Our luck with household appliances continues to be bad as the compressor on our refrigerator was going out.  So instead of getting the grass mowed last night like I had planned, a trip to the store was required.  Fortunately the one we picked out was in stock and it will be delivered this afternoon.  I did manage to get our wall project mulched prior to the appliance man showing up and telling me the bad news.  Just in case you need a new refrigerator in the near future, be prepared for sticker shock.  Many were $1800+ for the french door models with the freezer on the bottom.  I wasn't about to spend that and we paid about the same we did for our current one we purchased eight years ago.  Yep, it lasted a whole eight years.  Thanks, GE!  We're done with you, especially after the ice maker has broken twice and now the compressor goes out in a whopping 8 years.  Not to mention our GE Profile (read expensive) microwave went out a couple years ago after lasting about 6 years and our GE dishwasher has been serviced twice since we bought the house.  DONE! 

JD is now home and will attend Park University this fall.  I drove to St. Louis early Friday morning and helped him pack and move out of the dorm.  On the way home, we stopped by my mother's house to have lunch with her and we also got to spend time with my sister who was also there.  After about an hour and a half visit, JD and I headed home. 

Jodi and I spent much of the holiday weekend working in the yard and visiting nurseries.  I brought in a yard of topsoil for the wall in the back yard and we planted some Salvia, Day lily's and some Double Pink Knockout roses in it.

JD also had Jayson for a couple days so we were able to spend some additional time with him.  He's a very active little boy right now and constantly jabbering.  He loves being outside too and enjoyed a walk in his stroller down by the lakes. 

We recently received recognition from an industry publication.  Earlier this week, I submitted our image of Christian in his drum major uniform in front of the Kauffman Performing Arts Center in downtown KC to Senior Style Guide, a senior photography website and blog.  Our image was chosen from numerous submissions as "Senior Guy of the Week" and is now featured on their blog.   It's pretty cool to get some national recognition for our work.  I guess we can now say we are an award winning photography studio.

Here is a link to the site and our featured image: http://seniorstyleguide.com/senior-guy-of-the-week-may-21/

Yesterday we had Jayson for a few hours as we do every Wednesday.  He showed up with a new hairstyle and he had on a sleeveless shirt.  Megan called it "Sun's out, guns out."  He will be with us this weekend and maybe we'll go fishing for the first time.  Here are some photos from our visit while we played outside.

I had a project that actually went perfectly well and there were no issues.  I installed the new garbage disposal yesterday after work and from start to finish, everything went perfect.  Typically, any project I wind up doing takes 3 times as long as it should because there is always something wrong or not right.  Thankfully, yesterday wasn't one of them and for the first time in forever, I was done quickly.  Jodi even commented that she didn't hear one tool thrown or one cuss word.  I guess that's success.

Afterward, we went to a nursery to start picking out what we want to plant around the patio and in the wall in the back yard.  I think we also decided that we're going to plant a Japanese Maple in the front of the house near our water fountain.

Jayson will be coming to visit today and apparently he will be with us all weekend too.  The forecast is calling for rain into the weekend so I don't know how much we'll be outside.  I'd like to go fishing for a little while as I haven't been able to go all year. 

We managed to get the rest of our flowers planted last night after work. We also delivered a client's order and I ran to Home Depot to get a new garbage disposal unit now that ours stopped working.  Installation of said disposal will commence this afternoon when I get off work.  It lasted about 8 years which is pretty pathetic considering it runs very infrequently for seconds at a time.  Junk.

I'm going to have a friend who is a landscaper assist me with landscaping around our patio.  He dropped by yesterday and we laid out a design on the ground, using a water hose, that I think will look really good when completed.  We're going to the nursery this weekend to locate some plants and flowers to use for the project.

Well that weekend flew by!  We did get quite a bit accomplished though. Last weekend, we went to Nebraska Furniture Mart and purchased a patio set, a Mother's Day gift for Jodi.  The loveseat had to come from their Omaha location so we went and picked it up on Saturday.  We also had to assemble the umbrella, which included putting 200 lbs of sand in the base.  The work is complete now and we enjoyed our first fire in the new firepit last night.  Here are some pics of the new setup.

We spent some of yesterday picking out flowers and getting them planted in new planters I purchased off a swap page.  I painted the planters  and Jodi planted the flowers.  The next project is bringing in some fresh topsoil for the wall in the back yard and planting it.

JD's team took fourth in the conference which qualified them for their conference tournament.  They head to Jackson, TN on Tuesday to play in the double elimination tournament.  If they don't win the tournament, their season is over.  If they win, they then go to the regional tournament in Atlanta.

It was an eventful weekend at work as we had a truck carrying 350 transfer cases roll over creating an environmental concern due to the fluids leaking out of the transfer cases as well as the tractor.  I was the only one at the plant on Saturday covering environmental so when I arrived on scene, a quick assessment determined that we needed to ensure that the fluids were contained to prevent them from leaving the immediate area and entering the creek.  To make matters worse, we were under a severe thunderstorm warning. 

I called my immediate supervisor at home and advised him of the situation.  He wound up coming tot he scene after I had ensured a Haz Mat team was called by the trucking company.  All the excitement wound up getting me 4 hours of extra overtime and a couple hours of double time on Sunday to return and see that everything had been cleaned up properly.

Here are a few pics from the scene.

 

While on scene Saturday, we had a pretty good hail storm and a good downpour.  Just east of us, the town of Orrick was hit pretty hard by a tornado.  The high school sustained significant damage and their graduation is being moved to another town.  Fortunately it was on a Saturday and no one was at the school at the time.

Sunday, Jodi and I went shopping and I bought her a patio furniture set for Mother's Day.  We then went to Home Depot and bought a fire pit and a deck box.  We still have to assemble the large cantilever umbrella we bought and the love seat for the patio set won't be in until tomorrow. 

I finally upgraded all of my studio lights.  My two newest ones will be here today and now I can control all of them from one Commander unit.  This will make adjusting all of the lights remotely a breeze. 

Lastly, I have an abscessed tooth that I have to deal with today.  It's a pretty bad one that has my cheek swollen too.  Looks like I'll be on a big dose of antibiotic but on the bright side, I'll get some Vicodin too. 

It will be a short weekend for me as I have to work Saturday but I still hope to get a few tasks done if the weather allows me to.  I've been wanting to tear out what is planted in our stone wall in the backyard and start anew with mostly flowers and possibly some ornametal grasses, such as purple fountain grass.  We'll see if that project gets underway on Saturday afternoon.

Something else I'd like to do that I haven't done in quite some time is go to our lakes and do a little fishing.  To do so, I'll need to get my gear out and do a little maintenance on the rods and reels.  Maybe in a few years I'll have a little fishing buddy to take along with me and he won't find it boring like my youngest son. 

We had talked os a vacation next month but with JD's arm health in question and an appointment scheduled with an orthopedic surgeon early next month, we've pretty much talked ourselves into waiting for a better time.   

A few recent images we created.  Click on images for larger view. 

 

JD has informed his coach that he will not be returning.  He is now enrolled at Park University here in the KC area and will complete his degree there.  He is done pitching for the year and we have an orthopedic surgeon appointment scheduled for the first week of June for him.  Hopefully all he needs is rest and possibly some physical therapy. 

Well, it appears JD's season is over after yesterday's start.  He said his arm was hurting in warm up's but he continued anyway, pitched poorly and had to be removed from the game after facing only one hitter in the second inning due to his arm.   Not only is his shoulder still bothering him but now the elbow.  I had already scheduled an appointment for him to see the orthopedic surgeon for the first week of June.  It appears he'll be seeing him for two issues now.