Summer Work

Jake and I worked on a lot of projects this summer outside. The biggest project was out front. We pulled out all of the rocks in the front. Pulling all of the rocks out took about 20 hours between the two of us just for the front section closest to the house. We also pulled out all of the rocks in front by the road and all of the rocks on the south end of the house. That was another 20 hours of rock pulling. Then we tilled, laid down landscape material, & planted.

On the south end we just covered the landscape material with lots of bark. I want to build in a path someday & replace the rotted out fence that's falling apart.

We planted 8 bushes & 3 trees. I can't wait to see them mature. I did lose one tree in the process. At least it was a cheap one.

My favorite plant is the one in the middle. It's a cotoneaster on standard. It's a crazy resiliant plant. The first time it snowed I found it crumpled on the ground. I almost cried. I shook the snow off of it & it stood right back up. Sweet.

I repotted my pond plants for the first time ever. That was a huge learning experience for me. Each one is done differently & has specific instructions. Lilies have to be kept in water at all times so I repotted them in my wheel barrow. They really stink as well.

This was my first attempt at repotting Iris. It was cool to cut the babies from the mama & then watch them grow. I was nervous that I had messed everything up and over joyed when I saw that they flourished despite it.

Mom's 70th Birthday

Mom was very nice and had a 70th birthday so we could throw her a party. Jenny kicked it into gear and put together an awesome impromptu party complete with a pinata. We had a BBQ out back complete with green chili burgers, hot dogs, & some yummy salads. Then we were off to play games.


Seth was youngest so he went first.

Jen got mom all gussied up and she took a swing.

Dad got in a few good hits.

I don't remember who cracked it. It was just more fun to watch a bunch of adults run for candy.

Happy Birthday Grandma!

Halloween

Keith & Cherie hosted a Halloween party this year. We had a blast playing cherades in costume, gorging on Cherie's yummy homemade treats, and laughing all those calories off.


Mike was halarious at cherades.


Keith's costume was very fitting as he is recovery from a huge knee surgery.

Nathan Low and his wife Cat had my favorite costumes. Homemade & funny. Can't get better then that. What made it even funnier is Cat is pregnant. Can't tell in the pic, but it was awesome.

Cousin Devan and his wife Lynette came out for the party as well. They've just been married for a couple of months and they are as cute as hell.

The ginger mullet and his girl Jem came out to play again. We were super tired from the Halloween Half that morning but it was so fun to go play with everyone.

Jake won the costume contest. He spent most of the night with a pillow on his lap to "keep things in place" but Cherie convinced him to take this awesome shot. Ha ha!

I think it was the mullet bootie shorts that pushed the vote in his direction.

Baby Jem. With out the hair she was a UofU football fan.

Just enjoy this pic. I know I do.

Yard Adventures

We're having quite the adventures with our yard. We seem to have the most problems with our trees. This is our bungi catalpha in the back yard. Only 1/3 of the tree grew back at the beginning of the summer. What was amazing was our local nursery had us cut off all the dead branches which was 3/4's of the tree. In two weeks, the entire tree was full & beautiful again. I love how resilient trees are. What a great metaphor for life.



This is my first attempt at a garden. I learned A LOT and can't wait to try again next summer.



The peppers were my favorite! I wouldn't do lilac again though. Too tough & bitter for me.

We had 6 grape tomato plants which kept us and my entire office in grape tomatoes all summer. Yum!

I loved putting together a meal from the garden. I suddenly grew an understanding of why mom always beams when she prepares meals straight from the garden. I'm so excited for next

Oh the annual pond cleaning. This was our first time cleaning out the entire pond by ourself. It was a 6 hour process that I think we will have down to 2 hours next year. The biggest problem up front was getting the water out of the pond. We had purchased a shop vac that would suck up water when we first bought the house but we quickly learned that would take FOREVER.

Jake being the creative thinker that he is made the coolest pond pump. He bought some piping and hooked it to our waterfall pond pump. Turned it on and drained the stinking pond in 10 minutes flat. It was awesome!!

Grass got a good watering.

Once the pond was low enough. I hoped in & started catching fish. We fill up a large bin full of pond water with all the healthy bacteria & put the fish in there with a fish tank pump to give them oxygen.

After that I moved out all the plants and spent the next 2 hours scraping rocks and sludge from the bottom of the pond. Sludge = fish poo mixed w/ decomposed plant matter. Stinks!

Next is rinsing off all the algie and sludge with a hose. You have to leave some algie to keep the water healthy with bacteria. We also just leave all the algie on the waterfall rocks. It dries during the winter & is a piece of cake to get off in the spring.

Last is fill the pond up, drain it again, cut the pond plants down, put them all on the bottom, & fill the pond up again. You also have to put in a chemical to protect the fish from all the chlorine in the hose water. So the fish stayed in their temporary home for 2 days until we got that in.

I've learned to really enjoy working in my pond. I no longer scream at the snakes. I just name them & try to convince them that if they let me pick them up I will take them to the canal which will be like a frat house full of snakes. I don't think snakes have ears. Terrible listeners.

We woke up to 5 inches of snow in October when previous days weather was in the high 70's. The pond looked so pretty in the snow.

What wasn't pretty was my bungi catalpha in my front yard.

Grrrrrrrrrrr!!!

There Was a Full Moon Out at Our Race

It's true. I was blessed to wake up this morning to a full moon before our race. It was a positive omen for a great race ahead of us. It came in the form of my friends naked bootie in my face in our rush to change, but I try to see the positive things in life.


These are my two very good friends Kristen (left) and Christina (middle). We arrived in style for the Hobble Creek Half marathon and made sure we were fashionably late after sleeping through our alarm clock & waking up 15 min. after packet pick up was over. There was much panic, some swearing, a rush of dressing & flurry of deoderant, but we made it and luckily they gave us our packets. I told you, positive omen.

In the rush, I forgot my music. I nearly birthed a cow when I found out I'd be running a 1/2 marathon without music. Christina's afraid of cows though so I tried to keep that from happening.

Kristen heroically rushed off to procure my music for more me, but alas, the buses came and we were carted off to the starting line before she was back. I was terrified. I HATE running without music.

Despite my lack of music, I had an amazing run. I passed the time by counting to 100 in my head in a slow methodical way. Every time I hit 100 another mile had passed. It felt like it went by so fast. The last couple of miles were hell, but overall it wasn't too bad to run without music. Not something I'd like to repeat, but not too bad. I finished in 2 hours & 6 min. A full 30 min. faster then my previous race time. Woot! Sometimes you feel really stupid when you hear that other women are coming in at 1 hour & 40 min, but racing is all about competing with yourself & celebrating your own wins. It's such a positive environment.

I can't manage to do a down hill race without losing a toenail. Ouch!

Christina freaking rocked it for her first 1/2 marathon!

A little runners duck face for you.

Afterwards there was flamingo dancing & a tango. Oh wait. I think that was just us.

This was actually Kristens race but she had a knee injury a week before the race so she let me run. I was so nervous because I hadn't been out running for about 4 months. But it was a great way to start the summer running season.

O.k. I swear. I'll start posting other things besides running.

Halloween Half

All hail the Halloween Half marathon. It's my favorite race of the year!

I upgraded my mullet look with some sparkles & declared myself as Jem from Jem & the Rockers.

My best friend Christina came down & ran the race with me. Oh Lucy! Ah Ricky your wonderful.

We got up at 5am & drove down to Provo canyon to gather with all the other crazy runners who wanted to run on Halloween morning.

It was a chilly morning & thankfully they had big tents full of heaters & warm bodies. They had a costume competition for those who arrived early.

This years race had 2800 runners in it. That's 2000 more then last year.! The road was crazy crowded at first. I think I ran in place the first 5 minutes.

My favorite part of the Halloween Half next to the costumes is the route. You start a mile above Sundance, run 5 miles down hill towards provo canyon, & then run in Provo canyon & then off through Vivian park next to all the gorgeous waterfalls.

Guy in the yellow was the race winner. Jake said he came in with an average of a 4.92 minute mile & hadn't even looked like he broke a sweat. The devil guy camr in 3rd. He finished & came back through again chasing some angels. The zombie guy just looks awesome. He must have chewed a blood pack right before he crossed.

No clue how the guy in the cookie monster out fit didn't get dehydrated and pass out. The kid in the Aragorn costume is from the mullet team. We ran into him & his dad. His costume looked awesome when he ran in it!

This pic is just for Puke.

Minus some costume problems up front, I had a super fun run. I was working my tail off to come in under a 2 hour race. I was so bummed when I crossed at 2 hours & 2 minutes. My watch was off and I thought I had made my goal. Grrrrr.

Christina rockin her I love Lucy look.

The trails were gorgeous!

Life is like a box of chocolates.

Kelly & Sandi come out for the race as well.

If you remember ice tea mullet. Here he is dressed as superman.

Kelly lookin mulletliscious.

This is my Bon Jovi pic.

Christina & I submitted this photo to a competition for the race. The race officials wrote back & said "Dressed as a Utah Mother/Daughter Duo?" Hee hee. Pretty clever I though.

Until next year suckers! Muahahahaha.