Outhouse

Master Bathroom Shower Christian wanted me to put up some pictures of what our bathrooms are looking like right now. If anyone knows of a handyman who is legitimate, not too expensive and would like to earn money let us know. Everyone that I have called is not returning my phone calls.

The barriers are still up and the Hepa filters and fans are still running so the pictures aren't the best. If anyone would like to stay with us, you are more than welcome, but you will need to shower elsewhere! :)

We do have one toilet so you don't have to use an outhouse if you visit us. However we do have an "out house" of sorts. I like to call it my parent's house. They only live two houses away and are nice enough to offer their bathrooms for our usage.

Hepa filter going out of the guest bathroom window



Master Bathroom Toilet

Guest Bathroom Bathtub-Leaning Against the Wall (right)

Master Bathroom Sink Hook Up (below)

Scooterin'

If you think back to previous posts, my mom and I were goose wrangling all by ourselves because Christian was out of town. He had driven to Provo to deliver our "BRONCO ORANGE" scooter to my sister and her husband. Immediately Christian took Ty out on the town to try out the scooter. (for detailed information see their blog.)


It's funny because they said that they were driving around their neighborhood and two girls were walking down the sidewalk and whistled at them! They were laughing saying, "What's more sexy than two married guys riding together on a scooter?"


Here's a picture of the happy new owner! (I personally think this is one of the best pictures of Christian...he's so hot!)

Sheila

Actual Picture of the pinning (not a reenactment!)

Last night was Sheila's pinning ceremony. Sheila, my sister-in-law, has been attending Apollo College for the last year to get her LPN license. Unfortunately Christian was out of town and was not available to go so I hit it solo.

The ceremony was held in the Eagle Family Worship's sanctuary. Luckily there were plenty of seats, however there was not enough parking! It was a good location and there was plenty of room.

Sheila looked like a full blown nurse in her scrubs. It was great to see her get the award as the only person in her class to have 100% attendance. WAY TO GO SHEILA! (Picture to the left)

Sheila was the first to get pinned since her last name is Avila. (It rhymes and is not pronounced A-vih-la as the person said!) Each graduate had a member of their family come and "pin" them. It was basically a pin that they placed on a ribbon that was hung around their necks.

Sheila was the first and the procedure had not been rehearsed. My mother-in-law, Carol Ann, was Sheila's "pinner" and she did great with no instructions. However we didn't know there was a photographer there and so we didn't get too many pictures...so we had a reenactment.

I am sad to say that not many of the pictures I took turned out. Most of them were fuzzy. Here's a few of the highlights of this wonderful evening:

CONGRATULATIONS SHEILA!

The Office

So I had to beat my friend, Nathan, at blogging about The Office season premiere. If you don't like The Office, then stop reading right now because this will be office-rific!

(And Short)

It was so nice to be able to watch it again! It was even better to be able to go to work on a Friday and have something more exciting to discuss. We always talk about how horrible work is or how glad it's a Friday. Being able to relive the hilarious moments with friends is one reason why I love this show!

My favorite part was when Angela was yelling at Kevin and Holly (new HR) came up and told her to stop yelling at him. He wasn't an idiot, he's mentally challenged. Now if you haven't seen the last season, you probably wouldn't understand why that's so funny...but it is!

P.S. Nathan, I beat you to it! I bet you didn't think I would actually go through with it. I'm going to check your blog to see if you include The Office on your blog!

Late Nights and Mold

The saga with the mold continues.

Good News:

They came and took care of the crawlspace and the attic last week. Christian went in the crawlspace this week and exclaimed, "It's cleaner down here than in some parts of our house!" (Of course that made me SO happy.)

Bad News:

There was a hole in the floor under the two bathtubs for the plumbing which is normal. However these holes were not properly insulated and/or did not have a vapor barrier to block moisture from coming up into the bathroom walls. That's right we have mold in the bathroom walls surrounding the showers.

Rest of the News:

This week they are demo-ing the two bathrooms. (shower curtains, shampoo, towels etc. are all over my house.) Luckily Mom and Dad are around the corner so showers and toilets are readily available. I hope I don't have any midnight toilet runs. The water is still on and the toilets still work, however the entrance to the bathrooms have thick plastic covering it are sealed shut with tape to make it so dust etc. does not float around the house.

How horrible this may seem, right? I am very excited because Christian's now thinking about my idea of redoing the bathrooms. Granted he hates our "closet bathroom" in our bedroom and is all for a bigger master bath, but the whole moving walls etc. was not appealing. Good thing that the mold people tore out the walls so we have to rebuild them anyway! :) This cloud definitely has a silver lining!

Christian had to stay up really late to prepare for work today and being the good wife I am, I stayed up late too. About 1:30 am I was getting into bed and noticed another noise coming from our vents, only this time it sounded like a drip.

Drip...

Drip...

Drip...

Christian crawled into bed about 15 minutes later and I asked him about it. We look horrified at each other. We were having de javu!

We had company staying with us, and of course the crawlspace entrance is in the guest room closet. Christian woke up our friend and went into the crawl to see a two foot puddle under the guest bathroom...where the mold people demo-ed today. Luckily the constant drip was hitting the air duct vent and so we heard it.

2:00 in the morning I'm running around the house looking for a bucket and towels (the house is a mess since we have bathroom stuff EVERYWHERE!) so that we can at least catch the water in a bucket and not have another mold issue.

Alas, I stayed home today from work to tell the mold people what they get to fix etc. I wish they would let me know when they were coming so I could take a nap or run to my mom's house for a shower. If there are flagrant spelling or grammatical errors, I am blaming it (today) on my sleep, or the lack thereof! :)

Just another day in our exciting lives!

Cracking Up

One of Christian and mine favorite T.V. shows is American Funniest Home Videos (AFV). Christian loves it because it makes him laugh like no other show or person can make him laugh. I love it because I get to witness Christian laughing so hard that he can't stop. This is the reason why I have put some of his favorite clips on the sidebar.

When he sees a clip he thinks is funny, he rewinds it over and over. This can last from five minutes up to fifteen minutes. I start cracking up because he is laughing so hard!

Last night I was in the office and Christian was in the bedroom watching Mythbusters. They were testing the myth about fire walking and all of the sudden I heard him hilariously laughing. Laughing like he normally does with AFV. The video camera was right next to me and so I grabbed it so everyone could witness what I witness on a daily basis.

I hope you enjoy, I know it will at least make you smile!

International Blog

For those who didn't know, we have been getting some unusual hits on our blog map and so I made it so that only people who I invite can see our blog. I had no idea that our life was so interesting to people outside the United States!

Anyway...

If you know someone who is VERY depressed because they can no longer view our blog, please let me know so they can be happy again while reading all about our boring lives.

Goose Rodeo

If someone would have said in high school or college or even 3 years ago that "after you are married for 4 years, you will live on a mini farm and raise your own chickens and have ducks and a gaggle of geese," I would have hysterically laughed in their faces and swore up and down that would NEVER happen.

Alas, you all know that Christian suckers me into a lot of things. Hence why we have a gecko and a salamander and a Guinea Pig. (Which he brought home to cheer me up one day...opposite effect!)

So for a little over a year, I have waited for this day to come. Today my mom and I took our 11 geese to the BUTCHER! One more flock of birds GONE from our property and into our freezer. If anyone would like to have a goose, let me know, I don't think we can eat 11 geese...I can't even eat 1/8 of one! Christmas Goose anyone?

Here is the play by play:

This morning at 7 my mom walked over and we loaded the dog crates into the back of our station wagon...yes the station wagon. (Hubby, of course, took our scooter to my sister and her husband and so he needed the truck this morning. GREAT timing, I wonder what I did to him.) I drove back to the pen and the rodeo started.

What you may not know about my mom:

My mom is an AMAZING goose wrangler. She definitely earned her "Goose Wrangling" patch today. She would just corner them and grab their necks and scoop their bodies up with her other arm. Meanwhile I was at the car making sure that the other geese didn't try to escape, fight, kill each other... She's a regular Sarah Palin! :)

We finally caught all 11 geese and had them in the crates, now came the long drive to New Plymouth which is a good 30-40 minutes away from here. There are three main reasons why these geese are being "taken care of" today:

1) They stink due to the messiness and the constant pooping.

2) They are wicked loud.

3) THEY ARE REALLY, REALLY LOUD!

My mom and I drove the 11, really loud, constantly pooping, stinking geese to New Plymouth. I came home and boy was I so happy! Normally I would be in a rotten mood having to deal with this, but I felt free and liberated! I feel like I should run around the house and sing and dance. I probably would, but the mold people are here doing their jobs. :)

The sad part is, I had the camera to take pictures for our blog, but we were so busy and dirty that I didn't get a picture. My mom and I definitely believe that we are deserving of either flowers or some jewelry...Christian you get to choose!

In memory of the good and mostly bad times, here are some pictures. The only good times was when they hatched their goslings...boy were they cute. And then they grew up!

Moldy Oldy

As some of you may know (and some may not know) about our mold situation. I'm giving you the WAY short version here but basically we found out about a month ago that we had two types of mold in our house...bad and worse. (no those aren't the technical names.) GREAT! Mold is bad anyway, but when you have a CF'er (person with Cystic Fibrosis) in the house it's even worse.

As if that wasn't bad enough, we had to get estimates to get the mold remediated. It can only be remediated because there is no way to completely get rid of mold. Awesome. So, we had four companies come out and give us their outrageous estimates. After the money from the insurance, we would have to fork over roughly $10,000+ to get rid of the mold in the crawlspace and the attic.

We were asking everyone for advice and just couldn't seem to get the answers we were needing. We kept praying about it and I kept feeling everything would be fine. Christian and I finally sat down with my mom and dad and talked to them about it. We looked over the list of what all the companies were going to do to earn their money, and we found that they were wanting to charge us a lot of money to just put in insulation.

My smart parents told me that we could hire a company to put in insulation for a fraction of the price. So with that information, Christian and I called insulation companies to come out and give us bids. Once again, my parents were right and the estimates were pennies compared to what the mold cleanup companies were going to charge us.

My mom was talking to one of the insulation guys and spilling the beans about our situation. (She's really good at that!) We are grateful that she did because the man told her of a company he works with on a weekly basis that remediates mold. He said that they don't charge what all the other companies did.

Of course we were excited and so we gave them a call. They came out and gave us an estimate and we were shocked. Not only were they doing about twice the work of the other companies, but they charged about half the price. The kicker is that they guarantee their work for the lifetime of the home. When we sell it etc. the guarantee will go with the new homeowners.

Once again the Lord has answered our prayers and helped us through another trial. They found out that Christian has CF and put us on the "priority stack" and they will be coming this week to start the process. We are grateful to all the family members and friends who we talked with. We are grateful for prayer and our Heavenly Father who watches over us day and night.

Thanks again everyone!!

I'm Gonna' Brag!

I am very excited today, so excited that I had to make time to blog a little! I had my first test yesterday and it was in math. Double Whammy! I was praying that I would at least get a C and I got a B. I might end up liking math!

Also, my friend Rachel has two kittens she's trying to give to a good home in case anyone wants one. I also have a friend who has a bearded dragon (a.k.a. BIG lizard) she's trying to get rid of also. Jen, if Natalie wants one I can probably FedEx it! Just kidding.

Let me know if anyone out there wants one of the above mentioned animals. I don't know WHY people automatically come to us when they are getting rid of an animal. Good thing Christian's getting out of that stage because I don't know if our house can handle more animals.

Real Men of Genius and Tom Brady

This will be quick...so hopefully you like it. Those of you who love football, or are married to a football fanatic, already know that the quarterback for the New England Patriots (Christian's favorite team), Tom Brady, was injured in the first game of the season and is now out for the rest of the season.

The other day I heard a funny "Real Men of Genius" song on the radio involving fantasy football and Tom Brady. Click on the link to listen...maybe grab your husbands if they chose Tom Brady for their fantasy football team! (link on the sidebar) Even though Christian is crying because he's so upset, he laughed when he heard this.

ENJOY!!!

P.S. Christian isn't really crying...on the OUTSIDE!

Labor Day Revisited

Last weekend was Labor Day as you all know. My parents have been building a cabin for the last few years (dad would say decade) and it is almost finished. We decided that for once we would not labor on Labor Day and actually have fun. It seems like for as long as we can remember we were either building a house, painting a house, building a cabin etc. It was fun to be able to relax a little at the cabin before they sell it.

My sister Cami came over from Utah with her husband Ty and it was so good to see them again. My Mom, Dad, Cami, Ty, my other sister Jenay and Christian and I all headed up to the cabin on Saturday to play.

Here are just a few pictures of the cabin so you can get an idea of what it looks like. My Dad has built almost all of this himself the old fashioned way. He even put the logs in place using a pulley system! With a little help from us kids and sometimes hiring someone, it has taken a while to build while he works full time and keeps up with his church calling, but it is a fun and beautiful place.

After we unloaded all of our gear, we grabbing our gun gear and headed to the shooting range. For as long as I can remember we have been target practicing, and that love has been transferred onto Christian and Ty. It was Ty's first time shooting a shot gun, which is brave because those things sure can kick and leave a good bruise!



This is the first time that Christian has been target practicing with no port. (He had it removed in January) This made him really excited because he could shoot the shotgun more comfortably. He had a blast and he shot about 80% of those clay pigeons and made me proud!

We went back to the cabin for naps and then we woke up and BB-Q'd some food and made homemade ice cream. After the dessert, Dad brought out the Patrick McManus books and read us some stories. A family favorite is, "The Night the Bear Ate Goombaw." It's hard to figure out if we are laughing at the story or my Dad cracking up! I'm trying to figure out how to put a clip of the video online, so family (or those who want to see it) check back later!

BACKGROUND OF STORY: The boy in the story goes camping with his friend's family. However he doesn't have a sleeping bag and so his mom makes him wear an old fur coat instead. He put it on after everyone fell asleep and then his friend's grandma (Goombaw) woke up and thought he was a bear.

What am I doing?

I have finished my second week back to school and I keep having to say to myself, this is a good thing! I sit in my classes at times and wonder what I am doing. It is so much easier to not have to do math or sit through boring lectures. I do love only working part time and being at home, even if I'm doing homework.

As I just said, I am having to take math after not taking it for about 5 years and so I'm a little rusty. Here's a math problem for all of you experts out there. If you know the answer please call me and tutor me over the phone!

One pipe can fill a swimming pool in 6 hours and another pipe can do it in 9 hours. How long will it take the two pipes working together to fill the pool 3/4 full? (The answer is 2 and 7/10 hours by the way, I just don't know how to get that answer.)

I know that when I am rich and have a pool that has two pipes, I will care that it takes 2 and 7/10 hours to fill if I use both pipes. However I don't need math to know that it will not take as long if I use BOTH pipes, all that takes is common sense.

Another fun activity that comes along with being in school is the free use of their racquetball courts. Christian and I were able to play for the first time in about 5 years and it was so much fun. However it took us a while to get back into the "swing" of things and then we realized just how out of shape we had gotten. However it was a blast and brought back so many memories of the old college days playing racquetball.

Having Fun!

Hello once again from Nampa!

I am really loving this whole blog thing. What a great way to keep informed about everything going on in friend's and family's lives. I have read everything from first days of school to what type of pizza you created last night.

I am often the last member in my family to know what is going on and so it's great to be able to go online and read my sister-in-law, Jen's blog. They just moved and so it has been great seeing their new house, reading about their first day of school and fun, cute things that I have missed out on since I don't get out of Nampa very often!

My brother-in-law, Ty, is starting to blog again. (Born again blogger?) It's fun to hear about the college life at BYU. I think at times I detect a hint of "senioritis?" (I'm jealous, I only have junioritis!) My sister, Cami, is starting to write more on their blog as well and it's fun to hear about her calling and new job.

Together Christian and I have friends from one end of the U.S. to the other. (Florida to Alaska and in between!) It is fun to check on their blogs to see if they have anything new going on in their lives. It is also a great way for me to inform everyone about what we are doing.

Since I'm in school and working and being wifey etc, I can't blog about much during the week, so watch out for this weekend! Christian isn't into the blogging and so most of the time it will be me informing you all about our boring lives! Below is what Christian is doing right now...instead of writing something for you all to read! (No he did not know I took this picture!)

I will be checking out all of your blogs! Goodbye until this weekend!

Tobi

For those of you who did not know, we had a HUGE mastiff for a little over a year, his name was Tobi. As you can see in the pictures, the way he looked at you could melt a frozen cube of butter in two seconds. He was quite the charmer when he wanted to be.
As you have probably noticed, I am talking about my Tobi in the past tense. We had to put him down last Thursday and it broke our hearts. We didn't tell many people and still have not talked much about the situation because it was one of the hardest things we have had to do. Because it was so hard and we did not tell people, I am blogging about it so we won't have to discuss it very much.

This might be dumb you say, and I would normally agree. However Tobi was the first dog that I actually liked/loved and called MY dog. Towards Christian and I and my mom and sister Jenay he was a sweet lovable puppy that would do anything we wanted him to do. Christian and I could do anything to him (yes Christian did like to "pick" his nose) and Tobi could have cared less.

The hard part of having Tobi was that he had some strange aggression towards children. It didn't used to be as bad, but it started getting out of hand and he started to not like people coming to our home. He would throw his 160 lbs body against the fence just wanting to get the child that was walking to the bus stop and was not anywhere near our house. He liked to charge the neighbor kids when they came out etc. We paid for all the vet tests and an animal behaviourist to come out, but it didn't make enough of a difference, he was still dangerous.

It was hard to take a completely healthy dog who loved and trusted us in to be put down, and this is the reason that we can still not talk about that day or my Tobi. The Doctor's we consulted think that he probably had something genetically wrong with him or something happened between Tobi and a child when he was a puppy, before we got him. Either way he was a liability that we could not have and no matter how much we loved him, people come before animals.

Luckily, the Tobi we knew and loved was a wonderful dog who would give his life to protect us and make us happy. I never thought I would say this but we learned some valuable lessons & were blessed to have him.

We miss him dearly!

Tobi loved to play ball!