The last few days have been productive.

• Monday I had a terrific voice practice and lesson. Things I’ve learned this week in my practice: I need to tuck my hips in order to get a proper breath. Think that my torso is short. Let the breath and abs do their thing before I start the sound. Hit the pitch directly, don’t scoop to it.
• I painted the 1/2 bath. Now all it needs is baseboards, for the toilet and sink to be put back in, and then the mirror and towel ring to be installed! I ended up painting it the same yellow as the kitchen. It looks a bit brighter in the bathroom, I hope that by the time I add the white toilet and sink and the mirror it will take away from the glow.
• I’ve been playing around with the pictures and wall hanging in the living room. Currently I have nothing on the walls. Maybe I’ll take some picture tomorrow when I have better light. I really need some feedback. Here’s a picture of the set up that I have been trying the last few days- with the trunk as a coffee table. I bought it with that in mind originally, but I think it is perhaps to tall. (Note: the picture on the wall at the left is not where it would be if I decide to put it there, I just hung it on a pre-existing nail to get an idea. I’m not really happy with the fireplace, I think I need some larger things. What do you think?
• Yesterday I visited the mecca of all nurserys: Pettitis. The place is enormous and beautiful. I bought a couple of fun plants. (Their quart perennials were on sale for 2 for 1.) I was really hoping to buy some trees/shrubs to put in the front beds, but the pricetags scared me away. I stopped by the super Walmart while I was over there to see if they had anything cheap and bought two dogwoods for $20.00 each. I’ve planted one of them, and may return the other. This is not actually where I planted it, I pulled it out a bit, but you get an idea in this picture.

(It is the little tree to the left of the door. Also take note, Tom installed my window boxes for me last weekend!)

• I guess I’m not listing these things chronologically. Last weekend, in addition to doing my window boxes I filled a few pots. I didn’t want to spend much on annuals, so I just bought a package of begonias, a spike, and then used the impatiens and coleus that I had grown from seed! 

(These are the steps leading up to the sunroom. They are tucked in between to gorgeous lilac bushes. It’s such a quaint spot and I hoped the pots would add even more charm.)

(This is the back porch, or step more like. I found this adorable chair out in someone’s garbage pile one morning on my way to seminary. I’ve always had a thing for those little terracotta pots, I love the coupling of the big full pot with the small one with a single begonia.)

• We have had several excitements this week. One, is that the magnolia that I reported had not bloomed this year but was producing an abundance of leaves, has gifted us with one small bud!

• The most exciting news however, is that Tom got the sprinkler system working!!! I had told him this afternoon that I wished we could get it working because I was spending so much time watering. The idea excited him and after work he took a look at it. The PVC pipe that supplies the water to the system had broke this winter, so Tom finangled some contraption where he sealed the hose to the broken pipe so we could see if it was even worth fixing the broken pipe- or if the system was blown out in so many places it wasn’t worth out time. Well we got enough reaction from the sprinklers to justify fixing the PVC section. So we ran to home depot and bought the stuff. At first when we turned it on, nothing happened, and we were both bummed. But I couldn’t figure out why we had had more water pressure with the hose than we had achieved with the built in pipe. Well with some manual shifting of the electronics Tom was able to turn the thing on, and Voila! the whole yard was a water park! We have a few things to fix, and one line doesn’t seem to be receiving any water. I punctioned one of the lines with a shovel some where along the line, but for the most part things are in good working order. I couldn’t be more happy!
• I finished listening to “Outliers,” a fabulous book that I recommend to everyone. I am about half way through “Journey to the Center of the Earth.” One of the first science fiction books, written by French author Jules Verne. And I am also quite a ways into “10 days that changed America.” Those are all audiobooks. I am currently in the middle of “Tender is the Night” by Steinbeck, and “Galileo’s Daughter.” My actually reading is much slower than my audiobook listening obviously.
• I ran 5.6 miles on Monday, a little over 4 on Wednesday and did weights with Megan today. Tomorrow I am supposed to run seven. We’ll see if that happens. (Ek!)