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S.~

This Blog has a new home!

This blog has graduated to its own custom domain name!
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http://aroundherelately.com/

See you there!
S.~

Monster Paws

As most of you probably know, Kiki is an orange polydactyl (extra toes) tabby. The following clip gives you a good look at her monster paws, and explains why my sweatshirt strings are always slightly chewed looking.

Think Spring!

I love Utah this time of year! While many friends in WI are still under cold and snow, here we are consistently in the mid 50's and our tulips and other bulbs are about to bloom. I recently realized I may have gone a little overboard with the bulb planting last fall, however I'm going to have a few planters that will look amazing! It's fun to start seeing my perennials come back, it sometimes seems there's no guarantee the first year that stuff will make it through the winter...but then I'm surprised by buds and small leaves in the unlikeliest of places. With this lovely spring weather, I've been spending most of my weekends hunched over cleaning out flowerbeds in our yard. I'd say at this point I'm about half-way done. Look forward to many MANY lawn and garden pictures this year. I'm already so excited I can hardly wait! I've also gotten the pond ready and the goldfish to go back out, however we first needed to construct a 'shelter' of sorts for them, so the swimming raccoon from last summer doesn't once again treat our pond as an all-you-can-eat swimming hole. This is a picture of what we came up with:

It's basically wire mesh with 1/4" spaces. We bent it into a circular tube on one end and left a foot-long piece stick out. We sunk it to the bottom of the pond and placed a large potted container (which our water lily lives in) on top of the flat part to anchor it down. We're hoping that the goldfish will be smart enough to seek refuge if the swimming raccoon comes back, and that his little hands won't be able to get through the 1/4" mesh. I went to the local Petsmart today and got 3 more fish, bringing our total to 6. Hopefully they'll all adjust well to the pond and  I won't have any floaters by morning. (fingers crossed).

Last weekend we planted our tomato seeds for the year. We waited a full two weeks longer than last year, and hopefully they won't be outgrowing their containers before it is warm enough to plant them out. Some unusually warm weather mid-February made it difficult to wait, but come mid-April, I'm sure we'll be thankful that we waited. I started several types of flowers from seed, mostly just to see if any of them are easy to sprout. So far marigolds and zinnias seem fairly fool-proof. I'm still waiting to seeing sprouting from the others...including pansies, violas, petunias, and several I can't remember at present. We already have our first tomato sprouts (as of today)...so Jason is a happy boy.

President's Day weekend we took a trip to St. George, UT to visit Jason's grandparents. They rent a house down there for a month each winter. This year due to a mix-up of sorts, they had a house that was completely decked out in golf memorabilia! We're talking golf EVERYWHERE....on the walls, in the bathrooms, on the bookshelves....even in the backyard! Let's just say this guy is a golf-nut, I guess its a good thing that its one of his businesses. The weather in St. George is typically still nice and warm in February, however we picked the one cool and rainy weekend to go visit. It was still relaxing, and nice to hang out with everyone. One of the days, after the weather cleared, we checked out a local art and craft fair where I picked up another piece of pottery I'm quite fond of. I'm sort of a sucker for pottery, and this little one is a new addition to my collection.

Hours at my regular job have been cut back slightly now that I'm not working in the lab anymore. I'm much happier with this arrangement, as I don't find myself hating my life on a daily basis. I'm considering getting on an early morning prep shift at a restaurant...and guess what just opened in Utah...that's right...Culver's. The owners have rights to open 4 more restaurants around the Salt Lake Valley, so with the next location opening in the fall I may be able to get on there and pick any shift I'd like. I have mixed feelings about this, but do know that the busier I am, the happier I tend to be. In the meantime I'm sleeping in and watching the cat move from one sunny napping spot to another before going in to work in the afternoon. Emphasis: MUCH happier.

Here ends the weekend. Daylight savings time is deceiving me, and I think it's still much earlier than it actually is. My back hurts from hunching over my flowerbeds all weekend, but clean flowerbeds make this girl a happy camper. I've long come to realize the flowerbeds being clean make me happier than they make anyone else. I told Jason today we shouldn't have a baby in March-April...or he will have to clean the flowerbeds and I will just sit and point at what to do with a stick. We should have daffodils (at least the warm ones by the house) by the end of the week.

 *smile*

61 days and counting til our next WI vacation...driving this time!!

Take Care everyone!

S.~

I almost forgot to mention I started a blog for my crafting/cardmaking for anyone who is interested. Check it out if you get excited about that sort of thing! S.~

http://crafter-monkey.blogspot.com/

Cat on Drugs

Over the last couple days Kiki has had an odd fascination with the almost-empty tissue box in the living room. Today I managed to catch her antics in this video.

Another Cat Video

Other people have toddlers. I have Kiki. I wish this meant I never cleaned up poop or puke...but alas, she's still a cat. Entertaining nonetheless.

Spring Cleaning!

What a whirlwind the past couple of weeks have been.

First an announcement, and then an explanation. I have quit my job in the lab and withdrawn from school. While this may come as a shock to some of you, those of you who know me closely know there was a lot of soul-searching that led to this decision. I haven't been happy for at least the last year with my job in the lab. I was close to finishing school, but no closer than I was a year ago. I've realized no matter how easy it looked from the outside, I couldn't physically make myself do something my heart was no longer interested in doing. I'm not sure if my bad job situation was keeping me in school, or school was keeping me in my bad job situation, but the minute I sat down and talked to my boss about it I felt like a million pounds was lifted from my shoulders. So I'm still working at TOSH, but no longer in the Biomechanics lab. For the time being I am helping back in the office for the athlete training program, and for the first time in probably 2 years I'm again enjoying being at work. You should ask my husband what a better mood I'm in! Instead of dread and doom I'm looking forward spring gardening, enjoying my hobbies, and counting the days to our next WI trip in May! Life is too short to be so unhappy!

More about that WI trip. It looks like we'll be visiting mid-May. We're driving this time!! Partly to haul some stuff back to Utah, and partly because Jason and I really want to drive there together before we have kids. Jason actually hasn't seen much of the country between Utah and WI so a driving trip is in order.

This past month I turned 29. I'm enjoying it so far. I got some lovely cards. My favorite was a funny one I received from KTP, so I decided to include it in the blog.

I also got some beautiful dish towels from my sister-in-law Misty. The poor dear didn't know what to get me, but upon hearing she was willing to sew something...these were my request! I would happily accept another set of these for each of the next 3 major holidays at least! Love them! They also came with this cute card and wrapping paper with pictures on it of me as a baby! What a crafty and creative sister-in-law I have.

If you recall our skunk problem, you know why this card is fitting.

The replacement for my dead Dell laptop arrived and I LOVE her! I got a Toshiba Satellite and really have no complaints thus far. Laptops are hard to test in stores where they are bolted down to the counter. I didn't want a "counter-top" I wanted a "lap-top"! Luckily when this one arrived the keyboard and all the little features that are hard to test in the store are even better than expected. I don't have many pictures for this month, so I will include one of "Toshiba" as we call her. ;)

In more recent news, after a near brush with death, Jason is going to make it! Jason had the cold/flu last week and I spent the better part of 4 days feeding him whatever combination of medicines would alleviate his symptoms. It was one of those rapid-onset bugs where at 7am before work he seemed fine, by 9am he told me he thought he was coming down with something, and by the time he got home at 7pm he'd already notified his boss he wouldn't be coming in the next day. Since he's working 4 ten's he only missed one day of work (Thursday), but generally looked and felt miserable from Wednesday-Sunday. He spent the better part of 3 days moving from the bed, to the futon, to the recliner, back to the futon etc. On Friday I was leaving the house to get my hair cut and asked Jason (laying in the recliner) if he knew his hoodie was on backwards. He carefully explained to me that it was that way on purpose, so that he could pull his hood over his face for sudden-onset naps. Poor sick monkey!

Saturday I got out with friends and went bowling. We try to go bowling every month or two with Cory--Jason's old college roommate. Cousin Heather usually comes along and it's a fun time. We found a local bowling place that has a weekend "shoes and 3 games for $9" special that's surprisingly not as much of a dive as the "cheapest bowling in town" designation would lead you to believe. This is the first time Jason hasn't made it along, but it was fun nonetheless.

By Sunday Jason was starting to perk up a bit and we watched the Superbowl together. We decided it was a bad idea to go spreading his bug around just yet, so we stayed in. What a game! I nearly had an ulcer by the 4th quarter...but the Packers did it! I told Jason it was lucky he had a WI wife so he still had a team to cheer for after his beloved San Francisco 49er's were out.

We checked our planting log from last year, and much to our dismay, found it unwise to plant tomato seeds until at least March. Last year we got a little too excited mid-February and by the time the weather outside was suitable for tomato planting we had seedlings that had outgrown their containers and were nearly flowering! In careful preparation Jason moved the potting soil inside to warm up, and last night we picked out next year's seed varieties. From the heirloom seeds Jason ordered last season we have 13 varieties we haven't tried yet, and one returner from last year that we really loved. Looking through our seed collection was exciting, and now my spring fever is even worse!

This coming President's Day weekend we are going to spend away in St. George and visit the Baxter grandparents. They get a place there for a few months each winter and enjoy having lots of company. Although southern Utah is usually this is a nice mid-winter getaway, it looks as though the weather is going to be warm all week and then turn colder for the weekend...so I'm not sure how much "warmer" it will be there so to speak. This week in the Salt Lake Valley it is in the 50's...a nice taste of Spring! For the weekend trip we are planning to take bicycles and enjoy the outdoors, but if the rain prediction holds true we might just stay in and play games instead. Time will tell. It's really our first road trip since Jason finished his hiking contract last fall, so I'm looking forward to it either way.

I hope everyone enjoys their Valentine's Day. Jason and I don't have any big plans, and that's OK. We will enjoy a nice dinner out some night when the wait isn't so long and we don't have to compete with all the other couples trying to have the "perfect" evening.

Take Care!

S.~



Kiki and the Carrot

Donations kindly accepted

Some months you just feel like you can't get ahead. After a fairly inexpensive Christmas during which we actually managed to save a little money, this month has been a doozy. My laptop died unexpectedly (replacement $650), we finished our planned tile job ($1000), tuition is due ($1400) and Jason's car is in the shop again (hopefully for no more than an oil change). I'm hoping we can catch up by February sometime.

There are two big pieces of news from the last month. First of all, my parents came out for a visit at Christmas! We all had a lot of fun while they were here. We went to hardware ranch and saw the winter elk-feeding grounds, we drove up the canyons and checked out the snow levels at the ski resorts, we spent Christmas eve/day/day after Christmas at Jason's grandparent's ranch in Logan, where we all went for horseback rides on Christmas day with beautiful views of the snow-covered mountains. Best of all my parents got 6 days of travel, story telling, and relaxing WITHOUT cows! It was good to see them have so much fun, and I hope they make it back again soon.

The second bit of news is our recently completed tile job. On the main floor there was linoleum in the bathroom and kitchen. One of the seams in the kitchen floor had been poorly done and was starting to peel up. I had been wanting to do tile for awhile...even more so after finding out Jason's cousins Weston and Kyle have been doing freelance tile jobs over the past year or more. Weston and Kyle's schedule cleared up a bit after Christmas so the first 2 weekends of January was dedicated to installing tile at our house. Under the kitchen linoleum we found VCT tile, however under the bathroom linoleum we were surprised to find ancient tile! It made the prep-work a little longer due to creating the necessity of borrowing a belt sander to get the glue from the old linoleum off of the even older tile. Thanks to Jason's dad's neighbor Nolan, we were back up and running first thing Saturday morning. Saturday the guys managed to get the bathroom tile set, and about 60% of the kitchen. The project was then put on hold until the following weekend while Weston and Kyle took care of church and school responsibilities for the week. The following Friday night the guys were back once again, this time to finish setting the remaining tile. Saturday all that was left was the grout and caulk which was easily finished by sundown. I am so happy to have new tile and thankful to Weston and Kyle for all of their hard work. Admittedly the tile project was a bit of a hassle...we spent 2 nights sleeping on cots at cousin Heather's house, since we only have one bathroom and our toilet was residing in our bathtub. Our oven was moved into and out of our living room during the project, and for the entire week our refrigerator resided on our back porch. To complicate matters, the fridge door couldn't be opened facing the house, so in order to get into the fridge you had to go outside. Luckily (or not so luckily for the barefoot person really wanting something out of the fridge) the weather stayed cold during the week, so the food in the fridge was fine and we were able to move the frozen goods to the upright freezer in the basement. The exciting part is that the tile looks really nice. The bathroom is my favorite, so I thought I'd include before and after pictures.

       

In other exciting news we used paint stripper to remove the chipping paint from our previously refinished bathtub that was starting to flake. That stuff was STRONG! We actually set off our 'explosive gas alarm' on our carbon monoxide detector in the process and had to open a few windows. The result is a bathtub that no longer has chipping paint, but is once again it's original UGLY brown color. We purchased a white spray-enamel kit specifically for refinishing bathtubs so we're going to give that a try later in the week. If all goes well, we will go from a chipping white/brown tub...to an ugly brown tub...to a new-looking white refinished tub. Wish us luck! Hopefully there will be pictures in the next edition of this blog.

My 3 1/2 year old Dell laptop has recently been reduced to an awkward desktop. Basically the laptop screen has died...so all my data is there, I just have to mess with hooking it to an external monitor to see what I'm doing and get it off. This is complicated by the fact that my laptop is currently in about a half dozen pieces, after I attempted minor laptop surgery last week to replace the LCD inverter to see if I could fix the problem. Since it didn't seem to fix anything, I just haven't had the motivation to put it all back together...so its currently rather useless. On the bright side, I've purchased a new laptop...which should be here in 1-2 weeks. I am (im)patiently waiting for my pretty new Toshiba.

Projects, projects, projects. Our tile job is ever-so-close to finished (just replacing some trim yet), our tub in in progress, my new laptop is ordered. I hope to shortly win the lottery to afford all of this excess.

On a side note, I am especially thankful for my supportive husband this month, who hasn't so much as flinched when I told him what my tuition would cost...when the tile job became this month's project, and when my laptop unexpectedly died. I know money can be a huge arguing point for married couples, and if anything he has shown a great deal of confidence in me making financial decisions--not complaining about the price of my new laptop, but instead trusting me to make wise spending decisions. He knows I worry more about money sometimes than he does (and he's the "financial professional"). I picked a good one.

Stay tuned 'til next month. I hope this finds you well!

S.~

My Parents have a Blog!

My mom recently decided to start a blog about day-to-day farm life for anyone who is interested.

http://wifarmlife.blogspot.com/

It will probably be boring for all my farm-kid friends...but for some others who wonder what goes on on a dairy farm, it may be interesting. Hopefully my parents can find time to keep it updated frequently!

S.~