Fat Fest Picture

As promised...

Three Cs Coming My Way

For the past seven years I've been working toward earning my certificate of clinical competency, or my Cs. On Friday, I finally completed my clinical fellowship year, and I was ready to mail off all the paperwork. Very soon I will have my permanent licenses in hand. Woohoo!Other fun news from the weekend...

Joshua and I went to Champaign to meet friends for Fat Fest, an afternoon filled with stops at 10 restaurants along Green Street on campus. The tradition was started in undergrad out of a desire to do something other than a bar crawl. Why not a food crawl? This was my second year attending, and much fun was had by all. I'll try to get a few pictures; I wasn't in the mood to haul around the giant camera all afternoon. I really need to get a purse camera. I think that's going to be added to the Best Buy points list.

And with that, my summer vacation has begun. What a lucky gal I am. I begin my PRN job at the nursing home on Friday; other than that, nothing but summer fun to look forward to for the next ten weeks.

Seeing the Big City

On Saturday, Shaun and I completed a plan that she started forming several months ago. We went to Chicago, well the suburbs, really, but it was Chicago for us. Shaun used up a much-hated gift card to buy Linda, the GPS, and she even bought an i-pass. Our goal was Ikea and Oakbrook Mall. We made it to most of the stores on our wish list, including Pottery Barn, Crate and Barrel, Anthropologie, and West Elm, among others. Linda got us there with no problems, and we shopped until we were too tired to go on.

I'm so excited about a dresser I bought at Ikea, and Shaun finally found some purple, lavendar, and gray bedding ideas at West Elm. What a fun day. Now that our confidence is high, I think we'll be returning again soon.

Rabbit Update

This weekend I bought more rabbit food (liatris plants) from the fancy nursery. Don't worry, though. I also got some rubber snakes and wire mesh to make protective plant covers. Hopefully once the plants get a little bigger, they won't be so delicious looking. We'll see.

I'm Gonna Beat Those Bunny Butts!

This was a phrase Jon G used frequently when I was a child, as she was throwing Tupperware cups at rabbits eating her plants. I thought she was such a beast at the time, but now that I came home to this...

I can totally relate. My brand new liatris plants, bought at the fancy garden center. Now they probably won't bloom this year. Those jerk rabbits ate the buds and leaves right off.

Jon G says to get some rubber snakes to scare them away. I really want to buy new plants, too. I won't; then I would just be double mad when they ate them off again.

Growing Things

Since beginning late last summer after closing on the house, my landscaping project has been ongoing. I suppose anyone with a flower or vegetable garden would say that these things take time, LOTS of time. It's a challenge, but surprisingly, I love it. Here is all that has been accomplished.1. Took out the enormous lilac bush and replaced it with a much tidier assortment of grasses, azalea bushes, lillies, black eyed susans, and liatris. This will only get prettier as more of the flowers bloom this summer.

2. Pulled out all the mismatched scalloped edging and replaced it with neat bricks with a free, curving pattern. This took place around the entire house and was tedious and very difficult. At times I was using a steak knife to cut out tough sod. So worth it!

3. Split and replanted lots of hostas. Love this side of the house especially.
4. Added completely new flower beds at the back of the house. This includes more grasses, azaleas, and three peony bushes for Shaun. She loves them with all her heart. I must say, they are pertty. This part of the landscaping still needs mulch. I underestimated at Lowe's yesterday. At some point the deck needs to be redone. At the moment, it's impossible to avoid slivers in bare feet. That will be a project down the road. For now, I'm quite content. I turned an over-grown, mismatched array of plants and weeds into a manicured and loved green space. More pictures to come as the flowers bloom this summer.