15 Years!!

15 years ago today we got ourselves hitched!

Everyday is like a fantastic mater ride... you always make me laugh

There is never a dull moment

I love you Daniel! 

If the next 15 years are half as good as the last, it will be awesome!

And those Disneyland pictures remind me that I need to blog our Spring break trip.  Maybe tomorrow...

Every Day Is A Spa Day... For My Toes!

Last Monday was the day.  The carpet guy came to our house!  He laid all the pad in the basement.

Red... Pretty!

I thought about leaving the pretty red forever.  But I was overruled.

Tuesday the carpet guy brought his grandson to help.  Here is half the basement with carpet ready to be permanent.  It smelled so good.

The grandson ripped out the living room carpet first thing Tuesday and put the new carpet in. 

Isn't it yummy?!

Tuesday night was our big move the furniture day.  Our bedroom ended up in the living room.  We even have our headboard.

Have you ever slept in your living room on your own bed with your headboard? 

It's weird. Trust me!

Much of the stuff from our room that didn't fit in the living room or bathroom, was put in the family room.  Ruthie's stuff was in the family room, too.  We lived in crowded confusion for a night and a day.

Wednesday the old and nasty and yucky and rotten and gross and and and carpet was ripped out.  15 years in the waiting.  The pad was gross and falling apart underneath it.

But Thursday morning and every day there after, we put our house back together.  The basement is a large playroom and we got out some game shelves and book shelves and a table for game playing.

Sam's blue room was a room taking shape.  He was so excited to finally have his own space to do whatever he wants.

Isaac's green room has been in set up mode for months.  He has posters on the walls and being able to put a real bed in was super exciting.

I have a living room.  Did you hear me??  I have a living room.  We still need a couch, a table, a floor lamp and to put the pictures on the walls, but that will come soon enough.  15 years has given me the patience of Job.  Well, not really, but close. 

We will be working on the boys' old room's walls and painting them for Ruthie to move in there.  Then I'll re-do her room and have an office/craft/sewing room!! Can I get a Hip Hip Hooray!

And can I just share how much I love love love my new carpet?  It's like a spa day for my toes.  Everyday!  It's like walking on butter.  Yummy butter.  Come on over and give your toes a spa day.  They'll love you forever.

Some Faves.

Have you ever gotten home from church at 4:15 pm, like midnight, and realize you didn't get anything out to thaw and everyone's hungry and you have a roast in the freezer and decide to have that for dinner.  In an hour?

Well, you put that frozen roast in this handy dandy slow cooker/pressure cooker, add a few potatoes and carrots and salt and pepper and water, and hit pressure cook on high and then in 75 minutes, well, you have dinner.  I love my pressure cooker.  Rice in 6 minutes.  Frozen roast in less than 90 minutes.  Get one.  You'll love it!

I got some pretzel rolls and then heated one up in the microwave and then dipped it in mustard and then died and went to heaven and then came back and got another one.  Try it.  You'll love it.

Daniel got me a Sodastream for Christmas.  I really wanted a tablet, or a new spice rack, or knives, or a certain book.  But I got a soda maker.  And it has been so much fun!!  So I bought myself the book, (Women and the Priesthood by Sheri Dew Love Love) bought my own spice refills, sharpened my knives and reminded Daniel that my birthday is just a couple weeks away.  Because I want to move up in the world and have a tablet.  And I'll look at Facebook on it while I drink my homemade soda!  So there!

I had earned myself $20 in Kohls cash and went to that store to spend just that.  I got there and looked around and then looked at purses.  Death!  Then I realized everything was on sale. Wahoo! So I stole a peak at the Simply Vera purses.  You know, Vera Wang, the designer.  Those one hundred dollar purses were on sale.  Big sale.  And I had $20 in Kohls cash.  And I had a bit of cash in my purse.  So I bought myself a Vera Wang purse.  And I love to touch it.  It's real and it's soft.  It's small.  So I leave stuff at home while I'm out.  I don't need much.  Just Vera and me. 

Some Favorites.

Here are a few of my favorite things...

 

Ruthie did this in Sacrament meeting.  My plan to be married in the temple

I will- go to church, get married in the temple.  Will not- drink, punch my brothers when I'm mad.

I think it just speaks for itself. 

Daniel got this night light at a work Christmas gift exchange.

It's a lamp.  Electric s*x gleaming in the window.

I have another trigger finger working.  It's my pinkie on my left hand.  Watch me with it.  I can't move it and it just stays up.  I am dry as a desert, too.  Do you understand how much you need a left handed pinkie when putting lotion on dry skin?!  It's almost impossible to do without that pinkie.  So I invested in this lotion.  It's that spray on stuff.  It's really easy to rub in.  It's really bad at moisturizing.  But I'll take what I can get.  I will get my pinkie taken care of when it's sticking more, by the way.

Have you ever washed your clothes with vinegar?  No? Well you totally should.  I wash my bath towels with it.  No detergent.  Then I began using it with regular loads.  Like, clothes, don'chaknow. No detergent.  No fabric softener.  And clothes come out clean and no static cling.  Try it.  You'll like it.

And see that large snicker bar in the gallon sized zip bag there?  That was a gift from a neighbor.  It's huge.  But it didn't take us long to annihilate it. 

First Fair Day.

So our first day has blended into our second day at the county fair.

At the end of the first day, we had to have Daniel put some mesh up around the fence because Waffles kept leaving.  We didn't want to lose him.  As Daniel worked on the fence, Sam and Ruthie took the goats out and leashed them to the fence.  Then the crowd began to grow.

 It grew and grew until they were surrounded by kids and their moms snapping photos.

 

 They were surrounded much of the time.  They had a container of goat feed and would put a little in each tiny hand that reached for some.  The kiddos would feed the goats and pet them.  Finally the goats stopped eating.  They were stuffed and then we put them back in the stall for the night.

Now... On to my cookies.  Um, my BLUE RIBBON COOKIES!

I got a first place ribbon on my chocolate chip cookies.  And notice that of the 4 cookies I entered, one ENTIRE cookie is gone.  Other plates had a bite taken from the fourth cookie.  Mine are that good.

And on to my BLUE RIBBON CINNAMON BREAD! Yep, my bread got a first place ribbon too. 

I am pretty excited to have award winning recipes. 

 Ruthie and I have made a list of baked goods to enter into next year's fair.

Come see our goats and my award winning baked items at the Weber County Fair. 

Fair Flair.

The Weber County Fair begins tomorrow.  It goes through Saturday if you were wondering.  And for the second time, we are putting goats in the fair.  This time all three of my children will be showing their goats.  The goat show is this Friday at 4 pm in the show arena by the barns,  You know, in case you wanted to come.  Otherwise, if you happen to come to the fair another time, you can see our cute kids down goat alley (I just made that up, but there is one "alley" where all the goats are, so why not?!) on the east side, with the doors in the stalls.  We've trimmed hooves, practiced walking with a leash and have all of our goat things in order.

They will go in tomorrow morning.  Here is our sign.  I had wanted to have a sign made for the show and for our pasture.  But I didn't quite get to it.  So I made one myself.  We are calling our pasture "Vegeta's Goat Hide Away" after Vegeta the goat who was born here and died here. 

Here's an exciting addition!!  I have entered two yummy treats in the fair! 

My yummy and delicious chocolate chip cookies.  When I took them in this morning, the gal entering me looked at them and said "Ooh, they look yummy.  I want one.  I really don't like chocolate chip cookies, but those look wonderful!"  Or something like that.  I was pretty tickled!  But she's not a judge, so I have to wait and see...

I also entered my yummy and delicious cinnamon bread!  I made one large loaf and then 3 small loaves so I could manage the size of the large loaf.  Whoops.  I miscalculated the large loaf.  It came out flat and, well, flat.  So I quickly added to the recipe that it makes, not just 2 large loaves, but 6 mini loaves.  And then I took this magnificent looking mini loaf and entered it.

My entries cost all of $1.00.  And I can"make" all of $3 per entry!  Ruthie wants to enter next year.  We'll certainly do that and make more items.  And remember to not put our names on the recipe card.  And make the bread regular-like so I have a magnificent large loaf.  And get an awesome sign made for Vegeta's Goat Hide Away.

More fair news later in the week.  Wish us luck!



Greatest Museum. Ever!

This last Thursday the kids and I took the opportunity to go see 101 Inventions That Changed The World at The Leonardo in Salt Lake.  My kids had wanted to go see the Mummy deal, but we never got to it.  So I made it a point to go see this.

Wow!! 

We were all completely amazed and loved loved loved it.  The 101 Inventions deal was awesome.  I sat and watched the whole thing, Isaac was with me for most of it and the other two kids ended up in the Lego room building about half way through.  After watching and looking and playing, we were ready to walk out of the exhibit and found these screens.  They had games and puzzles.  So we stayed for some puzzling.

After leaving the exhibit we went to see what else the museum had to offer. 

We found this little room.  You go in, put your arms out and the skeleton mimics your moves.  Here's Isaac...

And Sam, saying hi...

And Ruthie, dancing...

We then moved on to another area with this green screen.  Why are they being so crazy?

They're on the TV screen driving a car.

Isaac loved this.  Doesn't he look chipper?!

Right across from that were these dealios where you do stop motion filming.  Ruthie set up a few different scenes and took the pictures to make a quick movie.

Sam used the dragon and a mummy for his movie.

Isaac went to the little living room with the action figures and made a cool movie.

Then we went to the Tinker Counter where Isaac worked with all this electricity stuff.

Ruthie and Sam made marshmallos shooters.

If you have an afternoon, go here!  Just the museum itself held us for hours.  The 101 Inventions exhibit was crazy great! Plan on spending lots of time!

When gunpowder came up as an invention, there was this quote, which I loved...

"We owe to the Middle Ages the two worst inventions of humanity- romantic love and gunpowder." Andre Maurois, novelist and writer.

Demolition Derby Fun!

Saturday night we got to go participate in one of our family's favorites. 

Demolition Derby.

So just what is it about a demolition derby that sucks us in? 

I gave it some thought as I sat in the arena.

This is what I came up with...

We always begin with the National Anthem.  I love when everyone stands, removes hats, puts hands on hearts, looks up to the flag and quiets down.  And then we listen.  Then we cheer.

I love the patriotism!

Of course we love the demolition itself. 

The crashes. 

The smoke. 

The fires. 

The exhaust. 

The fun!

We love the crowds.  Now I will point out some of the crowd negatives, too, but right now, we love the crowds all there to watch and yell and scream!

We love the treats.  Licorice, soda, kettle corn. Yum.

We love when the car comes up right to us.  We were on the second row and this lovely green "mini" came right up to say hi. 

Hi.

Speaking of second row, did you see all that rain Friday night and Saturday?  Hello!  There was mud squished up the sides of the arena and blocked from running back into the middle by those barricades.  But when the cars came screaming by.. the mud came and got us.  This is just the first round.  When we got home I found dirt clods in my treat bag, down my shirt, and the next morning, in my bed. It must have been in my hair.

Okay.  Here was an annoyance.  I hadn't actually seen these until the derby.  They are those water vapor smoker things.  Harmless. ?  When you have every adult in the row in front of you blowing thick water vapor out of their mouths and noses during a spectacular event, it's not so harmless.  Yuck.  The people using them reminded me of that caterpillar sitting on the mushroom smoking opium.  You know the one.  At one point Ruthie jumped up and began leaving and said "I have to get the freak out of here because of all the smoke!"  We talked her into staying.

The other bug was the beer.  Now I understand that there are people who can't seem to enjoy crashing cars without alcohol.  But the wickedest part of the evening was the little family in front of us, including a mom, a dad and 2 young girls, smoking those water vapor things and drinking beer.  We counted a total of 9 bottles of beer shared between the two adults.  My question is.. who is going to drive those two little girls home???

The best-est part of the night are the people who came with us...

Dad, Ruthie and Isaac

Sam, mom and Isaac

We got dirty, we got home late and we got derby-ed out!