Flood of 2011

Yes, we've had a lot of rain and the river a mile from my house and down the hill is nearing it's point of over-flow and I've had people ask me if we are in danger of getting flooded and I say "No, not even possible" Well the river didn't hit us but a broken irrigation pipe did. It broke underground and finally found an escape route through the dirt and spewed up one night after the sprinklers went off. It's a pressurized line so it had some force. It filled the big window well and the pressure broke the window and destroyed the blinds in the process. It was 4:30 AM, thank goodness we were home. It was very loud and there was running water so we ran downstairs...barefooted. When I heard arching from the treadmill I ordered all barefoot people out of the water and ran upstairs to hit the breaker switches and unplugged everything before turning the lights back on. On our second trip down nearly every step under our now shod feet was breaking glass that had floated all through the craft room and hall and was making it's way into the bedrooms and even into the family room. This water came from the window well so of course it had dirt, leaves, worms, bugs and even a salamander.

Did I mention that the force destroyed the blinds?

I've never been known for my immaculate house keeping and it came back to bite me in the craft room. I had my top drawer full of stamp pads open 2 inches. It instantly filled with water and filled all three drawers below it. The cart with my paper caught the water coming down and ruined all of that. The family and personal portraits, however, were in hanging file folders safely under the counter.

The counter had my paper cutter, quilt fabric/projects (only a few) and pictures, framed and otherwise. Those items did not fare well and were strewn throughout the room.


This is down the hall and into the family room. Glass even got this far.






Dirty water everywhere.

(I lost a couple of pictures here, sorry)

ServiceMaster to the rescue and after much ulcer causing questions, State Farm came to the rescue and is covering the repairs.

All carpet had to come out and the cabinets. Sheetrock had to be removed 16 inches up and all insulation below that point. D was ready to start on his back yard work shop but now he's sheet rocking and we spend a lot of time looking at paint and carpet samples. Not how we wanted to spend our summer but so grateful that our disaster was nothing more than an inconvenience and otherwise we have all been well.

For my Sisters

No, it's not done yet but do you wanna see the progress of our sampler quilt?
Let me remind you that I've been crazy busy and...well...CRAZY!
This thing is a little labor intensive and remember me reminding you all that I had a new blade on my rotary cutter and it's sharp? Well, I had a little delay because of a rotary blade accident. Haha, nothing serious but it stopped me for a while. Anyway, Here it is:

Obviously I have not put the blocks together but see how cool they look all criss-crossy? If I do two more and put a border on it should be plenty big because it's not supposed to fit a bed anyway, it's just a throw.

I love the randomness and the contributions. Believe it or not I have actually sewn several more strips. It really takes a lot of strips. We bought the green and the brown solid fabric and the green just looked a ton better even though I was leaning toward the brown. Anyway, I love it but can't wait to get it done cause I have so many other projects I want to work on. Thanks again for coming and thanks for indulging me in this fun little project.

Wha? Two months? Really?

OK, First let me be the first to congratulate myself on getting right to the Thanksgiving blog post and showing off Sista J's amazing hosting skills and cute kids to boot. BUT (and it's a big one!) The last two months have really slipped through my fingers. I'm not a big fan of January and I find myself enduring rather than being productive. While I have done all of this (snuggling with Baby E) as possible.

There has been way too much of this going on:

I have managed to get around to this:


I am notoriously NOT a decorator but my lovely daughter helped me make the word HOME in big letters on the shelf above the doorway in our living room so by getting the letters L and V and repapering them I now have my Valentine decoration up. Ok, there's more but I really don't like the old ones I have so I'm working on something new.

I've been trying to get to this:

This is one finished quilt block that my sisters and I worked on while we were together. I should have it done, put together and all quilted up but refer to the beginning of this post. But, hey, did you catch the point about ALL my sisters being together? That has never happened before with just the girls and Mom. We had a great time and since the girls from the midwest were here we saw a little of this:



Yeah, these two are 32 days apart in age but from birth have been 6 inches apart from birth but since the growth spurt of last year this is now the distance between the two. If I did nothing but blog I would go into detail about these two and their exploits. Oh My!

But, yes, we all got together and on a cold blustery day we braved the icy roads and went to the Salt Lake temple and trudged on to the JSMB and enjoyed a wonderful early dinner at the Garden Restaurant complete with fried dill pickles. don't knock it till you try it. We stayed up late that night and the next night was New Years Eve. We had our traditional German Chocolate cake and observed my favorite tradition and went to bed early. Really, I'm no fun late at night. On new years we ate and sewed and watched movies and laughed. We planned another get-together and made memories. I love my sisters and enjoy getting together with them and can't wait to do it again.

As you might have guessed they came a day early and we had a salon day where they got their hair done. That was fun too.

Thanksgiving

It looks like we are about ready. 13 of us ate in one room at my sisters house. The placemats were made by her family. They had real fall leaves between sheets of wax paper. They were so cute and the kids were so proud.

They made the cutest centerpieces! (yes, they deserve exclamation points)

This is the group minus the hosts. Interesting group. I usually host but was feeling a little overwhelmed so a couple of months ago I volunteered to bring food to anyone elses house and not host. It was an "off" year for my bro-in-laws family so we had his Dad and younger, single siblings, my parents, my two sons, me and my husband, D along with J and DH (hosts) and their kids.

Sweet little E managed to take out her pony tail but was cute never-the-less and headed to bed before dinner making dinner itself less stressful for J.

Cool dude, R was excited to have so many guests and yes, my Mom really does have a Thanksgiving apron.



Grandpa B managed to get little E in a snuggly mood and danced around the kitchen with her. This is a bad back-lit picture but it was the only one that showed both their faces. So sweet.

T and R get plenty of attention from their Aunt and Uncle.

Oops, this was not Thanksgiving. This was Saturday when R popped in to see Grandpa and he got out the new toy he bought. We aren't sure who likes it best but baby E seemed to really enjoy it. I was at work but they did come see me too. I was disappointed to have to work so much around the Holiday but expect to get a little more time after Christmas when I am planning a sisters get-together with....my sisters, of course!

Just pictures (to melt you heart)

Here's our little darling at 2 months in her blessing dress. So cute.

She was an m&m for Halloween and R and A were packages of m&m's, plain and peanut.

Here she is at four months. So much personality and expression.

We had family pictures done the end of September just before L left for London. The leaves had just started turning so we got the perfect blend of colors. I loved the background.

Ooooh, he's so handsome. don't worry, you will all get a Christmas card with the fam picture on it plus a couple of bonus picts.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!

Our house 2010

So L is gone. A month ago she was here, on her last group trip down Cataract Canyon with her other guide friends. A great farewell trip. This is where she is today, somewhere near Preston England in or around the MTC. In a few short hours she will be headed to London in a van with 10 other missionaries.
During that two weeks that she was home we had to finish her preparations and have a BIG farewell party following her opportunity to speak on a gospel subject prior to leaving on a mission. See previous post. On September 30 we had to get her to the airport to fly off to England:

So, in two weeks she went from a river guide to a missionary. BUT since she is gone and really has been for a couple of years, we've been doing some remodeling. First D took her room apart.

and where the door was supposed to go discovered a vent pipe from the bathroom downstairs which greatly complicated this project.

This is what the hallway looked like before demolition. Because of the pipe the door couldn't go directly into the front room so we had to sacrifice a major portion of our huge hall closet and make a diagonal facing door. D pulled up the carpet, laid hardwood, repainted, stained the floor and hung a new door.

We have very little decorating done but I love the colors.

This room is what one would have considered a conservatory. It has the piano, keyboard and guitar. It will have more seating and bookshelves.....eventually.

needs pictures. The perfect ones currently hang above our bed, they are moving.

So the house has more character now with our angled door next to our very small linen/hall closet.

But check out this beautiful rug! I was leaning toward a couple of plain ones when D spotted this. It matches perfectly and looks like it was woven with our bedroom pictures in mind.

AND, since we have been having family events at our house and usually do and never have enough comfortable seating:

We finally got a sectional in our front room. We replaced the Burgundy carpet but still need to replace the curtains. The furniture is not my favorite but after two years of looking, we were both satisfied enough that we are happy with it.

yeah, a super comfy chaise lounge.

Now there is room for all the teenagers that USED TO hang out at our house. It's still great for family gatherings so COME GATHER!

Sunday of Loved ones

Our daughter, L is going to England!Today was her "opportunity to speak on a gospel topic in Sacrament Meeting pryor to leaving on her mission" (farewell)

It was full of Friends (eating)

friends visiting

Baby E getting passed around and a happy Grandpa

and more friends from high school...

from church and the neighborhood...

and Moab (river)

and grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins.

It was a great day that was long awaited, well prepared for (could have been better) and much anticipated. We baked and prepared for days, most of the week even and figured around 50 people would show up. There were 72 at one count and that didn't get them all. We ran out of plates first, breakfast casserolle next and forks next. Thank goodness we have peaches and apples on the tree and continued to cut up fruit. It was so fun to hear L speak along with her friend and past Young Women leader, Shannon and to see everyone enjoying themselves and to visit with our family and friends. It will be a busy week to get her all ready to fly out on Thursday.

Thanks to everyone who came and supported us today. It's a parents payday!