Devy-poo

My youngest brother, Devin came to visit for a couple weeks before heading back to college. We are so lucky! I didn't think we'd have anybody come visit us once we moved to Indiana. Boy, was I wrong...my family is really close & I've been so grateful because they've all been to visit us here [except my Dad, cough cough]. So, starting it off right, here's his breakfast/mixing bowl of oatmeal he had every morning. I made bread every few days while he was here compared to my normal every week & a half...he eats at least 3 sandwiches every day. And that's because it's dense, homemade bread. On his mission sometimes he'd eat five. The Cobia men are legends. I pity their wives. And bank accounts.

We put him right to work...there's been a lot to do (& still a lot left) & since we're running out of 'working' season we worked plenty while he was here and he was a great sport about it. He ran the boys to soccer, scouts, let me run to the store, appointments, etc and I had an adult to talk to during the day. Wow, it was a dream come true :) Come any time Dev.

cleaning out nasty gutters (thanks to the landlord who let us borrow their ladder & hedger)

boys hard at work. They're in "stick heaven" here because we have quite a few trees on the property. Every time they have to go pick up sticks so I can mow, very few make it in the garbage...

Ari worked hard too...eating dirt apparently.

A 'before' shot of our cute little house, though it doesn't show the worst part...the gravel area in front. They're common here so cars can park in front of houses without taking up road space, kind of nice actually--unless they're weed-infested like ours.

This is how it looks for now...the sign by the door is a 'unique' display of a stone piece with the house number on it mounted on a normal piece of wood which is covering the hole where the AC wall unit used to be. Interesting...if I had my way I would paint it black at least & then paint the shutters to match. We'll see about that in the spring, I have enough projects for now.