Another Day In The Life Of Us

I Love Waffles! -and our fall party

2010-10-18T11:10:00.006-06:00

I got so excited because Ben bought me a new waffle maker two weeks ago. I didn't get my hopes up too high because we have had about 4 waffle makers. The first didn't work at all, the second didn't get at all hot enough so the waffles came out flat, the third cooked the front of the waffles but nothing else. So with the arrival of the fourth maker I was expecting another disaster

......but.........finally success!!!!!

Beautiful golden brown, crispy on the outside and soft on the inside waffles.

This past Saturday my sister in law Megan and I threw a fall party (the first of many we hope). We had mostly family and a few friends attend. We were thankful for a little turn out as it was our first party and we were a little behind on the planing front. We had a pretty good spread of food. We had spices cider, chicken teriyaki skewers, pizza with ghostly shapes on it, fruit and some other things. (i didn't snap the picture until after we ate)

I had seen a picture on a Womens Day Magazine of a neat cake so I thought I'd have a go at it. I changed it a little bit but here is my version of it (Ben suggested the red bat eyes).

Megan made some great cupcakes, little pumpkins and some very cute owls.

After we ate we went out on the porch and carved some pumpkins.

Mikalea found some dirt to play with - as all kids tend to.

Here are the pumpkins all done- the photo was taken at night so it took a few times to get a great snapshot.

the two pumpkins on the bench to the left turned out really cool even though you cant see them in the pic - they were matt and vals - matt did a reeses cup and val did a witches cauldron.

It was so fun to carve them - i think it has been 5 years at least from the last time i carved a pumpkin.

After that we came inside and started making some caramel apples - I had to look up a recipe cause I had never made caramel apples before. Thankfully the caramel turned out great - we had to make a second batch cause we had so many apples. Yummy!!!

I don't like much of anything on my apples other than caramel- so I just put some fun little sprinkles on mine. We also had cookie crumbs, chocolate jimmies, white chocolate, mini m&m's and i think a few other things.

So fun!!! I hope that things turn out just as good for next year!!!!!

Conference Sunday- Photo Updates

2010-10-03T14:22:00.005-06:00

Hello all, so there have been many photos that I have taken and not yet posted. I figured today would be a good day for these. Per my fathers request there are photos of our new door along with some others.

Lets start with the oldest first.........

This is one of my sweet nieces - Emma- this was back in July when most of the in laws were in town for the Keeffers anniversary party. Emma and her older brother Trey stayed the night at our house. Ben and Trey were playing video games down stairs -boring- so we went upstairs and watched Ever After. Emma said she had a loose tooth and it had been that way for a while. We tried a few things first but after nothing made it fall out she had me yank it out. I do have to say I was more freaked out about it than her. (I know I am a nurse but teeth/mouth things in general freak me out, I have a love hate relationship with my dentist - sorry cousins) We put it in one of my ring boxes so the tooth fairy could come give her some money. He He He that was the first time I pulled a tooth other than mine.

These are from the first demolition derby that I attended in Aug at the Weber County State Fair. It was a lot of fun and we got some extra entertainment thanks to some crazy white trash people started fighting after a bad crash. The bad crash resulted in one of the drivers getting knocked unconscious. He ended up being ok and only needed a few stitches (they found that out after they life flighted him out).

now some sad photos....

Here is our precious family dog Duke. Most of you know these are photos from the day Steph and I had to do put Duke to sleep Aug 18 2010. I am balling my eyes out as expected. He was a great and sometimes frustrating, he lived a very long life and traveled across the country more than most dogs. Not much else I can say about him with out getting myself sad.

So now getting up to today, conference Sunday. I woke up thinking about pancakes, then I remembered we didn't have syrup. So I started thinking about making my own, which led me to think about making raspberry syrup which then make me think about crepes.

So for our conference Sunday brunch I made Ben and I crepes with homemade raspberry sauce and cream filling. We also got out the Nutella and some powdered sugar for fun. I know they weren't the best crepes in the world but pretty good for my first go at them.

So now the photos of the door. Our old door was great except for the fact that after three packs of weather stripping you could still see daylight around the whole thing.

-the old door-

So a few weeks ago Ben and a guy who lives in the apartments where we used to live fixed it.

Turns out our door was square (which we knew) but the doorway was very very messed up so they squared up the doorway and re framed it. They also were able to shoot that fun foam stuff in so hopefully it is much tighter of a seal this winter.

So here is our new fire proof door.

We have to repaint the plastic that surrounds the glass because even after priming it the paint pealed right off. We also have to put our knocker and kick plate back on.

Ben also installed a storm door....

We have the screen in the storm door right now because the beautiful beveled glass pane won't fit by (we have to call Pella for a replacement). Hopefully this week we can get a replacement and get the glass in place.

Hope you all have a great week-

I'm officially 27

2010-09-09T13:16:00.002-06:00

Hello all - So less than a month and I'm posting- go me! As most of you know yesterday was my 27th b day. woo hoo! another year has passed, crazy. So to get away fir a few days one of my best friends and I went to Park City Ut for a few days. We stayed in a great room with two bedrooms, a kitchen and ...... our very own hot tub! It was so great. We got some good shopping in, had some great massages and ate great food. It was lots of fun.
Other than that this past month had just been the norm with us working, doing small home repairs and hanging out with friends.
I don't know if i mentioned this earlier but Ben bought me/ well us a wii a few months ago and we started playing mario kart that we borrowed from Ben and Megan (my sis and brother in law) we got addicted to it so we got it used and have almost mastered it. Well i should say Ben has almost mastered it. I get quite frustrated sometimes , most times and have to take a breather.
We are looking into starting to remodel some of the house next year. I am getting excited for looking forward to it.
Well honestly that is about it. I will try to find more to post so I can post more often.
80)

so fun

2010-08-16T01:00:00.002-06:00

again, it has been a while in between posts - sorry- not a whole lot to update on. Last night 3 of my friends and I went to the Weber County Fair Demolition Derby, so much fun!! Total white trash event with lots of drunk people acting a fool but so entertaining. Ben and I have just been hanging out and doing little things on the house until the heat cools down.
Well I'll try to post again sooner than later - bye for now

YUP I BUILT THAT

2010-06-24T16:08:00.004-06:00

So I am pretty excited about my post today. I just got done building my fist, very own retaining wall (I have built plenty with my mom but this one is for me). Every since we moved in I have disliked the plants in the front of the house, so I decided finally to do something about it. I also disliked how the flower bed slopped down and just kinda fell off. We do live on a hill but I like things level.

First came the decision process, in the store I thought I would like the smallest blocks the best, then I thought the tan/pink ones might look nice. Then I decided that I really liked the gray ones the best at the last minute - he he he-

So I had to go pick them up, hall them back and build!!! I started this morning at about 11am after Ben went to work. I had to make a couple trips to the nursery cause I forgot some stuff but now I'm done. Woo hoo. - yeah I'm pretty excited about it-

The only thing I'm not too excited for is doing this to the other side. It is twice as big.

So here it is.

The plants are sunburst coreopsis, dual color gaillardia, and snowcap shasta daisies.

The flowers look a little droopy cause I just watered them so the petals are weighed down. I'll get a better pic in a couple days when they perk up.

potted plants and...

2010-06-08T18:13:00.005-06:00

So the past few weeks we have been staying busy, most recently we went to Lowes to get some stuff for potted plants cause I wanted to bring some color to our deck. We ended up walking out of Lowes with stuff for 6 containers of plants, a large container for tomatoes my grandma sent home with us, also a new refrigerator and dishwasher.

Yeah unexpected but oh so awesome.

So our two year anniversary was May 24th, we went out to visit my Grandma Harbour in California. We stopped in Reno for a night which was fun. While there Grandma grabbed some little tom plants that she was going to throw away so Steph and I could give them a try growing them. That is kinda the whole thing that triggered the potted plant thing.

So here are my pots - Promise the tomatoes look much improved now, they were a bit tired from the trip.

So as I was looking at plants, ben ran and looked at appliances. We ended up getting a screaming good deal cause they were having a sale for memorial day, then we got an extra 10% off so we got about 40& off the regular price. We are lucky cause it fits in the kitchen but it is a tad big for the space but we think it will look better after we remodel.
(I haven't cleaned is from when it was installed so it looks smudgy with fingerprints)

more photos

2010-05-02T16:42:00.004-06:00

So just some updates on the yard, most are self explanatory. The one of the bushes in the front is just me showing some progress on the pulling out of the junk.

Plus here is a pic of our new chandelier for our dining room, also the new paint color. We still have some finish work to do around some edging and then we will post more photos of the final product.

more yard updates

2010-04-19T10:10:00.004-06:00

Sorry if these posts aren't super exciting for everyone, they are for me!!! Just did another circle of the yard this Sunday in hopes of seeing some tulips (the ones at the church just two 4 blocks away are in bloom) but nothing yet -

They are getting sooooooo close. I think we are gonna see some red ones cause there is a slight hint of orange or red on the edges. Also sorry about the dandelion in the corner there- he he he.

We do have some beautiful spring time blooms on our apricot tree.

Here is a little sad looking rose bush I almost pulled out last fall but decided to leave in and see what happened. Surprise - there is some new growth.

And a new update on my lilac progress - we have so many in the yard i can't wait for them all to bloom. It is gonna look so pretty.

Also .. I have had multi requests from some family for a post about the lay out of our house so I am gonna do that later this week.

I felt it..... did you?

2010-04-15T22:49:00.003-06:00

So I don't know if you guys felt it but today we got a little residual tremor from an earthquake near by. I was hanging out on the couch when it hit, Ben was standing up in the kitchen so he didn't feel it. It wasn't real big but it scared me that the BIG earthquake we keep hearing is destined to hit the Wasatch front is gonna get here sooner than later. I keep hoping for later.

Even though I knew that feeling (when we were young kids we were in the Northridge quake in Ca) cause you don't ever forget it. It is always nice to have some reassurance.

Here is the official website. Our little quake.

Our new treadmill

2010-04-11T16:46:00.004-06:00

ye haaa - I'm so excited for this new treadmill. Most of you know that I completed a half marathon this last December in Las Vegas. I am sad to say that my short break after that race has become a two - three month long break. So now to help me squash that cycle and give me no excuses for not getting some good cardio in 6 days a week. We have two different "scratch and dent" exercise stores in our area- we found this treadmill at one of the stores for about $140 less than the competitor.

Thankfully I have my wonderful sister in town who has a Tahoe so we could get this monstrous thing home. We started to unload it when Ben really started to question my upper arm strength. So we rested it on our garbage can while Ben enlisted one of our new neighbors for some help lowering it onto the driveway.

Once down we had to disassemble it a bit as our doorways are small.

We hauled it inside, put it back together and.....

viola -

We also decided that we needed to rearrange the guest room/ exercise room a bit so we took some time out of our weekend to get it settled. I am excited to get movin' on it tomorrow.

-I also took another survey of the yard today while talking to my mom and dad - there is some progress and I will photo document it in a few days.

the craziness that is utah

2010-04-06T10:38:00.003-06:00

So look at the post just previous to this - flowers blooming, sun shining......

then we got a rain storm.. that turned into..
..
...
....
.....
......
.......
........
.........
..........
...........
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this!!!

Which turned into 7-8 inches of it in the morning. Good ol' Utah - you just never know what it is gonna throw at you.

The plows even had to run this a.m. to clear off the streets.

Photos from last week

2010-03-29T17:43:00.003-06:00

So not a whole lot new going on. We finally have some sign of flowering life in the yard- there are these two random little purple flowers that popped up in the middle of the lawn. All the stuff that I posted on last week looks about the same - ugh- I want flowers!!!

I am just going out every few days scanning the yard hoping for some more. The lilacs are putting out more buds and I am getting really excited for those.

This weekend my nephew came and spent some more time with us - here I was drying my hair in my turban-ish towel style. He thought it looked pretty cool and wanted one too. I wrapped up his head in a hand towel and he wore it for a while.

also - I had to go to the eye dr today and they dilated the heck out of my eyes so it is hard for me to see so sorry for any typo's.

More photos......

2010-03-23T17:48:00.005-06:00

So here are some photos from the past weeks.........

My sister Saundra emailed me this great blog/website Smitten Kitten I love it and gave this recipe a try. It was very yummy and I will be making it again for sure.

The week prior I also decided to make some more cupcakes. I decided to give the frosting that gave steph and I so much grief another go (swiss meringue buttercream) and I conquered it!!!! I was so proud - but as a trade off my caramel for the cupcake centers did not turn out. sad.

Last Wed we got our dining room table. We had already purchased the chairs from another furniture store during one of their sales (may I add for an awesome deal thanks to my hubby). We then had to shop for a table to match the chairs - a bit backwards but oh well. We found a great table at a small store north of Ogden. Even though it was the last weekend in Feb when we found it, they were still having their "Presidents Day" sale- he he he.
We were a bit afraid that the table wouldn't fit or the chairs wouldn't match but we love it and thankfully the chairs match and it fits the space perfectly.

This past weekend we had our nephew Tafton come stay with us (and it turned out tobe a good thing cause his poor mom got hit with some bad kidney stones and his dad had to work a bunch)
Tafton had a lot of fun with his Uncle - we opened up the grill for the first time this year and grilled some steaks.

We also explored our yard to see what was going on and we also started some long needed clean up of the back yard.

We found some new growth on our lilacs

it also looks like we have some type of spring bulbs that are popping up in various places

it will be nice to have some flowers show up so I can really figure out what the heck they are

Then after a long day of playing and eating (life for a kid is so hard) a bubble bath to round it out.

Lots of photos

2010-03-07T00:51:00.006-07:00

Well maybe not a ton but for sure some updates!!! So the past month has been busy -

-Steph my oldest sister is married!!! Congrats to her and her new hubby (mike). I am excited to have some of the Harbour clan here in Ogden with me. HE HE HE
-My good friend from work Chelsea is preggers so I threw an awesome baby shower for her with an (if I do say so myself) impressive spread of cupcakes that Steph and I make from scratch.
-I painted my fireplace!!!

I didn't grab any pics from the wedding cause I was too busy fussing over Steph (which was so much fun, all of us are so great at giving directions but not that great at taking direction)

So first pics from the baby shower - I really got a crafty nerve for this one. Ever since we first found out Chels was preg we were planning on doing a shower at our house so I had a long time to get excited for it. I occasionally love to bake and came up with the bright idea to do cupcakes and in my true nature I could not do just one kind no - I had to do seven. Thankfully my sister now lives in Ogden and I recruted her to help me.

Here we are - so gorgeous in our baking garb - trying not to eat the cupcakes

they were so good, these ones were mini chocolate -salted caramel filled. Yummy!! I did not take a pic of the first batch of caramel that I burned beyond creation - literally it looked like bubbling black tar. Not yummy.
- PS saundi - steph said I need to perfect the caramel recipe so I can mail you some salted caramels -

Then one day at work a fellow nurse (chau) and I were talking about fun gifts and we brought up diaper cakes. I had seen another person at the hospital get one from someone who had made it at home so I figured if they can do it, so can I!

So I did!! The plastic in the photo you will understand a few pics down. - So cute! Yeaaaa me.

So here are some pics of the final spread. There were white cupcakes with multi colored frosting, raspberry cheesecakes, devils food with chocolate ganache (sp?), strawberry with whipped cream frosting, the mini chocolate salted caramel ones, ....

carrot cake with cream cheese frosting, and german chocolate. Cheslea made some chicken salad and fruit salad to add to the spread. I also made a really good punch.

The gals from work and some friends came to the shower (chelsea is the one in the polka dot shirt in front of the tv)

So the other project that I mentioned was my fireplace. I love the hearth but I hated the pink terra cotta tiles on it. Maybe if we lived in New Mexico, Cali, Arizona and/or it fit with the house but I just felt it did not. So I updated it.

This is a pic of the living room when I started painting before we moved in. I took the pic before I painted the hearth white but that happened right after the pic was snapped. The green that is on the hearth in the pic was the old color of the room.

So because I didn't want to try my hand at tiling quite yet I decided to spray paint. That is right - I got a special primer for porous surfaces, primed it and then used a textured spray paint in a light tan color. It still needs a few more coats for the perfect finish but I think it looks so much better.

Our modern fireplace - I love it and I got to light the candles tonight for the first time. So pretty.

Sorry I'm so awful

2010-02-07T22:04:00.003-07:00

So I know I have been horrible! No posting in almost two months. No time to upload tonight but I did snap a few pics from the Super Bowl party we had tonight and I will post them.

This weekend we are heading down to Arizona for my sisters wedding. Woo hoo.

I Survived My First 1/2 Marathon!!!

2009-12-07T20:34:00.005-07:00

Hello everyone - I did it!!!!
Sunday Dec 6, 09 was the Inaugural Rock and Roll Las Vegas Marathon

This past weekend I went to Vegas with Michelle -my friend from Mt- and some of her friends (Amy, Sue and Luis). We spent the first few days walking around Vegas looking at the casinos and stuff because Michelle had never been. We had some wonderful food, we had amazing seats to see O by Cirque De Sole(sp?) at the Bellagio and then watched the fountains.

Saturday we did some more walking around.

Sunday was the big day, we woke up at 5am to get ready.

We stayed at the Mandalay Bay hotel as the race started in their parking lot. The total count for the participants was around 27,500. This race was a new one in a group of races called the "rock and roll" series so in the AM they set off some fireworks to get things going. It was amazing to see the strip full of runners waiting to get started. That lighted bridge all the way up there is the start line.

They have the runners organized into corrals (yes like cattle) and they release the corrals in timed intervals so the race way does not get clogged. We lined up in corral #12 (even though none of our numbers were in 12 - he he he). We got lined up and then we were off ---
I put a big arrow over my head - yeaaaaa thats me-

I did make the rookie mistake of running way too fast!!! Amy (who didn't run this one but she was our amazing support crew) warned me of this. I had been training with an average of apx 15 min miles - my first 7 miles were averaging 10 min miles-. The race was very entertaining. We saw many many people dressed up as Elvis, many people dressed up as Santa, a trio of guys running as the Three Amigos, and also a lot of people with wedding attire as there was a run through wedding chapel and vow renewal area. As it was a Rock n Roll event there were many bands scattered along the way, my fav were the Japanese Drummers around mile 6-7ish.

I did hit "The Wall" for me it was around mile 8-9, my feet just felt like steel boots were strapped on them and I was craving pancakes (obviously I was in need of carbs). Thankfully there was a GU station at mile 9. GU is disgusting (-sorry to the makers- it is a carbohydrate filled, artificially flavored, gelatinous gob) but it was the most glorious looking thing at the time, I just needed something to keep me going. I passed up the Holiday GU (vanilla gingerbread, double yuck) and stuck with the triple berry. I told my dad I felt like such a hard core runner with my GU packet in one hand and my water and Cytomax (like power aid) in the other hand. With no free hands I had to tear my GU packet open with my teeth, squeeze a bunch in my mouth, chase it with my fluids and then throw them to the side of the road and keep going.

The last 3 miles were very hard and I swear there were really 5 miles in between the mile markers. My friends were already finished and waiting under mile marker 13 to cheer me on to the end but I was so ready to be done and so focused on my music that I ran by them. My friend Michelle said I looked really angry, oops I should of tried to smile.

-here is a link of me actually crossing the finish line *click here* you may have to search my name, I am at the top of the screen and if you watch they will count it down for when I am gonna cross-

My final time was 3hr 2min and 22 sec (03:02:22) wooo hooo!!! I didn't realize I had done that well cause the finish line clock counts the "gun time" which is when the first corral was released - we didn't get released until 24min later- they record both times.
Here is my metal for finishing!!!

After the race we went out to breakfast and I ate some great pancakes and eggs Benedict. Everyone else was ready to go out for the rest of the day as this was not their first race - I went up to the room and slept for abt 3 hrs-
Today I am back home with my wonderful husband. I am very sore and right now stairs are my enemy but I know I will recover.
I am planing on doing 2 more 1/2's this late spring and summer - woo hoo!!!!

Wonderful Thanksgiving

2009-11-29T18:12:00.003-07:00

-be prepared to read, it is a long one -
So this past week and a halfish we have had a wonderful time with all our family. Starting on Fri the 20th my mom and dad flew in from Wash DC to stay with us a few days.

While they were here they met Mike Garis (my sister Stephs fiance), we went out to dinner together and had a great time teasing Steph. Those of you who know her know she likes to "control" a situation or at least be present to mediate. She was very nervous about Mom and Dad meeting Mike with out her being here. We did play a little trick on her the first night we all went out to dinner (because we were all getting along so well). Towards the end of dinner I texted Steph that things had gotten tense at dinner and Mike had gotten up and walked out. Steph didn't believe me at first so I did a little more convincing. Mike was in on it too!! We didn't lead her on for long (prob abt 2 min is all) and it prob was a little mean, but we love you steph. She didn't find it that amusing, understandably.

On Sunday the 22 Mom and Dad, Ben and I drove up in our separate cars to Mt. Ben and I were able to stay in Mt until Wed the 25th.

We got to spend lots of time with my fam and it was so great! My lil niece Charlotte (daughter of my brother Derek and his wife Beth) is 1 yr old now and so cute. I was afraid she would not want Ben or I to hold her but thankfully she wasn't scared of us at all.

While up there we drove to Spokane Wa and picked up Stephs wedding dress! I know Feb will come fast for all of us but prob a lot faster for her. We weren't there cause we had to come back to Ogden for my work but Mike proposed so now they are officially engaged.

On Wed we drove back into town, bummer. I ended up not having to go into work on Turkey day because we didn't have enough patients to justify all the nurses who were staffed (thankfully). We went up to Mom and Dad Keeffers for dinner. After dinner and dessert Ben and Meg (along with their kids)and John came over to play cards and hang out. I stayed up way to late and felt it in the a.m. when I had to wake up at 0400 for work. The next few days were just normal work and chores.

Then today was Johhnys farewell talk, he goes into the provo MTC this Wed. I can't believe it has come up so fast. Also Mikaela Passey was blessed in the same Sac meeting, she wore a very cute very puffy white and brown dress. After the meeting we all went to the Pleasant View city building and had a potluck.

Now Ben and I are just hanging out at home, watching some football. Duke is here hanging out with us once again as Steph is in town to visit Mike. -see mom he fits in this bed much better, he thanks you and dad for getting it for him, i'm sure-

And lastly we are thankful for all of our wonderful friends and family, even if we don't get a chance to see you often or talk to you know that we care for all of you.

another week - another plumbing problem

2009-11-09T22:38:00.006-07:00

We love our new house but needless to say we do not love all of the plumbing problems we have run into. For the first few weeks we have run into 3 different plumbing problems. First on moving in the upstairs shower was constantly dripping hot water, no matter what we did it continued to drip. We finally called a plumber and about $200 dollars later the shower was fixed.

The second plumbing problem we had was the main floor toilet. We had not been able to use it since we moved in because it would not flush. First I tried to fix it one day while Ben was at work. I disassembled the whole toilet, snaked it with our sad little snake we bought at Lowes, then reassembled it with no improvement. We caved and decided to try a plumber, we were hoping it would be something covered in our home warranty. The plumber came out and had to disassemble the whole toilet again, this time he had success! He found a huge chunk of glass that was lodged in the line (his first question to us was "Did ya'll get really mad at each other recently?"). Obviously it was something dropped down the line while the toilet was off before as it was so big it would not of been able to be flushed. So after another $160 (this repair is going to be one of our Christmas presents from my Mom and Dad) we thought we were all done with plumbing disasters for a while.

But no.........

Friday night we had our first dinner party!! We had some old neighbors from the apartments come over for dinner. After we finished eating we loaded the dishwasher and started it so it could run while we watched the Jazz game. Ben walked in mid dishwasher cycle to a sink completely backed up with dirty water. Most of the water drained overnight- or so we thought-. No it just drained down into the dishwasher.

Ben really did not want to shell more money out to a plumber so we called in the family troupes. Ben, Ben Passey and John all worked on the sink tonight and after a good handful of hours, two pizzas and some frustration we have a fully operational sink and dishwasher!!

Woo Hoo - I am glad I have a hubby who is willing to be a DIYer.

update

2009-10-31T20:30:00.002-06:00

So we have successfully moved completely into our house! Things have been busy so we haven't taken many pictures but I promise I will start taking some more.

moving day #1

2009-10-24T19:24:00.005-06:00

Hey all,

So today we started moving!!! Ben and I started out by scavenging for boxes. We started at some of the local grocery stores and when that didn't work we hit the local liquor store (hey the lady at one of the grocery stores told us to go there). Thankfully they had plenty of boxes, now we just don't want our new neighbors to think we are boozers.

So our moving crew consisted of Ben, Me, Megan (one of bens lil sisters) and Ben Passey, John (ben's lil brother), Matt (bens older bro) and Val, and one of our downstairs abhors Brad.
Matt was able to borrow his father-in-laws flat bed truck so we moved most of our large furniture today using that. The other stuff we just boxed up in our liquor boxes and moved them over to the house.
We took a Burger King lunch brake and then moved some more.

Towards then end of the move I was able to stay behind at the house with Meg and I started painting our accent wall. It only has the first coat on but I think it looks pretty cool. We are gonna paint the fireplace and change the tile.

A few days ago Meg was over at our house while we were doing some work on it. We were all outside as Ben was cleaning some gutters, Tafton decided to try to climb the ladder. He could only make it to the first rung with out more help but I thought it was a cute photo opp.

We are gonna spend tonight (sat night) and sun night in the apartment, then the first night in our new house will be Mon night after we watch our first Monday Night Football in our new house.

Work on the house

2009-10-22T21:41:00.003-06:00

So we have been able to do some more work on the house the past week.
Below is a pic of the carnage that I was able to create after going nuts with the clippers and shovel.

Ben and John finishing up on some work about a week ago.

So today I spent a lot of money buying paint and suff at Lowes. I got to the house and started cleaning and preping to paint. It was amazing how dirty the place was. I just washed the walls, baseboards, molding and it was amazing how much dirt I cleaned off of them. Most of the walls in the house are green, not to knock green but it just is not my fav color. Below is a pic of the bedroom turning from green to a really pretty grey/blue color.

Then here is the front sitting room going from ..... you guessed it green now to a nice light tan color.

I was docked from work tomorrow (we don't have enough patients to keep all the nurses working) so hopefully I can get the living room painted and do another coat in the front sitting room.

work work work ---- we are gonna try to move this saturday and monday!

Our first day of yard work

2009-10-10T22:39:00.002-06:00

So we closed on our house Friday Oct 9th at 3.30pm!!! We will get the keys Tuesday (the house usually takes 24hrs to record but we had the luck of closing on a holiday weekend). Today Ben and I just couldn't wait anymore so even though we were trespassing today we went in and started yard work.
We saw some interesting things today. So many so that I am just going to list them

1. The biggest harriest spider EVER!! Ben killed it for me and described it as "custard filled"
2. A porcelain cereal bowl.
3. A lid to a round Pyrex bowl
4. Two kinds of Lilac plants (amazingly still labeled)
5. A big pile of rocks we can use to finish a rock path at the side of our house
6. TONS of grape vine!! (one vine climbed two separate trees and was starting to choke them, the trees looked half the fullness they originally were pre vine removal)
7. Various imported Mexican beer cans
8. Various soda and energy drink cans
9. A shoe insole
10. Towels and rags
11. A ton of fuzzy stuff and random pieces of yellow foam
12. The head to an old broom
13. Oh wait..... two more kinds of Lilac for four types total
14. More grape vine!!!

I might of forgot to list some tupper-ware (sp?) that we found also but I think that covered most of the random items we found.

I didn't take pics yet but I promise to start photo documentation of the destruction and reconstruction of things.

I know that list makes our sweet little house sound like a pile of junk but I promise it isn't. We just think that two families ago were people who cared for this little house and then unfortunately the last family who lived there did not care at all. Thankfully we now have this wonderful place and we are gonna pour lots of blood, sweat and I am sure some tears into this place.

Let the work begin-----------

Hoping to close this week.

2009-09-27T14:57:00.003-06:00

So for those of you who don't know we are in the process of buying a house. It has been fairly quick seeing as how a month ago we weren't thinking we were gonna move for a while. Wed our home inspector is going through and then hopefully we will be able to close at the end of this week or early next week. We don't think the reality has really set in yet that we are buying a home. Crazy!!!!

I am a slacker

2009-09-05T08:43:00.003-06:00

Hello once again. Like usual it has been a long time since I have posted. Ben and I have had a busy couple of weeks with family and getting some new things started. Becca Bens little sister got married a couple of weeks ago so some family came in from out of town (Charissa and her little girl Leah from Md).

Then we were able to drive up to Nampa, Id and have a weekend with Ben's Grandpa and Grandma. Ben's gpa competes in various senior Olympics and we were able to go with him for his basketball event where he won a gold metal.

While in Nampa I bought some new running shoes and I am trying to get them broken in before I kill myself.. oops I mean before I do my half marathon in Dec.

We got home and settled from Idaho when Megan (Bens other little sister) had her second baby Mikaela! She is so little compared to the big kid that her 16 month old is. She is a beautiful little girl who we are excited to see grow up.

As Megan was recovering in the hospital John (bens little brother) got his mission call in the mail - it must of been one they were certain of because it only took one week. He is going to the DC South mission! I called my parents because they live in Falls Church, VA which is in the mission John will be going (he goes in Dec 2)

The next news is that Ben and I are looking for a house. We have been talking and shooting around the idea. We figured we are ready and we should move before the tax credit runs out. Right now we love one house on the East Bench in Ogden and today we are going to look at a few in Roy and Washington Terrace. We have discovered we are not afraid to make quick decisions, we started out with about 45 houses to look at between the above areas. We have been driving around looking at the outside and more importantly to both of us the neighborhoods. We now have that list down to about 5, 4 of which we get to look inside of today and the list will prob get much shorter.

When we make a decision you can gaurentee there will be photos!! We have already bombarded our close friends and family with plenty of them for the house on the East Bench area.

Sorry again for the long time- no post. I'll try to be better.

trip to denver

2009-07-21T12:00:00.003-06:00

So last weekend I took a semi impromptu trip to Denver with two of my High School friends. Sarah (the blond one) called me a few weeks prior and asked if I wanted to go to Denver with her as she tried out for American Idol. We ended up roping in one of our other friends Angela to go with us. We drove into Denver,Co on Sat and got settled in.
Sunday was the first day of registration. It was very interesting to see some of the audition process as it is very different from what you see on TV. So Sunday we went and got lined up at Mile High Staduim. They opened up the parking gates at 3am- we went and got lined up at about 5am. We were expecting to be sitting outside till about 12 but we got registered and our tickets at about 8am.

Just lined up and waiting.

So here we are with our arm bands- The orange means you were trying out and the blue was for your designated supporter.

We were surprised to be processed so fast as the line was about 3/4 around the stadium when we got lined up. We ended up driving around Denver and getting a little acquainted with the surroundings. Those wonderful armbands they put on us, we had to keep them in place and dry until Tuesday.

-We have more photos to come----

Not much happening

2009-07-03T22:59:00.002-06:00

Hello all,
So I haven't posted in a bit cause Ben and I have just kinda been chugging through normal life. Tonight we went out for dinner and then stopped by Albertsons to get some pie (we figured we could get a whole one for the same price as a slice at the restaurant) when I saw these cool roses. Ben bought them for me 80) - I really am such a lucky girl!! I just don't remember ever seeing yellow and red roses. Soooo yeah sorry there is not more news.

Productive weekend

2009-06-14T16:06:00.003-06:00

Yes it was, a productive weekend that is. Ben and I were able to go over to Ben and Megan Passeys (Megan is one of Bens lil sisters) house and continue to help them prep their house. We helped them paint some more and even pull carpet out of a room to discover hardwood floors underneath. When we got home we needed to rearrange our living room so we could fit Bens recliner in the room.

No we did not go buy a recliner, it was free!!!! Don and Charissa (Charissa is one of Bens older sisters) who currently live in Cumberland,Md told Ben a while ago that if he could find a way to get the recliner here to Utah he could have it. Ben took a lot of time researching how much it would cost to ship the thing and decided he would wait to figure out some other way. John his little brother graduated from high school this year and took a cross country trip with his parents to see Charissa and her family, also Jessica(also a Keeffer sister) and her family in North Carolina. They happened to take the minivan which left plenty of open space for ......the recliner.
Our living room basically rotated 90 degrees. We have limited space so there weren't a lot of options.
Here is Ben relaxing for the first time in his chair.

Here is the living room now. The TV is in the right hand corner that you don't see.

After all of that Ben, Megan, their lil guy Tafton, and John came over to watch a movie in the newly arranged room. Tafton has been giving mom and dad a run for their money when they try to change his diaper, it is usually a two person attack tactic. Here he was trying to make a get away, first mom caught him (not shown) then dad finally got him.

Our 1 year anniversary

2009-05-26T14:23:00.005-06:00

Hello - get ready for a long post!!!!!

So Ben and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary on Sunday May 24th. It is hard to believe that one year has passed. We decided to celebrate by going north for the weekend. Friday we picked up our small cake (so we didn't have to eat frozen ucky cake) and headed up to North Fork, ID to a bed and breakfast -100 Acre Wood Resort-. As a wedding gift my Aunt gave us a one night stay in a master suite. We had a wonderful dinner of steak and I got some crab with my steak 80) for dessert it was an orange creme brulee.

The view from the deck of our room.

We had a lot of fun looking out at the pond and the five new goslings that were running around.

The next morning we had a huge breakfast and then went to visit my Auntie Viccie who lives on the Salmon river. She and her friend Sid live on some property that is across the river in order to access the property you have to use the cable car of float across the river. They use a solar power generator for any "power" requirements. Sid purchased a washer and dryer, got it across river and hooked up, only to find out that it would not run off a generator. So while we were visiting we helped Anutie Viccie and Sid get the washer and dryer back across the river.

First Ben and Sid secured the appliances one at a time into the front loader tractor.

Then Sid drove them down to the raft.

Ben and Sid loaded the appliances onto the platform of the raft and secured them so that even if the raft tipped over the washer and dryer would not come loose. 80) Ben just told Sid "How about we don't tip the raft over, then we wont have to worry about it."

Because it is still early summer/late spring the river is running high and fast so Ben and Sid had to walk to raft up river a bit in order to make the pull out point they wanted.

Ben looking good while they were making it across the river.

Now comes the fun undocumented part. After we got the washer and dryer successfully across the river and into the trailer we had to make it back across the river. Because the river is moving so fast right now there was no way to row against the current to make it back to the property so Ben and Sid had placed the motor on the back of the raft and tested it out. With everything loaded up I asked to ride back across the river with Sid, after Ben pushed us off the bank and we were about 2 feet out the motor died. Sid was not happy, we were able to pull over only to spend some time assessing the damage and decided we were not going to be able to make it back up stream. Sid hollered to Ben the name of the take out point and then Sid and I went on an impromptu river ride. Auntie Viccie and Ben had to bring the truck and trailer to the take out point were we disassembled the raft completely.

This is us in the back of Sids truck. We did get a bit sunburned but not all that bad. So a bit wet and tired we said good bye to Sid and Auntie Viccie who was headed out to work and we got on the road to Missoula, Mt.

We took a brake from snapping photos then next day but had a lot of fun celebrating Beths (my brothers wife) birthday and just hanging out. Steph hooked up her WII and we made some great idiots out of ourselves doing soccer, hula hooping and ski jumping. Also just holding and talking to our cute niece Charlotte.

These are the flowers Ben got for me Saturday night. He suprised me with them Sunday morning however I found out about them Sat night. Sat as we headed up to Saundie and Matts from Beth and Dereks there was a huge lightning storm that knocked the power out. Ben told me he was going to cut and arrange the flowers after I had fallen asleep but with no power he couldn't see anything. I was so tired I was almost asleep when I told him he should just put them in some water and we could do it in the morning. When I woke up they were cut and arranged by the bed. Ben said he had a flashlight and found a hacksaw in the garage so he decided to cut them and arrange them during the night for me. Not may people can say they used a hacksaw for cutting flowers.

Now to Charlotte Harbour and the wonderful messy thing that is feeding time. She has to be one of the messiest babies when she eats. She just loves to turn her head to see what is going on and wont sit any kind of straight at all. 80) We love you CharHar.

See what I mean.

Now here is why I can tell that Charlotte is my brothers lil girl. Below is my brother feeding her in what I can only describe as the baby food funneling method. He has obviously done this before because she eats really well like this and loves it.!!! My brother is a goof.

Oh wait a camera..........

Ok more food now. 80)

It was so nice to spend so much time with family and we hope to do it again soon.

My Trukey

2009-05-10T21:53:00.005-06:00

Happy Mothers Day

Oh first here is a pretty pic of lilacs that I cut from Joanne and Dennie's yard for the table. Reminded me of all the lilacs we planted in Montana.

So this weekend was mothers day!!! I got a call last week from my lil sister in law asking if we could help out with mother day dinner, we decided we would go all out and roast a turkey. I had seen a method called brining (brine - ing) it is kinda like a seasoned salt water bath for the turkey.

So here is my brine while it is simmering on the stove. I use thyme, rosemary, sage, onion, carrots, celery, paprika, and some bay leaves.

After it came down to room temp and the turkey was thawed it go to hop into its bath overnight.

then drum roll please ..... brummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm
The finished product!!! It was really moist, this was the first time I have not used one of those reynolds cooking bags. I also rubbed a compote butter of sage and some other stuff under the skin.

Exciting weekend

2009-05-03T10:55:00.004-06:00

So this weekend was packed and so wonderful! First my sister Stephanie drove back down from Missoula, Montana to meet our friend Amber in Salt Lake. Amber flew in from the east coast to do her mothers temple work in the SLC temple. Thurs we went out for dinner up here in Ogden, Friday I was able to head down to SLC where we went out to lunch, met up with some more of Ambers friends, then went through the SLC temple. It was a very special occasion and extra special for me as it was the first time through the SLC temple and the first time with my sister Steph. I was preparing to go to dinner with the clan when I checked my email and had a notice from my professor that I had apx 4 hours left to take my online final. OOPS- So I had to pass on dinner and take my final as Ben drove down from Ogden to come pick me up.
As I went to start my final I got a call from my brother Derek and his wife Beth (they also live in Missoula, Mt) they had come down on a quick trip to Ogden for a family friends wedding and wanted to know if we were free for dinner.
At this point I was so frustrated that I had to miss both dinners to take this stupid test!!!! Oh well, Ben came and got me and we were able to see Beth and Bud for a few minutes before Charloette became, as they so lovelingly dubbed her " the screaming hornet" CharHar was really tired and had not slept all day so we excused ourselves and went home.
Wait I'm not finished yet.......
Then came Saturday! Tafton Jay Passeys first birthday. Ben and I spent some time in the morning running errands and buying last minute presents (really is there any other kind). We headed over to the Megan and Bens for the party. Tafton was in a really good mood got even more excited when Matt(megan and my bens older brother) and Val brought there lil dog with them. Tafton opened presents, played with ballons (which scared me because I could hear my Uncle Scott in the background telling me stories about lil kids choking on the pieces when they popped, he is a firefighter chief and EMT). Then ate some cake and made a much smaller mess than expected. After all the family went home Ben and Megan Passey, Ben and I and our friends Kip and Jackie with there little 2 year old Zach stayed to hang out. We ate some nutrisous pizza from dominoes and watched Harry Potter cause it was already on TV. Kip and Jackie had to head out early cause Zach we getting tired so the 4 of use left broke out a game of scrabble. The game was doing well but ended early because as Megan was passing Tafton to me to say goodnight-he was smack dab above the board- and then lost his dinner. Funny but you probably had to be there. And no I did not get pics of that.
Today I went to church alone cause Ben was sick and didn't get much sleep last night. The big man upstairs must have known what was going on cause only one girl in our class came today.

ahhhhhh So that was our/my weekend. I think it was the most exciting one we have had in a while. Thanks family for being our entertainment.

Pics below

Me with my little niece, if you look close you can see she is starting to fuss.

Full blown fuss mode aka "the screaming hornet"

Tafton with his cake and candle, the pic you don't see here is the one were he had pushed himself as far back in his chair as he can to get away from that candle.

Tafton ready to do some damage. He really didn't get that messy but he did fling a good bit of cake around with the fork.

Two signs summer is coming

2009-04-26T16:22:00.002-06:00

YES I finally bought my first watermelon this means there are soon to be many more to follow. Not much else happened this week (I know our lives are pretty sedate when a watermelon is the top of the list).
Steph got back from DC, I picked her up and she headed right up to home in Missoula only to be returning on Thursday.

I will have some new pics this weekend from Steph and Amber being here.

More Painting Pics

2009-04-19T13:47:00.004-06:00

So I took a photo half way through the first wall cause I was afraid if I just took a photo at the end no one would be able to tell the difference.

I was wrong, at least I can see the difference. I love it, this color makes our room seem so much bigger and brighter than before. I promise to post photos when we get the finishing touches on it.

This weekend

2009-04-10T22:11:00.004-06:00

So mom I forgot to tell you this is what the Easter package you sent me came to me looking like. Thankfully everything was intact when it got here.

Ben came home from work this afternoon and surprised me with these........

He just felt like getting me flowers. I love him! I look so awesome cause we didn't take this pic till tonight after I got into my sweats.

We finally started prepping our room for painting this weekend. So like any good home/apartment project I thought we needed to have some photo documentation. Here is the horrid color that it is currently.

As we were removing some tape stuck to the wall we accidentally removed a chunk of the wall with the tape and made this awesome discovery, some old horrid wallpaper!! It looks like some white palm trees on a blue/green background, classic.

So here are our first two coats of primer. Hopefully we can finish priming all the walls tomorrow and maybe even paint. We are thankful that we have an inflatable bed so we can bum it in the living room while the paint fumes clear out.

Lazy Sunday

2009-04-05T17:09:00.002-06:00

Hello all,
Again we have been lax in out posts, oops. Not much new going on, just life. Work, school, blah blah blah.
The weather has been crazy here in Utah, one day it is sunny and clear then the next there are snow flurries. We keep waiting for winter to be out the door and spring to get here. I do get to see Stephanie tonight as she is coming into town with Duke, on their way to Falls Church to be with my Mom while she is recovering from knee surgery. Bens mom also had shoulder replacement surgery so both moms are semi out of commission.

We wish them well and hope that they keep getting stronger every day.

Hopefully something more exciting will happen soon so we have some fun updates!!!

Ben and Sarina

Wild Hair

2009-03-13T16:06:00.002-06:00

Sorry it has been a while from out last post.

We have seen a lot of people in the past few weeks. We were able to travel out to DC/MD area for Treys baptism, last night one of my best friends and her hubby were in town from Washington state and stayed with us in our lil apartment. Now I have just booked a ticket to fly up to Montana tomorrow to visit my sisters, brother, in laws and lil niece. I'm excited and this time I will take my camera so I can capture some photos. I could not believe that I have not taken any pictures for a while, not like me at all.

Last night was a lot of fun, Christine and Josh came up to stay with us. Christine and I went out to eat sushi while Josh went with Ben to play some basketball. I wish they could of stayed longer but they had to get home to wash come clothes before they head out to Cali for a beach stay.

I do have to say sorry to Katie cause I will miss her Baby shower but I'll drop off my gift with Meg.

I'm so excited now!!! I have been missing my siblings. SEE YA SOON!

We're here!!

2009-02-25T17:50:00.003-07:00

Hello everyone,

Well Ben and I (along with JoAnne and Dennis) flew out here to Washington DC to visit my parents and see Trey our nephew get baptized. We didn't do much today but we are wiped out from traveling. We are gonna stay near DC with my parents for a few days and then head up to Cumberland, MD and hang out with the Keeffer/Bishop/Otto clan.

Happy Valentines Day

2009-02-17T19:12:00.004-07:00

We have granite in our kitchen!

To bad the piece is only about 15"x23" but hey it is pretty.

Ben got me this cart to replace the little ugly black one that we had. This card has a bunch more storage space and two drawers (one is enclosed and the other is the metal basket). The second level down is also a tray that is removable. Ben actually bought it about a week before V day and was gonna hide it in one of the neighbors apartments but no one was home.

We also got a gift from grandma harbour i'll post later with pics of tafton (our nephew) playing with it and today I got a heart shaped silicone pan from mom and dad. Maybe tonight (if my stomach can handle it) I'll make ben some heart shaped brownies.

Hope all of you had a great Valentines Day.

I'm still recovering from a wicked stomach flu I got on Sunday, woo hoo.

Late Superbowl Post

2009-02-07T22:06:00.002-07:00

See with us it is feast or famine.... So as I was uploading some photos I realized that I never posted the pic of us and out little Superbowl get together. Due to the limited space of out apartment we only invited family. There ended up being about 10 of us and we were all pretty comfortable. We moved out kitchen pub table into the corner of the living room as the snack table and just hung out. It was lots of fun, Ben put together some betting sheets (no one put money down, it was just for fun) that really helped people pay attention to what was going on in the game. It was really great and we wish we had a place big enough for ALL our family. 80)

Snowboarding

2009-02-07T17:52:00.002-07:00

So today I got to so snowboarding for the first time this season and only the third time since I moved back to Utah. A group of us from work got together and headed up to Snow Basin, all together it was Me and Kim (in photo below while we were waiting for everyone else) Chau and her fiance Lane, Kathy and her son. It was such a nice day - beautiful sunny skies most of the day. Chau got some more photos and she will post them on facebook so if your linked to me you should be able to see them.

Wall colors

2009-02-06T21:07:00.003-07:00

So here are the different paint colors we are looking at. I think we are gonna pick the one that is in the middle, possibly one that is a little lighter.

Hello all

2009-02-02T12:36:00.001-07:00

Well I could not believe that it has been almost a month from out last posting. Not much has been going on, just life in general. I am taking 2 college courses to get better grades in them than I got before. We are gonna paint our bedroom a different color and I'll post the different colors we are looking into. We had a great superbowl party yesterday with family and that was lots of fun. 80) I'll post a pic tonight. promise!

Happy Feb!

Hello

2009-01-07T21:51:00.002-07:00

Just wanted to take a quick minute to say hi. Ben and I took down our Christmas decorations this week - kinda sad but oh well. We still have our naked Christmas tree sitting in the corner waiting for us to take it to get recycled. We have had a lot of snow in the past few days and it has given me a good work out keeping the sidewalks cleared. Now I just need to carry my shoveling work out into the gym and exercise more. Like everyone else in most of the world I have made some resolutions to be healthier.

We would like to wish everyone a Happy New Year once again, cause hey it is fun. Also it is hard to believe that 2009 is already here.

Its a bird, its a plane no waits its......

2008-12-30T16:33:00.004-07:00

Our Thank You Cards!!!!!

Finally I know. 80) I feel so happy to have these finally done. Not the pic below, it is a reminder to do our notes..... yeah look at the date. August 7th. It is still on the fridge but now I get to scrub it off that white board.

So some of you may see a thank you note in the mail soon. I'm just happy I was able to finally get them sent off and let people know we are really thankful for all the gifts.

Wonderful Christmas

2008-12-29T12:39:00.002-07:00

Hello all. So Ben and I had were able to have a wonderful First Christmas together. We both worked Christmas Eve and spent that night here at our apartment. Christmas morning we woke up and went up to Ben's parents house to exchange presents. As we left the house we were greeted by a bad snow storm.

We were scheduled to leave salt lake city at about 445pm but because of the storm we hopped onto an early fight. We arrived into phoenix at abt 5pm and went over to our Aunt Janet and Uncle Scott house for dinner and to see a number of our cousins. The house is beautiful and large enough to contain all of us.

We were able to meet some of our cousins new babies and just spend time hanging out with everyone.
We flew out Sunday morning back to Utah.

We had a wonderful time and it was so great to see every one and meet the new little additions to the family.

Hello Again

2008-12-21T16:10:00.004-07:00

Well sorry it has been a while since out last posts. As some of you know the hard drive on my MacBook crashed so I have not posted. Not much new is going on with us. Ben is averaging about 60 hours a week right now with the increase in mail traffic. I have just been keeping busy with chores and my usual work schedule. We got my computer back yesterday and were excited to video conference with Mom and Dad Harbour out in Va. Beth and Derek (along with Charlotte) were also out there to watch various Montana Grizz championship football games so we got to see our beautiful niece and her big eyes.

I highly recommend Skype for families who have internet access and a web cam - if both parties use the Skype application to video conference the call is free. I love being able to see my family every week.

Ok off my soapbox -

Well I would love to wish everyone a Merry Christmas as it is just around the corner and travel safely if you are heading out for the holidays.

Little Update

2008-12-01T13:00:00.002-07:00

Hello all.
Well so just thought I'd put a little note in about our week. On Sunday Ben and I spoke in church on thanksgiving and eternal families. The talks went well but I always feel like when I talk I zone out and forget what I was doing. 80) Ben is a really good speaker and did a very good job.

Yesterday we also got called to teach primary CTR 7 starting in Jan. It will be interesting to see how we hold up as teachers.

Other than that not much going on. We are gonna set up some Christmas stuff this week and just get ready to welcome 2009 in next month.

HAPPY HOLIDAYS EVERYONE!!!!

I am this game....

2008-11-26T15:42:00.001-07:00

You Are Boggle

You are an incredibly creative and resourceful person.

You're able to dig deep and think outside the box to get things done.

You are a non linear thinker. You don't like following directions

You draw your inspiration from the strangest places sometimes. You're constantly inspired.

What Board Game Are You?

2008-11-14T19:15:00.002-07:00

Hello all,
Well not much has been happening but we got some exciting news today as my wonderful Sister -in-law Beth started contractions today. Her due date was Nov 12th and hopefully little Charlotte will great us any time now.

Below are some flowers my neighbor brought me (it is awesome having a friend who works in a flower shop). Apparently the flower store only allows flowers to stay in the cooler for a allotted number of days before the are "expired". Then the flowers would just get thrown out so they let the employees take them home. Alaieda brought theses up to me the other day because she and her husband already have a few arrangements. 80)

So that is about it. Ben and I are just getting excited to head up to Montana next week to see all the family and hopefully our new Niece.

Nice Note Today

2008-11-03T22:10:00.003-07:00

So today I got a nice thank you note from a patient. Not sure if you can read it, it says how this patient was in the hospital with an NG (nasogastric) tube in place. Yes as you think it is a tube we insert through the nose, thread through the sinuses, down the throat and into the stomach when some one has been nauseated and vomiting for a number of days (sorry if that grossed any of you out). Any whoooo his grand kids were coming in to visit him and they are very young. He was concerned about them being scared and not understanding what was happening to grandpa. As a distraction we improvised and made him into an elephant (well hey the trunk was already in place). We improvised and used oxygen tubing and some plastic absorptive squares (chux) to make ears. We used cast netting to cover his tube and turn it into a trunk.

I remember seeing my Grandpa Harbour when he was sick and not understanding why he looked different so I was happy to help.

It is not always the guts medical happenings that make me love nursing, it is also the way I get to be a small part of so many peoples lives 80) and hopefully touch them for the better.

Now on a much lighter note! For halloween ben and I did not do much. Here were my personal treats. yummy !

It is hard to wear any extravagant costumes at work so all of us who were working decided to do something with our hair. Some wore ears, one spray painted her hair and this is what I did. I got some cheep tarantulas and used them as hair accents. 80)

And last but not least our newest addition to our apartment. We had the cheep square piece of glass below the lights as a light fixture in our room. We have managed to break about 4 of them when fluffing our down comforter. We decided to upgrade and get something we hopefully can not break. Ben is my handyman and got this installed in about 30 minutes. I love him.

My Gift Today

2008-10-30T17:40:00.004-06:00

Today my neighbor called me and let me know I would get a free rose today. She works at Jimmys Floral on Washington Blvd and they change the name on their sign every day. Apparently they have a name board where you can submit a name to be posted, she submitted mine when she started working there.

I never thought I would see my name up there for a free rose.

Our Floors!

2008-10-13T21:28:00.005-06:00

Well as promised here are some pics of the flooring we installed this weekend.

Still in the package just waiting in the living room. You have to let the boards acclimate for where they will be installed.

Here Ben is getting out the last bit of carpet. The floors down are the original ones and in the pic they look good but not so much in person. 80)

The hall without carpet, we think the wood must have been in really bad condition here because they tore it all out.

Our poor bedroom during the construction phases. Needless to say it was a tight squeeze.

Same story in the kitchen.

Ben not wanting me to take a picture but i did anyways. The only piece we could not move out of the room was the desk so we worked around it.

The green stuff is the underlay material so the floors are not so noisy. It also helps level out the ground from any small imperfections.

Due to the bad weather we had to have the table saw inside, we decided all the sawdust could be easier contained in the bathroom. I did all cutting with the saw cause some how Ben got dropped off the insurance.

Almost there!!! This was about halfway, we were getting so close.

Finally the finished product!! We still have to lay the hallway but the living room is all done and we think it looks really great. Total time was about 12hrs but not bad. I will total up the cost when I have a chance but I know we came in under $300 but I think maybe even under $250.

At last the 11 inches of snow that fell saturday night and all morning sunday. 80)
Hope you all enjoy. love ya -Ben and Sarina

Oops

2008-10-09T11:21:00.002-06:00

Sorry it has been over a week from out last post. It was a busy weekend with work and well mainly work. 80) Ben and I bought our laminate flooring and hauled it upstairs. Now we are looking forward to installing it this weekend. We just hope we don't get snowed out. Yeah that's right! It is sup to drop to 47 degrees this saturday (Bens Birthday!) and snow possibly reaching down to the valley.

My good friend Sarah Hendrickson and her husband closed on their house on Monday -CONGRATS TO YOU- so we have started the destruction. It is a sweet old house that has not been updated since the ohhhhhhh early 60's. We primed, tore out and painted the first of the house last night and I look forward to may fun times with my friends in their new house.

I promise to take pics of our work and I think we are in for a fun weekend, no seriously. 80)

feeling uky

2008-10-02T16:03:00.002-06:00

Well hello again,
Just thought I would say hello. As many of you know I got really sick tuesday night. I thought I was feeling better and for the most part am however I have this nagging nausea. I am frustrated!!! I hate feeling icky!!! I am gonna go to the health food store tonight and but some ginger chews to see if they help.
Right now tafton is sleeping on the couch and will prob wake up soon. 80) He is a little sweetheart.....well most of the time. He has started teething and can be a little grump at times also. Thankfully he is so chunky and cute it is hard to get frustrated with him for long. Plus he is easily distracted.
Well love you all and hopefully the ginger chews will work and kick the last bit of this nausea to the curb.

Hello All

2008-09-28T09:57:00.002-06:00

Well I wish we had some earth shattering wonderful amazing news......but nope. Just life as usual here. This morning I am up and trying to make it to our first choir practice, I thought it was odd but apparently ours disbands during summer. ?? Oh well. Ben and I got a great deal on some lamps yesterday! We were at Lowes and they had a 4 piece (1 floor, 2 table and 1 accent) lamp set on sale from $84 for $37. We attempted to by them but they kept ringing up at $88. We went back to the price tag a few times and then had an associate help us. They were in fact the wrong set and were supposed to be $88 but because someone had also stocked two other sets there that matched ours they had to give us the sale price of $37.40.

---I know our lives are so exciting!!! but hey we are happy so that is all that matters--

Anyway. We came home cause I was pretty grumpy from not eating at that point, 80) we got some Taco Bell and hung out. We had Bens sis and hubby come over, our neighbors come up and we watched a dvd on our BluRay player that is in the PlayStation 3 (if i didn't post yet that is what Ben got for his next 4 presents).

Hope ya'll have a great sunday and I will post photos tomorrow.

Update

2008-09-15T16:37:00.002-06:00

Well hello all.
I just wanted to say hi and write a quick update from last week. Today I went shopping and spent some of my B.Day money. I stopped by Down East Outfitters which those of you who shop there already know about their shirts. They just have great long length, higher scoop neck basic shirts. I bought about 5 of them today (good thing they are only about $10 each) for great easy outfits. I am feeling much better and my cold is almost gone, I can breath again!

Well all, have a great week !!!!!

My Birthday continued.......

2008-09-08T21:22:00.003-06:00

So before I told Ben I don't need presents on my birthday but I do always need a cake. 80) It is just that part that makes the day a little more special. So Ben got home from work tonight with my present which is a BaByliss Pro ceramic 1900 watt hair dryer and an ice cream cake from Baskin Robbins. 80) He also stopped and got me some popsicles for my sore throat. I really am a lucky girl who found a wonderful guy. 80) (steph I know you will make a gaging noise/motion at the above statement but hey I have to make sure you gag reflex is still working somehow 80) )

My Birthday!!!

2008-09-08T19:03:00.002-06:00

Well today is my birthday and I was lucky enough to see my Daddy today. He had to come into town for a funeral. Then we got to have dinner and veg out a little before he headed back to Cali. I don't look too great cause I am having HORRIBLE allergies and got about two hours of sleep last night. I also went into work for some extra meetings today.

Then before dad got here today I climbed my stairs to find these waiting on my door step. 80) They are beautiful!!! Thank you so much, they have orchids, lilies, gerber daises, dragon snaps, roses, carnations and many more.

This last pic is from this weekend. As many of you know regular season started Thursday for the NFL and this weekend was packed with games. On Sat ben's lil brother came over and we had a healthy lunch of hot wings and potatoes wedges while we watched some college games too.

A little about this week

2008-08-31T11:57:00.000-06:00

Hello all. So this is the blog I have started for Ben and I to post things on. I don't love the background but I am having trouble putting one on that I do love.

Any how here is a little about what happened this week.

Tuesday and Thursday I got to babysit Tafton.

On Friday I finally got a project done I had wanted to do for a while. The below picture frames started out with boring gray interiors. The small square was a darker gray and the larger was a light gray. I bought $2 worth of craft paper and made these. They tie in all the colors in out living room. Now I just have to get all the pics to go in them.

After I got done with those I realize why I don't do many crafts. They took just under four hours to get done and hung on the wall.

Well that is just about all we did this week.