Teeth, Yardwork & Basketball

Quinn - at orthodontist to get top braces removed

It wasn't all fun and games in the 'teeth department' at our house.  Having Quinn's top set of braces removed was a highlight but quickly overshadowed by the IV sedation (oral surgery) that followed a few days later.  Once again, he was a trooper through the process of working to correct some highly damaged permanent front teeth (result of a fall he had as a toddler).  And we have to go back to the orthodontist for another impression to be made for a different retainer.  He gets to wear a clear, plastic retainer 24/7 for a month.  Too bad the impression process is so gagging!  Quinn gets to practice doing hard things again.  Elsie had an "appliance check" and left that orthodontia appointment with three less teeth.  Yes, she was very brave as well!

pancakes from McD's - Quinn celebrated no braces

Lots of yardwork this week.  I purchased two tall black planters for the front porch and arranged the flowers inside.  Hopefully they can survive the windy days we're having right now...

planter on backporch - better protected from the elements

dianthus will rebound - petunias took a beating

I'm happy to see some of our flowers survived the recent hail storm.  

Fortunately, we planted our garden after the hail storm which wreaked havoc for so many others.  

good-bye to our autumn blaze maple tree

We had a few professionals look at our autum blaze maple tree which started to leaf out earlier in the spring but then had the majority of buds freeze.  It was a sad day when it was determined this well-established maple needed to be removed because it wasn't likely to rebound.  Apparently, the life-expectancy is only 15 years for maples around here and this particular variety has had some issues.  As much as we loved the bright red leaves in the fall, we steered away from maples when selecting a replacement for the dying tree.  We also had our pines treated this week as I found pine weavel and white scale affecting them.  Wow - didn't know pines/spruces were so tempermental!  I'm hopeful they will recover because tree removal is time-consuming and expensive.

This shows the visual "hole" where the maple used to be.

Having the right tools makes all the difference.

This huge hole took about 20 seconds to dig. 

Friday afternoon arrived and so did the additional 16 trees we purchased for our yard.  We considered doing the work of digging and planting ourselves but when the truck arrived and we saw the equipment and size of the auger used to dig the holes, Aaron and I knew we made the right decision.  Two guys finished a job in less than 4 hours that would have taken us days/weeks.  Having them remove the maple root ball was an added bonus.

If I had to pick a favorite - this ash tree would be it.

The additional trees we added to the yard include: 3 Spruce Colorado, 7 Canada Red Chokecherry, 2 Spring Snow Crabapple, 1 Chanticleer (flowering) Pear, 1 Perfect Purple Crabapple, 1 Ash Patmore, 1 River Birch Clump.  Most were planted on the east side of our property though we did add a spruce in the back yard and one more spruce in the northeast corner beyond the garden area.

spruce & perfect purple took place of maple tree

Additional spruce in back of property

Canada Reds along grassline on east side - tall ash on right.

Jantzen spent the week at a basketball camp in Utah (UVU) with the MHS team.  Anna attended a local basketball camp and played 7 games over the weekend as part of a tournament (and made three 3-point shots along with other baskets).  Brinley started work as a cashier at the local water park so our three oldest weren't around to help outside much.  Quinn and Elsie joined me in LaVerne's yard as we helped cut down spent tulips and daffodils and general clean-up one morning during the week.  Aaron and I made a few 'dump runs' and threw off 2700 lbs. of green waste - that included renting a sod cutter to clean-up our east property line in preparation for the trees.  Now we get to extend the drip system to our additional trees so we don't have to keep hand-watering them.  This past week was largely consumed with dental work, yardwork and basketball though I did appreciate the opportunity of attending a stake women's conference on Thursday, the temple on Friday morning, and listening to the inspiring youth invitations from our dear President & Sister Nelson recently.  We are all enlisting in the "youth battalion" to help gather Israel.  There is work to be done!