hail, rain, snow, wind... in APRIL???

Needless to say, those who are currently residing in Utah know exactly what I am talking about.  This spring has been absolutely CRAZY!!!  Snow one day, Sunny and 70 degrees the next, followed closely by a day of thunderstorms.  I am not a fan of moisture coming from the sky, hence my love for Nevada, but the weather these days is offically getting out of hand.

On Sunday Lance and I drove home from Vegas with my dad only to hit a crazy storm of hail. It seems as if everytime my dad chooses to travel to Utah, the weather chooses to be CrAzY.  He officially thinks we are nuts for living here. 
On the plus side, having my dad come up for the week meant more improvements on our unfinished basement and remodeling to our outdated bathroom.   You will be AMAZED at how different our bathroom now looks.
The Lou
1- Tile Floor complete- finishing the tile was a little bit tideous because we didn't have an extra toilet to use while the grout and adhesive was drying.  My dad, the clever man his is, decided to hook up our toilet in the basement. So there I was at 11pm right before bed and needed to go potty. I put on my shoes, walked outside and down into our cement unfinished basement and used the potty.  What a weird 24 hours that was.  But who cares!  The tiling is DONE.  Check.

2. Vanity in place- we chose to replace our old vanity because of its little tile counter and backsplash and the new vanity looks GREAT.  It is not as deep as our old one which is kind of a plus because it makes our bathroom look tons bigger. 

3. Wainscoting?- just as I was about to paint the new drywall that I put up behind the toilet, I realized the waterproof drywall was half an inch, and our existing walls were 5/8.  This little 1/8 difference would have made my paint job look less than smooth so we decided to change our plan and put wainscoting up and it looks beautiful.  I'm really happy with our decision. 

4. New knobs-  I refinished the wall cabinet and doors by stripping, sanding, and repainting.  Now they are hung with new black knobs that compliment the new dark vanity.

5.  Light-   The biggest "little" improvement is one of my and lance's favorites.  We were able to move the light switch from the bedroom to inside the bathroom!  Now we don't have to worry about someone switching off the lights while we are in the shower (not that that has happened before ;) ). So far it has only been switched for 12 hours and I have already attempted to switch it from the outside or forgotten to turn it off from the inside 7 times.  I guess old habits die hard right?

 All thats left to due is some trim, paint, and finish tiling 2 walls in the shower.  Lance is waiting until the finished product to feel his sense of accomplishment.  I feel it already!

Our basement-
 So far Lance finished digging his GIGANTIC hole.  I mean gigantic  its 4feet from the house, 6 feet wide, and 8 feet deep.  He's developed "shovelers elbow," had dreams about the hole, and dreaded the thought of spending another minute digging.  What an accomplishment though!!!! The concrete cutters came on Monday to cut the hole for our new window and when they arrived the guy informed me that they could have just cut the hole from inside the basment instead of getting muddy from standing in the hole for 4 hours cutting.  (I waited to tell Lance his gigantic hole wasn't necessary.  He was a little sad).  We have a huge slab of concrete 8 inches thick now sitting in our basement if anyone is interested!?!

Plumbing- after numerous hours and many "darn its" coming from my dad, his portion of the plumbing is complete.  He was able to hook up our tub and (as mentioned above) toilet in the basement. 

Next is the framing, windows, electrical, vent work, stairs, ..... I won't continue my list for it would decrease my sense of accomplishment :)

Viva Del Sol

I love traveling home to las vegas. It's the best feeling in the world to leave Utah in the morning it's 30 so ethnic degrees and arrive in Vegas before lunch and have it be sunny and 80 degrees. Lance and I went to Vegas this weekend instead of wasting away in Provo at my graduation. When we first arrived we were pleasantly greeted by little Rexi in a swimsuit telling us we were going to the park. Swimsuit? yes! It was warm enough to be in one of those. We spent a fun afternoon at the park with the Oh's and were completely wasted and tired. Few hours after. That night we went to the driving range - something I mused to do all the time with my cousin and something I have never done with Lance. I love the driving range (minus my lack of coordination).

Saturday Megan and I went to get ur Free spray tan which was just what I needed to make me feel more at home (my body hadn't seen color since last summer... White is an understatement). We did some shopping and spent the evening at a Korean BBQ buffet and the M casino, where my brother works. He failed to mention the room we got was $350, but with his friends and family discount its only $75! If I ever need a vacation I now know who to call!!

Sunday my family (mom,dad,brother,self,husband) ate at the hash house at the M and I believe our pictures will speak for themselves. Our portions were HUGE.

yes. that is just ONE pancake

pork tenderloin- with a knife and tree of rosemary

Lacking Patience

It's true.  I have ZERO patience.  I am go getter need to do it now can't wait for surprises kinda girl.  Lance knew that when he married me, but apparently I took my lack of patience to a WHOLE new level this week, finals week. (Yes.. this week is my final Finals week at BYU.  Yay for graduation this week yay for my bachelors degree.  yay for never having to drive down to provo).  

Our bathroom- the 1x1 inch white tile fortress that I have thought was hideous from the moment I stepped foot into our house got a little DIY makeover.  A few weeks ago I removed our cabinet doors and refinished them, but have yet to hang them back up because our bathroom is in need of a serious make over.  

our bathroom when we moved in.  Those little white tiles are the enemy. 

Friday- I took a sledge hammer to one of our tile walls and completely removed the inch thick tile that for whatever reason was backed with chicken wire.  In fact, there is enough chicken wire in my bathroom to make an entire float for a parade.  Anyone in need? After the wall was gone, next went 1/2 of the floor.  Yes, I took a sledge hammer to my floor and tore it up.  Lance came home.  Saw the disaster that was our bathroom and immediately said "I am blocking DIY from the TV."  

Yes.  The walls floors and countertops all an INCH thick of concrete like mud.

Jared came over and saw the disaster and Lance's only comment was "My wife thinks because she watches DIY and HGTV all day long that she knows what shes doing.  How do I block these channels?"

Saturday- 7am there I was, now taking the sledge hammer to our TILED built in vanity (honestly, I am seeing white tile in my dreams).  After removing the sink and half of the vanity Lance's dad and uncle showed up to help me remove the remaining pieces.  They also helped me lay my waterproof board so our subfloor won't ever get wet and rot!

11:22 am.  :)

All of this was done by 11:22am.  My exact thoughts: wow. we still have the entire day.  lets begin tiling!!!!!

Tiling all finished (adhesive is white under some tiles and grey under others because I ran out of white.  Same brand same thing. 

I began laying the tile (my first tile job might I add) and needless to say by the end if the day the tile was level, the grout spaces were equal and my bathroom is starting to look fabulous.  

Sunday- 9pm  It had been 28 hours since my tile was first laid and so I began to grout.  My instructions informed me to wait 15-20 minutes after grouting to remove the excess, so I waited and then read to container which indicated  I should have removed the excess grout IMMEDIATELY.  ut-oh.  Let's just say I expended a little (lot) more energy removing the excess grout and it took me over an hour.  

Monday- Ahhh... my floors look GREAT!!! just waiting for the grout to set by tonight.

All Finished!! (except under the toilet- that will be done in 2 weeks when our basement bathroom is done)

SIDE NOTE SUNDAY-

Lance's birthday dinner was Sunday and I have never seen his face light up like a little boy getting a puppy on Christmas until today.  We had scones for dinner and he had his arm wrapped around his dora the explorer wrapped present the entire meal.  Finally he opened his present (from his family)......

(drum roll please).

Yes, my 26 year old husband was excited to receive a xbox for his birthday.   A few minutes after opening it he gave me puppy eyes and asked "can i pua-eeze get a game?"   Jared being as thoughtful as he is thought to get Lance a xbox to keep him company those long nights I have a 6::30pm to 7am shift at the hospital.  Oh boy oh boy. 

Gummy is getting OLD

Yesterday was Lance's 26th birthday.  "After you hit 25... you just feel it," said Lance to me a couple of months ago.  I have no empathy for this "getting old" seeing as how I just barely entered my legal years of being 21.  Needless to say, Lance was not very excited to celebrate his birthday this year.  He woke up at 4:45 am to go train a Jordan basketball player before school started, went to work at Kearns High, went to do some pest control jobs, played basketball with his boyfriend Mark Green, went to their basketball banquet, and finally came home at 9pm.  

During the middle of the day Jared, Lance's brother, stopped by our house thinking Lance would have taken the day off and enjoyed his birthday.  Instead I was the one home enjoying my day off watching HGTV and DIY.  With all the craziness aside Lance has many things to be grateful for on this anniversary of his birth. 

Our basement is really starting to roll!  - The underground plumbing and rerouting of pipes will be finished by Thursday.  The duct guy is here working away rerouting our ducts.  Our building permit should be here any day now and framing should begin in the next week (hopefully). 

His bush is still alive! -  Last night I was startled to hear Lance's "what the FREAK" coming from the front yard.  I walked outside to see what the issue was and one of his little bushes he just planted in our front planter had been dragged across the walkway and into the grass.  ELLIE, the monster, had dug the bush out and moved it out of its little soil home.  After planting and watering the little guy, he is still alive and surviving his almost deadly attack. 

Who says your too old for presents!  - I'm am much more of a "can't wait for surprises" than Lance is.  My patience is very thin, and by buying Lance's presents 2 weeks ago, I have been no anxious to give them to him!  A few days ago he spotted one of them in the basement and asked me what it was and my inability to lie gave away that it was in fact a give for him. 

Shopping for Lance, or boys in general, is difficult.  I can't buy him clothes without him there or they will never see the light of day, cologne is out of the question with his 15 bottles lining our bathroom wall.  Watches-forget it.  He has a case of about 8. Video games?  What wife really wants to endorse that in addition to him never having time to play them.  So I seem to always settle on the practical gifts knowing he will like them and they will get some use.  

A new Pillow- Lance has been complaining about his pillow for months and with my numerous trips to IKEA I found the perfect pillow to fit his needs.  It has the memory foam, but it is surrounded by down so its soft, yet firm, and your head melts right into it.  So far he has "slept like a baby."  

 Whiteboard- 

During every basketball game I see Lance pull out his whiteboard to draw up the next new play.  I thought "how cool would it be if he had an awesome white board at home that he could draw things up on." Thank heavens for quilted bear!  I found this AWESOME Utes whiteboard there.  He loves it and has already started compiling plays for next season!

Quotes-  If there is one thing I know about my husband it is that he LOVES quotes.  Before we got married he had a bulletin board of quotes on his wall along with MANY basketball posters with great motivational quotes on them.  He has been suggesting for quote awhile that we should get a quote board.  I was at quilted bear and saw this quote and thought it would be awesome for his desk or office or whatever since its very applicable to life as well as to basketball.

Ability is what you're capable of doing.  Motivation determines what you do.  Attitude determines how well you do it.

Of course it wouldn't be right if I didn't make Lance his FAVORITE treat.  So there is a pan full of Reese's brownie bites sitting on my counter as we speak!!!

New and Blue

Lance and I have been online and instore browsing for the materials we would like to use in our current bathroom as well as our new basement bathroom.  This is what we have come up with. BLUE BLUE and BLUE.

This is not the exact tile we plan to use on our backsplash, but it's the closest I could find a picture of!

We LOVE dark cabinets.  We also love the style of this sink!

For those of you who have been in my current bathroom and have witnessed first hand feeling surrounded by the 1 inch by 1 inch 60's tile, be happy it will all be GONE soon.  In it's place will be a wall of white cabinets, this lovely vanity, and BLUE walls. 

Busy Bee gets a new Mazda three

Just a half an hour before I was headed to work on Friday night, I received a call from my dad saying he had sold his car and needed to come up this weekend to buy my car from me.  Naturally I started to panic because I hadn't really been looking for a new car and now I needed to find one in a matter of 24 hours.  I went to work were I worked the night shift and during my break and down time I searched through THOUSANDS of cars on ksl and carmax only to find this beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

Black Mazda 3 Hatchback

After work (at 7:30am) I drove home, took a nap, cleaned out the basement, and Lance and I headed up to Woods Cross to test drive this beauty.  However, on the way we got a call from the salesmen telling us the mazda3 we wanted was already SOLD.  Lance and I drove around all of Woods Cross and Bountiful looking at car dealerships to see is something could live up to the expectation the mazda3 has already embedded itself into my mind.  As Lance drove I began to search ksl again except entered in "wagon" instead of hatchback... my search criteria only had 1 result...this beauty.

 

 

 

 

 

It might seem like deja vu, but we found ANOTHER mazda3 that was black and the same year except this one had LESS miles. We then rushed to West Valley to see if the mazda3 was as pretty in real life as it was made out to be on the internet.  We got to the dealership, jumped out of the Corolla and jumped into the Mazda.  I test drove it and was pleasantly surprised by its peppiness and loved the controls and interior.  When we pulled back into the parking lot I looked on the keys only to see a button that said "start."  With two little clicks the mazda which was once off, roared without anyone inside!!  REMOTE START!  I jumped (literally) and squealed and thought "oh mazda, you had me at start.  The idea of having remote start in my car is something I've wanted for a really long time.  Lance even looked into installing it in the Corolla that way I could heat up the car on those cold snowy days without having to run outside and stick my keys in the ignition.  

This mazda, well, it seemed like the perfect car for me.  We walked inside and began the grueling and tedious process of filling out the paper work and of course the waiting game that is associated with any dealership.  A few hours later, the keys were in my hand and I was ready to hit the roads.  

I'm super excited to be driving in style in my new cute little MAZDA 3. 

Sporty. <3

AUX input = wonderful.

In addition: 

I loved having my dad here for the day.  Because I was able to buy the Mazda, my dad was able to fly up last night, stay the night, and hang out until this afternoon when he had to return to Las Vegas.  What a pleasure it was to see him and catch up with him.  I love how the older I get the more and more I appreciate my parents and all that they do and have done for me.  They are both amazing individuals who I know love me tons and tons.  Since my dad works in construction, he was also able to help us a ton with figuring out the best way to remodel our basement.  We even spray painted the cement ground where Lance has to cut out and planned a lot of the material we needed to buy.  Someday soon we will post a few BEFORE pictures and soon after will hopefully have the AFTER pictures up. 

New New New

A lot of new things have happened since... well January. :) 

Basketball

Lance has been extremely busy with coaching the Jordan basketball team.  Each and every year the little freshmen and sophomores show up all shy and timid, and won't speak a word to me when I show up at games, but by the end of the season each and every one of them have some smart comment to make to me.  It seems a little tedious to show up at all basketball games (Every Wednesday and Friday for 3 months from 3-9pm!!), but this season I have enjoyed spending countless hours in the high school gym.  I even experienced something completely new- riding the school bus with a team of sweaty and smelly boys. Although this season wasn't the best winning wise, it was quite the treat to get to know these boys more and to watch them grow up.  Lance has even gotten closer to his players spending countless hours texting over their girl problems.  Let's just say we are both extremely happy to be out of the dating world and especially happy to be free from the high school drama that seems to important but is really quite trivial.

Some new TREATS I even learned to make this season and the boys were so EXCITED to see me walk into the gym carrying a pan.

 Reese's Brownie BITES
these have become Lance's new FAVORITE treat. 

Makes approx. 40 brownie bites
INGREDIENTS
3/4 cup butter, melted
3/4 cup white sugar
3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 eggs
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/2 cup unsweetened cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon salt
40 mini Reese’s Peanut Butter Cups, unwrapped from the brown paper
 ***or if you are in a hurry and want things to be easier just make a brownie mix according to the box. Preheat oven to 350 and place in mini-cupcake pan (SPRAY PAN WELL) and cook for 15 minutes.  Pull out of oven and immediately insert the Reese's.

DIRECTIONS
Preheat oven to 350 degrees F.  Spray mini cupcake pan with non stick spray.  In a medium bowl, mix melted butter, sugars and vanilla.  Beat in eggs one at a time. Gradually add flour, cocoa, and salt and mix until combined.  Fill each cupcake slot slightly more than halfway but not more than 2/3 full.  Place a peanut butter cup in each slot pressing it down until it is almost level with the batter.  Bake in preheated oven for 15-18 minutes or until done.  Allow the brownie bites to cool for 5 minutes before removing from the cupcake tin.  Enjoy!
*Notes: Be sure to remove brownie bites 5 minutes after coming out of the oven.  Otherwise they might cool and stick to the sides making it difficult to get out.  If baking these in a pan, your baking time will increase to 25-30 minutes.  You can be sure they are close to being done when you can smell them from your oven.

CAKE BALLS

 I stole this from my friend Brook Green (who makes delicious cake balls), but also from bakerella.com 
These take a little bit more time because you have to bake the cake and then ball and chocolate dip them individually, but they are SO GOOD it is definitely worth it. 

You can use any kind of cake mix and any kind of frosting, but here is the recipe for red velvet cake balls off of bakerella.com


Red Velvet Cake Balls
1 box red velvet cake mix (cook as directed on box for 13 X 9 cake)
1 can cream cheese frosting (16 oz.)
1 package chocolate bark (regular or white chocolate)
wax paper
1. After cake is cooked and cooled completely, crumble into large bowl.
2. Mix thoroughly with 1 can cream cheese frosting. (It may be easier to use fingers to mix together, but be warned it will get messy.)
3. Roll mixture into quarter size balls and lay on cookie sheet. (Should make 45-50. You can get even more if you use a mini ice cream scooper, but I like to hand roll them.)
4. Chill for several hours. (You can speed this up by putting in the freezer.)
5. Melt chocolate in microwave per directions on package.
6. Roll balls in chocolate and lay on wax paper until firm. (Use a spoon to dip and roll in chocolate and then tap off extra.)
I also only melt a few pieces of chocolate bark at a time because it starts to cool and thicken. It’s easier to work with when it’s hot.


 ...back to basketball
Now that basketball season is over, its definitely weird to have my husband home for dinner and to spend a Friday night on a date rather than in a gym, but I am really grateful for the relationships and fun that comes from high school basketball.


RIVERTON HOSPITAL

 

So I have been searching for another job for the last couple of months and haven't been too successful in finding anything.  I've applied for countless positions with Intermountain for over a YEAR and a HALF, and finally 3 weeks ago I received a call to come in for an interview for a position in the medical/surgical unit of Riverton Hospital.  I was so happy, but really didn't think I would get the job since there was probably tons of other people more qualified than me. For the interview we had to give a 5 minute presentation on How Riverton Hospital could be the best hospital in Utah and how my presence there would help achieve this goal.  Now that's a pretty loaded statement and I didn't quite know how to answer it until I began researching the IHC website and seeing what Intermountain was all about.  After my interview I waited 8 days before receiving my phone call telling me I had been OFFERED the position!  This week was my first week working FULL-TIME, 12 hour shifts as a Patient Care Tech at Riverton.  It's been quite the adjustment trying to get used to working so many hours in one day, but the perks of FULL benefits and only working 3 days a week definitely offsets the long days.  This Friday I will work my very first night shift of 7pm to 7:30am. Hopefully I can stay awake!!

 

BASEMENT

Over the last couple of months we have been getting plans together to remodel our basement, and now the time has finally come to begin working.  This past weekend lance and I went downstairs with hammers and gloves and teared out all the existing drywall and broke down some of the things that had been left from the previous owners.  It was a lot of manual labor, but actually a lot of fun.  We are now just waiting on the plumbing to get all situated and it should be up and livable in no time... we hope!!!