A Rough Patch

Our poor, poor backyard. It was originally put in by professional landscapers nearly 7 years ago (when we moved here) as sod... It's not very big, so it was a logical choice. However, as we were told later, when large patches of the grass virtually disappeared, it is very common for sod to have a particular insect in it that loves to eat it up (Lydia, we didn't buy the sod, the landscapers did, but I'm sure there's no way it could have been JB's.....and please, feel free to offer your wisdom for our backyard mess!). Between that, poor drainage, and much of the yard being in the shade - it just doesn't have a lot of hope. So, every year, at about this time, we have discussions on what we are going to do about it. Because, at this time every year, there's more mud, moss and weeds then there is real grass. And, thanks to a no longer functioning inground dog containment system, there's a few holes and some other stuff that happens when you have dogs....ick.

So, yesterday, given it would be the one non-rain day for about a week, I decided to intentionally scalp the yard with the lawn mower (Sara, it made me think of your neighbor!) - and thus dig up a bit of the moss that is dying off (I poisoned the moss this last weekend) - so that two bags of patch grass mix could -once again- be encouraged to take root and produce a yard that can be played upon again this summer.

It's actually about double the size of what you see here, but isn't it sad? The blue stuff is is the patch grass mix.... Don't you just pity it?
But, that's not the only "rough patch" the title is referring to. Thanks to that backyard effort and getting overheated when I was working out (I'm blaming it on the two gals I couldn't help but catch up with while working out, thus forgetting to blare the fan behind me and drink enough water....) - it was the perfect recipe for a very bad headache. I spent all afternoon trying to fall asleep in hopes that it would go away upon waking up. But, I never fell asleep (caught up on a lot of intercessory prayer, though!). Upon returning from Mikayla's third grade class concert (another post to come on that one), I immediately went to bed. I did end up falling asleep this time, but woke up with the pain much more intense....body shaking, nauseous....and my head encased in icepacks.

I know I did this to myself, but that didn't really matter in the middle of the night as I lay there feeling helpless and semi-panicked, knowing my mom couldn't just "fix me up" as she's currently in Hawaii. Let's just say that that "Pain Post" courtesy of Susan May Warren was really hitting home.

As evidenced by being upright enough to write this post - I did get better. I'm at about 85% now, with the help of being able to sleep more today, and getting a massage at Bello. The whole thing was compounded even more by the fact that tomorrow we leave for a cozy little family get-away to "our" Fairfield Inn (the place we stay anytime we head up to Portland) in Lake Oswego for three nights. John and Brayden will attend the Chris Tomlin concert tomorrow night (don't feel sorry for Mikayla and I, we get to go see "Wicked" together in exactly a week....so excited) - and then, Saturday night features the exchanging of wedding vows by our dear post-collegiate friends, John and Sarah. I'm SOOOOOO happy for them - I've been so delighted thinking about her and her expectations and anticipation blooming all this week. It takes me back 15 years thinking of that amazing day for us.

So, with all of this described, I'm DESPERATE to feel good for this highly anticipated weekend. (Hence the spendy massage). No more rough patches for me, please!