We had a great Thanksgiving complete with the usual pumpkin pie and traditional dishes, with a kick of Chinese mixed in. (Huh?) We had Lois, Audrey, and Alice over and Alice brought a yummy Chinese dish. And we have a pile of leftovers to enjoy for the next month. Yeah! No cooking!


weekend project

The basement bathroom was my weekend-ish project (I say weekend-ish, because as weekend projects go, they always bleed over into Monday.) I painted it a warm gray color. Tom insists that it is brown but he is clearly wrong. If it looks brown in these photos it is only because they are lousy photographs.

I received this vinyl for free as a reward for my contributions in helping to launch the line. I finally put it up. It looks great on the gray walls.

And as weekend projects go, everything else gets neglected. So, my next project will have to be to play catch up and clean my house and get ready for Thanksgiving. Mmmm. My mouth is watering for Pumpkin Pie already.

dinner guest

Cinderella came to our house for dinner. Aren't we lucky? She was a lovely guest.

Abby made these placemats for the grand occasion.

Sin City

They don't call it Sin City for nothing. Even I was a sinner, I confess. I had a bad attitude. I kept chiding myself for it and tried to look on the bright side. The bible says "In everything give thanks", but I couldn't do it. I just couldn't be thankful for the accomodations, for starters.

Let me tell you about it. Tom had to be in Vegas for a conference in between business trips to Arizona. So, instead of facing the weekend home alone, I decided to pack up the girls and meet him there. We had decided to stay at the Tropicana. It is conveniently located on the strip, and even though it is probably one of the oldest hotels left, it was really something in it's prime (or so they say..... In fact, Tom remembers his folks really loving it there.) That didn't sound so bad, and for around $70 a night, it was pretty reasonable. After dragging our luggage through the casino, up the elevator, down a long hall, down another long hall, past a few cigarette smoke smelling rooms, we arrived at ours. It was big! And it had a balcony! And.... no sheets on the beds. And the beds were a bit small. That's okay.... except the carpet is really dirty.... and so are the bathrooms... is that soap scum on the counter? And HAIR? Tom calls the front desk, "My wife says this room is just not acceptable". (He blames it on me. The gall!) "Do you have anything else"? They reply, "Well, we would be happy to upgrade you to a delux room for just $30 more a night." Apparently the $70 rate did not cover maid service. Tom did kindly remind me that I was a bit spoiled. After all I had just stayed a night that very week at the Ritz Carlton in Pasadena, CA. My expecations were a tad high. So, with my chin up, we packed up and went back down the long halls, down the elevator, through the casino (everything funnels through the casinos in this town), up another elevator, down another long hall, and to our new delux room. The room was clean. I'll give it that. The beds were hard as rocks. And small. So was the TV. Oh well. I tried to remind myself to see the world through the eyes of a child. They were delighted. The hotel had a POOL!!!!

It is good to look at the world through the eyes of a child. They were wide-eyed with delight at the whole experience. When we sought out the closest restaurant, they didn't mind at all that their $10 kids meals were greasy and tasted like cardboard. The pool and the M&M store. That is what life is all about.

See Sarah looking up adoringly at her sister? She wants to be just like her and copies everything she does. 2 seconds later she smiled at me and held up her bag of M&M's. My shutter timing wasn't so great.

I couldn't hope noticing how everyone dresses in Vegas (or doesn't dress, rather). The skimpier, the better, apparently. I didn't notice this until I was looking at these pictures later, but even the green M&M is showing a little too much leg.

I would have had an adorable picture of Abby just like this too, but seconds after this picture is shot, Abby's bag splits open and M&M's cover the 4th floor of the store. Oops.


Good thing Mom and Dad are really nice and let her get more. Nothing tastes like pink and purple M&Ms.

Posing with Daddy and the M&M's Nascar.


Notice the robotic alligator in the picture above? It isn't a great picture, but this is Sarah trying with all her might to make distance between her and that alligator. She didn't like it a bit when it snapped it jaws. Her reaction generated quite a few chuckles from the crowd.


However when we saw the very real lions (yes, this close...that is his nose) through the glass, she didn't even cringe. They were sleeping and looked all soft and cuddly.

I had made reservations at the fabulous Thai restaurant that Tiffany and Tawnya and I discovered, and I was really looking forward to eating there again. It was the one that got me hooked. But even that wasn't quite as good as I remembered it. Maybe my taste buds have refined (after all, since then I've hit nearly every Thai restaurant in Salt Lake, and my favorite one at least 4 or 5 [or ten] times) or maybe they were just having an off night. In any case, I was really starting to wonder if it was all me.

Now that we are back home, I've reflected on the trip and I've decided that I AM thankful for these times that really make us appreciate the finer things when we have the opportunity to experience them. They make the sweet times sweeter. And no matter where we were, I was happy to be with my family and see their joy. Tom moved over to the Mandalay Bay where his company was putting him up during the conference. He sent me an e-mail today with some pictures to assure me that there is a good side to Vegas. Marble counters, fluffy beds, clean carpet... isn't he sweet to remind me that Vegas isn't all bad? Or is he rubbing it in my face? :)

Mike and Amanda, we thought several times about looking you up, but the weekend passed in a quick flurry and we didn't get it done. How I wished we would have now because we surely would have left with fond memories. Next time we won't the the opportunity pass us by!

Apple geeks

This is what it is like hanging out on press with a bunch of
designers. We are trying hard to blow a circuit.

bird convention

There was a bird convention near our house. This picture doesn't show it well, but I'm sure there were millions of birds, flying in hoards from one end of the field to the other over and over. Occasionally a few of them would pop up to the power lines and take a break. Their warble filled the air. The convention happened for about a week across from the girl's daycare, and I puzzled over it every day when I drove by to pick them up. What do you suppose they were convening about?

halloween fun

Time to do what the entire blogoshere is doing and post about our Halloween.

Pumpkin Chocolate Chip cookies.


....with maple glaze. A little sweet with the glaze, but yummy. Recipe courtesy of Bakerella.





Lunch follow up

As a follow up to my previous post:

In the design business we often tell clients there are 3 ways they can
have their design delivered:
1) good
2) cheap
3) fast

Then we tell them to pick to. Is that the way it has to be with my
meal critiria too? I'm not willing to compromise just yet. Help me out
by telling me your favorite meals that meet ALL the critiria: healthy,
fast, cheap, and most important, yummy!

Hmmm...what's for lunch?

As I am contemplating what to eat for lunch today, I am realizing that
I have a lot of criteria for the perfect meal.

1) healthy and nutritious
2) quick and covenient
3) cheap (read: eat out less!)
4) tasty

Should eating be this complicated? I mean, life would be so much
easier if you could buy gourmet food on the McDonald's dollar menu
that is organic, low calorie, and still tastes like French Fries.

a weekend in Bear Lake

The world's greatest neighbors and our dear friends, the Riches, invited us to spend this past weekend with them in Bear Lake. We love Bear Lake. It is so beautiful there, so even though the weather has been too cold to actually do lake activities, we jumped at the chance to go up there and spend some time with them.

Scott's family owns a "cabin" there (if this is a cabin, my dad is the president). Actually, they share it with another family. Both families are quite large, so they use this cabin quite frequently, and there is often a crowd there, so it is easy to see how they would need so much space.

This is the view of Bear Lake from their deck.


Dad, if this is anything like your vision to retire in a house by a lake, I get it. Being here, I really felt the "family togetherness" they must have when they come with their extended family. There are activities for everyone: a tennis court, trampoline, swing sets, sand boxes, ping pong tables, etc. We didn't even leave the house when we were there, but really enjoyed ourselves. Here are a few photos of the memories we made:



Thank you Scott, Amy, Jaxon, Zachary, and Tyson, for the fun weekend!

a new toy

Ever since we went camping in the Uinta's with our friends this summer, Tom has had a little dream of owning 4-wheelers. Since we've planned to eventually buy a trailer anyway, this meant we'd need a way to haul the 4-wheelers too. Thus, the idea of buying a toy-hauler emerged.

Tom has a way of working me I think. Because, as adamantly as I insisted we wait until next Spring to put in our RV pad, then buy a trailer, and then maybe buy 4-wheelers, before I knew it we had acquired 2 4-wheelers. Tom had a buddy that wanted to buy new ones, so he was willing to sell his. Okay, I admit, it probably was a pretty good deal. Then, we found out Tom would be traveling more frequently to the job in Page, Arizona that he has been scheduling for. The job is falling behind schedule and they have need of him to be there about 3 days every week. So, he worked out a deal to get extra money for them to cover his living expenses while he is there, and he is spending that money to buy a trailer to live in while he is there. Here is our new toy hauler:



The inside is quite nice. In the back there are 2 drop down queen beds. Then the dinette and couch fold out to beds, and when we pull the 4-wheelers in, they completely fold out of the way. (The back drops down as a ramp.) In the front there is another queen bed and the kitchen and bathroom. So, maybe I'm a pushover, but I do admit I like it a little, and I'll be looking forward to using it once it is back up here when Tom's job is done, around April we hope.

Birthday time!

Since Abby and Sarah's birthdays are only about 2 weeks apart (Sarah on the 1st and Abby on the 15th), we usually celebrate their birthdays together. We can get away with that for now, anyway. This year we had Grandpa Rog & Amma (as they are lovingly referred to around here) come to help us celebrate!

Mom (Over-Achiever #1) and Me (Over-Achiever #2) made these adorable Panda cupcakes for their party. Yes, it was a lot of work. But worth it for the Kodak moments (and coordination opportunities).


Sarah is 3!!!

Abby is 6!!!

Yum! See more pictures here. Also, being the over-achiever that I am, I brilliantly under achieved and failed to blog about Tom's birthday on the 6th of this month. He is the big 3-4. Happy birthday sweetie!

The results

The entry won. I had really made up my mind about it before I even asked. See how I am? But it helped to have some validation. :) Here is the final result (compare to the Photoshop version in the next post). Thanks for your help Mom! I could not have done it without you. Needless to say, I won't be wallpapering anything again soon. It is a big messy job. However, I'm happy with the result! You can't see it well here, but I have a big mirror on the opposite wall that reflects the print for double the impact.

I am now the proud owner of this wallpaper from ferm LIVING. I read about some crazy discounts they were offering on their closeout designs and couldn't resist buying this pattern. I got it in the mail today and could not be happier with it. The colors are perfect for my house. This photo probably doesn't do it justice.

So, here is my dilemma. What wall do I put it on? I bought it with my entry way in mind, but my dining room wall would work nicely too. I originally planned to paint a mural (simple pattern or leaf motif) on my dining room wall, but now I'm worried about it competing. Anyway, I used my mad Photoshop skills to do a quick and dirty mockup of what it might look like on both walls. Readers, please help me decide! I only have enough for one wall.