She continued swimming and I continued sitting on my ass lounging in the chair.  Seconds later I heard a rustling sound coming from the woods.  When I say woods I’m referring to the tree area part of our yard that separates us from our neighbors to the back.  It’s not a deep forest or anything.  Anywho, after a minute or two of the rusting, which I assumed was just a squirrel or chipmunk, I turned to see a freaking raccoon emerging from the woods.  In shock, I stood up from my chair, but then quickly stood still afraid that it would attack me.  I mean it was during broad daylight.  The thing must have been rabid, right?  I didn’t want to scare Brinley so I didn’t tell her what I saw.  I didn’t want her to freak out and cause the raccoon to go nuts and bite us.  Ok, I guess I sound a little paranoid here.

Well, the raccoon was looking me right in the eyes and it slowly walked into our back yard, around to the side yard, continuing toward the front of the house.  When I lost sight of it, I tried to walk over to the side of the house to see where it went, but I lost it.  So I went back over to where Brinley was figuring it just went into the woods or across the street.  Just as I was sitting back down I saw something out of the corner of my eye.  It was the raccoon!!  I was now in the driveway walking by Scott’s car.  It kept going past the drive way and over the small, tree filled hilly area and into our neighbors yard where  I again lost sight of it.

I know I probably sound like a freak for being so afraid of the raccoon, but for some reason it just seemed strange to me that it would so casually walk through our yard in the middle of the day.  I’m almost 100% sure that there are other raccoons that live in our woods and it doesn’t alarm me one bit as long as I don’t see them.  I mean they’re nocturnal, right?  So why should I see them unless they’re rabid!  I should probably do some raccoon research before I keep making these claims.  Our little visitor seemed completely innocent and didn’t bother us in the least.

Our townhouse had three huge flights of stairs.  Each probably had at least 16 stairs (surprisingly, I never counted them).  To get to the main level of the house, you had to go up a flight.  So when it was grocery shopping day that meant multiple trips up the stairs with arms full of bags.  Not to mention the every day haul up and down the stairs with 20 pound Nora + diaper bag in one arm and 35 pound Brinley in the other. (Yes, she could do the stairs herself, but she always complained about it.  So in an effort to get out the door faster I’d often just carry her down.)  The main level had the kitchen and living room.  The bedrooms were up another flight and then Nora’s room (a loft converted into a nursery) was up yet another flight.  Then if I had to do laundry I had to go back down to the ground level (where the garage and laundry room were).  The one benefit to all of those stairs – nice calves!  To put it bluntly, I do not miss the stairs one bit.

The townhouse also lacked a yard.  There was common space outside but it wasn’t very close to our unit and there were always cars coming and going so it didn’t seem very safe to be out there with the kiddos.  We went to the park A LOT!  Not that I mind going to parks, I’m sure we’ll still go plenty but that meant an trip away from home and packing a bag with kid stuff and maybe not having a potty accessible for Brin.  Now we have our very own playground right in our backyard! 

While having all of this right outside our back door is awesome, it also means more work!  As if I (we) didn’t have enough of my plate already we have new chores now.  There’s raking and mowing and edging and mulching and trimming and watering and….  I spent two whole afternoons last week raking up the lawn. I even have blisters to prove it! (I quickly went out and bought some yard gloves the next day.) Scott then spent two evenings mowing the lawn.  We laid 10 bags of mulch (and that’s just the back of the house).  We looked forward to the rain yesterday when we’d typically frown upon it.  Why?  Because we wouldn’t have to water the lawn or plants.

Don’t get me wrong, I love our yard!  It’s amazing having all of this space.  The girls absolutely love being outside.  Brinley can play with all of the outside toys that have been stored in our garage for the past few years.  If we’re out playing and someone needs a snack or a potty break we can just go right inside and not have to have preplanned for any of it.  This might seem old hat to many of you, but it’s a huge change for us.  I’m sure the novelty will wear off at some point, but I’m actually enjoying the yard work so far.  It gives me a huge sense of pride.  I’m just worried that it’s going to be hard for us to keep up with it.

So, do you have a yard?  How do you keep up with the yard work?  Any tips or tricks to make it stay fun?