Day lilies for days ...

I am not a gardener.  I kill anything that's green - not on purpose.  But even my succulents, which apparently are SO easy to keep alive and require little work, yeah, I killed those.  I have ONE plant that I've managed to keep alive, and for that - I'm pretty darn proud.

SO, when it comes to the great outdoors I love that our yard is pretty much a cut-everything-back in the spring and it will reappear {many thanks to the previous owners!}.  But, apparently our day lilies were getting a little out of hand - and who knew they're not suppose to be right up against the house because they can ruin the foundation?!? Yeah, this girl didn't know that!  

So this past weekend I dug - and dug - and dug out day lilies. 

And when I say dug and dug - oh I mean DUG and DUG!  These little suckers are HARD to get out.  And, a word of advice if you'd like it - this is not to be done with a hand shovel.  We might have had to make a home depot run to get a larger shovel {which we didn't have} after I bent the hand shovel time and time again --- oops! 

But I'm happy to say that I succeeded in taking out an entire row of day lilies.  There are still PLENTY left, but now there is a nice space between the flowers and the house.  And my body - oh how my body still aches from squatting and digging - and digging and squatting ...

As a bonus - I was able to gift some of the day lilies to people - yes, we sure did have day lilies for DAYS! :)

Barry Roubaix ...

Race season for the hubs has officially begun!   We made our journey down to Hastings for the 4th year in a row.  Thankfully, my cousins live SO close to the race so we get to visit with them and stay at their house - a definite extra bonus! 

The race this year was moved BACK too - which was a HUGE bonus for me.  Typically at this race I am wearing my parka, long underwear, hats, mittens, scarves ... you get the picture!  Well, this year I was SHEDDING the layers and actually ended up getting a little burnt from the beautiful sun that decided to grace us with its presence. 

The hubs finished strong even with some technical problems.  The warm weather made for some dusty dusty riding!   When the hubs got done and was talking to me, I noticed a line of dirt across the bottom of his teeth from where his mouth was open - he also said after he had showered he was amazed by how much dirt was in his ears - yuck! 

But the hubs and his buddies had an amazing race - I got to walk around downtown and found a sunny spot to read for a bit.  All in all a great day! 

A pup and his snake ...

It's official  - he is OBSESSED with this new toy.  He squeaks it, he carries it around, he sleeps with it - the snake is never far from his side :)

A trip to the windy city ...

For spring break {which we currently have 3 more glorious days of} we took a little trip to the Windy City for a couple days.  We stayed right in the heart of downtown - walked walked walked - ate ate ate - and enjoyed a great time with friends!  Here's a little picture recap of our adventures ...

Lobster Rolls were a must for our first night - sadly, they were all out of lobster! But, we had crab rolls instead which were SO good - and went back our last night to have some lobster {which didn't disappoint either!}

Our first night it was SO nice out - so we did a lot of walking around town ... 

Down by the river ... 

And over to Millennium Park

The night view from our hotel room ...

Day two we had a chilly {about 20 degrees cooler than the night before!} walk to the Shedd.

We had a blast and loved seeing so many creatures!

Day three we headed to Willis Tower.  Such a breathtaking view!

And of course we HAD to go out on the Sky Deck! 103 floors above the city!

After all that walking we stopped to have some Girordano's Chicago Style Pizza for lunch - SO good!

And later on we took another walk to get some popcorn for my mom ;)

A late night snack to Fire Cakes - SOOO good!

We may have taken a walk in the rain the next morning to get a donut for breakfast too ;)

After we checked out of our hotel we drove over to the Museum of Science and Industry where we saw the Brick by Brick exhibit.  So many amazing models made out of lego!

And of course we had to check out the bike exhibit too ;)

Our pup had a blast at the doggy hotel too --- he was pretty tied when we returned home :)

Photo Dump ...

I've been slacking {once again} in the blogging department ... but here you go {mom} -  a little update for you! 

We've been enjoying the sunshine ...

And had Bo visiting for a couple weeks.  

Otis LOVES him some Bo - so much so that he's constantly by his side! 

He's such a nice pup, he even shared his food! 

And his tail to give Bo a little extra warmth ;)

We have been spending a lot of our weekends traveling for Forensics.  An extra bonus is being able to "escape" for a bit and meet up with some college friends :)

I bought {and fit into} my first EVER size 6 jeans.  Hokey pete!!! 

The snow had melted and we enjoyed some nightly walks after work ... Otis was in heaven!  

And then, well it snowed again! :(  But, we did get one last snow day out of the deal :)

And there you have a bit of life lately ... gearing up for one more work week then SPRING BREAK! :)