The new backyard and a new hobby!

When Nick and I moved into this house one of the highlights was the huge deck on the back of the house. Even though the deck was in bad shape we rented the house with the agreement with our landlord that it would be replaced within 90 days.

One of the reasons we liked the deck so much is because we love to entertain and have guests over for dinners or whatever.

So it's been a little over 90 days but we are very excited to have a space to entertain now!! Our landlord went with a patio instead of a deck because the upkeep being much less but also there is no chance of the wood becoming rotten. We both really like the new space and can't wait to have friends and family over to see it!

The deck went from the end of the house (where the stairs are) to about where Nick is standing when taking this picture. Hoping to give you a reference point since we don't have a before picture. We couldn't walk on the deck and feel safe. There were several boards that were very rotten and a chance of a foot going through - hence the reason we haven't had a bbq yet. =)

For some reason I really like that the stones are not all lined up with eachother.

I think the total space is 10' by 20'. The bbq is chillin' on the bottom right corner of this picture.. you just can't see it.

So a few weeks ago I joined a Stampin' Up club with Sue, my mother-in-law. She's been doing it for years and I knew she would love it if I joined. There was no pressure to join and the lady who "hosts" Stampin' Up isn't pushy about the sales at all. She does it just for fun and it's a very small, tight nit group. When I went with Sue there was a total of 5 of us. It took about 3 hours (with some small snack breaks in there) to complete 4 cards. Another cool thing is that all the ladies each bring a card that they have made at home, ahead of time to exchange with everyone. I came home with 7 cards! (Sue had made mine to exchange since I was sick, in bed with a head cold the weekend before!) The 3 on the right are the ones that I made. The 2nd from the left is the one that Sue made for me to exhange and Sue also made the one on the left to exchange. It's something new for me to enjoy. I've always been crafty.. and I really enjoy doing this!





Of course - As soon as I put them up to take a picture of .. Chester has to investigate!
Gizmo is getting his upper K-9's right now and his baby ones have not fallen out yet. It looks really strange, he hasn't been himself the last week or so.. I am amsuming it's because of how much his teeth hurt. We're going to wait to see if they fall out on their own in the next week. Poor little guy. Don't worry.. he's still running around and trying to beat up Chester!

9ilip
}

This is from Gizmo who just walked across the computer. Just trying to help out!



If you look at the bottom of the card.. you can see that I used ribbon too! Oh and the cherry on the top of the cake was my idea. ;-)
What's neat about the stampin' thing is that Wren (the Stampin' Up rep.) has the designs all picked out and ready for us to put them together.

Martha Stewart who!?!


Update on my work situation: I am happy to say that Teri and I have hired 3 fulltime tellers and 1 part time. One of them speak spanish which can be used to increase business at our branch (and she has years of experience with US Bank). One fulltimer started today, one starts next week and other 2 will start around the 9th of Sept. Whoo Hoo! Even though there's a lot of change going on at my branch - I'm sad and excited at the same time. Sad to see some of the one that I really enjoy working with leave and excited to have some new members join our team! We'll see what the future brings... =)
That.. and how I make it through the next 2 weeks - 6 days each week - open to close
= 60 hour work weeks.
Nick is great when I have to do this.. he has dinner ready for me each night AND does the dishes which makes a difference to me! Thanks Nick!! =)