Date Night

Honey BBQ Steak

Oh, you don't have one of these?




I don't know why we don't have these more often.

Thanks for the great date Nate!

Slowly Improving

We finally finished screen door installation tonight. It turned out great! However, we are painfully, inexplicably slow. I would say we put in 8 man hours on this door and we are totally not perfectionists. I suppose we both have a healthy fear of messing up and having to call in a professional or replace something expensive. And maybe if we install another screen door ever, it will go faster. But not that much faster.

I must mention this, though the photo evidence did not turn out. We had a water activity for the primary on Monday. It was supposed to be on Sunday, but it was super cold, so we moved it. Anyway, for said activity, I filled billions of water balloons. The easiest place to do this is sitting on the front steps using the spigot that comes from the house. As I began the filler became clogged with some unspeakable things. Like a yellow thing wrapped in cottony stuff with a raisin like thing on the inside. About six of these came out much to my disgust and dismay. This is culinary water, not irrigation. Last year all sorts of leaves came out of this same spigot. We called the city and they said hmmmm, don't know, maybe something is putting the leaves up there.

So my question is-what is putting these alien seed pods up into my spigot!!! Is it a creature of some sort, an insane neighbor. I don't know but I am totally grossed out and curious at the same time.

Happy Birthday!

She's the big number 5 today. This changes everything. She is looking forward to school and sports. She is starting to spread her wings! She is becoming more confident, more curious, more independent. She lights up all our days. She is beautiful inside and out. She is patient and kind. I can't believe how fast it has gone, but I have loved all her moments and am looking forward to all her new adventures. Happy Birthday my Bella!

Do I have something on my face?

Last night we had fudge bars while working in the yard. It was pretty hot and the fudge bar attacked Bella.

The yard is slowly, so slowly, taking shape. We redid the front planter, it took Nate and I hours to dig up some aspens that were trying to become new trees near the sidewalk. One word of advice-don't plant aspens, you will spend most of your time getting rid of the upstarts they produce.

B and I are planting sunflowers this year, the kind with edible seeds. We are going to transplant them tonight or tomorrow. She is very pleased with them thus far. We are also going to plant some carrots and radishes. Those seem to go fast, so quick payoff with the harvest. Richard and Gini brought down some raspberry bushes a few weeks ago as well. I will be very pleased if we manage to actually produce something out of our garden this year.

Nate and I installed this new light fixture in our kitchen. There was a hideous fluorescent light there and I must say I have been very pleased with the new one thus far. Now to get rid of that ugly ceiling far... And we have plans to replace the counter tops in the kitchen, they are white and everything seems to stain them. Then we are planning on redoing the flooring on the main level. Also, we are putting a screen door in the front. I am currently in the process of scraping the trim to prepare for repainting, then we will put the door up.

A few weeks ago, Nate put up pulleys for the bikes in the garage. He broke a drill bit and bought a ladder in the process, but I love how easy they are to raise and lower and how much floor space is freed up. Hopefully we will keep up our pace and the house will be really different in a few months. It's been really nice to spend evenings out in the yard together and teaching the kids how to do yard work. Sophie sits in her exersaucer or hangs out in the sling and laughs while Bella and Jack run around. She is skeptical about being on the grass and doesn't like to touch the dirt.

In other news, Nate went to the eye doctor and is 20/15 in one eye and 20/20 in the other. Yay!

LASIK

It has been an exciting week at our house. Nate had LASIK surgery and can now see! Don't you all think this is absolutely amazing! I keep looking at him and saying WOW! I mean, it's really like a miracle. How on earth did people figure out how to correct bad vision?!? Who exactly were their original guinea pigs. So many questions!

I would have posted a picture of his actual eye surgery, but I think it would really gross everyone out. I did get to watch. Sophie and I sat and ate warm chocolate chip cookies while they cut a flap open on Nate's eye then shot it with a laser. The warm chocolate chip cookies were brought every ten minutes! Most of the people around us refused them-this was lucky as it left bunches for me and Soph. Though one lady had been there for about seven hours and said she had her fill earlier in the day.

All in a I watched about half a dozen surgeries. Most people seemed pretty nervous and quiet. I however couldn't wipe the grin off my face and felt so excited! Like I said before-miracle! Okay there is a bit of a downside, Nate has to sleep in these goofy goggles, I wouldn't be able to sleep at all. And he has to put in some drops that sting a little bit four times a day. But both those are temporary and the vision he now has will last quite a long time. Wow! What else can I say but Wow!

Tagged by the Prez...

Four Movies I could watch over and over:
1. The Little Mermaid, I don't know that I want to watch this over and over, but I sure have.
2. The Princess Bride-there is always a good quote that applies to real life.
3. Bend it Like Beckham-I find myself popping this in quite a lot.
4. Pride and Prejudice-I like the both the Colin Firth and the Keira Knightly versions, I will watch them both whenever-though the former requires several hours to commit to.

Four Jobs I have had:
1. Administrative Assistant for Island City-Hi Judy!
2. House Painter-fun when you get to pick the colors
3. BYU Catering-not fun
4. Jo-Ann's Fabric and Craft Store-ahhh customer service.

Four places I have lived:
1. Boise, ID
2. La Grande, OR
3. Midvale, UT
4. Chesapeake, VA

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Peanut Butter and Honey Sandwiches-I can eat this everyday!
2. French Toast-thanks Nate and the kids for feeding me this today!
3. Cold, crisp red delicious apples
4. Chicken Caesar Salad-I have had this at more places than I can count.

Four T.V. Shows I Love:
1. LOST
2. The Amazing Race
3. The Office
4.The Deadliest Catch

Four sites I visit daily:
1. msn home page
2. ebay
3. blogs
4. thefuselage-okay, probably not daily, but a few times a week

Six Places I have vacationed-hey was this four originally?!?
1. Hawaii-ready to go again
2. Western Canada-Banff has the best candy store
3. DisneyWorld
4. New York, Philly, D.C.-Eighth grade field trip
5. Dallas-the fabric warehouses are fab!
6. Sandpoint, ID-so beautiful

Four places I'd rather be right now:
1. I feel generally happy here at home, I would like someone to clean though, that would make it better.
2. Of course, I am never one to turn down a vacation.
3. But there is no way to narrow it down to just four places.
4. Hopefully soon I will decide on and start planning the next adventure.

Four bloggers I am tagging:
1. Well, I don't want to play favorites,
2. so I am tagging everyone who reads this,
3. but if you have already done this,
4. feel free to be excused!

The Yard

Ahh, it's that time of year. The time of year to head outside and see what is left in the yard after the snow melts. We found lots of toys, and to our dismay, lots of very small holes! What are these exactly, novices as we are, have no idea. There are three rather large holes, indicating some sort of critter! Yikes! But there are also dozens upon dozens of small holes, about the size of an index finger all over the place. If any of you know what these are-lend me some of your knowledge! Also, every year about this time I get somewhat passionate about pouring a big concrete patio in the back yard. I actually have a call in to a friend this year to give me a price on such a thing. And this year we are planning to actually plant and hopefully grow a few things, so I need to clear some garden space for those. So the goal is yard prep. Nate and I have committed to getting it all ready by the end of May. In the past we have been able to make it through one project, then we just maintain. All our past projects are in place, so first maintenance, then progress-wish us luck!