Don't Get Too Excited

I know you are all glad that we are finally updating our blog again, but I wouldn't get too excited. Our life is fairly uneventful so what is exciting to us will probably put you to sleep. You know what's exciting to us? Yard work. Yes, you heard me...yard work. And that's exactly what I am going to write about today so you can go ahead and move on to bigger and better things if you like. =)

So all the years that I've owned this house I've done lots of stuff to fix up the house and absolutely nothing to the yard. It slowly (along with the garage of course) turned into my own personal junkyard. Then came Preston. Wonderful Preston who takes pride in things and likes to make them nice. I'm so grateful for that quality in him. And I'm also so grateful that he is a real guy...you know, the kind who isn't afraid to get his hands dirty or work hard. He smelled like gasoline for 2 days because he was determined to fix the weed whacker but I love that about him. My kind of guy!

Anyways, we landscaped the yard, added some timber and flower beds, planted some lilac and hydrangea bushes and planted a real actual vegetable garden. I wish I had some before pictures because none of you will appreciate how good it looks now if you didn't know how ugly it was before. It's funny, it's like even the grass has magically come back to life. (Maybe that's because with Preston around it actually gets watered.) Anyways, thanks Preston for being such a good "man of the house". =)








This last one isn't exactly a before picture but it was in the process and you can kind of get a feel for the former yard ugliness.


I had to throw some pictures of Sadie in because she is cute and I get more attached to her every day. She hadn't been spayed yet when we started puppy-sitting so when she went into heat we did everything to keep dogs away from her. They were digging under our fence to get in the yard so we had to lock her inside. She was a hot commodity! I felt like we were parents locking our teenage daughter up! Anyways, it appears that our protective efforts were in vain and we are pretty sure she is going to have puppies. Sadly, it will probably be while we are in Europe so hopefully she will be okay!

Oh yeah, and did I mention that this time next week we will be on a plane to Europe!?!?!? Woohoo!!

And The Winner Is......

ME!!! Yeah, so this company did a NCAA bracket tournament and offered prizes for 1st, 2nd and 3rd place. There were about 500 people in the competition so we didn't think we stood much of a chance but we joined anyway. Turns out I came in 3rd out of 500 people. Preston (Mr. Basketball himself) came in....well, I don't want to embarrass him so I won't say a number, but let's just say i beat him by a lot! =) So pretty much I rock! And I won $50 for it, which we get to spend where ever I want. Cheesecake Factory, here we come!!! Mmmmm.

So last weekend we had the opportunity to attend a General Conference for our church. I feel like I am surrounded by gloom and worry and stress and negativity every day because of the economy and mass killings and everything else that goes on in the world today. There was a big Newsweek article about the decline of Christianity in our country, which broke my heart. I can't even tell you how comforting it is to have the gospel of Jesus Christ as the foundation of my life. It is such a source of peace and strength and it is especially uplifting to be able to listen to the leaders of our church and be gathered together with so many people who share my beliefs. I always leave with such a feeling of hope. Hope that there are still good things and people in the world, hope that if I live my life the best I can I will be blessed, hope that I can be with my husband and family for eternity, and most importantly, hope-no, absolute knowledge-that there is a God who knows each of us individually and loves us so much more than we can possibly understand. I just wish that everyone I knew could know that for themselves because I know it would change their life.


The best part about conference was being there with my husband and best friend. It doesn't get much better than that.

I love the conference center...it is such a beautiful building. P.S. Bekah, I still think about you every time I go there. =)

Other than that, not much excitement around here. If it ever stops raining and snowing (so much for spring time) we will rototill our yard and plant a garden which I am really excited about. Oh, and we reserved our rental car for our Europe trip. Only 26 days til we leave!!!