I am Woman Hear me Roar!

I like to think of myself as a pretty handy gal, but there are some things that just plain scare me, like using a circular saw. I'm afraid I'm going to cut a limb off. Because of this, I am SO proud of myself for using my chainsaw to trim up some horribly overgrown things in the yard. The Holly out back, and a who-knows-what bush on the side of the house. Yeah. The bush was HUGE. You can see in the picture how big it was, because all the grass underneath it was dead. I would have cut even more, but there's a birds nest in what's left. The neighbor told me my tree looked good. HA! If it were to stay like this, and continue to look like a tree, that would be fine with me. This thing grows huge every year.

Holly got her hair cut too ;)

Before

After

There's still one or two limbs that need to be cut back, but I need to get underneath the tree to do it, and I was getting cranky by the time I got to this point.

Yesterday only topped out at 82 degrees. I took that as a sign to finish up the yard. I mowed the back lawn, used the blower/sucker on the back patio after I moved a few things to the shed, and weeded the two beds I had left (Front and right hand side of house). I had wanted to shape up the bushes in the front bed, but that will need to wait until fall, as I have to purchase some new equipment to do that. But at least the weedy vines won't kill them in the process, right?

Before

After

This months budget isn't going so great. It isn't horrible, but I neglected to factor in the fact I was charging my trip to a dietitian (separate post might be written about this, but basically, I'm making an effort to eat well, so I thought it would be advantageous to have someone tell me if I was on the right track or not), so I'm WAY over at this point, but, it's an investment. I AM proud of not charging silly things. I'm doing quite well on my cash spending this month. $86 left of the original $116 (I had overages from last month).

I also just signed up for a prep class for the certification exam I'm going to take. Didn't even think about that when I picked $400 as my budget. Oh well. These things are "investments" in my future. Gotta spend a little money to make big money in the future.

I also changed out the battery on my old car yesterday. Poor girl hasn't been driven in almost 2 years, but she started right up like a champ! Now, to get to the emissions station safely, and pass the emissions. I did a little happy dance at the car just starting. I'll do virtual cartwheels (because I can't do them in real life ;) when the car passes!!

I have been doing a bit of crocheting here and there, so I am slowly making progress on that goal (Remember, I had only 3 for the month). I haven't touched the basement ceiling yet. I plan on doing some laundry tonight, so I'm going to challenge myself to do the prep work while the first load is in. Prep work for this project is removing the staples. I'm thinking, in the family room, I'll rehang the tiles. I have enough to do that, but in the laundry area and bedroom, I really have to think about what is the best way to proceed. It may be easier to rip the ceiling down (large parts already are) and just hang sheetrock instead.