verdict

color

last weekend traci asked me how the house was coming along.

i know we've been bad with updates lately, forgive me. I didn't take many before pix, but hope this weekend will produce some after shots!

she looked at my bright yellow pants and told me that she knew my house must be full of bright bold colors.

sadly, i had to admit, the only color on our walls is a blue-gray we picked/created (that's a whole different story) as our neutral (because if you don't know it about me yet- NOT a tan-fan... even when you disguise it with names like taupe...)

for years i have been dreaming of having a house to paint with bright colors. and thus far, i have only painted blue-gray? what is wrong with this picture...

so this week, as our second bedroom has been in the wrapping up stages. i have been reawakened to the dreams of bright colors.

yet i'm stumped.

these green and orange swatches are OUT. free samples you pick of the internet= not accurate color perception.

the husband gave me a deadline of 5:30pm to pick the wall color. he is laying the flooring tomorrow.

and let's be honest, without a deadline i will spend hours agonizing about this, and make myself quite crazy.

vegetarian?

apparently we have a new veggie lover in the house.

i looked into the back yard just in time to catch stinker puppy with one of my cucumber plants- no longer anywhere near the garden where it was lovingly planted...this is the pose he strikes when he gets in trouble.. something like.. "look at me, I'm just a sweet innocent pup... (or... "scratch my stomach instead of yell at me")

So far he has chewed a shoe (a chaco to be exact...) and a cucumber plant this week. that is bad news bears. prior to this, his record was spotless, and, well, I rather liked it that way.

tornado

i was reading the news a few days back, and they were remembering the tornado that hit salt lake a decade ago. it caught me thinking back to where i had been when the tornado went down.

then i remembered.

i was in romania.

this spurred a little walk down memory lane for me.

memories of all the little people at the dystrophic center i went to romania to love.
technically "assess developmental levels and need"
but really just to love.
i wish i still felt like you could just love things all better.
it is amazing the various positions and stages of undressedness (yep that is an official word- as of today) little ones can get themselves into. petronela birzulica- i called her a little bird.

being excited that i had taken rolls of black and white film with me- to capture some of the memories with.

this was outside of the little house we lived in. we rented the upstairs from a cute old couple. i'm fairly certain i thought i could understand romanian, but it is more possible that i didn't understand a single thing they ever said to me... back to the point... one day lisa and i watched as a big 'ole bus tried to make its way through this passageway. we laughed and laughed as we watched.
buying random things, because it seemed like a novelty to buy them in a foreign country. enter the $30 guitar and the three chords i learned to play...

there are many more pages of memories, and rolls and rolls of pictures, but this is enough for tonight.

where were you in 1999?

family camping in a pickle

i don't know how i didn't manage to get a single picture of the warm day spent canoeing and chatting in sand at bear lake's north beach-- but here's a little look at the cold family time up in the canyon.

our jaunt to the spring up the road.

rain, rain, go away
it made for a cold & soggy day.

i'm not eating treats for the month of august. as part of the agreement with co-workers, if one cheats, $10 goes into the pot and the money goes to those who don't cheat. i gladly passed up my sister's mint brownies, lots of cookies, smore's and candy. but after freezing my way through cooking breakfast, i realized that if there was a hot cocoa stand down the road, i would gladly pay $10 for that yummy hot cup of chocolate. and thus, i cheated!this photo is mostly here to show you all what a mean wife i am. bobby is likely going to have my hide for this, but he takes so many glorious photos like this, showing off his love for me taking pictures of him, that it serves him right if i just choose to show them off!

and the warm centerpiece to our cold reunioning: the fire one can only eat so many mallows. but since we were all still so close to the fire, why not burn a thing or two?

reason # 8

that i love having my own bit of earth

perfectly fresh lunches.