SIX MONTHS IN OUR HOME

I have been waiting to get this post done!! To be honest with you, I wanted to have it posted on August 17 – buuut we all know how my life goes, right?

HAPPY SIX MONTHS to our little, yellow home!  I can’t believe that it has literally been SIX months since we bought our little house!! When we first bought our house, the first thing we decided we had to do was paint.  We were in an excellent situation where we could still live with grandma and grandpa, and paint the house.  The colors of the house were definitely not my cup of tea.  Everything was so dark!  My first demand for Devin was to paint the ENTIRE HOUSE.  We wanted neutral, light and bright!  The color that we chose was “clay dust”.  It’s so funny what different lighting can do to a paint color!  Sometimes the color looks just like I want it to.  Other times it looks peachy, then pink, then yellow.  It’s so strange!  Gratefully it looks good in the house either way. 

When you walked in the front door, the first thing you saw was the dark brown wall.  That had to go.  To the left of the living room is the master, pink room (baby room) and bathroom.  The bedroom was the worst, yet most rewarding experience!  It was two-toned, red and tan, and the texturing was SO thick.  The pink room is called the pink room (or we call it the baby room – nope, not pregnant!) because one of the walls in that bedroom was legitimately rose pink.  Didn’t like that either!  Devin suggested keeping it pink in case we have a girl first.  Nope.  I wanted neutral so that if we had a boy, I didn’t have to paint it then!  The bathroom (and kitchen) had a dark brown wainscot in it.  Did not like that either.  I didn’t paint the wainscot in “clay dust”.  I painted it a step up.  The paint is called “Brazilian tan”.  Just in case you didn’t realize, every room in our house got at least one coat of paint.

In the living room, there was a big leak above our fireplace and it caused the ceiling to sag.  Thankfully my dad and Devin were able to fix it and patch it right up!  We've spent the next couple of rain storms, trying to figure out how its coming down the chimney.  Devin and Jedd got up on the roof and put some sort of roofing tape up there and we think we've got it sealed! (we have a metal roof..)

The back of the house has the kitchen, laundry room and one more bedroom (we call that bedroom the brown room).  The kitchen was pretty much perfect.  I had little to paint in there. (Mainly the wainscot)  The people who owned the house before us put in brand new cabinets.  Apparently, the old ones were black!  The new cabinets make the kitchen feel soo much larger than what it really is! Plus, they are so beautiful!  Our next door neighbor, he actually built them and installed them.  

The laundry room was super dark.  The brown that was in most of the house was all over in the laundry room.  It’s the smallest room in the house, yet to me, it was the one that changed the most in the makeover.  The brown room changed pretty drastically too. (Let’s be honest.  The ENTIRE house changed drastically.)  In both the brown room and the master room, there was this piece of wood that went right across the middle of all walls.  Devin didn’t think we could take them down without there being some sort of noticeable line in the middle of the wall.  Well, Devin and grandpa were painting the back room and grandpa accidently pulled one off.  Yay for me! They looked just fine!  So we took the wood off in both the brown room and the master.  

The inside of the house wasn’t the only thing that needed some updating.  There was a fireplace in the middle of the back yard.  I’m not that into fires unless I’m camping.  I knew for a fact that I was never going to use that thing – so out it came!  We put sod in the little circle and it’s grown in beautifully!  There was also a lot of leaves on the yard too that hadn’t been raked up the fall before.  We spend a couple of our Saturdays raking the lawn to try and get it to come to life.

The other thing that has needed some work was the garden.  There were TWO HUGE PATCHES of raspberries.  Now I love me a good raspberry, but I know that two rows would have killed Devin and I.  And boy was I right!  Our raspberries this year produced more than what we could handle.  Devin and I decided we should probably tear one of the rows out.  Boy was I glad we did that!

Our little house has definitely come a long ways in the last six months.  I can’t believe what a difference some paint can make.  In case you missed out on what happened our first week of owning a home, you can find that here.

I’m extremely grateful for our house, and that we were in a good situation to buy it.  D and I have already made lots of memories in this house, and we can’t wait to make many, many more.

House pictures below! 

Family room before and after

Bedroom before and after

Bathroom before and after

Pink room before and after

Kitchen before and after

 

Brown room before and after

Laundry room before and after

Back hallway -- not much different than before

Garden before and after

Mexico - Seis años

No puedo creer que ha estado SEIS años desde vivimos en Mexico.  Cada año voy a decir algo sobre Mexico porque es una gran bendicion en mi vida, jaja! Ahora, es algo dificil para mi a escribir en español porque no estoy en las clases como estaba en la escuala.  Entonces, si alguien esta leyendo esa mensaje, espero que puedas leerlo.  Estoy muy agradecida que yo puedo hablar en español todavia.  Hablo español mucho en mi trabajo con una amiga y con pacientes.  

Yo recuerdo cuando llegamos a Mexico y llegamos a medianoche.  Fue la primera vez que comimos tacos autenticos.  Ooohhhh my goodness.  Los tacos fueron hermosos.  JAJA!  Nunca he comido tacos como eso.  

No tuvimos camas.  Dad y yo fuimos a Walmart para comprar colchones de aire.  Compramos los colchones de aire incorrectos.  Cuando dad y yo regresamos a la casa, no tuvimos luz. Jaja. Finalmente arreglaron las luces.  

Nuestro primer dia, no tuvimos un refrigerador.  Allie, dad y yo fuimos a McDonalds para desayuno…nos perdimos cuando estuvimos regresando a casa.. la experiencia fue..increible. 

Todavia yo puedo recordar el olor de nuestra casa.  Puedo recordar el olor de la ciudad de Jurica. Extraño Mexico mucho.  Ojala que pueda regresar algún dia con mi esposo y con mi familia para recordar las memorias que tenemos.   

***More detailed story of our first day in Mexico can be found here :) 

Our house

Family - Teotihuacan

Gordita! 

Summer 2017

Y’all—summer is in full swing at our house. So much has been happening and I am literally exhausted.  I have wanted to post pictures of our house and I just have ZERO time.  I’m not going to write about our house just yet.  I’m just writing to say what’s been going on the last few weeks. 

AGGIE:  Welcome to our family, Aggie!! On June 9^th we got to bring this sweet little girl home.  We were originally going to name her Nena, but I just love Aggie so much that I couldn’t help but name her that.  She is such a good puppy!  D and I joke all the time that she came prepotty-trained.   She was born on April 22^nd and was the first one born.  I picked her out literally the next day.  I wanted to have part of our dog Miga (my parent's dog that we got while living in Queretaro, Mexico) and where she's my mom and dads dog, I was able to pick her out quick! Dev and I have wanted a darker girl and she was the ONLY one.  So I didn’t have to wait to see what their personalities were.  We just picked!  Boy did we pick good!! She’s such a little love.  She’s so big now.  Two or three days after we got her, we let her sleep inside cause it was a big ol’ rain storm!  She didn’t potty in the house at all.  We were so proud of her!!  She doesn’t go potty in her dog run either.  (Devin named her dog run the “Dogmahal” cause it’s so ginormous.)  She starts her puppy classes on the 25^th of July.  She already knows how to sit and she walks pretty good with her leash, once you get going on the walk.  She loves all of her toys and is just the happiest little puppy you’ve ever met!! WE LOVE HER!

GRANDMA KAREN: Quick update.  She’s doing so much better!! Devin and I went down and saw her on July 2^nd.  She was as spunky as ever! I walk in the door and she says “hi sweetie pie!” and then she sees Devin and her face lights up and she says “hi boyfriend!”.  Haha it was so cute.  Right before we got there, she had her catheter put in.  I guess her male nurse did it.  She was kind of weirded out by that, but then I reminded her that a male delivered all of her babies and she was fine after.  (If anyone reads this, don’t judge please.  She’s 75 and has lived alone for A LOT of years.  She’s a little old fashioned with things – no, she does not hate male nurses.  Haha) We got to eat lunch with her.  Man she’s so spoiled there!  They bring her DELICIOUS looking food! I was super jealous of my freaking $8.00 salad that I paid for..her food looked MUCH better.  Also – she gets to come home on the 15^th of July!!  She’s moving in with mom and dad again.  This time it will be permanent.  I am literally so grateful to my Heavenly Father for how things turned out for her.  I think this was a big wake up call for her and for my family and I have a feeling it’s going to be good.  Also, Aunt Val (my grandma’s sister) passed away on June 28, 2017.  She was the youngest sibling.

FOURTH OF JULY: What a lovely day off!  The only thing that sucked about the 4^th of July this year, was I had to go back to work the next day.  It was rough.  Devin and I really didn’t do anything.  We had a small barbeque with both of our families and just enjoyed each other’s company.  Every time I have a day off like that, and I get to enjoy it with Devin, I am more grateful that he’s all mine.  I just love him to pieces!!

SUMMER TIME: Ok… so when I tell you that I have just been so busy, IT IS NOT A JOKE.  Hay season this year hit us like a ton of bricks.  D was gone to the farm CONSTANTLY.  Especially right after work.  Which is fine!  I’m about 99% sure he loves being up on the farm more than he loves me. Haha—jk.  How can he not love me the most?! Anyways – YES! My life is hectic right now.  Because it is so blasted hot outside, my garden is growing like crazy.  My peas are out of control.  We’re picking them almost every other day.  I’m literally going to tear them out tonight because I can’t handle picking anymore.  Also, while my peas are out of control, my raspberries decided it was time to join the party.  We have been picking raspberries at least once a day.  It. Is. Insane.  I am so tired.  I’m not planning on making raspberry jam this year, as I still have quite a bit from last year.  I am planning on canning some raspberry syrup, and finding other ways to use raspberries.  So if any of y’all know raspberry recipes, please help a girl out. 

Yesterday (July 8th) was one hectic day!! D and I were up at 6 AM to help with the cows in Drylake.  Now that the hay is done, we're moving on to breeding season.  Devin's grandma and grandpa had to be in the temple, so we were a couple people short!  Usually when we have to put cows in the chute, Devin and Derik are working with Jedd on getting them to the chute.  Grandpa pulls the chute shut, I lock the chute and depending on if LaDawn is there or not, I'll fill the shot and grandpa gives said shot while Jedd does what he needs to do on the back end..  So yesterday, Ladawn filled shots, Devin gave the shots and pulled the chute.  If D was needed to get a stubborn cow in then I would pull the chute.  Really Devin and I were just running around trying to cover each other when it was needed.  After the cows I ran over to my parents and spent most of the day there doing a garage sale for my grandma.  Following our adventure over there, D and I picked more raspberries and stayed up till 11:00 PM canning raspberry syrup.  Let me tell you, I was EXHAUSTED.  I don't think I've ever been so tired in my entire life.  BUT I am grateful for the LITTLE knowledge that I have to be able to can some things. :)

I wish I could go into more detail of the things we’ve done this summer!  But I’m just trying to post this post as soon as possible.   I love summertime and there is no better place to live than good ol’ Cache Valley!

Grandma Karen

Sunday, May 28, 2017 -- Devin and I had just taken the sacrament at church and I could feel my phone buzzing.  When I looked at the phone it was my dad.  A- Dad isn’t supposed to have any service.  B- Dad knows that I have church at 11:00.  Something must be wrong.  I stepped out and my dad informed me that grandma is back at the hospital and they think she had a heart attack.  WHAT?!  How did they find out before me? I’m the one that’s home??  The family had driven out to Howe and they got a text from my grandma’s neighbor saying that she was in the hospital.  (My grandma’s husband, my mom’s dad, was killed in Howe in a farming accident along with my mom’s older brother.  They go up there when the go to Birch Creek to visit the site where he was killed) Mom and dad couldn’t get ahold of my Uncle Jared (he was still in church) so they called us.  I pulled Devin out of church and we drove down to try and find her.  When I got there, I met grandma’s neighbor.  From what I could understand, they thought she had a heart attack or a clot in her lungs.  I have to be honest with you.  I was not impressed with the hospital in Brigham.  They kept my grandma in the CT room and just kept her there for the 4-5 hours we were at the hospital.  They would come in and take machinery out to use on other patients.  No, they weren’t full.

Anyways, so I finally get ahold of my uncle and they decided that they’re going to send her to Ogden Regional.  She has fluid around her heart that’s not supposed to be there.  Mom decides that she and dad are going to come home early from camping.  I stayed with grandma until they could transfer her to Ogden, and then Jared met her there.  This has been quite the long ordeal for my grandma.  She’s been in so much pain.  Sunday when mom and dad got home, they went down to Ogden.  Long story short, her aorta was twice the size that it was supposed to be, which made the cell walls very thin.  They even thought that she had a dissection (tear) in the aorta.  If it tore anymore, she’d be dead in 60 seconds.  At 11:30 PM my mom calls me and tells me that they are flying grandma down to the UofU.  They spent all day on Monday trying to rule things out and doing all sorts of tests.  They’ve done so many CT scans that they’ve said her kidneys aren’t going to be well at all.  She’ll most likely be on dialysis. 

Tuesday, May 30, 2017 - they think they found the problem.  She has a hematoma on her heart (where the vessels connect to the heart) that was caused when she fell on Friday.  The blood has pooled in the sac around her heart and it was pooling into her aorta as well.  They put a needle and a catheter in her chest to drain it. In doing this, they hoped that it would help the function of her kidneys.

May 31, 2017, grandma had open heart surgery.  They scheduled it for 9:00, but sometime between when my mom left and the morning she was going in for surgery, she had two mini strokes.  They were able to still go through with the surgery.  They replaced her aorta and did a bypass.  So far so good.  It’s so hard to see someone you love so much, in so much pain.  She couldn’t have a lot of pain medicine, if not any at all, at the beginning of this process because there was so much unknown. 

June 1, 2017 I got a text from my mom.  It read “mom is having some struggles with her heart and kidneys and they are going to put her in a machine that gives her heart and kidneys constant flow of blood and fluid.  I would consider her in critical condition.  The heart isn’t’ pumping right and blood is pooling in her right ventricle.  The machine will do it for her.  She’s not coherent.  She opened her eyes barely when I called her name, but that was just once.  It’s sad to see all the things hooked up to her.” She said that when they would say "mom" sometimes she would open her eyes.  They've asked her to squeeze their hands and she just cant do it.  The nurse made her cough, in order to make her uncomfortable, by suctioning her airway.  That got her attention.  Then the nurse started tickle her feet to try and stimulate them and she opened her eyes and shook her head no! She did not like her feet to be tickled! Haha! Mom said the look on her face was hilarious! -- but there wasn't a whole lot of movement from her after that.

Friday I got to go with mom to see her.  I left work a little early in order to go.  I did not want to go.  Devin is the one who convinced me to go.  I did not want to see her that way! The last time I saw her, she could talk with me, and I got to give her a kiss before she went down to Ogden.  But my husband knew its what I needed to do.  When mom and I got down there, it was really weird for me.  I've never seen so many machines, hooked up to one person.  To be honest with you, I got nauseous.  I had to sit down because I legitimately felt like I was going to throw up.  It was so hard for me to see someone who helped take care of me growing up, and who I spent so much time with, not even be able to move.  She would respond more when we said "mom" or "Karen".  But she would not open her eyes when I would call her "grandma".  That broke my heart.  I cried.  I spend a lot of weekends with my grandma.  I would go down every weekend in order to help her mow her lawn, grocery shop, clean her house.  I went on many mini trips in the semi with her.  The thought of her being gone has been so hard for me.  My sweet, sweet husband, has to keep reminding me to think of how good she is doing. 

Saturday, June 3, 2017 nothing has really happened.  No one from my side of the family went down.  The 4th is my dads birthday and he was flying out to Detroit so we had a little birthday party for him early.  The docs said that she is progressing more, its just going to take time for her brain to catch up.

Today, June 4th (HAPPY BIRTHDAY DADDY!) Mom and Allie went down.  She is moving a little bit more.  she wiggled her toes and when my mom asked if she was awake she shook her head "no".  She then asked, "Are you sleepy?" and she nodded yes.  Mom asked her if she was in pain, but she fell asleep before she could answer.  She is still not very alert, but this is still usually when she is sleeping.  Their goals for today was to wean her off of the medications that are helping her heart contract in order to see if her heart can pump ok by itself.  My mom asked her if she could squeeze her hand, and with her left side, she couldn't.  But mom asked her to squeeze with her right hand, and she did a little bit.  It was something so small, that was so good.  I'm so proud of her.

I know that God has a plan for her.  I will try to write another post when I know a little bit more, but as of right now I know that my family is very grateful for the prayers, thoughts, texts and phone calls that have been made on my grandmothers behalf.  She is strong woman.  The strongest I know.  I am blessed to have her as my grandma.

Memorial Day, 2017

Our Memorial Day weekend started on Wednesday, May 24, 2017.  When we got home from work, D had to go up to Drylake to do some fencing.  While he was gone, I made homemade lasagna!  I really have enjoyed the warmer weather.  With the warmer weather, comes longer nights.  Dev is up at the farm most nights, so in return, I get to stay home and make a nice meal.  Downside? – we don’t eat until like 8:00PM or even 9:00PM.  That can be a little bit rough sometimes, but the food makes up for it.  While my lasagna was cooking, mom and dad brought over the puppies!! My mom and dad left on Thursday to go camping up at Birch Creek.  I haven’t been to Birch Creek in a couple of years, but where we just bought a house, and we went to Jackson the week before, we decided this year we better sit it out.  Since D and I stayed home, mom and dad asked if we could dog sit while they were gone.  Uhh….sure?  NINE dogs people.  NINE.

Our family golden retriever, Miga, had puppies back in April.  She had eight, but we lost one.  D and I had 7 puppies at our house, Miga, and my moms “escapoo”, Tallie.  When we were living in Mexico, we left Tallie down there with some friends for a couple of weeks when we came home to visit.  She’s never really been the same haha.  She was waaaay attached to my mom, so ever since mom left, she’s had some slight anxiety. 

The first night that the puppies where here, it POURED.  Oh my goodness.  I told Devin before it started to rain that it looked very eerie outside.  Almost like a hurricane.  I know, I know – we can’t have hurricanes in Utah.  BUT the clouds and wind were very ugly.  Then the rain came.  Boy did it come! I went running out to the kennel to make sure that the puppies were smart enough to go into their little house dad had made for them, and they were.  I was sopping wet.  When it finally quite raining, I ran back outside to make sure the puppies were ok and they were soaked.  Oh my goodness, I felt so bad! I called my dad crying, saying that they were just shaking so bad!  My dad is the sweetest man alive, so he says “I will come dry them off if it will help you sleep tonight.”  He did.  He put a towel over the door to kind of keep the puppy’s house dry.  When I came out that next morning the towel was so wet and heavy, the puppies couldn’t get in/out!

Thursday morning Miga was up bright and early! 6:00 to be exact.  D told her to be quite and thankfully she slept until about 6:30.  Mom and dad ended up keeping Tallie over night at their house, so they just dropped her off in my back yard on Thursday.
I worked through lunch that day, so I came home a little early.  Thankfully I did! When I got home, Tallie was out.  UGH.  I saw her over at my neighbor’s yard.  All I did really was clean up the yard and the puppy pen. 

The wonderful thing about Miga is she loves to play fetch!! She is just the best little fetcher.  Later that night, Ashlee, Misty and Taiya (Ashlee and Misty work with me – Taiya is Misty’s daughter) came to see the puppies.  Ashlee ate leftover lasagna with me and Devin.   Tallie slept inside for the first time.  It was a little rough! She’s used to being in moms bed with her and that was just not ok.  After the first night, she got a lot better and was pretty content in the hall way. 

Thursday night, Devin and I had a pipe break under our kitchen sink.  Friday I came home from work at like 1:00 so that the plumber could come and fix it.  I stayed home the rest of the day and did some cleaning.  Devin and I that night, went to see Guardians of the Galaxy VOL 2 with D’s family.  That was the second time that we’ve seen that movie, and we love it!!

Saturday I got up and fed the puppies, played fetch with Miga, enjoyed my little home.  Devin went up to the farm and was gone for most of the day.  I cleaned out between my trees that line my back fence.  I got some of them done, but it was a bigger project than what I thought! 

My grandma Karen called me Friday night, wanting me to wash her hair on Saturday.  I told her I’d be more than happy to.  She called me Saturday morning telling me she just got back from the hospital.  She fell Friday night and broke a part of her humorous bone.  She had washed her hair and bathed (with a broken arm) and said she was very uncomfortable all night long and decided that she should go in on Saturday morning.  I was so upset that she didn’t call me!!

Saturday night I made grilled pineapple honey barbecue chicken, grilled corn, grilled zucchini, grilled sliced of Italian bread with some rice.  It was sooo good!  I love grilling!!

Sunday morning Devin got up early to start a brisket in the smoker.  This is only the second time that we have used his smoker and we were dang excited! He kept it going how he was supposed to until we went to church at 11:00.

During church on Sunday, I got a phone call from my dad.  According to them, she had had a heart attack.  This event has turned big.  I've written another blog post, and you can find more about her situation on my next post.

Monday we enjoyed a day with Devin’s Grandma Shirley.  Monday morning we went and put flowers up on his great grandparents in Hyrum (grandma LaRee’s parents).  After we headed out to Newton.  We enjoyed a nice lunch with them.  Eating, talking, just having a good time.  I am so grateful for our ancestors and the sacrifices that they made and the memories that they leave behind.  May we all be forever grateful for them.