The Adventures of Missy & Andy

FYI & TMI

2012-02-05T21:42:00.007-07:00

Another month, another negative pregnancy test.

I know people want updates, but are hesitant to ask. My sweet friend Becca (who I love for being brave enough to just ASK) always prefaces her questions with "now you can totally tell me it is none of my business...but..." Honestly, your questions make me feel loved. Even if my answer is "no news" it's nice to know you're thinking of me.

The truth is, I've been focused on being strong for so long, that I worry I am suppressing things. Sometimes I gut-check myself just to see if something will come bubbling up. For example, this weekend I was in our spare bedroom. The one we refer to as the 'baby' room. I asked myself - what if at some point we turn this room into an office, or home gym or shoe closet? Then I waited for panic to set in, or tears. But it didn't happen. Just peace. Even staring at that test line, and wondering if I will EVER see two lines, the panic didn't come. Just peace.

I started wondering if there is something wrong with me since I'm not going as crazy as other people expect me to. I'm worried that it might be a sign that I don't want this as bad as I keep telling myself I do. As we round the two year mark, I compiled a list of some of the things we have gone through. I know other people have struggled longer and harder, but I'm proud of this list. We've fought hard.

For two years I have woken at 6AM to take my basal body temperature. Weekends, holidays, every day.

For two years we have timed and scheduled a good chunk of our sex life. As you can guess, it has been less than romantic. I’ve had sex when I was slobbering sick. When I was mad at my husband. When I would rather have done anything else.

I have had my blood taken countless times. Those old plasma donation scars I have (a story for another day:) ) are serving as handy "landing strips" for the nurses.

I’ve taken all sorts of medications. Including some that have potentially increased my risk of certain kinds of cancers. One medication gave me midnight hot flashes. Another headaches and problems sleeping.

I’ve counted, tracked and monitored every single detail of my cycle. I purchased special software to help me do this. I’ve read everything I can find to help me understand my body better.

I’ve laid open the most intimate details of my life to complete strangers (doctors). Over and over. I've gotten so good at this I've thought about moonlighting as a phone sex operator. The extra funds couldn't hurt since...

We’ve paid thousands of dollars for doctor’s visits, prescriptions medications, test strips, consult fees, lab tests and medical procedures.

I’ve had surgery and gone under general anesthesia.

I’ve had ultrasounds, and several other painful, uncomfortable and embarrassing procedures. The details of which I will spare you :)

I’ve flown out of state on more than one occasion to meet up with my husband who had to work at “inconvenient” times of the month. Again, this sounds far more romantic than it actually was. Funny yes, romantic no.

I’ve prayed, pleaded, kept my chin up, questioned myself, wondered about my motives, second guessed my past choices and adjusted my future expectations. As we enter into year three, we are winding down the options that we are willing and able to take at this time. I'm not crazy yet, but I am tired. I've been running for a very long time now.

Now! On to exciting news! Next week I will be posting some before (and hopefully in progress) shots of our latest project - the Dining Room. Here is a sneak peek. It has literally taken me three years to convince Andy that these shades of green went out with the twentieth century... If you agree with me, please post a comment, I don't think he trusts me on this....

and please ignore the crazy-grimace I am sporting and direct your attention to that lovely chandelier. It was the first thing to go.

A rose by any other name...

2012-01-29T19:16:00.016-07:00

*ok, listen up. BIG BIG disclaimer here. I'm probably going to offend people in this blog post. If I do, feel free to leave a comment and let me have it! I don't know any of these people, and I'm sure they're wonderful parents. All of their babies are adorable. It's not their fault mommy & daddy maybe went a teensy bit overboard trying to be "unique". Also, this is just my own opinion - Andy disagreed with me on a few of these, you can too...*

Every year, our local newspaper does a novelty "Babies of the Year" section. Basically, any proud parent can send in a picture of their cutie pie (born in the last year) and have their picture and information printed. It's like an adorable baby yearbook. Here is a link if you want to take a look: http://hjnews.com/ads/BABES_2011.pdf

Why do I await this issue with great anticipation? Do I just love pictures of cute newborns in owl hats or ginormous bows? YES I DO! But even more than that, I love taking a look at some of the funny, strange, & bordering on criminal things people are naming their kids these days! I've divided my favorites from 2011 into five categories:

Made up Names

Khysen
Brynlyn
Kazer
Grady
Vivia
Breklyn (the lesser known New York borough?)
Kenley Nevaeh (when a reality tart from an MTV show has a baby with the same name...never mind)
Dreyson
Blayton
Avyn
Dacen
Baya
Maysa
Maile
Datten

"I'm going to need you to spell that for me" a.k.a. perfectly fine names with wacked out spellings

Paizlee (probably 20 different spellings of this poor name out there. The original was just fine!)
BreLeigh
Nixen
Allisynn
Danyelle (does this mean that 80's names are coming back? Will there be a Jhenipher & Mahlisaa next year?)
Phebe (as if the name Phoebe wasn't hard enough to spell already)
Trevi
Ryvre
Wende

"the 5th graders will be brutal"

Hayze
Barbra (no name should have the word BRA so prominently)
Timber (hopefully this child isn't ever chubby. I can hear the TIIIIIMMMMMBERRRRRR taunts already)
Tymber (Tymber is so unique!!!)
Riot (will this child develop a self fulfilling behavioral disorder?)
Payne
Fridy (this name looks like a typo. period)

" I'm speechless"

Zomer
Canyon
Berleigh (do they know the common definition of "burly" is "stout" as in FAT?)
Quaitlee
Jett (only because this name was given to a girl)
Twila (a Stephanie Meyer fan maybe? the name Bella was too obvious?)
Season (couldn't decide between the perfectly normal names - Summer, Autumn, Spring....)
Shakobe (couldn't decide who was the better player - Shak or Kobe)
Elliot Mae (only because this name was given to a girl)

Another "unique" way to spell an overly trendy name (some of the girls on this list will have no choice but to become Vegas showgirls)

Treyson
Kapree
Kasyn
Oaklei
Berlyn
Ryker (yep, that famous maximum security prison they have in New York)
Tinley
Journee
Starlee
Kynlee
Bryton

Here's the final thing. Save the crazy names for your pets. If you have trouble telling the difference between crazy and not crazy, try to imagine your child, all grown up, being sworn in as the President of the United States. When he or she takes that oath, will their name sound normal, or ridiculous?

Signed,
the Grinch

How I kicked the winter blues

2012-01-21T21:42:00.009-07:00

Every year around this time I usually suffer from a case of the winter blues. I joke about it a lot, but it's actually not very funny. It starts with going to work in the dark, coming home in the dark, being cold all the time, and no sun on my face. It ends up with pity parties and bad attitudes.

I am embarrassed to admit this, but there will be weeks at a time in the winter when I will come home from work, sit in front of something (tv/computer/book) & not get up until I go to bed. Since I don't have kids, and Andy's traveling, there is nothing to stop me from doing this. I don't get anything done, don't go anywhere, don't make any effort to see anyone, and generally just feel pretty sorry for myself.

This year I wanted it to be different. It started with the belief that I have the power to choose a different way. That I can take steps to avoid my tendency to winter sluggishness. These thoughts have been very empowering. Here are some things that have helped me avoid the doldrums this year:

1. I've been consistent about getting to the gym three times a week for a good hard run.
I have a love hate relationship with running. Mostly hate. I have to DRAG myself there and I DREAD it all day. Why? no good reason. The second I'm on that treadmill and Rihanna is rocking in my ears, I feel so much better. I sleep better. I probably look better. Win win win.

2. I've tried to keep the house in a tidy state. It is hard. After work I am tired. I don't want to do laundry or dishes. One week I panicked and paid my sister to help me do some 'spring'-cleaning. For four hours we worked together. It was worth every penny. When my surroundings are neat and orderly, I feel peaceful and happy. It also frees me up to do other things, without feeling guilty about unfinished chores.

3. I haven't given in to my unsocial tendencies. I'm married to a social butterfly. This guy would have a party every night if I let him. He wants to see friends and invite people and hang out and visit and chat and talk and play. Sometimes I forget that his easy way with people was one of the qualities that attracted me to him. The truth is, he's onto something. Having 'plans' one or two nights a week keeps me feeling connected with people, and gives us something fun to look forward to.

4. I stumbled onto this blog post, and listened to the video she links to. Even if you're not a religious person, there is something very peaceful in his words. After the intro, I love the way it begins: "Embrace this day with enthusiastic welcome, no matter how it looks". I play this clip on my phone, and lay in a sunbeam on the floor in my kitchen (spike likes to join in). Here's the link http://www.ablogaboutlove.com/2012/01/something-for-you.html
The end result is, I'm here at the end of January and I feel great - plus spring is RIGHT AROUND THE CORNER! I feel silly making a big deal about it, but if anyone out there finds themselves with the winter blahs, I hope this gives you some ideas. Cheers!

Our Roman Holiday

2012-01-16T20:13:00.050-07:00

Last November we spent three amazing weeks in Europe with Andy's parents. Two weeks on a Mediterranean cruise, and a week traveling to and sightseeing in Rome, Italy.

It's hard to do justice when describing a vacation like this. We could go on and on about every stop and sight we witnessed but we'll spare you all the lengthy details. Our trip was non-stop, with something incredible to see around every corner. There were many days when we walked ten miles or more while touring. We explored many museums and got so used to seeing ancient ruins scattered about, that it started to seem normal...there is definitely a unique sense of history when you have modern homes built next door to millenia old ruins. We packed a lot into the three weeks, and it went by in a flash. Before we knew it, we were back home and it seemed like we had dreamed the whole thing (except the post-cruise ship lb's - those were real).

Here is a list of the highlights:

Delta International first class both ways. Don't be too jealous, flight benefits come at a price :)
Kathie has been raving about Italian gelato for years. We finally go to Italy where there is a Gelateria on every corner. We eat gelato every day for weeks - Missy tries many flavors, Andy picks dark chocolate every single time.
Public restrooms in Europe - small, inconveniently placed and NOT free. Missy (aka 'Camel') doesn't need to use a single one, but Kathie and Andy spend many anxious moments searching them out.

We lost Kathie and Tony for a couple of hours at the Forum. We eventually ran into each other at the Colosseum. We walked on a 2,000 year old stone footpath on Palladium Hill. Andy stared down a mean old lady who snipped at him for bringing a gelato cone into the Pantheon. He said if they don't want people to bring it in they shouldn't sell it at the front door!

Exploring the dank catacombs where ancient Romans were buried. After that we walked to the Borghese Museum.

Andy fought with Missy when she wanted to 'toss a coin' into the Trevi fountains - when all we had were 2 Euro coins. He won that battle, but lost the war when he remarked that the Trevi fountains reminded him of Caesar's Palace...in Las Vegas

Vatican City - um, definitely the 1% :) Missy tears up in the Sistine Chapel. The gelato outside Vatican City was our favorite of the whole trip.

Dogpeii, Oops, I mean Pompeii, is actually overrun by friendly stray dogs! We took a tour and basically realized that ancient Romans had better city planners than most modern cities.
The Isle of Capri. What can I say about this little gem? When I die I may just opt to go to Capri instead of heaven. It is a little island paradise with fairies that polish the leaves and rocks on the footpaths after dark.
Andy jumped into the smelly volcano waters off the coast of Santorini. It stained his swimsuit all brown, or so he says....
Ephesus - visited the purported tomb of the virgin Mary. Walked through the incredible ruins of Ephesus (where Paul preached). The highlight here was the overpriced (and tragically moldy) pomegranate Andy bought from a street vendor...but not to worry -
In Katakolon, there was a man selling Pomegranate juice from a special juicer. After I picked Andy up off the cobblestone street, he ordered a glass of juice and was in a fabulous mood for the rest of the day :) We also walked around Olympia, which was very cool.

We climbed up Mt. Apollo... the highest point on the island of Delos - up a stone staircase that is almost 3,000 years old!

We saw ruins in Corinth & Athens where apostles walked and preached.

We stopped at a pastry shop in Dubrovnik, Croatia - Andy had a pita, and Missy had a croissant. It reminded us of the little pastry shops on every corner in Melbourne. We walked the Dubrovnik city walls that have protected the town from attacks as recently as the 1990's.

Here are a few more photos for your enjoyment:
The ColosseumThey really were sexyColumns are in no short supplyWaiting for the ferry on the Sorrento coastApparently the apostles originally baptized by immersion... odd.Arriving in Venice!We had a wonderful time. Andy's parents are great travel buddies, and we will remember this trip forever. The best part was spending three solid weeks with Andy exploring an intriguing and beautiful part of the world. Here's to many more adventures to come!

Blast from the past

2012-01-09T22:00:00.004-07:00

My parents have been cleaning out their storage shed recently, which means I have come face to face with some fun artifacts from the past :)

Back in 1996 some poor El-Ed major named Loreen Bliss was assigned to shadow me for her "day in the life of a 7th grader" assignment. I ended up with a copy of her report, and it is remarkable how little has changed since I was twelve years old.

- I was overheard arguing with a boy in my class about whether guns should be banned.
- I got in trouble twice in one day for reading a book when I should have been listening to my teacher.
- She actually noted that I was eating Corn Nuts in class and I still love Corn Nuts.
- This was less than two years after we moved here from Australia, and she says I had no accent at all! If only I could go back in time and tell myself to hold out until high school when the accent would have been "hot" instead of "weird". Dang.

Other fun finds included a lot of angsty high school poetry and more than a few notebooks of horse sketches, but I'll spare you those and instead leave you with another photo taken at roughly the same time period.

Eh. Middle School, there's not a whole lot to be said for it.

My husband is a liar :)

2012-01-02T21:04:00.007-07:00

I've come a long way from those early days of marriage when I burned things, made iffy substitutions and generally wreaked havoc in the kitchen. One thing hasn't changed though, and that is that Andy always claims to love everything I cook. Recently though, I caught him in a lie.

One of my favorite cold weather recipes is slow cooker chicken taco soup. It's healthy, hearty, and the leftovers are fantastic. I love this particular recipe so much, that I make it just as written with one small alteration...
Photo from www.allrecipes.com
My slow cooker is one of those tiny two-person models. Since the whole recipe won't fit into my cooker, I half it. Unfortunately, the recipe calls for a full can of beans, corn, chili, etc. so to prevent having half-empty cans of stuff in my fridge I will assemble the whole recipe, cook half of it, and store the other (uncooked) half in a large pyrex bowl in the fridge for another day. I've been making taco soup this way for several years now.

So on this particular occasion, I had cooked the first half of the soup, we had eaten some for dinner, and I had refrigerated the leftovers in single-serving-size ziplock bowls (for easy reheating later). The next day I was at work, and Andy and I had the following Skype conversation:

Andy: I'm hungry, do you want to go to lunch?
Missy: I can't today, can you eat some of the leftover soup in the fridge? The tortilla chips are in the cupboard with the cereal, and there is sour cream and cheese in the fridge.
Andy: sounds good

some time later...

Andy: how long should I reheat this, it's separated a lot and seems a little crunchy?
Missy: just till it's warm, there is no way it is crunchy, it was in the slow cooker for 8 hours.
Andy: It's crunchy, and the onion seems really strong.

I got distracted at work, and didn't finish the Skype conversation. That night when I got home, I was looking in the fridge, and noticed that the giant pyrex bowl with the uncooked taco soup had been messed with, and half the soup was gone. The ziplock single serve containers were untouched...

I was dying. I remembered his polite little skype to me earlier that day and I almost.wet.my.pants. I went and casually asked him how his lunch was. There was a definite hesitation before he said that it was "good, but a little strong".

Apparently we are both unobservant people. I hear that my soup is 'crunchy and strong', and no red flags go up - he eats uncooked soup with raw onions floating in it, and doesn't wonder why it's so gross compared to last night. I guess we're a perfect match :)

10 years in the making

2011-07-31T22:10:00.011-06:00

I'm perpetually late adopting the latest fashions.

In middle school, my friend Annie and I were at the mall perusing a rack of the latest trendy pants - capris. I swore I would never own any. I thought they looked so strange. Of course, that was circa 1998 and I have since owned many a pair of capris.

To date though, my biggest fashion struggle has been the skinny jean. For the first few years I assumed it was a fashionable fad that would never find it's way to the sticks of Cache Valley. But then I started seeing them everywhere. In 2007 I taught eighth grade, and that was all the girls wore. Of course, 8th grade girls weigh about 70lbs, so skinny jeans look great on them. Me? Never.

I convinced myself that I couldn't wear skinny jeans, because, well, I wasn't skinny enough. I read on some fashion blog that no one over a size four should wear skinny jeans.

I haven't been a size 4 since 10th grade. Poop.

But then I noticed that normal sized celebrities were wearing skinny jeans. Look at Beyonce rocking her skinny jeans:
I also started working at the ever trendy JJ Cole where even the guys wear skinny jeans. So about two years ago, I bought a pair of straight leg jeans (love those) and finally a pair of bone fide skinny jeans . And I love them.

It's taken me almost a decade to get on board the skinny jean train, and WHAT do I find when I'm out shopping this weekend? A whole lotta these:
What the heck?!

Mrs. Meany Pants

2011-06-26T19:50:00.004-06:00

I'm not afraid of speaking up when children misbehave.

I taught primary for a couple of years, and I noticed that most adults are very hesitant to call out other people's children when they are being stinkers. I hear a lot of high voiced "now now Jimmy, we shouldn't hit people" sort of talk. I think people are afraid to be firm with kids (that aren't theirs).

I'm not talking about normal naughtiness - I have a pretty high tolerance for normal kid behavior. I'm talking about outright destructive, disrespectful or dangerous behavior.

I'm not mean, but I can get my point across. One time, Andy and I were sitting in church next to an elderly couple. The boy on the pew in front of us was facing us and playing with a truck that he was driving along the top of the bench. He kept dropping it and the old lady would pick it up for him. At some point he decided it would be fun to spit on her. I waited for his mother to intervene but she didn't see it, and when he spat again I leaned forward, made eye contact and gave him the meanest stink eye I could muster. He immediately lay down on the pew and didn't get up for the rest of the meeting. I figure, 4 years old is old enough to not be spitting on old ladies.

I know I'm probably in the minority here, but if my (future) children are being stinkers - and I'm not around to do anything about it, I hope that someone steps in and says something.

To the kids on the water slide this weekend - you were endangering other kids in the pool. To the boy who was trying to snap a newly planted sapling 3 weekends ago - you need to stop. now.

and that's MRS. Meany Pants, to you!

6 big ones

2011-06-10T22:12:00.006-06:00

Don't let the pictures fool you...
6 years ago we got married...
and it was a wonderful day.

We celebrated with a lovely dinner at Le Nonne. We were seated out on the patio by a cute couple who was celebrating 55 years together. Now there's an accomplishment. I need to re-title this post "6 little ones".

My Happy Place

2011-05-15T22:54:00.011-06:00

Andy and I have traveled to some amazing places and I am often asked where my favorite spot in the world is. The answer surprises a lot of people, because my favorite place on earth is Bear Lake.

Bear Lake is pretty ordinary I guess. It doesn't have the breathtaking tropical beauty of Tahiti, or the grandeur of the Teton mountains, but what it holds for me is a thousand happy memories.

Bear Lake is summer. Raspberry shakes after a Sunday drive. Our honeymoon. Family reunions. July weekends spent laughing and playing with friends. Family picnics on the rocky east shore. Our first kiss. Long walks and summer rainstorms.

I love the craziness of the lake in the summer, but my "happy place" is Bear Lake in the spring. Before the crowds come, when the beach is empty and the town is quiet.

This weekend Andy and I set up our towels on the sand and read the day away. We sat on the grass and listened to the frogs in the marsh. Everything is fresh and clean and the best part is - the whole summer lays out in front of us. Where's your happy place?
Bear Lake 2004

Bear Lake 2011

my happy place

The Plan, Part 2

2011-03-09T21:37:00.005-07:00

So far I've managed to avoid falling into the pit of despair.

There is a whole little world of infertility culture, and it's an intense, emotionally charged place. People get offended, marriages fall apart, fortunes are spent on herbal supplements with dubious claims...

Sometimes I stop by the library on the way home from work and browse for an hour...I could never do that if I had a baby. Last month we flew to Las Vegas for a Valentines Day steak , and came home 3 hours later. Sometimes I'm not sure I want to give up the freedoms being childless affords.

But then I found myself sniffling while I thumbed through the children's books at The Book Table. I too want to feel like a failure for being unable to live up to my own Mother's standards. When will it be my turn?

So, in conclusion, I should probably be a lot sadder than I actually am. I should probably get weepy when someone tells a great birth story, and be super indignant at the sight of every pregnant teenager...but I'm not. I have an invigorating and satisfying job. I have a wonderful husband, good friends and a supportive family. If and when the time comes that we are blessed with children, I am at ease knowing that we have prepared ourselves in every way possible, and until that time, I intend to enjoy my life as it is.

p.s. Thank you all for your loving comments.

The Plan

2011-03-06T21:06:00.005-07:00

I'm not a shoot from the hip kind of gal. I don't like surprises and have found that being over prepared makes it easier to deal with life's unpleasantness.

I know that this quirk means that I miss out on the spontaneous fun that many people enjoy, but I don't care. I'll take a forecast of "stability with a chance of boring" over "exciting with the chance of disaster" any day of the week...

That is why when we decided to think about starting a family, we didn't just toss the pills and jump in headfirst - there was a plan. A careful plan.

The first part of the plan was buying a home. We bought a house with plenty of space for a family and a fenced back yard. I even saved all of the child proof locks the previous owners left behind.

Next we traded in my college compact for a family friendly hatchback that comfortably fits a car seat and has a LATCH system.

We gutted and refinished the nursery. Upgraded our health care plan. Bought an Aflac package. I educated myself on the latest folic acid research, picked out my dream crib and read up on SIDS findings - all while stocking up on random baby gear that I come by in my line of work.

After more than a year of preparing ourselves mentally, physically, financially and even geographically we finally felt ready to take the leap.

Now here we are another year later and - nothing. The baby stuff is now spilling over into the second spare bedroom, I've become disenchanted with the color I painted the nursery and my expensive Medela breast pump is now last year's model. (gasp).
http://www.cartoonstock.com/fullsearch.asp?performSearch=TRUE&mainArchive=mainArchive&MA_Artist=Nixon%2C+Roy

to be continued....

waving the white 'flag'

2011-01-30T18:57:00.005-07:00

Before I got married my mother gave me some good advice. "Pick your battles" she said:But she never told me what to do when the battles picked you.

coming up for air

2010-11-07T20:32:00.002-07:00

It's been a long couple of weeks. It's no secret that the JJ Cole warehouse sale is a stressful time for me, but this sale was bittersweet because it was our last. I didn't think I would care this much, but there have been a lot of changes at work recently (the company was sold). Some of the employees were let go, which is hard, and parts of my job seem to be changing.

Ask me how much I love change sometime :)

I was released from the Primary (a calling I really loved), and to top things off, there are some "developments" at Andy's job that are making us both nervous (remember back when he lived in Denver and Chicago for a few months? Those were good times....)

On Saturday Andy's beloved Bose noise canceling headset was run over by a semi-truck. Because of me.The one he dreamed of and saved up for. The one he got for his birthday 5 months ago. The one that cost almost $600. The one that made his crappy job a little more bearable. It's mangled beyond recognition.

There. That's enough of the pity parade. Here are 5 things I am thankful for:

1. A warm garage to keep my car in
2. Pandora on the blue ray player. The station "Adele"
3. Book club retreat next weekend
4. good health insurance
5. Tide liquid laundry detergent

JJ Cole Fall Warehouse sale!

2010-10-22T12:09:00.000-06:00

I could no sooner choose a favorite star in the heavens...

2010-09-26T22:10:00.005-06:00

Recently Becca posted on the book club blog asking for ideas about what books to read to her son James. Go here if you have input.

It got me thinking about the topic. Anyone who knows me knows that reading and books are a big part of who I am. Besides some stressful college semesters, there has never been a time when I didn't have 3 or 4 books on my nightstand, and I always carry a book in my purse (that way I am prepared when Andy makes impromptu stops at Best Buy).

The Wall Street Journal recently published an article entitled "How to raise boys who read". Apparently, boys are falling behind girls in reading skills. Take a look, it's interesting stuff. Interesting, because reading is linked to vocabulary, and in a teaching theory class at USU, I read about a study that found that vocabulary skill level in first grade was a pretty good predictor of GPA in high school.

My mother raised children who read. Want to know how? It wasn't easy... but she read to us. And not any of that "20 minutes a day" crap either. She read to us every night before bed, for an hour, sometimes more (if we begged). Before I started fifth grade, she had read to us Tolkien, C.S. Lewis, Enid Blyton and much more. My most cherished childhood memories are of nights spent in Narnia, or atop the Magic Faraway Tree. Much of what she read to us was above our own reading level. Later I learned, again at USU, that reading your children books above their reading level is a great way to improve their reading comprehension.

My mother is not a highly educated woman. As far as I know, she knew nothing about teaching theory. However, she spent countless hours of her time sharing her love of books with us.

Recently, I came into possession of a much beloved set - L. Frank Baum's "Oz" series. You've probably heard of the Wizard of Oz, but did you know he wrote 13 more books? They were favorites of mine growing up, and now I have the complete set! Someday I hope to read them to my children.

a fabulous Friday, and a calamity

2010-08-22T22:07:00.005-06:00

On Friday we headed up to Bear Lake for our yearly raspberry picking. There is a lovely lady named Rose who has taken pity on Andy's condition, and allows us the run of her patch once the season winds down. It was dripping with berries. We have a little system: I pick, and Andy eats.

A few hours later we headed home with two overflowing flats. Andy had probably consumed a full ice cream bucket of raspberries. As far as days that rank high on Andy's life experiences meter, "raspberry picking day" is right up there with the likes of "Hill Air Force Air show" and "our wedding night". To beat it would require that he meet Sir Glenn Beck in person. In a raspberry patch.

Fast forward 24 hours and I am down to 1.5 flats. I have eaten about 5 berries. Luckily Andy has been sent on a trip, so there is a chance that I can make some freezer jam before he eats the rest.

On to the calamity. Last week I mentioned to a few people that I wouldn't mind being given a few zucchini. Word spread like wildfire, and now there are zucchini covering my kitchen counter. I decided to make zucchini bread, and that took care of one medium sized zucchini. 1 down, 12 more to go. Aak!

musings

2010-08-16T20:00:00.006-06:00

turned on my radio on saturday morning to find that one of my favorite stations had morphed into "97.1 - all mariachi music, all the time"

went "garage saleing" with Ms. Hipp and Ms. Migliori and found some fun stuff. Mostly amused myself people-watching and giggling at the scary junk folks try to sell.

tried to read The Handmaid's Tale. Got halfway through and was too bored to finish it. Maybe it would have resonated with me back in the 90's when I was more of a feminist. Boo.

was stung by a wasp today at work.

went back to aerobics for the first time in ages and just about died. anyone want to come along and motivate me? 5:30 - Logan Rec Center...

and finally, I washed the exterior windows of our house this weekend. We've lived here two years...I'll probably get around to it again in another two years...

here you can see Marv's house. (note the crisp definition)
Marv is our friendly, but often worried neighbor. Recently he has been asking Andy to help him set up a webcam so that he can remotely check his house during the day. I would laugh, except I saw this once:http://tiny.cc/2uwhg

Summer Happenings

2010-08-08T21:51:00.009-06:00

In June, I ran in the Wasatch Back race again. This year I got to run with my newest coworker, my sister Leah!
As you can see, she is the younger, cuter version of me. We had a great time. My personal goal was to shave off a minute from my mile time, and not to walk during any of my runs, and I can claim victory on both of those.
A couple of weeks later, I ran in the July 4th Freedom Run 15k with Katie "the running machine" (above, far left). This was the longest I have ever run in one stretch. I've been having some problems with my right knee ever since then, so I'm taking it easy for the rest of the summer.
Andy, however, has not been taking it easy....
You may remember this room:

Gross, Stinky and uncomfortable. Now:

Have I mentioned I am married to Bob the freaking Builder? This man is a machine! He managed to whip this out while working more hours than he has ever done at Skywest. The carpet was just installed, the paint is dry and I am happy to say that besides The Final Frontier (aka icky master bathroom/future spa) we are almost completely done with the major projects on the interior of our house. There are lots of small things we still want to do, but I can see a light at the end of the tunnel!

Last weekend, the Peterson's (previous owners of our house) stopped by to say hi. They ended up staying over an hour talking and taking a tour of the place. It was so fun to show them all the stuff we've been working on, and I won't lie - it was totally gratifying to hear them gush about (andy's) hard work.

Book Review: Sarah's Key

2010-06-30T21:37:00.003-06:00

I wasn't planning on liking this book. Although the plot sounded intriguing, I thought it would end up being like every other book on this subject. At the risk of sounding heartless, sometimes when I read holocaust/wartime books, I feel as if the author is trying to manipulate tears out of me. Another thing this book featured (which I often find annoying) is the "flip back and forth in time" writing style. So when the first 50 pages of the book didn't light my fire, I settled in to plod my way through it.

Then I got a little further in, and 4 or 5 hours later I had blown right through it. And I loved it.

I thought it was well written. I enjoyed reading about an event in the war that was unfamiliar to me. The characters were believable and realistic - every time the book could have taken a predictable or clichéd turn, it didn't. I really recommend this one, I gave it a 9 out of 10 stars.

Before and After

2010-06-21T18:35:00.003-06:00

Before...

and after....

no crying mom :)

29 years old

2010-06-20T11:49:00.004-06:00

Every year for the last three years Andy's birthday has fallen on the weekend of Ragnar. This means his birthday has been pretty much overshadowed and forgotten. He's been such a good sport about it, and I want everyone to know much I love this 29 year old!

5 years

2010-06-09T07:46:00.003-06:00

a rambling missive

2010-06-06T22:14:00.012-06:00

I'm forcing myself to update the blog because I'm tired of being reminded about the warehouse sale. So glad that's finished. I have some stories that I can't put up here, so if you see me - ask about it. All I can say is - I am continually amazed at the things people are willing to do in the name of a deal. I had 60 new blog visitors the day I posted that flier....

So what have we been doing for the last month?

Well, Andy has broken guarantee for two months in a row. That's reserve pilot speak for "he's been gone so much he needed directions to find his own house last week".

I've been training for Wasatch Back. Got a new pair of shoes I need to finish breaking in for the race (coming up in 12 days...eek).

Finished a beast of a book...The Grapes of Wrath by John Steinbeck. It's set in this era: (click on photo for some heartbreaking images)Why do we make high school kids read that? Whenever I mentioned it the first thing people said was "I had to read that in high school" and then "I hated it". No one could remember anything else about it, which is sad because it really is a work of art, but the kind of art with the power to turn teenagers into lifelong non-readers. (See also Dickens, Charles). I have a strong belief that any interaction with Steinbeck should handled like alcohol - only after age 21, and in moderation.

I remember my first experience with Steinbeck. I was in 6th grade and picked up The Red Pony. What 11 year old girl could resist that title? Do I need to tell you that the pony in the story died a horrible, painful death - and that the story wasn't really about the pony anyway?

Enough about that...this month's book club pick is Sarah's Key, which I haven't started yet but looks to be a lovely holocaust story....BOOK CLUB GIRLS I NEED SOMETHING HAPPY NEXT MONTH! Washing down Steinbeck with a little genocide might be more than I can handle.

Anyway...we've been working hard to finish another basement room, so I hope to have some more 'before and after' shots up in the coming weeks....Andy is thrilled to be resuming construction - as you can see here:

JJ Cole spring warehouse sale!

2010-05-03T10:58:00.002-06:00

all's well that ends well

2010-04-27T18:03:00.001-06:00

Don't worry, the cat is fine. And I've found a use for the banana apple bread too:

Banana bread. but not really

2010-04-25T18:31:00.006-06:00

I have some serious doubts about the two loaves of banana bread cooking my oven. Why? Because the baking of it went something like this:

(speaking to myself - Andy has been gone for 4 days now - I'm at that point)

Me: That bunch of overripe bananas has been staring me down for days. I've got to do something about it. Dang that bountiful basket. There is no way I could have eaten all of those bananas, and the artichokes have been silently judging me from the crisper dish for a WEEK now.

I get online and print off this recipe from allrecipes. 4,940 people can't be wrong, right?

I eye the bunch of bananas and decide to double the recipe. The oven is preheating and I'm halfway through when I realize I have no eggs - which shouldn't be a surprise because I had no eggs two days ago when I made brownies - and I had to borrow one from my neighbor.

What to do...hm...borrow two more? no, too embarrassing. I know my mom will have eggs, and I do need to get rid of this giant pan of brownies so I stop cooking, turn off the oven and drive 6 miles to my mom's house, brownies in tow. Once there, I steal 3 eggs from her fridge. (why three? because I needed two, and they were small, fresh from the hen, eggs). brownies are a fair trade for three small eggs right?

I come home. Turn the oven back on. Resume baking. Look at the recipe and realize that TWO EGGS DOUBLED EQUALS FOUR EGGS. and I have three little ones. I stop.

Whatever, I think. I splash a tablespoon of milk in the mix. Milk is the same as eggs right? It's just moisture.

Then I start mashing bananas. That huge bunch I had? Turns out it mashes down to about 2 cups. A little short of the 2 1/3 needed for the original recipe and VERY short of the 4 2/3 I need for the doubled recipe. Rats.

I go outside and look the cat for a while. I come back in with no ideas. and no cat.

What can replace a banana? or 5 bananas for that matter. The only other fruit in the house are some mandarins and a couple of apples. I decide apple/banana bread sounds better than mandarin/banana bread. Dice up three apples and toss them in.

The mixture seems really dry. I add a little more milk. separate it into the bread pans and a huge chunk of un-mixed-in-flour pours out. I try to mix in in the bread pan.

I give up. I put them in the oven.

I'm sick, so I can't tell if they smell good. The cat might be having banana/apple bread for dinner. If I can find him.

True Love...

2010-04-11T14:26:00.007-06:00

is when your husband collects the trashy magazines people leave on the plane and brings them home. Even though the rest of the crew teases him about it!

Go ahead - judge me! Are you saying you never look at these in the checkout line and wonder how Celebrity A lost 40 lbs in one week, and what Celebrity B looks like without makeup????

a craft 3 years in the making

2010-04-10T21:24:00.008-06:00

Several years ago Emily Cox showed me an art project she was working on. It was a wood cut, which meant she had carved the image onto a surface - in reverse - then the picture was inked and a special paper rolled across - like a huge stamp.

I loved the piece immediately and bought one of her prints. I didn't know exactly what I planned to do with it, but kept it until we bought our house when I knew exactly where it would go.

It's a large piece. So big that nice frames of that size are out of my budget. I thought about how to display it for a long time (we've lived here a year and a half now folks!) and finally decided to carefully cut it into 4 squares and mount them onto thick boards.

Can you believe this is the first time I have used Mod Podge! It was great!

Andy hung it up last week (which turned out to be the hardest part - plaster walls stink) and it turned out wonderfully! I smile every time I walk by and see it. Thanks Emily!

a perfect weekend

2010-04-04T19:07:00.005-06:00

This weekend I turned 26 years old!
I love Friday birthdays. If done carefully, you can really stretch the birthday out all weekend long! On Friday I got a free lunch at the new Rumbi Island Grill (thanks for the tip ben & camille) a lovely birthday dinner at Hamilton's with our good friends the Hipps, and the evening was capped off with andy making good on a promise to rent New Moon from redbox (which I can review as being mostly painful teenage dialogue interspersed with six pack eye candy.)

For my birthday I got a classic 1958 singer sewing machine, supplies and tools to go with it, a cute new bag, cookies, books (inc. pioneer woman's cookbook), a netflix gift account, bluebird chocolates, hyacinths and many lovely texts, calls, voice mails and emails. Thank you all so much!

On Saturday morning Andy and I headed for Dallas, TX. He had a long overnight trip which was perfect for me to tag along. We stayed in the Marriott, where I discovered the secret to a happy marriage - two full size beds. Seriously. The room had two full beds, and one full is just not enough bed for two people who have "personal sleeping bubbles" like we do. The weather was gorgeous. I finished an entire book, and rode first class both ways. I really couldn't have asked for a better birthday weekend.

weekend happenings

2010-03-27T23:35:00.003-06:00

The to-do list around here is as long as ever, but we're close to checking this one off. Andy has spent the last two Saturday's getting it done. Next up we need to stain the wood, and finish a decorative trellis over the gate. the finishing touch will be the hops starts I steal from my mom and before you know it, we'll have a leafy green arbor!

He made it home

2010-03-08T21:47:00.006-07:00

Andy & his dad hit the following cities in 8 days: Paris, Amsterdam, Mumbai, Jodhpur, Hong Kong & San Francisco

Olive Kitteridge, another review

2010-03-08T21:09:00.009-07:00

I finished another book recently. "Olive Kitteridge" by Elizabeth Strout. I need to sort out my feelings about this book.
Ms. Strout writes some achingly beautiful prose, but this book won the 2009 Pulitzer Prize, and no one has ever won that by writing about happy, well adjusted people.

To put it simply, reading her books sink me into deep depression. How could I avoid it when she picks her characters like some sort of twisted "choose your own adventure"...

Character A : (pick one)
A. a lonely bipolar woman, suffering from an unhealthy obsession with her son
B. an anorexic teenager
C. a psycho shut-in who only leaves the house after dark
D. a sexually deprived retiree whose wife ignores him
E. a kleptomaniac who grows pot

Character B (pick one)
A. Runs away from home
B. turns to a friendly neighbor after their spouse "cuts off the supply"
C. becomes an alcoholic
D. Drives his car into a tree rather than commit adultery
E. Moves to New York to be closer to their therapist/cult leader

Character C (pick one)
A. is killed in a tragic hunting accident
B. jumps off a cliff after suffering from one too many miscarriages
C. gets caught visiting his old mistress in Florida
D. divorces her husband after he bites her in a fight
E. Finds out about her husband's infidelity during his funeral

Using the options above you have the possibility of limitless dysfunction!

that being said, she also wrote sentences like this:

"There were days - she could remember this - when Henry would hold her hand as they walked home, middle-aged people, in their prime. Had they known at these moments to be quietly joyful? Most likely not. People mostly did not know enough when they were living life that they were living it."

Quietly joyful.

That is something to think about.

Book Review: The Guernsey Literary....etc.

2010-02-27T19:52:00.007-07:00

A cute book, but not a page turner (for me anyway). Everyone else who has read this loved it - but it wasn't my cup of tea. The first half was very hard to get into. Once the main character moves to the island, things got more interesting for me.

Liked:

Learning about the little known occupation of Guernsey island during WWII
Was moved to tears on a few occasions by poignant descriptions of war time suffering and brutality
Imagining the beautiful island, I want to go visit now!

Disliked:

The letter format (the whole book is written as letters between the characters). The story felt very disjointed to me - it took a long time to 'get to know the characters' through letters
Some of the plot development felt very forced/contrived - even preachy - a character has a child out of wedlock - Gasp! Some people in the village look down on her - Hypocrites!! - but her true friends still love her!! They discover that not all German soldiers were sadistic animals - some were regular - people!! Imagine!! The rich dashing suitor, doesn't love her like the humble farmer can - alert the press!! and on, and on. ok, now I'm feeling curmudgeonly...bah humbug!!

Anyway, I thought this was a good book club book, because there were a lot of good "discussion topics" and I think most people would really enjoy it, so if you are looking for a good book to read, ignore my orneriness and pick this up.

Mindy, I finished, and I want my point :)

Jodhpur, and things are looking up

2010-02-23T21:30:00.007-07:00

Here is Tony - after two days of travel - he is saying " We're finally here! They have clean-ish water! We are no longer in a slum! This bed looks un-infested! I still have all my travel documents! "

And Andy says " I am wearing my dad's shirt because all my other shirts smell of curry. I'm starting to think I will always smell of curry. Yes, those are pigeons swimming in the pool behind me."

speechless

2010-02-20T13:01:00.009-07:00

India - beautiful land of mystique...

2010-02-20T10:00:00.003-07:00

and slums. Andy skyped me a photo he took in Mumbai this morning. Apparently it smells as good as it looks! A curious mixture of "curry, BO and poop" to be specific.

The phrase "wish you were here" doesn't really apply, does it?

the 4,000 calorie dilemma

2010-02-17T18:04:00.005-07:00

Andy left for India today. He'll be gone for 8 days on a wild adventure that would take more than one blog post to explain. The last I heard from him, he was sitting in a first class seat on a SLC - Paris flight. Disgusting. But the problem he left me is this:

You're looking at the business end of a trifle. Layers of chocolate, cookies & cream parfait, strawberries, blueberries, kiwi fruit and oreos. The remnants of our valentines day celebration.

One mouthful of this is equal to an hour at the gym. An obscene amount of heavy whipping cream was used in the commission of this crime.

What the heck am I supposed to do with it? If I leave it in my fridge, I'll just "chip away at it" à la Nate Bennett .

I can't bear to throw it away because it was expensive to make.
The cat won't eat it.

Help!

The jury is out - of my reach

2010-02-14T19:09:00.007-07:00

Is this some sort of joke?
What does a girl have to do to get jury duty in this town? I've been a voting, law abiding, tax paying, property owning, contributing member of society for many years now - and I never get jury duty. I am the only person I know who actually WANTS to serve on a jury- and yet year after year - NOTHING. Yesterday a letter came from the jury clerk - to my address - for Kelly Marie Robinson.

Who is Kelly? What is her secret? Have I been bribing the wrong people? Can I steal Kelly's identity if my motive is purely one of civic duty?

sad news...

2010-02-14T00:51:00.000-07:00

http://www.voicemalemusic.com

Tahiti

2010-02-06T11:15:00.020-07:00

On December 7th we embarked on a vacation we had been eagerly anticipating for the better part of a year...2 weeks in Tahiti. We started on a cruise ship in Papeete, Tahiti and cruised to the French Polynesian islands of Huahine, Rangiroa, Raiatea, Moorea and Bora Bora. After the cruise we stayed another 2 days on Tahiti. This vacation was a gift from Andy's parents, and we were so happy to have them with us. Thank you Kathie & Tony!

We had such a wonderful time. Everywhere we went was breathtakingly beautiful; like a post card. During the trip I kept trying to take mental snapshots so I could remember every moment forever. It was the trip of a lifetime.

Of course we have a gazillion photos, so I'm posting some of the highlights:

Here is Andy and I in front of the island of Moorea as we left the port in Tahiti.
At dinner in our beautiful leis

On a tour of a pearl farm in Raiatea. We also toured a vanilla bean farm. Turns out the vanilla beans are imported and since no native insect will pollinate the vanilla bean flowers, it has to be done by hand. Only males do this particular chore. Go figure. We brought home 5 sticks of vanilla -because they told us how to make our own vanilla extract. Now I just need some rum.

This is Bora Bora. Heaven on earth. We snorkeled here, swam with sharks, fed stingrays and swam in the crystal clear water.
Here is Andy, and you can see a shark to his left. I was mesmerized by the fact that I was floating 40 feet above the reef, but the water was so clear it felt like flying. The sharks were cool too.

These are over water bungalows in Bora Bora - where you go on your honeymoon if you are Brad Pitt. Or maybe Bill Gates. Of course my honeymoon in Bear Lake was way better.

hands off my Baked Alaska Andy! You can see why we both packed on a few pounds!

Our accommodations at the hotel in Tahiti.

We found them to be quite adequate. :)

Andy and I in the eternity edge pool that looked out over the ocean.

And finally, the highlight of Andy's trip. We're not sure what they do at this garage, but that man doesn't look thrilled to be there.

And there you have it. It was only 8 weeks ago - our tans are gone, but we have some great memories to keep us warm at night in frigid Logan.

Something to think about

2010-01-29T18:18:00.004-07:00

"America's young girls spend more money and time on beauty maintenance than any other generation in history, yet they still feel worse about themselves."

I thought this slide show about rampant photoshopping was fascinating. Really, if Kate Winslet needs to be touched up, what hope is there for the rest of us?

http://www.newsweek.com/id/231629?GT1=43002

Emma

2010-01-25T19:47:00.006-07:00

Part 1 of the newest BBC adaptation of "Emma" aired last night, and I was so impressed. I already love two earlier versions - with Kate Beckinsale and Gwyneth Paltrow, so I was worried that this one wouldn't be as good...but it was even better! You can watch part 1 online here if you missed it:

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/masterpiece/emma/watch.html

and part 2 airs next Sunday - I can hardly wait!

p.s. is anyone out there willing to tend Andy next Sunday evening?

Spotted in SLC

2010-01-19T20:14:00.002-07:00

With a vanity license plate reading "BLESSED"

Either I just spotted TAMN - or a BYU grad whose juice sales pyramid scheme worked out really well...

Billy, the secret aggie weapon

2010-01-15T13:17:00.012-07:00

Anyone who has been to an Aggie basketball game recently knows who this is:

His name is Billy, and here's the thing - I SWEAR he was in my 5th grade class at Providence elementary. To verify this I dug out my 5th grade class photo. See if you can find him (click to make the photo bigger).
He has almost the same expression on his face in both photos! The names of each child are on the back and it says that he is "Bill Jensen". I don't know if anyone else who was in my fifth grade class can verify - but is this the same kid? A lot of the people in this photo are still around Cache Valley. This is what the back says:

Top Row:Amber Farnsworth, Kelsie Furch, Cara Johns, Natasha Ward, Katie Jensen, Erin Patch, Camron Madson

Row 3: Andrea Dabney, Mauri Picket, Tiffani Maurer, Holly Clark, Zach Maughan, Paul Trappett, Brooke Lungreen

Row 2: Lynsey Lamont, Justin Howell, Kole Berry, Danny Morton, Bill Jensen, Jimmy Mcfarlane,

Bottom Row: Derek Bowen, Robbie Haslam, Heidi Ballard, Jacob Hansen, Nathan Pence, Yours Truly, Lisa Rew.

Absent: T.J. Naylor

Edit: Billy's sister has confirmed that this is indeed the Billy of USU fame.

Don't hold your breath Kimi

2010-01-15T12:36:00.004-07:00

It runs in the family click here

Merry Christmas to me...

2010-01-13T22:03:00.006-07:00

While the blog is under construction, I want to show to show off 4 pairs of shoes (pair of shoes? pairs of shoe?) I got from Target.com for a total of 53$ including shipping - and they came in 3 days!

I think these are my favorite.
or maybe these ones:
this makes up for it being January. a little bit anyway.

rest in peace Sooty

2009-11-07T16:38:00.003-07:00

We lost our kitty Sooty today.
I've blogged about her before . She's been with us for two years this month. We're horribly sad.

Halloween at work

2009-11-04T19:46:00.003-07:00

We dressed up for Halloween at work this year...with some pretty funny results! Check it out!
(make sure you click on the picture to see the video)

Bathroom - before & after, but mostly after

2009-11-02T21:36:00.006-07:00

I forgot to take pictures of the bathroom before we got started. All we did in here was add some crown molding and paint it red. I painted it on the weekend while Andy was on a trip. It was a bright turquoise blue, which I might have liked in different circumstances - but it didn't match well with the colors on the rest of the floor. I know a red bathroom is hardly an original idea, but I like it! This is how it looked for - oh about 2 months. We had bigger fish to fry. I think we scared a few people though - the wall looks like it is bleeding!

Nursery Renovation

2009-11-01T22:19:00.015-07:00

This story begins last spring. Our master bedroom was finally done, and we were ready to begin work on another bedroom in the basement. We call it the nursery, because it is the smallest of the 3 bedrooms in the house. We started with a room that seemed to be in ok condition...on the surface...(click on any of the pics for a big view)
Some of the biggest beefs we had with this room:

1. A low ceiling, made worse by gas and water pipes that snaked across the ceiling - casting shadows that made room very dim and dark. yucky blue carpet.

2. a broken old light fixture that was so low you could walk into it. Two level floor- which although cool in concept, was creaky and unstable, plus inconvenient in such a small room.

3. cold, drafty windows. A closet with broken doors, no storage space and scary open holes for access to the water main (not pictured - ugh)

4. Perhaps the worst though, was the horror that was behind this built out corner. On the other side of this room is the laundry. Rather than putting the dryer vent through the concrete, they decided to just run it through the glass block window - stuffing the hole with duct tape and framing around their jimmy-rigged contraption. It was disgusting, drafty, and a welcoming spot for spiders of every sort.
This is the view from the other side- After it had been mostly cleaned up - - DISGUSTING!
We went back and forth over whether to try and fix the problems or to just gut the room and start over. In the end, we decided to start with a clean slate.Andy broke everything in the room down and fed it through the window. We then began the process of rebuilding the room from scratch. This meant moving major water lines & gas pipes, framing, insulating, wiring the electrical, putting in new windows, levelling the floor, adding recessed lighting, building a new closet, drywalling and the list goes on. Andy worked on it every spare minute he had (and there weren't many of those- he flew A LOT this summer).

After a few months we finally seemed to be making some progress.

Then came the finish work - making the closet:

installing the recessed lighting:

adding some wood panelling and prepping for paint.
We spent two days trying different paint colors, and finally settled on (what i hope is) a gender neutral blue. We installed new doors, finished the closet - had the carpet laid and ....

Finally (almost) done! I was going to wait until we were completely finished to post this, but I felt bad putting up that teaser so long ago. We have just a few finishing touches left - installing the blinds, painting the door and some other small things.

Once again I am amazed at my crafty husband for whipping this up in his (almost nonexistent) spare time. He really hasn't come across a home improvement job that he can't do. Also, I know we both want to thank the friends and family who helped us, lent us tools, trucks, advice and ideas. We're so happy with the results of this project!

Coming up soon: bathroom , backyard fence & garage pictures plus the strange incident of the white puffs.....

JJ Cole Warehouse sale

2009-10-23T09:02:00.001-06:00

My summer vacation....

2009-10-04T00:55:00.006-06:00

I haven't been doing much blogging lately...mostly because we've been busy with work and projects. We have major renovations going on in - 1. the backyard 2. the downstairs bedroom 3. hallway/stairway/entry and 4. upstairs bathroom.

Why did we start so many projects at the same time? Good question :)

#1 was kind of forced on us (more on that later) # 2 we started way back in spring, , #3 snuck up on us during # 2 and # 4 well, you can blame that one on me.

Anyway, we have some KILLER before and after photos coming up in the next few weeks. We've been working so hard all summer, hoping to finish most of the big stuff so we can take the winter OFF! Of course, we have more projects planned but they will have to wait for 2010. Really, it's embarrassing when the employees at Home Depot start calling you by your first name. A few more projects and they'll be renaming the lumber aisle in our honor.

When Missy is gone, Andy is forced to...

2009-09-27T15:43:00.002-06:00

go grocery shopping. I was in Las Vegas for work recently. I was gone for a week, and so busy leading up to it, that I didn't get a chance to go shopping before I left. I felt bad leaving Andy short on supplies but I figured he could deal.

The first laughs started when I began getting texts one night.
"What the heck is up with the bread aisle there are too many, how do you pick?"
I thought of him wandering around the store, lost and hungry.
I laughed.

When I got home I found his little shopping list on the counter. I would scan in a picture but the scanner's broken, so here it is:

milk (the stinker bought 2% - I've had him on skim for 3 years now!)
ice cream
chocolate saucey (not a typo)
noodles
mac & cheese
applesauce
sandwich (?)

such a sad little list. (snort, giggle)

But that wasn't even the best part. For a long time now I've been bugging Andy about leaving his cereal bowls around the house. Drives me crazy. I came home to find one single bowl, washed and dried on the counter. He explained this by saying "I realized that there is no need for me to be using tons of bowls, I can just wash and reuse the same one, so there are less dishes"

DING DING DING DING - WE HAVE A WINNER HERE FOLKS!

Grumble, grumble

2009-08-16T18:34:00.002-06:00

What is going on with the weather? First it rained almost every day in June. Now here we are 7 weeks later and it feels like October here in Logan. Cold nights, mild days. Is this really it? Were those 7 warm weeks all the summer we are going to get this year???

I wish these people would move in next door

2009-07-25T15:39:00.003-06:00

I saw this clip on the blog Becoming Something.

We went to Arcata, CA last night

2009-07-24T23:18:00.008-06:00

Andy says he wants to live there. The weather is perfect he says. I can't live there. This is what my hair thinks of the weather by the sea:
and no, I haven't suffered from a recent electrocution. I think he might have decided purely from the fact that some dumb sap let his raspberry bush grow over the fence. Andy spotted it from 500 yards and was on it like a pack of dogs on a 3 legged cat (name that comedian):
Anyway, I guess I could live in Arcata, if we could move in here:
The original owner of this 19th century mansion made his wealth by stripping the local forests of their trees. The street is now lined with Toyota Priuses parked by organic, fair trade, shade grown coffee shops. Mr. Lumber is rolling in his grave.

We painted the kitchen

2009-07-24T23:12:00.003-06:00

After a year of disagreeing and a few false starts we finally painted our kitchen. This is the old:

and here is the new:

Yeah that's right. 5 shades darker, and it took us a whole weekend (plus a year to decide). We move slow around here ok?

and a little more...

2009-07-21T22:20:00.005-06:00

Update:
Lest anyone find my earlier post demeaning to my mother, I will post a few lessons I learned from her:
1. Use butter when you cook
2. Clean up as you go (she taught, I failed to learn)
3. Home cooked meals are best. (We ate out so rarely when I was a child that I have vivid memories of a single trip to Sizzlers...my mother was in labor with my sibling at the time)
4. Let the children help you. Even if they make a mess and slow you down
5. The crock pot is your friend
6. If you don't like what I made for dinner- tough luck. (Another vivid memory of going to bed hungry when we had pumpkin soup for dinner - fast forward, there are no picky eaters in my family)
7. let everyone taste the cookie dough
8. one batch of cookies will not be enough
9. Don't cry over spilt milk. Or spilt anything for that matter.
10. You're hungry? Have a piece of fruit!

Thanks Mom! Love ya!

That's it

2009-07-21T19:42:00.001-06:00

I made a meatloaf for dinner.

I have officially become my mother.

The fruit of someone else's labor

2009-07-12T23:30:00.010-06:00

Ms. Vest inspired me with some beautiful pictures of her flowers. On Saturday I got out of bed at 7:30am to see if I could take a few of my own. I don't know what they're called. Most of them were planted before I moved here, so I guess I should say they are the fruit of someone else's labors...
These pretty flowers creep along the ground and are closed in the heat of the day. They look best in the morning and evening. I almost "weeded" them out of existence earlier this spring. I didn't know what they were :)
Remember in You've got Mail when Meg Ryan says that daisies are the friendliest flower? I took some to work in a vase and almost fainted from the stench. They're pretty, but they stink!
Another un-named flower. I love how the dew collects on these.
This one I grew myself. I was wondering what to put in my window boxes, and my mom suggested some nasturtiums. I found some seeds and tossed them in alongside everything else. I think they are lovely.
This is the rest of the window box.
These form a ring around the (crab?) apple tree in the backyard. I have been hinting to Andy that I would rather have a firepit than a dying tree that produces apples the size of apricots, but he has ignored my hints. We'll see!

Wasatch Back 2009

2009-07-04T15:10:00.012-06:00

I think I was more prepared for this year's race. I knew what I was in for, and I like to think that I trained a little better for it. Of course the rainy spring, and the month long killer-flu didn't help, but overall I was feeling pretty good about it.

Here I am with my co-worker Kate...we are smiling because we have run our first legs and are still feeling pretty good. We also didn't realize that both of us had terrible sun burns on our shoulders.

The next time the camera caught up with me was the next day, right before leg number three. This smile was hiding my fear that I would die in the next hour. My knees were hurting pretty bad.

Funny, I don't seem to remember all of the beautiful scenery I ran by...

Andy reminded me that we were going to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, and that perked me up:

And here I am....all done. My co-worker Katie might not have been smiling had she known that it was about to pour with rain while she was running down a mountain in the next hour. Good times....I'm taking a break to rest my knees, and then we'll see about the Top of Utah Half if they feel ok.

Fast times in San Francisco

2009-07-04T13:45:00.011-06:00

I met up with Andy in San Francisco on Tuesday afternoon. We had been waiting for the right time to take this trip in honor of our 4th anniversary, and Sunday night the opportunity presented itself. We had lunch at John's Grill, right in the heart of the city. John's Grill has been open since 1908; their walls are lined with pictures of the famous people who have eaten there. After lunch we walked a few blocks and caught a cable car down to Fisherman's Wharf...
Taking pictures was tricky. If you stick your arm out too far it might be taken off by a cable car passing in the other direction! I wore a skirt, which in hindsight was a poor choice for a windy cable ride. The wind and humidity did my hair no favors either.

Here we are standing on the pier. To the left you can see Alcatraz. On our next trip we would like to take a ferry out there, and also bike across the bridge, but we didn't have time on this visit.

We saw some interesting sights down at pier 39. They have a little museum of functioning arcade games from the 1800's. We wasted a lot of quarters - I don't know why we expected 19th century special effects to be cool. Andy was especially disappointed at the shooting game he played. No Junior Deputy Sheriff here folks!

Another interesting place we saw on the pier was a "Leftorium". This has something to do with the Simpsons. I don't really know.
After that it was back on a cable car, into the city:
for the grand finale:
Andy and I both enjoyed the show . It was very clever and the costumes and set were fantastic.

Some of the highlights from our trip:

1. Man smoking a bong on the sidewalk in broad daylight. I guess we're not in Utah anymore Toto!

2. German tourists

3. Stinky (but cool) seals on floating docks along pier 39

Happy...

2009-06-28T20:23:00.002-06:00

28th birthday to Andyand Happy 4th anniversary to us:

(Four years ago this month!)

The one where I make up for missed blogging with a really long post

2009-06-13T18:13:00.010-06:00

Well, here's a run down of what we have been up to lately...

The first week of May we spent 4 days in sunny Palm Springs, CA. This photo of Andy making friends with a goose is the only photo evidence of that vacation. Since we were too lazy to take any good photos I will summarize it for you. I spent three days laying by the pool. I read two books (Driving Sideways and Mary Barton if you're curious). Andy hit a few golf balls and went to the air museum with his father. We played cards with Andy's parents and relaxed. It was a lovely way to bid farewell to the bleak and dreary winter.

I have also been training pretty consistently for the Wasatch Back race which is less than a week away...I'm running it with my coworkers again. Training has taken up a lot of my spare time in the evenings for several months now.

Andy began work on the basement bedroom. We gutted it and began rebuilding from the foundation up. It is slow going because he has been flying a lot lately, but we hope to have it finished soon. I like to wait until we are done and post before and after photos...but here is a sneak peak:

We also welcomed a new member to our family. Meet Ethel:

She is replacing my trusty prizm. I have mixed feelings about this. Prizm was the first object of any value that I bought with my own money. She served me well for 6+ years. She never broke down or needed repairs, and responded with love even when I neglected her oil changes and wore out her tires. She will be missed.

In other news we were in a fender bender on I-15 which was the fault of...yes...a police car. Luckily it was relatively minor:
and by minor I mean the repairs were almost $500.

Remember the yellow paint in our kitchen? Remember how I bought blue paint and Andy said it wouldn't work? Well, he was right:

It clashes horribly with the modern grey in our living room and I hate it. We are back to square one. At this rate we may never paint our kitchen. We are officially the most indecisive people on the planet.

And just to leave you on a weird note...while I was writing this blog post a little girl in a spiderman costume just came and trick or treated our house. She had a bag and everything. I asked her if she knew halloween was in October. She said yes. We had no candy so I gave her a packet of fruit snacks. She went on her way. I really don't know what to think about this.

**update** an hour later a teenager in a mask showed up and tried the trick or treat thing. This time I had Andy answer the door and when he refused to answer any questions we sent him on his way (sans fruit snacks). Then I closed the blinds and stopped answering the door. What is going on??

JJ Cole Baby model search

2009-05-26T22:59:00.005-06:00

Remember our last model search?

The cute local babies that we chose ended up appearing in our national ad campaigns (Pregnancy Magazine, Baby Couture etc ....) and also in our catalogue. Here is one of my favorite pictures from that photo shoot:

We are looking for more models! Specifically:

Babies about 1 year old and toddlers ages 2-3

Feeling really brave? We also may need 'mom' models!

If your baby is chosen you will be compensated for your time. The photo shoots take place either in Logan or in Salt Lake City, UT so you need to be within driving distance of either.

If you want your baby (or yourself) to be considered send an email to mwegener@jjcoleusa.com

1. attach a recent photo

2. your child's age and gender

3. your contact information

Spread the word guys!

p.s. I am not the person who gets to choose the models, so bribery (unfortunately) will do you no good. :)

So Sick...

2009-05-17T11:58:00.002-06:00

No Blogging for a long time. Too sick to blog. 2 bad colds in one month - the first lasted 2 weeks, and I am 5 days into the second with no signs of getting better. I am cursed!

How To avoid Trapped Arm....

2009-04-08T22:15:00.004-06:00

THE LOVE STORY: How To Avoid Trapped Arm Whilst Cuddling In Bed

One quarter century down....

2009-04-02T18:14:00.000-06:00

JJ Cole Spring Warehouse Sale!

2009-03-23T17:03:00.001-06:00

Congratulations

2009-03-21T20:23:00.004-06:00

My brother Scott is engaged to Emily Nelson. We're so excited for you! Congratulations!

Don't buy stuff you can't afford

2009-03-15T17:50:00.000-06:00

Heaven on Earth

2009-03-08T22:58:00.009-06:00

Last week we spent a couple of days on the eastern shore of Oahu. Andy had 4 days off in a row so we took an impromptu trip with the Pedersens. The vacation was very short, but just what we needed to escape the February blues.
We body boarded, my first time (now that was a fun workout):

and after my skin was fried beyond recognition - hid under a towel and read on the beautiful beach.

Meet the Kids

2009-02-22T22:05:00.012-07:00

Sooty - Found: Oct 2007 by the railroad tracks in Logan. Sick and barely a few weeks old. We smuggled her into our apartment for a few weeks, then she stayed with my parents until we moved to our own place and could bring her home. Skills: mad jumping skills. Loves boxes.

Spike - Adopted from Cache Humane Society Sept 2008. Cupped Andy's neck with his paws through the bars of a cage (sob!) . Brought home to keep Sooty company while we were at work. She hated him for 2 weeks. Named Spike because of his unfortunate large ears:
Likes: Showers...usually smells of: Herbal Essences

These two get away with murder around here because someone (not me) is a sucker for anything that purrs. :)

Here's an idea...

2009-02-22T21:46:00.003-07:00

Don't put things on your burners. Even if you don't plan on using that burner. Chances are you'll turn on the wrong burner and walk away for a few minutes....

Dinner tasted a little smokey that night:

The new room

2009-02-13T21:27:00.018-07:00

Last September we started a construction project. I use the term "we" loosely - I actually had very little to do with it.

At some point in the past the downstairs living room in our house was turned into a master bedroom. The construction was shoddy. Painted faux wood panelling was glued to the foundation, no insulation, scary holes and gaps filled with thick spider webs - pipes running along the wall. My favorite part was the crumbling remnants of an old rock fireplace:
Andy wanted to gut the room down to the foundation, and start over. This would involve framing, electrical work, insulation, plumbing, closets, lighting, drywall, trim work, painting and carpet.

I had my doubts.

Those of you who know Andy know he is a handy guy - but this was a major project and I was nervous.

He checked out a stack of do-it-yourself books from the library.

I got a little more nervous.

Demo day came -here is a picture of the first 'cut' :

What we found underneath all that panelling was seriously gross:
The following weeks were a roller coaster. Sometimes I expected to come home and find Andy electrocuted or sawed in half. Luckily we were not alone. We are fortunate to have friends with serious skills who were generous with their tools and time. It was slow, but the satisfaction of seeing something through from demo to completion was totally worth it. Take a look:

Thanks especially to Shane for help with carpet and tools, James with tools and countless hours of advice and finally, Ben for tools plus ideas for us to steal. You guys are the best!

Is this your curling iron?

2009-02-10T21:15:00.006-07:00

Last weekend Andy and I started going through the boxes of stuff we were storing in the basement from our move last summer. (Yeah, I know that was 6 months ago).
Among the random junk we found, we came across this curling iron. We are baffled. It isn't mine. I've never seen it before.

It doesn't belong to any of my sisters. We've called friends. Nothing - no one is claiming it. It's not the kind of curling iron you would forget - a Conair misting iron, with a little water reservoir....and now it's driving us crazy! We've thought of every possibility - we know it came with us from our apartment - it was in with boxes of our stuff....but neither of us has any idea. Someone has to know where this came from!! Help !?!

On the Rebound.

2009-01-20T18:36:00.002-07:00

Today in a meeting my coworker Dan shared a really cool quote.

-"The longer I live, the more I realize the impact of attitude on life. Attitude, to me, is more important than facts. It is more important than the past, than education, than money, than circumstances, than failures, than successes, than what other people think, say, or do. It is more important than appearance, giftedness, or skill. It will make or break a company, a church, a home. The remarkable thing is we have a choice every day regarding the attitude we will embrace for that day."--- Rev. Charles Swindoll

Just for those of you who are wondering, so far this week I have taken my vitamins, gone to aerobics, called Bridgerland Literacy about becoming a volunteer tutor and I already feel much better. Thanks!

The Jan - Feb funk...

2009-01-18T14:38:00.005-07:00

Sometime after this: but before this:

is this:

During this time of the year I get up and go to work - in the dark. I come home from work - in the dark. Sometimes in Cache Valley you can go weeks in the winter without feeling the sun on your face because of fog and inversion. It's also bone biting cold.
I can't seem to get motivated about anything. I can't keep track of my schedule. I am short tempered with my husband. Weepy. Forgetful.

The worst is listening to talk about New Years resolutions. Ha! This is the time of year when I take stock of all the things I failed the accomplish the previous year. The birthdays I missed, the visiting teaching I didn't do. The dinners I didn't make. The list goes on and on...

For a few short weeks at the beginning of every year I have a taste of what it would be like to live life with the trial of depression.

I know I'm not the only person who feels this way. I've heard lots of other people tell me they experience the same thing. I want to know what other people do to get themselves out of this winter rut....The thing that keeps me going is the knowledge that in a few short weeks the sun will be back out, the air will be warmer and the mound of solid ice that piles up under our eaves (making our sidewalk a death-trap) will melt once and for all.

Bigger and Better Christmas Trees

2008-12-21T19:54:00.006-07:00

We are excited to have a Chrismas tree this year that didn't have to meet the following criteria:

1. less than 5 feet tall
2. no more than 4 feet wide
3. hobbit sized

That was the only kind of tree that would fit into the hobbit hole. Without the limitations of a >6 ft ceiling our new tree puts the trees of Christmas Past to shame:
This tree was fresh from the mountains of Idaho! Thanks Falslevs for doing all of the freezing cold hard work for us!

Christmas Traditions

2008-12-13T21:58:00.009-07:00

December is the month of family traditions. First is the Nutcracker ballet. My younger sisters Anna and Laura have been in the Nutcracker for about 5 years now. I love going to it, it kicks off the season - I never get tired of hearing that music. Here are some pictures of the two of them from 2006. Actually, it is Laura's 15th birthday today too. Aren't they beautiful? ( I have beautiful sisters too Becca!)

Then the Kent family temple square evening. Tradition states that we eat burgers at Red Robin, then on to the lights at temple square, finished up with a carriage ride through Salt Lake. All 13 of us - it takes 3 carriages:

Andy's family Christmas tradition is to go to the Voice Male concert every year. I love that program - a mix of goofy and wonderful Christmas music. We take up almost half of a orchestra row in the Ellen Eccles theatre once everyone is there! My face is always aching from laughing by the time it is done. I look forward to it every year.

We are both especially grateful this time of year for both our wonderful families and the fun things we get to do together.

Finally....

2008-12-13T15:36:00.004-07:00

I woke up at 6:30 this morning to a wind storm. I looked outside and it was raining. Two hours later I took this picture from our front door. Winter comes to Cache Valley at last!

4 episodes of "What Not to Wear" later....

2008-11-30T21:08:00.002-07:00

Somewhere in the back of my mind is this nagging voice that says "someday you will have kids and real responsibilities and you won't be able to blow Sunday evening watching TLC and folding laundry"

Procrastinator!

2008-11-30T17:03:00.005-07:00

Does anyone remember reading about wash day in the Little House on the Prairie books? Once a week they spent an entire day doing the washing (and they barely had 2 dresses each!) I'm sure many of us have Grandmothers who remember a time when washing was an all-day ordeal with one of these contraptions:

(click on the picture to read a funny blog post about laundry).

My appreciation for history (check out the clothes wringer at the Jensen Historical farm sometime) makes me very grateful for the modern convenience of washing machines and dryers. It's so simple that you can hardly call it a chore. We have 100 types of detergent to choose from, spot cleaners, scented bleaches, dryer sheets etc. I get a huge amount of satisfaction from putting in a load of dirty clothes and pulling out the same freshly clean load a short while later, all for very minimal effort.

But that leaves the question, if it is so easy to get the clothes clean, why is it so hard for me to get them folded and put away? This basket has been staring at me for over a week (ok, I'm lying, it's been more like 2 weeks). It now contains 4 full squished loads of laundry. My hope is that as I pull needed items from it, there will eventually be nothing left for me to fold.

I'll let you know how it is going in a month or two.

Aerobics anyone?

2008-11-25T18:24:00.003-07:00

There is an aerobics class at the Rec center that I love - Power Toning. I like it because I get lost in step classes ( i have 2 left feet) and this is more weights based toning than fancy step work. The instructors are great and the cost is only 2$/class. My problem is, I need some people to come and keep me motivated. Katie usually comes on Mon night (6:30 class), but I would really love to go twice a week. Anyone out there who wants to try a class, but doesn't want to go alone? Check out the schedule and give me a call!

car accident

2008-11-23T22:03:00.003-07:00

Andy's Dad Tony was in a car accident this weekend. He was heading west on 4th north up by campus when a girl t-boned him while attempting to make a left turn out of the old Merill Library lot. She ran the stop sign, and didn't even look before she pulled out in front of him. (she admitted this to the police, and witnesses to the accident also saw this). You can read his full account of the accident here.
Luckily no one was seriously injured, but the part that makes me really angry was that she had her four month old baby in the car with her....while she was running stop signs and pulling into oncoming traffic without bothering to look both ways. I don't want to be vindictive, but I really feel that in this situation she should have her licence suspended. Somebody who is that negligent needs to sit at home and think about how she could have killed 3 people for a few months. I just don't think that a ticket will prompt that sort of change.
What do you think?

"The Great Christmas Flu of 2006"

2008-11-16T12:44:00.004-07:00

I try to avoid tags, but this was funny because I had almost forgotten "The Great Christmas Flu of 2006"

1. Go to your pictures
2. Go to your 4th folder and upoload your 4th picture
3. Post
Both Andy and I (and a lot of other people we know) were DEATHLY ill that Christmas. To put it into perspective - Andy missed an Aggie basketball game because of this flu. No health insurance, no student health center open during Christmas break. Lay-in-bed-and-cry sick for about 2 weeks.

The Blue Eyed Hunk

2008-11-07T11:57:00.003-07:00

Last night we had dinner over at Derek & Becca's place. We had great food and lively conversation. As a thank you to Becca I am posting a picture of a blue eyed hunk. (We all know how much she likes those) Here he is:

One last thing and then I'm really going to go to bed

2008-11-05T22:20:00.004-07:00

I made these the other night:

and even though Andy told me after the fact that he wasn't a "squash fan" they were so pretty and delicious that I didn't even care. Way to go Pioneer Woman! ..try these - they are so quick, and easy and look like a million bucks when you serve them.

Scotty's Birthday

2008-11-05T21:42:00.005-07:00

Last week it was my little brother Scott's birthday. This is the first birthday he's been at home for in 5 years. We gave him a surprise party and it was great because we really truly surprised him. I got a picture right after he walked in the door:

Earlier last month Scott made a delicious cheesecake and challenged his sisters to a baking contest. Luckily it was rigged in my favor because I'm the only sister (not living at home) close enough for him to judge first hand. And who could resist my desert "cherry berries on a cloud"? a pavlova, cheesecake, strawberry combination to die for? Three DAYS in the making!! He declared me the winner after the first bite:

I held the title for only 2 days until my older sister Lisa upstaged me by whipping up not one but SIX pavlovas from SCRATCH. Blast!
Anyway, we all had a great time. Happy Birthday Scott!

Oh and by the way

2008-11-05T21:31:00.003-07:00

He's gone:

I don't know where he went......or do I?......heh heh heh

Stuck in a deodorant rut

2008-11-05T21:12:00.006-07:00

Call me weird, but I spent the better half of my teenage years trying every brand on the shelves until I found the one that worked the best: Once I found it, I bought the exact same kind, every single time for YEARS. And then today I went to Wally World, and it wasn't there. They have 5 rows of Secret and it wasn't there. Is it gone for good? Have they discontinued it? Is this a conspiracy? I came home with this:
What if this new stuff doesn't work like the old one did? It's the same brand name, but it's a clear gel instead of a soft solid. I'm not usually picky about brands but this is one of the few things that I just don't want to branch out in. I would write to Secret Headquarters but they would (justifiably) think I'm nuts. Sigh. This is the dumbest post I have ever written.

We are now "weird cat people"

2008-10-19T22:04:00.008-06:00

I was happy with one cat. I really was. Sooty keeps me company when Andy is gone, and she sleeps stretched out next to me like a person. Plus there is the "alley cat" personality that hasn't seemed to die out even though she is hardly a kitten anymore.

But every day when I left her locked in the house and went to work for 10 hours I felt guilty. She was so happy to see me when I came home for lunch and I knew she was bored and lonely in the empty house. You can only fantasize in front of the fish tank for so long:

So it didn't take much when my mom called and told me about this:

http://hjnews.townnews.com/articles/2008/10/19/news/news01-10-19-08.txt

and that same day we came home with this:
His name is Spike. Things didn't go as planned. Sooty spent the first few days hissing at him, but we are happy that they are now best friends. As long as he doesn't try to eat from her food dish. Anyway, people can think what they want, we love having two cats.

Ode to a crumpet

2008-10-19T21:44:00.004-06:00

As you know Andy visited Australia a few weeks ago. Besides bringing me back some vegemite, he carefully transported some crumpets. This is tricky business, because they don't last long unless refrigerated. When I tried to bring some home last year they were moldy when I unpacked them :(

This time, he bought them the day they left and 24 hours later I got to eat this:

It is hard to describe a cumpet. A close cousin would be the english muffin, but those are dry and tasteless in comparison. A crumpet is moist and has little holes that (once toasted and buttered and drizzled with honey) fill up into little wells of buttery honeyness:

The outside is a little crispy, the inside texture chewy but moist.

They don't sell them on this continent.

I got 6. I ate one a day so they lasted almost a week.

Now they are gone.

The Blue Menace

2008-10-19T21:16:00.009-06:00

Here's Andy standing in our front doorway, and behind him you can see"The Blue Menace".Here's the story: Back in August we bought this house and moved in. We noticed a blue car parked in front of our house. We didn't think much of it at first, but as the weeks went by and it never left we began to grow irritated. The car actually did move, a few feet up or down the road. I would go to work, and it would be in one position and then return at lunch to find it moved a few feet:
Other times it would go a full week or more without moving at all. By then we were becoming really annoyed. Who the heck owns it? Why do they park it in front of our house? It's not like there isn't room on another part of the street - see:
We can't park in front of our house because of this dummy, and people have been asking us why we have Obama stickers on our car (Andy finds that offensive). We finally caught a glimpse of the owner, and watched him walk home (2 houses down incidentally) where he lives with what looks like 20 other people in a house obviously not zoned for that many occupants. Since all of the other people that live there park in the driveway, there is no room for him, but instead of parking on the street in front of his own house and alerting the authorities, he parks at our house and then walks around the corner and down the road.

So what can I do? A friend of ours who is a policeman says what "birkenstock Obama Man" is doing is illegal, but I suspect that Logan city has better things to do than investigate this particular crime. Here are my other ideas:

a. leave a letter on the car warning him that all cars parked in this area receive free McCain Palin stickers

b. let the air out of his tires

c. put my rotten (frost damaged) tomatoes into the air intake.

d. call the parking authority

e. give up and wait until November 15th when the snow ordinance means no one can park on the street

f. write him a letter and leave in on the windshield. Tell him we are charging for the parking space

g. leave a sign that says "free car - tow it yourself"

that is all I have for now. Maybe you think i am crazy, but it has been two months and this car has literally been parked in front of our house every day. What should we do?

What. A. Relief.

2008-10-19T20:51:00.004-06:00

The sale is finally over. It has been hanging over my head for weeks and it is finally O V E R!
Since it was partially my responsibility, I was really worried that something would go wrong, that people wouldn't come and that it would be a big fat failure. When I saw the line forming an hour before the sale opened, a lot of my fears were laid to rest. It was a LONG line.

It was like an after thanksgiving sale. People waiting in a line that went WAY out into the parking lot. We opened the doors at 9AM and there was a stampede and women were grabbing things left and right. We sold out of a lot of the good stuff in a matter of hours. The whole thing was a huge success. There were some small glitches...our makeshift credit card machines were really slow, so that line was really long, but everyone was really patient.

PHEW.
I saw lots of people I knew there, I hope you all got some good stuff. I even bought a few things myself to put away for later. JJ Cole has a year-end video that we show at the Christmas party, so we took pictures and video of the line and the stampeding for the video, I would love to show you, but I think it would probably not be polite to post it online, so you will have to imagine it.

JJ Cole Warehouse sale - Times & Location

2008-09-29T09:20:00.002-06:00

Time:

Friday October 17th 9am - 6pm

Saturday October 18th 9am - 1pm

or until we run out of stuff!

Location:

1475 N Main

Logan, UT 84341

(next to Best Buy & Shoe Carnival)

See you there!

From the desk of Missy Wegener...widow

2008-09-26T20:44:00.003-06:00

My better half took the opportunity take a short trip to another continent, and so I am alone this week. It's been ok because I have been really busy, plus the cat keeps me company. Tonight was the ward Luau. We have only been to this ward one week, and if I had a dollar for every person who asked me where my husband was, I would be a rich girl.

I hope that at some point we reach critical mass with the "where's your husband" question, and I don't have to keep explaining it. It's funny how intrigued people are about Andy's job because in reality it is very un-glamorous . Currently, half the ward thinks I am a single mom/widow who lives alone with a black cat. And I'm ok with that.

Anyway, the story is, Andy's brother-in-law Shane does the carpet in LDS temples all over the world. He happened to be going to Sydney Australia this week, and Andy decided to go along. This was the first time we have tried to use our travel privleges internationally. His first class ticket was about 300$. Not a bad deal.

"Lemondrop"

2008-09-22T15:26:00.002-06:00

I think this yellow is too bright. Andy likes it the way it is. I tried to explain to him that when I walk into the kitchen, the walls scream at me. We even bought some pretty dusky blue paint, but there has been a mutiny and now he won't let me paint it. Andy is going to be out of the country for the next week. Maybe I will "surprise" him by painting the kitchen while he's gone. Does that make me a bad wife?

Soda, or Pop?

2008-09-15T18:39:00.003-06:00

Do you say Soda, or Pop? I love funky demographics like this. Click on the picture to read the short article, and ask yourself why you aren't doing this type of research for a living.