Any Ideas Out There?

OK...so we got the mugo pine out; got some new top soil blend in, got the barkdust waiting....any ideas on what to put here? The sidewalk to the left leads to our front porch (just out of the picture). We were thinking a couple of boulders with maybe a very small tree. Marci gave me a couple of ideas. I'm going to look more into japanese maples. A shrub? Perennials? All of the above? Brittany suggested a bench looking toward the porch, but I would rather look out instead of looking at our porch. I can totally picture that, but think something else might be better. Let me know what you think...and if you have pictures of a certain plant/tree/shrub...shoot them on over email lcfriesen@msn.com. Thanks!!!

Am I That Old?

Yes, it's true...I turned the big 50 on June 1st. It still wierd for me to say,..."I'm 50"... but I actually kind of like it! A lot has happened in these first 50 years. Hopefully, I am a little wiser with each year that does pass by. I know there is still a lot that I have to work on. The good thing is that I know God won't give up on me along the way! I do look forward to all the wonderful things God has planned that I don't even know about yet!


The Friday before, Lamar invited a few close friends to share in a meal at a local restaurant. Yumm!


On my actual birthday on Sunday, it was nice to celebrate...just me, my wonderful husband, kids and grandkiddies.


And then on the Tuesday after, my mom had my family over for a bbq. And yes, we ate outside, even though it was JunUARY...FREEZING outside! It was really nice to get together.

Going, going, gone!

The last few days, we have been working outside getting things spruced up. One of the projects that we're working on is removing a couple of big mugho pine shrubs out of our flower beds in the front yard.


First, we wacked it down by hand one branch at a time.


Then, we thought we'd try to see if we could move them out by hooking it up to our small Ford Ranger. I know...wishful thinking, but hay, we had to try.

Well, that didn't work! It didn't even budge. So, as we were digging somemore around the stumps to try to ease the job, we thought of how we could borrow a larger truck from a friend. Just as we were trying to figure out who that may be, our next door neighbor drove by, saw what we were trying to do and said, "You know, Devon has a winch on his jeep and he would LOVE to get that out for you...and it probably would take about 15 seconds...no, really!" We looked at each other and said, OK!!!!!



And they were right...Devon pulled out two bushes and a small tree that was growing from underneath our old chicken coop taking a total of about one minute! It was fantastic!! Thank you, Devon and Melinda Berns!!! You saved us hours of hard labor!!

Brother & Sister

Slide Time

We've got to get some kind of play structure for the kids. This Little Tikes cube/slide isn't going to do it much longer! But, for now...Rile' still loves it, so we'll keep enjoying the laughter than comes along with it.

Good-bye to JJ

Our oldest kitty, JJ has been around for a long time. I can't even remember how old he actually is. Yesterday, we found a pile of fur along with...well, I'll just tell you that the Coyotes got him. We'll miss him. Out of our three outdoor cats, he's always been the one to keep his distance. But, he'd always make you smile. He had quite the sense of humor, I think. Quite the character.

Happy Mother's Day 2008!

Me with our "kids", Andy and Brittany.


Me with my mom and sister, Lori.


Lamar with his mom and brother, Dean.