Dear Dad... Happy Birthday!

H A P P Y B I R T H D A Y ! ! !

I would like to start out by Introducing you all to my dad. My father has many sides here are just a few....


He is what I would call "Vertically Challenged" for only one reason other than it being funny... we are the same height!









He is a H U G E goofball...



He is a big family person... Loyal, honest and hardworking... speaking of hardworking...


He is a magician with his hands when it comes to construction...



Here is one of the many MANY things he has built... Impressive isnt it?!


Did I mention he is special... VERY SPECIAL....




Speaking of handicapped... My dad is an AVID golfer... if only it where this easy!




My dad has a really good sense of humor... I think... Well I find him very funny...!



He loves his 'Star Trek' I would even go as far as calling him a "trek-e"!



He is as strong as an Ox... or maybe the little guy on the end...


He is hansome (Here is my Dad on his third birthday) Adorable I know!




All in all my dad is pretty amazing... he has been my best friend and a strong wonderful father. So here is to you Pa pa... from the Empire State...

Love,
Your little princess & "Sweet Heart"

We both love you very much!

WE DID IT!!!

Our Finished Project!

Well my ceiling fan project is finally done and here is some proof! What do you think?! Did we do good or what? I think it looks like it is brand new... and all for the cost of a can of spray paint and some painters tape. Yay for being frugal!

Before:



During:



Setting it up:



After:





So what do you guys think? Did we do alright?!

Todays Events!

Hello Everyone!

I am happy to say that I finally tackled one of the flower beds. I know it is the end of summer but it has rained so much here that getting a decent amount of time outside without getting dumped on has been a big challenge for about a month and some change. BLAH! Anyhow. I did some transplanting of some local flowers, I originally thought they were weeds... lol, they have really pretty flowers on them so that make me happy! I pulled weeds like a banshee and put the last coat of spray paint on the ceiling fan. Here is my progress.


These pictures are of the finished side and well... unfinished side of the front flower beds. As you can tell the left side flower bed is a little in need of some TLC. Although the garden is not all that easy on the eyes it is much better than what it was when we moved in.



Here are pictures of my transplants... some iris' and local flowers that I do not know the name of.




Here are the fan blades for the ceiling fan we are refurbishing. The side we are switching it to is the dark cherry finish ... not the 80's oak!



My work in progress. Here is the motor to the ceiling fan... I am almost done with it. I will take some more pictures for you guys once I put it all together and Ryan hooks it all up. I leave the electrical up to him. I am not about to get shocked!

Next to tackle is painting the interior of the house! WOO HOO!

Tell me what you think?! Any suggestions for the garden?

YAY I Did It!!!

I was getting bored with my old page background. I swear I change my mind about my blog background as often as I change my clothes.

I found a fun and dainty background at this wonderful site:

I took some awesome advice from Bridgette and conquered the HTML lingo. I have always been pretty good with HTML but was just so tired last time that I didn't want to have to decode the HTML.

As for my day I have gotten a good share of things done so far.

Woke up... watched some of the Olympics. We have TiVo... the GREATEST INVENTION EVER! I have been able to watch any of the events I would like such as... soccer, gymnastics, softball, boxing, womens b-ball... I have come to the knowledge that what I have watched in the past 25 some years of my life of the Olympics was only a scratch on the surface due to obvious time constraints on TV.

Here is the current medal count:

Medal Standings

Total

1	CHN	13	3	4	20
2	USA	7	7	8	22
3	KOR	5	6	1	12
4	GER	4	1	1	6
5	ITA	3	4	2	9

I just LOVE watching the Olympics. At one point in my life I wanted to be an Olympic Gymnast ... a little out of shape and past my expiration date for that I don't mind marveling in the complexity of those who can do what I cannot.

I was especially touched by the story of once Soviet now German Olympic athlete who moved to Germany because of medical needs for her son who has leukemia. Now 33 years old she is back at the Olympics... to me that is amazing.

The rest of my day has been a busy one... cleaning, doing dishes, sifting laundry, making birthday cards (HAPPY BIRTHDAY DAD!) and heading to the hardware store.

I LOVE the hardware store. Nerdy I know but I get to marvel in my imagination of the things I can make with the array of fun things that adorn the shelves.

I have decided that the ceiling fan that the owners before us left is not my idea of 'up to date' and instead of buying a new one I bought a can of brushed nickel spray paint. I am just going to turn the fan blades around, to the darker wood print, and spray the brassy colored metal to a newly brushed nickel color and TAA DAA... a new fan! I promise pictures are in the making!


What have you done recently that makes you feel Handy Dandy?! What is your favorite Olympic Sport?

Back From Boston

Wow... what a day it was for us...

We left at 6:30 in the morning and didn't get home until after 9:30. Needless to say we were exhausted. We helped with Baptisms, did a session and also helped a couple do sealing. I actually ran into Laura and Jordan Geilser's uncle... weird huh?! I was asked by the sealer where Ryan and I were from and we told him and the witness replied with... So am I?! It was fun. We talked for a few min. after the sealings were complete and it was neat to be able to link our friends and family with each other on the other side of the country.

I took a few pictures of the temple for everyone to see. It is sooo much more beautiful in person and is not a little temple. I would say it is just a pinch smaller than Seattle.


Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure:

I had to take one of me and the temple...

The temple was AMAZING... It was beautiful on the inside with a phenomonal Celestial room that I would say rivals Nauvoo and Salt Lake. It had 12 amazing Chandeliers with gold crowns ont he top of each of them, which I thought was so fun and symbolic. I whole temple was beautiful and I could not have asked for a better experience than that.

Ryan and I went to the temple with the advisary working overtime on us and the second we stepped on temple grounds we both were peaceful. When we left we were giddy. The couple who asked us for help with family sealings said that we "looked like we had just gotten married because neither one of us could take our eyes off of each other". It is such a blessing being apart of the gospel and wrapping ourselfs around the principles there in.

After the temple we were hungry so we headed to Cracker Barrel for dinner, which if you have never been is an awesome place to eat. There is a small general store in the foyer section of the restuarant with all sorts of goodies. One of the decorations that was on the shelf linging the store was this little display...

If you cannot read it... it says "Pasco Magic"... you better belive I took a picture of it. lol. Ryan actually spotted it but I will tell you what it would have been the highlight of my day if I hadnt just come from the temple. I thought all of my TC friends would want to see this so I took a picture of if just to put on my blog. :)

I have other news as well... we get to do this... on Friday. lol... yep we are taking two other couples with us and maybe checkin out some sights this time... maybe.

Thank you for all of your comments ... I really apriciate it. It is nice to hear all of your responses and kind words!

Boston Here We Come!

Boston... Home Of The Red Sox & An LDS Temple...

Who would have thought... two great things in one great city!?

Now usually if someone was going to Boston they would be going to see the sights and take in a peice of history. We are going to the temple! I am so excited to go to the temple it feels like it has been way too long.

We volunteered to help out with the Youth Temple trip... they needed people and we needed to go to the temple works out great! We are planning on helping out with the baptisms and then staying afterward for a session. We might grab a bite to eat in the cafeteria to boost our energy. I am hoping that we can go look around a little bit in the historical area of Boston... we will see.

I have had a familiar primary song in my head for days now, "I love to see the temple I want to go there some day... " You view the temple in a different way when you don't have one near by. I know we will make this trip a good one!

It is so interesting... I was just thinking to myself about how excited I am to go to the temple and how mad at Ryan I was last night over something silly. The advisary really tries to ruin your temple experience... but once I am aware of his temptings and tauntings... I am fine becuase I know they are not from me and I can just ignor them and move on.

Speaking of temples... I want to hear what everyones favorite temple is? What temple to do want to go to that you have not visited yet?

A couple of new first for us...

Ryan and I continue to have "firsts" in our relationship which I think is so much fun. Within the last few months we have had some pretty fun "firsts".

• First time purchasing a home.
• First cross country road trip together, we have both driven cross country individually though.
• First time giving service together. We volunteered to help out with the Youth Conference that is being held this weekend and spent all day long yesterday shuttling you to a fro and helped out with yesterdays service project. We pulled weeds out at a food bank farm.
  
• First time in a Drive In moving together. First time Ryan had EVER been to a Drive In movie.
  

Some of our soon to be "Firsts" will be:

• First time camping together... one can hope with his scedule.
  
• First snowboarding trip together. You cant really call it a snowboarding trip since we live 10 min for a ski resort. lol. Ryan has never been skiing or snowboarding. I told him I would teach him the ins and outs of it all this season.
  
• First time having a baby... once again... hopefully sooner than later with this one. I have learned that you can only do so much in this department.

Well. As you can see life have been pretty fun lately. We do live in a really nice area and have been blessed with a good ward.