’t really like, Jordan and I decided to make our own!  And they are super cute!  Now they just have to get a little bigger before we put them out in front of the house.

Got this cute little owl at TJMaxx!  Love him!

My hydrangea and columbine flower bed!  With black mulch to give it the signature Jordan and Joanne look….

Love, love, love, LOVE my new little Camperdown Tree and my Golden Flame Honeysuckle bush!  We also have sweet peas and gladiolas growing in this flower bed by the fence!

Got our garden all planted!  We are getting them out kinda early, but we have a feeling this weirdly warm weather will be sticking around for awhile… fingers crossed. 

Mowing the lawn in the back…

Pemphigus Foliaceus

About 9 months ago Jordan and I noticed that Roxy’s nose looked rough and dry, but we didn’t think much of it.  We thought it could be allergies but couldn’t tell if there was anything specific causing it.  We thought it could be her food bowl irritating it but we switched bowls and it didn’t change anything.  But one day we noticed that her signature black Chow tongue was losing it color and turning pink so I knew it was time to take her to the vet.

Turns out she has Pemphigus Foliaceus, which is an auto-immune disease that causes the body to basically start attacking itself.  It usually starts at the nose and mouth and spreads to other parts of the body.  Do not look up pictures of it, trust me, they are horrifying.  It’s not something that we can ever get rid of, which is sad, but the vet has put her on steroids to push it into remission.  He says you never know how long it will go into remission for, it could not reappear for a few years of just a few months.  So it’s something that we will always have to be watching out for.

It just makes me sad because the steroids are really hard on her and she doesn’t have much energy any more or her usually sassiness… but hopefully after a few more weeks we can lessen the dose and get her back to her regular old bad-A self.  The steroids are helping, her nose is looking better and better although it will never get the pigment back that was lost, but we are pretty lucky we caught it early and that there was still something we could do for her.

Love this girl to pieces!  Such a sweetheart!

Another beautiful weekend for yard work…

It was summer like weather in the middle of April this weekend so Jordan and I took full advantage of it and got going on some more yard work.  Each time we work out there it starts looking better and better… which is good, cause we need it for motivation to keep going!

My very first tulip ever!

Trying to get the grass to grow in the front…

We had a big, ugly utility box to hide and here is our finished product!  Cute picket fence with perennial plants and we topped off with black mulch (had no idea that made black mulch but it looks sooo good) and our license plate bird house!  I am pretty proud of how cute this turned out!

The start of our raspberry patch!  It’ll be interesting to take a picture of this again in a couple of years to see how much it has grown!