End of Day 4: Singing Hallelujah!

The roof was finished last night late. We had had wonderful weather all week until last night when the storm was coming in. Rod called neighbors and nephews to help to finish the last roof. The storm passed us and the roof got finished. Thank you all who helped. It was an amazing undertaking, hopefully never to be repeated.

And now....moving on to other projects.

Day 3 & 4: Roof job is almost complete

After spending 4 total days from 6:30am to 9pm each day, Rod is almost done with the roof. We are lucky to have had all the guys who came to work on the roof plus the company that came to fix the flat roof. Soon we will be singing Hallelujah, and we can put that project to rest.

Day 2: Complete Mayhem

7am this morning the hammering, the sawing, and the pounding started. I was at work by 8:15am. Doesn't happen very often. I just wanted out of my house as fast as possible. I'm sure the neighbors appreciated the noise at 7am. Please, don't hate us too much. I think I will have to bake some cookies for the neighbors to keep the neighborly peace.

11am when I took some McDonalds over to the guys to keep them going, there were a ton of guys on the roof doing the same thing as 7am.

I won't return to the house until late tonight. Hopefully everything will be nice and quiet.

Day 1: Men at Work

Even though you can't see the Men at Work, believe me, they were there at 7am this morning ripping out the roof. We are replacing our whole entire roof this week. Today was day 1 with taking out the old shingles...two layers of them. At 2pm when I took the "work men" (actually they are college kids from BYU) pizza, the boys were sweaty and dirty. It probably didn't help that it was 95 F (35 C) outside. Poor guys. I just told them that doesn't it feel good to know that you are at BYU getting an education so you don't have to do this every day. I received droopy nods from the tired boys.


You wouldn't know by looking at our house that anything work-related was going on.


This dumpster will be full by the week's end.

Week of fun, sadness, surprise and sleepiness

FUN and SADNESS:

I spent last week at girls' camp up in camp Mia Shalom. It was such a fun and sad week for me because that was the last time I would have to go up to Girls' Camp. I will be released from my calling as a Young Women's President in August. I have been in Young Women now for 8 years. It has been such a fun place to see and witness our girls grow up and move on with their lives. I will definitely miss that. I will miss it all, but the next President will be fabulous and I don't think the girls will even notice that any change has been made.

SURPRISE:

On Saturday morning after I dropped off Alex at his basketball camp up in Salt Lake, I was driving back home on the freeway, going along, driving faster than I should, I saw the sirens behind me. Oh crap! I was at the construction zone where the fines double. BUT IT WAS SATURDAY!!! NOBODY WAS WORKING!!! I got pulled over. The nice Officer explained that I had been going 73 on a 55 zone. Really!? Like I didn't know. Quickly I searched for an explanation, and all I can come up with was the truth. "I tried to hurry home to help my husband with his ward party". A little time later, the nice Officer comes back and clearly taken back by my good looks, only gives me a warning. A WARNING!! I was going almost 20 miles over the speed limit and all I got was a warning!! I was NOT IN TROUBLE!!! I wouldn't have to return my Anniversary Sale purchases from Nordstroms to pay for my ticket. What a happy day! Off I went, and set my cruise control back to 73. See ya, Officer!

SLEEPINESS:

Because I was at Girls' Camp last week, I just can't sleep up there. For some reason, I count the sheep all night and mumble to myself in Tylenol PM stupor:"The morning will come". It could have been the bats this year that kept me awake (yes, we had 2 bats in the cabin), I don't know. But I was totally exhausted on Sunday morning. I dragged myself out of bed just in the nick of time to make it to church. We had a Ward Conference and I had to talk. I guess I had to go. The minute I came home from church, I hit the bed. I slept off and on for hours and woke up this morning somewhat okay. I think I could still sleep for hours.

Happy Father's Day, Honey!

Because I'm such an awesome wife, for Father's Day this year I bought Rod a golf trip to Spokane for him to play 3 days of golf with his best friend Greg. So far he has a had fabulous time up north. From this picture that he just sent me, I can tell that he is enjoying himself immensely. Great new hat, Rod. You should see the new shoes I got while you were away. We miss you.

Lovely Evening with Flips and Smores

A few weeks ago we got invited to Tai and Mike's house for some trampoline fun and Smores...or maybe we invited ourselves, well, whatever, we drove up last night with Alex with a quick stop at Cabela's so we could take some hot dog sticks over to their house. This was the first time I set my foot into Cabela's. I'm not really sure what the big deal is, but hey, I'm not much of a hunter/camper/roughing-it kind of gal. When we were standing at the entrance, I asked Alex "I wonder where the Camping department is?" Alex said:"This whole place is nothing but camping." So true. But because I'm a true woman, I asked the first salesman for directions to "Camping" rather than wandering around aimlessly for hours, he pointed us to the upstairs section that says "Camping". Duh! We quickly found the telescoping hot dog sticks and ran out the door. I think we might have been the only people ever who only spent 5 minutes inside that massive store (that includes a bathroom break, too).

Next stop was Tai and Mike's house. We couldn't miss it because it had the most beautiful landscaping in the whole neighborhood. Tai had made dinner, which by the way I'm making tonight as well. So YUMMY! Loved it. Thanks Tai. Then Mike took Alex outside to the trampoline so he could teach Alex how to do back flips on it. A few minutes later Alex comes in breathing heavy and sweating, but so happy. He said that today was the best day of his life.

By this time, Dianne and Tim had come over to roast some Smores and then Brooke and Andy and little baby Danika came over too. We all moved outside to enjoy the most sugar possible. Mike had built a nice fire in their brand new firepit. And the marshmallow roasting began. And it continued until the mosquitos started eating us. I was definitely on a sugar high. Then it was time to drive home and say good-bye to our dear old friends. We just love you all! Thanks for a lovely evening, Tai and Mike.


Kailie was the best in roasting marshmallows. She was so patient and hers turned out so beautiful and fluffy. Too bad she didn't like to eat them at all.


"Tai, you have nothing on your face anymore, seriously, you wiped it all off."


Brielle enjoying her chocolate. The girls were not so much into Smores. They chucked them into the fire. Give them some time. They will come around.

Dianne is done eating her Smores and is looking so beautiful.

New mom, Brooke with Danika. Danika was ready for her first Smore, for sure. Unfortunately she didn't wake up to the smell of melted chocolate and marshmallows. Who can sleep through all that?

Mike, the mad flipper, showing off his mad skills.

Alex's first back flip. What a guy!

Part-Time Old Man

Rod is now officially a part-time old man. When he turned 40-something, he noticed that his arms were not long enough anymore for him to read a book. He went to pick up his reading glasses the other day, and here he is in his old man glory.

Belated Birthday Party

We celebrated Alex's belated 14th birthday party yesterday at Flowrider in Ogden. On the way there the kids sang all the latest songs and on the way back home they recited all the comedy acts possible. Especially Jake was the most entertaining with his word-for-word recall of various comedians. What a riot of a group.


Alex showing how the boogie boarding is done.


Tyler takes a stab at it before wiping out.


Tai came to surf with us and she surfed like a pro, as always.

Jake liked to hug the wall every time he surfed.

Elle got on her knees toward the end of the day, unfortunately, I didn't catch it.

Alex doing the flip with the boogie board.

A High Priest and a Teacher

On Sunday, June 28th, 2009 Rod was ordained as a High Priest by his dad, and Alex was ordained as a Teacher by Rod. It was a great and a special day for our family.