Finally...a nice weekend!

Both Saturday and Sunday were sunny with highs in the upper 60s...so it was beautiful weather - for starting yardwork!

Saturday I sat out on the deck for a few minutes, but found that the hangy-leg wasps also enjoy the deck wood. I would kill one, and another one would fly in. That made me uncomfortable knowing they were around, so my outside sun time was short-lived. I know we need to wash and seal the deck, but I doubt that will stop the wasps. I thought maybe we could seal with wasp-spray too.

The rest of Saturday was spent catching up on grading. I am now caught up so I can cross that part off of the list...for now! Zach was visiting us from DeKalb so we went to the Kernals vs. Peoria Chiefs baseball game Saturday night. I actually enjoyed myself. It was nice to be outside and eat ballpark food.

Sunday we took down the swingset that the seller's left us. Now it will be much easier to mow the backyard. We also had the tire-sandbox, so I cleaned all of the sand out from inside the tire and we moved the tire into the shed. Now we just have a pile of sand in the middle of the backyard. What do we do with that?

I also start raking out the leaves and pulling weeds from the front yard area. I really should have taken more before-pictures. This is the area in front of the front porch. There was some old mulch down, but mostly it was all covered in leaves and sticks. I raked out the whole front and the side. I filled 5 bags full of leaves and sticks. Next, I'll need to get some new mulch to put down. Then I'll move to the rest of the front and side yard, which has more weeds than grass.

Neville was naughty tonight and tried to jump up the dining room table as soon as I put dinner down. I was standing right next to the table- and he knows he isn't supposed to go up there. I picked him and put him down, yelled, and used the water sprayer. He ran into the living room and sat on the floor facing the opposite direction from us for the next half hour. He would not respond to his name. He's been on my lap for the past 3 hours so I think he's over it. I thought it was funny he responded to punishment like a child.

We are heading back to IL next weekend for Mother's Day. We will need to leave Neville here by himself (though I'm not opposed to bringing him back and living in my room with me for the weekend). I'm a bit nervous about leaving him by himself since this is all still new for him and he is so hungry for attention. I don't really want to ask anyone to come look in on him because anyone who I would trust to give a key to the house would have to make a 10 mile + trip out here.

This week will be spent finishing up end of semester activities, and more prep for summer. House projects for the week include mulching and hopefully getting some hanging baskets for the front porch.