Bon Voyage!

Daddy Daughter Dates

Every dad should take his daughters on dates. Nothing can make a girl feel more special than a night out with her dad. A few days ago Todd and I went out to dinner (something that has been happening more frequently due to our kitchen makeover, pics coming soon!!), and there was a little girl sitting behind us with her dad. The conversation went like this:
Daddy asks: I hope you are nice to everyone at school.
Daughter says: Oh, I am daddy. I am SO nice to everyone.
Daddy asks: What did mom pack in your lunch today?
Daughter says: Strawberries and a croissant. Oh yummy. Daddy, if you were a croissant I would eat you up in two bites!!!
Daddy: (chuckle chuckle and a big kiss on her cheek.)
That is why daddy-daughter dates are so important.

First Time

So far, the year 2009 has been a year of firsts.
For the first time in my life I...

• Turned 22 years old (and celebrated it with my parents in a bar, probably a last, ha ha)
• Went to a Vienna Boys Choir concert (incredible and inspiring)
• Bought a house (and payed a mortgage, scary!)
• Had water back up in the basement of my new house :(
• Dug up our sewer line and half the front yard to fix the house (a tree root was growing in our pipe, no wonder it was backing up!)
• Remodeled (still in the process) my own kitchen (which meant learning how to use a nail gun, etc...)
• Actually ASKED Todd to take me to HomeDepot for Valentines Day (his dream come true)
• Will be going to Europe in 2 weeks,

(Switzerland to be percise)

ALL FOR THE FIRST TIME IN MY LIFE!!! And it has only been 2 months. I wonder what else 2009 will bring?!?!?!?!

• But even more importantly, for the first time in my life I have really realized how blessed I am . Neighbors, family, and friends have showered us with service and love. Thank you Rob, for steam cleaning my floors for 2 days. You are such a sweet brother. Thank you Adam, Kenzie, Brandon, Josh, Bud, Linda and Wade for helping us in the move. Thank you, Bud (my father-in-law), for spending hours in your wood shop helping me refinish my cabinets and teaching me so much. Thank you mom and dad for feeding us, letting us use your running water and keeping our spirits up. Thank you neighbors for the cookies, visits and notes. Thank you Mike, Dave and Ron for taking an entire day to figure out our water issue. Thank you Dallas for sneaking over and plowing our driveway every time it snows, we know it is you! And thank you to everyone for your kind, small acts of love and service, they have not gone unnoticed!

That is the reason I LOVE Oakley.

There is a reason...

THEY CALL ME ANNIE OAKLEY!

We bought a house in..............Oakley! Yeah! It finally closed yesterday and we are moving this weekend. If you know me very well, you know that I am a big home body, so I don't know if it is just that Oakley is where I grew up so it feels like home, or if it is the fact that being named ANNIE, I am naturally drawn to OAKLEY?! Either way, I can't wait to live there again!

Sisters, Sisters

LOVE YOU JANE

Oh no... I've been tagged!

So now that a few of my friends have tagged me, I guess it is time I do my duty as a fellow blogger and join in the fun. Apparently I am suppose to tell 6 unspectacular quirks about myself and then tag 6 friends to do the same. So here it goes. ( OH, and by the way, if you know more of my silly quirks, feel free to remind me of them in a comment! Since I got married I am suddenly much more aware of my quirks and it is kind of fun when someone points it out.)

1. I have come to realize I have a serious love-hate relationship with sPiDeRs, SICK I KNOW! Words can't describe how disgusting I think they are, and yet, if someone says, "Eww, a spider!" I am the first one there to look at it. Then I shiver and rant and rave about how sneaky and revolting they are. It drives Todd crazy because rather than just letting him kill it, I have to come and express how SICK that is. Why do I do that to myself?

2. I am absolutely fascinated with tornadoes. I hope to witness one, a big one, someday. (Maybe I will feel differently afterward!)

3. I am cursed with a little thing called homesickness. When I was little I would cry when my dad went to work and when my parents went out of town I would do naughty things like cut up my mom's clothes because I was so angry at her for leaving me. ( Me, do naughty things, I know it is hard to believe :) I don't think I voluntarily had a sleep over until I was almost 13!

4. I sleep with a hot rice bag almost every night. There is nothing more wonderful. Infact, I just barely threw away the rice bag Eden made for me in like, 3rd grade? Seroiusly, it was so old but one of the best gifts I have ever been given.

5. I have been SELF-diagnosed with mild hypochondria. I realized this when I took a Human Diseases class and I went home after each class seriously stressed out and convinced that I had every disease we learned about. Good thing I have a logical and patient husband who convinces me regurlarly that I don't have that disease or that, "babe, that is totally normal, your fine." Ha ha!

6. I am turning into my mother (or in other words, slowly losing my mind, in a good way!). Those of you who know my mom's quirky side, know that I am headed down the same road. For example, today when I had just finished teaching a lesson on child abuse in a 6th grade class, I grabbed my bag and was looking back and waving bye to the kids on my way out the door. As I turned around and the door closed behind me, I realized I was standing in their supplies closet. HA HA, I had walked right into their closet and shut the door behind me. I could only laugh as I opened the door and walked back into the classroom full of giggling students.

So there you have it, thank goodness for each of our quirks, it makes life so much more exciting! I tag: Debbie Crowther, Mandy, Amanda Daniels, Eden, Michelle Harries and MeKenzie!

Good as New!

One of our goals before we moved to Salt Lake was to refurnish the bed set that Todd's grandparents handed down to us as a wedding gift, (yes it has taken 1 year and 7 months to get to this project. Can you believe we have been married for that long!) It was a lot of fun, seeing how it was our first time ever doing this. We decided to do a cream paint, sanded on the edges with a brown stain on the top, which you wipe off before it drys so it just makes it look a little off white and old. Todd was my sanding man and repair man. He is fixing the gashes in the wood in this picture with wood putty (I never knew it existed.) Here is what it looked like originally:

BEFORE

The first time I painted it, I did the white and then used a mahogany stain over the top. The ladies at the paint store didn't remind me that mahogany comes from very red wood, which meant that when the white paint mixed with the hint of red in the stain, it turned out a beautiful baby pink! So cute... if we had a little girl. But Todd wasn't exactly thrilled with having a pink bed set so I had to start over. In the end, it turned out beautiful! For the most part, it was a lot of fun spending days and nights in the garage painting together. (Minus the few arguments that come with marital bliss, like when Todd kicked over my last can of paint...sigh). My vision is to have this furniture in a room with darker walls some day because in our current room it is a little washed out, but oh well. We also painted our bed board and night stand but I didn't take a pictures of them, but it looks really good all together.
AFTER

So a quick word of advice, NEVER throw out old furniture. Older furniture is made so sturdy and is such high quality furniture, it will last forever and there is always a way to modernize it and make it more you. And besides that, it is cheaper and there is just something so satisifying about fixing up something and making it good as new!