Silver Lake 'Hike'

The day before Paul went back to work, we decided to get out of the house and do something together before life got back to busy. I was looking forward to it very much since I would be trapped at home for the next couple weeks. We drove up Big Cottonwood to walk around the lake, or as I call it, the Swamp. It was nice walk on a nice night with very nice scenery I thought I would share :)

This has always been my favorite view:

Mallow Time!!

I have such a great husband. The last two weekends in a row he has given up a lot of his weekend to help my niece with her math to keep her from failing Geometry. Ugh. I hate Geometry. What is the point of it?? Someone please tell me. Because I tried to help her with it and I can't. Just can. not. do it. I nearly failed Geometry myself. Enter smarty pants husband.

Anyway - Bronsynn stayed with us all weekend and Saturday night after doing some mall shopping we came home and roasted marshmallows outside. I hate that the summer is leaving. I hate that winter will soon be here. But I love that you can put a hoodie on, get a fire going and have it be just perfect!

I don't even know where my husband gets half the stuff that comes out of his mouth but he always has me laughing - and when Bronsynn is around he gets even funnier somehow. He had us laughing so hard we were crying!:

Cheers to us with our shakes from Arby's - one of the greatest things in the world!!:

My beautiful niece who has such a sense of style and fashion that I wish I could have been more like her when I was in the ninth grade.

Hubband making a silly face because that's his middle name. Silly Face.

Panna Cotta Numiness

Look what I was gifted with last night!

Teresa made these for our ward cooking class. I forgot all about it, unfortunately, and I was at home with a friend. Teresa thoughtfully, and thankfully, brought over some for us, my friend included - how great, right?? I know - she's fab! They were sooooo good. I love Panna Cotta and these were made with super yummy pomegranate berry jello...mmm mmmm mmmm! She da bomb!

Ouch!!

This is an egg from one of my co-workers chickens. I wonder how the chicken felt....

Rollin' With My Homie

Ha Ha! Best picture EVER!!! :)

Paul and I dusted off the rollerblades on Monday and went st-rolling in gnat infested swamps. How dreamy.

We actually had a lot of fun. We bladed from 72nd to the trails end near 90th. The river was kinda pretty, especially when you ad a gorgeous focal point:

Otherwise it's just a boring old river:

Banana Bread Yumminess.

I made some of them last night:

Yummy yummy banana bread.

I never make sweet things but I had some overripe bananas hanging around and I thought: "Why waste 'em?" Paul loves banana bread so I whipped me up a batch. Paul arrived home right as it was out of the oven so we each had a piece - ONE piece - and then we did our nightly routine, went back down to pop a movie in and grab one more piece of bread...and it was gone. Well, not all of it - just 96.4% of it.

The culprit?? Bacardi. Not the alchohol. We didn't get drunk and then forget we consumed an entire loaf of banana bread. Bacardi as in my dog.

Bacardi has NEVER eaten ANYTHING off of my counter before and I was completely shocked. Completely shocked and completely PISSED OFF! I just made sweet bread for the first time in years and all that and we only get ONE piece!!??? Oooooooooooooooh.

Needless to say I instilled the fear of God into that dog and I dare say he won't try that again. I guess I could thank him for preventing me from eating the entire thing...but that would be a litle counter-productive, dontcha think?

Awwww!! Don't You Just Wanna SQUEEZE 'EM!!

My in-laws had an accidental pregnacy in their house.

These are some stinkin' cute mutts!!

I snapped some pics while I was picking up Paul's little sister last week:

Adorable, yeah??? They are half purebred Golden Retriever and half mutt of Yellow Lab and unidentified muttness. But these things are so stickin' CUTE!! They are free too, if anyone feels like adopting :)

My House, The Construction Parking Lot

This has been my view for several weeks:

It's been quite crowded in the little nook that they created by blocking off access to the main road running next to our house. I usually had about four trucks and a motorcycle parked in front of my house and sidewalk (and even in my driveway), two to three tractors at all times, barricades and a huge dumpster thing. And the post office put a neighborhood mailbox on our property, so we had lots of extra visitors!

Thankfully, the construction has moved down a block and my street is no longer blocked off, although I do still avoid that road because it's only moved down...it hasn't gone away. And for those of you who know where I am talking about, unfortunately we will be in that boat for quite awhile :) But at least now I don't feel like I am in an earthquake or war zone and my cabinet doors and windows will stop shaking. Plus, those guys start work at the buttcrack of dawn!!...it would really bother me if I didn't beat them up most days.

Finally...We're Empty-Nesters

Hungry, anyone??

Last year, whilst in a period of joblessness, I noticed a scratching, fluttering sound while I was in the upstairs bathroom. It sounded like a rodent, i.e. a rat, crawling through my vents. I went to the downstairs bathroom and listened some more, ready to run at any sight of a rat in my house. Come to find out it was a bird. Phew!! I told Paul about it and then we forgot about it. I would hear it periodically but then winter came and it was gone.

Come early spring, I could hear the fluttering again. I went outside and found the tiny blue egg above cracked open on the ground. Crap. Told Hubband that we really needed to get that nest out of there. I know I could have done it if I really bucked up but I hate sticking my hands in spaces that are unkown. Even the garbage disposal freaks me out. Well, Hubband was extremely busy, therefore, after a few more cracked eggs that had tumbled out of my dryer vent and onto the ground, it was very obvious that the eggs had hatched. I would be sitting on the bathroom counter getting ready for work and hear the bird land in the dryer vent and the little birds would go nuts chirping away for breakfast. We decided to leave it be until we knew they were gone.

So the birds are gone. Except one. Because it's dead. In my freaking dryer vents!!!!! While I had all my friends over for Bunco, the evidence first started to appear. I thought something had to be wrong with our pipes and thought it weird I hadn't noticed it when I came home from work. The next day it got worse and followed my hound dog nose around my laundry room/bathroom trying to figure out if was my toilet...but the smell is worse on the other side by the dryer and furnace. Freaking great. Paul tried to get to the nest - and can't. And there is no way of knowing where that bird is.

Any suggestions??

Blogger Bored

Is it just me or is nobody posting lately??? Lately as in the past several weeks, and when I say nobody I am including myself.

My life has been so busy lately but it's been a regime scheduled type of busy. No fun get togethers, no funny happens-upons, no exciting particulars. I'm not really complaining about that fact, cuz all in all my life is pretty darn great, but it's just to point out there's nothing really to say. I could blog about all the rain, which is really pissing me off because it prevents me from working on my yard, but everyone has something to say about the rain (and/or snow) and it's annoying. I could blog about the West Jordan park being turned into a lake because of said rain and that lots and lots of ducks took refuge there, but that's kinda trivial. I have plenty of things I could Daily (not so daily) Rant about, but then I would be a big ball of pessimism and I don't care enough. I could blog about....I could blog about... see??? Nothing. Everyone else must be feeling it too cuz their blogs are about as dead as mine and that is boring. BAHUMBUG.

So I am posting about nothing just so I can post about something. And now that I have wasted a minute of your time, I am going to get back to work :)


OH!! I thought of something - Teresa brought Paul and I an awesome cheesecake last Sunday topped with homemade Rhubarb jam from her very own Rhubarb. I thought that was cool. I would have taken a picture but we ate it all :) OH OH!! And I saw some Great Dane puppies!! So freakin' cute. I would have taken pictures of them, too, despite the weird look I may have received, but I didn't have my camera on me. They were stickin' cute though. They are BIG for how young they are.....weird..... ;) I have always wanted a Great Dane...I thought about it for about five seconds until she said they were $1000 - $1500. And they were all already sold.

How Now Brown Cow?

Look at this freakin' cute cow!!!

Last Friday, I was sitting in my office all by my lonesome (which was heaven) and I heard one of the cows mooing in a very not normal way. After the third moo, the light bulb went on in my head and I grabbed my camera and ran outside hoping to catch the birth before it was over.

It was over. Bummer. Seriously I missed it by a couple minutes. Mom was already up and cleaning the little guy, which really tested out my gag relflex. Nothing like watching an animal slurp up its shiny gooey slimey placenta...there it goes again.

She even came over to the fence to check me out and I got to pet her and she sucked on my finger with her slobber and everything. I have lots of videos which I may or may not add. She's just so super cute that I couldn't resist. But I am sure people don't care to watch 10 videos of a baby cow figuring out how to stand up and walk and stuff. And no, I am not picking the cows nose.

Isn't she adorable??? Awwwww.

Well....That Sucks

I happened upon this on my morning commute today:

This is the second car that I have seen burst into flames.

I could see commotion up ahead, along with two cement trucks and some construction workers so I assumed they were doing something on the road, but as I got closer I could see differently and the poor owner of the truck was trying to douse the flames on his truck with a fire extinguisher....it wasn't helping.


Years and years ago when I worked at the Riverton True Value (Senior year in High School probably) some kid's Jeep Cherokee broke down on the street right in front of the store. This was back when there was still a house on the corner and the street hadn't been redone. The poor kid had just bought it, didn't have much money and was soon to be married. I felt so bad when the car burst into flames and he was freakin' out about how his fiance was going to kill him!! He nearly went bald from pulling his hair and I think he was crying. In a short time there was nothing left of his car but a really black, charred frame. Me and my co-worker had called the police and when the police showed up, he took information from Todd, who didn't want to be giving personal information because he had a warrant out for his arrest!

Earthquake Preparedness

I am convinced that Utah will be, sooner or later, hit with a catastrophic earthquake and I am going to admit that I am petrified of even the thought. With what happened in Haiti and in Chile, I only get more and more worried about it. Just the thought of the devastation and loss in Haiti seems so hard...can you imagine actually living it?? I know it won't be quite the same here but, what will it be like?? Right after Chili's earthquake, I had the news on and saw this guy being interviewed and this Handbook being advertised. It's a free download, and it will suck your ink dry!, but I think it's worth it. I printed one for myself and copied another for my mom. There is some interesting and helpful info in there (and the front cover is pretty funny if you ask me - I love the dinosaur chasing the cave man!).

Tiny Sprouts

Holy cuteness!!! I almost can't wait to have a kid just so I can do this....almost. While brousing through blogs, I cam e across Tiny Sprouts. Click on the link to see the cuteness I am talking about. How easy would that be to do? I want to make some! And what a cute gift idea for a baby shower.

Awwww!! Look At The Little Moo Cow!

So I literally work in a barn. Like a shed-type barn that had an office built inside of it. It's quite nice actually, cuz I have the place to myself a lot and I don't have a bunch of people driving me absolutely batty and going "Maghann, Maghann, Maghann - I am too dumb to do anything for myself - help me help me." But that's beside the point. The point is, I work in a shed-type barn and I have real barns around me and these cute little buggers:

I've already been here long enough for the last one to get big and shipped off to become dinner, so I try not to think about that when I see these cute little baby cows.

Starring....Me!!!

My cute husband sent me a love note this afternoon - what a keeper, that man :)

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

A Little Musing

I was just musing here at my desk as I read over my blog entry on my husband, thinking about Becky's blog entry about her husband, and also about my other college roommates who have equally awesome husbands who are honest, hard-working, grounded, good men that love their wives and kids. I was musing that we are pretty lucky girls to have all found such a rarity. And, I was musing that maybe it's not such a rarity - they may be harder to find, but probably not so rare as one of my [married and divorced twice, fall in love twice a day with all the wrong men] friends seem to think it is. But then again, maybe the five of us (well, six, but I really don't know the other one's husband well at all since she just married) somehow beat the system and found the rare ones. :)

Oh Deer.

So I work in Bluffdale. I see deer nearly everyday and it's fun to see them so very close. Funny thing is is that I use to live in Bluffdale, only a couple blocks away from where I work on the other side of Redwood, and I never saw deer unless they were roadkill.

Monkeying-Around. Ha Ha - I Am So Funny With The Headlines.

My adventures continue with Bronsynn coming to stay the night. That same night we had Paul's flag football game to go to, in which she succeeded in driving me crazy and we had tonz of laughs.

The following day, Wednesday, I had to tend Zoyie for a litle while in the afternoon. I had to make a trip to JoAnne's so while we there I wanted to get something fun for them to do. While we were looking through all the fun stuff, they found these feather boas. I couldn't resist a picture of them in all their attitude. They were very Hollywood, in deed. It cracks me up.

We finally settlled on painting some really cute plaster bobble heads. Zoyie picked out a pony, Bronsynn an elephant, and I picked out a monkey. I have a thing for monkeys.

Here they are painting:

And our finished products:

I gotta say, although I love fun colors and funky designs, it was really hard for me not to paint my monkey brown. I don't know why. I can paint my walls orange, but I have to paint animals the way they look in real life. Go figure. But as you can tell, my monkey got funky.

And afterwards, Bronsynn and Zoyie raced each other on the Wii until Zoyie's mom came and picked her up.

Bronsynn was picked up a short time later by her mom but while she was there, my mom also stopped by to meet Amanda there to fit her wedding dress to her. The wedding is only three weeks away! I am so excited. Her dress is going to be awesome! My dress is done - can't wait to put it on and party!

Finito!!

It's finally finished!! Behold: the glitter puzzle of sea creatures and forests!! And it only took us a little over three months (of course, there was a huge period of time in which we didn't even touch it - you have to be in a certain mood to do a puzzle)! But in our defense - it was a really tough puzzle! Thanks again to our great friends Becky and Judd for providing the entertainment!