Date Night

Last night Mads and I went on a fun date. But to make things even better I borrowed a Porsche 911 from a dear friend for the night. So we ruled the town going to Cafe Rio YUM and then went to Iron Man 2, AWESOME. Ya know I felt kinda like Tony Stark coming out of the theater and climbing into the Porsche. It was fun and fast we grabbed some RED MANGO and then went back to GIGI's to pick up Lilly. It was a very fun date.

In over my head.

I felt the title to this one might be appropriate. We have lived in our home for just over 3 years and we are feeling a little cramped and also a bit tired of some things about the house. I admit at times we have just complained, well Instead of complain anymore I felt like doing something about it. First we looked at what we could do on the inside and have done a few little things, Bathroom upgrades, ceiling fans, carpet etc. and then thinking of some big things it just looks as if we would be spending 20-25K on the house. So I have come up with a much better alternative to liven up our home and make it more livable for a lot less money. So here we go with some Original pictures.

As you can see the house was built in the 40's and probably hasn't changed a whole lot since.

THE PLAN

Here are my ever so awesome renovation plans. I want to cover the ugly rod iron pillars in the front with cedar planks and maybe add some fake stone on the bottom. I plan to raise the garden in front to make it cleaner and separate from the lawn. I want to sand all the red pillars and the garage doors and stain them to match the front pillars. A natural wood color. I want the house to have the craftsman style so we are going to paint it a tanish brown and accent with a darker green. The backyard needs help. The door out the back that is now two windows is a must and I want to make it more of a nice space that we can hang out in and enjoy. I don't know how to do all of what I want so I hope to get help along the way. But I just hope that I don't get "in over my head" with something I can't finish.

To show that I am motivated I have posted two pictures of what I have done in just over a week. I have sanded the pillars and now today started on the garage doors. I am very excited and like this because everyday I do more and can see my progress. I figure that posting it now instead of a before and after will keep me motivated while I update the blog with new additions to the renovation.

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She Likes Her Dad (Halloween 2009)

Today I woke up with Maddie at 4:45 because the alarm (set to the radio) went off so loud I thought I had crapped myself even if it was Celine Dion it was scary. Then after Mads left I couldn't go back to sleep. I kept having anxiety about Maddie and worrying, so I came out to the computer and read the Nie Nie Dialogues, she is so funny. I am reading the old blogs from 2005 and she puts some great stories on. Well I made it back to sleep for 15 min and then Lilly woke up. Luckily for me one of our newer traditions is to snuggle on the couch together and watch Mickey Mouse. She is such an angel. So we are pals for the summer while I am doing summer online classes and not working. I am going to see if I can get some more work on the house done. More about that later

A while back we went to Discovery Gateway because they have an incredible military discount. Lilly had a blast, she started with the balls where you could send them flying up tubes and arounds this huge room or you could send down

tube slides. She was having so much fun. Next she found a

house that was

tiny, she loved the chairs and the little kitchen complete with tiny plastic food.

Her favorite part by far was the water, they had a section for little

kids and older kids, she didn't care and played

in both. and unlike the other kids she didn't

have an apron so she got soaked and just kept playing. It

was a great

and she really loved it.

Inspired

Today I am inspired by light. Usually I keep the curtain closed and enjoy the cave-like gloom of my house, today it was time for a change so I opened all the curtains in every room and Yesterday My bud Tyler and I removed the metal awning covering the kitchen windows. The house is full of light and it feels great, it makes me want to be productive and happy. Plus I feel good about not using any lights.

Time to catch up!

Maddie love's to blog and scrap and does an extremely good job at in but she is tied up with work for the time being. She works so hard for this family full time, and I mean full time. the routine starts at 4:45 where she gets up gets ready and I slip out of my coma for a sweet kiss and to have her tell me something that I wont remember come the afternoon. She spends her day at the Development center in American Fork, her job demands a lot from her which anyone who is a nurse understands that anything and everything happens during a nurses shift. Listening to the stories I can't imagine some of the things she takes care of but am glad she does such a good job at it. After 8 hours she is back home and back into mommy mode, Lilly loves her mommy so much and gets so happy to see Mads when she gets home. Maddie gets to follow Lilly around the house playing with toys, reading etc. She is an amazing mother and gives so much to our family. WIth all of this taking her time and energy blogging comes low on a what seems endless list.

So I Mike have decided i'll attempt to keep up on our blog and let you know how our family is doing. We have quite a bit going on and want to share it with everyone.

It's gotta get better, right?

It seems like we've had an endless streak of rotten luck this year so far....at this point I'm under the impression that things can only get better.....*fingers crossed*

February

It was the first Thursday in February. I had just called Mike as I was getting into the Equinox to head home...calling to let him know I was on my way. However, about 5 minutes later my ride home was extended quite a bit. I was driving my regular route home, on a road that has no stop signs in the direction I was travelling. The stop signs are all at the intersections going perpendicular to the road I was on. Well, I was coming up to one such intersection and noted another small SUV that was approaching the stop sign...well, as I went into the intersection I realized that the other driver was not going to stop and just as I was almost through the intersection (remember that I had no stop sign and the other driver did have one) I saw out of the corner of my eye that the other car was in-fact not stopping or slowing down at all. The back right end of my vehicle was smashed, causing my car to do a complete 360 before stopping. My airbags didn't deploy and I wasn't really jerked around, just scared to death. I know that I didn't even scream though because I wasn't sure what had happened. I did a quick check of myself to see if I was ok and then searched for my phone to call Mike to tell him someone had hit me. He of course drove like a mad man to where I was. Luckily he had Lilly and she wasn't in the car with me. I was totally fine and the paramedics and cops couldn't believe how calm I was. Turns out the other driver hurt her hand. She was 71, on oxygen, driving basically the same car as me, and pulling her rascal scooter behind her car....unfortunately her insurance company was state-farm, who are terrible to work with...mike had to fight them for 24 hours to get us a rental car that wasn't a compact car....they claimed it was the law that they could only provide the bare minimum.....WRONG-O!! and they also said they hadn't talked to their client yet...so mike called the other driver, asked if she'd given a statement to her insurance...and she had...so he had state-farm there......in the end they paid for my car to be repaired, and that's all.....we may still fight for diminuition of value...cause the car was a 2008 Chevy Equinox 2LT with only 35000 miles.....now we will probably loose $6000 if we try to sell it.....not happy!

Then on our anniversary Mike got a call from his commander at ROTC telling him that he did not get a pilot slot, but instead got a CSO slot which is basically what "Goose" on "Top Gun" is....or a navigator for those of you who know my dad. He was extremely heartbroken. He is however on the alternate list and is one of only about 60 people in the nation on the alternate list...we don't know how high up on the list he is, but our fingers are crossed that he will get bumped up to a pilot slot to fulfill his dreams.....talk about putting a damper on our 3rd anniversary.

we made it through february alive and were getting ready for a cruise in march, just mike and me.....

March

The day before our cruise, Mike was running some errands with Lilly. Shortly after I got home from work he called to tell me that he was on his way home....like 3 minutes later he called again....and now his truck was totalled.....GREAT!....Lilly was with him.....luckily the other car was a mustang and mike's truck just pushed it...they didn't get jerked really in the truck but the airbags deployed and the noise woke lilly up and really scared her... my mom was here to watch lilly so we jumped in the car headed down to get mike and lilly.....still working on this fun part of our lives.....we were a one car family for over a week last week when the car we were borrowing from my gpa mark completely lost its suspension.....

and then to top things off...i was called into the director of nursing's office this week and was told that the superintendent of where I work denied myself and the other girl who just got her RN from being promoted to RN wages and an RN position. yeah, pretty much no one likes the superintendent.....and not just for that reason...so i've feverishly been applying anywhere that i hiring RN's...not caring how much experience they want RNs to have.........we're having a fast the week after General Conference in hopes that I get another job. Mike's done at Cabelas because we were told I'd be getting RN pay....then that happened.....

It's gotta get better....right?

on a happier note...our cruise was awesome!!! we will post pictures soon!