Our Nest

So I mentioned back in October that we had been working on some stuff in the house. Well, since that time the house has been a mess of one way or another. Now, there are still little things that need to be done, and one big thing to get the main level of the house finished, but its done enough I can now share what we have been doing. Dinning room before with the ugly carpet and wallpaper. The dinning room now.. New baseboard, new curtains, no wallpaper. There will never be wallpaper in this home again! It was two weeks of hell to get off!

Ok, this is extreme, but its the only before photo I could find of the kitchen. St. Patrick's day.. the little green men trashed the kitchen.. but stay focused... look how messy above the cabinets look.

The kitchen with the new, cuter than appliances, on top of the cabinets. It just looks cleaner.

We also added a curtain above the sink.

The boring room. AKA.. the kids computer room/library. See.. I did finally get them each their own PC, its worked out very nice.

Another shot of the boring room.

My desk.. cat included.

Our fire place before the paint or the mantel.

Our spiffy new mantel that my dad built us, along with Sirj's TV and the new equipment holder he put together last night.

The next big project is to get rid of the carpet on the first floor and replace it with bamboo hard wood flooring. So.. (hint, hint.. mom/dad) that is what I really want for my birthday :)

Then on to the basement.. hopefully to be done as our family Christmas gift.

Jackson Hole, WY

Yes, my life is a whirlwind of travel. This week I got the pleasure of taking my Girl Scout Troop to Jackson Hole. Out of the 7 years I have been with these girls, this was by far the greatest activity we have done. The girls sold an amazing amount of cookies and raised every dime to pay for this. I had a blast and was really proud of how all the girls got along.
All of us, under the (disturbing) antler arch (one of 4 in their town square).
T2 with Speckles the lama.
T1, being.. T1.
Troop 100's leaders. I am proud to have these two ladies beside me.. the troop could not and would not work with out them!
The girls and I after the white water ride down Snake River. It was a lot of fun!

My trip to Ohio

Yeah.. I know, two posts all month and its the 17th. What can I say either I am too boring to post or to busy. I have been telling myself for three days to sit down and do this post and something keeps getting in the way.. so forcing myself here we go.
In March when my grandmother pasted away I went and was there from 11pm Thursday till 6 am Saturday.. so that is 30 hours. In that trip I felt I was just to rushed, that maybe there was something I missed, family I missed. I wanted to have the chance to visit and see what connections were there, who to let into my life.
The opportunity came up that Sirj would be gone for while for work, the girls with their dad and all that would miss me would be the dog, so my mom and I booked a trip and the plan was that she would spend time with her brothers and sisters and I would hook up with my cousins and visit with her when it pleased me. Well.. plans went askew when my cousin passed away on the 4th.
There are 6 kids in my moms family, something like 22 grand kids and lots of great-grand kids. With this many adults, all with thoughts, opinions and their own "right", there is A LOT of shit in this family. Bad blood, unforgivable actions, blah, blah on and on. My cousin passing away added another layer of crap to the smelly pile and made the trip hard for my mom.. add to that my cousin wasn't able to get time off work, and my favorite part.. that pile o'shit with my name on it that I left 18 years ago.. found me within 24 hours of landing. That was nice.
So, mom and I spent a couple of days sight seeing Ohio, the zoo, the mall, the levee, some of KY, and just hung out. I got to spend a couple of days with my cousins and that was wonderful! I also just about finished my book. Overall Cini was good to me. I got what I went for, I have a few names to add to my Christmas card list, and a couple of cousins that I will keep in my small pile of friends. If there is to ever be another trip to Ohio, it will be for them.
What I liked the best is that my cousin and his wife are going to come to Utah early next year!

My mom with her little sister (the two babys). My Aunt Vicki and Brenda. They took us to a great BBQ dinner.
Rino at the Cincinnati Zoo.. I had always heard they had the greatest zoo. I was surprised at how much I didn't care for it. Zoo's are hard to deal with when I really think about what they are, but I personally feel our zoo is much nicer.

My uncle Rick, cousin Mike and myself. My uncle has a beautiful home with lots of land and horses. My cousin Sarah (the baby of us grand kids) is getting married at his house on the 1st.

Michael and Richard. When I little there was a line of us.. Angie, me, Mike, Tracey, Richard. We are all 1 year apart and were the greatest of friends. I am so happy to have these two ULTRA competitive idiots back in my life. They took me out to bars, tried to get me to drink, and taught me how to play Wii.. Ohhh and yes, I beat Mike in EVERYTHING, and beat Rich in softball. It's amazing what to much to drink can do for ones skills... good times.

Second verse, same as the first..

Today was T1's turn to get braces.. AGAIN..! Yes, this is the second time for the poor kid. When she was 8 when we did braces the first time, but with an appliance to widen her jaw to fix an under bite and headgear to pull her (bulldog) jaw back. He is back in them because the rest of her teeth came in pushing the rest out of place, and her jaw is on the move again, pushing all her front teeth out. She will only need to be in them 12-14 months, and then a retainer till her jaw stops moving (somewhere about age 15). She also went with all metal unlike T2.
Before.

During.. cuz' you needed to see part of her skull too.

After. Oh.. and she already.. really.. really wants them off!
Her right after she got the braces when she was 8.. she has changed so much.. and so much of that is because of the braces.. and 4 years growth of course.

4th of July and some

Our fourth was spent watching Stadium of Fire. T1, again, performed and so mom, T2 and I got tickets to watch her and the bubble gum crap music that was being performed. T1 did a great job, the music was fine, the fire works were wonderful, and I hope I don't have to do it next year.

T2, couldn't stop smiling! The Jonas brothers were the bomb!
T1 looking all spiffy!

Now for the some part of the post.. sadly the fourth was not all fun, news from Ohio that my cousin had a heart attack and was brain dead kind of put a overcast of gloom. Its sad, she was 46. I feel really bad for my aunt.. no one should loose a child, no matter their age.
Today has been a weird day too.. Sirj left for the Philippians for longer than I want and I took T2 to camp for 6 days. Bummed Sirj was leaving, and T2 not having a fit about me leaving her kinda upset me. I mean she has bigger fits about bed time, oh well.. I am glad she is having this experience and I am sure she will make great friends.. she is so good at that. So that leaves just me and T1.. that is weird too, I hardly ever get time with just one kid.. although, she thinks its a reason for me to take her shopping for all her hearts desires.. hahaha
Lets hope I live through the week!