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11.29.2008

Tour de Galena House!

I FINALLY got pictures of my new house!!! A month late, but better late than never! Here is the front of the house. The backyard is a big blank carpet big enough to play soccer on! Landscaping that will be our spring project... Here is the Kitchen & Dining Room. This house came with PLUM purple walls in the kitchen. It looks 100% better painted to match the rest of the house! I should have taken a before picture of the color!! I LOVE having a big place to cook :) I actually have empty drawers! This kitchen has THREE large walk-in pantries! I was proud of myself for making my first picture collage above the sink (in bottom left of this picture):

Here is our front room. Vic is VERY happy to have a fireplace at last! I have to say this is my favorite room of the house. I LOVE the furniture we just bought so I put a close up picture in the middle of the coffee table.
The front bathroom walls were left white & I couldn't figure out what color to paint it so I decided to do an all black & white room. I ended up LOVING it!
...And now for the upstairs bedrooms!!
Beach Bathroom

11.25.2008

My bedroom

HeidiLou (one of my favoritest people of all time, yes I like to make up words).... has been asking me if I have pictures of my new house. I haven't got around to taking all of them yet, but since I made my bed today I decided to take a picture! (I do try to make it most days, but it usually only happens on my days off!) Anyway, I saw this quiz on someone's blog & it made me laugh! Do they design what the results say to fit every person out there.... OR does this just happen to freakiciously fit me!
Here is what it had to say!!!...
*Outward appearances are a concern of yours, but not your primary concern. You try to take care of yourself and your home, but it's not an obsession.
*You are an organized and disciplined person. You do the right thing because you want to, not because people expect you to.
*You are very low maintenance. You tend to go with the flow, and you're easily pleased.
*In relationships, you tend to be quite dominant. You enjoy taking charge.
*You tend to be a dreamy, head in the clouds type of person. You think in terms of possibilities.
*You are a total homebody. You are happiest when you're at home.

11.22.2008

Sutherland Thanksgiving

Vic's family did their Thanksgiving last night & since they never decorate I decided to go for it! It took a lot of time since everything I made I had to do 28 of them! The first thing I made was this centerpiece. Not near as cute as the idea off this site, but I was pleased anyway!


The next thing I did was make the hats on this plate. I filled them with Chex mix & had one on each plate. It was taking me so long that I had to recruit Vic as help & he was a great sport & did a good job! I was going to wrap the silverwear inside these napkins, but I decided to just leave the napkins & put the silver-"gold"wear out as decoration. I was excited I finally got to use my fancy gold-wear. I got it years ago & haven't had an occasion to use it yet! I also just used 12x12 scrapbook papers as the placemats.



I also decided to buy little wine glasses for everone & tie a nametag to each one. I thought they turned out pretty cute! We served homemade sparkling cider by mixing Sprite & apple juice. It was good too :)


The final thing I made was s'more pilgrim hats from familyfun.com. I bought an extra bag of cookies & when it was time to eat them we put a cookie on top & heated it up in the microwave a few seconds... yum! The kids went crazy over them which was fun to see :)

Family Thanksgiving continued

This is Roger & Darren, two of Vic's brothers. We celebrated early because Darren is in the Navy & has to go back next week.... and this is just another picture of Roger being the goofball that he is. Let me know if you know any single ladies in SLC for him!! hehe, I know he would hate if he found out I put that, but he'll never read this & he needs to date!




Trish (in-law), Jessa (niece), and mom & dad. Mom did such a good job with all the food. Everything was cooked to perfection! YUM :)


Yea! Here's Mom, Vic, and I! :) :)







Julie (sister), Kaila, Taylor, & Wes. Wes always thinks he's so funny doing faces like this in pictures. Gets old, but I guess as long as he thinks he's fun!

11.14.2008

Tuesdays with Morrie... it WILL make you a better person!

A friend gave me the book "Tuesdays with Morrie" about 5 years ago & after reading the first chapter I threw it aside thinking it was boring. I didn't really get what the rave was about this book. We just moved into our new house & as I was unpacking this book, I decided to start reading it again from where I left off five years ago. I LOVE IT! This book has a million ways to show even someone with a good life how to more fully live it. This book is about an old man dying & everything he has learned about living life. I only let myself read a chapter or two a day so I can work on that day's lesson. It makes me excited for my next human interaction so I can make the best of every conversation & get out there and make more of my life & live every day with a passion. This is a long exerpt from the book, but I read it yesterday & I really liked it. The chapter is called "The sixth Tuesday we talk about emotions" and Morrie is teaching Mitch to "detach" himself:

Mitch asks: "Aren't you always talking about experiencing life? All the good emotions, all the bad ones?... well, how can you do that if you're detached?"

Morrie: "Ah. You're thinking, Mitch. But detachment doesn't mean you don't let the experience penetrate you. On the contrary, you let it penetrate you fully. That's how you are able to leave it."

Mitch: "I'm lost."

Morrie: Take any emotion-- love for a woman, or grief for a loved one, or what I'm going through, fear and pain from a deadly illness. If you hold back on the emotions---- if you don't allow yourself to go all the way through them--- you can never get to being detached, you're afraid of the grief. You're afraid of the vulnerability that loving entails. But by throwing yourself into these emotions, by allowing yourself to dive in, all the way, over your head even, you experience them fully and completetly. You know what pain is. You know what love is. You know what grief is. And only then can you say, 'All right. I have experienced that emotion. I reconize that emotion. Now I need to detach from that emotion for a moment.' .... I know you think this is just about dying," he said, "but it's like I keep telling you. When you learn how to die, you learn how to live."....

(Mitch writing again): I thought about how often we need to detach in every day life. How we feel lonely, sometimes to the point of tears, but we don't let those tears come because we are not supposed to cry. Or how we feel a surge of love for a parnter but we don't say anything because we're frozen with the fear of what those words might do to the relationship. Morrie's approach as exactly the opposite. Turn on the faucet. Wash yourself with the emotion. It won't hurt you. It will only help. If you let the fear inside, if you it on like a familiar shirt, then you can say to yourself, "allright, it's just fear, I don't have to let it control me. I see it for what it is." Same for loneliness: you let go, let the tears flow, feel it completely--but eventually be able to say, "All right, that was my moment with loneliness. I'm not afraid of feeling lonely, but now I'm going to put that loneliness aside and know that there are other emotions in the world, and I'm goin to experience them as well."

"Detach," Morried said again.

I loved that I read this because when Vic got home from another late night at work yesterday, despite my sore throat, I felt hyper-silly. Only a few close people know this side of me as I'm always afraid to share it with others as I get a bit insano, but after reading this chapter, I thought to myself "I don't care if Vic is tired, I'm hyper & I want to "experience" the emotion"... and well, it surprised Vic (a little, I don't think he's every surprised by my random moods!)... anyway, I don't know if it rubbed off on him much, but it made my night ten times better so I'm glad I did it! Live life & HAVE FUN! Above all, don't worry about what others will think. Otherwise we'd all go through life trying to act like a professional, which really is boring!!! ...just don't forget to mind your manners :)hehe, anyway, after I finish this book, I can't wait to start over again!