"Is that a tree or a bush?"

Oh boy did this Sunday turn out much differently than we planned. First Layla, aka our alarm clock, slept in until 9:45 today! I think she was still worn out from chasing cousin Grayden around all last week. ;o) Church starts at 10:00 so of course we missed it and went grocery shopping instead. After just hanging out around the house and having lunch, it was nap time for a very grumpy girl (how in the world could she be grumpy after sleeping almost 13 hours the night before?!). Right after putting her down for nap Bryan and I decided to go outside and take a look at some paint colors against our brick. This turned into about 15 minutes of standing in the driveway looking completely dumbfounded as to what color looks good with orange brick.

So after getting sick of trying to figure out the difference between "cool cucumber" and "silver cucumber" we took a stroll around the house to pick out what landscaping we were going to demolish. And by landscaping I mean completely over grown bushes/weeds/trees and by demolish I mean pick apart with hedge clippers and a shovel (we like to do things the hard way). After marking about 13 bushes we decided today was the day to start. So armed with literally one pair of gloves (which I made Bryan stick his hands into to make sure there were no bugs in...you can never be too careful), hedge clippers and two shovels we started to tackle this:

 

Our main focus is to get rid of the 3 bushes under the window and the other 3 bushes that wrap around the house. Eventually we are going to do something about the bushes on the left (X marks the spot) but those things are mega huge and we HAVE to do something about the horrendous tree that you see there on the right. There are two more like it right there and they are really REALLY ugly. 

Now it was time to delegate responsibilities. Oscar and Moose were responsible for hunting bugs, Bryan got the job of axe man and my contribution was pictures and taking every branch down to the road. I have to now explain that I had gloves on the entire time and you better believe every branch, twig and leaf was inspected for spiders and beetles. I don't want to think about those missed but I'm happy to report no incidents. 

So after about 5 minutes of watching Bryan cut down a bush with hedge clippers our wonderful neighbor asked if we wanted to borrow a saw and axe. He must have felt very sorry for Bryan. #1- it was hard work and #2- his wife was standing behind him making comments like "is that a tree or a bush?!" and "that tree is bleeding, omg look at that tree, it is bleeding!". After gaining the proper tools, the job went much faster and easier. Poor Bryan, but at least he didn't have to take the sticks to the road. 

Overall, things went very well. We got 3 bushes completely out on the left side of the house and even had time to trim one down to the "nubs"on the left side of the house. Then we realized something...it was right next to the electrical box were all electric lines, cable and phone lines run into the house.

Well crap, now what do we do? I have a feeling if we call the city they will just tell us not to dig there but COME ON, that thing looks like Medusa's hair! I guess we'll figure that out another day. At this point Layla was still asleep so Bryan decided to tackle some out of control vine (I think that is a vine)

I must tell you that he started removing these with his beloved hedge clippers. I think he thinks it is appropriate to use them on anything from cutting down large trees to trimming the grass. After a few minutes I said "why don't you just use your hands?" and would you look at that...it went much faster/easier without those clippers. LOL

At this point Layla woke up so I took a few "after" pictures to share with everyone and ran inside. Look at what a difference this made!!

Front of the house by the garage:

Same side of the house, just a difference angle:

Left side of the house:

Our house already looks so much lighter! Now we just need to throw down some grass seed in the yard areas that were totally shaded by those bushes and figure out what we will plant in their places. And figure out what to do with Medusa's hair of course. We only have 7 more of the big boxy green bushes to tear out and we can start planting. Woooo hoooo!