Dirt Work

So...they have been pushing some dirt around on our lot in the last few days...

They had started to fill in the dirt under the garage and around the outside of it. As of Monday, this is what it looked like on the east side by the garage:

A view from the back (south) side looking north. As you can see, they started to flatten out the area for the walkout which is great! We wanted a nice flat area back there:

Tonight I went out there as well (at Jay's request - you know those engineers are interested in dirt work!) This is a view to the SW where you can see they really flattened that area out. They still have some work to do yet on that side...(Where the bump-out is will be sliding patio doors off the family room with windows on either side).

They also poured the concrete for the front portion of what will be our front porch (on the right side of the picture).

This is a view from the back (south) side as of this evening where they have worked on flattening out an area on the east (right) side of the garage for a parking pad/future beagle area and have tapered it down to the walkout area:

I never knew I could care so much about dirt! We are happy so far at what they are doing - we are looking to have some nice open flat areas on our lot (we're thinking future sand volleyball court or soccer field - OK I'm the one thinking soccer field!) Either way we have a nice big lot with lots of room for beagles (and someday kids) to run around and have fun with!

In other news we had a great Mother's Day weekend. We spent Saturday in GU with the Gerving clan (I have pictures - I may post them on the Gerving blog - ahem, since no one else updates it ever!!) We started off at the GU nursing home where they were hosting a "family day." Grandma Schaff was in good spirits and lunch and visiting were really nice. We spent the afternoon and most of the evening at Mike & Sandy's house. It was nice that everyone could make it back!

On Sunday we went to brunch with my parents, my grandma and my brother's family in honor of Mother's Day. Jay went fishing with Nick that day and I believe they caught 8 walleye! (His fishing skills are vastly improving)! Later on in the evening, I went to DQ with my parents (our tradition on Mother's Day and Father's Day) for the 2-for-1 sundaes. I pretty much ate myself silly all weekend! I ended up staying up and visiting with my parents until about 10:30pm Sunday evening. Yes, MY mother stayed up until 10:30pm!

Monday we bought our first big purchase for the new house - living room furniture! I LOVE bisman online! We got a couch, loveseat, ottoman, throw pillows, 2 end tables and a coffee table - all for less than half of what we would have paid for something new! We're pretty excited about it - even if we don't get to use it until we move into the house...Now onto dining room furniture, bedroom furniture, etc...Good thing is we're bargain-hunters and we have some time to search for good deals!

Taylor made it into the Bismarck Tribune on Monday with her artwork! Cathedral had an art show displaying the students' artwork. Another celebrity in the family! :)

Today I got to see my niece Micaela Gerhardt run in a junior high track meet. She competed in the 800 meter run and did great! She had a great kick at the end of the run!

Geez...that's about all for now...again, if you're bored with the pictures of concrete walls and dirt being moved around...my apologies!! Soon it will get more interesting...I promise! (As you notice I did add the "tropical" background to the blog so that it appears that our house is being built in Jamaica if you line up the pictures along side the palm tree on the side - haha!!)