Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Parenthood...

Best.Season.Ending.Ever.

Ahhh...for once in my life the season finale didn't leave me wanting. What a relief! Seriously, are you watching NBC's Parenthood? Because you should be. I cry when I watch it because i'm happy for the good things that happen to them, i'm sad for the bad things that happen to them, i'm happy that they have each other, i'm sad that I don't have that. I know it's tv...but I also know that there are people out there with multiple siblings who have those kinds of supportive networks. I don't have that. Don't get me wrong, I have friends and I have extended family. But immediate family is different. Even family that comes via marriage or remarriage is still family. I lost my brother, my only sibling. I don't have that kind of connection anymore. It makes me sad. Boo.

I didn't mean to make this go in this direction. Wow. I'm Debbie Downer today. Maybe more sunshine and flowers tomorrow! :)

Save the magnolia...

I'm venting here because I don't know what else to do, I promised him I wouldn't say another word about it to him. But i'm sitting here in tears. Frustrated. Sad. Angry.

We're building a fence. To keep the boys in. To keep a dog in (if we ever get one). The city says we have to come 25' in from our property line. Seriously? 25 feet! That's a whole lot of lost backyard. The major "issue" facing us (once I got over the whole 3000 square feet that we are losing, yep, that's 120 feet x 25 feet, I did the math) is that our magnolia is 25' 4" in from the property line. We could ask for a variance. Two feet is all we need. Heck, one would probably work. He doesn't want to do it. "It'll be a month and they might decide we can't have one anyway." I want that beautiful tree in the backyard where the boys can climb it. Where I can see it in all its glory in April. To continue to make our backyard look like the oasis I want it to look like. So how do we have both? I found this online:


(from http://obviousdiversion.com/seattle/cool-fence/)

Here's what our tree looks like:



Isn't she pretty? It's ours, we should be able to enjoy it. I can't think right now. I just wish one of the following would happen:
a) He'd decide we should wait and try to get a variance.
b) The city would call us and say, "Hey, we realize that tree is a problem, go ahead and take a couple extra feet."
c) God would help me feel peace with going another two feet in and keeping it on the outside of the fence.
d) I had a landscape designer friend.
e) I had blog readers to help me think "outside the box" on this problem.

Thanks for listening. I guess time will tell. But time doesn't wait and he's digging on Saturday.