Random Phone Pics

Every few months I go through the pictures on my phone and realize that I haven't posted some of these pictures and the corresponding funny stories that go with them. So here is my update:

One day in the winter we were working on the house and I saw these brand new gloves and huge container of chalk in the house. I asked Matt what they were and he told me that one of the neighbors had stopped by with the chalk and gloves. He said one day his wife got a phone call from a neighbor who thought that their dog had killed something or was dying. They could see the dog, all covered in red, rolling around in the garage. Well this woman runs out to her garage to find her dog completely covered in red. She is freaking out until she realized that the dog was not covered in blood, but red chalk from our house! They went out into the backyard and found an assortment of garbage, gloves, and other items their dogs had stolen from our house and taken home! The guy was super embarassed, but Matt and I were laughing way hard! We told him that he didn't need to replace the chalk or gloves, but if he found a shower drain in his yard to send it our way. We had one sneak off one day and it has never been found!

I took this picture on our ski field trip. You may notice that there are no kids in sight! It was seriously amazing. We got all the kids into their equipment, then sent them to their mandatory class for an hour and a half and had the whole mountain to ourselves! I had a great day skiing with the other teachers and getting to know them. I also forgot how much I love skiing!

So I am obsessed with buying books, so I send out a monthly book order from Scholastic with all my kids at school. Scholastic doesn't accept cash, but when kids bring in cash, I just pay for their books with my debit card and keep the cash. Well, I couldn't help but laugh when one of my way cute boys brought in a FULL EIGHT DOLLARS in change. And not just quarters! He had counted it out exactly, and I was more than happy to pay for his books and try to spend all this change!

A month or so ago I posted about how stressed out I was. I mentioned that even my purse was ripping at the seams. Well, here is the proof! I was purse shopping with Matt and had to take a picture of my disgusting purse. Matt had been harassing me for weeks about my gross purse and I finally broke down and bought a new one.

One of the advantages of living in Richmond is Pepperidge Farm! I don't go there often, but when I do I usually come out with $20 or more in cookies and goldfish. My dad and Laurie were up here one weekend when they had Milanos in the bulk bags and were so excited, so now whenever I see Milanos I have to send the picture to my dad!

Harrison. Isn't he so cute! I can't even remember why I took this picture (maybe to show him his cool hair?) but it is one of his genuine smiles and I love it.

My Papa. Oh I love him so much. In February he was in a rehab facility after having shoulder surgery (when you only have one arm to begin with and then you need shoulder surgery on your other arm, you definitely need help getting back "on your feet"). Matt and I were able to stop by and visit for a few minutes. I wish I had more time to see him. He had not been feeling very good, and everything was super hard for him, and when I asked to take a picture, he said, "I've been waiting for a good reason to sit up. Anything for my Morning Glory." I love him! When I was younger, I gave him a hard time for nicknaming me after a weed. Now he is always reminding me that Morning Glory is a flower too.

Happy Birthday Matt!

Matt has been soooo busy working on the house, so this year for his birthday, the only thing he wanted to do was have a relaxing day of fishing! So that is exactly what we did! We went down to Salt Lake on Thursday night (the night before his birthday) and met my dad for dinner at Cheesecake Factory. The real reason we went there for dinner is for cheesecake for dessert! Even Matt, who isn't quite as much of a sweet-tooth as I am, loves their cheesecake! The next morning we woke up and left Salt Lake at 5:00 AM so Matt could be on the water for the morning fishing! His mom and dad were kind enough to come with us so Matt could fish on the boat. They apparently "slayed" the fish. I spent most of the day reading and sleeping, and missed a lot of the fishing, but he said it was great! We pulled the boat out around 5:00 PM and stopped at Dairy Keen in Midway for dinner, then headed back to Richmond.

As you can see, Matt was very busy fishing...

He did have some success...

But most of the day was just spent enjoying the nice weather and of course Matt needed a nice beer...

On a side note (I'm not trying to make this about me), it was only 27 degrees when we got to the lake. I was wearing pants and a sweatshirt and coat, and forgot my boots! Matt is always worrying about me being warm enough so he dug through Diet's toolbox and found me some of Diet's coveralls to wear! I would have really froze to death for the first three hours on the boat if I didn't have those coveralls. Throughout the day, I slowly took off my layers!

Happy 29th birthday babe! Enjoy your last year in your 20's! I love you!

Getting Close! Updates As We Count Down...

I have officially been out of school for one week, and I have spent almost every minute of that time working on the house! I was hoping to have a break from working, but Matt had the week off and we decided to get some more stuff done!

We have officially moved the washer and dryer upstairs to the mudroom. We didn't realize how small they were, so we are planning on buying a shelf to put between the washer and dryer to hold dirty socks and wash rags and stuff. We still have to buy a gas hose for the dryer. It boggles my mind how you pay extra for a gas dryer and it doesn't even come with a freaking hose! Duh!

The last two weeks of my life have been devoted to tile. Ah. I walked into the bathroom at the Cheesecake Factory on Thursday night and the first thing I noticed was the grout on the tile floor. Kill me! I have been staring at tile and grout for too long! Thank heavens it is finally done. You really have no idea how much work tile is until you do it yourself. It isn't just putting the tile on. We first had to paint a layer of Aqua-guard on the walls. Then we had to lay out the plan for the tile. If you just go for it, stuff doesn't lay as nicely, and you have to make tricky cuts. Then you have to put mortar on the wall and on the tile, cutting the pieces as you go, using spacers to make sure they are the right distance apart. You also need to check that they are all laying flat, you don't want any sticking out farther than others. And on the walls, the tile really moves all over the place. Matt had a way hard time with the diagonal tiles. Then the tile had to set up before we could clean it. After cleaning, we (I) grouted all the tile. Then I cleaned again and re-grouted any spots that weren't done well enough. Then we had to clean again before we (I) could seal the grout. Then we cleaned again! I told Matt that I am not going to clean any tile for at least a month...

All in all, it was worth it! It looks so beautiful and is exactly what we wanted! I am so proud of all of Matt's hard work and great ideas. The designs are all his!

Guest bathroom...

Master bath... There are a ton of different views because it is hard to really see how awesome it looks in pictures...

The outside of the house has drastically changed in the past week! We got the painter over to paint the siding! I love the color! The paint makes a huge difference! It really is feeling more finished now that it is painted.

We also had the excavator over to help us build our rock retaining wall and move some dirt around for us. We need the retaining wall up against the porch so that we don't need a railing. Code says the ground must be no more than 30 inches below the porch so you don't need a railing. I don't want to close off the big porch!

We had to build up the dirt on the back of the house to prevent flooding in the spring. This is just the beginning of leveling off the lot, and definitely the beginning of landscaping.

We only used about half of the dirt we have, so we still have some left for leveling the lot.

Finally the interior of the garage is painted! Matt has already put in all the finish electrical in here, so we have all our outlets and lights in! We are all ready for a garage door now!