The John and Katie Salmond Family

An end and a new beginning

2012-01-05T19:19:00.001-08:00

I have finally passed all of my classes (All A's, I would say that is passing), received my Bachelor's degree and passed my national exam. I am officially Katie Salmond BS, CHES. I am so excited to finally be done with school and moving on to other parts of life.

Merry Christmas to You All!

2011-12-11T12:40:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas to you all!

This year has been very interesting. There has been lots of school, work, heartache, joy and love. John has released a few games with his work and read a lot as usual. Katie has done lots of school, homework and tests and a few fun things in between. We are grateful for Jesus Christ and all he has done for us. We love you all. Merry Christmas!!!!

Busy, Busy

2011-09-19T18:11:00.000-07:00

We had a crazy summer, ask me about it some time. Busy times have started. Busy school semester has started. We should have a few more posts after October after I take my exams for certification. Talk to you then.

Two new posts this time!!!!!

2011-05-21T12:59:00.000-07:00

Spring is here! Sort of.......

2011-05-21T12:51:00.000-07:00

Spring is finally here! Jill and I went to The Tulip
Festival at Thanksgiving Point. As usual, it was beautiful and a great way to
get out. Aren’t we cute tulips? It was a bit weird, the one side of the
fountains is open and beautiful, and the other is still closed. And yes we are
trying to eat that plant. It is lettuce in that planter….Yum!

Mother's Day

2011-05-14T10:32:00.000-07:00

Mother's Day is interesting for us. My Mom buys whatever she wants, or the things she doesn't have, we can't possibly buy. John's Mom is kind of the same way. So this year, we decided to do fruit bouquets and we also decided to make them ourselves. It was an adventure but it turned out ok. The back of the one bouquet is John's "designey" part.

"Curing"

2011-04-03T16:15:00.000-07:00

So, I am weird. Very weird. I am a connoisseur of fine foods. When John and I go out to eat, he asks where has good ranch so we can eat there. I am picky about my ranch and can give you a list of restaurants that have good ranch and those who do not. So naturally, I am picky about other foods. Including: fruit, bread,meat, vegetables, and candy. I am a gummy connoisseur also. Black Forest is by far the number one gummy producer, followed by Haribo, and then the other brands trail behind somewhere in the pack.

Here is where the weird comes in. I like my gummies hard, like old hard. So, I "cure" my gummies. They come out of the bag and sit on trays in my kitchen for at least 3 days and then go back in to the bag when they are sufficiently hard. Here is the sea of gummies currently residing in my kitchen.

Valentine's Day

2011-03-21T21:31:00.000-07:00

I know, I know!!! It's March, but here it comes. We went to The Cheesecake Factory during the day and then we had chocolate fondue at home. It was great. All the treats and fruit. It was the best.

School is CRAZY!!

2011-02-04T13:53:00.000-08:00

Because I am working on my final classes, they are crazy. It has been and will be a busy semester and I feel like I am loosing my head pretty much all the time. Eventually I will get the hang of my classes and start making connections.
NEWS FLASH:
Christmas is officially down-February 4th

Enough for now.
J and K

They're back!!!!!!

2011-01-08T21:18:00.000-08:00

Since school has started I struggle to blog but here is something that has brought a little bit of joy lately.
101.9 The End, the radio station, has been on Utah radios forever and for some reason they decided to go DJ-less and change their style of music. This happened probably 2-3 months ago. It became a "generation X" music station, and needless to say, went to the dogs. We would be able to listen to one song and then it sucked. So, about two weeks ago, we heard an advertisement that they had changed, they sucked and were sorry. And they're back!!!!! Yeah. They are still DJ-less but at least they play normal music again. Happiness!! On with the school work.

Merry Christmas!

2010-12-18T08:55:00.000-08:00

2010 has been an eventful year but many great things have happened this year.

Katie was laid off in January. She had known it was coming for about six months and so the Salmond’s were able to plan ahead and she started school at the beginning of 2010. She was struggling to figure out what major she was going to be working towards and eventually settled on Community Health Education. Within the first couple of weeks of school, she realized she was in the correct major and she loves school.

Katie also is very involved in the Make-A-Wish Foundation of Utah. She is a Wish Granter and works directly with the wish child and their families to grant their wishes. She normally does two wishes a year but this year she has been busier and has completed four. She loves working to grant the wishes of God’s precious little ones who are not well in this life and loves the joy that her volunteer work can bring.

Katie also had the opportunity to go to her mom’s fellowship into the National League of Nursing in Las Vegas. She was able to fly out after classes on Friday. She got to shop, cheer on her amazing mother, and spend time with some relatives she doesn’t get to see often.

John graduated from the University of Phoenix in the summer of 2010. He received a Bachelor of Science in Information Technology and is so happy to be finished with school finally. He has been working on his degree for about two years and he is very ready to just be working.
John was given scuba diving lessons for finishing his degree and completed that certification this summer. He was able to scuba dive, with some setbacks overcome, at Fish Lake this fall and learned that he loves it.

In June of 2010, John and Katie were able to celebrate their 5th wedding anniversary and traveled to Montana and stayed in a cabin for a week. They were able to read, paint, and just be together for the week. They also had the opportunity to take a helicopter tour or Glacier National Park. It was amazing, and neither will ever forget it.

We have been blessed so much and feel the Lord’s love in many things in our lives. Merry Christmas and we love you all.

Finals are over

2010-12-18T08:53:00.000-08:00

Finals are over but that means the craziness of the holidays starts. As much as I prepared, there is still lots to do.

My Birthday

2010-11-23T16:48:00.000-08:00

November was my birthday month and I made a Candy Land Cake. It was cute!!! Next time I will do it on sheet cake and spread things out a little bit.

My Birthday

2010-11-23T16:43:00.000-08:00

My cake!

Fall Festivities

2010-10-14T14:17:00.000-07:00

Last week we got to go to Hee Haws with out mortgage brokers.

We:

Shot corn cannons

Got lost in a corn maze

Saw some cool things in nature

and

Just hung out

Love,

J&K

My cool, new Belgian Waffle Maker

2010-09-12T13:14:00.000-07:00

I have wanted a new waffle maker for a while, and as much as I remember a lot, I forgot that John had purchased me one and I used it for the first time today. It was huge, but I love it. And is releases steam and lots of it. Here are the cool steam patterns.

I have made it through 2 weeks of school

2010-09-12T13:05:00.000-07:00

I have made it through the first 2 weeks of school and I love school just like I always do. My classes are interesting and I am in the right major.

One week after school, we went to Fish Lake with the Salmond Family. Here are a few pictures of what we did.

Scuba Diving

Minute to Win It (Card throwing, soda balancing)

Games and treats

On with the rountine. Talk to you later.

J&K

School starts tomorrow

2010-08-24T17:38:00.000-07:00

School starts tomorrow and I don't have everything done that I wanted to have done. I haven't done the gardens and still don't know what to do about the cookbook. But I have done a lot of things. Like:

Freeze meals
All laundry
All dishes
Painting
Nightstands
Looked for a job
Read the whole Harry Potter series
Organized the house

So the two left are acceptable to me. Until later.

Accomplishments

2010-08-11T10:54:00.000-07:00

This summer I have accomplished:
Painted the whole house (basically)
Organized and set up both extra rooms in the house in case we have guests
Finished all scrapbooking, including family history photos
Relaxed a bit

2 weeks to finish before school starts:
Cookbook, still don't know what to do about compiling
Clean out the gardens
Nightstands-Put top on, feet on, and varnish
Finish reading the Harry Potter series

Can I make it? I have to. So we will see.

Congratulations!!!!!!

2010-08-02T12:22:00.000-07:00

John has officially graduated. Here is is celebrating at Porter's Place. Family, food, and HUGE rootbeer mugs. He loves it. He is finished. Yeah!!!!!

Three new posts

2010-07-06T16:13:00.000-07:00

Here is a picture to set the mood. Three new posts. Enjoy!!!!!!

Helicopter Tour

2010-07-06T16:08:00.001-07:00

We took a helicopter tour of Glacier National Park. It was great and beautiful. I was a bit nervous but it was great. Here are some of our views.

Heaven's Peak

2010-07-06T16:04:00.000-07:00

Here are some pictures of our lodge.

Our Anniversary

2010-07-06T16:01:00.001-07:00

Here is the menu from our dinner. SO COOL!

We are home and it was great

2010-07-04T22:22:00.001-07:00

More to come.

Peace Out

2010-06-27T18:29:00.001-07:00

We are out for a little while to celebrate our anniversary. Pictures to follow.

Bruschetta

2010-06-14T11:30:00.001-07:00

We love it!!

5th Wedding Anniversary!!!!!

2010-06-01T11:46:00.000-07:00

This day, 5 years ago, we were married. It was a joyful occasion and I am happy to report we still like each other. In fact, we love each other. We are going on an anniversary trip in Montana to get away after he finishes school. Tonight we will hit Bambara, up in SLC. I am so excited to go there. Here are some of my favorite things about my husband:
He is passionate-about work, about computers, about love
He is strong in many ways
His eyes light up when he chases the cat around with the carpet sweeper and then she chases him back!!
He laughs so hard sometimes that he bounces his knees, no noise comes out and it makes me laugh also
He moves in his sleep to touch me or to hold me, without even realizing he does it
He rocks at Rock Band!!!!!!!!!!!
He gets chicken feathers while sleeping, I hope someday that our kids will get them too because they are cute
When he stretches in the morning, he squeaks and it is cute
He is funny, when he can't find something he whistles for it, even if it is a hammer and won't answer him back
He is good at everything he does, even if he has never done it before
He loves the Lord and is so knowledgeable
He loves me
I love him

Betty Crocker on the weekends

2010-05-31T12:03:00.000-07:00

We love our big sandwiches and make them at least once a month. Making food that is just as good at home as the restaurant is our current cooking goal.

Veggie Egg Bake

2010-05-23T15:41:00.000-07:00

For Christmas ever year Ravert's do an egg breakfast that love. Here is one of the variations that I came up with. Veggies, and lots of them, cheese, bread, and eggs. It was so good. I don't have a recipe because I made it up and just added whatever I wanted. But here it is.

The Verdict is in!!!!!

2010-05-06T11:00:00.000-07:00

Grades are finally in:

Body Image Self Esteem Weight Management - A
Drugs Behavior and Society - A
Principles of Community Health - A-
Beginning Spanish I - A-
Intro to Human Anatomy and Physiology - A

My first semester back after 4 years of working has been scary but I have done well. Onward and upward. Love ya,

Terminado, 完成, färdiga, finished!

2010-04-30T10:18:00.000-07:00

As promised, after school was out, I said I would blog, and here I am. Finals went well and I am most definitely in the right major. I thought about many majors for a long time but this is where I am supposed to be. There are two more posts about egg dyeing and that is about it.

Easter and Egg Attempts

2010-04-30T10:14:00.000-07:00

Ever year Jill and I try new ways to dye Easter eggs. We have discovered the sparkly paper eggs are worth buying the kit every year but we try other ways every year. As you can tell, we have an elaborate system, but we are getting better at it. We used three sets and tried color/water, color/lemon juice, and color/vinegar. Color and vinegar worked really well, color and water did not, and the lemon juice one gave up mixed results. Next year we will also use food color dye also. Different results with each try. So here are a few of our attempts.

Our Methods:

Rubberbands around eggs-New this year and we love it

White crayon-So, so kind of normal

Sparkles-Way too messy

Masking tape shapes-Using scrap book punches-Cute but some reason didn't work this year

Onion skins-Understand the idea but didn't try it this year, maybe next year

Sparkle eggs-This is a kit and I love it

Easter and Egg Attempts

2010-04-30T10:00:00.000-07:00

More eggs

Hurry up and wait

2010-04-19T13:53:00.001-07:00

It is almost finals week. While I am doing really well in school, finals really are scary to me. I haven't had a breakdown yet but it will come sooner or later. Needless to say, blogging will not be actully happening until after finals week. Talk to you in May.

Mass Glossing is my thing

2010-03-14T11:18:00.000-07:00

I have decided mass blogging is my thing. I have survived this past week and as promised, here are some things that have been going on. There are 4 blogs past this message. By the way, I did ok this past week in school. All papers were completed and turned in on time. I felt prepared for my second Body Image test but walked out feeling under prepared. Ok but under prepared. I felt more prepared for my Community Health class and was but still didn't know some answers. Anatomy was my shining moment, I took the quiz Saturday, for a $3 fee (well worth it) on the Nervous system and got an 88%. That is a personal best. So I now have spring break and I am ready. So enjoy the update.

Cinnamon Rolls

2010-03-14T11:09:00.000-07:00

I am kind of busy with school and John is kind of busy with school and work and so refrigerator cinnamon rolls are the only cinnamon rolls we get. While they are my forte and I love to make them, I would much rather spend that time doing dishes so we have something to eat off of or washing our clothes, so that people will sit next to us at school and work. Anyway, I hate opening the pop containers, it scares me. So John does it for me. This last time, he pulled off the wrapper and it sat there and sat there and then all the sudden, it burst. Cinnamon and sugar everywhere. Awesome.

Cream and her latest adventures at the Salmond house

2010-03-14T10:57:00.000-07:00

We love our Cream. She is a joy in our life. She is an inside cat only and I think she longs for the outside sometimes. Here is what has been happening lately. She jumps onto our couch, onto the old radio, sticks her head between the curtain and wall and watches whatever is going on outside. She had her yearly medical checkup and the pictures ensue. She is the most ornery cat in the world, at the vets. John can bug her all day, stick his fingers in her ears, chase her around the house and do basically anything to her, but the second a vet is anywhere near she becomes the devils cat-spawn and bites and scratches the vets. They couldn't get blood drawn so they shaved her paw and we had to keep a catheter in, so we had to keep her from licking it. The sock is protecting it and the black electrical tape is the only tape we had. So she suffered with it on for a while.

Valentine's Day

2010-03-14T10:42:00.000-07:00

Valentine's Day we celebrated at The Roof, it was great. Good food, good company. I love him! We had an interesting discussion about candy and chocolates for Valentine's Day.

Katie: "I want chocolates for Valentine's Day."

Apparently that translated into John buying candy bars for me, and my throwing a fit.

John: "I got you chocolate candy bars."

Katie: "I can by candy bars any time of the year, I only get Valentine's Day candy once a year."

John: "So only the box matters."

Katie: "The pretty box matters to me and so do the chocolates inside. I don't buy or get chocolates, not chocolate candy, chocolates any other time of the year."

So here is the result of that discussion and presents exchanged between us.

John's is a jar of "love." Poems, quotes, and thoughts about love, us, and of course, him.

And my new kitchen scale. I love it. (I have been so busy with school that cooking has been on the back burner, so the only thing that I have weighed is tums, to see how brands vary because my Acid Reflux drugs aren't working, but I love it. By the way, they are all the same.)

The Run Away Car

2010-03-14T10:29:00.000-07:00

In January I had a major scare. When I was at a gas station with our Sasha, our newly-owned 2009 car (Woot-woot!, we paid it off this past week), I didn't get it into a gear or the E-break on (it is a stick), and it started rolling. Scary. The door was open and so I started chasing it, as I was ready to jump into the car and pull the E-break, I didn't notice the curb the car was rolling by. It tripped me, as I fell I grabbed onto the car and I started being dragged. The curb pushed my legs under our car and at that point there was no way I was letting the car just runaway. It would have run over me. I thank God that someone saw this happening and jumped in front of the car and stopped it from rolling and crushing my legs. I think I said thank you to that blessed man but I can't be sure. Here are the picture results. My pants, my good Cords, and the bruises that formed because I bruise like my mother. My anatomy and physiology teacher is a physician and he checked out my leg, bruised but no knee injury. I count my blessings for a car, money to buy gas for the car, a reminder to put the E-break on the car, and that man who saved me that day.

Sorry for the out of touch-ness

2010-03-09T19:41:00.001-08:00

School is crazy. Once I get through this week you will hear from me. But until then, this is what you have to go on with me.
We are busy, going to school, working, and being together. Our house is a mess, most of the time, and we don't see other people besides the ones we work with and the ones we are in school with. That's it.
Talk to you later

Mass Blogging-Here it comes

2010-01-13T14:23:00.001-08:00

So. Here are 6 new blogs. Lots of pictures, not tons of words.

This is what Christmas looks like at our house

2010-01-13T14:17:00.000-08:00

Our cute soap dispenser and our Christmas treats. The wooden statue is Ghanian. My little bro brought it back for me and John. It represents us. And all the kissing we do. He he.

Christmas afternoon

2010-01-13T14:13:00.001-08:00

Here is our parent's big gifts and Christmas afternoon.

Christmas morning-Our house

2010-01-13T14:09:00.000-08:00

Here is our morning. How was yours?

Our Christmas Train

2010-01-13T14:04:00.000-08:00

I have been looking for a Christmas train this year. And couldn't find one that wasn't $100 or more. Eventually My sister-in-laws mother found one in this little town in Idaho for $20. What a joke! $100 as opposed to $20. I'll take it. So this train was just a normal one at first but I had decided to Christmas-fy it. Here is my handy work.

Our inside garden

2010-01-13T13:58:00.000-08:00

My mom had an Amaryllis as I was young and I decided I wanted to have one also. Here is the progress of ours. It is beautiful, especially during the winter and all the white.

Merry Christmas

2009-12-21T08:04:00.000-08:00

Hello all! It has been a great year full of business, joy and hard work.
This is our second year in our home and we keep forgetting how much work it actually is. We have done some work to improve it. John wired our home with Cat5 and phone wires this summer and so we have been slowly working on getting the walls repaired and re-painted. Hopefully we can finish by the New Year. We have also had the opportunity to rake millions and millions of leaves from our four adult trees in our yard.
John has been doing well with his job. He enjoys programming very much and it makes it so much more fun that he works for a game development company. He is learning and growing all the time. He also is continuing his education at University of Phoenix. He is about 5 months left until he will be awarded his Bachelors degree and is so ready to be done.
Katie has enjoyed her job this past but sadly it has come to an end. It has been an expected lay off and so we had some time to prepare for it. It is perfect timing because I have not been in school for about 2 years but has made the decision to return in January. Being laid off at the time I was, has given me the month of December off. Just enough time to finish painting, see 2nd paragraph, organize our house a little more, catch up on scrapbooking and prepare for the change in our home.
Our cat, Cream, joined our family late last year. She has been such a joy to have around. When we first got her from the shelter, she loved to snuggle and be near us. Turns out she was sick and just wanted to be held. Since overcoming her sickness she is a bit more independent and rules the roost. She was overweight when we adopted her and this past year has been the struggle of the battle of the bulge for her. We have been attempting to feed her measured amounts but he discovered we BOTH were feeding her measured amounts. Once we established a feeding cycle she has slimmed down to only 15 pounds but she has a lot more energy. She chases John around the house some and he chases her some. She is fed in the morning and fed at night and when it gets closer to her feeding time, if you walk by her room without feeding her, she bats at your legs because you aren’t stopping to feed her. She is such a fun addition to our family.
Together we have had some exciting experiences this past year. One of which was the calling to work in the nursery at church. I love little ones and had no problem with it but John was a little surprised when he was also called to work in the nursery. As much as he may not realize it, he is quite good with the “rough” play that many kids enjoy and need. I was throwing around the idea of majoring in elementary education but the nursery calling taught me that two hours a week is plenty of kid time for me and that elementary education is not my cup of tea. We also have had the opportunity to see some of the Utah sites this past year. We visited Wheeler Farm, Kennecott, This Is the Place Park and The Living Planet Aquarium. Who knew our state had so many great places to visit?
We have seen the many blessings in our lives and in the lives of others around us. We have experienced many happy times, some tough times, and in all those times, we have felt the Savior’s love and blessing all around us. We love this time of year and the happy memories it brings back to our thoughts. We love you all and hope you enjoy the season, love and blessings of our Savior.
Love,
John and Katie Salmond

2009-12-20T15:12:00.001-08:00

Mass Blogging again

2009-12-06T19:11:00.001-08:00

Here are three new blog posts. I am mass blogging a bit more.

More Christmas

2009-12-06T19:08:00.001-08:00

Here is some more!!!!

Christmas-fied

2009-12-06T19:04:00.000-08:00

So our house is finally Christmas-fied and I love it!!!!

New Canisters

2009-12-06T18:53:00.000-08:00

I have been searching for new, truly air-tight canisters for a while. I finally found a good set, but they weren't necessarily the right color so I used my craftiness and added ribbon of my two main colors. Here they are.

Halloween costumes

2009-11-10T09:35:00.000-08:00

This years Halloween costumes a week or two late. I am a Black Widow, he he. And John is The Ninja Bee. It is the symbol of his company.

Eyeballs!!!!

2009-10-26T23:37:00.000-07:00

For a Halloween party this past week, my friend and I made doughnut eyeballs. I think they look pretty good. I am making another set for another Halloween party this week. Pictures of costumes to come.

A new dresser

2009-10-18T14:35:00.000-07:00

For a few months we have been looking around for a new dresser. We wanted a big dresser to replace what we had, plus some. And we needed a blond wood dresser also to match the beautiful headboard that John made us for my birthday. I also thought about having a jewelry drawer in it, but to find a dresser with enough drawers, light wood and a jewelry drawer was impossible. We eventually found this one, it is natural wood and a bit spendy but we don't plan on ever needing to replace it. It is Maple and we love it. Eventually I will get a jewelry armoire "that I don't know about" for Christmas. Here it is. We love it, and the company is environmentally responsible. They re-plant every tree they cut down for their furniture. I like that idea.

The cats diet

2009-09-29T22:20:00.000-07:00

Our cat is on a diet. She has been for a while and she is not loosing the weight like we thought she would. The other day we discovered that both of us sometimes feed her in the morning. So she is getting 2 to 4 times the food she is going to. So here is my solution. I am not super crafty, but this did work out ok.

Fish Lake

2009-09-29T22:12:00.000-07:00

As a Salmond Family we went to Fish Lake, UT over Labor Day weekend. It was a good break. The water was cold and the fish were biting.

Garden meals

2009-09-29T22:09:00.001-07:00

So, like most people who have a garden, we are over flowing with tomatoes. So here is our lovely first harvest and all the soup we made!

Mr. Fix-it

2009-08-16T23:27:00.000-07:00

Many of you know that John is Mr fix-it and here is his latest fix-it. His up button on alarm clock stopped working and so this is him taking it apart. He eventually got it working again after tinkering around with it for a while. I am the it's-broken-lets-buy-another-one kind, but he has the know how and so I let him just try to fix it and if he can't then we buy one.

Mass Blogs

2009-08-03T22:50:00.000-07:00

Sorry for the mass blogs. I am catching up. So here are 5 more blogs, about nothing!!!! We are not doing much.

First year of garden in the new house

2009-08-03T22:46:00.000-07:00

So this is the first year of gardening in our new house. Tomatoes are really the only things that are doing well. We do have Parsley but the tomatoes are doing best. Here they are.

I live in a Hol(e)y home

2009-08-03T22:43:00.000-07:00

John has finished wiring our house but we had quite a few holes in the walls. Here are a few of them.

Big storm and lots of branches

2009-08-03T22:39:00.000-07:00

A few weeks ago we had a mini micro-burst and this is what our trees did to the neighborhood.

Kitty Pictures!!!!!!

2009-08-03T22:32:00.000-07:00

So we love our cat. And she loves us. Well, she is in love with John a lot, and in like with me alot, especially when I feed her. But here are some more pictures. We are trying to get her more acclimated to outside, so we put a harness and leash and tie her to the tree so she can lounge in the grass while we do yard work. And like most cats, she loves to have her claws clipped so this is the battle picture. Enjoy.

Kennecott

2009-06-04T20:38:00.000-07:00

So on the same weekend we went to Kennecott also. It was really cool. Check it out. It is a huge pit. And the tires on the little dump trucks in the picture, it is huge. And Wayne and Shad checking things out. The last picture is John's favorite picture. That thing is a huge drill bit used to drill in pit mining. Amazing!!!!!!!!

Wheeler Farm

2009-06-04T20:25:00.000-07:00

So over Memorial Day weekend we went to Wheeler Farm. I remember going there when I was little bit don't remember tons about it. It was a good day out with one of the other Salmond families. So this yellow sign was all over the place. It made me laugh and believe me, my husband needed that reminder. Shad and John are are great together. Shad was really upset and was having a reaction to all the pollen and crap in the air and so John got him to calm down and be a little more happy by making him mimic his face. And of course, John choose a weird face. It was funny. And the last is Shad wearing John's hat. So Cute!!!!!

Our Spring Family Pictures

2009-05-16T16:16:00.000-07:00

So here are a few pictures of our family this Spring.

To my "I live in the corn belt" sister and her family!!!!!!

2009-05-16T16:11:00.000-07:00

So I was at Wally World and say these and though to you. So this is for you Richard, Becky, Sarah, Rachel, and Emma!!!!!!!!!!!! Pigs, tractors and barns. RIght up your alley. Love ya

Bedroom Decorations

2009-05-16T16:07:00.000-07:00

So I finally finished our bedroom decorations. It didn't take long, I just needed to do it. So here it is. All shades of blue. I love it. The little one is my favorite fabric.

Our yard is finally under control

2009-05-16T15:59:00.000-07:00

So, we have been in our house a full year and so we are still learning what it takes to control our yard and trees. So here is what has changed and improved with our yard. We have moved our front gardens to be more esthetically pleasing and more manageable. We also have added our vegetable garden to the side yard so we can grow our veggies. We also tamed the grass in the yard. Here is our back yard!

Wicked!!!!!!!

2009-05-16T15:54:00.000-07:00

So on May 2nd we were able to go to Wixked. I made the ultimate sacrifice and slept on the side walk in downtown SLC, in mid-December, next to some man I didn't know, and dropped $500 on my credit card to get these tickets. But it was an amazing show. It was so cool! I have seen The Wizard of Oz and I have read Wicked but the play tops them all. It was so great. Glinda was so over the top, no wonder she is so popular! Here are a few pictures.

A few new things

2009-05-16T15:46:00.000-07:00

So we have a few new things around the house. We were able to pay off a few of our debts and so we used our tax return to buy a few new appliances for the kitchen. So here is our new stove, it is a gas stove and our old one was electric and so we need to have a gas line run. And here is our new dishwasher. We have enjoyed both of them. Here are my new shoes also! I bought orthotic shoes to help pain control. So the first pair is a pair of black sandals and the second is a brown pair of Mary Janes. So here are a few of our new things. Improving our life one purchase at a time.

My wall art

2009-04-26T11:38:00.000-07:00

So here are pictures of my latest home decorating that is complete. I am trying to tie in all the shades of purple in my kitchen. I am still working on the same idea in our bedroom. This is in our kitchen and I quite enjoy it. All of the circle are embroidery hoops and different patterns of purple fabrics. The close ups are of my favorite fabric patterns. It didn't take much time but it turned out quite well. What do you think?

The Living Planey Aquarium

2009-04-26T11:24:00.000-07:00

On our quest to see Utah's sites this year for our vacation, we visited The Living Planet Aquarium. It was great. There were a few exhibits that were not open yet, like the penguins (sniffle sniffle). But it was so neat. There was a Manta Ray exhibit, where you can touch them. Since the whole Steve Irwin attack it scared me a lot. The first time I tried and was so scared I told John I had touched it, even though I hadn't. So I had than inner struggle with myself and eventually told myself I would regret not touched it and went back and touched it. With two fingers on the wing and no more. It was like two and a half feet down and the sleeve of my shirt got wet. It still scared the crap out of me. But I did it. There were a few other things that were cool. The life cycle of a Salmon(d) was fun to look at. And the other favorite of a few of us was the Electric Eel. There was a speaker that made noises every time that the eel emitted electricity. It was really neat. The also had a display next to the eel that gave us small shocks to see how it would feel to touch an eel. They also had a feeling section, where you could touch lots of different types of star fish. It was a great long weekend.

Flowers, Flowers, and more Flowers

2009-03-15T21:11:00.000-07:00

So spring is here and I am surrounded by flowers. Since we have not been in our house a full year, we do not really know what all the seasons will bring with the house and the yard. And to our surprise and delight, we have bulbs growing in front of our house. A lot of bulbs. I think they are daffodils and am excited to see them bloom. On top of that, my awesome husband surprised me with a beautiful bouquet of flowers. They are gorgeous. Sunflowers, roses, in many colors. They are great. It is so wonderful to have beautiful flowers all around me. Especially the ones from my loving husband.

A few new things

2009-02-16T15:42:00.000-08:00

So we have a few new things around our house. The first one is the cabinet in our dining room. We added a deep freeze under the stairs, so we got this cabinet to replace the missing space. It is great. The other is my Valentine's Day gift that John has been working on for over a week. It is a carved wood elephant that holds rings. It is so cute. And he lovingly carved a heart on it just for me. He is so great. He is talented many ways and always wants me to feel loved by what he makes for me. Our Valentine's Day was nice and relaxing. We love you all!

My ring is finall back!!!!!!!

2009-02-05T10:29:00.001-08:00

So I finally got my ring back. We picked it up last Thursday and amidst the repairs my engraving disappeared. Needless to say, I was really unhappy that I didn't have my ring when they finally finished it. So I took it back in and they re-engraved it. So here is my ring. Thicker and more secure but still pretty.

So we are up to a whole lot of nothing.........

2009-01-19T13:17:00.000-08:00

We really have not been up to a whole lot. We go to work, John goes to school once a week, we come home, hang around the house, and go to bed. The occasional movie happens. But other than that we are up to nothing. John has been working on the car a lot and last night had a break through. One of the barrings (?) in the pistons came out. So we may have figured it out so that we can finally fix our car. The week before Christmas I got into a car accident in our older car and so we are fixing both of our cars so we have two functioning cars. The only other excitement in our lives is that we are having major work on my engagement and wedding rings so I have a big, fake ring from Wally World. So here are a few pictures of our slow life right now.

Merry Christmas to you all!!!!!!!!!

2008-12-25T19:49:00.000-08:00

This Christmas and past year has been to blessed and eventful. We have had a relaxing and joy filled day. We woke up when we wanted, enjoyed my mom's Christmas Casserole (Yum) and enjoyed being with family. Here are a few pictures. John got lots of tools, like usual, and I got lots of kitchen stuff. The big yellow thing is a huge Sugar Daddy bar. Next to it is John's slippers and they are a size ten, so it is pretty big. We also grilled on our grill for the first time. It was great, good meats, veggies, and pineapple!!!!!!!!!!!! Yeah!!!!!!!!! We love you all and Happy New Year.

Our new family member!!!!!!

2008-12-25T19:43:00.000-08:00

We adopted a cat on Saturday. She is from a shelter up in SLC. She is a two year old female Short haired cat. We LOVE her. Her name is Cream. And she is adjusting well to us and our home. She is great. Right now she has a cold and so twice a day we stuff anti-biotics in her mouth, hoping she takes them so that she gets better. Here are a few pictures of her.

Christmas is finally here!!!

2008-12-18T22:23:00.000-08:00

So here are the pictures of our Christmas lights. As you can see, we have 8 windows and only two have lights in them. The only other one has our tree in it. We love our little tree and it's colored lights. PS-This is the grill we won at my work Christmas party. It is huge but we don't have a grill cover and it is snowing, so it is currently residing in our living room.

Pulling out the bushes

2008-12-18T22:09:00.000-08:00

John and Wayne worked really hard, along with the help of our neighbor, to try to pull out our bushes in front of our house. They broke the tow rope twice and the 1,000 pound cable twice. So it the tops are gone but the roots are still in the ground.

Thanksgiving Finally

2008-12-18T22:03:00.000-08:00

Sorry I fell off the face of the earth. Here is our Thanksgiving stuff. The light turkey is pre-oven and then afterwards. I made almost everything from scratch including the baby food fragranced pumpkin pie (it smells like baby food to me). It was my first thanksgiving and pretty successful.

2008-12-14T01:02:00.000-08:00

One Word Tag
1. Where is your cell phone? coat
2. Where is your significant other? Here
3. Your hair color? Brown
4. Your mother? AMAZING
5. Your father? Around?
6. Your favorite thing? John
7. Your dream last night? ??????
8. Your dream/goal? Babies
9. The room you're in? Living
10. Your hobby? Playing
11. Your fear? Alone
12. Where do you want to be in 6 years? Mommy
13. Where were you last night? Bed
14. What you're not? Skinny
15. Something on your wish list? Baby
16. Where you grew up? AF
17. The last thing you did? Typed
18. What are you wearing? Clothes
19. Your TV? Deep
20. Your pet? Looking
21. Your computer? John's
22. Your mood? Tired
23. Missing someone? Kira
24. Your car? Messy
25. Something you're not wearing? Lotion
26. Favorite store? Tuesday
27. Your summer? Busy
28. Love someone? Everlasting
29. Your favorite color? Blues
30. When is the last time you laughed? Today
31. Last time you cried? Thursday

Tagging

2008-11-27T20:14:00.000-08:00

8 Favorite TV shows in no particular order
1. Any cooking show......Any of them (especially Lidia's Family Table)
2. Simpsons
3. House
4. Still Standing
5. News
6. Discovery Channel (we don't have cable so when we are anywhere that does, we watch it all day.)
7. House shows
8. Crafty shows

8 Things I did yesterday
1. Worked
2. Made a Pumpkin Pie (For the first time)
3. Made a Black Bottom Pie (For the first time)
4. Cleaned my house
5. Visited with my friend Kira (From Washington)
6. Mapped out my Black Friday shopping
7. Slept
8. Thought about leaving work for my long weekend.

Favorite restaurants
1. Old Spaghetti Factory
2. Los Hermanos
3. Little Ceasars
4. Macaroni Grill
5. Sizzler
6. Olive Garden
7. Kneaders
8. Any restaurant that has good Ranch

8 Things on my Wish List
1. A Family
2. Clean windows
3. Christmas to be up
4. School loan to be gone
5. SLR Camera
7. A piano
8. Laser eye correction

8 Things that I love about the Fall
1. The colors of the changing leaves
2. The smell of rotting leaves
3. Crisp cold
4. Holidays and parties
5. Snuggling warm
6. Pink cheeks and noses
7. CHRISTMAS!!!!!
8. Lovely family moments

People I Tag
1. Alyssa Thurman
2. Cassidy Heiner
3. Jill Salmond
4. Tiona Richardson
5. Starli Anderson
6. Emily Gerber
7. Becky Ruff
8. Luvir Ravert

Bear Lake

2008-11-16T20:43:00.000-08:00

So we went to Bear Lake for a weekend away. It was nice and casual. Nothing planned but doing a whole lot of nothing. It was really nice. We watched Discovery Channel a lot, we had good food, swam in the pool, and walked by Bear Lake. It was nice to be away.

Twilight stuff!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

2008-11-13T21:17:00.001-08:00

So here is the Twilight stuff I got for my birthday. This is for you Becky.

2008-11-09T22:35:00.000-08:00

So my 24th birthday was this past week, and it was great. So the day started at work, I get in and lo and behold there are streamers, balloons, and star sparkles all over! So I worked earlier and left a bit early. Here is my cubicle. And we headed to dinner at the Cheesecake Factory in SLC. Neither of us had ever been and so my b-day was a good time to try it! While there we had avocado egg rolls, soup, sandwiches and of course, cheesecake. My cheesecake plate had my name on it. It was great. We then continued our b-day expedition to miniature golfing. It was black light miniature golf. Of course we bet on who would wear the least amount of clothing to bed, and I lost. And I lost bad, by 9 strokes! We don't play up to par, we play to how many strokes it takes to get it. Needless to say, I was a little chilly that night. We then went to the store for some last minute needs and a redbox. I got to choose the movie and of course it was a girly one. 27 Dresses. Funny! And then the presents started coming. John made this beautiful headboard. It is gorgeous. It thought it would be too big. Don't get me wrong it is big, but it is not dwarfed by the wall and I love it. A lot. It has our initials carved into it and it is amazing. I also received a few other gifts from co-workers and family members. Ranging from planner re-fills (yeah) to a cookie cookbook. All around it was a great day. So here are a few pictures of the night.

Our crazy weather in Utah!

2008-11-09T22:23:00.000-08:00

So our weather has been a bit crazy here in Utah. We have had fairly even weather until the snow last week. We then warmed back up again, but another storm is starting up tonight. We should have snow by the morning. So here are a few pictures of our weather and our house. So you see the yellow on the ground? Those are leaves. All over! And then there is the snow. Isn't it so pretty? I love snow, it just came too early for us to rake first. We also still have our cute watermelon wreath up. Nice and summer-y. Now that the snow has melted, the next few pictures are of the leaves that we can now rake, or in this case, garbage dump. There are so many leaves that the rake is useless and John started using the garbage can to move them to the thigh high pile on the side yard. Sadly enough, that pile is just from the front yard and it only has 1 tree in it. Our backyard has 3. Yikes. We may have yellow leafed snow this year.

2008-11-03T20:54:00.000-08:00

Hello everyone, so Halloween was fun but I am excited to have it over and move on to Christmas. We had busy times at home and at work. Here are John and my Halloween costumes. Can you guess who John is? It's not what you think. And here is my hall at work. We had a hall decorating contest at work. We lost but it was still cute. A ghoulish Christmas, so cute. Can't figure out how to flip the pictures, so they are sideways. Don't fall over trying to see them!

Our towing adventure

2008-10-22T21:31:00.000-07:00

So, as you know by the below pictures, we bought a new car. So the old car needed to be towed from John's parents house. My sister-in-law Jill has a minivan that we were so fortunate to borrow to tow it to the house. On the very long and scary ride from John's parents house, we had a little situation that everyone needs to hear. I was completely flabbergasted and everyone in the situation couldn't believe it happened either. Jill was driving the minivan and John was driving the dead car. I was behind with our working new car, all of us with our emergency blinkers on. The tow rope we were using was really short. Like maybe 5 feel between the cars. We had a few scary situations but nothing like the four way stop. Jill stopped at her stop sign, no one else was there so she proceeded through the intersection and of course John followed in the car that was being towed. As Jill was going through the intersection, very slowly, we all (Me, John and Jill) saw a biker coming to the 4 way stop on our left. Jill continued but then she noticed the biker had not stopped at his stop sign. So she stopped because if she kept going, the biker would have hit John in the second car. John also stopped but we all saw that the biker was not stopping. John started honking, beeping, and laid on the horn to get the biker to see them and the tow rope. Needless to way, the biker did not see it. So I, in the back of the three vehicles, hear John honking the horn and see this biker cut the gap between Jill and John, hit the tow rope going full speed, and FLIPPED HIS BIKE. No helmet, full speed, HITS THE TOW ROPE. Apparently he is deaf also because the honking did not stop him from plowing in the 5 foot space between two vehicles and hitting a bright yellow tow rope!!!!! He got up, picked up his bike , and rode away. From my point of view, I saw Jill pull forward, John pull forward and and both stop and then I saw this biker come between them and then saw above John's car, the bike flip over and fall to the ground. To see Jill's point of view, refer to Wayne and Jill's blog. SO much for our adventure with the biker.

2008-10-19T13:35:00.000-07:00

House Pictures!!! Believe it or not, my kitchen is purple. Our bedroom is blue, and our living room is off white. So here they are.

2008-10-19T13:26:00.000-07:00

So as I promised, pictures of the car are here. Along with a few pictures of our house, on the inside. We love our house and our car. And we have been very blessed to be able to buy a house that we love and is in our budget. Same thing with our new car. Payments are reasonable but it is a car we love and fits our needs. In this current economy, I am so grateful that we have been blessed to have what we need and some of what we want. Believe it or not, it is blue silver-y. It is called Polar Blue. We love it.

2008-10-18T21:52:00.000-07:00

Pictures are coming of our new car. We bought a 2009 Kia Rio on Wednesday, after our Ni=Ni our Suzuki Sidekick died. Truly died. We were driving from Lehi to Cedar Hills and I have never felt like such a red-neck. It sounded like a fan hitting something and it got faster and faster at the RPM's went up. So eventually we will take pictures of it and get it set up on the blog.

We have arrived!

2008-09-22T19:22:00.000-07:00

Hello everyone. We are now bloggers, or should I say I am now a blogger. Here we are and here is our new house. We moved into this house in July and love it. No more renting, no more worrying about how loud we are, we can do what ever we want! It has been some work but so worth it.