Bold and Beautiful

We have been wanting to make a change to the color of our family room and it has taken us 2-1/2 years to get the guts to actually do it...but the result is great and I love my new ORANGE family room. (I must be a true Thunderbird!) We did the hallway the same beige as the upstairs so it would match from the entryway.

We also worked a little on Bri's room. She has been wanting a bigger bed and we were able to get a queen size bed from a neighbor. She loves her new "grown up" bedroom!

Enough said...

My husband is a LOSER!

In fact, he is the BIGGEST LOSER! He and his friends had a contest over the last six months to see who could lose the most body fat percent. JT worked his tail off...literally! He lost 9% of his body fat. He looks great and feels great. Way to go JT!

Crazy mom...

Who's the crazy mom? I AM! I have been very firm in my stance of NO RODENTS at my house. I don't like stinky pets and I don't want something that could potentially get loose and live in my walls. Well, apparently bunnies don't count! JT has a friend with a "farm". He has chickens, horses, turkeys, goats and BUNNIES. He offered us a free cage and a bunny, singular. I relented and Bri was ecstatic. We went over tonight to pick IT up and after talking with said friend, decided that two could keep each other company and keep each other warm in the winter...two bunnies... Yeah, I am crazy.

They are actually very cute and don't get too big when they are full grown. Bri named one Hossenfeffer. The other is "mine" and I think I am going to name it Lilly. JT wanted them to be named Hoss and Feffer, but I don't like names that when one dies the other doesn't make sense, and who wants a bunny named Feffer?!? :)

I am reminded of a post that Marf (my sister) made on her blog about a year ago. Apparently by getting bunnies I am actually adding to my food storage! Check out her post: http://momlikesmebest.blogspot.com/2008/09/whats-for-dinner.html

Smiles just don't get much bigger than that! Ok, maybe I am a good mom too... :)

Labor Day

We went camping in Logan Canyon for the long Labor Day weekend. It was a very pretty place to camp, and someplace that I have not spent much time before. I have just driven through on my way to other places. We took it easy most of the time, playing games and hanging out. We did hike to the wind caves, which was a lot of fun and very beautiful views.

We took Yeager with us and he came with us on the hike. He ran almost the entire way and when we got back to the car he fell asleep almost immediately, it was very cute!

Finally!

We finally had our yard sale last weekend. It was a long time coming, I had pulled most of the stuff out of closets and storage in June. The purpose of the yard sale was to get Bri a new bike. She outgrew her old bike several years ago and was really needing a new one. Now she is a happy girl with a new bike!

First day of 6th grade

Bri had a great first day of school. She is really excited about all the things she is going to be learning this year. I had a good day back too...even though it rained during lunch recess. I have less time that I will be spending on the playground this year and was able to pick up some clerical hours too. SEM this year was cut hours so I am working about 5 hours less per week than I was last year. I have more to do and less hours to get it done!

Rock Hounds!

We had the most amazing day yesterday! We got up at 5:30 (yes...on a Saturday) and left the house at 6:15 to meet up with a group of people that JT knows from work. (Russ works for the company that JT used to work for, and Dr. Checketts and some of his office staff). We drove out to the boonies in Wyoming where we had made arrangements to dig for fossils on some private property. It was one of the coolest things I have ever done. The rock is sandstone and is in layers. You chip the layers apart with a hammer and chisel and there are fish, manta rays and plants inside the layers of the rock. We found some amazing things and now have to get them cleaned up (you have to take a dental pick and get all the sediment off of the fossil) and then we can display some of them in our home. VERY COOL!

This is one of the fossils we found!

The guy who owns the property is working on excavating these palm fronds. He keeps them covered and when he gets them removed from the side of the cliff he will probably be able to sell them for at least $20,000!

We then went with Russ to another area of the state and met up with another group of work associates. We drove to an area that has fossilized turtles. They have been under much looser soil and are broken into bits, but it is really amazing to see and the pieces are very interesting. As the ground has eroded it has exposed the fossilized turtles and as you can see in the photo below, a lot of them were in little circles on top of the mounds of dirt. You can see the texture of the shell, the spongey material it is made of and even find bones mixed in. We also found Gar fish scales, which after millions of years are still shiney. The area was a lake about 45 million years ago.

When we were done we went back to the home of Dr. Noe, who was the one that took us out to find the turtles, and he showed us some of his other fossils and rocks. The photo below shows him with a turtle shell that he found. It was in pieces just like the ones we saw, but he found every piece and put it back together. He was such a kind man. He gave me a very cool piece of petrified wood that he has polished and it is just beautiful. I will always treasure it.

And one of Bri's highlights was when she got to drive a quad!

We had a fun adventure and are kind of bitten by a rock hound bug...now I want to find more!

Wow..I was actually productive!

We took Bri swimming with her cousins last Saturday. I got to have scrap day (even though I didn't do as much scrapping as I did talking...sorry guys!)

I painted my little dresser with my free paint that I got from Glidden. This was my dresser growing up and it has been yellow, white, green and now brown.

I took Bri school shopping and got her all ready for 6th grade. She also wanted to get a haircut and have her eyebrows waxed. They look very nice...and she is VERY happy!