Thursday's Excitement

Bill needed new jeans for work. It's nice that they are allowed to wear them at all, but it is specified that they cannot have holes, stains or any wear marks. It's not like me to buy new anything...but because of the rules I decided to check out the local Cal Ranch store. Bill likes Carharts.

Well I bought 2 pair of jeans and then headed to DI to get myself a couple things and check out what glasswear they have this week. Was only gonna be a minute, I didn't lock the car. When I came out I called Bill, we were meeting at the Greek restraunt for a bit to eat. I went to show Bill his new pants, but I didn't see the bag, In a panic and look front and back and under seats etc. No bag. I checked in my purse to make sure I have the receipt...yep I really bought the pants.

I decided that Bill's pants wouldn't fit everyone and, if they were stolen, the thieves may decide to return the pants for the money. The phone # is on the receipt so I called Cal Ranch and explained to the clerk about my dilema. I was able to give her the size, price and brands of the pants and told her to please watch for anyone returning the pants without a receipt. I figured that's as far as it would go. I was surprised about 7 minutes later when the manager of Cal Ranch called and asked if I could return to the store.

When I arrived, the police were in parking lot with the manager, who was was pointing something out to them and I just went inside to wait. The clerk I talked to on the phone said that not 2 minutes after I called the guys came in and said they needed to return the pants. She took the pants and asked for the receipt...one of the guys walked back outside to where the 3rd was waiting in the vehicle, in pretence of getting the receipt. He got in the van and those two left. That left the one in the store still talking to the clerk. She told him that she knew the jeans were stolen and wondered how he got them. At this point he started to run and she called the police. The manager watched where the guy ran to and was showing the police when I showed up.

The police talked to me for a few minutes, I showed them the receipt and the guy was still pleading ignorance or innocence whatever he could get away with. I did recognize the guys. They had pulled in and parked beside my car at DI. They were the kind of guys you avoid, chains beards, tatoos, generally pretty tough looking. They had already left when I came out to leave.

I will go back in the morning to finish up with the manager. He assured me that he had my jeans. It was going to take a while for him and the police to finish up. He was grinning and said he was so glad I had called. He said he hates to see anyone get away with stuff. I am so glad to have this evening over with! I am also sold on shopping local...my new favorite store...Cal Ranch!

Fast visit to Arizona

The highlight of our trip was our grandson, Dallas, shown here being Handy Manny with his toolset and hardhat. Can I just say this little guy is good for laughs...never a dull moment! See the blur...that's not a picture out of focus, that's a little guy that never stops moving. What a joy he is.

We had a nice visit and a wonderful bed and breakfast with Jeff and Jeri.

The twins, showing that they haven't changed much over the years...

Thank you! We always love to see our favorite people.

Family is what makes life worth while!

Deer in our yard...

To fully appreciate this you would have to know that we live on a pretty busy street in the middle of town.


Bill was home from work on Friday and said he passed by the back window (while doing the laundry) and saw deer in our yard. These pictures were taken on his phone since that's all he had at the time.
Here is one nibbling on my black raspberry vines.

Painful Setback

Well, we have slowed down a little on our room...I know, it was already slow.

We went to Idaho last weekend for my nephew's wedding and a visit with family. Very whirlwind trip. We managed to get through Monday just fine, but just had a lot of catching up to do at the house.

Tuesday Bill called while I was on lunch break at work and said he had been sent by ambulance to the hospital. He has kidney stones. OUCH. He had Albert pick him up and take him to the pharmacy and home.

We were feeding the Missionaries on Tuesday evening and I didn't want to cancel them so I called Joanna (single sister, Bill HT her and she VT me) asked her to come to dinner too. Bill was here, but dead to the world on pain killers. When dinner was done the Missionaries gave Bill a blessing and he actually rested pretty well through the night.

He had an apointment with the Dr Wednesday and goes to another apointment today in Bountiful to hopefully have the stones removed. We are hoping all goes well with that.

Indirect lighting

This week has been VERY CRAZY. The things that have been worked on are not all obvious. The pillars (thanks to Albert) have been smoothed and readied for painting. Most of the walls have been finished and all the crown molding painted. Thank you Albert and Michelle!! On Saturday Bill and Albert put up the crown molding. If you look closely you will see that the CM does not quite meet the ceiling. We dropped it 2" and have bought rope lighting in bright white LED which will be dropped in the space behind the CM. This will give us a nice indirect lighting effect. Bill has always favored indirect lighting and is excited to finally use it in our room makeover.
Here you will also notice another "quirky" of "this OLD house". Nothing is level or square. Putting up the CM we realized just how uneven the ceilings and floors are. The CM here is actually straight...it's the ceiling that is all over the place.

You will not see pics of any other rooms in our house for a long time. Can I just tell you I can't stand trying to live in the middle of the mess of construction!! It finds it's way into all corners of the house. But I can't wait to get my room done and I'm sure I will consider all of this well worth it.

The work continues!

The wall you are currently looking at will house our new closet. I am not sure what Albert is doing here. Our room sure looks small in these pictures, but it's really not too bad.



Here is Michelle painting the "tissue wall". She actually paints the tissue onto the wall, which creates a beautiful texture. Following this process she white washed it to lighten it a little (I was having a little anxiety over the color) It will also have gold veining through it which adds depth and elegance...beautiful!

Albert cleaned up and smoothed out the repairs Bill and I made to the heat vent. As we work we find all kinds of oddities about "this OLD house". The way they did the heat vents was one of those oddities. We were loosing a lot of heat into the wall instead of into the room.

Our exotic new room fan and light. We LOVE it!! In the back ground you can see the "tissue wall" And to the side, Michelle touches up along the wall she is "drifting".

The work moves along and we are very excited about the changes. We have a lot to accomplish
before the painting can be finished and the floors done. We are SO much further along than we would have been if we didn't have the help of Michelle and Albert. Thanks again to their talent and determination!!

Master Bedroom Progress

OK...This is the horrible ugly wall that will host our bed. The area where you see the 2 kinds of old wallpaper is where our closet used to be.

The black hole is where the chimney used to be.

Do you see the pinkish pipe that runs vertically on the left side of the room? That's our furnace vent, running from basement through our room and attic and out the roof.





Different view sporting the corner.


















While I was at work today, Bill and Albert got the dry wall up...and yes we covered the black hole, the lath and plaster, the old wall paper and just cut to the chase.

You may have guessed that the pinkish vent pipe is what will be one of our greacian columns. The other one will be on opposite wall.













Another view. Oh yeah, Albert is the one we recruited to do a lot of the work. He is 6' 5" and usually doesn't use a step stool. He's got talented, and he's fast!















When Bill and I got home from Salt Lake tonight Albert had come over and done the first run of spackling...Yeah!!