The seeds of summer

Before we bought a house we would often hear from friends and family about how much work they are to maintain. And as I have said before on this blog, this type of work isn't really that big of a deal to me as I kind of enjoy putting work into our house and yard. Between mowing, vacuuming, dusting, swiffering, and the occasional fix-it job, owning a house can be a lot of work but it always leaves me with a feeling of accomplishment. Last night after going on a walk we spent a while in the front yard performing the rather unglamorous task of...weeding. Not stylish to be sure, but a task that needs to be done from time to time. And even though we lifted a trash barrel full of leafy pests from the ground it feels like we hardly made a dent in ridding our yard of them. But there are several noticeable improvements already, and we're even thinking about getting our lawn treated next year. Yeah, it's a bow to suburban lifestyle that we would rather not take, but dude...it's tough keeping up with all the weeds. Who knows. :) We have also successfully re-caulked the bathtub in the past week, after an initial attempt that was foiled due to my use of expired caulking (which is no fun at all to get off once it's applied). Someday we'll get the back screen door replaced, the wallpaper taken down, the rooms painted, and a handful of other projects, but for now we're content with the small accomplishments. :)

A few days ago a giant weather system blew through town, which marked the first time as Oklahoma residents that we were subjected to the mercy of a big ol' tornado-spawning spring thunderstorm. Having grown up in Nebraska, on the northern end of Tornado Alley, we weren't exactly freaking out or anything--in fact, we spent most of the evening moving office furniture on the OSU campus. But when the sirens sounded it was nice to be able to head to a lecture hall in the basement of the building we were in, and wait out the storm with lots of good people and three LCD projector screens keeping us updated on weather conditions. Even though the tornadoes mostly passed our town without incident, it was another sobering reminder of the power of nature and the weakness of even the strongest buildings. Hopefully next time we will be just as fortunate!

This spring has also brought several visitors and mini-trips for us. Between out-of-town work conferences, friends from Nebraska coming down for a weekend, and a bridal shower that my wife put on for her friend back home, it's been a busy couple of weeks. (or has it been months? It all runs together...) We were going to have some family come for a visit this weekend too, but circumstances changed and they are postponing their trip for a few weeks. In a way it's nice to have a free weekend to just be around the house and take it easy if we so wish. And of course play some Xbox too. :)