Demolition starts tomorrow!

Here are some before pictures.

Don't you like the wood "frill" at the top, and the lovely sliding doors??

I'll be sure to post some after pictures... provided we all still have all our fingers (power tools are the order of the day, and that might be dangerous).

Birthday Issues

There are a lot of things I like about birthdays. To be honest, I like getting presents. But one of the things I hate about my birthday is people asking me, "What do you want for your birthday?" I hate that question. I never know what to say, and this year, I honestly didn't know what I wanted. The worst part, is that after spending 2 hours looking up stuff online to see if there was anything I wanted, I made a list (at the demand of my husband and parents), and now that my birthday is so close, I found 2 things I didn't put on my list, that I've been telling Will I want for a while now. I think I'm losing my mind.

For those who need a good laugh... this is the list I emailed to my mom.

• *New Kitchen Faucet
• *Cabinets and Microwave Hung (they're already purchased, and sitting in my studio)
• *Pots for Bulbs for the front porch (pretty)
• *Grass seed for the lawn (Kentucky bluegrass)
• *Frame some of my pictures for the bedroom – be careful with this one, I’m a little picky about these, so maybe do something before this, or make it an IOU or something.
• *Designs for a new coffee table for us to make with a slate top (made with the slate we collected) and the materials to make it (cherry colored stain, wood, legs, etc).
• *New weather stripping around my front door
• Long gold necklace 36-39”
• Something pretty for the shelf by the sink (my bamboo died, but another plant might be nice, although if I can kill bamboo, a plant may be a bad idea)
• Storage ottoman or seat for the end of my bed
• Gift cards for any of the following: movie theater (provo towne center), Hollywood video, restaurants, Ikea
• Dishwasher
• New Carpet
• Hardwood floors in my kitchen
• $1,000,000
• Things that have a star next to them are things I want the most. If I think of anything else, I’ll let you know.

Things I don’t want for my birthday:

• candles (I just found enough to last a century)
• lotions
• bath stuff

Now that I look at my list... it's pretty pitiful. Who asks for weather stripping for their birthday, or grass seed? And what kind of person tells people what they don't want for their birthday?

To be completely truthful, I don't really want my birthday to come this year (maybe I'll just sleep through all of tomorrow). I know that all my friends who are older than me will complain... but I'm feeling old. I have multiple reasons, the biggest of which is my biological clock has been going off for years now. And I've gone to the ER 3 times this year, and had blood drawn and lab work done more times that anyone should in a lifetime which makes me feel like I have the body of an 70 year old. Plus with a practical birthday list like this, I must be getting old.




Well, at least Will is planning on taking me to a movie... that will eat up at least 2 hours of the day.


Oh and for those who are wondering... the 2 items I left off my list... the DVD set of Planet Earth (if you haven't seen them, they're amazing!), and a Wii (not going to happen, but it is my wish list, right?).

Rob-Rob take 2

Today I took pictures of my little-est sister Robin... who is pretty much adorable. She graduated from BYU in December, and wants to send out some pictures with her announcements. So I'll include a few of the other pictures we took, so I don't ruin the surprise of the cutest picture ever (bringing upon myself the wrath of Rob-Rob), which is being included in the announcement.

Anyway... I saw it was supposed to snow today... blech... and I was worried we wouldn't be able to find a great place to take the pictures, but we lucked out and went to a beautiful amphitheater that had some coverage from the snow. So you'll notice that some of the pictures have snow either on her, or falling in the background. We did our best to brush most of it off, and I've taken a bunch out of the pictures with my mad photoshop skills... okay, I'm not a master with photoshop, but I do pretty well.

So here is Rob-Rob... looking oh-so-cute in her "third date" outfit (Ellie, you have excellent taste, and did an awesome job helping Robin find this!)

Isn't she cute?

And she's single! :)

Plus she has a bachelor's degree!

And she's a little goofy too!

I wish all my clients could be like Robin... it sure would make my job easier.

Trip down memory lane

So President's Day this year was a trip down memory lane for my Mom. And she decided to drag us (me, Will, and my sisters, Rob-Rob, and Melissa and Hannah) along with her. Actually we were pretty excited to see her up and moving around since her knee replacement in January, so we didn't mind what we did.

We started out with a show and tell from Mom. She decided she'd show us how well her scar was healing, and tell us all about how well she was walking. She actually did really well and only pulled out her crutches once during the day.

Then we had a fashion show of Mom & Robin's matching coats.

After we ate some cinnamon rolls for breakfast (Breakfast of champions! Thanks Mom!), we were on our way.

First we stopped by one cemetery to see the grave of Hannah's namesake... but the snow was really deep, so no one got out of the car, except Will who went to the headstone so Hannah could see where it was.

Then we stopped by the second cemetery where my grandparents (Mom's mom & dad) are buried to leave some flowers.

Then me and my sisters said we wanted to go and see the old farmhouse. When we were kids we always went to Grandma & Grandpa's for our summer vacation, and spent a lot of our time in the barn and out on the property. The house has been purchased by the neighbor's daughter, who was like a cousin to us, so we didn't feel too bad about going to see if we could have a little look-see. But sadly no one was home. That didn't stop us from having a look around.

The first thing Mom saw was her Dad's old grain bin on the front porch. She was pretty excited.

Then we may have trespassed just a little to go and see the barn and other outbuildings.

Melissa & Hannah got to pet a horse, while Mom showed me a trap my uncle used to have.

Overall, it was a pretty good day. We enjoyed our stroll down memory lane, and were all pretty glad we'd mostly forgotten the smell of a farm over the last few years. It may take me a few more years to forget everything we smelled this time.

Happy Heart Day

5 years ago today, my sister-in-law passed my future husband the phone number for the jeweler she used when Mark bought her her engagement ring. Sounds a little presumptuous considering Will and I had only been dating for a week, but it worked out really well. We had spent the whole day talking about how we would be raising kids, etc.

Anyway, with how our history is about Valentine's Day, I find it to be a relatively important day. Considering my husband's schedule, his memory and his history of forgetting things... I have basically learned not to expect any surprises, and usually I have to remind him of important days coming up, like Valentine's Day, my birthday, Christmas, etc.

Today, he redeemed himself... although he may have set himself up for disaster next year if he can't remember then.

He gets up really early for school and other things, and when I woke up, this is what I found.

After I read my card, I promptly went back to sleep (since I had only gotten up for the phone, and it was still before 9 am). About an hour later, the doorbell rang. I contemplated not answering since I was still dressed for bed, but since I couldn't see who it was, I put on a robe and went to the door.

This is what I found. (Well the delivery guy was holding them, but this is where they ended up.)

So although I've spent most of the rest of the day doing less than enjoyable things, I'm grateful for my cute hubby who came through and made today special!

Rob-Rob

So, I've been reading Ellie's blog lately, and I have noticed how much she posts, and I figured I should do the same, and maybe more people will comment on my blog (hint, hint). But then I couldn't figure out what to blog about. I'll blame that on the meds that I'm on and my current inability to think clearly.

My dog has been bothering me while I try to type, so I thought I'd blog about her. Then I tried to find a picture of her, and there are none to be found. But I did come across a really cute picture of my sister Robin, and thought I'd tell a little about her, since I think she's basically the best.

Last summer the band The Fray came to the area, and Robin really wanted to go. We found out the tickets were only $10 so I took her to her first concert! It was tons of fun!

She had so much fun, we had to convince ourselves that seeing all the other concerts playing last summer was out of our budget, althought quite tempting.

Isn't she adorable?

Usually Robin calls me a few times a week, and if I'm not here, this is what the messages sometimes sound like.

Beeeeeep!

"Hi, it's me. Rob-Rob. Ummm... I'm bored. What are you doing? I don't have anything to do, and my roommates are all gone to class, and I'm bored. Call me if you want to do something."

Or -

"Hi, it's me. Rob-Rob. I'm hungry. Do you have anything yummy at your house? I'm tired of eating peanut butter and jelly sandwiches on tortillas, and if you have any bread, I'd be willing to help you with it. Anyway, call me."

The fun thing for me is that I get to hang out with her all day after a message like that, because either she wants to eat whatever she can find in my house, because my food is much more interesting that hers, or because she wants to search through my movie collection and then watch a few.

She's so fun, and although she doesn't call me quite as much now (she just got a second job), I do my best to kidnap her from her apartment as much as possible.

Weddings & "warm" weather

This weekend I did wedding photos for a client, and had a great time. My favorite thing was that it was "warm" outside and we didn't freeze completely.

I'm always a little concerned when I see that the bride has a short-sleeved dress, and she's getting married the second weekend in February. I always hope that either she has the presence of mind to bring a coat or a cape or something that matches her dress, or that there will be a sudden heat wave. Since neither occured, I'm pretty happy that the temperature was above freezing for the better part of the day, and that the pictures turned out so good.

To be honest, I'm pretty happy that I got to go at all. This bride called me about a week and a half ago, and told me that her photographer was unreliable, so could I come in and do her photos last minute. I had the date free, so I had no problems booking the event.

Then I started to realize what all this would entail. She wanted bridal photos at the reception. So we did the bridals, overnighted her photos, and hoped for the best. The prints came in on Thursday, and for the first (and hopefully the last) time the lab made a mistake. I made frantic calls Friday to have them overnighted with Saturday delivery, and again hoped for the best. Thankfully they came in right the second time.

I was in the process of entering a photo contest when she called originally. With that contest, I had to turn the photos in the day of the Bridal Fair last week, and the opening reception for the contest was Friday (day before the wedding). I made it to all the necessary events with that, and when we got home Friday night, we decided it would be best to get some sleep so I'd be well rested for the next day.

Unfortunately, that didn't really happen. About 10 pm, as I was getting ready for bed, I started having severe abdominal pain. Not unusual for me, but this time it was so bad I couldn't stand up straight or lay down, and nothing helped, not even the pain meds I had from the last time. So Will took me to the ER, and 4 hours and 2 doses of morphine later (as well as an Rx for more pain meds, and a request to follow up with my doctor ASAP), I was headed home to rest up before I started the next day.

Thankfully, I was able to make it through the day, although I'm pretty sure I overdid it... I'm lucky to be up and moving around right now. We'll see what the next few days bring. Thankfully nothing is on my calendar for at least a week! I can use the break!

Goin' to the chapel...

Okay, so I've been a little remiss in my blogging during the last week, but I have a really good reason! I've been "working."

Now, I know that me working might seem funny to those who know I quit my full time job 9 months ago, but I've been preparing for a bridal fair, hence I've been working. (If any of you don't know, I'm a photographer by trade, and I'm working to rebuild my clientele after our move to Utah.) Basically, it' s a trade show where you get a bunch of vendors together who all want to cater, decorate, photograph or otherwise help brides to plan their weddings. Then you tell all the BYU and UVSC students (or even the high schoolers) that you're hosting such a gathering and here's what you get... A bunch of crazy girls who may or may not be getting married, dragging their boyfriends, fiances, moms or friends with them to go around and try to win all the free stuff they can, and to plan their wedding that is happening next week, next summer, or sometime in the next decade (they hope). The girls' friends and female family members get just as excited about wedding preparations, while the men all find out which vendors are giving away food, and hope the people running the booth don't recognize them the second or third time they come around to get said food.

To be totally honest, it's a great opportunity to drum up some business, but by the end of the day, I'm exhausted from standing and talking with brides about what they want for their wedding photography. This fair was pretty successful. I was able to get 60-65 good contacts from brides (or wannabe brides) I talked with, and the fair will provide me with contact info for every bride who registered (over 300, I'd guess). In fact, I was so busy I didn't get a picture of my booth, so I've included a picture from the last fair (the only real difference was the flowers). So hopefully I'll be so busy with business that my next post will be a little late, but I'll do my best to keep up!