Backyard Transformation

Some of you may remember when our backyard looked like a wild weed field. Well, we are happy to announce that those days are long-forgotten history. This Memorial Day weekend concluded the long home improvement project and we are sure pleased with the results!

Mr. Wagner deserves the kudos (and could use a new tube of Bengay). The past couple of summers he spent countless hours hauling in load after load of dirt and gravel, extending our patio and adding a sidewalk, putting in an irrigation and drainage system, laying sod (and maintaining it diligently to challenge the best of golf courses), building a large raised flower bed and two redwood garden boxes.

Yours Truly consulted on the landscape design but mostly had the easy job of babysitting (the Little Miss and I have enjoyed a lot of girl time and fun outings). This weekend we spent a small fortune on the plants and all finished the yard together. We are really happy with the outcome! Now, Yours Truly needs prayer for a green thumb...

Where Art Thou O' Summer?

The West Coast Wagner family household, especially Yours Truly, is excited for June to start. While we aren't looking forward to the multiple business trips that both the Mr. and Mrs. have to go on (we'll cover Texas, Colorado and Pennsylvania between the two of us within the month), we are anxiously anticipating the start of summer and the promise of outdoor fun. Now if only the weather would actually start cooperating.

A new experience we're looking forward to this summer is participating in a "Community Supported Agriculture" (CSA) program through a local farm. Beginning next week and every week thereafter through November, we get to pick up a box of fresh produce to enjoy. With our CSA, we choose the produce we want for the week (we elected that option rather than going with their pre-made boxes in effort to avoid all things beet-related). While we would love to have a garden large enough to grow all of our own produce, we are limited by space and thought this would be the next best option. We'll let you know how it goes!

Speaking of the garden, our backyard is quickly shaping up thanks to dear Mr. Wagner's hard labor. We are hoping to get most of our planting done this coming holiday weekend and are really looking forward to enjoying time in our yard...if and when the warmer days arrive. Please Dear Summer, come!

Growing Too Fast

Oh how our Little Miss is growing up! It's such fun to watch her change from a toddler into a little girl. At the same time, my heart breaks at the thought of how fast time flies us by!

Yet another sign of the Little Miss growing up occurred this past weekend when Mr. Wagner converted her toddler day-bed into a real, full-sized "big bed". Our girl loves her new bed and has managed to stay put for the past three nights. The only mishap occurs when her blankie or favorite stuffed animal ("Lambie") falls out in the middle of the night. This results in dramatic tears and the call for mommy or daddy to rescue the fallen treasure.

Next project for her room is to paint the walls green. We have the paint selected but are focusing on yard work for the next few weeks. The walls have to wait for now. In the meantime, I need to brush up on sweet talking in effort to coerce my dear Mr. to help with this task. Painting is right near the top of his "most-dreaded-to-do-list". Let's face it, I won't be able to convince him but I have a secret weapon...as soon as our Little Miss bats her long lashes at Daddy, he's a goner. Wish me luck.

Happy Mother's Day!

...to all the moms out there, including our own!

I am sure thankful to be this little girl's mommy. What a blessing motherhood truly is!

Extended Arms

Just a quick update from the Wagner household...things have been busy the past few months and have just quadrupled in "busy-ness". Yours Truly traveled to Missouri last week for work and then got a hefty surprise upon my return. I was told that I would be overseeing another team at work (with 40 people and counting) on an interim basis. Needless to say, I've been feeling overwhelmed and am doing a lot of praying about how to get to a better family-work-life balance (wanting to be much more heavy on the "family" side of things!). I am thankful this is only temporary but it can't be over soon enough from my perspective (poor Mr. Wagner agrees since the added stress certainly doesn't help his wife's temperament!).

All of which leads me to what I've been mulling over lately...Isn't it awesome to know that no matter what our "life" situation, God is in control? I love that He is right there beside us with extended arms, just waiting for us to reach out and allow Him to carry our burdens.

Jesus, carry away!...and Calgon, take me away!
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Post-Update (5/4/10): A friend reminded me today that I shared a prayer request at our home fellowship group a few weeks ago about being too self-reliant and that I felt I needed to be better about giving things over to God. To think that many people wonder if God is truly faithful to answer our prayers (even when we should obviously think twice about what we are asking for)! Lesson learned.