Maize

In our marriage contract (which doesn't really exist, but we like to talk about it like it does), there is a line that reads that the wife, Julie, shall hereby be allowed two times a year when she shall be allowed to go away with wife's best friend, Megan, on a girl's only, no boys allowed road trip of fun. Nathan was warned about this long before we were married and knew they would continue on long past when we have children, don't feel bad for him every time I leave like my mom does (It might make me feel bad).
Last weekend was said road trip weekend. This time we let Amy bum a ride up to Provo with us to visit her best friend. We set off on our adventure early(ish) Friday morning.

Our first stop was in Beaver at the Cheese Factory for a picnic lunch of tuna sandwiches, (our favorite) made by my sweet husband, and ice cream. They had the best flavors there we have ever witnessed. It was amazing and made the choice oh so hard. While we were there we made some old lady's day when a stranger asked us for a lick of our ice cream. I don't share ice cream with friends let alone strangers.

Next we dropped Amy off in Provo and Megan and I went to the Mt. Timpanogas Temple to do a session. Now that we are both endowed we like to go see a new temple every time we go on one of our road trips. Traffic was insane. No wonder Utah people are crazy. The traffic has made them this way. (No offense to any family or friends who may reside in said place.) The Temple was beautiful but we were both exhausted. We went to an amazing Chinese restaurant and then went to bed...at like 9:00 our time. We are old ladies.

We stayed with Aunt Claudia. We love staying with her. She is the best! She was helping Brock make the most amazing Halloween costume ever and made us Apple Pancake for breakfast. To top it all off she suggested we go to a different cornmaze than our traditional one at Thanksgiving Point and even gave us a coupon. I know, you wish your aunt was as cool.
This Corn Maze was awesome. The corn was taller, the path was better and more clear and it was less crowded. We even managed to decipher where we were on the map and circumnavigate two of the hint posts (hence why 7 and 8 do not have pictures). We took Amy and Jessie with us and had a blast.

The BEST part though was the giant pumpkin drop. This even was definately thought up by boys. Basically you drop pumpkins from a crane onto various objects ie. a car, a pool, computer equipment. Some of there pumpkins weighed over 1,000 lbs. It was pretty impressive and way fun to watch. We stayed much longer than planned because it was so cool. Sorry I was too lazy to turn the videos..deal with it or don't watch them or even better watch them backwards. Watching the smashed bits come back together is far more entertaining.

We dropped Jessie off at her dorm and ate a delicious J-Dawg, also part of the tradition.
Then it was off to Salt Lake to stay with the Dittos. We watched Captain America. I have a new favorite superhero.

The next morning we went to Music and the Spoken work in the Tabernacle on Temple Square. This was the first time for Amy and Megan. I miss singing in a choir that can really perform. Thanks you Chaparral for providing me with that opportunity. There is nothing like singing in an amazingly talented group.

We drove a little ways and decided to just pull off and go to church. We managed to pick a Tongan ward. It was kind of awesome and a very cultural experience. We wore those headsets during the meeting and has it translated to us. It made me really appreciate the Spanish speakers in our stake. Headsets are not the best way to listen to the meeting. You get everything in time delay and they don't always translate the jokes so you are constantly wondering what was so funny.

Yo Ho Yo Ho A Pirate's Life For Me!

Happy Halloween!

Thanks to Mom Anderson (this time Mom and Matt), Nathan and I always have pretty amazing Halloween costumes. We didn't really have anything to dress up for this year, so we crashed my parents' ward party. I love dressing up and I have a good husband to indulge me!

More on the annual Julie/Megan Nevada Day Weekend Corn Maize Roadtrip in the next post. Too bad I didn't eat more oranges to avoid scurvy (aka a terrible cold).

More House

Here it is, some of the inside...
The view from our front door. Nathan is in the Kitchen/Dining Area but you will have to wait until the next post to hear about that part of the house. We love the floors and repainted everything, including the ceilings. My sisters are disappointed we went with white/cream. They wanted us to have color, but after paining every square inch of the house I want something I won't get tired of. I can add color in other, much less permanent ways. I really am more like my dad than I let on. (He loves white walls.)
One day we will be replacing that ugly light fixture you see in this picture. It is ugly and causes concussions because it hangs so low. I have no desire to have a formal dining room table there for it to go over. Instead we are going to have a big open living room area and piano nook. We plan on the TV eventually going in the Office/TV/Family room. I love the idea of not having a television in our main living area. I don't want it to be the center of our family time.

 One day the sectional will be replaced and the other couch and TV will be in the TV room, but until we find other furniture we love, we will get by with the set up like this. (Please note my Halloween decorations on the mantle.) The piano that you can see the corner of in the bottom right was a Craigslist find...$50. Not bad. We just haven't had someone over to help us move it where we want it, so it is currently stuck behind the couch. Someday it will probably be where the TV is.

 A view from the other direction. I love all the light. The door on the left is a coat closet picture below.
The hallway is to the right in this picture across from the sectional.

Here is the hallway. The first door on the left is the Office/TV room. The second is the garage. On the right is a linen/game closet (I wanted the game to be accessible to the main living area) and then the main bathroom. These light fixtures will also be going because they put off lots of heat and have a million tiny light bulbs in each.

Below is the linen closet, you can kind of see the edge of the couch, so you get an idea of where it is located.

Main Bathroom: Love that it has two sinks, don't live the linoleum, but I am willing to live with it so that we can get other projects done. It is low on the priority list. The tape is still on the floor because we still have some baseboard painting to complete

 I also like that it has a door to separate the shower/toilet from the sinks. It will come in handy when we have lots of kids that are trying to all get ready for church.

 That's all you get of the inside for now. Touring via pictures is tedious.
I will, however give you another look at our backyard, since that is where we have spent a lot of time working lately, trimming trees and bushed, mowing the grass, taking care of weeds...all that fun stuff. Look at my rosebushes! I love having fresh-cut flowers from my garden on my table.

 Here are the fun stairs I talked about last time but you couldn't really see.

 My lawn from the other side.

New House Part 1

So I told my Mother-in law that I was going to wait to post this until the inside was somewhat cute and I could put up pictures of everything, but let's face it, by the time that happens we will have lived in the house for years and it will no longer be a new house to us and we will be moving so hence the part 1. Part 2 will be ongoing and in the who-knows how distant future and you will get more pictures of the inside.

We closed on the house in July and spent most of that month painting and replacing carpet, making lots of changes to make it livable. We feel blessed to have found it and know that this is where we are supposed to be because normally we are not so good at decisions and house...that's a big one. Should have been hard for us, but really we only looked for a few weeks before making the offer and it being accepted. It was not a short-sale or foreclosure so things moved really quick, yet through the whole process we felt at peace. I am pretty sure Heavenly Father masked lots of the things that were wrong with it to help make the decision easier. For example, the smell. Lots of houses we had looked at smelled like smoke and they were immediately ruled out. This one also belonged to a smoker who also had a small inside dog. Yet, when we looked at it I remember saying that surprisingly it did not smell that bad and immediately gave it a 10. After we bought it. I do not know how I missed the smell except to say there was divine intervention. The paint and carpet helped greatly.


We miss out friends in the Paradise Stake but feel comforted to know that this is where Heavenly Father wants us to be right now. As my family moved out from my parents' home, it will be a blessing to be close to them so we can help out with Richard and we are able to see Grandma Davis more often.

The first thing we liked about the house is the neighborhood. We both dislike gated communities and we didn't want to be part of an HOA, which is hard to find in Vegas. This has an HOA, but no fee and the rules are pretty forward. If your house doesn't look like a pig sty, you will be fine. We are so close to the temple (I thing 1 mile, maybe less). The neighborhood is quiet and the homes and yards are well kept. After moving in we found out that our neighbors are in our ward. We really like them. Great neighbors make such a difference.

Front

Next we will skip to the back of the house. I grew up in a house with a terrific back yard. I think it was 1/4 acre, which is unheard of in Las Vegas. We had a tree house, garden, patio, trampoline and still room to ride our bikes. Although ours is not as spacious as my childhood backyard, we have a yard and a larger than Vegas standard size yard. We didn't want to be so close to our neighbors that we could lean out the window and borrow their shampoo. Our yard has great potential. It has a terrace, which stair that Jimmy and Kristi love. We plan to tear out the bushed that are there and plant fruit trees and a garden. It also has a sizable grass area and a patio. Great for future kids to play in and for outdoor dinners. We also hope to move one of the side gates toward the from of the house so we will have more room for fruit trees and a sand pile.We also have a few friendly geckos that keep our bug population down and the hummingbirds and bees love our flowering bushes. I love that there are nowhere near as many cockroaches as our old area of town.

Back Yard

More soon to come on the inside...

Today Provo, Tomorrow (or Nov.) Peru

This week, we dropped my little sister, Linda off at the MTC. I am super excited for her and a little jealous of the fun adventure she will have. I didn't do so great at documenting, most of the pictures are on Amy's camera and I assume she will post them on the family blog. We visited Grandpa Keeley in the Veteran's home on Tuesday and were able to see our friends the Polsons. Love them. Then it was off to Uncle Thor and Aunt Lisa's for traditional homemade waffles and freezer jam. Let's just say I ate a few too many. The next morning we went to Uncle Thor's farm and picked raspberries, peaches and apples AND Jimmy got to ride in the back of the truck. It was awesome. Then we had a delectable J-Dawg in Provo and were off to drop off Linda. She had a 12:55 drop off time. It was way different from when Robert left. They had the little devotional with the families, showed the movie and sang Called To Serve, you know so you really get the moms emotional. This was way better. Such a spirit of excitement and service. Sure Mom still cried, but that is what moms do. I am super duper excited for Linda. Dibs on picking her up!

Aren't sisters the best?

Linda's bag boys, I mean Elders. Amy is excited to be in a place with so many boys. Check out her face.

Does it look to anyone else like Dad has Jimmy by the hair?

I wouldn't be surprised if he did

Man I'm a good photographer. I managed to get her hand right in front of her face. Please reference one of the previous pictures to see what her face actually looks like.

That person in the shadows in the middle of the picture is Linda, trust me.

Some pics from Spring Mountain Ranch