A Few Years Later . . .

Well, I guess my pictures uploaded on this sluggish computer after all.  Here are some pictures from the best day of my life, and Lance's too!  We were married in the Bountiful LDS Temple on August 4, 2007.  Our reception was at Jeremiah Gardens.  Enjoy this blast from the past.  Reminder, we've been married for four years, so we don't look too different now than we did then.

Under Construction

Our new computer came last week!!!  However, it still isn't set up.  Lance hasn't had much time to set it up because he has two classes that started last week.  We're getting there slowly but surely (Lance will have his MBA at the end of Spring semester if everything goes as planned).  I don't set up the computer, because I'm not much of a computer genius.  Lance really isn't either, but he can understand his computer genius brothers over the phone much better than I can, so the computer is his job.  Anyway, sorry for yet another post that has the absence of pictures.

So, what has been going on around here in the last week?  Well, it's been pretty exciting.  We spoke yesterday in sacrament meeting.  I spoke on music, which if I have to speak, this is the perfect topic for me.  Lance spoke on making wise choices with media.  So, pretty fun topics.  Of course, we both have our little insecurities about speaking, but it went well.  In my opinion, Lance was a much more interesting speaker than I was.  He talked as if he were having a conversation with someone.  I had planned on that, but I got too nervous and ended up just reading my talk instead (good thing I wrote it down word for word so it wasn't too awkward).  As is goes with most people and public speaking, we're glad it's over, and we don't have to speak again for another year or so.

On Saturday, Lance traveled to his grandpa's house and helped purge it.  His grandpa has been in an assisted living/nursing home type place for a year, and he decided to sell his house.  We got many items from the purge.  Our house is kind of overflowing right now.  We have some stuff on the back patio because we don't know what to do with some of it.  Our fridge is also back there, because we got a new fridge.  Okay, it's not exactly new,  but it's newer than our antique-ish fridge that came with our house.  The newer fridge came with Lance's brother's new house that he just bought, but he already had a fridge, so they asked us if we wanted that one.  Of course we jumped at that opportunity.  But our food is in the old fridge that is working on the patio because you have to wait a while to get the other fridge ready to work.  I'll be transferring the food tonight. 

From both occurrences, we got many things (two couches, a chair, a dresser, a desk, dishes, and many other heirlooms). 

We got the couches because they were just going to throw them in the dumpster.  Seriously!?  They're salvageable!  They have the "old person" smell, but I've already Febreezed one of them, and the smell has dissolved.  The cushions, on the other hand, were not salvageable, but cushions are very easily replaced.  You can buy the  inside part of a cushion and then make a cover to put on the cushion super easy!  It just might take a while, because I am still planning on redoing my table first.  It is also on the back patio, but only because I'm planning on redoing it this week.  I know exactly where to put it.

The dresser is being used as a credenza in my dining room.  I'm putting things like cook books and table linens in it.  It will also be perfect for dinner parties and such.  We will be able to put the food on the credenza as a buffet style, instead of using my kitchen counter, and keep having to go back and forth between the dining room and kitchen (they're not far apart, but I like the kitchen to be a food preparation center, not a serving center).

The desk will be used in Lance's home office in the basement.  Right now, he is using my sewing table as his desk, and a  real desk will be sturdier and have a lot more surface space and storage space.  It's win win for both of us!  He gets a real desk, and I get my sewing table back!  Yay for more sewing!

So, as you can see, I will have tons of projects to do.  I'm excited to do them and see how they turn out!

So Long My Electronic Friend

I am a sucker for old-fashioned things.  However, some things just aren't meant to last that long.  Electronic devices are among them. 

Our computer decided to go towards the light that gave it life.  Yes, it crashed.  Its hard drive was old and worn out.  For months it would spontaneously shut off for no reason, and this past week, it never booted up again.  Yes, it's a sad thing to say goodbye to something you spend time with daily, but it's okay, because guess what!!!!!  We're getting a new computer!!!  Woo hoo!!!  And you know what else is even better news?!?!?!?  It's not a used one!!!

What happened to all the files we were storing on the hard drive?  Well, that is an interesting story.  I had been downloading pictures from Lance's family the previous night, and saw that the hard drive was not quite big enough to hold everything I already had on there and what was being downloaded.  So, the morning of the crash, I transferred most of the pictures onto our external hard drive.  We only had two important things on the hard drive that we can think of.  We're going to see if we can still recover them.  We're keeping our fingers crossed.

How am I doing computer things without a computer?  Well, we have an even older computer than the one that died.  It's extremely old and slower than a snail on a sidewalk.  But it's a nice back-up.  I've been able to do most of the same things I was before, just at a much slower pace.  It works, but it doesn't have the capacity to load as fast as we would like.

So, to let you know just how slow this computer is, I tried to upload some pictures on here, and I waited for about fifteen minutes and I still couldn't get to the files that I wanted to upload.  So, sorry this is a picture-less post.  There was nothing I could do.  I wanted to upload pictures from our wedding, bridals, and engagement pictures.  Our anniversary was the fourth of this month, and we just celebrated it this past weekend (we were working on our floor on our actual anniversary).  It would have been a fun look down memory lane, but oh well, my computers don't seem to like to cooperate with me at this time.

Next time, I'll have lots to post about: new computer, our anniversary outing (I'll keep it rated G), my house all put back together, hopefully a finished dining room table, some organizing projects I've been working on, and who knows what else!  It's been a pretty busy/big month!  Until then, I hope you'll forgive me for not having any pictures.

If You Wanna Be My Caddy . . .

Lance absolutely LOVES golfing.  It's his favorite activity ever.  Me, on the other hand, I'm not very much into sports when they involve a ball.  Even if the ball is supposed to go away from me, there is still a chance that it will smack me in the head.  I'm pretty much a magnet for flying objects, did you know? 

Anyway, for Lance's birthday, back in February, I told him that I would go with him once on one of his golfing excursions.  He and his brother, Scott trick out the system so that all of their Christmas presents are passes for golfing.  They golf almost every weekend. (Cue eye roll).  We went about a week and a half ago.  Lance was super excited to take me with him.  I didn't actually golf, though.  Do you know how long we'd be there looking for my ball if I actually played?  We'd probably still be there now! 

Anyway, for the past few months, he's been singing "If you wanna be my caddy . . ."  to the Spice Girls tune, "If You Wanna Be My Lover."  So, when I went with him, I pulled his clubs around a little bit here and there, being his caddy.  And I washed his ball for him when he needed it.  Most of the time, I was just an observer.  I also took some pictures.  Lance is thinking that I'll do the same thing next year.  Well, I'm not too sure about that.  It's not really my thing.  I'm glad I got to go with him once to see what all the hype was about.  We'll see, though. 

Oh, I almost forgot!  It was a great day to go with them, because it was the first time either of them got a birdie (1 below par).  Scott was excited to get his first birdie ever.  Congratulations to him! 

Well, here are some pictures/proof that I went golfing.

 Lance and I are ready to go.  I pulled that cart along at times.  We chose to walk instead of have a golf cart.  Golf carts are for wimps!

 I'm at the ball cleaning station.  It was a pretty cool contraption, I'll admit.

  I'm practicing my putting before we get started on the course.  If the ball doesn't leave the ground, I'm fine.

 Lance's drive

Lance and Scott had great drives

 

Scott is with his Birdie Ball

The Floor Is FINALLY Done!!!

It's been a long week finishing the floor, but it finally happened!  I'm ecstatic with the results!  It's so beautiful!

Last Friday, we rented the huge drum sander.  Lance was a little apprehensive about it at first, but he totally rocked it!  It didn't get all the way to the edges, so we used a hand sander for them.  We sanded twice everywhere.  It says to sand three times, but we liked what we saw after two times.  We had many family members come help.  Thank you to all of you!!!  I owe them all a treat for working so hard.  I'll do that when my kitchen is put back together.

 

Here is the beastly drum sander at work.  What a difference!!!

 

  The edges are sanded in the hallway pod.  Notice the blue tape.  We taped everything up so that sawdust wouldn't get everywhere.

Lance was the sander champion!  I helped by putting the lever up and down.  You're not supposed to have the sander down when you're stopped, even if you're changing directions.  I also held cord out of his way.  Oh, and look how we match!  That was not planned.

We finished sanding on Saturday afternoon.  We were a couple of hours ahead of schedule, so we were able to clean clean clean the rest of the afternoon.  (Much needed, since there were little particles of sawdust in the air.)

I'm putting wood putty in the crevices in the floor.  Probably one of the easier tasks.  We all had masks to minimize inhaling dust particles, which were a lot, but also a lot less than we had anticipated.

I started staining on Monday.  I wanted to start in the morning, but there was a ton more prep work to do (empty cupboards so smells wouldn't invade our food, clean the floors again, etc.)  So, I ended up starting in the afternoon.  I only stained the kitchen and hallway pod on Monday.  There was a little area in the dining room that needed a little help.  There were a couple holes in the floor that we had to fill in with wood putty.  It still needed to dry and be sanded down, so I didn't start on the dining room until Wednesday.  Tuesday, I started the polyurethane seal.  I did three coats.  Two of them on Tuesday, and one on Wednesday.  Thursday I finished up with three coats of polyurethane on the dining room floor.  I did the staining and sealing all by myself while Lance was at work.  Otherwise, waiting for him, we'd never get it done!  Needless to say, I got to know my floor VERY well.  We're buddies now.  We hang-out and stuff.

This is the floor all finished in the hallway pod looking into the kitchen.  We used red mahogany stain.  It's not too red until you shine light onto it.  It turned out a little darker than we had planned, but we like it a lot!  I love the contrast with the white cabinets!

This is the living room all finished.  The woods are different in the dining room and the kitchen.  There is a lot more grain in the dining room area.  I like how both rooms turned out.  I'm so happy with it!

It's been a long, work-filled week, but it's all worth it now!  Well, technically, not right now because it needs a week to dry and harden entirely, so I still don't have my kitchen or dining room available to me.  We stocked up on pot pies so that dinner would be accessible in the microwave, which is temporarily in the downstairs family room.  I like pot pies a lot, but I'm ready to be done eating them for a while. 

We had a wall of fans to get rid of the smell, which was extremely strong.  The fans were definitely needed and appreciated.  Thank you to Lance's mom for letting us borrow hers!  It saved us many brain cells!

 It's also been hard getting to all of the rooms in my house.  I feel like spider man sometimes, because we have to practically climb the walls to get to the main bathroom.  If we want to watch TV, we have to go out the front door, and in the back door, since all the floors in between them are off limits.  It's been an adventure.  We'll laugh about this in a bit.  Actually, I'm laughing about it now.  I feel like a little kid playing the hot lava game.  You can't touch the floor or else you'll get burned!  Well, we won't actually get burned, but we don't want footprints in our floor forever.

Here I am being spider man.  I can't touch the floors, so I have to stretch from room to room.

I feel like a huge burden is lifted now that this project is done!  There are a few little kinks that need to be worked out (fixing the baseboards and such) but it's still such a relief!  I'll post more pictures when I get the furniture back into its designated areas.