Can You Hear the Hallelujah Chorus?

Together, now: "Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hallelujah! Hal-le-lu-jah!" I could keep going, but you probably get the idea.

Me, I've been hearing that song ever since my birthday. Doug said, gruffly, "Let's go to the store." I agreed, asking what we were getting, where we were going...and he replied, "Oh, we're getting fence stuff."

Inwardly, I was jumping up and down and doing a dance or maybe twenty. But then I calmly replied, "Okay." Aren't you impressed with my self control? After all, he might have changed his mind if I broke out some pom-poms and started doing cheers. So we went shopping. With me being pretty quiet. And smug.

Shopping for a fence was, frankly, cold. All the fencing materials were outside in a large yard and it was probably three hours after sunset. Brrrr. The salesmen were shivering, but were also kindly answering Doug's questions. They even loaded the fencing for us. Hopefully the work kept them warm.

When we got home, Doug said he was going out to "play". His version of "playing?" Putting up one section of the fence!

He calls it a "rodent" fence. Pretty accurate. Then, Saturday he put up another section.

There were still enough gaps in it that Sophie couldn't be trusted outside. Monday night, though, he finished. And now Sophie can play outside without constant supervision. Meaning, I can actually plant something with her exploring in a different part of the yard.  Tuesday, we went outside for her to take a look.

Contemplating the new fence.

She doesn't look excited, does she? But it was more fun when her friends came over and they were racing from one side of the yard to the other...without me standing over them the entire time.

Here's the finished view:

Doug used silicone to fuse the brick to the wood blocks. It definitely isn't a long-term solution, but neither is the fence.

The kids aren't quite as thrilled as I am. This fence has no gates, so they are now confined to using just the front door. That's okay with me - fewer exits means that I can keep a closer watch on who is coming and going. Perhaps that's why they're not so thrilled, hm?

Anyway, three cheers for Doug: Hooray! Hooray! Hooray!

A fence. Now we can take our time figuring out what we really want as a privacy fence (which might be important, since Jack likes to "spray" our house at least once a week). That could take a looong while. While we're debating, though, we won't have any squished toddlers. And that makes a mama very, very happy. And since it's Thanksgiving tomorrow, we'll add incredibly grateful. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone!