Cannibal

We carved a pumpkin last night and have dubbed it the cannibal. We saw the idea on the Klemas' blog and thought it was so funny we couldn't resist imitation.

Flash.


No Flash.

The Saturn

When I turned 16 I got a Saturn. I loved it and had it all through high school and college. I thought that I would have it forever as I was going to drive it until it died, and Saturn's last forever...just ask Shauna. But a year ago (give or take a day or two) I was stopped in traffic on my way home from work and SMASH, I was hit. It was raining hard so at first I though that someone just hadn't started stopping in time and maybe had hydroplaned into me. Turns out that the large Dodge truck the nice teenage boy was driving had just gotten out of the shop where they had "fixed" the brake problems that he had been having. Not so, his brakes had totally gone out. When all was said and done my car was totalled, and since we had just sold Curt's car two weeks previously we had zero cars (not so fantastic).

It held up pretty well for having been hit by a large truck coming at a high speed. I didn't even have whiplash the next day, what an awesome car.




So my mom gave us my brother's car (we were glad to have it even though it was stinky) until we got a new one. We went searching; nothing in the valley looked good; added to that we ran into some very sleazy sales people (hair slicked back and everything). So we found my 4-runner on e-bay, bought it, and had it shipped to us. I know, I know, how could we buy a CAR on e-bay!?! But it had a free carfax report (no accidents, part of a leased company fleet) and it specifically said non-smoker and it had many, many pictures showing how great of condition it was in. It took a couple weeks to get it from Texas but it has been a great car.

We've been tagged...

So apparently we've been "tagged" (thanks Britney (: ), I usually do not participate in things like this (chain letters, chain emails, ect...) but these are fun reflections. I just am not going to tag someone else. If you are reading this and want to be tagged...go for it, consider it done.

5 Things

5 things I was doing 10 years ago (Carmen):
1. I was in 8th grade at Joel P. Jensen Middle School.
2. I was preparing to move for the first time in my life (big move, West Jordan to West Jordan)
3. I was getting my braces off
4. We had just had a little foster boy move in with us: my brother Tony who we were able to adopt several years later.
5. My dad had just started dating Jann, who is now my step-mother.

5 things I was doing 10 years ago (Curt)
1. I was in 11th grade at the School of the Arts
2. I had just started driving
3. I was working 2, and sometimes 3 jobs (piano teacher, McDonalds, and piano accompanist at a ballet studio)
4. I had a steady girlfriend who I was with for a while
5. I was probably applying to or thinking about applying to colleges

5 things on my to do list tomorrow(Carmen):
1. Go pay an obscene amount of money for a permit to start construction on a new townhouse building on one of my new projects.
2. Wash my 4-runner. I swear I took better care of my Saturn, which doesn't make sense because the 4-runner is a much nicer vehicle.
3. Take my little brother the golden snitch that I crafted for him as the final touch on his Harry Potter Halloween costume. He's been so excited about this costume that he's called me many times to work out details.
4. Track down my sister in order to practice the musical number we are doing for my brother's farewell in Nov. (I don't know what to call it, I guess they're not farewells anymore). We have known about this for months but the procrastination is still going on.
5. Hmmm...there are a million more things that I need to get done at work...I can't decide on a single final one.

5 things on my to do list tomorrow (Curt):
1. Go to work way too early (I am there by 6:30am)
2. Bring 'new job' donuts to work for coworkers (more on that later, I start a new position next week)
3. Wash Carmen's 4-runner, hey somebody's got to do it
4. Keep studying for the GMAT (I take it next month)
5. Write way too many e-mails, talk to way too many people, and place way too many trades at work


5 things that I would do if I had a million dollars(Carmen):
1. Buy a house specifically for the purpose of gutting it, renovating it, and then just having it as a rental unit.
2. Hmmm, pay for Curt's still upcoming graduate schooling.
3. Start another brokerage account, but one that Curt could just play around with stocks in.
4. Put the rest in a relatively safe, high-yield account just to grow.
5. I don't have another one; you'd think that I could do more with a million dollars, but realistically it's just not what it used to be.

5 things I would do if I had a million dollars (Curt):
1. Let Carmen do all of the above (man, I'm a good husband, and hey, I would get money to invest from the deal!)
2. Buy a car for me. I haven't needed a car for over a year, but hey, with a million bucks I could justify that I would only drive 10 miles a week.
3. Apply to a day MBA program instead of an evening one, since it would be okay that I took 2 years off work
4. Support missionaries who need financial backing
5. Plan a few nice trips to places far away


5 things I will never wear again(Carmen):
1. Huge bangs that 1/2 are curled up and 1/2 are curled down, then poofed.
2. Braces, thank goodness.
3. T-shirts that go down to my knees. (I was 4' nothing for the longest time)
4. Scrunchees.
5. A side pony tail.

5 things I will never wear again (Curt):
1. Plaid shorts
2. Glasses/Contact lenses (thank you Lasik!)
3. Long hair (it's going pretty fast anyways)
4. Fanny pack...don't laugh, you've all worn one at least once
5. I'm sure there's something else, I've seen pictures of how my Mom dressed us when we were little


5 Favorite Toys(Carmen):
1. My miter saw.
2. My table saw.
3. My compressor.
4. My nail gun.
5. Our camera.
(Notice the tools are all Carmen's, the Camera is 'ours', this is not a typo *Curt)

5 Favorite Toys (Curt):
1. The Wii (everyone should get one...oh and Guitar Hero III comes out this weekend!)
2. My new bike
3. Stereo stuff (lots of it)
4. Computer stuff (although I can never have enough)
5. Books - I know it's not a toy, but books are where I get the majority of my entertainment and where I spend most my leisure time.

Snow!?!

We woke up Sunday morning to a dusting of snow, go figure.

My Christmas Present

I know, I know, I'm getting as ridiculous as the department stores by doing Christmas before Halloween. At any rate, I have my Christmas present early. When Curt got my wedding ring it came with the following band.

I did not think that it complemented the ring as it would cover some of the diamonds and metal work on the side of the ring, so I have always worn it without a band like this.



But for Christmas Curt has gotten me a band that goes well with the ring and is low profile enough that it only covers a little bit of the work on the side. How fun!




We got it at the same jewelry store that he bought the ring at. It's a place called Goldsmiths on University Ave. in Provo and it is the most amazing place ever. Most jewelry stores I will like one or two things in the whole store because there's nothing real original or impressive, but in every single display at Goldsmiths there are awesome pieces. We had been looking at bands for about a year now, and the one at Goldsmith's was half the price for better quality, it matched my ring's style better, and since we bought both our wedding rings there we get 20% off anything in the store for life. With their prices better than anyone in the first place how can we resist. They even soldered it together for me and rhodium plated the whole thing so that the new band wasn't so obviously newer than my wedding ring. I think that even when we move out of state we will have to only get jewelry when we visit Utah (ha, since we are great connoisseurs and buy jewelry often...if you can't tell that statement is dripping in sarcasm).

The trip to Provo also provided us an opportunity to go to an Indian restaurant called the Bombay House. This is where we had our very first date (way back in January of '04). He always tells me that one of his thoughts that night was "man, this chick has a lot of family, I would never be able to keep them all straight". He he, now he has had to get to know them all.

Scrabble

We're excited to start building our game library! Until recently, we have only had a few games, and mainly card games. Last night, we broke out the newest addition, Scrabble! I really just have to point out that I beat Carmen two times in a row (although the second round was within 10 points). I have a feeling that we will have more nights like that as it continues to get colder.

On Carmen's behalf, I must also add that I can't remember the last time (if ever) I beat her at Phase 10, another one of our favorites.

More of Autumn at My House...

I've always been a little nuts over trees... I love them. I can't wait to have the experience of living somewhere overwhelmed with trees (I've lived in Utah my whole life and in it's desert trees only live where they are planted and people take care of them). One of the things that made me want to look for a house in a older neighborhood rather than buy one of the new houses I build for a living is that they usually are surrounded/full of mature trees (the other reason is because I like to remodel, and older houses need more of it).


This is a view into my neighbor's yard. The people who owned our house before us did not have my love of trees, and there was not one in the entire back yard. We have planted four this year. Too bad we won't get the use of them as mature trees, but at least future people who live here can enjoy them.

The neighbor's tree from a previous fall post is losing it's leaves now.

These are two of the trees we planted. Their leaves are turning a beautiful yellow color.

Another neighbor's backyard. I love the fall colors.

Cool Old Pictures

So, this post is primarily because I have scanned a lot of awesome old pictures and I want to show some of them to my brother, Lane, who is on a mission in Texas. This is the easiest medium in which to do that. I hope others also can enjoy the poofy hair of the past.


This is my beautiful mother Melody I think in her late teens.

This is my mom and dad shortly after they were married. This is the house that I grew up in in West Jordan.

Oh boy, here's when I was born. I love the shag hair dad!

The joys of camping with kids. Here is Melynda throwing a fit while the rest of us smile for the camera.

My dad was a cute little kid who grew up on a farm.

He loved motorcycles and cars and trucks and basically anything with a motor (Still does).

Here's grandpa and dad. Grandpa always has one or two of these hats with a vent in them and another couple unique white hard hats. I've never seen these particular type anywhere else, so these are what I associate with him.

My dad in his element. "Ahh, just think of what I can do with all this stuff!" (AKA junk).

My brother David

This is my brother David Eugene. He just got his call to the Atlanta North Mission in Georgia. Very exciting; he goes into the MTC next month.


He is named after my uncle David Eugene, my dad's brother who was killed by a drunk driver (who ran a stop sign in the middle of the nowhere on a dark night while driving without headlights). The picture below shows the car that David was a passenger in. My dad was driving and the impact broke his pelvis. My uncle David had gone on a mission to northern Florida, which at the time included the area that my brother David got called to. It kind of fits.

Fall is coming...

This morning I realized that fall really is almost here. There was frost on the grass and on my roof, and my neighbor's tree is turning flaming colors. Pretty cool.

Conference Weekend

We had a packed weekend with family in town.

Shane, Mom, Shauna, Jeff, Alison, and Curt at Leatherby's. Notice Shane finally lost both of his front teeth.

Everybody walking at Temple Square on Friday afternoon.
Shauna, Alison, Ron, Curt. Jeff is behind Ron but you can't see him.


The newly re-opened Tabernacle.


The Salt Lake Temple.


The boys (Jeff, Ron, Curt) at the Temple.


Conference on Saturday. We were lucky to be able to go to the Saturday morning and Sunday afternoon sessions.


This is the place monument on Sunday afternoon.
Me, Curt, Jeff, Alison.

Me and Curt up in the mountains Sunday afternoon.

Jeff and Alison up at Brighton ski resort Sunday afternoon (this is moments before Jeff whitewashed her).

Our finished (almost) guest bedroom

So we have finished the majority of the work in our guest bedroom just in time for company to show up tomorrow. Next large scale project...I think granite counter tops in the kitchen and staining the cabinets darker. But that may be in the spring because I need a breather before another big one (Curt would probably say our checkbook needs a small breather also, because no matter how much I'm saving by doing everything myself, it's still a lot to get good materials).

(drum roll into a TA DA) Here is the finished product.....


Here is a better picture of the finished paint treatment.

Here I am at the very beginning, taking out a strip of carpet so we could build in bookshelves. Notice all of the stark white walls to accent the white berber carpet which looks ever so nice with the nasty veneer doors.


We went from whitest white to about the darkest you can go without being black. Curt helped me with this part by holding up the electronic level so the diamonds I was making with painters tape didn't start wandering. At this phase my family was having a hard time picturing the finished product and were saying things like "I know you've done good things in the past, but..." and "I don't know about this..."


The structural part of the shelves going in and the bead board going up.

More of the same.

Here is our new light fixture, it is very bright and we got the fluorescent bulbs so it is white light not yellow (even though it looks yellow in the picture).

Here's the old yucky, 8o's-esque light fixture that was up before.

All the finished bedding. I only broke one needle and went through over a whole spool of thread getting it done.

As the heading says, we are almost done with this room. Things left...1) finish white touch up paint on bookcases and take down tape 2) replace all doors with white doors 3) build window seat in section between bookcases 4) put in window so window seat actually is a window seat. Most of these will have to wait a bit until we recover some steam.