I just found this on this blogwhich directed me here, but I totally want to make this?!

First Christmas Tree

James and I got our first Christmas Tree. Pretty exciting! We got this 6'6" tree for a steal. I am so proud of my husband for talking him down. I'm teaching him well!!

This will make you cry

This is one of the kindest things you may ever see..

It is not known who replied, but there is a beautiful soul working in the dead letter office of the US postal service.




Our 14 year old dog, Abbey, died last month. The day after she died, my 4 year old daughter Meredith was crying and talking about how much she missed Abbey.. She asked if we could write a letter to God so that when Abbey got to heaven, God would recognize her. I told her that I thought we could so she dictated these words:

Dear God,
Will you please take care of my dog? She died yesterday and is with you in heaven. I miss her very much. I am happy that you let me have her as my dog even though she got sick.
I hope you will play with her. She likes to play with balls and to swim. I am sending a picture of her so when you see her You will know that she is my dog. I really miss her.
Love, Meredith

We put the letter in an envelope with a picture of Abbey and Meredith and addressed it to God/Heaven. We put our return address on it. Then Meredith pasted several stamps on the front of the envelope because she said it would take lots of stamps to get the letter all the way to heaven.. That afternoon she dropped it into the letter box at the post office. A few days later, she asked if God had gotten the letter yet. I told her that I thought He had.

Yesterday, there was a package wrapped in gold paper on our front porch addressed, 'To Meredith' in an unfamiliar handwriting. Meredith opened it. Inside was a book by Mr. Rogers called, 'When a Pet Dies..' Taped to the inside front cover was the letter we had written to God in its opened envelope. On the opposite page was the picture of Abbey & Meredith and this note:


Dear Meredith,
Abbey arrived safely in heaven.
Having the picture was a big help. I recognized Abbey right away.
Abbey isn't sick anymore. Her spirit is here with me just like it stays in your heart. Abbey loved being your dog. Since we don't need our bodies in heaven, I don't have any pockets to keep your picture in, so I am sending it back to you in this little book for you to keep and have something to remember Abbey by.
Thank you for the beautiful letter and thank your mother for helping you write it and sending it to me. What a wonderful mother you have.. I picked her especially for you.
I send my blessings every day and remember that I love you very much.
By the way, I'm easy to find, I am wherever there is love.

Love,
God

Scholarship

My sister, Cassidy, is trying to win a scholarship. Please help her out by clicking on the URL below and voting!

http://www.brickfish.com/Pages/PhotosAlbums/PhotoView.aspx?qsi=23831145

Mail's here. Mail's here.

I think the title is a reference to Blues Clues. Oh well.

For one of my school courses related to disabilities we are required to create a "resource file" containing information, resources, and what not on multiple disabilities. Well... a few weeks ago I spent a couple of hours online ordering anything and everything I could. I probably placed over 100 orders for free stuff. Slowly but surely information I ordered has been arriving.

Tonight when James and I went to check the mail we were shocked to find it STUFFED with catalogs! 19 catalogs related to disabilities to be exact (with additional miscellaneous mail)! When James opened the tiny box he said, "I bet the mailman was cussing at you!" It was probably true. If it wasn't so dark outside I would have taken a picture of the mailbox. How on earth did he/she fit all that in there?!?!

Needless to say I am excited to be receiving all this "fun" stuff.

Project

I have been planning on doing this project for a few months now. I call it, the magnet-chalkboard-chicken-wire-in-a-frame. I have had everything I needed it just took some time to actually do it, but this Saturday was the day I was going to put all my time into it!

I have seen these two ideas used separately on my daily blog stalking excursions so I decided to put the two together and make this magnet-chalkboard-chicken-wire-in-a-frame. And boy this was not easy!

I bought this huge frame at a local thrift store a few months ago for only $5. It seemed to be pretty old and was beat up a little.


I bought the paint and chicken wire at The Home Depot soon after. Then I was on a wild goose hunt for a magnet board. I swear I checked everyplace under the sun! I refused to spend a lot of money because that defeated the whole purpose of my project. I thought using sheet metal would be best but at the home improvement stores they only had one size that I would cut down to use and it was $18! Yeah right! James and I spent a few Saturdays looking at junk yards and scrap metal places and we came up with nothing! I did think of a few things I could use if all else failed but they were not what I really wanted.

One day James and I went to Fed-ex Kinkos to print off a picture on card stock for a future project and he noticed these real estate magnets on a magnet board thingy majiggy. So we asked about it but he said they only made the magnets! Bummer! BUT the guy told us to go to this sign place where he used to work. We we headed there right after, but guess what, they were already closed!

A few days or weeks later I don't remember I decided to stop by and ask if they had anything that would work for what I needed. The people that work/own this place were extremely nice and friendly! The guy went into the back to see what he had and he brought out the most beautiful piece of metal I have ever seen. Haha. He cut it to the size I needed and everything. And guess what...it cost $7!!!!!BARGIN!!!!!!


So yesterday was the day when all this came full circle. I woke up early so it wouldn't be too hot outside when I was painting. I first sanded the frame with my electric sander and wiped it off really good. Then I primed it. Meanwhile I got the sheet of metal and primed that as well. Then it was time to paint the fun stuff. (Nothing disastrous has happened yet up to this point).


James sprayed the chalk board paint onto the metal and I worked on the frame.


While we let them dry we went out to run errands and when we came back I decided to distress my frame. I am total amateur when it comes to this kind of thing. I only did one side and it looked horrible! So I took it outside sprayed a little primer on the dark spots. Waited a little bit and sprayed it green again! IT WAS AWFUL! The paint got all clumpy and wouldn't cover up the scratch marks! I was mortified. I thought I ruined the whole thing. James came out to the rescue as he always does and sanded the whole side again as much as he could. I took a breather and went back about sprayed it again. It wasn't perfect but much better than before! I should have taken picture of how awful it was...but I guess it is a good thing I didn't that way you only see how great it did turn out.

Okay so as my novel continues...We hoped the staple gun would just magically staple the metal into the frame. What were we thinking??? So James being all cute drilled little holes into the metal so that he could line the staple gun on the whole and do it that way. I couldn't figure out what he was doing but I just let me try anyways. So as he was drilling and planning it out so carefully in his head, really, he drilled the wrong side of the metal so now I had holes visible on the side by the chicken wire. But again..it worked out in the end.


Seeing that the staples wouldn't go into the whole I suggested hammering them. This was so time consuming and they don't hammer well at all. But it worked so that is all that mattered at this point.

So we got the metal in and now it was time for the chicken wire. We had stapled one whole side and then I noticed they went through to the other side of the frame splitting the wood! We took a towel and hammered it the other way and decided it looked like real distress marks. Then we had to mimik this boo-boo on the other side too so we scratched it out with scissors. Again, it all worked out. So despite all those "HORRIBLE" boo-boos it all worked out. (James kept saying that too-why does he always have to be right!?)


Here is how it turned out. We love it.
(I got a little photoshop happy if you hadn't noticed)

Digital Class

I am taking a digital photography class at the community college on my free Friday, which puts me at 20 credits this semester. We were asked to "get familiar" with our cameras so James and I went downtown on Sunday after church and I took some pictures to "get familiar" with the camera.

"Date" night

James used to rollerblade a lot growing up and before school started he wanted to go to the skate park and get some exercise. I was so hesitant which turned into frustration because last time he took me there he did this crazy flip and all the little 12 year old boys were oooing and saying "you could have broke your neck man." So frankly I didn't trust James and his skating impulses. But we went and he promised me he wouldn't do anything crazy. I did get some pics though. Oh and after the fact James claimed this as our "date" night...so sweet huh?


And here is darling Jolie. I'm trying to get her to drink out of the cute doggy fountain they had.

Summer Picture OVERLOAD

Let me start out by saying...we are addicted to Blue Bell Ice cream! Addicted I tell you. It was on sale at the grocery store the other day and I had a few coupons I printed off their website, because that's what I do, and so we got a week supply of Ice cream. Just kidding it's more than a week but it sure goes out fast.

If you haven't tried

Blue Bell Ice cream
you're missing out!

James and I took a week and spent some time in Utah for a number of reasons...

1) Becky and Peter (his brother) got sealed to their family
2) Richard (his brother) was going to the MTC for his mission to Virginia
3) Pierson (nephew) was turning two
4) Visit Dawna and Nik
5) Go to Temple Square
5) Do some shopping!

James and I did almost every tour at Temple Square. One of my favorites was the Beehive house. It was a lot of fun. I love going through old things like that, plus I learned a lot, and I love hearing other people's questions! One of the kids rooms below is where the sister missionaries explained where the phrase "sleep tight and don't let the bed bugs bite" came from. Because they would have to tighten their bed ropes before going to bed so they wouldn't fall through. One girl on our tour heard only some of this explanation and clarified by asking "what they roped themselves to the bed?" James and I had a polite laugh about that.
This was in the kitchen of the Beehive house...LOVE the sink!! I want it.
This was the step Brigham Young used to get into the horse carriages.
Brigham Young used to sit in this area to think...the wall's surrounding are all original.
Okay The Lion House Rolls are truly amazing. I found the recipe online and CANNOT wait to make them!
This next picture is from the top of the Joseph Smith Building. James and I had lunch at the Garden Restaurant which was so lovely and delicious. And they had FRIED PICKLES. Loved them! When I'm pregnant I think I'll crave fried pickles and blue bell ice cream...for sure!

James and his brother Richard playing on the dinosaur at the gas station.
This is little Nathan. He turned two. And his mommy and daddy had a little party for him at the park. It was a lot of fun and great to get together with the family.

Love the red lips.This is Pierson. He was glad to "get" all these new toys too!

Richard and Grandma! Pierson loves playing with and going for rides on Grandma's walker.

This is the beautiful and newly sealed family coming out of the Salt Lake Temple. It was such a blessing that we were able to be there for their sealing. It was such a beautiful thing to see! We love them and are so proud of them! After we left Salt Lake/Layton area we spent the day and night in Provo where we visited Dawna and Nik (the newlyweds married just a week after us.) They took us to a Brazilian restaurant called Tucanos. It was very yummy. But my heavens was I full after!!
Next stop was the Grand Canyon. James and I both have never been there and so we made plans to stop by on our way home. We got there about 2pm and spent the rest of the day there. I didn't expect much but we were both pleasantly surprised. We found this next image a little funny. Can you guess why?
I was having a small heart-attack with James that close to the edge. And seeing him later dangle his feet off! So many people die each year at the Grand Canyon, but he said there wasn't a drop off. Fewf.
After leaving one of the view points this "MOOSE" walked right in front of our car. And we coudn't get our camera on fast enough! But everyone stopped to take pictures. Ha such city people. And to prove that point...It was an "ELK," my mom informed us later. Haha. A MOOSE. please. We are such city people apparently.
This was us getting ready for the sun to set. What an attraction. It was very pretty. I don't think I have really ever sat and watched the sun go down. It was cool.

This was the other side of the view point before the moon rose.
Our trip was a lot of fun. And I loved spending time with James and seeing our family and friends. We are so blessed to be surrounded by so much love.

Thanks for reading ALL this!