Yard crashers

While I was on vacation, Adam did a tow for friends of ours, didn't charge them and lent them my car so he could get to work before he had a chance to work on his car. He is a horticulturist at a local college. They just had a plant sale that the students had planted. As a thank you, they brought enough plants for a 20 square foot area and planted them for us...the brought fertilizer, amendment and mulch. We got our very own mini yard crashers. The area they worked on has never looked so good...and the pansies and cabbage will continue to grow all winter providing us with color. So cool! I like that kind of thank you. I tried to help but she kept telling me to just let them do the work. They brought yellow pansies, red pansies, ornamental cabbage and snapdragons.

They brought all four of their kids and they made fast work of it.

They even watered everything and swept up.

We have great friends. And we are still planning on doing an overnight backpacking trip next month. Hopefully it's not too cold.

A wonderful trip home (pic overload)

It took me so long to get back into a normal schedule aagain after I got home. The first week I was not feeling very well at all and didn't do much besides work and come home to veg on the couch until far too late. But eventually, it all worked itself out and I'm feeling better now.

It was so fun getting to go back home and visit family. Thanks so much, everyone, for taking time out of your busy schedules to spend time with me.

The flight in was productive, working on a secret project that I hope to actually finish within the next year. I had a layover in Denver and that's my favorite flight pattern ever because once they fly over Springville, they bank left and the whole valley comes into view. Then they fly straight down Utah Valley and Salt Lake valley. I love the view! My first glimpse of home.



You all know who you are so I will skip captions unless I need/want to explain something.

Mom and Dad took me on a drive through the canyon to see the fall colors. I showed them a scenic pull out they never knew existed.

Mom remembered how to knit so she could show me how to do it. Thanks, Mom! :o)

The Mendozas took me bowling and thn to eat dinner in the very chilly canyon. I had a great time.

Then I got to spend the night at the little Andes' house where I saw my first Itai smile and got to hear him talk...but not to me.

Poor Avi was limping around on his bad leg. He wanted to just run though.

I went for a walk while the boys were getting their baths. I saw horses and some gardens. These onions caught my eye.

Between the 1st and 2nd sessions of general conference, Debbie took me to see the Draper Temple since I had never seen it. It's so pretty but the view is even better.

The gate was locked but Itai wanted to go in so he tried unlocking the gates. He actually got a key to fit the lock.

I spent a couple days at Heather's. We went for walks, played and watched Mickey Mouse.

This is a pic taken while spinning Aileah.

I was disappointed that this pic is not very crisp. I think it's a very cute pic of Princess Izzy.

I drew a pic of Mom and Dad for Mother's Day/Father's Day. It was only 4 months late...I am getting better. So sad.

Mom and Sheri took me to a quilt exhibit at BYU. We were thinking they would be exhibit quality but they were meant to look like folk art. Kind of odd to have on display but it was fun to see anyway. See how wonky some of them were?

This one was my favorite.

Jared and the boys came down to visit one evening for a few hours and I tried to get a spinning picture of Itai.

Avi was getting spun as well and it was funny because he would really just let himself go limp and enjoy the ride. He couldn't get enough of it.

The Manns took me ice skating for Aileah's first time. She startedout with a walker, then graduated to skating with both hands being held, and made it to one handed skating. Her two favorite things were spinning with me and falling on purpose. What a cutie! Thanks for the good time. :o)

On my next to last morning, I woke up early and went for a walk, hoping to catch a nice sunrise but it was a very mild sunrise. Still, the fresh, crisp morning air was nice. I found this really old truck with bones on the back...I think someone was a hunter. These were all old, cracked and sun bleached.

The house that Heather and I both like on Main street had it's autumn decorations out.

The last night, we pulled out the ping pong table and pool table. Mom and I played ping pong and Sheri and I played pool.

I had a great time. Thanks again, everyone. I miss you all and can't wait to see you again.

packed week

So, I think Adam is trying to kill me this week. We were working on the kitchen but that's on hold until I leave. Now, we're working on the guest room. He's trying to get it finished by Saturday. What that entails (some steps already finished) is cleaning out all the tools, sheets of wood and drywall, finding new homes for all the boxes. We have been using it as a general storage room as well as construction storage for all the stuff that we've needed for various projects. That's what we have done (good thing Jon came so over half of that was already finished). What's left is to finish mudding/sanding the inside of the closet. Painting the room and closet. Getting up trim around the closet opening and get doors installed. Remounting the curtains. Moving in furniture (we're still tring to locate a free bed. Adam gave away the mattress Jon slept on last month).

Why are we doing all this you wonder? Adam has a coworker/friend from Utah that got a job with the company down here. He has 5 children and a wife but it will only be him coming down right now. He's looking for a house and when he finds a house, he'll be moving out. He is thinking 1-2 months. Houses are cheap right now so it may not even take that long. He is supposed to arrive the day I leave. Adam will have company and he's happy about that. He doesn't like to be alone a lot.

We allowed the tenants to paint the bedrooms. They chose a bright blue for the back bedroom. For this bedroom, they chose this bright sunshiney yellow...it's subdued in the pictures for some reason. So, here's the intermediate mess...mostly already tamed.

Our personal things that haven't found homes outside of their boxes yet. Yes, I realize we've been here two years already...

Adam put in this clothes pole in the laundry room at my request. I used it all the time before we got the clothesline but this is the first time I've used the pole since then. It's just been such a rainy week I haven't been able to hang anything outside. See my washboard? Adam got me that from an antique store for my birthday last year. :o) The sad irons in front of it are from Barry. They were his grandma's.

Ok, enough fun, back to work. We are doing wood counters on the living room side of the peninsula. We tested four types of wood with 6 different stains (only 4 shown here) and those are my paint choices for the guest room...they are actually not grey like the pic is showing. They're more brown/gray. I can't believe how many colors of stain there are. Sometimes there really is such a thing as too many choices!

I settled on 5 different colors. Adam bought the samples and I painted blocks on the walls. I have to wait until they're dry to see the true color and also to see it in day light. But right now, I am leaning toward the lightest one. I really like that one.

Adam cleaned up between this project and the kitchen project. This is so much cleaner, you have no idea!! This is what life is like when you do your own house maintenance on this scale. There's always something .

So, one more night left to finish the reast of the guest room and then carry all the furniture up. I've hardly gotten 5 hours of sleep each night this week...I figure I'll sleep when I'm on vacation. That is what is keeping me going.

Let the renovation begin (well...continue really)

Kitchen work is under way. Adam had to hoist the sink into the air while working on the counter top bases in preparation for putting in the marble tiles. He was going to mortar the wood for the tile backer but after taping up all the paper, he decided he would do that when I was gone so he could do it all at once so the paper had to come back down. The plan is for him to have the counters finished when I get back from vacation. He's hoping the back splash as well but that's a lot of work so we'll see about the back splash.

This is the "bar". It's just a raised wall in the middle of the peninsula. It is purely to keep the mess of normal dishes buildup from being completely on display from the doorway. I can still see over it wile doing dishes but it blocks just enough of the counter/sink that I don't have to feel self conscious every time there are dishes.

The sink raised in the air while Adam screws the bar into place.

Hard working man.

So, some more of what's gone on this week is, of course, some food. My favorites were raw brownies and guacamole.

I've posted a recipe for these brownies made of just walnuts, dates, coconut oil and cocoa before. I just love them and I can eat them because they're sugar free and white flour free. This time, for the first time, I added some of my drained yogurt cheese to the top as frosting. So good!!

And then for lunch today, I had guacamole made with avocado, chopped tomatoes, lemon juice, sea salt and cilantro with zuchinni rounds to dip in it. I love simple meals like that.

I got the dogs outside for a group shot. I don't like this one as much as past ones I've gotten but I still like getting more shots of all of them...especially when they're listening to me.

We actually spent quite a bit of time outside before heading over to babysit Samuel, enjoying the wonderful fall weather. I feel so alive when fall comes around! While we were out, snapping pics, we got this one of me and Jack that I really like. There aren't very many pics of us with the dogs. I realize the composition is horrible and my head is chopped off...but I really like it anyway. That's my Jackie boy.

And lastly... I have been wearing a jelly type barcelet (you know those Live Strong bracelet type things) for behavior modification. If I complain or criticize, I have to change the wrist it's on, bringing attention to my conscience thought of what I've just done. The theory is that if you recognize you're doing it, you will be less likely to do it. My record so far was going 5 days without changing wrists. The goal is 21 days. But I didn't really like that jelly bracelet. I was putting laundry away. I took some towels to the bathroom and looked at my jewelry box. I rifled through it looking for something easy to latch/unlatch for the more constant than should be changing of the wrists. I found something that I really like. But while looking through the box, I came across my 3 pairs of earrings that I've saved even though my ears haven't been pierced in a decade (I got rid of all the rest). Suddenly, I was filled with the desire to put earrings in. So I grabbed a bottle of rubbing alcohol and my sharpest studs. After about 10 minutes, I had pierced ears again. I was wondering how long it would take for Adam to notice and one of the first things he said to me was, "Why are you all girlified?" He said he liked it. The funny thing was he actually seemed excited that he could buy me earrings. He's only seen me wearing earrings once, on our wedding day, that last time I pierced my ears. I don't know how long it will last (mood or infection will eventually end it, I'm sure since just 3 hours without wearing them closes them back up) but I am girlified for the moment.