Happy Anniversary...Six Months Later!

Last August, I started making a quilt for Mike as an anniversary gift since it was our two year anniversary. I chose to make him a quilt since the traditional gift for a two year anniversary is cotton. I had every intention of having the quilt finished before our anniverary arrived, but that didn't happen. Then, I thought that I would definately be able to finish it within a few weeks after our anniversary passed. That didn't happen either. I finally decided that I needed to make myself spend a couple of nights working on this quilt so that I could get it finished. I had this past week off of school, so it seemed like the perfect opportunity. I am pleased to annouce that the quilt is finally finished!

I chose a Wall-E theme since Mike really likes that movie and we saw it a few weeks before I started the quilt. This was the first time that I had "quilted" on a machine rather than using yarn to tie it. I made some mistakes, but I learned a lot in the process. Hopefully it won't take me six months to finish my next sewing project, although I guess this allowed Mike to celebrate our two year anniversary twice!

I Need Some Help

I need some help. I am trying to put a video clip from NBC on a PowerPoint presentation. I think that I need to save the video clip to my computer. The problem is, I have no idea how to do this. Does anybody know? I am assuming that it is similar to saving a YouTube video, but I have never done that, either. I know that I can insert a link to the video on my slide, but I would prefer to add the actual video in case I don't have access to the internet during my presentation. I would LOVE some suggestions.

The clip is http://www.nbc.com/The_Office/video/clips/stress-relief/982442/.

Thanks!!!

A (Very Mini) Kitchen Makeover

Last week, Mike and I gave our kitchen/dining room and family room a mini makeover. I had painted the kitchen area and one wall of the family room back in November, but the color just wasn't growing on me. It was a yellow/mustard color, and it looked really good on the swatch. But depending on the light, it did not look so good on our walls. It finally got to where I just could not tolerate the color, so I convinced Mike that we ought to paint again, even though it had only been a few months. We decided on a nice, safe taupe color. Mike calls it "frosty brown" because it reminds him of a Wendy's frosty.

Besides painting, we decided it was necessary to expand the tile in our dining area so that it was in front of the sliding glass door. The reason that this was so necessary was that Faline decided that this small patch of carpet was her personal indoor grass. You see, when we leave her alone, she is confined to the kitchen. This meant that she could access her doggie door and mostly only be on the tile. However, she decided that the small amount of carpet she did have access to was her indoor grass during inclement weather. Despite our best efforts, we felt that there was always an unpleasant odor in this area of the room. So, we finally gave in and had a little more tile installed. I realize most people would just kick their dog outside or make it stay in the garage, but whatever. We intalled tile.

So, here is the finished product. Unless you saw the kitchen between November and last week, you probably cannot appreciate the color change. The yellow was seriously wierd. It would go from looking mustard, to bright yellow, to lime green. The "frosty brown" really is much better. The tile used to stop to the left of the door, but now goes a few feet over. It has been SO nice to know that Faline cannot pee on the carpet while we are gone. It really looks nice and I don't think that you can tell that carpet was originally there.

Hopefully I can go more than a few months without painting the kitchen again. Maybe the living room can be next??? :)

No Line on the Horizon

It finally happened...U2's new cd has been released! I LOVE it! I HIGHLY recommend it.

Now I can begin anxiously awaiting the announcement of their next tour. For the meanwhile, I will be satisfied with watching them perform EVERY NIGHT on Dave Lettermen this week.

Standing Still and Going 110 mph

Last Friday, Mike noticed that the spedometer in our Yukon was registering at 60 mph, even though he was only going about 30 mph. The next thing we knew, we were "going" 110, even though the car was stopped at a light. Apparently, the spedometer went out in the car. I started to get worried about driving it and having to guess how fast I would be going. Mike said that he was concerned that it would be very expensive to replace, but he would be willing to get it fixed if it was not too expensive.

Fortunately, luck was on our side! Mike called the repair place, and they asked how many miles we had on our car. He told them 69,870. They told us that the part was under warranty if we did not exceed 70,000 miles...we made it by about 100 miles! Good thing, because we think it would have been about $1000 to get it fixed without the warranty. We were so amazed and grateful that we barely qualified for the warranty. What a blessing!

An Escape to Warmer Weather???

Mike and I decided to plan a long weekend to St. George over Presidents' Day weekend. I had a meeting for UALA to attend down there on Friday, so we thought that we should make the most of it and try to enjoy some warmer weather. Mike decided to invite his brother, mom, and her husband to come along, so we made a little family vacation out of it.

Our adventure began on Thursday night. There was a really bad car accident south of Beaver that ended up closing the freeway for over eight hours. It had been snowing fairly heavily the whole way, so we decided not to take the detour and just spend the night. Fortunately, Mike has family that live in Beaver, and his sweet aunt was so willing to take us in at a moment's notice. Thanks Julie!!!

Unfortunately, the weather wasn't too warm, but we were still able to have a good time. While we were in St. George, we visited a few of the Parade of Homes, saw a movie, and went to Snow Canyon. One of the homes that we visted was amazing...it had this swimming pool and grotto, a Harry Potter room, basketball court, racketball, rock climbing...it really was amazing. I was also so excited because Mike and I were able to go to lunch with Talia and Jordan. Talia and I have been friends for over twenty years, so it was good to catch up.

Mike and Lisa in Snow Canyon at the fossilized lava

Mike and Trevor hiking up to read the pioneer names off of the rock

John, Denece, and Trevor

FEARLESS

My sister shared this quote with me, and I really liked it. I am sure that we can all relate to at least one aspect of "fearless". I know that I can.

"To me, “FEARLESS” is not the absence of fear. It’s not being completely unafraid. To me, FEARLESS is having fears. FEARLESS is having doubts. Lots of them. To me, FEARLESS is living in spite of those things that scare you to death. FEARLESS is falling madly in love again, even though you’ve been hurt before. FEARLESS is walking into your freshmen year of high school at fifteen. FEARLESS is getting back up and fighting for what you want over and over again… even though every time you’ve tried before, you’ve lost. It’s FEARLESS to have faith that someday things will change. FEARLESS is having the courage to say goodbye to someone who only hurts you, even if you can’t breathe without them. I think it’s FEARLESS to fall for your best friend, even though he’s in love with someone else. And when someone apologizes to you enough times for things they’ll never stop doing, I think it’s FEARLESS to stop believing them. It’s FEARLESS to say “you’re NOT sorry”, and walk away. I think loving someone despite what people think is FEARLESS. I think allowing yourself to cry on the bathroom floor is FEARLESS. Letting go is FEARLESS. Then, moving on and being alright…That’s FEARLESS too. But no matter what love throws at you, you have to believe in it. You have to believe in love stories and prince charmings and happily ever after. That’s why I write these songs. Because I think love is FEARLESS."

~Taylor Swift