Rain gutters save the day!

We had our rain gutters installed yesterday (horary for tax returns to finance them)! I feel so old and responsible when I get excited for something like rain gutters, but I really am ecstatic. Several problems were occurring because of our lack of gutters that this magically cured. First, when the rain falls off the roof it has been digging a trench in our flower beds on both sides of the house. This means I haven’t been able to plant our bulbs that we purchased yet, because every time it rained a trench would mess everything up. Second, at the far right side of the car port the run off rain was flowing down our only section of wooden fence causing it to grow mold. Gross, and not very good for the fence. I’m sure eventually we’ll have to take this wood out and replace it, but why not wait until later if possible? I called three places to come out and give us bids, Dave walked through the bid process with the contractors and selected one.My Grandparents just had their rain gutters installed in Hurricane, so we asked them around what price they had paid to get a feel for what we were getting ourselves into (their house is larger, so we were hoping to pay less than the $1,000 they paid for theirs). I was surprised with the different approach to this process. The first bidder gave us the best price ($530 for the whole house and car port), but he failed to plan for the electrical wires coming out of the back of the house, thus the need for a spout off each side of the back of the house. I mentioned this need when I called in, so he clearly should have been aware of it, even if he happened to not see the monstrosity of electric wiring. His lack of judgment kicked him out of the war for our money The second man’s bid was about $100 more than the first, but he not only mentioned the need for two rain gutters on the back, but also pointed out a need on the car port that we didn’t recognize ourselves. The final bid was $200 more than the second man, seemed equally competent, but couldn’t install for two weeks. Needless to say we chose man #2. What interests me the most, is that the economy is doing bad right now, each company has acknowledged that not only is this a slow time of year for them, but they’re doing especially bad for the season. You would think we would get competitive bids, and that they would be chomping at the bid to give the best assessment and do the best job possible! Oh well, we got our gutters and that’s what matters

The Easter Husky has come!

A week ago Cheyenne became our foster-dog! My Uncle James and Aunt Rebeccah Brown were re-stationed from Colorado to Washington, and won’t be able to start renting a home with a yard for the dog until their house in Colorado sells. So Dave and I agreed to take care of Cheyenne for a while. It took a little time for her to adjust, but now that she’s gotten used to Dave and I she seems a lot happier.

Dave and I are at work or school for the majority of the day, so Cheyenne spends the most of her time in the back yard. I’ve opened up the kids play house for her to seek shelter from the rain and snow. She has a queen size feather blanket in one corner that I found for free on Craigslist, food, water, and toys. But her favorite part about the back yard are the neighborhood cats!

We have two that live across the street along with two other dogs. Since they’ve been around dogs they are curious enough to keep coming back. When I come home and Cheyenne won’t come when I call chances are she’s watching one of the cats up our tree, on top of our shed, or perched on the play house staring down at her.  They like to watch each other (Cheyenne doesn’t bark, so I’m sure that helps the situation).

We’ve taken her over to Dave’s parent’s house to play with their black lab, Bailey. They seemed to enjoy tearing around the house and yard together. Every once in a while Bailey would bark because Cheyenne wasn’t paying enough attention to him. Oh dogs! What a mess they can be.

We purchased and installed some baby gates to keep her out of places she shouldn’t be in, and keep her out of trouble at night time. Here’s a picture of Cheyenne in our front entry way converted into Cheyenne’s bedroom. She likes her bed and will just go lay down if it gets too late at night and we haven’t gone to bed yet. She’s really good about laying down and not being too loud when the time comes to go to sleep.

Here comes the challenge... She periodically likes to dig in the yard! Any suggestions on what we can do to get her to stop?!? We've trained her to stay off the couches, keep out of the bedroom, even stay with me in the front yard when I'm weeding or head to the car or back yard by herself... but where to start training her not to dig... I think she's bored because we leave her home alone Monday through Thursday from 7am to 6pm. Any recommendations would be very helpful!

One Man's Trash is Amy's Treasure!

Two weekends ago I went Antiquing with my Mom, Aunt Rebeccah, sister Sheila, Dave, and two of our friends that got stranded at the airport (DeLenna and Brandon). DeLenna and Brandon didn’t really have a choice but to come, because the shop was on the way, and Dave wanted to help me pick out a stained glass window. So I had much help in our search for the perfect window hanging!

My Mom and Aunt arrived first and scouted out the place. Sheila and I arrived second and really got to work! I was climbing behind dressers and wardrobes and sifting through broken glass and other items just to find the perfect piece for our kitchen. I was completely covered in dust and dirt, but in my insane pursuit I was able to find about 15 smaller stained glass windows that I liked. By that time Dave, De and Brandon arrived to help make the final decision.

Because the prices were so low (and I had unknown money from missingmoney.com), we ended up getting one for the kitchen and one for the bedroom.

After we brought them home we decided if we were going to put up curtains (which we’ve been wanting to do for privacy since we moved in), now would be the time. So last weekend we went out and bought curtain rods for the kitchen and bedroom (thanks Ross for selling $7 a piece curtain rods, even if they’re not the cutest!), and curtains for the kitchen (we had the bedroom curtains from our apartment, we just hadn’t hung them up). Yesterday we got the one in the kitchen up! Here are the killer results:

For the kitchen I wanted it to match the green paint which the green, yellow, and blue glass does exactly!

I’m completely in love with both of these windows! Don’t they just complete the room? And to think, in England they're tearing these windows out because they want a more modern look! What are the British thinking?!?

To Eliminate Stress - 1 part good food, 10 parts ZION's!

Zion's was just the break we needed! Dave thought it would be nice to cook all kinds of fabulous dinners while we were down there, so we came with the fixings for Chicken Enchiladas, Pesto & Pasta, Chicken Parmesan, and eggs with sausage (for breakfast one day). I convinced him that we could eat leftovers for some of the nights. I had to work a half day, so on the way home I picked up In-N-Out (Dave's FAVORITE fast food). We ate that, packed up our stuff and hit the road!

Mom & Dad came down that night as well. They needed to prune the apple trees at the cabin and get a little work done around the house. Saturday morning Dave helped  my Dad with the pruning, my Mom worked on some inside projects, and I worked on a few projects of my own. We hiked the Watchman Trail after lunch. Neither Dave nor I had done it before, and we were impressed by the view. We plan to do it again some time when the plants are more green (well, as green as the desert can be). Here's a picture of the view from the top:

Sunday we headed down to Hurricane for church, lunch, and some serious hearts! It was great to see Grandma & Grandpa: they're looking great, and we had tons of fun. Dave just loves my grandparents, and enjoys getting to know them better. He hasn't been very close to his Grandparents, so it's nice for him to have that type of relationship with mine.

Monday we hiked Emerald Pools and the Overlook Trail in the morning. I think every time we go to Zion's we hike Emerald Pools, but the Overlook Trail was new to us. It's right after the tunnel and goes up, through a cave and again has a great view! As you're heading up the trail you can see one of the slots below (I believe it's Pine Creek, but it's been a while since I've done that one). It was just what we needed to get out there and hike like crazy!

Tuesday we tried to hike the Sand Bench. It's about a 6 mile trail that should take 4 hours to complete. Most of the trails in Zion are clearly marked, when you come to a fork in the road. Sand Bench is not. We got an hour into the hike and the trail split into 3 paths. I said the middle one looked correct, Dave chose the one veering right. I'm still not sure which trail was the correct one, but after following the right trail for 3 HOURS without finding the loop around that was described in the guide book, we decided we had picked the wrong trail.

This path lead us up hill on a completely sandy trail. It's tough to hike up hill in sand! It really made our calves burn, but the view at the end was beautiful! Because the snow is melting right now you could see a waterfall at the top of the mountain in front of us, and if you turned around you got a up close view of the Court of the Patriarchs. Beautiful, but not what we thought we were getting ourselves into!

It was just so beautiful and so relaxing!!! We needed a break from school and work so bad, and this gave us exactly the break we needed. Thanks Zions!

Zion’s National Park: One Day & Counting!!!

Dave has Spring Break from school next week, so we decided to use up all my vacation time and head out to ZIONS! We both need a break so bad, and it will be nice to be away from all our worries, phone reception, and internet for 5.5 days. The weather is supposed to be beautiful (high 60’s to low 70’s)! With a 0-10% chance of rain, it will be perfect to do some hiking, petrified wood searching, and general relaxation! My bags are packed, the food is purchased (some of it is already prepared and frozen for re-heating). Tonight I’ll pack up the food, try to get Dave to pack his clothes, and tidy up the house a bit. I’m so ready for this trip.

I’ve also been prepping for the new addition to our family (the dog) and think I have everything we need to welcome her into the home when we get back from Zion’s. We have a little kid’s house in our back yard that will double as the dog house for Cheyenne’s time with us. It has windows, linoleum flooring, and a doorbell (just in case). I found a stained feather blanket (on Craigs List for free) that I’ve piled in one corner so she can relax and get away from the rain in comfort.

One of my co-workers has a huge dog that is also home alone all day and she recommended having a large bucket filled with water in the yard so she always has enough to drink. So I picked up one of those construction buckets for $2 at Home Depot to quench her thirst. I figure I can use it to water the nectarine tree every few days so the water doesn’t start growing things. We need to keep the tree properly hydrated anyway and I’m sure she won’t drink it all.

I’ve also purchased a baby gates to go at the top of the front stairs. Since we never use the front stairs the plan is to put her doggie bed on the landing and close her in there at night time (because we don’t want her sleeping on the sofa or trying to get into bed with us). We’ll see if this works out, but it sounds like a great plan.

That’s about it for now! Wish us warm weather and tons of fun