Bones

Here are the bones of the wet bar, truthfully they're not installed yet just set in place. John needs to do plumbing and it will be easier if the cabinets aren't installed.



They do look really nice though. A fridge will go where the broom is sitting and a sink cabinet will go in the corner. Hopefully next Saturday we'll be getting a granite or quartz countertop for a steal, but it will be one of the last things to go in.

Sunny St. George

While Northern Utah was stuck in the middle of winter I trekked down to St. George to visit with my VERY pregnant friend before she had her baby.
The drive down wasn't too bad, I checked out a James Patterson book on CD to occupy my driving time and I only ran into a few snow storms on the way down.

Jessi and I clicked back into sync like we'd never been apart. Chatting about old times, new times, high school and everything else under the sun. We watched a handful of movies including The Dark Crystal (still not sure why we like that movie), made an emergency Wal-Mart run (Makoa kept carrying off my underwear while I was packing so I put them back in my drawer to pack later and then I forgot to get them. So we had to run to the store so I could buy some), saw The Back-up Plan at a theatre, went to a delicious pizza place and just really enjoyed each other's company.

Enna punished me for leaving by chewing up some heels and a book, little stinker, she's never chewed up stuff before but she must have been pretty pissed at me.

I wanted to turn back around to St. George when I hit the first snow storm driving home. I was leaving fantastic weather to come back home to chilliness. But it was nice to come home to see my puppies and lovely hubby.

I was greeted by my Hardy Johnson's Blue Geranium blooming, the first perennial to bloom!


St. George was nice to visit but I dont think I'd ever want to live there. It gets too hot for me in the summer and I like living in the hustle bustle city of Salt Lake.
It was so nice to visit with you Jessi! Cant wait to meet the little man when he comes into the world!

John's new baby

Towards the end of last year we decided that John needed a new vehicle, but that it needed to wait so we could save up a down payment.
His car was a bad purchase from the beginning but we were suffering from "one car syndrome" for almost 5 months that we put blinders on and ignored the bad.
His car has been nice to have and since he doesn't have to drive to far for work we made it last as long as possible (I also loved not having a car payment!) but we agreed that around May would be a good time to start looking for a new one. There was no way in hell that his car would pass safety and emissions in May, it needed a lot of love and we didn't want to spend the money to give it that love.

For the last couple of months we've been looking online seeing what we could expect to find with what we wanted to pay. Truthfully our pickings were slim. People love their trucks so they drive the crap out of them and even newer years had a ton of mileage on them or they just dont sell them at all. We were thinking that we'd be getting a 2006 with 65,000+ miles, not ideal but if that's what we could find it would be better than what we had. We did find a few trucks that John liked early on, but our down payment wasn't where I wanted it to be so we didn't go look at them.

On Monday John took the day off since he had one more vacation day and was in the use it or lose it stage. I went to work and browsed KSL on my down time since May was getting close. I think out of the qualifications that we wanted 29 trucks came up on my list. I browsed through the list not finding anything that caught my eye (John wanted an extended cab at least and preferred a longer bed) until a few pages in.
There was a 2008 Ford F150 crew cab with 13,000 miles at $13,999, of course I clicked but I wondered right off the bat that it had to be too good to be true, the price was too low. Yup, there is was, it was a reclaimed title, but sometimes that doesn't mean its a bad vehicle. I text John letting him know, asking him if he wanted to go take a look at it. He decided it was worth a shot and drove up to Woods Cross to check it out.

I emailed my dad the specs to get his opinion and told him why the title was reclaimed. The truck had been in an accident but not a massive one and the dealership let John look at the Carfax to see what had to be done. Nothing too serious and the dealership did a nice job fixing it up. John decided that it might be worth my dad coming out and looking at it, we weren't going to buy anything without my dad's approval.
I love having my dad look at cars with us. He looks at things I forget or dont think to look at and really knows his stuff. If my dad says no to one then its not a good buy and you move on to the next.

My dad met us at the dealership and did his stuff. Since it was in accident he checked the frame and all the other junk you check when you know your stuff on cars.
After a good long while on talking the pros and cons of getting a reclaimed he gave his Dad Seal of Approval and John was happy.





(yes these are the dealers pictures but I'm lazy and why should I take my own when they'll look just the same?)

I'm hoping this truck proves to be a good purchase and will live with us for many years to come. I'm also hoping that my car, Lil' Blue, will also live at least 5 more years because I'm really not ready for another car payment.

Season

Enna is in season, also known as heat. What does this mean? She's a tad moody, gets grumpy easy (sorry Kumo for all the growls and face bites), cant go outside without super vision which also means no off leash for her, and finally she has to wear a diaper.

There is a purpose for the diaper besides making her look super adorable. For about 21 days she bleeds lightly and we dont want that on our furniture or flooring.

Lets hope these 21 days go quick since we're not breeding her this time. I feel bad that she has to stay home while Makoa and I go with Dana and Kumo to Tanner. Cross your fingers that all the ducks are in a row when she goes into heat around November so we can breed her then!

Front yard ideas

I've fallen in love with a bench

Of course I had to think where I could put this delightful little thing in my yard (after John builds it of course, he's ecstatic :)). With the very limited space and the lack of creativity that was put into designing my front yard I set my brain to work and came up with this. (click on picture to enlarge)
The grid in front on the sidewalk that leads to our porch is where I'd like the bench to go and then of course I dont have enough flower garden space as it is so I'd like to put in more. The circle behind the grid I'd like to set a little higher than the other beds (got the idea from here) I haven't decided what I'd like to live there yet, maybe a nice water feature or rotating annuals or maybe even a rosebush.
Also maybe the proposed front bed will connect to the left bed, not really sure about that yet. I bet there will be a lot of changes to my pre-plan if and when we get around to it.

I haven't fully convinced John of my brilliant plan yet, he just sees more dollar signs, but he does like the idea of less to mow. Of course this wont be happening any time soon since the basement is his baby right now, but I'll keep this in the will-cost-a-lot-of-money-and-time folder until my dreams come true.

ouch

This is my battle wound from last nights tank moving adventure

This lovely abrasion is from Sophi who was helping us pack up the fish. John was scooping the fish out and I was the holder of the tupperware. He scooped two of the hatchet fish out of the tank and they protested by jumping out of the tupperware and onto the floor, one flopped right between my feet. Sophi was on top of the situation though, so dont be alarmed. She pounced, I shrieked and somewhere in the middle of it I got scratched.

Somehow we got the cat and dogs away from the fish, but one of the little fellas flopped his way under the tank stand. After he was fished out (ha ha ha fished) he was plopped into the tupperware. As of right now he's still alive, maybe he's like a cat and has 9 lives? The tank is also safely placed in its new home, my in-laws living room.

P.S. this is also my 100th post, I dont know if that's a good thing or a bad thing....

the dogs

I have to say when I first got Enna it devastated me that she wouldn't go to strangers. I grew up with a lab and spaniel mix so I wasn't use to this peculiar situation.
We did do research before we got her so we knew that they weren't too keen on strangers, but I didn't think it would be this bad. We socialized up a storm when she was little, but it was to no avail, she just didn't want anything to do with people she didn't know. So hard when you have a rare dog that everyone wants to pet.

Before we got Makoa I asked the breeder how he was with people, her reply, "He's the friendliest klee kai I have ever met!" Lies. He is a little better than Enna though. If you start petting him than he's okay with you, Enna just wants you to stop and will crawl away.
Because of this shyness no one gets to see how the dogs really are. They are the sweetest, funniest little creatures. But everyone views them as mean, crabby, unfriendly and noisy.

It takes a while for my dogs to warm up to people they dont know. Enna took a few months to even like us when we first got her, we had to keep a leash attached to her so we could catch her when needed. Now she is my shadow and totally attached to me.
They love Dana but this is because Dana sees them OFTEN!!! We see Dana at least once a week if not twice and she has really worked with them hard to get them to like her. She knows their behaviors and what it took to win them over.(You have to sit on the ground at their level and wait for them to come to you, no calling, yelling or forcing. You cant just expect miracles right off the bat. They're just like shy children, the more you force the worse they get.) They come to her when she calls, Makoa especially, and they get really excited when they see her. So it can be done, it just requires work on your part.


Because they dont like strangers they dont like it when the stranger jump at them, chase them or makes loud noises at them. This will cause my normally quiet dogs to bark and jump back at said strangers.
They may nip if they get too scared, this has only happened once and I'm not putting the blame on my dogs at all. Think about it, you're approached by a mugger, the mugger jumps towards you and you think you're trapped, what would you do?

These dogs aren't like regular dogs. You shouldn't expect them to come running when they see you, lick your face, and want to be your best friend. They can also sense agitation and there is no way in Hell they'll come to you then. Please dont tell me that something is wrong with my dogs, that I didn't train them well or they're mean. They're not, they just dont see you enough and dont know who you are. So what does that mean? We need to see you more and if you want my dogs to like you, you have to make a conscious effort to get them to like you.
If you dont care if they like you or not then ignore them when you come over. Dont jump at them (even if you think you're playing, they think you're being a threat), dont make them bark (No one, the dogs, John and myself included, thinks you're being funny)and dont make really sudden movements towards them (this is what really causes the sudden nipping).
I'm sorry if this makes you like my dogs less, you dont have to like them. They're our dogs and what you dont get to see is what we love most about them.

One good thing about them not loving every single person that crosses their path? They wont follow any Tom, Dick or Harry home so I dont have to worry about any stolen pets.