sunrise over the flats

I normally get shots of the eastern horizons at sunset. This morning I was up and actually paid attention to the sunrise. It is really cool how the sun reflects off the salt.

do we ever finish a project before starting another?

Right now we have what seems like two dozen projects in the middle of being done. We still have all of the stuff in our back yard that needs to be finished. The sprinklers up in the terrece (at least I think that is what the area is called.) We need to fill in the terrece with dirt and make it all level so we can plant grass. We need to buy/rent/borrow a tiller to till up the yard because the gournd is just too hard to plant anything in and there is the fact that we are on the edge of the Bonniville Salt Flats so our soil is extra salty (hence the title of the blog) so we need to work something into the soil so grass will actually grow. Then there is the deck that needs to be built. Now this is just the back yard. We still have the sides of the house and the whole inside of the house. We have been living in the House for three years now and I still haven't managed to get the walls painted. Which really this wouldn't be a big deal except that the walls have never actually been painted. They were just primed. So I have nice white primed walls. Anyway the reason that I bring this up is because Spencer has been working on the east side of the house. We found this rock that is pretty flat when it broke off of the rest of the formation so we are building steps down from the front yard down to the back yard. To finish this project all Spencer has left to do is level the area between the two steps at the front of house and the steps at the back of the house. And I guess there is the step of getting the white gravel to fill in that area as well.

I know that we are truly blessed that we have our house, but owning a home can be so over whelming. The project never seem to end and there is no one but yourself that will get them done.

economy

A couple of weeks ago I had a conversation with my little brother (fresh out of high school) about the problems that we are facing with the economy these days. While I feel secure in where my family is in this tough time, I know we are in the minority in this. Tonight I read an article about a town in California that has one of the highest foreclosure rates in the nation. The article said that this was the second time that this town faced a foreclosure crisis. The last part of the article had a line that said something like "They will always forget." This is something that our country needs to learn from not forget about. Gas dropped below $3 a gallon and all of the sudden people started looking at the bigger cars again. Pretty short memories we have.

Three years ago Spencer and I purchased a home for $174,000. We borrowed 99% of the value of the home. This scared me to death. Today I am so very glad that we did. The biggest problem with these kind of loans is it truly makes people house poor. When we first moved into this home I felt like we were drowning in house payments. However, my mind set was still back from college days when I was only making $8.50 an hour. Today, I sit down on payday with a very clear idea of where my money is going. There is a lot more money there than I ever dreamed we would be making on a single income.

why do we let ourselves get so upset?

So last night I got pretty upset with Spencer. I was still very upset this morning after we woke up and I had it out with him. I was upset that he changed the plans that I had made with his brother. Come to find out that when I told him that I needed to take my grandma into Orangeville tomorrow I forgot to mention that I was taking her to a funeral for my Great Uncle Keith. So all of the sudden me being mad at Spencer over what I perceived as a slight was actually a lack of communication on my part. To make matters even worse, a couple of hours after we had gotten things back to how I wanted them with Spencer's brother my mom calls to tell me that Grandma had forgotten that Keith had passed away. Because when Grandma was told of Keith's passing she got really upset so Mom didn't want to go through that again so I am to just not worry about picking Grandma up tomorrow. Now I just hope that she doesn't remember that I was suppose to pick her up to take her down.



Grandma losing her memory is terrible. I hate to be scared that she will get in her car and drive away and not be able to find her way back. Mom had wanted to take Grandma back to Vernal with her yesterday so that Mom could take her to the funeral tomorrow but Grandma didn't want to do that. She told Mom that she would rather drive herself than go to Vernal with Mom. Which is why I said I would drive her. When Grandpa went into the hospital the week before he passed away Grandma hit something with their car and dented the transmission fluid pan causing the fluid to leak. She doesn't remember hitting anything. Like I said, it scares me to death that she has that car there.



I feel like a terrible person, but I hate to see Grandma slowly lose her memory and the ability to control her emotions. If I knew for a fact that on one else would be hurt I would rather see Grandma pass away in an accident.

evening

So Monkey LOVES preschool! It is so wonderful that he is not fighting me to go like he was the first week of class. Now if only I could get him to stop fighting me when it is time to go home. He is a perfectionist. When he is given a paper to color he will spend the whole two hours coloring it. I got to class today and his teacher told me that he had just finished the first paper he was given and had just started on the second. He didn't even stop to eat his snack. Between teacher and myself we were able to convince him that it was time to go home.

Bub got sick this week. About the same time last year Bub caught a cold that turned quickly into croup. When that happened I had been watching him all night because I knew he was going to be needing to go in to see the doctor. So I got up first thing and jumped in the shower and by this time Bub was struggling. I tried to call the clinic here in town as soon as the opened up, but they were not yet answering the phone. Frustrated I threw my phone and Spencer ended up calling the boy's pediatrician in Salt Lake. While Spencer was on the phone I changed Bub's diaper and as soon as I got his pajamas down I realized that he was having a harder time than I thought. His whole chest wall was being sucked in when he took a breath. Having been trained as an EMT I knew that I was seeing "retractions". I just didn't know that it could get that bad. So at this point I knew I needed to get in the car and get going. The sun was in his eyes and so he was not happy which didn't help make it easier for him to breath. I ended up stopping at the rest area just ten miles out and calming him down enough that I was able to go on. I then spent the next hour and a half wondering if I was making the right choice in driving him myself or if I should have just called 911. When I got into the doctor's office they knew that he wasn't doing too hot and so even before I could get my co-pay paid they had us back in the room. He wasn't bad enough that he needed to be admitted to the hospital so I was okay doing the trip to Salt Lake on my own. I just never want to feel that way again. So when Bub woke up Tuesday from his nap with the croup (seal bark) cough I had him outside in the cooler air and had the humidifier plugged in for bed time. He still coughs occasionally, but at least it hasn't turned into croup yet!

Last night I was watching a movie and ended up falling asleep on the couch. I woke up at four this morning because I was cold. Which having slept from like ten to four without once waking up is pretty good for me these days. The last couple of weeks I have been waking up three or four times a night. And with the kids going to bed just after eight they have been waking up way to early in the morning.

This picture is taken out my back door. I have the most beautiful view of the Bonneville Salt Flats! This time of night is the most beautiful time of the day. It just is so peaceful. If it wasn't for this beauty I would never be able to live here.

I wish I was still in bed

I ended up not going into SLC to pick Spencer up Friday night when he flew in. My cousin Ed picked him up for me and then let him spend the night at his place. (Thank you Ed and Raquelle!) I picked him up Saturday just before noon and then we went shopping. I forget how long it takes to get shopping done when all of your shopping gets piled up waiting for you to make that trip. I figured it would only be a couple of hours, but it was almost five before we got finished and than we went up to Spencer's sister's house in Sunset for a few minutes. And then the kids needed to eat and next thing I knew it was eight o'clock. When we pulled into the house at 10:45 I was ready to just climb in bed and sleep. Unfortunately I woke up at like six thirty and couldn't get back to sleep. So after dinner yesterday I ended up in bed for few minutes and fell asleep. It wasn't much of a nap, but it was enough so that when Spencer was ready for bed I wasn't.

This morning I knew we would have issues when Spencer went to work. I just didn't know how bad the issue would be. Bub cried for over fifteen minutes when Spencer left. Normally I can distract him a lot quicker than that. I think in his little mind he thinks his dad is going to be gone for another week. So after we take Monkey to school we will take Bub and go to lunch. It will good for Zidane to spend more time with his dad.

ready for hubby to be home!

I hate when Spencer is gone. I hate it with a passion. I hate having to get their teeth brushed and flossed. I hate having to be the only one to get the kids into bed. I hate that they scream and try to make me leave them downstairs. I hate listening to them cry that they are not tired. However, I do love having them asleep and me being able to get things done around the house.

Spencer flies into Salt Lake tomorrow night just after eleven. I hope that this storm that is coming in is not too terrible. I would not want for him to be gone any longer than he has to be. I don't think that I can go another day with out him.

This wind is really blowing here. It seems like we are having gusts upwards around fifty miles an hour. I am not very excited about the change in the seasons. I like summer. I like late spring and early autumn. I just don't like it when it gets cold. I like to be warm. I really should move out of areas that see all four seasons. I need to move to were the temperature never drops below 50. For me that would be heaven.

good times

I found pictures from my open house. I can't believe it has been seven years and two months. What I wouldn't give to be able to fit back in that dress! What I wouldn't give to have no cares except loving my new husband! Well, except add my two boys and I would be completely happy.

I wonder what he would say if I told him I wanted him to grow back his sideburns?

online shopping

For most people I don't think they would run into the problem that I have been running into lately.
I worked for an on-line company and we wondered why people would put the street address and then their PO Box # in their shipping/billing addresses. As soon as I moved here to this small town I learned exactly why people do this. Companies will often times not ship items to address that are not people's billing address. Well, when people get their mail at the post office, than it is their post office box that is their bills are sent to. However, UPS and FedEx do not ship to PO Box's. So to get around this, people put first their street address and then their PO Box # as their billing address for their credit cards. Up until this past year I have been able to do this when I have shopped. With both address on a package it doesn't matter how the company decides to ship the package, it will get to me. This year, more and more companies have stopped allowing addresses with PO Box's in them. Now if I could choice the carrier that the package come from in this case I would select FedEx or UPS and not USPS. This does not happen though. Instead of me being able to choice the carrier they choice the cheapest carrier which often times turns out to be USPS. Well guess what... post offices don't deliver mail addressed to street addresses!!!!
My husband bought me a camera on-line for my birthday (after my birthday had come and gone). So the camera that I was going to get for my birthday is back at the shipping center that it was sent from because the company doesn't think anyone gets their mail at the Post Office anymore!

October is already here

Life seems to be flying by. It doesn't seem like August should be over and here it is the first of October. I don't know where the month of September went.
I went to pick Monkey up from school today and he didn't want to go. He was on the playground playing and looked at me and then took off in the opposite direction. Now this is definitely an improvement over a month ago when he screamed for me to take him home when I dropped him off in the first place. However, I had Bub in the car sleeping and so to have to chase after Monkey while he hung onto everything really was not what I needed this afternoon.

So Monkey loves to play with my laptop. Now I don't know if it had anything to do with everything that he was doing last week, but my master boot file got corrupted. Now this wouldn't have been a problem, but it took Spencer so very long to access my files to get them backed up (I should have backed up the files two weeks ago when I started having problems. I actually started but didn't get it finished.) He did manage to get them backed up, but not after asking me a half dozen times how much it was worth it to me to get the files back. I hope he knows how much I appreciate it that he went the extra mile to get the files for me when it would have been so much easier and faster on him if he had just given up and reformatted the drive.