Master Plumbers

Let me tell you, we're becoming master's at this home ownership thing! We've had an outside water faucet that was giving us a hard time last year, and hasn't worked at all this year. So, being the great "Do-it-yourselfers" that we are. . . we thought we'd fix the problem by replacing the faucet. Why we decided to do it at 10 p.m. on a Friday night is now beyond me, but what can I say. So Jon turned off the main water valve in the house and proceed remove the faucet. I was upstairs when I heard a pop, Jon saying "Oh No!" and a gushing water sound. I went running downstairs to see water shooting into the wall and all over the downstairs living room. What in the world, the water shut off valve was OFF! Now what? I reached into the wall and tried from the inside while Jon pushed from the outside to reconnect the faucet, but the pressure coming from the pipe was just too much! Water was shooting all over me, the living room, inside the wall and even outside the house. The basement was flooding!

Not knowing what else to do, I ran next door to get the neighbors. Sleepily, the lady next door comes out wanting to know what is going on. Her husband wasn't home, so she and I ran next door to fetch the next neighbor. Out in the their pajamas, they all come to the rescue. I grabbed the water key to turn off the outside water that was right by the house, but needless to say, that only turns off the sprinkler water. While all this was happening, the neighbor got the water shut off out on the street. . . but by this time, the damage had already been done! We had water all over the basement. It soaked about 3/4th of the family room, ran into the under stairs storage, out into the garage and out into the driveway. Here's the access panel we were working through (you can't see it in the picture, but the water shut off valve we had turned off is right above the panel in the ceiling). Also, here's a picture of the pipe we were fixing.

Here's more pictures of the damage.


We ended up calling a disaster recovery company that came out to assess and fix the damage. They had to pull up the carpet, rip out the carpet pad, suck the water out of the carpet, remove all the sheet rock and insulation and put down industrial fans to dry everything. We are now just waiting for everything to dry so they can come back and re-do the sheet rock, carpet, etc . Interestingly enough, when they removed the sheet rock, we found the actual main water valve shut-off. Looks like someone who lived in the house before sheet rocked in the valve, then either didn't want to redo it, or didn't know where it was, so they put in a the valve in the ceiling that we had shut off. Needless to say, the one in the ceiling turned off everything in the house except the one and only faucet we were working on. What a learning experience! Here's some more pictures of what it looks like without the sheet rock. Quite the interesting weekend! We're laughing about it a lot now, but hoping and praying we never have to experience something like this again!

Zoo

Thanks to my mother, we got a yearly zoo pass to Hogle Zoo this year. We LOVE the zoo! It's one of our favorite places. To test out the new pass, we gathered up Teri and the girls (Ryann, Laine and Sydney) and headed to the zoo on Friday the 18th! Something was going on that day where they were kicking off a children's race or something, so the lines were horrendously long. . . however, having a pass, we were able to go right to the gate and get in since we didn't have to stand in line to buy tickets. YEAH!!!

We all had a great time at the zoo, especially Ryann and Laine. They're both old enough now that they love the zoo and ooh and awed over all the animals. Ryann spend most of the day riding on Jon's shoulders. The greatest part was when we were watching the a new baby orangutan named Acara. It was sliding down the hill on it's belly, playing with it's blanket, and doing somersaults. Ryann was sitting on Jon's shoulders, bouncing up and down and slapping both of his cheeks saying, "Come here monkey, come here!" It was really cute!

As you can see, we didn't get many pictures except by the Giraffes. :) All in all, it was a great day! The weather was beautiful, the kids had a great time and it was fun to spend such a great day with family. We're so excited to have a pass where we can go so many times this year.

Chico

I just noticed that in most our posts and photos, we haven't talked much about our little dog, Chico, so I thought I'd introduce him here. He is a pure bred, AKC registered, Miniature Pinscher, born on May 18, 2001. The name on his registration certificate is Cheeko, but I never liked the spelling, so I've always spelled it Chico. He's black and rust colored with cropped ears and a docked tail and the most snuggly little critter you've ever seen.

Chico has a bit of a sorted past, since I was the third owner to him in less than 2 years. A family in Jackson, Wyoming purchased the dog, but then sold him to my friend's brother. I'm not sure what the story was behind that, but I'm a believer that everything happens for a reason. My friend's brother decided to give him away a little while later because they had something like 2 cats and 3 or 4 dogs all living in the same house at the same time. I guess it was just too much, so they wanted to find Chico a new home. Around that same time, I had decided that I really wanted another dog. As a youngster growing up in Star Valley, we always had dogs and I had always wanted one of my own. At that point, I owned a townhouse in Millcreek, so the situation was perfect for me to bring a dog into my home. Anyway, somewhere in the summer of 2003, my friend's brother offered to give me Chico and I gladly accepted and he's been in my life for the past 5 years.

Shortly after bringing Chico home, I realized he was suffering from allergies. Poor guy was always scratching and had teary eyes. I also realized that the little guy was built a little funny, so whenever he'd go outside to take care of his business, his aim was off and he'd hit his chest and both front legs. Thank goodness a little minor surgery helped take care of that problem. Over the past couple of years, Chico's allergies have gone through some serious flare-ups that have been successfully treated with medication. However, this latest flare-up hasn't cleared up, so back to the vet we went. We've now realized that Chico suffers from Canine Autoimmune Disease and will need to be on a low dose of steroids to help combat the symptoms the cause him to itch. My poor little Chico now has to take Benedryl twice a day along with a steroid, thyroid pill and omega 3 capsule every day. It's obvious that our free little dog has now cost us a pretty little penny. . . but I believe it was all worth it. Despite these plethora of drugs, he is as happy and loving as ever!

Chico weighs only about 12 pounds, but his little body doesn't slow him down. I swear he thinks he's a full-grown Doberman. He LOVES to go on walks, especially to Wheeler Farm where he can check out all the animals. His favorite toys are anything with a squeaker in them. He grabs the squeaky toy, finds the exact spot where the squeaker is, then runs around the house squeaking it until his jaw gets tired. His favorite spot to sleep is in out bed, no matter who it is or what time they are in bed, he loves to crawl in with you, but he insists on being under the covers. His little nose is always cold, so whenever he's just sitting somewhere, he likes to push his nose under a blanket. Because of this same thing, whenever we're folding a load of laundry that comes straight from the dryer, Chico loves to nestle into the fresh, warm clothes. For a treat, he will sit, lay, jump and shake hands on command. The telephone is annoying to Chico for some reason, so every time the home or cell phone rings, there's Chico, throwing back his head in a long, drawn out howl. It is the funniest thing ever! This is one of my favorite pictures. . .I couldn't find Chico one day, I called him and whistled and the whole thing. Finally, when I went into the bedroom to look for him, he poked his little head out from under my covers with that look on his face like I had just woke him up.

I just can't say enough how much I love my little dog. He came into my life at a time when I needed him so much. He knows when I'm having a bad day and he crawls into my lap to snuggle. He is lovable, sweet, snuggly and has so much personality. Chico has been my baby for the past five years and I hope he's around to brighten my days for many more years to come.

Decorating

Thanks to my dear mother shopping for an early birthday present for me while she was in town, I now have a kitchen and bathroom that look brand new. Well, close to brand new. I've been dieing for some new rugs for the kitchen since mine were falling apart and also for some new rugs, shower curtain, etc in my bathroom since they were also getting old and ratty. Mom and I had a wonderful time shopping our guts out at my favorite store, Bed Bath and Beyond. It was so much fun and I was so excited to get my new stuff up. Just take a look at how great things turned out. Jon also installed some blinds in the kitchen today. Now we can make breakfast in our undies without the neighbors seeing. :) Sorry, once again, the pictures don't do the rooms any justice. I just wish I would have taken pictures before we put the new stuff up. I still need to find some curtains to go in the bathroom now. Granted, the whole house still needs some remodeling, but until we have the money to redo the kitchen and bathroom cabinets and counter tops, it sure does feel nice to have new accessories to spruce up the place.

The nursery is still ripped apart for painting and redecorating, but it's really starting to feel like OUR home now, not just some place you move into. Jon and I had a discussion a while back in which he said how much he loved the house and I just shrugged. I couldn't express the same feelings. All I kept seeing in our house were all the things that needed to be painted and updated. Now that it has some of my very own personal touches to it, it's feeling like "ours" and I'm falling in love with it, even the little blemishes. I'm going to take a few more pictures later so you all can see what the rest of our house looks like.

About Jon

Places I've Lived:
I was born in Mountain View, California. I moved to Sandy, Utah when I was 4 years old. When I first came to Utah I had never seen snow except in a Christmas card. So when we came here it started snowing and I said. "Mom! it's Christmas!!!"
I have also lived all over the Salt Lake valley. I lived up in the Avenues of Salt Lake City and in Murray, Utah. We now live Sandy.

States and places I've visited:
California, Utah, Wyoming, Idaho, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, Texas, Hawaii, and Mexico.

Jobs I've Had:
Dishwasher, Prep Cook, Shoe Salesman, Telemarketer, Telephone Services Residential Sales Rep., Professional Fund raiser, Satellite Salesman, Computer Network equipment Salesman, and last but certainly not least Railroad Conductor.

Favorite Foods:
Mexican Food (any kind), Steak, Mashed potatoes, Hamburgers, Pizza, Shrimp, Chocolate Ice cream and French Silk Pie.

Dislikes:
People that try to put themselves above you, sushi, coconut, some power hungry Managers.

Favorite Movies:
all 3 lord of the rings, all Harry Potter movies, Casablanca, all Indiana Jones movies, and I love the new James Bond movie Casino Royal.

Favorite Books:
Ender's Game, all Harry Potter books, Lord of the Rings, anything by John Grisham, and I love Louis L'Amour.

A Few Interesting Things About Me:
I did sales for 14 years and had never thought about the railroad. Now that I had this job fall into my lap I love it. Not a lot of people love their job but I do. I have wanted to write a book for a long time. I almost completed a book years ago but didn't back it up and lost it when my computer fried. Something else interesting about me. about four years ago (through diet and exercise) I lost over a hundred pounds and have kept it off. I still need to lose some more and I am working on it. Well that is about it for now.

More Babies

Wow, this has been a busy week. On April 8, 2008, two new babies close to my heart were born. My sister gave birth to her third daughter, Sydney, at about 1:30 p.m. She is absolutely adorable. 6 lbs, 2 oz. and 20 inches long I think.

Sydney's sisters, Ryann and Laine are so gentle with her. All I hear Ryann say anymore is "I wanna hold the baby." I am so excited to have another niece. All three of the girls are so precious. They have a beautiful family and I'm glad I get to be a part of it.

Jon and I went to the hospital with my mom, Ryann and Laine to see the new baby. Here's a picture of Jon holding Sydney. He was so excited to hold her and I could see the longing in his eyes, knowing that one day he'd be holding his own son or daughter.


At about 3:30 p.m. that same day, my friend Michelle had her 3rd child, a boy named Daniel. I think he looks a lot like his sister Carrie. Once again, a beautiful child! Sorry the picture isn't the greatest, it's from a cell phone. He was 7 lbs, 10 oz, 20 inches.

This makes 4 new babies through friends and family in the past 2 months. Joylynn's new baby Merijoy, Rachel's adopted son Dylan, Teri's baby Sydney, and Michell's baby Daniel. It's it a miracle! So many babies to love. My heart has been all smiles this past month as I think about what a miracle these little souls are. How amazing it is that they come to this earth, straight from the presence of our Heavenly Father and into our lives. Healthy and happy souls that these mother's have been trusted to raise and care for. I wish them all the very best with their new additions and am keeping my fingers crossed that soon we'll have a little one of our own. One that will have so many friends to grow up with, learn from and play with.

Being Prepared

So we all know that the economy isn't doing very well right now. . . the mortgage crisis, energy prices, etc. Well, now it seems to be taking another turn for the worse. . . the price of wheat has tripled in the last 10 months (KSLNews), in turn increasing the price of flour, bread, etc. Food prices rose 4% last year, the highest rise since 1990 (CNN). Now there are rumors that truckers will go on strike next week. This could have very fast negative effects on an already floundering economy.

It all just gets me thinking about what we've been taught our whole lives. . . BE PREPARED! I'm so grateful that Jon and I have made the effort over the years to establish a sizable amount of food storage. We have learned to shop the case sales each spring and fall and to take advantage of the canning opportunities through the church and through the community canning project in my mom's neighborhood. If at some point, there was a shortage of food in the stores (due to storm, power outage, trucker's strike or natural disaster), we'd be prepared for it! I realized the importance of food-storage when my sister lived in Michigan during the Northeast Blackout of 2003 during which they were out of power for about 3 days. They went to the store to buy water during the first day of no power, but the stores had already sold out of bottled water. They were very grateful to have what food and water they had a home at that time.

Then it makes me think about our finances. . . if one of us were to get laid off or unable to work for a period of time, we've also worked hard to set aside a short-term and long-term savings account. Accounts that we're able to use for unexpected expenses, emergency care and home repairs as well as to live off of in case of injury or lay-off.

I am just so grateful that we've listened through-out the years and have prepared ourselves well. Needless to say, we can always do better, but at least we've got a start. I think "being prepared" and in an attempt to become more self-sufficient, I've enjoyed planting a garden for the the last couple of years. I also did my first canning project last summer in which I bottled the peaches from the tree in our back yard. (I got a new canning set for Christmas!) I also got a juicer for Christmas, so I'm excited to juice our concord grapes this year. Turned out pretty good if I do say so myself. Our neighbor has 2 apple trees, so I've really gotten into dehydrating apples too. Thanks to Jon's mom, I now have a new dehydrator. One more thing I was pretty proud of this year was that I made apricot jam for the first time. One of these days I'm going to come by this domestic stuff naturally.

Provident Living is a great site to go to for more information on food storage, family finances, education, etc. We're working on it one day at a time, but at least I know we're working on becoming more self-reliant and being prepared.

About Tomi

Ok, so I must have no original ideas of my own. . . but got thinking, why not post some things about me. . . Jon will love to do this too when he gets home.

Places I've lived:
Star Valley, Wyoming
Rexburg, Idaho
Salt Lake City & Sandy, Utah

States & Places I've visited:
California, Nevada, Oregon, Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, Montana, Colorado, New Mexico, Texas, Michigan, Louisiana, Mississippi, Alabama, Hawaii, & Puerto Vallarta with many more to come I hope (I can never beat Deedre in this area). Thanks mom, I forgot about Canada (Windsor I think).

Jobs I've Had:
Worm Picker Extrodinaire
Dishwasher, Hostess, Waitress
Sales Associate then Department Manager at ZCMI
Career Services Specialist
Financial Aid Administrator
Federal Government Employee as Material Manager and now as the Program Logistics Manager
Hope to soon be part-time teacher

Favorite Foods:
Pizza, Lasagna, Popcorn, Carrots with dill dip, Frito's, Funions, Fried Shrimp, Chocolate covered raisins, Chicken fingers dipped in ranch dressing and more than I'd ever like to admit.

Things I Dislike:
I don't like when people are mean, self absorbed, unhappy about life and their circumstances, or are dishonest. Grocery shopping & shoe shopping, cooked spinach, and I'm having a hard time with this one because I'd like to think I'm pretty easy going.

Favorite Movies:
Tuck Everlasting, Ever After, The Princess Bride, Harry Potter

Favorite Books:
Tuesdays with Morrie, The Chronicles of Narnia, Harry Potter, The Grapes of Wrath

A Few Interesting Things About Me:
I raised a few raccoons as pets when I was younger.
I LOVE animals and always wanted to be a veterinarian, but decided that C's in college Biology and Chemistry weren't going to help me get there.
I want more than anything to be able to sing and be artistic and crafty.
I talk way too fast. . .oh wait, you already knew that one.
It took me 26 years to figure it out, but I want to be a teacher. . . I'm working on doing something part-time at some local proprietary colleges.
In recent years, I find it a habit to use ". . ." way too much.
I'd love to vacation in Australia.
I want to be more domestic by being a better cook and baker.
I have a Master's Degree in Business and have yet to figure out what I want to do with it.

Now it's your turn!

San Antonio

We just got back from San Antonio. What a blast! I had to work for a few days there, but we still had plenty of time to play, so we made it a working vacation!

The first day we were there, we went to the San Antonio Temple. BEAUTIFUL! It's one of those smaller temples, but still absolutely outstanding. Every window was made of stained glass and so amazing. It's a little different in those smaller temples, but still, the spirit is there and you know you're doing God's work.

We went to the Alamo the third day we were there. How amazing. The feeling there is so sobering. . . to walk the streets where men died fighting for their land, their country and the freedom gives one a feeling of respect and remorse all at the same time. It's astounding at how small the Alamo really is.

Then on Thursday, I got done with work early, so we went to a place called Natural Bridge Caverns as well as the Natural Bridge Wildlife Ranch. What an awesome day! The caves are tremendous. It's so neat what water, minerals and rock can do in a few thousand years. The Wildlife Preserve was by far our favorite thing. It felt like driving through the Serengeti with the animals all running around loose. We got to feed whatever animals came up to our car. As you can see, the zebras and ostriches were the most friendly. We laughed so hard as they took food right from our hands and kept sticking their whole heads in through the window. How fun!!! We're going to save our money for a real African Safari one day.

Here's a link to the rest of the pictures if you'd like to take a gander.

Tales from the Railroad

I wanted to talk about my job a little. I am a conductor for the railroad and I love my job. I get to see a lot of nature ,which I love! I get to see elk, deer, moose, bald eagles and antelope on a regular basis. I also get to do important work. On my last trip we ran a train that had the solid propellant rocket boosters for the space shuttle. How cool is that?! I also get to see some beautiful scenery. The run I am working on right now goes through a gorgeous canyon and ends up in Green River, Wyoming. I think every child played with trains as a kid and now I get paid good money to do it for real as an adult. Here are a few pictures I took with my cell phone. They are not the best quality but it was all I had with me at the time. The last picture is a picture or the Green River.

Congratulations!

Congratulations to our dear friends who just adopted a child for the second time. We just got the announcement today and we're so very excited for them. They have been patiently waiting for a few months and have gone through some struggles in the process this time. We are so happy for them! We're just keeping our fingers crossed that we're next. :)

Dear Birth Mother

For our adoption, we had a to write a letter to the birth mother. Let me tell you, this is the hardest thing we've ever had to do. How do you put into words how grateful you are to someone for giving you the opportunity to be a parent? How do you demonstrate who you are in two pages or less? Our thoughts and feelings about adopting a child are so hard to put on paper. After much thought, here's what we finally came up with. We had to put it on 2 separate pages because that is the way we had to give it to the agency. Just click on them to read. Below the letters are the 2 pages of pictures we also put together.

How We Met

One of my very first roommates, Cheryl, was a wild and crazy woman. She spent a lot of time on the internet, meeting and chatting with people from all over the country. On occasion, she would find individuals in Salt Lake that she wanted to meet, so off she'd go to meet people she'd been introduced to on the internet. Well, I must have had a weak moment, because she somehow convinced me to put my profile on Yahoo. I posted a picture, my age, that I was "single and looking" in Salt Lake City. Almost three years later, I got my first e-mail from that profile.

Jonathan was surfing through Yahoo's profiles when he came across two profiles that he was interested in. . . mine and some other girl. He sent us both an off-line instant message. When I saw his message the next day, I checked out his profile. Cute guy, but he didn't look a day over 18 despite the fact that his profile said he was 32. The thing that interested me the most about him was the fact that his profile said he was a widower. That just touched my heart. I couldn't imagine being 32 years old and a widower. So, I dropped him a line just to say hi and to tell him that I was sorry to hear that his wife had passed away at such a young age. After that, we started e-mailing on a regular basis, talking on the phone, and eventually, we decided to meet.

We met each other for the first time on April 6, 2005 at Jim's Family Restaurant on 3300S and 900E., not far from my fist town home. We met there at around 6:00 p.m., had dinner and chatted until the waitress finally had to kick us out at about 10:30 p.m. I'd finally met a man that talked as much as I did. We talked about anything and everything, laid out all our baggage,
and had a great time. We've basically been inseparable ever since.

On September 9, 2005, Jon proposed to me and we were married on February 11, 2006 in the Salt Lake Temple.


I now work for the Government at Hill Air Force Base as a Program Manager and Jon works as Conductor for Union Pacific Railroad. We're happy and things just couldn't be better.

Adopting

In October 2007, after a little over a year of trying, Jon and I decided to add to our family through adoption. We decided that LDS Family Services was the best agency for us to work with since they offered such great counseling and financial assistance to their birth mothers. Anyway, we're very excited! Our paperwork is complete so we should be approved on about February 26th. Then we'll just have to wait! It makes us nervous but so excited at the same time. We can't wait to have an addition to our family. Jon's was so excited that he already set up the crib and a few things in the nursery.

Joined the Blogging World

Well, I've finally done it. . . joined the world of bloggers. I've fought this for a very long time, but now I think it's time. I kept saying that no one wants to read about our boring life. . . they probably still won't, but at least I'll feel like I'm with the times. :) Well, here's to post #1 with more to come.