Jacaranda Trees

Ok, I stole these pictures from Naomi's blog, but I absolutely love it! Look at how gorgeous this purple tree is!! I just had to have this picture...


Look at how beautiful this street is!! Could you imagine driving down this street??

These pictures remind me of the paintings in the movie "What Dreams May Come" with Robin Williams... I just love it! Thank you Naomi for posting these pictures, they really are gorgeous!

The light at the end of the tunnel...

If there is one thing that I am the most like my mother, it is the fact that I can not handle the heat!! When I am inside the house, or driving in the car I do not want it to be 90 degrees and sticky! Don't get me wrong, I love summertime and being outside by the pool or hiking or going to the beach etc. but when I am inside, the heat should be outside or you do not want to be around me!!

This last week in UT, it has been getting pretty hot and we, of course, bought an older home that does not have air conditioning...it has been miserable!! Just ask Rob, I almost become a different person, a very mean and nasty person! So I finally convinced him to help me put the AC unit in our bedroom window, we turned it on and I promise I heard angels sing... it was glorious!!!

It's almost too good to be true, but it truly is the light at the end of a very long and dark tunnel!!

We are still not cooking because the kitchen is far away and gets really hot, but we are working on that this weekend...

For all of you (my family) in the deep south laughing at this, I know I have no idea how bad it is in Georgia and North Carolina and to be honest... I have no intentions of ever finding out!!

Strawberries!!

Ok, so this is something that I didn't have anything to do with, but bare with me now... I'm going to take full credit for it!!!

When we moved into our new house the previous people had two garden boxes, one with something that obviously died because...well it looked dead, and the other one had strawberries. For a while it was just a bunch of green leaves and we didn't really care so it was left to fend for itself until one day... we had strawberries!!! Ok, I've never grown anything in my life, and yes I understand that I didn't actually do anything to contribute, but they are in MY yard so I'm taking credit...I grew strawberries! :)

This is Ty eating the grass around the garden box... I promise we feed him, he just loves grass.

Ty eating more grass...

So there is a second part to our story... one day when we came out to check on my strawberries (yes they are MINE) I noticed that a few of them that had just turned red had been chomped on. We decided that it had to be bugs or something, but oh no, we were very mistaken. We took the dogs out one day and Tess disappeared off in the back of the yard and wouldn't come when we called. We walk over there to find this...

Needless to say, we are keeping a closer eye on her...

Here are a few pictures of the colorful strawberries!! Look what I did!!!

OK, so I wasn't tagged or anything, but I'm home sick today and extremely bored... Thanks Amy, I stole this from your blog!!

Four jobs I have had:
1. Nanny!! (favorite job!)
2. Pre-school teacher
3. Sales Associate at PacSun
4. Accountant at Shelf Reliance (right now)

Four movies I have watched more than once:
1. P.S. I Love You (with a box of tissues)
2. Pride and Prejudice (Keira Knightly version, it's shorter)
3. High School Musical 2 (that's right, I said it!!)
4. An Affair To Remember
(I promise I watch more than chick flicks, but lately that's what it's been)

Four places I have lived:
1. Vancouver, WA
2. Spanish Fork, UT
3. Orem, UT
4. Payson, UT

Four TV show I watch:
1. Supernanny
2. Jon & Kate Plus 8
3. Food Network (pretty much the whole channel)
4. So You Think You Can Dance (first time watching this year and I love it!)
*My favorite four aren't in season...The Hills, The Office, Lost, & Grey's Anatomy*

Four places I have been:
1. San Diego, CA (willing to move at any time)
2. Atlanta, GA
3. Canada
4. Las Vega, NV

Four people who e-mail me regularly:
1. Fogg Family
2. Pottery Barn
3. Real Simple
4. Work...

Four of my favorite foods:
1. Ice Cream...I grew up a Sampson, it's an essential food group!
2. Thin Mints
3. Tomato Soup & Cheese-wiches (grilled cheese)
4. My Favorite Dessert (I don't know the real name, but my whole life it's just been "my favorite dessert." It is layers of mint ice cream, crushed oreo's, cool whip, & caramel)

Four places I would like to visit:
1. Italy
2. Paris
3. London
4. New York City (to see a Broadway play)

Four things I am looking forward to in the coming year:
1. Buying new furniture...??
2. Remodeling Kitchen...??
3. Traveling ...(even if it's just to St. George or Vegas)
4. ...starting a family :)

It is what it looks like...

If it looks like I'm pouring hot water into our washing machine to do laundry...I am. We haven't had hot water for two weeks now. We have two large pots permanently situated on our stove top to boil water to wash dishes and do laundry daily. We've been taking turns between showering at my Father's house and at Rob's parent's house. Two weeks ago our water heater stopped working because the people before us installed it incorrectly and it finally blew out a part. The manufacturing company sent the wrong replacement part and the nearest expert on the type we have, is in Sandy. Rob took this picture because he thought it would be funny to have.

We now have no AC in either car or house, Rob's car is still sitting in our driveway because we can't get it fixed, Rob goes back to school this summer and now we have to boil water on the stove to do laundry and dishes. We are definitely experiencing the typical poor first couple of years being married. At this point, it's just funny now...

Our little boy is hurt : (

Most of you know that Rob and I have two dogs, Ty and Tess. Ty, who is 2 1/2, is half Mini American Eskimo and half Toy Poodle, where Tess, who is a 1 1/2, is full Mini American Eskimo. We seriously love them like they were our kids...
This is Ty when we was just a puppy. We call it his calendar picture, so cute!!!

(don't pay attention to the date on the picture, it's wrong)

So last Saturday we took our puppies hiking up Payson Canyon, nothing extravagant, but it was fun. We went up a few trails, looked out over the valley and then came home (sorry I didn't have our camera on me at the time). The next morning we noticed that Ty was limping around and wasn't walking on his back right leg. We instantly got worried especially when he didn't want to play fetch, that meant something was seriously wrong. It was the saddest sight to see when he goes to jump on our bed, only make it half way and see him latched on for dear life as he is trying to push himself up with only one leg :(

The next morning we take him into the vet and he feels around his knee to see what is wrong. After a few minutes go by he tells us he has the dog version of a torn ACL and most likely would need surgery. At this point I'm holding back tears as he continues to tell us that we should leave him there for a round of sedation and x-rays. I'm not sure what was worse, watching our little boy being dragged out of the room with this terrified look on his face like we have just sold his soul to the devil, or the thought of him possibly needing surgery a week later...either way, I wasn't handling this well. We came back later that afternoon to get Ty and hear the details about the x-rays. The vet then tells us that it doesn't look as bad as he originally thought it was and surgery wasn't necessary right now. He went on tell us a lot of other stuff, but all in all, his ligament is either extremely strained or partially torn. Either way, there isn't anything he can do other than give him pain killers for the next week and a half and hope that his limp doesn't come back or get worse. If it gets worse and the ligament tears completely, surgery; if it's just strained, it should heal itself; if it's partially torn, we pretty much have to wait it out until it tears completely...yeah that sounds fun.

For the time being our little boy is doing pretty well, the only times he is upset is when the medicine has worn off and it's not quite time for a new dose. He can't run or play hard (life fetch) for two weeks and if he's outside he has to be on a leash. Which for Ty, life as he knows it has ended...

Saturday Morning

So as most of you know, I enjoy a good rain every once in a while, it's refreshing. However, when you are expected to come and help pour a cement foundation for a backyard shed using wheelbarrows and another cement slab for the side of your father's house, it doesn't quite set the mood for a pleasant experience...

They had to wait as one by one they filled up the wheelbarrows, haul it to the where the cement was wanted, and dump it to be spread out.

Here is Rob, waiting so patiently... can you tell he is having the time of his life in the rain??

Rob about to haul it to the backyard...those things get really heavy!!! I can't tell you how many times the tires went flat and they'd have to fill them back up again.

Here is my Dad, in the back spreading the cement. Gotta say, love the hat!!!

He may be 64, but that doesn't stop him from doing the work himself...

At least they had a lot of neighbors who knew what they were doing and could make it smooth. This is the foundation for the shed my dad is going to expand.

All in all it was a pretty eventful morning. They were able to get the cement poured and the foundations smooth so I would call it a success. It's not every day you get to wake up and spread cement first thing in the morning while it rains... For the record, it stopped raining about half way through and as soon as they were done and cleaning up... the sun came out.