Where does this go?

Strangely, we had internet access available to us at our house for a couple of days. Sadly though, it no longer exists, so I'm back to just having the internet at work. It's been interesting trying to figure out what to put where, especially in the kitchen. I don't know if it will pass Laura's approval since she said my other kitchen in Santa Clara was put together wrong. Good thing she's coming to visit so if I've made any mistakes she can correct them before I get too used to stuff where I've already put it.
Fun news- I have a lift being installed for my Kitchen Aid. I will be able to keep it in a cupboard when it's not being used, and then just pull it up to counter level by raising this platform when I need it without hefting it out of the cupboard.
All of Bud's family is coming over tomorrow for dinner. Yikes. I don't think I'm ready for that yet.
I took more pictures of the house, but forgot the cable so I can't get them out of the camera yet. Dumb.

And the winner is...

Holly and Samuel are the winners of the "getting Mom to cry" contest. They made a book for me of my kids and grandkids that is absolutely fabulous. It's a Shutterfly product. Holly spent so much time working on it and getting pictures from the other kids for it. The thing about getting it though is that now they're going to have to make a new one every year! Thank you SO MUCH! I love it, love it, love it!

House Pictures for Laura

We have been moving since last Thursday. We drove to Santa Clara, loaded up a 26 ft. U-Haul and with Brandon and B. Mark's help, loaded that thing to the hilt. Long story-boring is that we're moved in enough to live here now, but not moved in enough to have my kitchen in full working order. Where's the mixing bowl? Do I have a spatula? No. What? there's no baking soda or oil in the house? Goodness.

This is looking into the kitchen before we moved anything in. The wall with the windows on the right is about 22 ft (give or take) tall.


Here is the outside of our little home.

A big snowstorm fell last night giving all those asking for a White Christmas what they wished for.


If you look behind the cute picture of Karen, you can just sort of see the entertainment center that fills nearly one entire wall. I'll take more pictures later when the house is a little more settled and put in order. That will only take me a couple of days since I refuse to go to work this week!

Keys Please!

Today is the day! Hooray! We get the keys to our house at 7:00 PM and I am SO excited!

One potato, two potato

I had a gift certificate to Applebees so Bud and I went there for dinner last night. I ordered the chicken fajitas, he ordered steak and baked potato. When his potato came, it wasn't a fluffy baked potato. It looked like it had been cooked in the microwave. Our server asked if everything was all right. Big mistake. Bud told him that his potato wasn't baked. We were assured that it was. After several minutes of back-and-forth, the server got the manager involved. The manager showed up at our table with another potato. It wasn't a baked potato either. Bud told the manager to get a menu. He pointed to the picture of the potato and asked if it looked the same as what was sitting on our table. The manager said no. Aha! We finally found out that not only is the potato not baked (it is cooked in a steamer), but Applebees doesn't even have an oven in the kitchen! Can you imagine that? Our server went into the kitchen (he was new and hadn't really checked out the kitchen before) and asked them where the oven was. He said the cook pointed to the microwave and was told that was the oven (there seemed to be a language barrier between the cook and the server). So all their food is preprocessed and brought into the restaurant, and then heated up some way or another.

I love their Triple Chocolate Meltdown (as Samuel would say, "Mmmm, Chocolate") but I guess it comes to the restaurant already baked and then they toss it in the microwave. It won't hurt my childrens' feelings if I were to quit going to Applebees because they think I go there ALL the time. That narrows our restaurant choices now to two...Chinese Buffet and Sizzler. Please tell me where YOU go in SLC for a fabulous (and cheap) dinner so I can add it to my list of options. Sigh.

Ice Ice Baby

Here are two more experimental photos from this morning's shoot but weren't posted with the other picture due to the fact that it doesn't follow the guidelines of the "tag."