Past year thoughts

As the new year fast approaches I sit here thinking of the past year and the things that have happened.

~ We did a lot of home remodeling (with even more to come) - it made me appreciate John's do-it-yourself skills because we never had to pay someone.
~ Friends got married, had babies, moved away ect. - it taught me that lives change but it's up to me to have the change be positive for me.
~ We got and lost a dear puppy in 16 hours - it taught us to love more deeply and dearly because you never know when it's a loved one's time to go.
(since I never did a Kora post, my heart was just too broken, I'll post a few pictures)





~We got the sister of our first dear puppy - it taught us to cherish the ones we love.

~ I was laid off and had a new job in a week and a half - it taught me how to be grateful because many weren't as lucky.
~Our house was broken into - it taught us that our things are just things and can be replaced.
~We got another puppy in a blink of an eye - firstly it taught me to really think things over before big decisions (we really should have), secondly it taught me to appreciate how well behaved Enna is and thirdly is taught me how to control my temper and not yell at a dog that wouldn't get why i was yelling at him anyway. We do love him though even if he's driven me insane.

~ And lastly our two year anniversary came around - i learned that I have a greater love for John then ever before (and it will grow). He's my best friend, my rock, my worry free zone, my shoulder to cry on, my clown, and the best thing that has ever happened in my life.

I hope everyone has a safe and happy new year and you fulfill all your new year's resolutions!

Merry Ho Ho!

Every year John puts up Christmas lights, but only because I ask him too and in the process he tells me how much he hates putting up Christmas lights. He does say that if we're going to do Christmas lights we're going to go bigger and bigger every year though. This is how the house looked this year.

John loved Frosty and was really excited about him, I couldn't deny him of the one Christmas thing he didn't complain about putting up so he was an addition this year. Also the walkway lights were added.




The tree looks a lot cooler in person, but there are 15 strands of mini lights on it. It took us (yes I helped) 4 hours to get them strung up in the tree and John wants to put even more in next year. He also wants to put some net lights on the big bush on the side of the house and more lights on the roof.


Sophi thought the Christmas tree was set up purely for her enjoyment. Everyday we'd come home from work with the star at a sad angle and all the branches smashed down. She finally grew tired of it about two weeks ago, but I bet we'll have to go through this every year.

I hope everyone had a nice Christmas this year!

The cat and the sink

Sophi has a weird obsession with the bathroom sink and loves to lay around in it, here are some pictures of yesterdays adventure.





This is my favorite picture, I kept saying Sophi's name and she'd meow and move around.

Of course Enna cant be left out of the lime light!

Its a good thing Sophi is so cute because just a few minutes ago she decided that it would be great to break my glass juice pitcher. Pets really do prepare you for kids, I can't have anything nice without someone breaking or chewing it.

What's in a name?

Makoa's UKC registered name is HOT's (Heart of Texas) Caen and he was called Caen for 6 months of his life. Well John and I couldn't wrap our heads around calling our dog the Son of Perdition so we searched for a new name to call our pup before he came to our home.

We just couldn't agree on anything, we wanted something unique but not too hard to say and with John working some really long hours we didn't have much time to search online.
One day we had gone to Memory Grove with Enna for a little walk and when we got back into the car to go home we caught the end of an ad on the radio. All we heard was "Maakoa is fearless....are you?" and I said Makoa out loud and John and I both knew that we had the name picked out.

But what was this Makoa? I searched online but all I got was that it was a city in Poland...why would Poland be advertising in Utah? So I gave up the search.
This past weekend John and I were driving to Lehi and came across a billboard that said "Maakoa is fearless...are you?" and gave the website! We were finally going to see where we got his name from!
After the party I looked it up and this is the site I got, Maakoa.com, we were just spelling it wrong! Makoa is (as far as I can tell) a juice type company located here in Utah, I'm not sure where they got the name but I'm guessing it may be Hawaiian from the double a's.

Only one thing wrong...Makoa is definately not fearless.

Two years and counting

John and I have been married for two years today. It's been another interesting year with it's ups and downs but I wouldn't have changed much.

Some exciting/interesting things that have happened on this day in history are:

1891 – James Naismith introduces the first version of basketball, with thirteen rules, a peach basket nailed to either end of his school's gymnasium, and two teams of nine players.

2001 – The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean.

1890 – Sitting Bull, Sioux nation leader, died.

For our anniversary John and I went to the Anniversary Inn in Logan to stay the weekend while our friend, Dana, watched the dogs.
The first night we stayed in the Lake Powell room and we were served the most delicious cream cheese and raspberry pastries, parfaits and juice for breakfast. Saturday at noon we moved into Juliet's Balcony. Juliet's Balcony was just WOW!
It snowed the whole time we were in Logan, which was just a beautiful back drop to our weekend. We had dinner at The Bluebird Restaurant Saturday night and Sunday the Inn served us ham and cheese croissants, cinnamon rolls and parfaits for breakfast Sunday morning.
The drive home was a little treacherous because of the snow (we didn't listen to the 4x4 only sign going into the canyon) but we made him home safe and sound. John also made 5 cheese ziti (while I walked him through each step) for a nice closing weekend dinner.

I cant wait to share the years to come with such a wonderful person.

WOOT!

FLOORS ARE DONE!....well 95% done! John worked really hard and with some pointers from my dad he finished laying them today. Now they just need the transition pieces (going from the "wood" floors to carpet or tile) put down. That means this basement project is almost behind us, now all that's left is to put in the molding and paint the doors.

Looking down the stairs:

The hallway (ignore the boxes):


The stairs that John worked so hard on:



Its so nice to not see cement anymore!

Does this happen to everyone or is it just me?

During some of my down time at work I was reading through some articles and I came upon the band Relient K. I haven't listened to Relient K in YEARS let alone thought about them and I suddenly had a deep longing to listen to them (curse you old car that isn't cool enough to have a CD player!). Of course I had to text my high school chum and remind her how much we loved them!

Lets go back to yester year and I'll tell you the touching tale of how Relient K stumbled into my life.
Picture this, Jessi and I sitting in German class, 11th grade I think, chatting it up like we usually did once the teach released us to work on work books and Chad (Mr. Chadly as we deemed him, we had a deep love of nick names back then)was jambing away with his CD player. Of course we had to bug him and ask what he was listening to, he tells us of wonderful Relient K and Jessi and I commandeered his CD player the rest of class.
We were then determined that we must own this Relient K and off to Wal-Mart we went after school. Funny story, Relient K is in the gospel section! Yup, they're a christian rock band!

Le Sigh and here I am with only one of their CDs and I haven't listened to them in I'd say...oh about 5 YEARS!

Am I the only one who forgets things for years on end, remembers them and then recalls how much I loved it?