Potty Break

So for the last couple of months, any time I go running and my bladder jostles too much, I'm reminded of the 5k I ran with Peter in November.

In case you don't remember (or didn't know) we met up in Syracuse, UT, to run in a 5k that benefited the cause of my friend Tara and her project to build a playground for children with disabilities.  A great cause, and I got to run with my brother.  Made me happy.

But it wasn't too far into the race when I realized that I could happily take a potty break.  In fact, it was at about the 2k mark -- not even halfway.  But I just kept running and tried to ignore it.

A second or two later, Pete turns to me and says, "Do you think they'd care if I used that?"  He nodded toward a house we had just passed with a toilet as a lawn ornament in their flower bed.  I kind of laughed.  The guy running behind us said, "Even if you clog it, it would be okay.  That guy is a plumber."

We all three laughed and continued on our way, but when I'm out running and can use a break I'm reminded of the lawn toilet in the plumber's yard that Pete wanted to use.

Fun times.

HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Happy New Year family! Welcome to 2011!

St George Collage

Here are some pictures Cindy posted on her blog from our trip to St George. 

Thought I'd share in case you didn't get to see them.

Oh happy day

It's almost time!!!! I can't wait to see you all!

Weekend of birthdays!

Happy Birthday to 4 WONDERFUL people. Cody, Josh, Genica and James!!! I love you all very much and hope that you all have such a great day on your birthdays.!

I still can't believe Cody is now 12! Holy Schmokes!!!! :)

Refinished

Here is my newest project. It's the first time I ever tried to refinish something. It's three windows. They started out like the tall one on the right. Then I painted it the grayish blue.
When that was all dry, I put on a coat of black. After that was dry, I sanded it like crazy. Ok, it wasn't like crazy because I could only do it by hand, and after the first half of the first one, my hand was dying. And I had to do THREE!

When that chore was finally done, I put on a coat of stain. I think they turned out pretty darn good if I do say so myself. I'm excited for them to go up. Now all I have to do is finish painting our master bath, and then maybe repaint our room, cuz lets face it, the color scheme I had in my head didn't look so good in person. It needs to be lighter. Yes, lighter. I hope I can get it done.

New Arrival!

Congrats to Shelly and Josh on their upcoming addition to their family! We all love you and want you to know we are so excited to meet our new niece or nephew!

Over the weekend

This weekend I went out with some friends to do some scrapbooking. I love it. It's always a blast! This time, we went to a store called Archivers to scrap for free during the day. Now, the bad thing about that is we walk right through the store to get to the back where you get to work. Several times when I've been there I've seen these CUTE wall hangings that I have wanted to do. This time, I gave in and just did one. It took me several hours to do, pretty much cuz we talk the whole time and giggling is not that much of a help when you need to concentrate. :) I stamped the background paper myself too. It's not pre- bought. So it took me even longer to do that. But I like it. It will go great with our furniture for our living room that should be coming into our house in the next 2 weeks (keep your fingers crossed).

Next time I'll have to show you the windows that I am painting. I'm so excited for them. I really hope they come out in real life the way they look in my head :).

Birthday wishes

HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my two wonderful sisters! I hope you both have a wonderful day! I am so glad that I am your sister. You both mean so much to me. I love you like crazy!! :)

Ajo With Dad

I took the kids to Ajo to visit Dad for Labor Day. We couldn't go down on Sunday because of my calling at church, but we got to go for the day on Monday.

I had called Dad a few days before and made sure he was okay with us coming and crashing at his house. He told me Labor Day was actually going to be his moving day. He moved into the house he and Mom are in the process of buying.


This picture is a bit deceiving as to the size of this house. You can kind of tell it's long, but it's very deep. Check out that window on the left of the house. That's going to be the office. It opens into another room that will be the workout room. You could easily use both of those rooms as decent sized bedrooms. The workout room opens into a full bath. The bath opens into a large laundry room which then opens into a big walk-in food storage room. Those are the rooms just along that east wall of the house.

I think Dad's favorite part is the swimming pool. We got into town in just enough time to miss the major moving of the furniture, but we still were able to talk Dad into letting us swim. Like he needed any prompting. I think he's really excited about this pool.

We also went to help him feed the horses. Here's Takela.

And this horse is Dad's new one. Houdini. He's starting to get used to Dad. He was mistreated at one point in his life, so he's a little skittish. He didn't approach us at the fence. But he does seem to like Takela. Dad said that Houdini will bang on the shed that separates the two of them to get her attention. It seems to be a bit of a typical relationship. He's hot for her and she's pretty oblivious. Hee hee.

This car is practically buried right across the street from the horses in an arroyo (intermittently dry creek). I thought it was kind of cool.

Ajo itself is an interesting place. It's a died down mining town. The mine didn't shut down because it dried out. It shut down because of labor union disputes. (I think it's kind of ironic that we were there on Labor Day.)

I think I've thought of a good way to describe Ajo. Think of Alamosa and what it would be like if the college closed -- how many businesses would close (and take away the Walmart). Then take away all the neighboring towns so it's the only town in a 40 mile radius. Some parts of town are a lot older. Remember driving through La Jara, where Josh was working? Or the other side of Alamosa with the tired, worn out houses? There is plenty of that through the town.

It's about 2 1/2 hours from Dad's house to ours. About the same drive as going from Alamosa to Pueblo.

But, I met a few of the ward members and they all were very nice. When the Elders Quorum showed up to help Dad move his stuff, a sister from the ward brought her two teen daughters and they cleaned the house for him. Good people.

The house will be a wonderful place for us to all gather. Especially after it's gotten a bit of a facelift.

And the pool is super fun.