I love my new hobby!!!

Ever since I moved back to Utah, I have tried and done so many fun things!!! Shawn had to stay down in New Mexico for another week and a half after me. He is home now. I decided to try my hand at refinishing furniture. I found an already pretty cute piece and refinished it to look like something different. It was an oak carved piece, and I am not so fond of oak, so my dad and I decided to turn it into a cherry wood looking piece. We made it look a little antique and vintage too. It was really fun. My dad would tell me what to do and start showing me, and I would do it and complete a step, until he had to show me the next step. I loved it! We did it in a few hours. I would love to refinish furniture to look like Habersham furniture. If you don't know what that is, look it up.

Well, enough about that. Shawn and I are now living in Ogden for now, just kind of doing our thing. I have started an online ebay business, and Shawn will be helping to cater a reception center, and pursuing sales of his book early in 2009. We are happy and just going with the flow right now. I would love to refinish furniture and paint, but we will see what will happen

my original piece

just finished putting the hardware and doors back on

My finished piece!!!!!!!!!

Something I find myself being passionate about

stacked flat rock pile technique.

The project I finished on Saturday. I took a continuum course. It is one of those community classes. A lady taught me and 3 other people how to do faux painting on example boards. I could do it on a wall. I was in class from 9:30-3:30. We went over a bunch of different aspects, techniques, basics, advanced things. We learned how to make our own wallpaper, and how to do faux brick/rock. It would actually be done on the wall, but we used cardboard as a sample. We also learned to do mottling, ragging, sponging, tiling, marbleing, double-rolling, distressing, etc....... I am really excited I took this class. This is something I am passionate about. I would like to start doing furniture. I have always wanted to do furniture and walls, but never knew where to start, so I gave up. Now I have the little bit of knowledge to be able to start, and improvise, and learn. I now have the basics, I could follow the steps out of a book on a sample board, and perfect my techniques. Here are some things that I learned and took pictures of:

The weathered rock brick sample I made

closeup. You can see the cardboard as my "grout"

top left: regular double-rolling, top right: marble tile, bottom: raised cracked marble

I just showed this as an example, that the "brick" could be used as a backsplash behind the counter. Of course, it would definitely have to be sealed very well.

close-ups of the self-made wallpaper

I loved doing all this!

This is mine and the other woman's pieces. Mine is on the bottom. I am a perfectionist. Can you tell? :)

Something you don't see everyday!!!

Shawn and I were driving to church today, and there were a bunch of multi-colored signs and flags placed on both corners of the church lot. Our church is on a main road, right across from the college. There was 2 men sitting on the corner protesting. They were not verbally protesting, but they were with their signs. They said to "honk if you are for civil rights and equality." There were people honking everywhere. Basically, it was because of proposition 8 (legalized gay marriage) did not pass, and they felt that their civil rights were being witheld. A lot of people are scrutinizing the church because of our views on what the family is to us. The bishopric talked about it today in sacrament. The guys out on the corner were guys that left the church and became homosexual. The bishopric made sure to get across that they are nice guys, and there is no need to start a conflict. The guys waved at us as we were going home, and were very nice. I just think they were trying to get their point across. We do have our free speech. I just thought it was interesting, and something I would never see.

Our week in Utah with my mega post/pictures!!!!

I know this is a super long post, but I hardly ever write, so when I do, it is fantastically long! Well, we had our little trip on the last week of October. We started out in Moab with our friends. We rented a little cottage on main street, and we also rented Rubicon jeeps. We had 3 total. First course we did, was Fins and Things. It was very long, but fun. Second course, and last, we did Hell's Revenge. I have been on Hell's Revenge before. We had 2 girls that drove a jeep that had never been to Moab, let alone jeeping before. We thought that they were going to roll over the first hill. The jeep was teetering, and the back wheels were lifted. We thought for sure they would roll forward. All of the guys had to go push the back of the jeep down, so the girls could safely get down. I thought the other jeep was going to roll for sure, but they didn't. I had some really cool footage of it, but my memory card said it was full right before all of the action. I was so mad! It was a really fun and exhausting day. I am just glad we didn't pop a tire like we did last year. That night, we went to a place we go every year, right behind the Burger King. It is a fun center with go-karts, arcade games, laser-tag, and mini golf. No one is ever there when we go. The guy's almost had too much fun racing on the track. I rocked at the laser tag. I was getting everyone good, and everyone tried to avoid me. All in all, a great Moab trip this year, and warm!

We drove up to Utah and stayed between my parents, and Shawn's parents. I did a ton of shopping with my sister. We went everywhere you could possibly think of. We even got to the voting booths early, and voted (since I am registered in Utah and not NM) I got to hang out with Marissa and Kaylee. Kaylee is adorable and I love Marissa to death! We had a good time. I also went to the doctor when I came up, because I have been having weird issues, and I was officially diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome) which pretty much means a whole load of things. One major thing is a hormonal imbalance, high risk of hypoglycemia (which I have) and type II diabetes (which I am also pre-diabetic) and if I want to have children, I will have to automatically be on 3 different types of medication and fertility drugs. Yay for me!

For Halloween, I carved pumpkins with my 2 good friends, and Shawn and I went down to American Fork to visit my brother, sister-in-law, and nephew. Caden was Nemo for Halloween, and it was so adorable. It even had fins that stick out and everything. He is learning how to walk, and likes to walk with his "walker." He walks around with a little scooter toy everywhere. When my brother would take him to a house to trick-or-treat, he would actually mix the bowl around, carefully choosing what type of candy he would pick. He is only 1 and he is acting like an adult. That was really fun

The last day we were in Utah, Shawn, Shawn's parents and I, decided we were going to walk down to the river behind his parent's house. They live right on the ridge of South Ogden, right across the way from Hill Air Force Base. There is a river, and a golf-course on the other side of the river. It is a beautiful valley they overlook. We had to walk through thistles, weeds, tumbleweed bushes, barbed-wire fences, and train tracks to get down there. By the time we were halfway down, we thought that maybe it was not a great idea, but we did it anyways and it was fun. It was beautiful down there, almost like we were in a wonderland of trees and leaf-laden grounds. The river was so shallow and calm. It was breathtaking.

On another note, the only reason that Shawn and I came up, was because his book came out. He only ordered 200 copies to begin with, wondering how well they would sell, he had 2 conventions to partake in, and sold every last copy extremely quick. They sold out like hotcakes. Shawn is very excited in the prospect of getting more for Christmas, and doing well with it. It is called the First Timer's Cookbook. To sum it all up, it is a book for people that have never cooked, to people that cook all the time. It is not a book full of recipes and what to cook, it is a book on HOW to cook. Principles and techniques. The really cool thing about it, is that you never know how things are supposed to look when you are cooking. It has more pictures than anything on the steps, and how things should look in each step. I call it the big picture cooking book for adults. He also shows techniques on how to cut properly, prepare meat and different cooking styles, cutting fruit the best way, etc..... I am so proud of Shawn. His passion is writing and teaching. He eventually wants to become an adjunct professor one day, and he is living out his dream in baby steps.

We have decided that we are going to move back to Utah. We learned a lot by living down here, but feel it is best to move home. We feel like we have learned what we needed to learn here, and everything points to us moving home. We are grateful for the jobs that we have down here, and for learning things about us, and the rest of the world. We are not sure exactly what we would like to do when we get back, but Shawn would like to follow his dream, and pursue his book. As for me, I now have a skill that I can use for the rest of my life, being able to dental assist. Life is wonderful..............

Gee, I love funny signs. Meth is huge in Farmington, and this just proves it. Down here, it seems like there are funny signs everywhere
Beginning of Hell's Revenge down in Moab. This part is kind of scary

All of us friends that went down

super sweet jeepin hair

Our lady friends kind of got themselves into a bind. Their back tires were completely off the ground and they were teetering. We thought they would roll forward for sure

Our little brigade of Rubicons

A little bit of a tricky part. notice the tire skids down. There is a shallow ravine on both sides

It was steeper than it looks. Our bumper was laying on the ground

Intertwining with the biker's "Slick Rock Trail"

We had just gone up the hill, and the other jeeps were still at the bottom. That is how steep and high it was

Oh, the grandiosa Delicate Arch we hiked up to

Boys in action!

Jocelyn, Heather, Joni, Natalie and me got dressed up to go eat at Pasta Jay's (mmm... our favorite restaurant in Moab)

Beautiful Moab

The "hot tub" All of the guys went through it.

I miss the gorgeous mnts. in Utah

(cough....) gee, the rock on the left makes me uncomfortable, but I can't put my finger on why....

Shawn was imitating the ravens we saw on the trail up to delicate arch

Shawn and I

The people underneath shows you just how large it is

Caden was crying because he wanted his "daddy"

gorgeous sunrise out my parents window

What a little cutie pie Kaylee is

Marissa and I ate some yummy lunch at Paradise Cafe'

Beautiful sunset

Our little wonderland behind the inlaws house in the valley

checkin out the scene. The water was freezing, but I wanted to go tubing!

What a good mom!!! I wouldn't touch those things with a 10ft. pole if I had to. She volunteered even!

Little "Nemo" with his walker

Halloween fun. Shawn dressed up as a coach. Well, not really, but that is what he kept saying to everyone