2009

Hmmm so I could go back and read about everywhere we went this year, but I think I'll do a memory exercise and see what I can come up with. I'm also making a big assumption that I wrote about it all on here....
I'll include two highlights from each place.

Mexico. This exact day and time last year we were on our way to the beach. Most likely eating in and out burger and slamming beer in the parking lot. What a great trip. Can't wait to go back, but much to my dismay, we have no trip lined up. Highlights for this trip are beating Trevor in horse shoes and it was really the most relaxing vacation I have ever been on.

Calf Creek. Cutest little camp site! It motivated us to purchase some camping gear and get it all in one spot. We also camped at Strawberry for a few days toward the end of the Summer. Looking forward to warm weather and camping trips in 2010! Highlights are toilets (totally cheating, I know) and jumping off the boulder into a natural pool.

Bear Lake. I know I had a whole post about this, but it deserves metion again. What a cute town. We had a great time, hoping to visit again someday. The two highlights here are wake boarding and Idaho beer!

Hermosa Beach. Trevor's brother and his wife reside in this awesome place and we had a great time visiting. Playing volleyball and going to the dog beach are my highlights for this place.

I will get better at this

This has become empty and boring lately! Not an accurate reflection of life in the last couple of months. We had a fantastic November.

Highlights

-Visitng family in California. Warm weather. Beach.
-Thanksgving. Carbohydrate overload. Dessert. 2 Dinners. mmm

Photos to come...maybe?

I have been...

on the phone with Bank of America trying to set up our monthly payment for 43 minutes and counting. Yesterday I was riding a cruiser along the beach. Time travel please.

On tap tonight

will be the fruits of our labors. We are planning on making some tomato sauce and soup from what we have pulled off of our EIGHTEEN tomato plants. Sadly it is time for the pesto to come down too. With the much cooler temp's it really isn't going to grow anymore. Kind of sad....until I eat delicious pesto.

24?!

Well I turned 24 yesterday. I still feel like I'm 19, is that weird? I had a great birthday though, thank you everyone for making me feel special :)

Jammin

Last night I made jam for the first time with my sistah's. Hopefully it tastes good! Trevor got a TON of peaches from the tree at his dad's and we got some blackberries from our friend's blackberry bush. All homegrown produces will hopefully lead to yummy jam. We even made a blackberry peach batch and I'm really excited to try that one.

summer goal re-cap

With less than 3 weeks left of "official" summer - The Autumn equinox falls on my bday (the 22nd) this year - I am checking on my progress. I am a perpetual slacker so I better get my rear in gear. Here are/were my goals:

- Read at least 3 books

Shit! Why is it so hard for me to make time for something I enjoy so much? I read Case Histories, so that is 1. I finished the 2nd half of Me Talk Pretty One Day so that is 1 1/2. I am currently reading The Devil in the White City (CREEEEEPY!!) so I know what I am doing tonight! Then I better find another book.

- Knit every week (I have a lot of gifts to make for the future and my skillz need some refreshing and refining)

Um yeah, not even close on this one. But I am signing up for a socks class that takes place October 4th. I think I will change this to a Fall goal (what a cheater!).

- Help Trevor more with our garden

Success! I have also been helping eat stuff from it a lot :)

- Make the back yard pretty and fix the fence

Nope. Grass is dead. Fence is still white trash.

- $Pay off debt$

Hmmm I would say this is a partial success? We paid off our home depot account and I have been making steady payments for the TV we bought but unexpected car problems, vet bills and other costs of homeownership have hindered some of our progress. Such is life!

- Go camping until I have had my fill of it

We did Calf Creek, Topaz Mountain and Strawberry. A fair amount of camping. I will be happy with this because it's 300% more than we did last Summer.

- Ride bikes...a lot

You betcha! Still goin strong. We rode bikes to the Tuesday evening Farmer's Market last night thank you very much.

Going out with a bang!

This last weekend we were supposed to camp at Bear Lake with some friends but I got really sick last Tuesday and Trevor had another obligation on Saturday night. Long story short, we bagged the camping trip (waverunners and all) and decided we would maybe try to go some time in September before the weather turned real chilly. Thursday night rolled around and our friends that we were going to camp with called and said that we had to go ahead not only to stay at their parent's cabin at the lake but we could also take out the BOAT!! This was an unprecedented event...cabin and the boat to ourselves!?!? I'm so glad we got to be part of it! We left on Thursday night after Trev's last regular season hockey game and finally made it up there about 1:30. The drive was only about 2-2.5 hours from our house but we didn't leave till kinda late. We had an absolute BLAST! Friday started out with pancakes followed by a quick 10 min drive to Idaho for a bee double eee double arrr you ennn. Nothing like the outta state fat tire! Mmm. After farting around and grocery shopping and stuff our friend's SWEET little boy Sylas needed a nap and we ended up getting out on the boat around 5. I haven't done a lot of boating in my life but everyone kept talking about how fab the water was and everyone had pretty much cleared off the lake so we really lucked out. Over the next two days we got our fair share tubing, wakeboarding and I even ended up riding the waverunner too.

This is Duke and little Duke OR Dexter and big Dexter. Seriously. Same dog, different size.

Hey! This picture makes it look like I actually stood up on the wakeboard!

Yeah, this happened like 10 times :) Next time! I'm gonna do it next time!

Trevor became Sylas's good buddy (He can play "blue blue's" on his phone) and they hung out while mama drove the boat and dada wakeboarded.

Favorite quotes: "dada down!" "dada boat?" "vrooom"

My FAVORITE picture of trip

Finally got the Strawerry pics up!

Well I am still figuring out how to do this photo adding stuff...don't know why I'm struggling with the concept? HA! Anyway these pictures are about a month old but we had a blast at Strawberry...fishing...beer drinking...mountain biking ...ahhhh summer.

You had to have a white car to be at our camp :)

Lil tired pups

Straw-bree

For the Holiday weekend we headed to Strawberry to camp and do some fishing. My friend brought his "scanoe" which as far as I can tell is just a canoe. It really isn't the best time of year for fishing there, and Trevor was the only one to catch a fish (of course). Hanging out in the scanoe was great and really relaxing. It was awesome to be down by the water to because I could keep Dexter cooled off. Trev and I stayed a night longer than everyone else and that was fun but we also had scary moments when animals came to hang out at our campsite O.o

Once again, I can't get this site to load pictures...is anyone else having issues?

Yeast infection in the ear??

So Dex has a yeast and a bacterial infection in his ear. Poor widdul buddy. I took him in on Saturday and they swabbed a big chunk of gunk out of his ear...'twas really nasty looking. I have to clean his ear with gauze and cleaner once a day and put a medicated cream into his ear canal twice a day. He HATES it! He yelps and writhes and gives me the saddest look he can muster. We have to do this routine for only oh....12 more days. I can already tell he is feeling better though, he isn't scratching at it as much and it isn't producing as much gunk 2 days into the medicine. Oh and I'm only out $200 for the vet visit! #$%@%#@% (although shots were included)

What's next??

Ugh! So glad today is Friday.

Dexter has been scratching at one of his ears more than usual over the last few weeks and last night it became apparent he needs a doc! He had a hard time sleeping and kept getting up to shake his head or to scratch at his ear. I looked at it this morning and there is a dark sticky substance in it. Ewwww. He is going to the vet tomorrow morning unless they call me soon and let me know that they had a cancellation for today.

The regulator to my driver window also broke today. It's the motor that rolls the window up and down. My good friend works in auto glass though, so hopefully I will get a good deal on the install. The part at the dealership is $70, so I'm hitting up the pick n pull tomorrow in an attempt to save a few bucks.

Bad things come in 3's so what financial blow is headed my way next?

Slacker!

Wow, it has been a minute! June was a busy month, but was also GREAT! One weekend Trev was in Vegas for his little brother's bachelor party. It was kinda fun to have the place to myself for a few days but life is better when he is around! His brother's wedding was on the 27th which was awesome and there were a lot of Hardings in town to hang out with so the month really ended with a bang.

We finally got our swamp cleaned out and now it is almost a pond! There is a leak in the tarp though :/ But at least the water is circulating and once we get it fixed, I will treat the water again and make it all pretty. Veggies are coming along GREAT this year, we are still eating salad (going on about 3 1/2 months now) and Trevor ate a tomato last week.

Dilemma

I need some input here. The people who own Moochies, a local sandwich shop in Salt Lake live across the street from me. Moochies has the biggest and best philly cheesesteak in the city (and other bomb sandwiches) and they have actually been on that Food Network show Diners, Drive ins, and Dives. ANYWAY their dog keeps shitting on my front lawn. Third time this week happened today. Is it passive aggressive to ask for sandwiches in return for cleaning up their dog's poo? I don't want to the bitchy neighbor, but I feel like I should get something outta this deal!

Shower Power

Well we are currently on dishwasher #3 and I think this one is a winner! Our "new" dishwasher that we had turned out to be pretty rough. Pretty much the loudest dishwasher in existence! However, it did the job it was supposed to do and we aren't exactly picking money off our tree so it was better than nothing. We went camping on Saturday with my sister and bro-in-law and were lamenting about dishwasher death and the subsequent plumbing annoyances. Turns out they had a pretty damn near brand new stainless one sitting in their garage! My sister got all new matching appliances when they bought their new house and they were going to sell this one but it turns out we were in need. SCORE! Thanks Chelsea, you are currently my favorite sistah! :) Trevor spent 2 hours trying to hook it up last night and we need a new copper pipe so hopefully it will be functioning by this evening. Living in a remodel gets very trying at times. I know it is worth it in the end, but coming home chaos can make me batshit crazy! We also FINALLY bought an oval rod to install over our clawfoot tub so we can take showers! Turns out these are very spendy, and we shopped around to find one for a good price. I feel so spoiled, a shower? For me? I love having the clawfoot tub though and I really wouldn't trade it. After a year of baths only, I appreciate a nice shower more than ever. So everybody, go home and tell your shower how much you love and appreciate it. The stupid blogger thing seems to have changed the way they let you upload photos, and I am having difficulty with it. So anyway, on the top you have what the bathroom looks like as of this morning and it sure has come a long way! I don't have very good lighting in my bathroom, and the paint looks a little more green in that photo than it does in person, but you get the idea.

The latest

Here is the mantel, no longer purple! Our dishwasher died last night :'''( Luckily, we have our new one on hand, and have just been waiting for the kitchen remodel before we install it. I hate doing dishes I am less than pleased at the moment.

Alternate

The long awaited letter from the admissions office finally arrived on Friday afternoon. I am accepted into the program, but am an alternate for Fall of 2009. So this means my admission date is in August of 2010, and I am ok with that. There is a possibility of being accepted this Fall, but I am considering forfeiting my spot so that I have more time, not less. I don't want to find out the first week of August that I have to quit my job and get 5 immunizations!

I was starting to have a bit of anxiety about not knowing what the hell I am doing in less than 3 months, so it is a major relief to have an answer. I think waiting a year will be the best choice financially, but I would like to get the school chapter of my life over...at least for a few years.

This weekend we knocked a few things off the to-do list for the house! I have a few pictures so I will get those up because visuals are much better for those type of things.

What a great day!

I just found a $10 bill in my wallet! Who woulda thunk?

Calf Creek

We went camping this past weekend with some friends and had a great time! I don't know if any of you have been to Calf Creek before but it is near Escalante and is absolutely beautiful. It had everything I was looking for...beautiful scenery, sun, water to play in, hiking and so much more. We took Dexter with us and he was the billy goat of the hike. I noticed his dew claw (he only has 1...not sure why) was cracked and just left it alone, figuring it would eventually break off or grow long enough I could trim it at the crack. We took him hiking with us (of course) and hiking down in is pretty steep. They told us you drop 500 ft in the first mile! He made it down fine but later he slipped on some slick rock and slid about 10 ft...and you guessed it! Dew claw came pretty much all the way off but thank goodness it didn't tear the actual toe. So now his little red toe is totally exposed and I'm hoping it grows back. If not we will have to get it removed :( I really don't want to put him through that if we can avoid it. His knee also popped out pretty bad after the climb back up...remember that whole 500 ft in a mile part? He walked around the campsite on 3 legs for about 30 minutes. It makes me really sad that my little buddy who has been with me for FIVE YEARS is getting old. I can't imagine not taking him on a hike or walk because his leg can't handle it. I'm ordering some of the canine glucosamine to add to his food TODAY and I'm going to stop writing about him getting old because I am getting even more sad about it ;)

We got some great pictures! If you have a chance to make it down there I would highly recommend it.

Guarding the tent

Tired little mountain goat

Family photo minus Lily

We've got sprouts!

The grass seed has started to sprout and I am so glad! I was worried that we were going to need to start over and do some tilling and more seeding. Even with animals and the two of us tromping around on it, it is still coming up. Hopefully in the next month or so, the lawn will be pretty full. This weekend we are going camping with some friends, I am really excited to get away even if only for a little bit. I hope everyone else has some fun plans for the weekend! I love paid holidays.

Making progress

I finished my first book for my summer reading. It was Case Histories by Kate Atkinson, and was really good! Kenzie loaned it to me like a year ago and I never have any time to read but I am really glad I read it. If you like mysteries and aren't bothered by some foul language and sex than pick it up.

Trevor also planted 18 tomato plants yesterday...well I guess 16 since I helped and planted 2! So I helped Trevor with the garden and met another goal! Ha ha. I also planted some herbs and have been seeding and watering the lawn for most of this month. I hope it starts to grow better soon. Watering it a lot has really helped fill it in, but we still have a few big bald spots.

I am working on talking Trev into a camping trip, but he is hot to trot on the house and yard so it is proving to be difficult to convince him to stop and go play. I forget what some of my other goals are...good thing I wrote 'em down! OH! I rode my road bike for the first time yesterday and am going to again tonight. Look at me go! Crossin' shit of the list left and right! We rode our bikes down to Living Traditions and had some Sudanese food and $5 beers. We saw some really neat stuff, like bonsai, pottery, weaving and a man was doing metal and iron working. I love the nice weather and this weekend really felt like Summer to me.

Wow

This cleanse stuff is really hard. I feel totally zapped of energy and when I got home from work last night I read a little and then fell asleep for two hours. I was really struggling with wanting to eat something last night as well. Trevor suggested I come home early and bbq....uhhhh, yeah not happening and thanks for getting me thinking about smoky, savory food. After I woke up from my nap we walked the dogs (Luna is staying with us for a few days) and that was nice. I played wii for a little while and then read until about 11:30. I still want coffee dammit! We have a lot to do this weekend. Finishing pouring the last part of our concrete patio and some veggie planting and other yardwork so I'm seriously considering having some food later tonight. As of right now I feel like I have negative energy levels. I have read where people say they feel "so energized" when they do this but maybe you need to get passed a few days to get there.

Spring cleaning

My house needs it, my car needs it, my office needs it, and my body needs it. The house I have been working on, but the office and car should be relatively quick. A few friends of mine have been doing the master cleanse lately, with mixed results. It is the cleanse where you drink a lemonade concoction for a number of days. No solid foods, and you also drink laxative tea and do saltwater "flushes." I had decided a while ago that I wanted to try it and was bummed to hear the bad experiences. The master cleanse recommends 10 days on this regimen. 10 days!!!! No wonder everyone I know hates it. The mental challenge of 10 days with no food, let alone coffee or a beer is frightening! I am giving myself the challenge of 3 days. In my mind, I can do that and I hope I prove to myself that I can. I love food, but this isn't about starvation, it is about cleaning some junk out. I started last night and already this morning I have a yucky, bitter taste in my mouth. I want some coffee.

Summer Goals

Spring semester is officially over!! Now I will wait and see what unfolds for getting into my program. But it does feel great to have my pre-req's completed. I'm hoping this the end of an era for me...the era of working full time while trying to go to school as much as possible. In order to occupy myself for my new found free time here are my goals for the summer:

- Read at least 3 books
- Knit every week (I have a lot of gifts to make for the future and my skillz need some refreshing and refining)
- Help Trevor more with our garden
- Make the back yard pretty and fix the fence
- $Pay off debt$
- Go camping until I have had my fill of it
- Ride bikes...a lot

The only thing missing is the perm

We have this family photo from Trevor's family in our living room. He hates it. I love it. It stays. Anyway, he shaved a beard he had been growing for a month so I made him leave the stache and that cheesy chin thing (don't know what it is called).



That's his poppa with the killer mustache and perm in the background. Oh, and Trev is trying to give the same facial expression HA! I was laughing so hard I could barely hold the camera still.

Celery...

is totally nasty unless it contains a glob of peanut butter. I love vegetables and am making an effort to expand my vegetable horizons, to find ways to eat the ones that I currently dislike. I thought I hated brussel sprouts but a friend of mine marinated them in honey, soy sauce and ginger...I think...anyway, he tossed them on the grill. Doooood, brussel sprouts are good when they aren't frozen green giant brussel sprouts! Same with spinach. Spinach is SO good. I think a lot of people have their first experience with spinach as a nasty frozen sludge that doesn't even resemble spinach. These people grow up thinking they hate spinach. Sad.

Spring and the latest haps

Wow! Where does the time go? I can't beleve that one year ago, we were coming back from Europe!

The last month has been pretty nuts. A few weeks ago I got the sickness from hell and was laid out for days. The entire thing lasted about 12 days for me. Then it got passed on to Trevor and he kicked it in roughly 4 days. My immune system sucks. School is trucking along, I took my final in my cadaver lab on Monday night, I am 90% finished with my psychology class and my physical therapy class should be finished by the middle of next week. I think my Anatomy final is on May 7th, so the end is near. I also should find out in about a month if I got into my program this coming Fall. Most of me wants to just go for it this year, but I am worried about quitting my job and being a full time student living on loans and basically no income. I guess whatever happens, happens!

The last few weekends we have been busting ass on our front yard. There are so many lovely plants and trees that were already there when we moved in. I'm sure our neighbors are happy that our house is no longer the foreclosed eye sore of the neighborhood. I have been talking to the tulips for the last few days when I walk by and they finally opened up about yesterday! I talk to my plants...is that weird?

I had a bunch of fun pictures of recent events but this stupid site is being difficult. Pictures later. I promise.

RANT: Countrywide

We recently did an FHA streamline to get our mortgage rate down to 5.50% from 6.50% Our first mortgage was sold to Countrywide (ugh) and when we did the re-fi we were sold to Countrywide again (UGH!). The one good thing about them is that I can pay the mortgage payment online with no fee. So I got our new statement in the mail and was setting up the online payment stuff and I could not figure out how I did the 1 time payment. So I called them(3 times to get through their craptastic automated robot lady) and I can't do an online payment for April 1st. My options are pay $20 to pay by phone (!!!) or send a check. People all over the country are defaulting on their mortgages and they want to charge me 20 bucks to make AN ON TIME payment!? I have spoken with some other people and other companies charge to make any online payment, on time or not. Redonk!

/endrant

Fever!

Who has spring fever really bad?! MEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE! The weather here has been great (for Utah)! We are looking at 70 for Friday and Saturday, then back to the 40s and 50s, but Spring is in sight! I chopped the hell out of our rosebushes last weekend and still have some holes in my fingers. Hopefully it will be a start to avoid the paint-job-ruining havoc they wreak since they are lining our driveway. Little buds of life are appearing on the plants,the back yard is getting cleaned up, and seeds have been started.

I have this week off school and now I'm really dreading finishing the semester. I'm going to spend the next few days trying to get ahead on some homework and reading, we'll see how well I do.

The Germans have arrived!

My friend Carolyn moved to Germany a few years ago and she is back for a visit for two weeks! YAY

Yesterday we went to some hot springs that are a little ways south of Provo. We were expecting about a 2 mile hike that should have taken us an hour BUT what we got was a closed road and a 13 mile round trip journey. HA

The hot springs were awesome, SMELLY, but awesome. There was also a naked lady there who was ultra pissed that we crashed her party. Oops.

Today I feel like an old lady with my hurt foot and sore legs. I have Spring Break the week of the 16th and now I'm in the mood to camp.

Here are some pictures of the adventure

Summer bugs

This morning while I was zoning out in the tub I looked up and saw a box elder bug crawling on the wall. YAY that means spring is nearly here! My friend calls them summer bugs and I do believe that is an appropriate name. The hammock and barbeque are waiting, hurry up and get here.

In need

of some comofort food. Oooey gooey cheesy and warm please, and delivered to me within the next 30 minutes is a plus. I haven't been feeling so hot for a few days and I finally have an appetite as of this afternoon. I am also in need of the elimination of negativity and negative nancies in my general existence. K thanks.

love: my boyfriend
hate: bad vibes
miss: warm cheesey goodness

Review of a good week

Last weekend we holed up at a friends cabin at Alta I went skiing for the first time in my life. REALLY fun. I can't believe it has taken me this long to try it, but I am going again on Sunday. The exercise was much needed since we ate fondue two nights in a row...gluttons :) On Saturday night we had chocolate fondue for dessert with little pieces of cheesecake and poundcake made by my sister OH. MY. GAWD. sooo good.

I took my first anatomy test last week and I got a 97 WOOO! What a relief. I have a lab midterm coming up and am a bit behind in my Psych class, but all in all school is trucking right along. Oh and the Jazz beat the Lakers last week too, doesn't get much better than that!

Today I
Love: the number 97
Hate: that I procrastinate
Miss: garlic burgers from our grill

Today I...

Love: knitting! Especially learning new knitting techniques
Hate: too much homework, and the stress that comes with it
Miss: laying in the hammock

School is nasty this week, I would rather knit.

Do you realize???

So I was listening to KRCL this morning and one of my all time favorites came on. If you are not familiar with the flaming lips, get familiar! Anyway, song is called Do You Realize and it is the cats meow. Trev and I saw them in Sept of 07 at red rocks in colorado, one of my best memories as of late. *sits here and daydreams

I have my first anatomy test on Tuesday AGH!! Wish me luck!

New topic

I am starting a Love/Hate/Miss (idea stolen from Sandy)

For today,

Love: the flaming lips, krcl
Hate: not having enough free time
Miss: long hours of daylight

I LOVE knitting!

Really, I do. I asked for knitting stuff for Christmas and I took a beginning knitting class which taught me enough to get me off and running. I am making a scarf right now, and it is definitely a learning process. Jessie, if you are reading this, move home and come to the weekly stitch and bitch!

Other than knitting, I have been schooling it up like crazy. I have 10 credits this semster, BUT two of my classes are online, so basically I have no life in the evenings...what else is new? he he

I miss my backyard

I really do, I walked around out there a few days ago and I really miss spending time in the hammock and checking on the progress of the veggies in the garden. Soon enough though, the long warm days will be here! Well I finally got my lazy butt to upload some picutres of our recent home improvements.

First off here are some before and after's of the paint in the bathroom. My what a difference a coat or two of paint can make!




Ok, this is the new color we picked, let me know what you think. I think it turned out quite nice. I'm not sure where the previous owner was going with the orange paint with the slate...


Trev put our new carpet in the week of Christmas, he did a great job and the house feels so much more homie. Homie like walking around barefoot, not like "homie don't play dat."

Oh and Dexter loves sitting on it!


I started school a few weeks ago so I'll just blame my lack of blogging on that. Life is busy busy but good!