Catching up

Work and Life have been pretty busy the last couple of weeks. We had a great visit with my mother, step-father, step-brothers and their wives and children both at our house and over at my nephew's graduation party. We have done a lot of catching up with the family and we have eaten our way through many days. It always feels good to get together with family and have a good meal. The last time this many of us were together was at Thanksgiving time. I really need to get better at making our way over there because it is only an hour and a half drive. We have gotten along so well the last few times that we've all gotten together and having the large family gatherings makes it feel special like when we all grew up in the same house.
Alex had another successful progression in his soccer season, which wrapped up last weekend. We had a little get together after the final game to have ice cream and celebrate with his teammates. Morgan is in her final week of preparation for her dance recital and then dance will be done for the summer as well. Her bowling league is about half way done and that wraps up in July. After that I am not sure what the kids will do. I get a lot of the "I'm bored" remarks each day now and since the school year is officially finished, they have all day to find things to do.
With the help of Michael, our fence is up! I was in full DIY to the rescue mode when he was showing me how things were done. I learn so much and it is great that he can be patient with me so I can try to learn by doing. I am still at little shy of the pneumatic nail gun, but it is a wonderful tool that saved us a ton of time. I still can't believe that we had it done in just two long workdays. All that is left is to hang and build out the gate, put on a latch and it's done. I really appreciate my yard a lot more now that it has the fence even if I hate to admit that Kelly was right about this one. The post and rail fence is really different in our neighborhood where there are more chain link fences than anything and I didn't want a privacy fence to make me feel all cooped up. It sets the boarder for the yard without being so confining. I know that more projects will be on the way, not just sure yet what the next one will be. Time will be needed to refill the coffers before we can start anything new.
This weekend we hit our first anniversary of being home owners. I can't believe that it went by so fast. We have been really lucky to be here and have things work out so well. Now all I need to do is make sure that I take the time to slow down even when the work pace is fast and enjoy what we have.