Easter Baskets, Cleaning, and Snakes?

Well, I cleaned like crazy today! I'm so happy my house is clean! It feels fresh and new (well, almost..). I cleaned the laundry room (baseboards, counter, and floor!) and got it ready for the new run-it is just scrumptious! : ) Love it! I cleaned everywhere else too (even had to swish/swirl the toilets-I fear the Clorox tabs have run out. Mental note to buy more.)-I feel like my soul is cleansed too, so fresh! Maybe appropriate for the Easter season! : ) Ahhh..maybe that's why we are supposed to do Spring Cleaning!

Also got Easter baskets made (and had a sweet friend give me a great compliment on FB!) so, I'm happy! I posted them in a slide show down below (and it's working!). They are cute. Clay's big box of K'nex wouldn't fit in the basket I had, but I'll just set the basket up on top of them! Mary Claire's looked the fullest, but I think I spent the same on them. You always wonder-they notice things (not prices, but still) like who's is biggest or fullest. And I can't tell them they're equal since I'm not supposed to know! : ) I made me and Ches one this year! I used the book I'd bought, the chickadees, my new stationary, Ches' movie, and lots of eggs full of Reese's pieces eggs-which are VERY good, BTW!

It was very hard to hide them. I put each one in a carrier bag (heehee from Shopaholic), and put them in the top of my closet crowded with suitcases, and travel stuff, and one tub and a travel bag kinda leaning over one basket. The bows were kinda visible, and I DO NOT want them finding the stuff this time! I did end up putting Mary Claire's panties in, but not anyone else's! Hers had room, and Ethan's was jam-packed! Clay's had room due to the oversize K'nex, but he'd blush. Mary Claire will be proud of hers!

You know I could buy bigger baskets, but I think they look better overstuffed than big and underfilled. I'm not buying more, so this is how it is!

Oh, and the Clorox tabs are working in the other bathrooms, but in the hall bath (busy potty!) it must be all out. I had to scrub, which I don't like! Eww! Nor do I like to clean the bathroom floors, but I use only disposable stuff: Clorox wipes or my Clorox mop with the throw-away pads. Ick if it touched my body or hands! Toilet areas are just gross, but somebody's gotta do it, and no one else here is volunteering!

Ches is off to the stone yard again! We are landscaping the east side of the pool (slow but steady...) and he's putting in stone around the beds to slow down drainage (or should I say speed up?). He's redirecting the water, and we've already put in a gutter system and drainage along the wall. It's hard work (for him), but it's looking good! He wants me to pick out plants and landscaping stuff to fill it, but after all my fresh pansies DIED in the cold, I'm not in the mood. It makes me sad to see stuff die. Especially cold-hardy pansies! Wahhhh! I'll get it together. We already got a few azaleas (which should set blooms soon!) so maybe more boxwoods and nandina to blend in with other landscaping, maybe a hydrangea (that I can cut from!), but nothing too tall. I need the sun to hit the water in the morning to start heating it up. It already takes till 10:30 to be in the sun due to all our trees, and our neighbors tall houses (and I guess the shadow of our house too?)! It's been so long, it's hard to remember.

He'd also like to rip out the deck and have a patio laid. We'll see what our taxes look like! We're bracing for a repeat of last year, so maybe! Cross your fingers! : ) I'd love something more level with the ground/pool, and we have a small plan, but nothing in "stone" yet!

Alrighty, kids are home, and I'd just die if they saw the pictures! Clay just came in, and I had a tab called Easter Baskets up! I don't think he noticed...

Okay, tonight is PRE and a meeting for parents of First Communion students. All I know already is that girls have to have their shoulders covered! At least I don't have to worry abou that till next year! : )

note: Clay is currently moving a dead snake around the yard, and wants me to inspect it. I am so creeped out! He has now moved it to the mulchy area under the window. We looked up pictures on the internet, and he thinks it's a copperhead or brown snake. Big difference. I just can't look at the pictures, it makes me ill. He's now on Ches' computer looking up snakes THaT take SEVEN people to hold! ugh.

Can I just say again how clean the laundry room is! heehee yay! : )