Hoping to close this week.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.