~~~ SURPRISE ! ~~~~

This morning I was rudely awakened by barking dogs. Now it's not like this has never happened before. But it is definitely not our normal pattern. Usually my wake up call comes as incessant pawing on any reachable body part. This ceremonial pawing ritual generally results in toe nail furrows carved into my flesh, which results in me dragging my butt out of bed to take the offending flesh carver out to do his business. But this morning the routine was suspiciously altered. When the barking reached a crescendo I fell out of bed and shuffled over to the window..........

OH BE STILL MY HEART...could it be? Could it actually be our long awaited Landscapers? The guys we hired 4 months ago and have been waiting for ever since! I pinched myself to see if I was still asleep...and then looked again..... OH Glory day! Those dump truck drivin' dudes are coming up my driveway!! HOORAY!! In mid leap ... my blogmind kicked in .. and I about had a cow....WAIT A MINUTE I NEED A BEFORE PICTURE!!! I scampered like my butt was on fire, trying to get to my camera. AWWWW BAT CRAP I'm in my pajamas. I'm pretty sure if I run outside in this getup...waving a camera around...those boys are gonna hit the gas and leave my property faster than they can speed dial 911 and report a lunatic sighting! So I scramble into jeans and a t-shirt and scuttle down the stairs. Forget about make-up or hair combing...this is a blog emergency!

Whew....I GOT IT...the BEFORE SHOT.... You will notice this failed attempt at a patio. We wanted an "earthy" look and decided to create one with large pieces of slate. My hubby and I built this abomination last spring. It didn't take long before we realized there was a reason we didn't "hard scape" for a living. So hence the hiring of professionals!

Oh gee....lets all wave BYE BYE to this hideous excuse for a patio. I watch it dismantled without a single tear in my eye! WOOT WOOT! Here comes the big guns!
At this point I'm pretty sure these guys are thinking..."If this camera obsessed woman is gonna sit here and take pictures of us all day...the price is GOING UP!"

Because my budget could not absorb a price increase for the "annoyance factor" I scramble back inside. Of course...I run upstairs to gawk at them out the window...hey they don't get off that easy! And ya know the two Busybodies had to keep track of the doings too!

Look at it....in all it's chocolate brown loveliness....

OOOH go ahead and sweat you big brawny Gods of the dirt....because with every drop of your man sweat I'm that much closer to a REAL patio that doesn't have to be mowed!

Back to window lurking...........

I just want to go on record as saying...the next picture was not snapped because they had their shirts off....REALLY it wasn't!!! The day ends......I would have made them work long into the night and not leave until they were finished!
But the little buggers think they deserve food! And sleep! Sheeesh a bunch of Girlie men!

Just to make sure they come back tomorrow...I'm holding their back hoe and all their tools hostage! The depressing thing is I have to work tomorrow. So not only will I not be here to photograph their progress....but I'm gonna have to wait all dang day .... going crazy....before I can come home and see the end result. One things for sure....It's gonna be waaaay better than the way it was!