Our neighbors are having their yard redone right now. It’s a seriously HUGE project. There are about 10 cars parked out there in front of their house, and there’s a backhoe or a trencher or some other heavy machine running almost every day. Right now it’s a bobcat. They killed a bunch of grass to put other stuff there, then removed trees and cut up the grass and pulled it all away one day to remove the gentle hills that were there. Then they smashed the dirt flat and put the grass back. Sounds crazy, doesn’t it? I know it will turn out beautiful, however, because this landscaper just redid his own backyard (he lives down the street from us) and it’s now one of the most beautiful yards I’ve ever seen. Seriously–the water feature is so gorgeous, I was wondering if I could just hang out in THEIR back yard all the time. Do you think they would mind? They’d come home from work and there I would be, lounging in their nice patio furniture with my friends, who I had invited over for a barbeque in THAT back yard instead of my own. No, that wouldn’t be awkward at all, would it? (I’ll have to make sure it’s on a weekend when I know they are out of town.
Just kidding.
Kind of.)

Anyway, our next door neighbors are expanding their deck, adding who knows what kind of trees and flowers, and I’m sure it will be just beautiful when they are done. Which actually is a good thing for us, because they are NOT (big sigh of relief) putting in a fence. So if they beautify their back yard, it just beautifies ours in turn. Oh, and they are sharing their swingset with us, too. The landscaper asked if he could stow the swingset in our garden area (the part that’s not actually garden) for a few days. No problem. And now John’s taken to swinging out there. Like it’s our swing set. We do have a swing set, but it’s over on the other side of the yard. I guess this one is better.

Saturday they started putting in the trees. Trees right along the property line, so now it looks like WE have trees. How nice of the neighbors to put in those trees to help make our yard more beautiful! Oh, yes, and their yard, too. It’s coming together nicely.

Maybe when he’s done we can ask him if he has time to take care of the back strip of our yard. Maybe.

The Chinese girls and my two kids are busy, busy, busy. This week they’ve gone to Seven Peaks, hiked to Timpanogos caves, went shopping at University Mall and Walmart, and today spent the day downtown in Salt Lake.

The only down side is, they are so tired when they come home. They don’t really want to interact with us or hang out with the Americans. They would rather go up to their room, read, write in journals, take showers, and just relax without having to think too much. I understand. I remember those first few weeks in a foreign country.

Tonight we’re going to try “make your own pizza night” and see if they open up a little bit more.

Since the big kids are off having fun afternoon, and when I’m not driving three times a day to Provo, I’ve been trying to do fun things with the three younger kids. So WE’VE gone swimming, we went out to lunch at Mimi’s Cafe, and we went to the mall ourselves. We had a BIG talk about how to behave in the mall and how just because we saw something we liked we were not going to be buying lots of things. They (meaning John, mostly) agreed to the rules and behaved much better than the last time we went to the mall. But he was not happy until he had spent his allotted $5 of allowance money on a small overpriced motercycle.
Whatever.

On Saturday, I think we’ll check out Thanksgiving Point, and then go to the Folk Festival in Springville at night. I want to give them the most possible experiences while they are here, but not totally overwhelm them with things to do every minute.

Sunday is church. Do you think we should have them go the whole 3 hours to church, or let them off easy and come home after the first meeting? Hmmm?

My husband assures me that if I have seen this and he’s seen it, that EVERYONE else in the world has already seen it. But it’s too funny to not pass along.

John, barging through the bathroom door without bothering to knock, “Mom?”
“Hey, hey,” I said urgently, “I’m using the bathroom here.” As in, not just using the bathroom, but–you know–using the bathroom.
“But Mom?” he calls, thankfully from outside the door.
“Yes? What do you need?” I asked.
“I need someone to tie my shoes,” he said.
“Can you get someone else to help you tie your shoes?” I asked. The whole family is home, in various stages of getting ready for church, so surely there has to be someone who can help him, right?
“There isn’t anybody else,” he calls back through the door.
“What about Dad?” I said.
He makes that exasperated sound that is part sigh, part “Whatever” noise, and walks off.