Starting School

August 28, 2012

 

Mak started preschool again. He was sort of excited, but more grumpy about being woken up early. He gets to ride the bus again, and loves it. He will be going Mondays and Wednesdays in the morning. He had a good time at school the first day, and couldn't wait to empty his back pack for me.

 

My little stud muffin. I love this picture. I told him to stand in front of the car and he went and leaned right up on it. So CUTE!!

Drinking milk, waiting for the bus

CHEEZIN'!!!

 

Along with Mak starting school, I am also starting school again. I have another semester of a full schedule. I am however really excited for my photography class. Hopefully I will be able to show some of my work on here! I am also TRYING to potty train Carson. We wont talk about that right now since it is a sore subject with us both!! Eric is still working away in Draper, and learning the ropes of juggling lots of work and a family. Not an easy task, but we are doing it! Have a happy start to FALL everybody!!

GT RELAY Round 2!!!

This year I went for round 2 on the Grand Teton Relay. This year I had my 2 sisters-in-law join me for a weekend of adventure. It was so much fun. So glad we all had a good time and made it back a live...well mostly! Despite sore muscles, and weak limbs we made it through to the finish line!

This year I was in Van 1, and i was runner 1. Best times ever to run, they were not in the hot of the day at all. So grateful for that.

My first leg was called Bear Gulch, and it was a 7.4 mile run that was mainly up hill. I completed it in 1 hour and 24 minutes. That was a huge hill, and I was told that I rocked it, but I am just happy to have made it up without dying!

Second leg was called Squirrel Creek, it was a 3.8 mile run that I did right after sunset. Those are the fun runs. I love running in the dark. I don't know how long that one took me though.

My last was Down Targhee, and it was 6.4 miles on solid down hill. That one was the toughest, only because by then my body was tired from lack of sleep and my muscles were screaming "NOT AGAIN!!!" at me the whole way down. That one took me 1 hour and 10 minutes to finish. I'm not very proud of that one, only cause I know I could have gone faster. Oh well, next year right?! We will see.

I didn't get much pictures of the scenery this year. The fires were really bad and most of the time the Tetons weren't even visible. Every runner had trouble breathing when we got higher up. It was pretty bad, but all together very fun! We were called The UnderDawgs. Jessyka and I decided to wear sort of like superhero costumes. We wore underwear over our spandex, and a cape. We also used duct tape to make a U on our shirts. I have a picture somewhere of me that I will have to find. We couldn't figure out how to make masks, so we didn't have those, again, maybe next year!

 

 

VAN 1: (l-r) Jim, Karrie, Karli (SIL), ME, Melanie (SIL), and Matt

When I mentioned decorating the vans, everybody looked at me. So I drew these stick figured superheros and wrote our teams name on both of the vans. They told me this one looked like a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle. I will admit he kind of does lol!

This was NOT the finish, but the starting line. (The other side says start) Karli is back there getting ready to run!

As we were waiting at transition 12, waiting for van 2 to finish, the safety guy came up and asked our van to decorate a side of his car. Again, everybody looked at me. Why they think I have artistic talents is beyond me. So I took our crayons and "tagged" his car. This is Karrie and I in superhero pose after I was finished.

My masterpiece! Over all he was happy and laughed at the art! you might need to blow it up to read what all I wrote.

one of my sisters-in-law, Karli and I after we crossed the finish line in Teton Village.

So happy to have had this experience...again!!!

Over all, everybody did a wonderful job, and rocked every leg they had! So proud of Karli and Melanie for doing this and completing it. It is not as easy as it may look or sound, they and everybody else on the team did great!!!

RETURNED MISSIONARY!!!!

RYAN'S HOME!!!!

August 15, 2012 my sister, Ryan, journeyed home from the big city of LA.

We were suppossed to leave by noon to get to the airport on time for her flight which landed at 1. As usual my mom was late, and we didnt end up leaving Tooele until about 1230. I have never seen my mother drive so fast or so crazy. We made it there just in time, only because her plane was early! We got inside and to baggage claim just as she was walking down the stairs. I wanted a picture of her walking down the stairs and over to us, but all I got was a side shot. Which concidering when we left, is better than nothing!

In our haste, we forgot her signs that my family made, so all we had were the balloons, again, better than nothing! Over all it was a wonderful reunion full of laughter and tears.

My mom and Anna running to her. I think they ran through a few people to get to her!

 My kids were too young to probably remember her...they didn't

 Nhala had never met Ry, so she was afraid of her.

 Ryan saying good-bye to all her Missionary friends.

 Cheezin'

 My mom had this put on her car...

 Insert Ryan

The back of my mom's car...

 

We are grateful to have Ryan back home with us, and so proud of her. Love ya lil' sis!!!



Catch UP!

Where to begin...well, first off I have been a HUGE slacker in the blogging department this summer. Do you blame me though after the school year? This is a catch up blog, and hopefully I don't leave anything out.

JUNE 14, 2012

Eric and I celebrated our 4th wedding anniversary. These last four years may not have been easy, but I wouldn't have wanted to share them with anyone else. Love you Eric, and here is to many for years!

Besides the summer activities of going to the pool and the zoo, not much else has happened. I worked over the 4th of July so no celebrating went down! I also for got my camera when we went to the zoo, but don't worry there will be many more!

The kids and I spent the day over at my moms house one day and played in her pool that she bought for the kids. This pool is so cute, and the kids love it. It is a sharks open mouth, complete with teeth and everything.

The boys also begged my mom to plant a pumpkin patch. They begged me first, but I said they had to ask gramma so the dogs wouldn't eat their pumpkins. They succeeded with their begging, and they have at least 2 pumpkins already growing. Mak is so excited about it, and can't wait to see if more grow. I hope more than 2 grow, we planted a lot of seeds.

So proud of my little gardeners! I will keep you posted on the progress of the pumpkins and the rest of our summer. School is starting soon, so hopefully I can get ready for that too!





Remodel in the Works!

Here are the pictures I promised. I have before and after, and can I just say that I LOVE my new floor. It adds something that my house needed. Not to mention it gave it a face lift. Eric and I are very happy with how the color turned out, and that it matched the cabinets so well. I am getting ahead of myself though...lets back up to after the leaking.

We had a disaster clean-up crew come in and help us dry out the entire spill, and spray some anti-bacterial cleaner. So for 4 very long days, my house was left like this...

This was the damage under one of my shelves in the basement (you can see the shelves in the picture with the fans).

They cut out the ceiling that was wet, so here is this hole that is approx. 4' X 8'. Not very flattering when guests come over! 

Here are 2 of the 3 fans that they brought to dry everything out. It was awful! These things are big and so loud! I was lucky that the 2 were in the basement.

This is right in front of my kitchen sink, the main damage was to my floor, but the cabinet under my sink has lots of water damage, and will forever smell like poop I am afraid.

So for 4 very long and loud days I had these fans drying my house. I didn't mind having them on though because they blew the smell of poop out of the house. I could smell the poop every time I turned them off, so they were not turned off at all!! Like I said before, lots of the damage was to my wood floor. It is cheap and I hated the floor, but it looked better without all the water damage. Well after almost 2 months part of the wood floor is put it. I have learned my lesson, and will NEVER pay to have somebody else do it. This has been awful, and so not worth it. I could have had my floor a long time ago had I just done it myself. Oh well though, you live and you learn right! So Before i had the light colored wood in every room of the main floor except, in the laundry room, pantry, and 2 closets. I don't know who thought of the color schemes in the house, but they suck! I will show you. I have to explain all the pictures again otherwise you wont know what they are. I would also point out that you can not see the whole closets cause they are messy, and I didn't want all of that in the pictures for everyone to see!

This is the damage to the floor right in front of the sink. The picture doesn't do it justice. I literally had the hardest time sweeping because the floor was so buckled.

This was off to the side of the sink, more bad buckling...might I add how I hate this color!

A bigger picture of that area.

Here is the NASTY tan carpet that was in my laundry room. It is so gross, and this is after I had cleaned the carpets several times. It is so bad, I haven't vacuumed in this picture but you can still get the idea!

This is my pantry, and another different type of flooring. This is the original floor that they had throughout the whole kitchen...not much better than the light wood floor...

You can't tell from the picture but this carpet is BLUE! Yes I said blue. This is a small closet that the dog food is in, along with my Tupperware!

This is the front coat closet, and more blue carpet! I can't even believe that all of this was in my house!

Another shot of the kitchen...

Before the floor guy came, I thought it would be best to do some painting. I didn't change any of the colors, that would be too much of a project, so we just touched up the walls where the boys had colored with permanent marker, and patched some holes. Just made it all look fresh! The boys of course had to help, so they had a few walls and a small brush and roller. They actually didn't do that bad! The kitchen had wood trim around the top part of the walls, it was the same color as the light floor. I had a decision to make, either stain it the color of my cabinets, or take it down...I took it down. It looks like the walls are taller with it gone!

Mak painting...

So serious!

He got it everywhere!!

This is how Carson painted!!

See...naked! It was so cute!

A shot without the wood trim, looks good!

The other end without trim.

OK OK, so here is what you have been waiting for. My FLOOR!! Like I said they aren't finished. They didn't receive all of their order, so they are coming back...that was what I was told 2 weeks ago!

From the front door looking back. Sorry for the glare, and the pictures aren't very good.

Looking at the front door from the back door!

The laundry room. The floor has a reddish tint to it, which I love!

The pantry!

The small dog closet!

The coat closet!

Looking into the laundry room from the kitchen.

Right in front of the sink! You can see the blue strip, that is where they need to finish, also under the fridge and under the washer and dryer. They also have the round trim to finish. Other than that it is almost done, and we are so excited! I will show more pictures when they are done. The next part is the living room, which is getting carpet!