Put Your Shoulder to the Wheelbarrow

A year after moving in, we finally tackled landscaping our yard.  When we moved in the yard needed a little help. See all these rocks.....I hated them. 

Believe it or not, we moved every single one of these rocks by hand! What were we thinking? (maybe that we could save money by doing it ourselves....or perhaps we just wanted a killer workout for an entire week). Dave's family helped us a ton with moving all these rocks. I really don't know how we would have ever finished without their help.  

We got about halfway done with the rock removal and we broke the wheelbarrow! At this point I'm really wishing we would have just paid the landscapers to do this for us. 

After we finished removing all the rocks, we let the landscapers take over.  They lifted the front lawn, put in new sod, reconfigured all the sprinklers, poured some new cement and planted all our trees and shrubs.  

I didn't realize I would care so much about the plants, but once we started looking at all the nurseries I soon found that I am quite opinionated about my trees & shrubs.  Our poor landscaper was probably so annoyed by me.  Sorry. 

A few days later it was all done and I love how it turned out. 

Mystery Solved

I have been unable to blog pretty much since we got back from Boston at the end of August. Reason: I could not find my camera cord anywhere! I couldn't use the memory card because Sony is lame and makes a special card just for Sony computers. I used to have the converter for that too, but of course I lost that like a month after getting the camera. I then borrowed my sisters camera cord and I managed to get a couple of blog entries in before I lost her cord too! I have searched my house over and over and had zero luck.  Yesterday Dave had a football game and what did he find in the bottom of his cleats?

Of course! Why didn't I think to look there? (sigh.) As for my sisters missing cord, maybe I'll go check the rest of our shoes.

Our Temporary Addition

 We are now temporary owners of this little guy....Kobe.

 Here's the story:  Daves parents are building a new home in Draper, so of course they listed their old home in Sandy and less than a week later, their house sold! They are now living in an apartment until their new house is finished, however their apartment does not allow pets.  So........you guessed it..... Dave & I are now the poop scoopers of this guy for the next 7 months.  I have to admit that I didn't really like him the first few days, but now that he knows that the outside is his bathroom and not my wood floors, we are getting along much better. He follows me around everywhere I go.  If Dave & I are in the family room watching tv and I get up and walk into the bedroom, little Kobe follows me & checks on me to make sure I'm ok.  I'm not sure he knows he's a dog because he barks like a chicken and purrs like a cat and sleeps on his back with his feet straight in the air.  But really, who wouldn't love this little face?

Matthew & Jenny Wedding

Finally! Matthew (Dave's older brother) and Jenny had been planning their wedding for what seems like FOREVER! Well, on Thursday Sept. 16 they finally became husband and wife. They were sealed in the Draper temple and had a dinner later that night at Thanksgiving Point.

Waiting for all the pictures to be over with. So, naturally Dave's pappa would pull my 25 year old husband around the temple in a wagon to kill time.  I can't decide if Dave gets his crazy goofiness from his Dad...or his Mom. (See picture below... you tell me???)

I love this! It makes me laugh every time I look at it. I have the best in-laws EVER!

Congratulations Matthew & Jenny!

Thankful

My family went to St. George for Labor Day weekend with the intentions to take the boat to Lake Mead.  Thankfully they decided to just take the boat to Sand Hollow instead.  Thankfully Sand Hollow was too crowded so they didn't even put the boat in the water on Saturday.  Later that night, my dad was gasping for air and felt like a semi-truck was parked right on his chest. Thankfully he wasn't too stubborn to let my mom drive him to the hospital to find out what was wrong.  Thankfully my mom ran a few stop lights. Thankfully she got pulled over.  Thankfully the cop was able to carry my dad into the hospital because she couldn't have done it alone. Thankfully the Dr.'s immediately knew the problem and rushed him to the OR. Thankfully there were LDS nurses there who could give him a blessing before the surgery.  Thankfully they were able to get the stent in his heart within 45 minutes.  My dad had 100% blockage of his main artery and I cannot express enough how thankful I am to all the events that took place so that his life was saved.  

Dave & I raced down to St. George as soon as we got the call and by the time we got there, my dad was stable in the ICU. Thankfully my parents have a home in St. George so we were able to stay there a few days and visit him in the hospital. Even in the ICU with cords hooked up all over his body, my dad was cracking jokes & smiling. He was released from the hospital yesterday afternoon.  Now its Dr. visits once a week and 10 different medications daily, but he's home and he's ok. I thank my Heavenly Father for watching over my dad.  My dad said, "We all have our trials that we have to go through.  I don't think Heavenly Father will just stop something like a heart attack from happening, but he helps us to be surrounded by the right people at the right time who help perform His miracles."  

Flowerpatch

I have been making all sorts of accessories throughout the summer and thought I would share with you all. (Those of you who have been in Boston with me all summer know of my obsession with crafting)  I just created a new blog  jlmflowerpatch.blogspot.com -----so check it out!

If you see something on there that you like but want in a different color, let me know. I love to customize to your hearts desire.

The Help

I just finished this book & I'm obsessed.  I've read several great books this summer (7 to be exact) and The Help is by far the best thing I've read all summer! Go buy it from Costco, rent it from the library, borrow it from me....you NEED to read this book. Seriously. Thanks CharLee & Andrea for reccommending it to me. Dave will be happy to have me back in reality instead of with my face stuck in this book!

i am a tourist

Meg (Dave's little sis) came to visit us last week and it was so fun to have her here. We drove to New Hampshire on Sunday and met up with friends from the office at Hampton Beach.

This picture pretty much sums it up....The girls standing around gabbing, while the boys are in the ocean playing with the football.

On Monday, or was it Tuesday? hmmm all my days are all mixed together out here. Anyway, another day we took the subway downtown where we wandered around the Boston Commons, the Public Gardens & of course made our way to all the shops on Newbury Street.  I think we spent the majority of our time in Marc Jacobs trying to decide which rain boots and umbrella to buy.  Don't worry, even the sales assistant started making fun of us for using the word "cute" WAY too may times. Well, they were CUTE what else does he want me to say!!!!

These are the ones I ended up buying. See. Cute. I know.

Later on in the week, we drove to Newport,  RI.  Of course it rained the ENTIRE day. At least we got good use out of the umbrellas. The town runs along the coast and is famous for the many "summer cottages".

And when I say cottage, this is what I mean....

We found a small little trail that lead to a lighthouse & I think I may have been more intrigued by these chairs randomly placed throughout the area.

 Castle Hill Lighthouse. And again, I was obsessed with these chairs.

 

The next Sunday we drove to Cape Cod and took the ferry over to Nantucket. In my opinion, Nantucket is a MUST! This was my second time on the island and it was just as great as I remembered.

And the Nantucket trip wouldn't have been complete without walking to the lighthouse on Brant Point.

Rockport

If you ever go to Boston, you for sure need to make the 45 minute drive to Rockport. Its the cutest little beach town just north of Boston. (I sound like a travel agent.) But first, Dave & I started our day with a BBQ with all the peeps from his office. Below is a picture of the pond in the park.  It reminds of a scene from The Notebook.

Then we drove to Rockport.  I did a little research on the world wide web and found out that several movies were filmed there, including Grown Ups & one of my favorites--The Proposal! Does this look like A-laskaa?  Well it's not,  it's good ol Rockport, Mass. Before filming, they put up fake pine trees to make it look like Alaska.

This dock with the red barn is in the movie a few times.

Remember the scene where "Margaret & Andrew" go into town to get her new phone and she needs to use the internet? They walk into the store & she puts the nickel into the machine and hears the old school internet dial tone. The computer was sitting in this corner where I am sitting. 

After strolling the streets we stopped and got some ice cream. We shared, but I ate 95% of it. What can I say, I like ice cream.

This kid (I mean my husband) works sooooo ridiculously hard. I am amazed by him every single day. I am so happy that Independence Day was on a Sunday this year so that he could have the day off and we could be together for the holiday.

Tacos al Pastor

A couple of months ago I was getting my oil changed and picked up the Southern Living magazine to pass the time.  I found a recipe for Tacos al Pastor  (which Dave is semi-obsessed with) and so I ripped it out of the magazine. I finally made it Monday night & it was muy delicioso, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you all. Don't let the list of ingredients discourage you, its really pretty simple to make. 

Ingredients: 

1 lb pork tenderloin, cut into 1/4 in cubes

1 (8 oz.)can pineapple tidbits in juice, drained 

1 medium onion, chopped

1/4 cup chopped fresh cilantro

1 Tbsp. Mexican-style chili powder

1 tsp. ground cumin

1 tsp. ground oregano

1 tsp. pepper

1 tsp. chopped garlic

1 Tbsp. Canola Oil

6 - 12 soft corn tortillas 

Additional toppings: chopped jalapeno, grated cheese, fresh cilantro leaves, chopped radishes, lime & cucumbers (drench chopped cucumbers in fresh lime and let sit before serving)

Combine pork and first 9 ingredients in large zip lock plastic freezer bag. Seal & chill 4 to 24 hours. 

Cook pork mixture in hot oil in a large nonstick skillet over medium-high heat, stirring often, 10 minutes or until pork is done. Serve mixture with warm tortillas & desired toppings. 

 

**This recipe doesn't taste EXACTLY like the authentic Mexican Tacos al Pastor because the meet does not come from the  flea infested streets of Mexico, my pans are washed with soap after every use & I wash my hands.  But if you want to try it the authentic way, go right ahead!   

June

Most of my days go something like this: wake up around 9AM, watch Ellen, go to the pool around noon, read a book for a few hours, watch the Kardashians give terrible advise to each other & fight over Bruce's credit card (ya I'm hooked to their ridiculous reality show), go for a walk, make dinner and then FINALLY Dave gets home around 10:00 PM. We try to do something fun on the weekends since that is the only time Dave doesn't have to work. A few weeks ago we went bowling New England Style. Its called candlestick bowling & its slightly different from regular bowling. #1. The pins are smaller #2. The bowling ball is more like a skeet ball #3. You bowl a total of 6 times per set #4. Its really HARD! We bowled 2 games & I only saw one person get a strike....in the entire bowling alley! (I might be exaggerating a little)



Since the beach in only 20 minutes from our apartment, the girls went to Revere Beach about two weeks ago.
As always, our hair looks amazing.
In my attempt to find a beach less crowded than Revere Beach, Dave & I went into South Boston to check out Carson Beach. It definitely was less crowded, but for good reason. The sand at the shoreline was more like mud, and there were crab shells all over! And so, the search for a nice private beach continues. I think we'll head to Maine this weekend.
Last Saturday, we went downtown into Little Italy and ate at the famous Mike's Pastry. I don't love pastries, so I got lemon gelato and it was perfect.

Boston Commons

On Saturday we took the subway to Boston Commons and wandered through the Public Gardens. Don't mind my frizzball hair in all the pictures...my hair will never cooperate in this humidity!

Entrance into the Public Gardens.

Trudi & CharLee. Their hair looks good.

And of course we had to go shopping on Newbury Street. So many fun shops. Too many people. I don't do large crowds in small spaces. It gives me anxiety.

We wandered down this street by accident while looking for a restaurant that the iphone app said was only a 5 minute walk. Well, that was 5 minutes in a car! 47 minutes by foot. Luckily we only walked 4 or 5 blocks before realizing our little mistake. I'm glad we walked down here though because I love these old neighborhoods.

Fenway

"Sweet Caroline....Da da da " I can't get that song out of my head after this weekends Red Sox game! Dave and I went to the Red Sox v. Royals game and had so much fun. Our seats were aMAZING - 3rd row - right by 3rd base

I made Dave walk all the way around the park just so I could get this picture. I hope I'm not the only annoying wife who drags her husband around just for the picture!?! I'm lucky Dave is such a good sport.