The last of...

I really don't like people to finish the last of something in my home without telling me. Especially when it is my chocolate!

Halloween at Work

Here are a few photos from my lunch room at work...yes I decorated it. Oh and the spiders...they can go GREAT distances if pushed to "hop" correctly.

Jack-O-Lantern

I decided last week that I wanted to carve my pumpkin. The last few years I have just had pumpkins up for Halloween and Thanksgiving decorations but hadn't carved them.


I realized why...Rick doesn't do carved pumpkins. He thinks that they are cute and all that when done, but he does not participate in the cleaning out of a pumpkin.

This cracked me up when I realized it. I still had a great time creating my master piece.



It is also good to know that Rick is good at taking photos too.

Model Home Photos

I wanted to give you a few ideas of what our new home will look like. Feel free to ask about any of the rooms. The bed in the master...a queen!

Our Lot

We will be taking photos each week as our new home is built. Right now we are waiting for the building permits. Once they have those it will be about 3 weeks until they start vertical construction. We should have the permits by Nov 9th. You can Google our lot 401 West Lakeside Drive, Stansbury, Utah 84074. The google photos were taken before any homes were built but you can tell which lot is our because the end of the church's fence is in our back yard.
If you look very closely in the center of the 2nd photo, you can see Rick and Steve. Our lot is 1/4 acre.

Silent Monks Sing Hallelujah

NASCAR 2009

Our main reason for going to Vegas when we did was to attend the NASCAR Camping World Truck Race. It was on Saturday, our last day there. It was SO much fun! It was hotter than hot. On the track it was at least 117 degrees! We had passes for the Neon Garage - the area in the infield. It was cool to walk below the track and be in the middle of everything. We were also able to go down to pit road during qualifying. These trucks are running 160-170 mph and we were right there to feel their power.
Our seats were 1 row from the top so we were able to see the entire 1.5 mile track. There were only 3 wrecks, and they were all in front of us...coming out of turn 4.
I realize that a lot of this talk may not make sense, but that is all good. I shall in indoctrinate all my friends to NASCAR language. Heaven knows I had no intention of ever liking NASCAR and now I like it more than Rick.
We met a great NASCAR official. He actually let us go into an area where other people couldn't go so we could take photos. Rick said, "Man you must be hot." His response was, "You have no idea." Just think of wearing a firesuit in 120ish degree weather and just standing around. We had headsets and a scanner to listen to the different teams' communications and also the NASCAR officials. Before the race started on the official station the guy was saying, make sure you drink lots of water and take care of each other. By then the sun was going down but still, it was nice and hot. It was great race weather.

New Home

Things appear to be well under way for our new home. Our builder submitted for permits on Sept 22nd. It takes about 4 weeks to get them and then they can start digging. Once the foundation and footing is done, it is almost exactly 120 days until the home is done. The expected date right now is mid-April. We will be meeting with our general contractor once they have permits and we should have an even better idea of the date.

I thought some of you might like to see what we are building.

Our home will look like the above photo except our pillars on the porch will be wood, not stucco. The main stucco of our house will be the light stucco around the windows in this photo. Our front door and the vent will be "Evening Blue". It isn't navy but it isn't royal. I will see if I can get a sample.
The stucco around the windows and other accent points will be forest green just like the garage door in the above photo. Our garage door will be the same as in the first photo...I think..we picked "almond".

This is the basic floor plan. We made a few tweaks here and there but not too many.

On the main floor, we will be adding a picture wall between the "dining room" and the living room. Not where they show the sample wall but more towards the front of the house. This is to break up the football field feeling but still keep it open. Above is a sample of the picture wall from a different floor plan. We are also adding a Powder Room aka Toilet and Sink on the main floor where the "storage" closet would normally be. We also added the peninsula in the kitchen. We thought about an island but it just didn't work so this gives us the same amount of extra space.
We chose light oak for our cabinets, white for our appliances and a light color for the counters. We like it bright! This way I can paint the walls any colors I want too. We will have the same cabinets, counters, carpet and vinyl throughout the entire house. Below is a sample of the counter top.
Then we have upstairs~
Check out my master closet!! The master bedroom is HUGE too. I seriously don't have enough furniture for this house.

We made several changes in the Master Bathroom. These include...

A Garden Tub

A separate showerA Second Vanity
A window between the vanities
and believe it or not, vinyl is not standard in the master bath, only by the commode SO we upgraded to that as well. Carpet in the bathroom...GROSS!
We also decided to move the laundry room upstairs! We figure that other than kitchen towels everything is upstairs that we wash so why not have it all up there all the time. This replaces the storage upstairs. Because of this though we will have a big mud room between the garage and kitchen. I am SO excited for this. This is one feature I have always wanted to have in a home.

I know we have replaced a lot of our storage with other things but we will have a huge crawl space below the house. The next door neighbor says that his is 8.5 feet.
We are on lot 178 with the church behind us. We met our neighbors to the east lot 179 on Saturday and they seem really nice. They have at least 2 little girls, one who is 5 and one who turned 3 this weekend. I am sure we will meet our other neighbors as we venture out to watch our house be built!

Public Service Announcement

In case you haven't noticed, my computer time has been cut down drastically. This is due to my computer being in a not so friendly spot in my bedroom. It sucks. I have SO many blogs to catch up on. I have photos to edit and post...I am just not getting in the quality time with my computer that I need.

Hope

I had an interesting conversation with Stephen last night. We talked about what he thought about life after death, if he even believe in it. He said he had talked with him mom about it and I asked about her thoughts. We talked about religion and Jesus. Stephen believes there is something more. That it would be a waste being here if there weren't. He said his mom believe there was something more too. He told me that he believes in a general higher power and that Jesus was probably a man but that was it.
It really has bothered me that someone, and I know there are billions of people in this world, doesn't believe in Jesus. He life is such a fundamental part of my life. I have never once doubted in my life that he lived. That he is everything I have ever been taught. I have always been so certain of this as much as I am certain that the sun rises in the east.
It is so difficult for me to think of living a life without that type of knowledge and the hope that it gives.

I used to be really good at watching the Mormon Messages each week as they came out but haven't recently for some reason. Today I came across one, almost accidentally that made me decide to write this blog.



I suppose I have been blessed with the Hope and Faith I have in my life. They have always been there and really take no work on my part. I wish I could better explain this to those who have never felt the way do. To you my friends who are reading this, I think most of you have felt what I am talking about. Isn't it the most incredible thing? I hope (no pun intended) that someday Stephen and maybe even Jeffrey can understand what I am talking about. That they will be able to feel the Spirit and recognize it for what it is.

I KNOW that Jesus was a man who walked this earth. I know that he lives again.

Noise, Noise, Noise

This is taken outside our hotel room where we were the first 2 nights. It was HORRIBLE. We could understand the words to the songs with the window closed. They would crank it up a bit more at 6:00pm and it went until 4:00 am. Then at 6:00 am the construction across the street would start. Mind you, we are also on the 15th floor.

Pool Time

There were 2 reasons why we went to Vegas and this is one of them...

Canal Ride at Piazza San Marco

We went on a canal ride at the Venetian hotel. We decided to go in the afternoon because we didn't want to have to stand in a line. Well there was no line because it was 98 degrees outside that day! We road with another couple who were from Colorado and were really nice. Our boat guy, I can't think of what he would be called right now, was actually from Firenze (Florence). His name was Niccolo and he had a decent singing voice as he serenaded us as we went under the bridges. It was a fun change of pace.

Sirens at Treasure Island

I hadn't seen the Pirate show at Treasure Island in years. 2-3 years ago they changed it to the Sirens show. We decided to eat there and then watch the show. The meal was decent enough and the show...I thought my eyes were being burned out of my head! Those women were wearing less than what most women were wearing at our swimming pool. I found it all entertaining but between our jobs, we are NOT around that type of stuff. I don't think we will be going back to watch that show for a very long time.
We did meet some very nice Brits since ours weren't with us. (They are going on a Panama Canal Cruise as we speak.) There were 2 couples, one from Nottingham and one from Newcastle. For those of you that don't know, Newcastle is right near the boarder (where many of my ancestors are from) with Scotland so their accents were very Scottish. The ones from Nottingham, well they aren't 30 min from our friends in Leicester. We had a nice chat with them. They had been to Zion's earlier in the day and been to Salt Lake in the past. They seemed to be a bit scandalized, as we were. Seriously people...I would not let children see this show!
I was able to get some decent photos though.

Little Caesar's

The first day in Vegas we decided to head out to find somewhere to eat.

We walked through Planet Hollywood, Bally's in front of Bellagio and into Caesar's Forum shops. We ate at some mexican restaurant there that was good.




Caesar's has add on to the forum shops during the last few years. Ok maybe it has been 5 years but I don't go to Vegas as often as I used to go. This area has twisting escalators. We were up on the 3rd floor and had to go to the bottom floor. It was a ride for my tummy. Yes I am that big of a wimp when it comes to heights.




Rick took this photo of me...I don't realize how long and how much hair I have until I see photos like this. It kinda freaks me out to be honest. My hair is naturally curly/wavy too.