Buster In A Basket

We got some really cute shots of Buster, so I thought I would share them with blogland!

Here's puppy in a basket:

Some would call this animal cruelty, but I would call it ADORABLE.

Buster in an ugly scarf (it's ugly because Scott's ex made it for him, and I can do it better):

And Buster giving Scott some LOVE:

So cute!

Breaking Old Habits

Mim: How are you today?

Me: Down. Feeling fat and ugly. Want to eat everything.

Mim: You look so good. Try to figure out what's really bothering you.

I've been working really hard on separating eating from emotion. My entire life I've eaten when I was sad, bored, angry, happy; you name it, I ate for it. It doesn't help that every event seems to involve food. It also doesn't help when you have lots of beautiful, slender friends who can seemingly eat anything (and in any quantity) without gaining an ounce.

For reasons I won't go into here, the coping mechanism I developed during my childhood was eating. Eating, for me, filled a hole: an emotional hole.

As I've been taking charge of my mental health (both chemically and psychologically) I went through many steps in which I recognized, understood, accepted, and began to combat this need to eat unnecessarily. Let me tell you: it hasn't been easy. And it's not over yet.

I am getting to the point, however, that (most of the time...) I am able to think about what I eat and why I am eating it. I'm making better choices about what I eat and I am learning to eat until I am not hungry anymore, NOT until I am stuffed full.

But sometimes I get the overwhelming urge to just eat. Eat. EAT. And most of the time I stop, assess that urge, and try to figure out what emotion I'm experiencing and the reason for that emotion. But occasionally, like one time a few weeks ago, I can't fight it, and I end up eating all the creme off of the cookies in a whole box of Oreos (yes, just the creme, I'm a freak), and then I sit around feeling stupid and angry at myself for failing to resist the urge. But the frequency of these "binges" is getting lower and lower, so at least there's progress, right?

I'm actually proud of how far I've come. The other day my coworker filled the candy bowl in her office again with mini Butterfingers (my favorite) and I only ate one. Moments like that make me feel like I'm not a total failure and I can do this!

Now, all that being said, yesterday I ate Sour Skittles and a Milky Way Simply Caramel bar (heaven)...

Babette For Mim

I haven't done anything with yarn for a few months, excepting a project I'm working on right now that I'll reveal in the future. But I haven't posted this picture yet:

It's the "Babette" blanket, from...Interweave Crochet? I'm not sure. But anyway, here's a work-in-progress shot. As you can see, it's turning out very well. I think all the colors are really super fun, but Scott hates it. This is good; whatever things in lots of colors that Scott hates, Mim loves, and the blanket's for her, so we're all set.

I learned a very good lesson while making this blanket: weave in the ends as you go. It will save HOURS. I think if I hadn't done that I would have just made all the squares and then left it in a box somewhere and I would have forgotten it forever, but SMART ME, I thought ahead.

It's a rather small blanket, lap size, so I'm thinking I should expand it before I finish it and put the border on it. I would love that, because let me tell you, this project was addicting!

I think once I'm done working on my current project, or if at some point I need a break, I will go back to this.

Deck Party: Finale!

The weekend before last while I was road-tripping with Mim, Scott spent some time with Ben finishing up the railing on the deck. It looks so good! It looks crooked in some of these shots, but trust me, it isn't:


Next to it you can see the old deck, and if you look really closely you'll see that the railing on it is literally crumbling apart:

So, it's finished! We can have the inspector come and check it out now!

(We do eventually want to put fascia on the front sides of the stairs, but structurally, we're finished, so this isn't a priority)

In other news, I may have a heart attack from the amount of caffeine I have ingested so far this morning. Just a heads up.

A Nyah Fix

Nobody can resist this adorable little person:

And my favorite:
Still not cute enough to make me want babies of my own.

Text Time 7

Today's Text Time has pictures!

Mim:

Great place for math!

Scott:

Me: Perfect! Is it working?

Scott: Not at all...it is bringing me more attention.

Mim: Pain everywhere.

Me: What can I do??

Mim: Send positively charged no pain ions.

Me: It doesn't matter what time I have to pee in the morning, the janitor always happens to be cleaning the bathroom at that exact time.

Kwiddens: Haha you're cursed

Me: No kidding. I wonder who cursed me...

Kwiddens: Your mother-in-law?

Me: Lol maybe. I don't think she knows I don't like her, though.

Mim: Hey Nanners, what do I want a ring to be coated with? I want to order a ring today and I forgot.

Me: Rhodium, dahling.

Mim: Rhodium is a girl's best friend...

200

Well, this is my 200th post.When I started this blog I was only posting a few things a month, and it was just about things that happened every now and then, and it's come very far from that. I talk about more than just my day-to-day life; I talk about my feelings and my struggles with food, exercise, and my weight. I talk about the things I make (though I haven't made much lately because I'm SO FREAKING ADDICTED to Plants vs. Zombies). I talk about things that scare or worry me. I talk about my family. I bring up a few old memories, of things good and bad. It's just MY space, and I feel more and more that I can do whatever I want here. There are a few things I probably won't talk about, since I'm trying to keep this at a PG or PG-13 level, but for the most part I'm becoming more open.

My favorite part of all this is the friends I've made out there in the internet. I love this little community that we've all worked so hard to build. I feel as if, just maybe, I'm finally contributing to it in a meaningful way. It's also a good way to keep in touch with old friends and family members. I love that Kwiddens reads this, and I wish I could get Mim to read it, but she's so freaking busy...oh well.

I'd like to think that my writing is getting better as well. Maybe. In high school I took AP English and Literature classes, testing out of freshman English and Composition classes in college, so except for the occasional paper here and there in my generals, I haven't written properly since high school. I know this doesn't count as writing properly, like writing research papers and essays, but I think that this is a good exercise in learning to describe my world more accurately, and more colorfully, and that's worth something.

I had journals when I was little, but I stopped writing in them because Kwiddens would read them and then make fun of me for something I had written, and back then I couldn't handle that. It's really a shame because I know there are a lot of things that I wish I had written down back when they were fresh in my mind. I started keeping a journal on my laptop freshman year of college, and I had a blog then as well, but Mim and I had a huge fight over something I had said on my blog (I told the world she was crazy, and it was true, but she hadn't come to terms with it or gotten medication yet so that didn't go over too well), so I threw a hissy fit and deleted it (yay, maturity) (I was 17) (I can't believe how dumb I was when I was 17) (or even 18), and of course I wish I hadn't because that was almost an entire year of my thoughts, just gone. As for the journal I kept on my laptop, an ex-boyfriend hacked into it and read all of it behind my back...that relationship didn't end well. Soon after that my laptop was stolen so it was all gone anyway, and someone, somewhere, knows all my secrets. Awesome.

Anyway, that's a roundabout way of saying that this is something I've done before, but I think now I'm finally doing it right. I do censor myself a little, but it's not because I'm afraid someone or other will stumble across this blog and find out that I hate them anymore. Now, it's because there are people I care about that do read this and I would love for them to continue reading this unoffended.

I really feel now that this is my space. Mine. I can say whatever I want here, and I know that the people that read this either know me personally and love me no matter what (because I'm super awesome) (or something) or they don't know me personally and live far far away and if I say something that they don't want to read they can just stop reading. Everyone wins. I think I've come a long way from where I started...two years ago there's no way in hell I would have told anyone I was bipolar, but I've changed so much.

That's something else I enjoy about blogging. I can go backward in time and see what I wrote months, or even years, ago, and see how things have progressed. I can go back and reminisce about the way things were once upon a time, and that's why I sincerely regret that I stopped journaling and blogging before.

But I'm fixing that, as much as it can be fixed, anyway.

Anyway, I love blogging, and I love my bloggy friends, and that's about it. Now let's see how long it takes me to get to 300.

It's Almost Done!

(I wrote this like two weeks ago and then never got around to posting it, so here you are)

The deck is almost finished! It's amusing that we expected to get it done in one or two weekends and it ended up being a few months... Either way all that's left is the railing on the stairs and the fascia on the front of each step (which we can't do yet because we ran out of fascia and need to go to Home Depot and order more) and it's looking so good, and I can't wait until it's a bit cooler so I can sit outside (it's completely under the sun all day-there's no shade on it after about 9:00 a.m.) and not roast.

Here's the beginning of the railing for the staircase:



We've got the posts up...they look crooked because they're not "railed" together yet:

The view from the center of the back yard (notice the siding and flood lights are back around the door):

And from the corner:

This has been a long project, but it looks great and is made of the good stuff, so it's nice and strong and durable and will raise the value of the house quite a bit. Plus now we have a place to put our grill.

It's Just Wednesday

Once upon a time I was driving on the road between Spanish Fork and Salem (and keep in mind there is only ONE road between the two) and in front of me was a driver who was clearly drunk (I guess I could give him/her the benefit of the doubt; perhaps he was in a diabetic coma), swerving around and almost running off the road and such. I called 911 to report him, and they answered:

911: 911 Emergency, what City?

Me: In between Spanish Fork and Salem

911: What's your emergency?

Me: There's a drunk driver. It's pretty bad, he's going to kill somebody.

911: Ok, where are you driving?

Me: On the road that is Main Street in Spanish Fork and then leaves town going south toward Salem.

911: What is the name of the street?

Me: I have no idea. I'm not from around here, I just know it's the only main road between the two towns.

911: Well I'm going to need you to tell me what road it is.

Me: Seriously, I have no freaking idea. Don't you have a map or something? There's just this one road, and I don't know what it's called.

911: Well you need to find out what road it is so we can send someone out.

Me: You're incompetent. I hope this guy kills someone and it's all on you.

*Click*

I'm going to hell.

Yesterday I was driving home from work and it happened again, although this time I suspect this person was texting or something because for a minute he would be all over the road, and then for another minute he would drive in a perfectly straight line, and then back to swerving. I considered calling 911 and reporting him, but last time I tried this nobody seemed to care so I just watched him, half amused, half angry that he was endangering other people. He came close to broadsiding cars a few times...

Utah drivers, I tell ya.

Anyway.

I've been so exhausted the last few weeks. I have no idea what's going on. I find myself taking caffeine pills almost every morning, but even with those I'm walking around in a fog. The only thing I can think of is that maybe my allergies are making it hard to sleep effectively, and Utah's pollen count has been extremely high lately. Whatever it is, I'm tired of being tired.

I'm really proud of how well I've been doing on my diet. What's really nice is that I'm not denying myself something that I want. Instead, I'm just budgeting for it in my calories for the day. I am in love with fun-size Butterfingers, and my boss is getting the lab pizza today for lunch and I'm going to indulge but be reasonable about it.

Something I like about Utah is an extra pointless holiday: Pioneer Day. I get work off on Friday because of this, and I am ok with that. Unfortunately, Scott doesn't get it off because he's pretty much indispensable. That's good for job security, but bad for wanting days off. I will sleep in and relax all day, and when he goes to work I'll just laugh at him. In a nice way.

That's about all there is. It's just a regular Wednesday and I'm here at work and there's nothing else to report for the moment.

Our Pie Tradition

A few weeks ago Mim called me and asked me if I wanted to go on a road trip with her. There was a family reunion on July 17, and she wanted to go, but that was a little suspicious, because she'd never shown a desire to go to a reunion before. The truth was, her mother told her that if she came to the reunion she would give Mim her father's old band saw. This was very appealing to her, so we decided to go. We figured the worst that could happen would be if the reunion sucked and we left early, and even then we would still get a road trip out of the thing.

Road trips with Mim are always fun. She is one of the only people I have in my life that I can say anything to-absolutely anything-and I know she will take me seriously and never get offended. Sometimes I even tell her things I wouldn't tell Scott. So when we go on these trips, we talk and talk and talk. And when we're finished talking for a while, we're completely comfortable with each other, enough to sit in silence and just think to ourselves.

We always get junky food, but this time I planned on eating healthy instead, so I packed some sandwiches and carrot sticks and flavored waters in a cooler. The second we started driving, though, we decided FORGET THAT, we're just going to eat junk. The cool thing is that we've both been working on our eating habits, so even though we ate badly, we didn't eat as much as we normally do, and we made sure we had something healthy every day, like a giant salad at a truck stop (somehow truck stops always have the best salads. It's a mystery). So as soon as we started driving Friday afternoon we decided we wanted tacos, so we went to Del Taco and got a fiesta pack, and off we went!

We were cruising along, planning on getting to Sandpoint around 10:00 p.m., and then BOOM. Huge traffic jam:


It turns out a semi had crashed pretty badly-there were even news crews there. Whatever happened, we were sitting in 5 mph traffic for about an hour, so the driving time increased there.

We finally got out of it and started moving, and we drove and drove and we got to Pocatello. We had to "powder our noses" so we decided to stop, and we found a gas station. Mim started putting gas in the van and I went inside, and came straight back out because there wasn't a bathroom. Suck. So we went looking for another one, and we came across ISU, which is where Mim started going to school way back when. We went into the student union and used the bathrooms and then we decided to look around. We were going to go to the bookstore to get candy and an ISU shirt for Mim, and their bookstore was closed, so we were mad. We really wanted that candy. But we got over the disappointment, and walked around campus more. We found the physical sciences building:

Where we wandered around to see if we could find the math department. We didn't, but we did look at some of the chemistry labs and they were just so quaint compared to BYU's. We then left the building and as we crossed the street we ran into a man that Mim recognized as one of her math professors from 20 years ago! She remembered him, but he didn't remember her, which is understandable because he's had thousands of students over the years, but they had a nice little chat and then we went on our way (after adding another hour onto the trip).

We decided we still had a desperate need for candy, so we drove around until we found another gas station. We got our candy and then at the register we decided to buy a lottery ticket for a dollar just for fun (Utah doesn't have any lottery tickets for whatever weird reason):

and we didn't know how to use it so we messed it up:

and then we just scratched all of it off to see if we would have won anything if we had done it correctly and of course we wouldn't have won, so we just got five minutes of fun for a dollar and that was that.

We then drove around Pocatello for a little while and we found the old house we had lived in and it looked very different, and we found where I went to kindergarten:

Pretty cool!

Then we went on our way. We drove for many more hours and finally the candy wore off and we got incredibly hungry so we found a truck stop at around 11:30 p.m. and we had salads. The dressing came in these little pitchers, which I found amusing, so I took a picture:

You'd be amazed at what amuses you that late at night, especially after a sugar crash.

We then decided to call it a night and just finish the drive in the morning, so we blew up an air mattress in the back of Mim's van and put tons of pillows and blankets back there and we just drove over to a dark corner of the parking lot and went to sleep.

In the morning on Saturday we woke up, got more snacks ( I had a cherry pie for breakfast) and started driving again. We got into some really beautiful scenery as we started to get into more of the mountains:

We got to Sandpoint, and while we were driving around looking for a good bathroom where I could wash my hair, we came across Dub's, which is where Mim had her very first job when she was a teenager, so of course we had to stop and take a picture:

After that we drove around until we found a McDonald's because they always have really nice bathrooms with nice big sinks, and I washed my hair (I was a total slob, so this was a very good idea) and we changed into our cute family reunion clothes, and then we had a little snack and we were back on the road. We had to cross a mile-long bridge at one point that goes over a very deep glacial lake, and being over deep water scares me A LOT so I was kinda cringing, and then Mim made it worse by telling me about 20-foot sturgeon that live in the bottom of that lake and then I was all freaked out that the bridge was going to collapse, we would fall in the water and the giant fish would eat us and it would be a horrible death. We did make it safely across the bridge, but I couldn't stop thinking about scary giant fish, especially because she also told me about some divers over in Japan. Three divers went down into very very deep water (it was an exploratory dive) and only one of them made it back up, and he was so freaked out he wouldn't tell anyone what had happened except that there were giant Koi that deep and I assume they ate the other two and now I am afraid of fish. Awesome.

Moving on.

We got to Riley Creek and we had an awesome reception, since nobody knew we were coming and Mim hadn't been to one of these things for like 20 years and I had never been to one at all. It was very funny to hear Mim called "Cousin Barbi" because to me and everyone else I know she's just "Mim" and I forget that that's her name (and yes, she did date a guy named Ken once, but it was only one date). There was food, but nothing looked good so all I ate was a cookie, but I wasn't really hungry so that was ok. I sat around and talked to a lot of people I had never met, and some of them were ok but I am sad to say that most of them were very rude, very racist people. I don't understand how anyone can be racist in this day and age, and I'm embarrassed that it's my extended family, but I suppose that's just the way it is. Sad. But I didn't want to start any fights (and there have been fights in the past, actual fistfights) so I just kept my mouth shut until it was over and Mim and I got in the car and then we talked for a long time about how horrible it is that people still think like that.

After the food I swam in the lake. It was disgusting. I like pools. There's chlorine in pools, and you can see the bottom, and there are no creatures. Lakes have mud and plants and fish and slime and it was gross and gross and gross, but I got over it. My uncle Mike was kind enough to let me take a shower at his house after we all went back to Dub's to get ice cream (I had a hot fudge malt, my favorite ever), so I didn't have to be forever contaminated with nasty lake water.

At one point my cousin Mark congratulated me on my upcoming wedding and I was confused and said "I'm already married..." and apparently he had thought I was 17 and I was going to get married. And then later in the day I was teasing one of my little cousins and I said "Well I'm a grownup and you're not" and Mike was like, "You're not grown up, you just think you are" and I said "I'm pretty sure I am. I have a degree, I've been married for three years, I own a house and two cars, I have a professional full-time job..." at which point he said, "Wait, how old are you?" I told him 24 and he said that he had thought I was 16. So apparently, I have a baby face. I suppose someday I will appreciate this, but for now I want people to think I'm an adult, not a teenager.

The final festivities were finally over around midnight, when we left and started the drive back. We got as far as Cour D' Alene when we decided to sleep. We were so tired out that we slept very very well and when we woke up in the morning we went to the same diner we had gone to last time we made this trip and had breakfast, and then pie, because it's a tradition to have pie at a diner every time we make a trip. The cool thing was, we had the exact same waitress that we had last time.

The pie was delicious, and then we started driving again. There were lots of rest stops and munchies stops and we stopped to have dinner, but other than that we just drove and drove and drove. We were getting very close to my house when we hit ANOTHER TRAFFIC JAM. For crying out loud. Just when we're exhausted and totally ready to be home and almost there, we had to sit in traffic for another hour.

I did make it home, though, so I went straight to sleep and then got up bright and early Monday morning to go to work. I'm surprised I didn't fall asleep at my desk. I'm still recovering, but it was totally worth it because Mim and I had so much fun.

Something funny: we forgot the band saw.

Making Lunches

Lately, as you know Scott and I have been trying to be healthier. So, in order to cut down on our calories (and spending, as well) we've been packing our lunches instead of going out. We take turns every day and it's working out very well.

I may have mentioned at some point Scott's allergy to peanuts (among the many other things he's allergic to). When he was making me a lunch the other day, he made me a special paper towel and stashed it in my lunch bag so I would find it the next day:



I laughed out loud at work...he also labeled my sandwich bag:

He's such a goofball. I love it. He knows how to amuse me and make me smile, and that is a very important thing in a marriage, in my opinion.

My New Profession

A recent text conversation:

Mim: If I ever have to get a smaller bed, I'm having this bedspread cut down, and the excess made into more pillows! You have such good taste! This set is perfect!

Me: I love that I can match your personality and moods to your colors and decor!

Mim: You should be an interior designer.

Me: A chemical interior designer. Everything will be molecule-themed.

Mim: Could be fun!

America Rocks My Socks

This year we decided to celebrate Independence Day at my house with a barbecue/movie night/fireworks display. $70 doesn't go very far when it's fireworks we're talking about:



But we ended up getting a few hours out of them all, even doing more than one at once.

Mim's bithday was on July 1, and we decided to add a little bit of birthday cheer to the festivities. I went to the store to get a cake, and they had some really cute ones, but they were all chocolate, and Mim doesn't eat chocolate, so we settled for a blank one and decorated it ourselves:

Obviously Mim did not turn 24, but we have this joke that we're twins separated by time (we're like the same person, I swear), so I'm 24, so she's 24. I think it was funny. Maybe you had to be there. Please note the frosting tower I made. It tasted excellent.

Here's a picture of all of us, sitting around with food and watching Ratatouille (LOVE that movie) and then Sahara. Also notice that Em's hair is very very blue and she has amazing shoes on.

Everyone got Nyah-holding time, including Jorg, who is NOT a baby person, so he felt really awkward holding her. But I did manage to get a picture of him holding her, and Scott holding Buster (he was not happy about this)( sometimes I wish he were a snuggly lap dog):

Anyway, after the movies Kwiddens and Isaac and Nyah had to go to Isaac's family's party, and at that point it was starting to get dark so we went outside and started the fireworking.

Jorg with a giant sparkler:

We found these really cool fireworks that you nail onto something and they spin around, so we nailed one to Scott's sawhorse (and totally burned it):

Em and Jorg lighting things on fire:

Anyway, we went until about 11:00 and then they all slept over because Mim wasn't feeling well and we didn't want her driving all the way back home.

Awesome party!

A Blankie For Nyah

So I finally got a hold of some pictures of the blanket I crocheted for Nyah. I kept forgetting to ask Kwiddens, and then when I did, she kept forgetting to take the pictures for me, and it was just a months-long cycle of forgetfulness. Oh well.

Here is a picture of the blanket: In this shot you can see how the eyelets are shaped.

This shot is a little closer so you can see the stitch definition:

I made it 3'x5', to fit a crib. It took 15 balls of yarn, at $4.50 per ball (silk/bamboo blend), so you can do the math. A little expensive, but totally worth it because this is my little baby niece and she deserves the best. I'm going to spoil her terribly, you know. I won't be able to help myself.

Making this blanket was fun and easy, until I got to the very end and had to weave in all the ends and then it was NOT fun but still easy, and since it wasn't fun I kept putting it off until I finished just in the nick of time the morning of Kwiddens's baby shower.

I loved and hated the yarn. From ball to ball the texture of the yarn changed, sometimes being very silky and smooth (it being made of silk and all) and sometimes being rather catchy, and when you have rough chemist hands, that makes it a little more difficult and/or unpleasant to work with.

All in all, it took me less than a month to finish all the crocheting and then two months to weave in the ends after that, due to the procrastination, which is in turn due to the fact that I hate weaving in ends.

Did I mention I hate weaving in ends?

Anyway, this blanket is heirloom quality, so it's safely stowed away until Nyah becomes less...leaky. I'm excited for her to eventually have some portraits with it! I am very proud of my work on this one.

Tag, I'm It!

PCL tagged me for a meme, and I love me a good meme! (It's because sometimes I want to post something, but my mind is being stubbornly boring)

1. When was the last time you played air guitar?

That would be...the last time I watched "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure" many, many years ago. That will (somehow) always be one of the best movies ever.

2. What's the oldest thing in your fridge?

That would be...a jar of sauerkraut I opened probably more than a year ago. But that stuff doesn't go bad...I don't think. Maybe I should throw it out just in case.

3. Vampires, zombies, or please make it stop?

Well, I must say that I love zombies. Zombie movies, zombie games (Plants vs. Zombies and Zombie Flux)...you name it, I'm there. It's pretty hard to make a bad zombie movie, because even if your zombie movie sucks, it still makes for awesome zombie movie marathon fodder.

4. If you had to change your current profession, and you could do anything, what would you do?

Sing. But the universe has made it quite clear that that isn't my fate. Maybe I'll tell you all about that some time.

5. Undergarment of choice?

Strange question. When you have a favorite pair of underpants on, you feel secretly awesome underneath it all and your day goes better. My favorite underpants are hot pink.

6. What is the tackiest thing you own?

If it's tacky, I don't get it. I don't like tacky.

7. Summer with no air conditioner or winter with no heat?

Winter with no heat. The theory is: you can always put more clothes on, but there comes a point where you can't take more off, either because there aren't any more clothes on your body or because you're in public and don't feel like getting arrested for indecent exposure.

8. There is a band that will play whenever you snap your fingers and it's your favorite. Who is it?

Tori Amos, although I don't think that counts as a "band". So if I have to choose a band, I must say Carbon Leaf has been a favorite lately.

Out With The Old...

This whole new deck thing came at just the right time. We were in the back yard the other day and we noticed that the old deck is basically crumbling away, so we have a nice new sturdy one and we win.


So since we have a new back door leading out onto this fabulous deck, Scott filled in the old back door. It was a smallish project-it only took about an hour. Here Scott is starting to rip up the old door:
He was very careful so he wouldn't damage the door. We want to reuse as much as possible while we're renovating, so whenever there is a piece of wood that is undamaged or the old window or this door, we save it for later. This door will later go between the garage and the concrete pad in the side yard (but that's a project far, far in the future).


Once he got the door out in one piece it was just a matter of framing:

And then filling it in with plywood:



So no hole!


We still need to put new siding over this spot, but this will be tricky, since we don't know if we can match the color of the siding exactly. We also still need to insulate, drywall, and paint, but just like the back door, we can't fill it all in until the inspector comes to take a look. As soon as we finish the railing on the deck we will be able to call and set up an appointment to meet with him.


Exciting!

Vroom, Vroom, and Police!: A Guest Post By Scott

As you probably know, the Mustang is back together to where I can drive it to work. You've all seen pictures of the exterior, since the outside is pretty close to being finished. It turns heads as it is, but when it's done it'll turn more! The interior isn't completed, but the only part of the whole car that is completely done is the motor:

I was driving home from work and I pulled up to a stop light. An old '87 Buick with two teenagers pulled up next to me. The driver put it in neutral and revved his engine. I glanced over, glanced away and shook my head. One of them started yelling at me "You wanna race?" I simply ignored them. The light changed, and something in me said, "Smoke them anyway!" so I goosed the throttle and got up to the speed limit within 100 feet of the outside of the stop light. They hadn't even finished crossing the intersection yet. I stopped accelerating once I hit the speed limit and continued on my way home. As I approached the next light, I heard the teenagers screaming out the window "Haaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!" as they zoomed past me at at least 60 mph (speed limit was 40, by the way).

As they passed me, they went through the next intersection and a police officer was sitting at the light, waiting to turn the same direction they were going. As I passed the policeman, he pulled in right behind me and immediately turned his lights on. I thought, "Oh, great, I got myself in trouble." But then I thought, "Well I wasn't speeding..." The policeman quickly whipped around me and chased the two teenagers! It took him a little while to catch up to them, because they didn't stop accelerating once they passed me. I caught up to where the officer had pulled over the kids, and as I passed, still going the speed limit, I giggled, a small smirk on my face, thinking, "Stupid teenagers!"

90!

Yesterday was Naomi's birthday party. Naomi is Scott's mom's cousin, so that makes her our first cousin once removed (or something like that...I never understood how that worked) but she's more like a grandmother to us. She's the spunkiest 90-year-old I've ever known, and we love her to death. The funny thing is, she HATES when people make a big deal over her, so when she walked in to the party (it was a surprise party) she was SO MAD. But we loved getting a chance to see her, so it was totally worth it.

There was tasty food, including some amazing meatballs, little baby sandwiches, and some kind of peachy slushy drink.

There was a "guest book", which was more like a little notebook in which we all wrote our names. One lady had written "I don't think your really 90!" and I saw it and corrected the grammar, and Scott saw me do it, and he just about had a seizure he was laughing so hard, and then he told me that I HAD to take a picture of it and put it on the blog, so here it is:

I couldn't help myself, I just did it without even thinking...

Anyway, we didn't stay very long, but we were able to have a picture taken of me, Scott, and Naomi. She's a total sweetheart, and we love her so much.

Back Door!

Having a new deck does you very little good if there isn't a door leading onto it. So, where the larger window in the kitchen was, we decided to put a new sliding door.

Here's the old window:

Scott is glaring at me...

At some point we decided that since we were going to rip that wall out anyway we should make Buster a doggy door:

He had a really hard time with the concept, but after lots of coaxing he finally understood and had a blast running in and out and in and out!

So here's the giant hole, before we managed to get the door in:

And after we put in the door, it looks so good from the outside, even though it's not finished until the siding is back on:

And we can't finish the wall until the inspector comes in to look at the deck and the framing around the door, so the inside still looks unfinished as well:

But I LOVE the door, and it makes the whole front room/kitchen look so much bigger and brighter, and this is just so exciting for me! I love getting things done and being able to see the progress and getting another step closer to having a beautiful house (that we will later sell for mucho moola)!

The Idiot Box

I have been feeling BLAH lately, so even though I have posting material (Buster pictures, Nyah pictures, and of course, July 4th stuff) I don't feel like it, so I will just show you something amusing.

This is the Idiot Box:

This box is on Mim's front porch. One day when they were coming home Em (I think) tripped over it and said "I hate that idiot box!" and forever after it was known as "The Idiot Box".

CORRECTION: Kwiddens has informed me that it was she who named it. Oops.