Camera

08/09 has been hard on our cameras. When we went to Virginia last Nov, Shane used about 3 rolls of film on our "oldie but goodie" 35mm. When we developed the film, one of the rolls (our day in DC) was completely blank, thus ending our film picture taking.

Imagine my surprise (while I was in Alaska) when my digital started acting funny. 2 cameras in 2 vacations? Seriously?!?

Well last night, my good ol' Olympus took it's last picture. I lasted almost 24 hours w/o a camera. :o) Then ran down to Inkley's to pick up my new Olympus. What is the first thing I pointed my new camera at? Thing 1 and Thing 2 of course.

Below Grade

For the last 2 weeks we’ve been working on all the stuff in a house that gets buried. Although most of this will never be seen, it’s all pretty important. Remember that “the wise man built his house upon a rock.”

We had subs help with the excavation & pouring the foundation. Once our cement had “cured” for a few days, we sealed it. This was a project that was UNBELIEVABLY sticky!!! To do this, you thin a bucket of tar with paint thinner and then paint it on the foundation. Doing this seals out all the moisture that could creep in thru your foundation.

While working on this, I learned if you give a 10 year old a paint brush and ask him to cover the spots you miss, there is NO WAY said 10 year old will not end up covered in tar. Surprisingly, an 8 year old will fair FAR better.

While I was sealing the foundation, Shane was laying the conduit and pipe that would need to be buried in the cement of the crawl space and garage floor. Let me just take a moment here to stand in awe of Shane’s capacity for detail. He has an amazing attention span and can achieve a level of precision that most of us don’t know is possible. Shane is the one and only reason I believe I can build a home.

Yesterday we installed an outdoor faucet and built our vent wells. Yes, we could have bought wells instead building them. Building the wells did take all day but we save $600 and they’re pretty, so I think it was worth it.

You’ll notice in the picture, my first well was a little off center. I had to take that one apart, but we got it right in the end…the level is my friend…

So that’s it for our work below grade. Next week our exterior walls will start going up.

There’s dirt under my fingernails…& in my shoes!

When most people decide to build a house they visit a nice sub-division or look up a builder they like. They get to pick a floor plan & tile and carpet color. They chose a lot and visit a few times thru out the build to see how their house is coming on. This is called a” turn-key” project. For these smart people owning a new home involves, well, turning a key.

Some people, we’ll call them the “DYI” people, are more involved. They do all the painting. They may put the roof on or hammer in some nails…these are smart people as well.

My darling sis, once said (in exasperation) about Shane and I: “You never do ANYTHING the easy way!” I now see that she is right! We are not like the smart people I just told you about. For us, building a house is far more complicated.

We’re pretty much building this house on our own. We will hire (and supervise) all sub-contractors. And even more time consuming, we’ll be arranging for all materials to show up on time. And we will be doing A LOT of the work ourselves.

So here we go: For the next 6 months this blog will be about the blood, sweat & tears shed while we build our home.

Wish us luck!

I think my brain is melting...

Knitting Monogamy: the state of having only one knitting project at any one time.
ie...Knitting monogamy is soooo boring, I think my brain is melting.

I'm a loyal girl. I met my best friend when we where 5. I've been married to the guy I dated in high school for 11 years. So why do I have such a hard time with project monogamy?

I currently have 4 projects on needles right now & we're just talking about knitting...leave my crochet hooks out of this... I have enough yarn on hand to keep me busy for a long long long time.

Here's my problem. I love the yarn shop, I love yarn shopping and I love love casting on a new project. I don't always love finishing what I have cast on...it's a sickness. Seriously, there should be a 12 step program.

So now I am TRYING to finish all old projects before starting anything new. So far I'm doing pretty good. 4 is actually a good number for me. (And lets face it, I'm never going to finish those socks, until I see Heidi again.)

I'm hoping this public announcement will keep me honest. It's getting pretty dicing...all that beautiful linen I bought in Alaska is calling to me from the closet

We have a foundation!

Just wanted post some cute pics

Brandon Sanderson's latest book is now in stores!!!

Got Dirt?

Our View

Our Street

I think everyone knows we are planning to build a house this summer. We FINALLY closed on our property in Thatcher and hopefully the excavator will be there this week so we can pour the foundation next week.

And away we go...

Summer Saturdays

Cousins at McDonalds

I think my favorite thing about summer is the Saturdays. Summer Saturdays give me so many fun ways to hang out with my favorite people.

Today the boys and I started out at Logan's farmer's market. Perrin and Connor did a craft, and I got some greens and some yummy cheese for our dinner salad. I learned a funny thing about myself...I am a sucker for handmade soap...I came home with way too many bars :o) I also learned that if a nice lady (who doesn't appear to be selling anything) offers your kids a pickle, smile and say "thanks" But under no circumstance should you drink her (free) mushroom tea. She will say it's not alcoholic, but trust me, she's crazy!

I always find it relaxing to wander around a farmer's market. The music and the artsy booths and eclectic people create an air of...oh I don't know..."green" is the word I want to use. Everyone there is trying to buy local and fresh. And so many of the booths are run by the kind of creative people who can make a living growing flowers or making pottery. How cool would it be to be able to do that???

After the market, we meet Jessica and her girls at Macey's for an event to raise money for our library. There were games and balloons and face painting. The whole reason we went was so P&C could meet Matthew Buckley (one of their fave authors) To tell the truth the whole point of getting out of bed this morning was the book signing. It was way too cool for them to meet the guy who wrote "Chicken's in the Headlights." (for more on that, read the last post)

We ended the afternoon at McDonald's for lunch. Please tell me why those frys are sooooo good? Why can't broccoli taste like that???

The coolest thing happened today...

Last year P&C and I picked up Matthew Buckley's "Chicken's in the Headlights." We later read "Bullies in the Headlights" as well. These books tell the story of a family of 7 (yes, seven!!!) boys growing up in a pretty small house...let's face it, any house is small when faced with that level of little boy energy!

Five of the seven brothers share a room and the pandemonium that this causes is hilarious. At the beginning of the first book the frazzled parents decide that what they need to tame their troop is good old fashion hard work. So they give their rowdy boys goats and chickens to care for...hehehe...


For me, the funniest part of this book is the concept that adding chickens and goats to this family would somehow bring LESS chaos. Perrin and Connor love all the little boy craziness. As soon as we finished "Chickens" they started asking me for more brothers. When that didn't work, they wrote to Santa to ask for a transporter, so they could transport into Mr. Buckley's book.


I was beyond excited when Mr. Buckley announced on his blog that he would be appearing in Logan. And the whole reason Perrin & Connor got out of bed today was to meet the guy who wrote one of their favorite books. Mr. Buckley was very nice to P&C, and even to me...I must have seemed like a crazy lady, standing there, telling him how much my boys liked his books. :o) Most of you know that I would do back flips to get Perrin to read. And books like the "Headlights" make my job that much easier.

What Happens at Grandma's...

While I was on my cruise, Perrin and Connor went to stay in Emery Co. I figured between my Mom and 2 sisters, they'd be well taken care of. I'm pretty unclear on the details of their visit...I guess what happens at Grandma's, stays at Grandma's.

I do know there was a trip to Goblin Valley. And that there was much ado about the catch and release of 3 horny toads. The boys also got to go to work with my Mom, which must have been really cool. Lacie really wanted to take the boys to the new pool while they were there, but Connor had an ear infection and they both had a pretty bad cough all week, so they missed out on that.

There are so many pictures I wanted to post (thanks Lacie!) that I put most of them at the bottom of our blog. The pics posted here are showing them letting the horny toads go. I would like to point out the hilarious look on Kaydence's face. Paige doesn't seem to mind holding the lizards, but Kaydence looks like she's in pain...hehehehe. BTW, Kaydence and Paige are Velvet's daughters (she also has a son named Vance) And Jayda is Lacie's daughter.

How has it come to this?

Who ever said Working Moms have it all was an idiot...

The other day, Perrin & Connor (who are 2 of the 3 loves of my life) asked me to make pancakes for breakfast. No big deal, right? This should not have been a crisis. I love my boys AND I love to cook. Until this year, I made (from scratch) all the food they ate.

It's not that pancakes are even hard to make...it's the cooking AND the clean up that drives me to serve Campbell's and cold cereal over and over. Let's just say, a lot has changed since I started working.

I just can't keep up with all the things I used to do. I gave up my book club and can barely remember to show up for my beloved knitting group. We can get Perrin and Connor to scouts, but not to archery. And poor Shane hasn't read a book in months.

Don't get me wrong...it's not all bad...it's just different, and much much busier. I am so looking forward to the boys summer break.

So, back to the point of all this ranting...what did I do when my darlings asked for such a labor intensive meal? hehehe Did you know McDonald's serves pancakes?

"Sea Socks"

Last Tuesday Heidi and I left on our "Jammie's going to learn to knit socks" cruise. We flew from SLC to Vancouver where we boarded "The Golden Princess." It took us a REALLY long time to get thru customs and an even LONGER time wait in line for a "swine flu" check. But all the pain was worth it.

Stepping aboard that boat was like being transported to another world. A world where no one needed me to do anything for them. A world of no stress...a magical place of beauty, where delicious food appeared out of no where. You all know how up tight I am. The constantly anxiety in my life. This cruise was so peaceful that I COULD NOT worry about anything.

Truth be told, I got very little knitting done. I was hoping to knit a whole sock, but didn't get that far. I was just too relaxed to care :o)

It rained for most of our trip. Which was really kinda nice. It gave a me a cozy feeling to bundle up in my favorite hoody and sit at the back of the boat to watch the Inside Passage slide by. Alaska was cold, but beautiful. Being a Utah girl, it always surprises me to see how dense a forest can be.

Ketchikan was very pretty and a fun place to hang out. We did a lot of shopping, mostly in the Mission Street Arts & Fiber store. :o)

So, now that I've been on a cruise, I might be addicted. :o) The whole trip was simply amazing. :o)

5 Fat Files

My darling sister Velvet told me about advice she was given. Every woman should have "5 Fat Files." That is 5 subjects that she spends her life becoming an expert in. Now these 5 things need to be of real value, since your going to spend your whole life learning about them.

One of my chosen subjects is knitting. I have had a great time learning how to knit, and last week taught myself how to combine colors. I'm very pleased with the results. What do you think?

Pictures from Virginia

I have a little free time (thanks to a bout of bronchitis) so I am FINLAY posting our pictures from Virginia.

Can't blog...gotta work...

Since starting my job in Sept everything has gone a little crazy. I just don't have time to blog anymore. After this summer things should (I hope) slow down and I'll be able to get back into the swing of things.

I hope your all well and happy.