tough week...

so since last thursday, it's been a long week. we spent all day last friday working on the yard. justin broke up the desert area in our back yard that stubbornly hadn't grown grass with a 5 lb. mattock (a pick/sledgehammer type tool.) he busted it up into huge chunks of concrete-hard dirt, and we finally got it to the point where we could spread topsoil on it and plant grass seed again. while he was doing this, i removed the pine straw from the front yard flower beds and replaced it with our brown mulch that we had delivered. below are pictures capturing the whole process...

justin with the mattock in his paul bunyan pose
a piece of the dirt that we dug up
our new front yard flower beds (and the flowers that have bloomed already)

the back deck with mulch and the plants grandma has given me from her yard
after all that very hard, back-breaking work on friday, we took it pretty easy on saturday. it turned cold and rainy (which made it difficult to do my latino spring festival shoot) so we spent plenty of time inside enjoying a new game together. it's called "zack and wiki: the quest for barbados' treasure" which is best described as a puzzle/adventure game. the puzzle part is what i really enjoy, and we easily spent several hours on saturday and sunday solving the puzzles together. you are basically placed in a game level with the goal of reaching the treasure chest or treasure map, and you can manipulate many different parts of the level, change animals into objects, use objects and basic physics to make actions occur, etc. great game and we are getting close to finishing it :)

monday was a tough day--we've had an employee--and friend of mine--at work who was diagnosed with liver cancer over a year and a half ago. she was receiving treatment for over a year and earlier in 2008, they told her that there wasn't anything else they could do for her. on sunday evening, after many months of treatment and battling cancer, she passed away. she has two wonderful daughters--one who is a 9th grader at oakwood--and many family members and friends who loved her very much. it was a diffcult way to start back after spring break, and as much as i had imagined that day to be, it was amazing how the teachers and faculty members pulled together at work. i had many tough conversations with the students and tried to support the other faculty members as much as i could, and i had also planned with other therapists and had them on call in case things got overwhelming. by the middle of the week, things had somewhat returned to normal, but we have big plans for relay for life and her memorial service before the end of the month.

the rest of the week should have been relaxing, but it wasn't--with many plans for next school year coming out and my attempt to make plans for the student government for the remainder of the school year. it's getting to the crazy time of year where i have wedding/bridesmaid/alan's graduation plans nearly every weekend, and i'm just preparing myself for things to be wild. there are still some major question marks for what will be happening over the next couple of months, and it's going to be tough waiting to find out how things will fall. i'm just asking for patience and understanding as i gear up for alan's senior recital and graduation, our anniversary, ashley's wedding, the end of the school year, and alan and rachel's wedding. whoo, it's going to be crazy!

and finally... go UNC! final four weekend, and i'm ready for the game. i'll be watching my heels tonight and (hopefully) monday night :)

that's all for now. later, y'all...