It's finished!

Finished!

Remember this?

and then this in our driveway...



It has been turned into this!





This retaining wall has taken nearly ALL summer! So it is such a relief to have it finished! Well, it is almost finished. We ran out of block so we will have to buy a half a pallet more or something like that to finish it off where it wraps around behind our swingset (not pictured).
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Today I spent the morning doing something I dread. In fact, I don't know a woman alive who enjoys this but it is a necessity! My Annual Exam was today and I just had to tell myself I was doing it because I love myself and that it is taking good care of my body. (What would I do without that inner self-talk?)

I always rush to get my clothes off and the gown on, I don't know why because then I end up sitting there foreeeever waiting with that darned paper covering my nether regions while I wait for the doctor to come in. After a 30 minute wait in the waiting room, then a 30 minute wait in the gown the doctor finally arrived! At least I'm smart enough now to just get out the stirrups and "put my feet up" while I wait!!

The good thing is my doctor is really great! He is especially good on "patient education." I have a Mirena IUD and I got a little worried because I have a friend who's IUD (copper) disappeared and she turned up pregnant. I mean, how does an IUD disappear? Anyway, he said he had one patient who must have had it fall out and she didn't know it. After her baby was born they x-rayed her pelvis and abdomen and couldn't find it, so that is why they concluded it must have fallen out.

After going to the doctor I had to wait for some pictures to get processed at Costco so I went to Hobby Lobby. I needed a mat for a frame I have (trying to frame our family pictures we recently had taken and a new Temple Picture we are doing for Super Saturday). While I was there, I meandered over to the card-making/scrapbooking stuff and had to pick a few things up.

Afterall, one of my goals for this year was to acquire a hobby. I've recently realized I've let all of my hobbies slide and child bearing and rearing has overtaken my life. Though I love being a Mom, I also like to do other things too - but I just have to find out what I like to do again. That seems so weird to say, but it's true.

So my girls and I spent the evening (after Family Night) making cards and scrapbooking.




While we did that, the Boys did this



While I was driving around today in Laren's car, since he was working from home and he needed the van to pick up Rilyn from Kindergarten, I noticed the brakes were VERY bad. They feel like they are rubbing the rotors when I press them and I feared they would go all the way to the floor causing an accident.

I knew the brakes weren't good for sometime but after driving it today, I knew they couldn't wait any longer. Laren was anxious to get to planting the trees we bought over the weekend but this took priority! And as many projects seem to go, it seems it is taking much longer than anticipated and he is still out there. To his credit, he had to run and get an additional part he needed and in the process he realized the CV Boot needs replaced as well. Plus, he had a couple of young helpers too!