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!!

Twice in a week...could be a record!

Well...after being so beat and exhausted, we decided to call in reinforcements. There is a wonderful couple in our ward, Albert and Michelle Noppers. They are both so creative and very knowlegable and skilled in many areas. They both love decorating and painting and the like. They are helping us design and finish our room. There are of course things we are going to cut corners on so we can afford the things we're going to splurge on. On someone's blog I read about doing your floor almost decoupage style with brown paper bags and polyurethane. That's the way we'll do our floor. It makes it look like leather almost. We have some unsightly structures in our room that will be disguised as grecian pillars and we're planning on building a headboard to pull in a little grecian romance theme. The walls will be done in a faux finish, Michelle will tie in the colors from other rooms in the house so the master bdrm won't scream..."Look at me, I'm different". This is all VERY different for us....we are really pretty simple and don't do a lot of decorating beyond the very practical. I'm really excited to see how this all turns out. Thank Heaven for good friends who have great talent!!

August, September, October...

So it's been a while! I am better about reading everyone else's blog than keeping up my own...
When Wesley left for Snow (that would be August) we moved most all his stuff out of the way and moved our bedroom downstairs (basement). We are preparing for a total room makeover of our master bedroom. I did take a before picture, but am not posting it till we have the room done and you can see both before and after. That would be our September progress. October so far has seen the demolition begin, and can I just say...WHAT A MESS! As I've mentioned before, our house is 106 years old. We have gotten through a bunch of lath and plaster and finally got to the old chimney that was in our room (in the closet which was built later than the room). Black SOOT everywhere! After removing enough brick to make the chimney even with the wall we decided to quit and just cover it up! When we removed the chimney in the office we took the whole thing out clear through the attic...NOT GONNA HAPPEN! (Of course it was Wes and his friends that did that one) We are just too old and tired anymore for this kind of project. But it is started and must be finished. Bill wants us moved back into the master bdrm by Thanksgiving, so wish us luck. Right now I am going to the basement for a nap!

Daddy Warbucks

Just thought you'd like to see your father prematurely bald.

Here I am explaining to Barney Baruch that I'm taking a 10-year-old girl to the movies.







The painting arrived from Paris; "...There's something about her smile ... hang it someplace."

Far left: "Ah ... Smell that. Fifth Avenue bus fumes. There's no air like the air of New York City!"

Left: "I won't be having dinner tonight, Mrs. Pugh."

There's more.

Another Monday morning

Yes I realize it's Thursday, but I just can't keep looking at a week ago Monday and remembering that awful feeling. By the way I am now currently registered and legal:)

5:45 am again...on my way to the vanpool pick up point....My phone rings and I answer, glancing at the name, Boschi cell

Me: Hello.... (pause) hello....silence ...Melinda, are you there....Little noises now being heard. I realize it' may be one of the children.... Evie is this you?

Evie: Hi Gramma, I love you. What a sweet sound! As we chat Evie tells me she had Easter at her house and at Gramma's house. Yes, Carson is in his bed asleep. Lizzie is asleep. Mommy and Daddy are asleep. She's a big girl. Unfortunately I had to have her take the phone to Mommy. But then I smiled all the way to work:)

You know it's a Monday when...

5:45 AM the blue and red lights are flashing behind you.

The nice officer asks to see your registration because he just ran your licence plate and your car is not registered. He asks how you happen to have a 2010 sticker.

I reply I registered it last September and reach in the glove box for the registration.

I glance at it as I pull it from it's pretty folder that keeps it from being mangled in the glove box.

I don't recognize the name on the registration...Patrick Civero...PANIC sets in! I glance at the make and model of the car, 2000 Plymouth Voyager...NO! I drive a 2000 Pontiac Montana...,

I hesitate as I hand it to the officer and mention this is the wrong documentation.

The officer lets the ladies out of my car to catch the vanpool ride that is about to leave...I am not as fortunate, they leave without me.

After calling in several times and talking to different people the officer returns to me and hands me the documentation. I think you look like an honest lady and I don't think you're trying to pull a fast one on me, so I will let you go with a warning...please take care of this TODAY.

I got to work and looked more closely at the registration. It had my inspection approval stapled to the back, I took a look at that and realized it had our name and address on it properly but the vehicle was a 1997 Ford Explorer....It turns out that the inspector had transposed the licence number. Ours is 205UGY. The inspetor had typed in 250UGY. I turned to the registration and saw that the DMV had typed in the wrong licence also...that one...206UGY. Talk about a mess!

When I went to the DMV after work they decided that I should get a new inspection ($17.00) and pay for a new year of registration ($106.00) I currently have a 2 week temporary registration so I won't have to explain to another officer....Whew! I don't want to relive that day. The lady at the DMV said the officer could have impounded my car and taken me to jail untill I could explain someone's stupid mistake.

Boy, am I glad it's Tuesday... Even though the 201, 202, and I 80 were closed and it took us 2 hours to get home...it's a good day:)

Mary's wedding!

The happy couple...Mary Janise Reid Larson Cryer and Walter Cryer. Walter is a retired BYU swim coach and still swims a mile a day! They were beautiful and so happy together. We are happy for both of them that they do not have to be lonely any more. Aunt Linda taking a picture of Uncle Dave and Aunt Demiris.........

Uncle Frank and Aunt Dody...........

The Larson Brothers singing a beautiful barber shop rendition of "Love At Home"

From left to right Reggie, Wes, Drew, Doug, and Matt....

The Larson family...I'm in trouble here with names of all the wives...

Front row L-R Crew (Wes's son), Jennifer (Reggie's wife), Janise, Ginnell (Drew's wife), Sharron, (oops..Doug's wife) and Sharon (Chad's wife)

Back row L-R Wes, Reggie, (oops...Matt's wife), Matt, Drew, Doug and Chad

Our Wes and Cousin Wes

Can you believe we didn't get a picture of Bill and Jeff ?!?!

Doug and Marilyn couldn't make the trip due to Doug's health. The rest of them had a great time together.

Way overdue!

Aaron and Dad at the church before G'pa's 80th B'day dinner on Saturday
Allen shared the glory because his B'day is the day after G'pa's.

Dad, Allen and the family having a B'day dinner at ElGallo Giro...our favorite mexican place!

Complete with Mariachi band and singers...they were wonderful!

Chimney Sweeps?

The hole in the room and the ceiling (sorry, it's sideways) where the chimney once stood....these guys did a "clean sweep" of all the brick, coal and wood dust, mortar and debris that has been here for over a hundred years!
I didn't think to take this picture till we were almost done clearing all the junk from the room.

My 3 volunteers...Left to right Haine (pronounced Hi-na both long vowels) Steven and Wes. In this shot they are trying to show that parts of their legs were clean...I don't think it worked.

Steven and Wes actually had bandanas tied around their mouth and nose to try to keep out some of the coal dust. But they were removed for the picture. This was Haine's mask after he had tried to beat off some of the coal dust.

When they were done they all ran for the back yard where they stipped down to shorts and did a cold wash with soap and water. They are so much better even though they REALLY need a hot shower!

Ahhh, the payoff? We'll these guys were great sports, all they wanted was Pizza and ice cream! I actually think they had fun doing the demolition. They were great. I didn't get pictures of the many bucket loads of brick and mortar they took from the attic and lowered to the hall, one bucket at a time, then empying each bucket in the dumpster out front. They worked for about 4 hours on this ugly project!!

103 year's old...deserves new roof!

Today three layers of roofing were removed from our house. We live in a house that is 103 years old.We knew the garage had been roofed this way, I guess we never considered the house was also done this way. After the rafters were in, the outside was covered with what they could find of old amunition crates from the Tooele Army Depot. With no additional support the roof was then filled in with shake shingles. Luckily for us the house had 2 more layers of asphalt shingles, so we didn't leak.

Here is one of the roofer's hammering in loose nails. Notice how wide the spaces are...gee whiz!

Our house is completely surrounded by piles of shake shingles. What a mess!

So here we are, cleared of old shingles and ready to start the new roof. With any luck we won't have rain till we finish:)

Latest Project

We purchased a big (8 ft long and sticking a third of the way into the family room) couch. It had ugly pillows and we had blinds on the windows as well as a quilt over the big window.













I made new curtains for the family room and decided to spruce up the pillows as well

The results were great! It really lightened up the family room. Wes hung the curtain rods for me and Bill helped me hang curtains. I have enough fabric to cover the footstool as well. It is not in the picture, it's a very ugly mustard yellow vinyl. It is perfect to store a couple of blankets to cozy up on the couch.

Family Quilt for G'ma and G'pa

Some of you may remember the family reunion in 2006 at Ken and Jenette's home. Those of you who were there made a block for your family. Those of you who weren't there had one made for you either by a family member or a designated artist. Since G'ma sent out thank you cards, I thought I had better post pictures of the quilt so you know what she's thatnking you for:)

This was a wonderful idea and I felt honored (except for when I felt frustrated cause it wasn't going how I wanted it to) to piece it together. Kathy and Caitlin helped quilt this at a friend's home in Kuna. (On a long arm quilting machine) Then Annette and Kathy and I sat up and hand bound it. Anyway, for those of you who haven't had a chance to see it, here it is the day that we presented it to G'ma and G'pa...just before Easter.

Long time, No blog

Well, here I am again...quilting. Here's Annie, inspecting my work...she loves to be a part of everything! I haven't blogged in 2 months, but in that time, I took home a twin quilt from Calista's that I got finished and sent back. Did Lizzie's quilt and got it sent...took home a twin quilt from G'ma Danes and got that quilted and returned. Did 2 baby quilts that went back to Idaho. I have also been helping a sister in our ward do quilts for her 4 kids. I didn't get a picture of the last one, it was an eagle and was bordered with rich browns, greens and burgandys.

This was one I did with fabric Annette gave me...Curious George, bordered with yellow and bound with the last of the scraps of yellow and brown. Check out the first picture and see that the back is also monkeys, a nice soft flannel.

This is a bunk size and is for a cute little 3 year old boy who is a monkey:) I absolutly LOVE the quilt shop in town that rents out their longarm quilting machine. I have done so many now that they told me I could come in anytime and set up my own quilt. This is the 1rst one that I did all the set up by myself. The sister I am helping did the actual running of the quilting machine on this one. I have the longarm quilter reserved at least every other week. I am scheduled again for next week, am hoping to get a queen sized one done.

Believe it or not I do still work full time and do my scouts on Wednesday. I keep saying I am doing this to use up my fabric, but I stilll end up buying some for each quilt....eventually I will run out of fabric....maybe:)