Not to be out-projected, Adam has taken on the FRONT YARD.
Just to give you a brief History of Our Front "Yard":
- It has had no drip system since we moved in two and a half years ago.
- The big Green Ficus tree Froze in January 2007. It turned brown and crispy.
- The big Brown Ficus tree was chopped down in February 2008. Only a stump remained.
- The stump started growing into a Green Leafy Ficus bush.
- Adam decided to start trimming our Ficus Bush. It became a Green Ficus Cube.
- Discussions were had on whether we could trim our Ficus Cube into a Ficus Pumpkin for Halloween.
- The Red Yucca never shot out its Red Yucca parts (perhaps because it was never dripped on?), so it just looked like a Dingy Yucka.
- The large bush at the front of the "yard" obscured our water meter, which resulted in 6 months of outrageous water bills.
So as you can see, it was time to take a Hatchet (not a Scalpel) to the Shame of Fairview St.
Enter Mike Neerings, my cousin-in-law! He works for a place that makes sprinkler supplies! He sent us a timer and other yard-watering system necessities. Adam spent weeks tweeking and tuning the pipes and digging in the dirt. He ended up having to dig several tunnels. At that point, we decided we might as well put our sprinkler system in now rather than later. It would be easier now, we thought.
Well, there is only one small detail standing in the way of an Arizonan going from xerascape to lushious grassyscape.
Rocks. Tons of them. (Literally.)
We dug and scraped and shoveled and after 6 feet deep of rock removal, do you know what we found? More rocks. There was just no end to those rocks.
Now, you may be familiar with the game "Rock Band." Adam is lucky enough to have a friend, Shane, who invites him over to play this and other games with him for a Guys' Night Out kind of event. Adam decided it was his turn to play host for the Guys' Night Out. Only this was a Different version of Rock Band. The end result yielded much more expended calories and improvement of my yard than when they go to someone else's house.
Adam didn't want to hoard all the fun to his adult friends, so a few days later, he invited the Teacher's Quorum to the party. This time it was a Roto-tiller party. It involved a very manly-man machine and alot of dirt.
Because, once you get all the rocks off, they don't tell you that in Arizona, even the acutal dirt is not really dirt. It is cement. Caliche, for short. It means that even with this manly machine, you can not break through it. Caliche - it's tougher than a manly roto-tiller.
Did you notice our Green Ficus Cube? Well, it's gone now.
Hey Guys, thanks for coming to our Rock Party. Next time, you can host.
And bounteous food prepared lovingly from scratch.
And to be surrounded by family
...who I think we wore out because they worked really really hard to make a wonderful day for the whole family...
What a fun class trip!
Hey Guys, thanks for coming to our Rock Party. Next time, you can host.
These boots were made for Horseback Ridin'. And Lizzie's wearin' them.
Adam was Himself 15 years ago...
This is what a Busy Mom's Halloween costume looks like. I happened to be wearing a zebra-striped shirt that day...add some fake lashes, and voila... Zebra!
This was the Annual Pre-Trick-or-Treating Chili Dinner - the only way we actually get to eat a decent dinner before the candy influx - Thank you McCooks!
This is after we have Tricked and Treated ourselves to exhaustion. Now we're all hanging out on the driveway passing out candy to the last trickle of Treaters. 
This is Lizzie playing with the Funny Glasses.
This is Ivy after asking if we can have some of her hard-earned candy:
