The pumpkins are growing! The pumpkins are growing!

Adam went out to his patch to pull the crazy weeds when he noticed that there were weeds growing in a pattern...every 12 inches every 6 feet....wait a minute...it must be the pumpkins! He is also excited about the new rototiller he bought to till between the rows in the pumpkin patch. Now it looks REALLY nice!

The freshly tilled field.

Look at those nice rows. I credit the person who poked the holes for the seeds!

The pumpkins plants growing!

Soon we will have to start pulling every other one to make room for them to grow!

The smaller garden where we planted carrots, cucumbers, onions, and corn.

The cucumbers are growing too!

Selling Ice Cream at the Fair

Last week was our church's annual Country Fair. Mom is on the leadership committee that plans the whole fair and I run the ice cream/smoothie booth. We had an awesome year and made lots of money for the church while having fun at the same time!

The view of the fair from the field.

Amy (my co-chair) making change while I work on a smoothie.

Mom stopping by the ice cream booth to say, "hi".

Adam and dad sat talking for a long time and we all thought it was cute. =)

(Look at that 10x zoom on my camera...I was very far away!)

Amy and I were happy about our profits!
Adam REALLY loves when he is asked to hold my purse. Mom made him take this picture so Erin could enjoy seeing him holding the Coach purse she got me for Christmas.


Adam found out soon after we started dating that one of the requirments to dating me was spending a week at the Country Fair every year!

The Hannah Montano impersonator....does it get much better than this???

Farmer Hopkins

Adam has decided that he is going to be a farmer!

He roto-tilled a garden in his field about 160x80 feet!

Last Saturday Adam, his brother Andy, his niece Zondra, and I went out to start planting pumpkins!

Andy raking the hard soil to get it ready for planting.

The view of his barn and field from the soon-to-be pumpkin patch.

The view of the house from the pumpkin patch

I made the holes (I quickly picked the job that didn't require much bending!),

Zondra planted the seeds, and Andy covered them up.

We planted 5 of the 25 rows (to make sure they aren't all ready at the same time!)

Adam had the fun job of raking everything before we started planting.

Hopefully all the rains of this last week didn't wash the seeds out of our perfect rows!

BBQ at Uncle Dave's

Uncle Dave had a fun BBQ on Saturday night and SURPRISE! Nana was there!

Grandpa and Nana relaxing after dinner

Uncle David eating the ginormous potato he wanted ME to eat!

Mom passing out Father's Day presents

Nana, Uncle Dave, and Adam enjoying the beautiful weather

Nana, Eric and Uncle Dave

Christian chewing on Eric's watch

Big smiles on Christian's face!

Eric feeding Christian big boy food!

I got him to sleep!

Dad making the bon fire!

We had a lot of fun. =)

Apparently Uncle Jimmy, Bonnie and Aunt Mary were hiding....
because they aren't in any of my pictures!

"Next time when Ed says 'no' I am saying 'no' too!"

Those were Adam's words after we finally finished my bathroom project.

The bathroom when I moved in

As we were doing the demolition for my floors, we pulled the vanity away from the wall and it ripped the paint off. Because that was the ONLY room in my house I didn't have painted when I moved in, it wouldn't be easy to touch it up. In addition, it had been painted with a roller and not finished so there was a 2 inch white area all the way around the ceiling (sorry I didn't get that in a picture!). So I decided to repaint it (actually...have it repainted because I'm too much of a perfectionist to paint). Adam's brother Andy very nicely came over to prime the walls and when we saw it with the light color and the CRAZY texture (we finally figured out it was joint compound mixed in the paint and splattered on the walls), I just couldn't stand it! The light color made the texture seem that much weirder.

Andy priming the walls the first time

I wanted to try to sand it down...but everyone told me no.

Dad suggested dry walling the whole thing. I would have been all for that,

but it is expensive to get someone to mud and tape it because everyone said

"I will hang it, but I won't mud and tape!".

Adam's brother Andy had the idea to cover all the walls with mud and sand them down. Dad said no way was he participating in that project...but Adam's brother thought it would work. It seemed inexpensive, so I went with that idea!

So we mudded and sanded....and mudded and sanded....and mudded and sanded...then we thought it was good enough. But then we decided we needed to patch a few spots with mud...and sand again. Then we FINALLY were able to prime the walls. But found several more bad areas...so we spackled and sanded and primed again.

Then we FINALLY painted the walls! The walls look pretty good...

but don't look near the baseboards or in the corners!

All I care is that it will look better when I eventually try to sell it. =)

I was so excited to get the bathroom put back together again so Adam hooked up the toilet...and it started leaking all over my new floors. And it was Memorial Day so we couldn't go purchase the parts we needed. That was when I decided this home improvement stuff is for the birds!

I can admit when I am wrong. I should have just paid someone to have it dry walled!

Much less work and mess! But I am happy with the final product!