Summer Project

Having a house means having a yard. Our front yard was installed for us before we moved in, but we had to install the backyard. Due to all the rain we had in May, the weeds were a little crazy.

  

  

 These pictures were taken after we had already pulled some of them up.

June 23, we had a landscaping company come and install our backyard. We want to extend the patio some, and also have a little bit of garden area, so only half the yard is grass, one of the side yards is graveled for Finn, the other side will just be wood chips or something similar with a walkway to the front, and the rest will be the extended patio and the flower beds/garden area.

It was a lot of fun to see them installing the backyard. They installed it in 2 days, so Michael stayed home the first day (Thursday) with them. They trenched, laid pipe for the sprinklers, extended the downspouts from the back of the house to the front yard, combined them with the ones in the front and installed 2 percolators, framed Finn's gravel area and filled it, and had the topsoil delivered. Friday, both Michael and I stayed home. They installed the sprinkler heads, laid down and raked out the topsoil for the sod and the garden that will be up against the house, laid the sod (That was fun to watch. They would drop the roll of sod down, line it up where it needed to go, and kick it to unroll it), installed 2 drip systems for the gardens, placed the weed fabric for the bark side of the house, installed a chuck and key (a way to blow out the system) so we can winterize our sprinklers in the fall, and also did some work in the front yard for us. Once we get the rest of the patio poured, they'll come back and finish the corner garden and the accompanying drip system. We haven't been able to enjoy our backyard yet because we want the sod to get a good root system, but it will be nice when it is totally completed and we can enjoy our wonderfully (although somewhat small) backyard!

Finn's yard

 

 

Chuck system and the garden in front of the stairs

And now we wait... The grass will be too soggy to walk on for a while. :( And the concrete and the corner garden still need to be completed. We'll get to enjoy it soon enough though!

Our Little Chewer

Finn LOVES to chew. In the past 8 months, she has chewed through/destroyed multiple things, including (but not limited to) shoes, socks (one of each of ours), 4 rope bones, her ball, and multiple squeaky toys. Here are some pictures of her and things she has chewed, most of which we have given her, but some that we have not.

 Enjoying a milk jug.

Her poor rope bone. It used to be 5 knots long (the pile of yarn is the other 2 knots)

Now it's only 3 (and at the time I'm writing this, it isn't even that long anymore)

After shredding 2 of the knots

 She chewed her ball in half

Finn got ahold of one of Michael's socks one day, and this is what she did.

We also gave her a graham cracker box the other day, and recorded what she did with it (you don't need to have the sound on, unless you want it).

and another one:

Bear Lake & the 4th

This 4th of July weekend, some friends invited us up to their family's (new) cabin. We went up Friday and came home Monday evening in time for fireworks with our families. We had a very nice and relaxing time up there. The lake was incredibly high (only about 10 feet of rocks between the roadway and the lake), and FREEZING cold, but once our legs became numb, we enjoyed the time in the lake. :)

Picture of the Cabin

View of the Lake from the Cabin

Dinner on the Deck

 Kari and Morgan, the lovely people we went with!

On the way up

Those trees are halfway under water, if that gives you an idea of how high it was

My handsome husband

We came back down in time for Fireworks with our families. We picked Finn up from our uncle's house (thanks for watching her!) and went to Murray Park with the Decker family. Finn did really really well, as long as she could see what/where the source of the sound was. Kari and Morgan also watched the Murray fireworks, but they watched from their brother's backyard. (Sorry for the blurry pictures. One of the disadvantages of a camera phone)

Beautiful Sunset

Here is a picture of the beautiful sunset from last night, taken from the top of the ferris wheel at Lagoon (Thanks Dad S, for taking us).

More 'home improvement'

This past weekend, we went to Home Depot to get a rake (to help pull some of the weeds up in our backyard, but that will be another post), and it turned into a very expensive rake! We ended up buying a timer for our front porch lights as well. It will be nice to have if/when we go on vacations. We won't have to worry about the lights not being on/being on all the time and wasting the power or burning out the light bulbs super quickly.
We returned home, pulled some more weeds, decided to take a break, and Michael started installing the timer. It went fairly smooth until we saw the inside of the switch box. Michael turned off the power, pulled off the old switch, and went to attach the new switch, but had too many wires to attach on the new switch (there were 4 wires to connect, but the switch we pulled off only had 3 wires connected to it). Michael placed a call to his step-dad (an electrical engineer) to see if we could figure out what to do, Michael's dad came up to see if he could help, and we eventually discovered that there were wires that had been pushed to the back of the switch box (and had gotten painted over when they painted our house) where they blended in and we couldn't see them very well. We eventually got the wires all hooked up, and the timer looks and works great!

(I decided to take pictures part way through the project, so I only have the 2)

                 After hooking all the wires in                               All Finished!

Sad News

Ok, so I haven't been able to find a link to the 'sad news' I referenced in the last post, so I will just post what I know/have learned about it. As of 6/10/11:

Sigma Gamma Chi and Lambda Delta Sigma are no more

For those of you that don't know what that is,  they were the LDS Fraternity and Sorority at the U

We found out last Saturday at dinner (one of our friends was the VP of Iota and got the call about it before we started eating). Needless to say, everyone was shocked, although it definitely gave us something to talk about due to the fact that everyone at the table was either an Active or an Alumni of SGC/LDS. All of my siblings have met their spouses through the program, My parents were both in the program, I have made some of my best friends through the program, and best of all, that's how Michael and I met. There was a lot of talk (just among the small group of us) about various things: "WHAT?!" "If there's enough protest, they'll bring it back," "I'm disappointed. SGC/LDS really helped me turn my life around, as well as helping out some of my friends," "There will be enough of a decline in Institute attendance that they'll HAVE to bring it back" (since it was a requirement to be enrolled in Institute to be in a Sorority/Fraternity), etc. I am still a little in shock that it is no longer around. I don't think it will be reinstated (although one can hope right?) and this is why (this is a message that was sent out to members of SGC in the past week):

Dear Members of Sigma Gamma Chi and Lambda Delta Sigma,

There is much being said of the recent decision to discontinue Sigma Gamma Chi and Lambda Delta Sigma. The Leaders of Sigma Gamma Chi (Interchapter Officers, Chapter Presidents and Advisors) have met this past weekend and discussed the changes affecting our organization. The truth of the matter is that Sigma Gamma Chi and Lambda Delta Sigma will not be continuing in the future. We sympathize with each person affected by this decision, but want each of you to be assured that our current Fraternity and Sorority leaders are proceeding with faith by sustaining this decision.

We've made efforts to keep Sigma Gamma Chi and Lambda Delta Sigma in existence, as we were asked to draft a report of what we have been participating in this past year. This report was reviewed at a meeting this past week by the General CES Board, which contains the entire First Presidency, 3 members of the Quorum of the Twelve and all Auxiliary heads (General Young Women President, General Relief Society President, General Sunday School President, General Young Men’s President...) After much deliberation in the meeting, President Monson made the decision that this matter needed to be discussed with the entire body of the Quorum of the Twelve and First Presidency. After these men, whom we sustain as Prophets, Seers and Revelators, reviewed this matter, the decision was made to transfer our focus to the new Singles Wards system in the Salt Lake Valley.

This decision does not affect only Sigma Gamma Chi and Lambda Delta Sigma, but it reaches to all Institute Men’s and Women’s Associations at each Institute of Religion in Utah, Idaho and eventually Arizona. Our church leaders have received revelation pertaining to the Young Single Adults in these areas. In Salt Lake and Davis County, there are some 80,000 Young Single Adult members of the Church. Less than half are enjoying the blessings of being active in the Gospel. We have been issued a call to participate in a historic rescue effort. For this to be fully successful we needed to change a few things, including the need for more focus to be placed on the Young Single Adult wards and stakes. While many of us are still working towards an inner-confirmation that this new system is right, please look deeper inside yourself for support of the Church Leaders. We invite each individual to seek a spiritual witness that this church is led by The Savior of the World, even Jesus Christ, whom leads and guides it through revelation to Prophets and Apostles in our day. These men can see over the hill, where we cannot. They make decisions that are not popular, but in the long-run will benefit us the most.

Please be faithful and optimistic about the future. We must focus our efforts in remembering how Sigma Gamma Chi and Lambda Delta Sigma have blessed our lives. We have all learned much from these organizations, but let it not be in vain. Use these experiences to bless the lives of others in your Young Single Adult wards and Stakes.

So I don't think it will ever be brought back, but those of us that participated in it will always have the great memories!

Birthday Wishes

Today is my birthday

The day was just spent with each other and Finn at the house. It started out a little early with a phone call to Russia so my parents could wish me Happy Birthday before going to bed. Then we got to work on cleaning the office some (sorry, no before picture) because Michael's grandparents brought up a desk for us to use. They also got a little tour of the house since it was their first time seeing it. We cleaned the office enough to get the desk in, and then started organizing it a little bit (mostly just putting tape, pens/pencils and other office items in the drawers). We both suffer from Chronic Indecision, so when Michael said "It's your day, what do you want to do?" I didn't have any suggestions, and therefore we ended up hanging more pictures. So here are pictures that I took of the pictures and quotes that we hung up today, plus ones of the office and a few of Finnalyn.

The two sides of the office. One side is totally clean and clear (so the desk is usable), and everything else in the office is on the other side of the room. :-)

Finn laid down outside the office while we were cleaning. She knows she's not allowed in there.

The clock we hung in the bathroom, with the flowers we bought a month or so ago to add some color to the bathroom.

 Yes. It says ish. :-)

Michael's Anniversary present from me, hung in our bedroom

A quote we got from my parents, hanging above the window in our bedroom

 

Hanging above our kitchen

 My cousin is so talented!
This is hanging in our entryway (that little white strip in the bottom corner is the light switch for the office)

A caricature we got on our honeymoon, but never decided where to hang.

We went out to dinner with friends that night. We found out some very sad news (when I find a link to it, I'll post that), but other than that news, it was a very enjoyable time. Thank you all for the Birthday wishes!