Since You've Been Gone...

So, I came back from Utah on Tuesday, June 16th. My family wanted me to stay longer. I seriously considered staying.

I didn't really have a deadline for heading home (other than my Primary calling that I've been neglecting) and my brother-in-law Bryce is going to be in a play this weekend that my sister Sue Ann designed and made all the costumes for. So it would have been cool to get to see all that.

However, after checking with the airline I learned that it would cost a significant amount of money to switch my ticket, so that pretty much decided it for me...I wasn't staying.

Then my brother-in-law Paul (very generously) offered to pick up the difference so I could stay the extra time. I seriously considered staying.

But in the end, I decided that it was time for me to get back home. I missed my husband and my fur children, and it was time for me to get home.

While it would have been nice to stay longer, in the end I am glad I came home when I did. I REALLY missed my husband....a lot.

I think he missed me too. He gets a little...non-functioning...when I'm gone. Here's how I know:

• When he picked up the dogs from Todd and Felicia he didn't realize she had stuck the bag with their bowls in the trunk. So for two days my dogs ate their dinner off of paper towels.

• When he left Utah I reminded him that the dogs would have NO food when he came home and he would have to buy them some. He apparently forgot. As far as I can gather they lived off of Milkbones and take-out food for a couple of days. And possibly granola bars (see below).

• Our paper towel holder is missing. I haven't gotten all the details yet, but I suspect it went the way of the tongs.

• Dan is now the proud owner of some new socks...big, thick, fluffy, wool socks. It's 100 degrees outside...

• The contents of our fridge are as follows: 50 Kirkland Protein Shakes, roast beef lunch meat, pepper jack cheese.

• The contents of our pantry are as follows: 50 different kinds of granola bars.

• The contents of our garage are as follows: the empty cardboard boxes of 50 Kirkland Protein Shakes, the empty cardboard boxes of 50 different kinds of granola bars.

• Our recycle bin is full of non-recyclable trash.

• Dan forgot to go to church on Sunday. He did remember, however, to go out to lunch with his friend that day. And go shopping at Fry's Electronics(!?).

• Dan forgot to shave (or at least, he didn't shave...) for about 8 days. I'm not sure why because he went in and shaved about 10 minutes after I got home.

So, in the long run, I'm glad I'm home...for all of our sakes... :)

Our Utah Trip

I finished school on Friday, May 29th. We didn't waste any time. We left for Utah on Saturday, May 30th. Our friends Todd and Felicia were kind enough to watch our fur children for us. And Grandma and Dad came along with us.

We only went half way the first day. We stayed in Las Vegas. I found a "good deal" online for our hotel room. It was not such a good deal... Our room was a DUMP!!!

There were holes in the wall:

And this was the view out our window:

Luckily, construction workers still take Sunday off; even in Vegas.

And, luckily we only had to stay there one night. It was...interesting...

We woke up Sunday, packed up our stuff, desperately tried to avoid touching the mysterious stains on the carpet of our room, and headed for Utah.

I love doing the Utah/Phoeix trip in two days because there isn't such a rush to get there.

We got to my sister's house around 4 pm. My sister had dinner waiting for us (bless her...I was already tired of road food!).

We ate and then headed to my nephew Austin's Eagle Scout Court of Honor. It was great to get to be there for that. He (and his mom) worked really hard!

Then Tuesday was the Main Event (so to speak). It was my brother David's birthday, my great-neice Teagan's birthday, and...MY birthday!! Also, it was our late Grandma Bullock's birthday, and my nephew and neice-in-law (Teagan's parents-go figure!)'s anniversary!!
So it was a pretty important day!!

My sisters (being the wonderful sisters that they are) threw us all a big party!! It was great! Teagan got to eat her very first birthday cake, and I got some great presents (including the ones from Dan that I picked out).
The best present, however, was just being there all together with my family.

The highlight of the next couple of days would have to be the field trip Dan, Dad, and I took to the Bingham Copper Mine. Did you know it's the World's Largest Open Pit Mine? It is. Now you know.

We also got to go to a couple of my nephew Parker's baseball games. He's on a Super Team (I think that's what it's called...) and he's pretty good!It reminded me why I like summer in Utah so much. There's nothing better than a warm summer night at the ball park.

We also went to the This is the Place Monument.

I didn't realize how moving it would be. The monument tells the story of the pioneers who settled Utah. One of my direct ancestor's name is actually on the monument!

We also went to Park City. Dan had never been there. I thought this was a funny sign....probably just because I've lived in the desert for too long...

Then Dan and Parker rode the Alpine Slide. Dan wasn't sure if he was going to make it, (Not because of the slide part...but the ski lift ride up to the slide. He's afraid of heights.) But he made it.

Friday we got to go to my neice Olivia's graduation from 8th grade. I can't believe how grown-up she's getting!
She's beautiful, inside and out.

What a great family!

We also got to go up and spend some time with my sister Dana and her family. We drove up Ogden Canyon and found a great place for a little hike.
It was a magnificent day:

There was a great looking little path. I didn't hike as fast as everyone else because I was wearing flip-flops (and because I was too busy taking a billion pictures!).

I got some really great ones: There was a peaceful little stream next to the trail.

Lexie made sure to mark our path for us, so we wouldn't get lost.

Dan, Dad, and Grandma left on Sunday to go back home, but I stayed another 9 days. It was great to have some extra time with my family.

My sisters and I got to do a session in the Salt Lake Temle (first time doing a live session!). Afterwards we went out for a sisters' dinner.

We also got to have lunch with some of my aunts and girl cousins. I forgot to take any pictures, we were all so busy talking! But it was fun to see everyone again and catch up.

Also, I got to go to my grandparents' old house. My cousin and his wife live in it and have fixed it up. It is darling! (I would have taken pictures, but that probably would have seemed a little weird...)

I did some (too much!) shopping, saw a movie, and just generally had a great time!

I would have to say that all in all it was a fabulous trip. I was so happy to be able to see and spend time with my sisters and their families. They are all such great people, and I feel lucky to be able to count them as family. I am thankful that, even though we can't live as close to everyone as we would like to at the present time, we still get to see everyone on a fairly regular basis, and when we do get a chance to visit we are always welcomed into their homes and their lives with open arms. We are truly blessed. :)

OUR NEW(ly painted) FURNITURE!!

Okay, so, here's the deal. I could probably count up the hundreds of dollars that Dan and I have spent on furniture since we've been married on one hand, with a few fingers left over...

We have been very lucky that:
a) we have inherited a lot of furniture from our parents, and
b) that we have rather eclectic taste in furniture (okay, at least I do...).

Many of the pieces we have purchased have come from thrift shops and Craig's List. :)

Here's the only problem with that: sometimes when you put it all together it doesn't match. Yes, I do realize that's sort of the point when it comes to eclectic styling, but at some point it's got to come together a little bit, right?!

So, after I had the conversation with Dan that began with him laughing at me and ended in him saying "No, we are not buying new furniture." I decided to take matters into my own hands.

Over winter break (that's the only time I can accomplish anything is over breaks) I decided that our bedroom furniture--which consists of 2 matching night stands from Walmart, 1 bed we inherited from Dan's grandma, and 1 dresser we inherited from my grandma--needed to match.

I don't have a before picture, but imagine four different pieces of furniture, three different types of wood. What better way to make them match than with paint! So we painted our bedroom furniture white. Here's how it turned out:


It was a lot of work! More than I thought it would be, but it was fun!

So, I guess you could say that I caught the fever (maybe from the paint fumes)...

This break, I decided that our mismatch of living room furniture--which consists of a coffee table, a tv table, a sofa table, a small entry way table, and a bookshelf...again, all different woods and colors--should also match.

So here's what I did over this break:

The T.V. table:



The coffee table:


The sofa table:



The bookshelf:



The entryway table:


Here's what it looks like all together (I realize that in this picture you can actually only see the coffee table-the rest are too spread out-but at least it gives an idea of what they look like all together) :



In the end, even if I couldn't buy NEW furniture, I at least feel like we have new furniture, even if it's just a new color.


P.S. The only problem came when the fur children decided that they wanted to help paint too. Here's them looking sad and depressed when I told them they couldn't help. I didn't use words so much as imprisonment:



P. P. S. I also found out that I LOVE distressing things! You can't mess up! It's perfect for me (cause I mess up a lot!!!).

Ugh...itunes...

Okay, so it's...11:34 p.m. (which didn't used to be late, but now that I'm 29 going on 89 it seems really late, and I'm really tired!)

Something unexplainable and unacceptable happened to our itunes account! Half of our music disappeared! I don't know what happened. Dan says it's my fault, but I don't think it is!

One day our music was there, then the next, half of it is missing!

I located the elusive music, but now I am currently having to go through and find each individual song and re-save it in the correct place.

DO YOU KNOW HOW LONG THAT TAKES?!

At the bottom of our itunes page it says that we have, like 14 days worth of music. I'm pretty sure it's going to take me that long to re-find all of these stinkin' files and save them in the right place!

I am almost positive that there is a better and more effective way to do this. If you know what it is, keep it to yourself thank-you-very-much. Because by the time you tell me it will be too late. I will be done.

Never-the-less, I am sure there is a better way to do this, I just don't know it.

So for right now, I'm sitting here, blinking to attempt to clear my bleary eyes, half listening to some asinine news magazine show (cause I can't find the remote, and am too annoyed to look for it very hard), and waiting for my dinosaur of a computer to find these crazy music files.

**Grrr** Curse you ipod/itunes (whatever) for making us all so dependent upon you for our musical needs! Curse you!

P.S. I know where all of my CD's (which contain much of the same music that is on my ipod) are. They don't mysteriously move themselves to a new location and force me to locate them all individually. Neither do my even more archaic cassette tapes.... **grrr** again...

I AM A BAD PET PARENT!!!!

Okay, so I thought I was doing okay.

Since we adopted Daisy I've been bathing her once a week, I've been brushing and blow drying her after I bathe her...

I thought we were doing fine.

Until yesterday.

I decided that I would take her to the professional groomer for a special treat (hee hee...little did I know...)

It being my first official day of Spring Break, I was not, shall we say, up and/or dressed by her 11:00a.m. appointment time. So, I sent Dan and Daisy on their way with specific instructions for Dan to have them trim her all around, clip her nails, clean her ears, shave down her potty path (eww.), etc.

I will admit that I was particularly excited by the prospect of the groomer being able to get a bow into her fur (hair...whatever, Lisa) since whenever I try to put one in she suddenly turns herself into a doggie contortionist with opposable thumbs and yanks it out. *tear*

So, you can imagine my absolute shock when Dan called and said that "Chip" the groomer said that she had matts and he was going to have to shave her down.

My jaw hit the floor.

"Honey?" Dan asked hestitantly.

"How can she have matts? I bathe and brush her every week!" I demanded of my innocent don't-kill-the-messanger husband.

"I don't know, but he showed them to me, and they're pretty bad." He answered.

"But dogs who don't have owners who love them get mats!" I insisted. Not dogs who's human mothers chase them around all day trying to put bows in their hair! I added internally.

I was floored. How could this happen? Since September when she had to be shaved nearly bald because she'd been a stray I'd been working on growing her fur (hair...WHATEVER, Lisa!) out so that she didn't look like a cancer victim. Now here we were right back in the same position. How could this be?!

Two hours later when "Chip" called to say she was "ready" (a.k.a. satisfactorily butchered) and we could pick her up, I'm pretty sure I heard an underlying tone in his voice. The kind that says "I guess you can come get your dog back so you can abuse and neglect her some more. See you in another three months, you neglectful dog owner you. Don't forget to feed her once in a while."

When Dan brought her home (I couldn't bring myself to face "Chip's" condesending stare.), she actually doesn't look THAT bad. Just different than how I pictured.

I only cringed a little bit when Dan told me that "Chip" had given us the Adoption Package for people who rescue strays and bring them in to get groomed.

"Did he think that we just barely rescued her?" I asked. Maybe we could play it off that that's why she was in such bad shape.

"No, I told him the truth." Dan stated matter of factly. Why did he have to choose now to be honest? When my pride is on the line!?

Now when I look into her eyes (which I can see now, thanks to "Chip's" clipper skills, not his fur (hair...whatever, LISA) dressing and bow-putting-in skills) I think that I see her silently asking me "Why, mom? Why?!"

But maybe I'm overreacting...just a little bit. Maybe...

P.S. They did in fact give her a rather fetching striped bandana, which she is enjoying chewing up immensely.

8 Item Tag...

I'm joining the TagEd - You're it now! Here are the rules: 1) Post rules on your blog 2) Answer the six '8' items 3) Let each person know by leaving them a comment.

8 favorite TV shows:
1. Scrubs
2. Grey's Anatomy
3. The Office
4. The Soup
5. The Colbert Report
6. The Simpsons
7. Phineas and Ferb
8. America's Next Top Model (ashamed, ashamed, I am ashamed!!)
Since we got our DVR I am a TV junkie (even though I rationalize it by saying that we're just more SELECTIVE about our tv viewing now...)

8 Things I did yesterday:
1. Laundry (finally! Gotta love spring break!!)
2. Realized I am a bad pet parent (see future post)
3. Procrastinated grocery shopping another day
4. Ate dinner with friends (yummy! Her mom cooked it, and she used to be a home ec teacher!)
5. Dusted my house (achoo!)
6. Called a "landscape engineer" (named Pablo) to tackle the weeds in our front yard that already kicked my butt
7. Paid bills (BORING)
8. Watched The Golden Girls and missed my friend Mandi (sad!)

8 Things I'm looking forward to:
1. Spring Break: I'm still counting Spring Break (even though it's already here!) cause I am super-stoked to have a week off.
2. The Week of May 19th -24th: My friend Kim comes to visit from Ohio (yeah!!!)
3. My Dog's Fur (hair..whatever, Lisa) Growing Back (*tear*)
4. AIMS testing being over with (blech!)
5. My Birthday! (because I'll be in Utah for the 1st annual Rebekah/David/Teagan/Grandma Bullock/Patrick & Christy Anniversary/Birthday/Memorial Extravaganza. Hosted by the one and only Suzy-Q)
6. Switching health insurance to a company that actually provides...health...insurance...(stupid cigna)
7. Swimming weather (it's ALMOST here...as soon as it's here, I'll want it gone again...)
8. Multi-cultural Fair (I get to dress up like a Greek Goddess!)

8 Favorite restaurants:
1. Carrabas
2. Macarroni Grill
3. Chick-Fil-A
4. In and Out
5. Chipotle
6. Taco Bell (*cringe* I know, but it's true...)
7. PoPo's
8. Rubio's

8 Things on my wish list:
1. A Baby :)
2. A savings account that is...shall we say...larger...
3. Happiness for my Dad
4. More funding for education (I can't help it...it's true)
5. To move back to Utah
6. My husband to finish his education
7. For Dan's socks and various other dirty items to magically find their way to the hamper (it's really hard for him to find it, apparently...)
8. A new fridge (mine's ugly and doesn't match the rest of the appliances (*frown*)

People I tag:
Okay, everyone I know who blogs was already tagged by SueAnn, so...NO ONE. :) Thanks for reminding me how pathetic I am...

"Tomacco-cicles"

Okay, so the other day Dan and I were craving ice cream.

So, of course, I sent Dan out to get some. Apparently, he decided that it would be better (not cheaper, but better) to get our ice cream from a convenience store rather than our local neighborhood grocery store. Whatever...

So he comes home with two of those ice cream cone things with the chocolate and nuts on top (if you don't know what I mean, see the picture below.)Which is fine. I am a big fan of those ice cream cones. However...when I opened mine up I immediately wrinkled my nose.

"Honey, does this smell funny to you?" I asked.
Dan sniffed his. "Yeah, it kind of does, but I can't tell what it smells like though..."
I sniffed mine again, and decided that it was mostly the cone that smelled so wrong.
"It smells like...like...cigarettes!" I finally decided. "Eww."

We decided to name them "Tomacco-cicles" after The Simpsons episode where the family moves to the country to become farmers and Homer accidentally creates a tomato-tobacco hybrid plant that he calls "Tomacco" when he plants a little bit of everything and fertilizes it with plutonium. (Remember? Ralph says "Eww, Daddy, this tastes like Grandma!")

I do not know WHY these particular ice cream cones smelled like cigarettes, nor do I necessarily WANT to know. I do know, however, that the totally unappealing smell of these particular cones did not stop my husband from popping the top off, throwing the cone away, and eating the ice cream (from both cones; I didn't want mine for some reason...). Nor did it stop him from returning to that same store again on another day to purchase...the same product.

Hmmm...I guess "Tomacco-cicles" are as addictive in real life as their name sake was on The Simpsons...