Mountain Pictures

On the drive home I was playing around with my camera and I took all these pictures while Josh was driving down the interstate.
This must be the new winter sport. It looks like fun! I'm not sure what they are balanced on as the wind pulls them around on their parachutes, but I would guess snowboards or skis. Once again, I took this picture while we were driving and this plane was landing.

Okay, I lied. We were stopped at the gas station when I took this picture. I can't wait until spring starts to bloom at home.I know I posted pictures of Bridal Veil Falls a few weeks ago, but since my other pictures were turning out so well I took another picture.

This is the mountain behind our house. We call it the Sleeping Lady Mountain. At work we are having a photo contest. The pictures just need to have some form of our power equipment in them. I took these ones. I'm trying to decide which one to submit.

Full Moon

I took these pictures last week while the moon was full. The first picture I took with the regular setting on my camera. The next two pictures I took using the night setting.

Easter at my Grandpa's

We went to St. George for Easter Weekend. It was so nice down there and we had so much fun. It rained while we were there, but it was still better than the weather up home, because the wind didn't blow while we were down there and we didn't have to build a fire at night.

I love my grandparents so much and I am glad we were able to go see them for a few days.

What do we do while we are there? Mostly play the Nintendo, as in the original. Wow, games and consoles have gotten so much better over the years!
My grandparents live in a cute retirement community. But they have an over population so rabbits. I was able to get a picture of one of them.

Signs that it might be a bad day...

You hit a deer before the sun is even up.

Yep, that about sums up my morning. I was on my way to work today and hit a deer. Luckily my passenger and I were not injured and I was only 5 minutes late for work! My day did get a little better when I learned my deductible is only $100.

Josh thinks I should get a picture with the deer... isn't he soooo funny!

Kittens and a Puppy

I think they are trying to tell me they want a bunk bed...Sage is doing well. I think she loves her new home, I know she loves Josh and nummy treats! Last night she found a tennis ball and loves to play with it.
She is learning to sit...

and lay down.We are also trying to teach her "load up" into the back of the pickup, but she doesn't like that. She won't even eat a nummy treat while in the bed of the truck. We will keep working on that.

We are also trying to learn to not chase the kittens. But when she sees them she won't pay attention to anything else.

Zipper doesn't do anything else either when he can see her. He is so jealous. We had no idea that a cat could be so jealous, but he is! He DOES NOT want to share his momma with anyone else, especially a puppy!
Pyro is doing much better and is so happy to be off house arrest.

I loved Phantom

The play was AWESOME!We had front row seats, but even the seats in the back didn't look bad. The only down side to the front row was the fog machine. The things puts out a lot of fog! But we were able to see their facial expressions better and that made it worth it. It is a different telling of the story than "The Phantom of the Opera" so if you go to see the play throw out everything you expect. But there is still a scene where the chandelier crashes to the floor; that was wicked cool!
I love the movie, but I also love the play. I think I like the story line of the play a little more, but I enjoy the music of the movie more. For both our tickets it was only $52 bucks and ticket prices are the same no matter where you sit. When we ordered the tickets back in January we looked at three different dates before purchasing, because for that price we wanted the best seats in the house! I would go again in a heartbeat.
I also found a great website: www.nowplayingutah.com.

Phantom

We are on our way to see "Phantom". I am soooo excited! This play is not the same as the movie, but I already know I will love it. Here is some informtaion from the Hale Center Theater Website.

HCT's "PHANTOM" REVEALS ADDITIONAL INSIGHT INTO CHARACTERS' PASTS THROUGH ORIGINAL MUSIC AND A STAGE SPECTACLE
WEST VALLEY CITY, Utah (Jan. 29, 2009)

Hale Centre Theatre (HCT), Utah's premier family theatre, will present Maury Yeston's and Arthur Kopit's musical, "Phantom," Feb. 24 through April 18, 2009. The American version of the "Phantom of the Opera" story provides additional insight into the characters' pasts with original music and a staging spectacle that includes rope swings, a 20-foot spiral staircase and incorporates the theatre's catwalk into the production.

Set in a Paris opera house and catacombs in the late 1800s, the stage design reflects the contrasting decadence and darkness of the time. Technical elements include a spiral staircase that elevates center stage, a fly-in that extends from the catwalk to the pit for the Phantom's mysterious entrances and exits and a three-level suspended catwalk designed by two Utah State University professors. A slip stage that will cover a portion of the theatre-in-the-round will help create the appearance of the opera house stage. Set pieces include an arched column with more than 10,000 hand-beaded crystals and a restored organ that was gold leafed for the HCT production.

In addition to technical elements, the production features ballerinas on point to add authenticity to the Paris opera house choreography and specially designed Phantom masks that will depict the character's changing mood from scene to scene. To show disfiguration behind the masks on the Phantom's face, specially designed prosthetics were custom made by a makeup artist.
Yeston and Kopit's story and original music explore the characters and story more in-depth than the familiar Andrew Lloyd Webber version of "The Phantom of the Opera." The disfigured Phantom recluse, Erik, meets a chorus girl, Christine, and becomes her music tutor in the catacombs of a Paris opera house. Erik's passion for Christine and her voice lead him to sometimes reveal his desires for her and for the opera house in violent ways. His tragic life of parental abandonment and public humiliation are portrayed throughout the story and lead to his mad decent.

"The story asks us to analyze our misconceptions of who is good and evil as the Phantom is humanized," said HCT "Phantom" director, John Sweeney. (John was an actor in this musical at the North Shore Theatre outside Boston 15 years ago where Kristin Chenoweth played Christine). "We are invited to look at the emotions that tug at the Phantom's heart and the circumstances of his life that affect him as a human rather than as an opera ghost. Audience members come to realize that he is not an evil person, but does perform disturbing deeds to protect him and those he loves."

The musical has enjoyed regional acclaim since its first production in 1991, with more than 1,000 productions worldwide. The music and lyrics are by Yeston and the book by Kopit, Tony Award winners for "Nine."

They said it was time to fly north for Springtime...

More Winter Pictures

I think winter is so beautiful. It looks so clean and bright. Here is a few more pictures of this winter's snowfall.


Oh, I forgot to mention. I took these pictures this morning! We got about 10 inches of snow last night! It is by far the best snow storm we've had all winter and technically it shouldn't be winter anymore!

Spring Cleaning...Room 2

I had a before picture, but I must have deleted it, because I can't find it now. So picture a room in a little better order than the last room. In one corner I had a bassinet and baby swing. In another corner I had a high chair. A few toys on a little shelf. That stuff has been patiently sitting there for 2 years now. Their boxes were in the closet.

Sounds okay, but now picture the center of the room. Several boxes scattered all over, a suitcase, my Scentsy box opened and scattered around. A bag of baby clothes that a friend gave me and other baby items used for misc. baby cakes are scattered on top of the boxes that hold the FSA stuff. You could see a little bit more of the floor than you could in the 1st bedroom and you could even take 2 steps without having to step over anything.

Everything was just gathering dust. We only started to throw stuff in that room because we couldn't get in the back bedroom anymore. Tonight I was bitten by a bug (either the spring cleaning bug or the reality bug... I'm not sure).

The boxes in the closet went outside. They will be enough to feel my garbage can for the next month. I put all the baby stuff up in the closet. It's not getting used anyway. I thought I would get to use it at least to babysit, but we only have visitors for our Halloween dinner.

The FSA (Families Supporting Adoption) stuff takes up 5 boxes. I don't know where else to put them so I tucked them nicely into the corner. Another box holds the Santa Suit. (Note to self...you really need to order a Mrs. Claus Suit!)

I had a hard moment after I had all the baby stuff put up, but I just don't want it out right now. But my wonderful little boy came in and reminded me that he is my baby. We had a cuddle moment and he even sucked his toes to let me know how happy he is.

Two weeks ago when I cleaned the 1st bedroom, I took the spare bed apart and took it out. We put the frame downstairs, but didn't want mice to get in the mattress, so it stood in the hallway. Pyro and Zipper have enjoyed it. I put it against the wall in this bedroom so it will be out of the way.
I still need to go through the FSA boxes. We've had them since November and I'm not all sure what they contain. A lot of binders, books, and DVD's. But the room looks better now. I love the progress I am making on decluttering our home. I'm not sure which room I will tackle next.

Another Online Profile...and it FREE!

Many thanks to my blogging friend Sue who told me about www.parentgallery.com. It is an adoption profile website that is free. The last free one I signed up for resulted in a ton of scam emails from Nigeria, but this one looks better. It only took me about 30 minutes to get it set up and they had it approved and published a few hours later. You can view our profile HERE.

Honest Scrap

I know I've done a few things similar to this, but I love doing this kind of thing! I was tagged by my cousin Kim.

1. I shot our last truck and Josh took the blame. We were out shooting pot guts and I leaned over the bed to shoot one and hit the truck. I hit it twice before we realized. We could only find one bullet hole. I think only one person ever noticed and Josh told him that he did it.

2. I almost broke up with Josh. We had been dating for a few months and I wasn't sure if it was something I wanted to continue. The night I planned to break up with him he suddenly took me in his arms and it just felt so perfect. After that is when I really started to fall in love with him.

3. I have flunked two college classes. I laughed about the first one. I was a straight A student! It was my college math class. I love math, but I got busy that year and missed a few classes (some because I had learned the joys of sluffing, but mostly because I joined a school club and missed a few classes doing projects there). But the teacher was different in teaching style; that is my excuse. I retook the class that summer from a different teacher and she was so much better. She taught everything like I had learned in high school. I got an A that time. The second class was Economics. I work hard in that class! But I had to retake it anyways...

4. I dream on almost a daily basis of getting a baby. I day dream about the call and where we will be. I dream of the birth mother and what she is like. My nightmare is that the call will come while Josh is hunting in the mountains and I won't be able to find him.

5. I am already thinking about Halloween. I want to figure out how to mount my skeleton on the elk mount and make it look like he is riding it. I have started to think about my Halloween dinner menu. Josh suggested a cranberry crumble. I told him no because it isn't Halloween related. His defense... it's a fall dish. I don't care. It has to be a Halloween dish. I'm not sure what we will have for dinner, but I am tossing around ideas in my head. I can't wait!

6. When I am home, I wear Josh's t-shirts. I like how they fit me.

7. When I am upset, I like to turn the up radio loud and drive fast. I have a few Cd's that I prefer for my mad driving. My favorite one is the Twilight Soundtrack.

8.I don't ever plan to attend any high school reunions. I hated high school and was so glad to get away from there. I keep in contact with a few people, but I really don't care about the rest. That is the only part about Twilight that I don't like. I could ignore it in the book, but in the movie it makes me remember high school.

9. When I am on my 4-ten hour work schedule I let my house work slip during the week and then do everything on Friday.

10. I have the entire Section of Doctrine & Convents 6 highlighted. It took several times of reading it to do so, but each time I read there, it somehow touches my soul. My favorite verses are: 10-12, 14-16, and 22-23.

I tag EVERYONE. I am feeling lazy and don't want to list all the names. If you are on one of my blog lists, consider yourself tagged.

Please Excues My Dust...

I really REALLY REALLY want a 3 column blog. There isn't near as many cute backgrounds, but my side bar is getting so big that I need to make the switch to 3 columns. I know the background is...wow, but really there isn't a lot of choices. Right now I am using Leeloo Blogs. She comes out with a few new designs a month so I will continue to look for something new.
Please be patient as I make a few changes. Hopefully I can get everything back in tip top condition soon.

New Scents

I just got my new Scentsy Testers! The new scents are:
Beach
Cinnamon Cider
Coconut Citrus Parfait
French Lavender
Grape Granita
Hearth & Home
Herb Garden
Leather
Lush Gardenia
Meadow Pear
Mediterranean
Orange Dreamsicle
Pima Cotton
Pineapple Paradise
Plumeria
Red Delicious
Sangria
Spruce & Citrus
Sweet Tea Magnolia
Tarocco Mint
Tea Blossom
Twilight
Vanilla Walnut

My personal favorites are:
Beach
Cinnamon Cider
Grape Granita
Hearth & Home
Pineapple Paradise
Red Delicious
Sangria
Spruce & Citrus

Sadly, I am disappointed with Twilight. It smells nothing like I imagined. I'm not sure what I expected, but I didn't care for it. They also have some new warmers that are way cute!

If you want to place an order or request a catalog, please email me at sourbonk [at] yahoo [dot] com. I would also love to help you host your own Scentsy party where you can earn free and discounted items.

A proud moment for Josh

Josh spent all winter trimming down the coyote and fox population around our house. It is now a safer place for our kittens to run around outside.
There is 12 fox's and 11 coyotes. And the funny thing (at least I think so). The gun he is holding...he didn't use it. He just wanted to hold his pretty gun for the picture.

I wish my cats were this smart

MY NEW LOVE!

Not to be confused with Cherry Vanilla or Cherry Chocolate Diet Dr. Pepper. Just Cherry Diet Dr. Pepper.

Diet Dr. Pepper, why do I love you so? Why can I not go a day without you? I wish I could give you up; my acid reflux stomach tells me I should. But I can't. I need you too much!

On a side note, Josh doesn't like Diet Dr. Pepper, but if it sits in the fridge for more than 5 hours he takes that to mean I don't want it. So he drinks it. He did this earlier this week and when I confronted him about it, he admitted that he doesn't like it and he was planning to buy one to replace it with so I wouldn't notice. If he uses this logic, why doesn't he just buy a drink he would like and drink that instead of a drink he doesn't like at all.

It's snowing

Most people are upset. I understand that. Last week the weather was nice and you could feel spring in the air. This week it is cold, but not miserable. And I am not going to complain because I can still remember last year...

We took these pictures a year ago. We had so much snow last year. I loved it, but I think winter is a beautiful time of year and I would rather deal with the colder snowy weather than the blazing hot summers. Except I like to go outside in the summer. I wish the snow wasn't so cold.

To give you a better idea... Last year, we still had snow behind our house the first part of June. This year, we never had snow last on our lawn for more than two weeks. It always melted before the next snow storm. Last year, we couldn't use our front door because the snow falling off the roof to the front porch was feet deep. This year, well we never even had to bother to shovel the walk. Last year, we drove through a snow drift that was taller than our truck. This year, I think they snow plow only had to come up our lane three times.

Mornings are the best time for lovins!

At least that is what Missy has figured out. Get daddy's attention while he is watching the weather and waiting for the truck to warm up. She has also figured out another great time for lovin' is when we say our prayers. It's hard to pray with a kitten licking your nose!

Poor confused puppy...

Every morning we leave for work and worry that Sage will get herself tangled up. And every evening we come home to find that she really didn't do too bad. She's only lost a foot or two of her chain. So we play with her for awhile and then go in the house. Ten minutes later we will look outside (because we are so excited to finally have a puppy!). When we look out, we find that she has managed to wrap herself up and now only has a foot of chain left. I like to think that she is so happy to have us home that she keeps trying to check the different doors and that is how she gets all tangled up.

And the dog house built with love by Josh. Apparently it is for decoration only. Every morning we put her bone, chew toy, and mat in there. Every day she pulls everything out, mat included. We have only seen her in it once. And don't mind the picture, we haven't finished it yet. Josh is going to shingle it this weekend. He is hoping that a construction job will have some left over scrap siding that he can put on the dog house. I just want to paint it pink!

She has figured out the "nummy" treats. As in, don't do what humans say, just wait until they are distracted and take it from them. We are trying to learn sit and stay. We will keep trying.

*We do realize that it takes time, patience, and repetition to train a dog. But since we have nothing else to blog about you will have to read about us and our puppy.

Adoption Seminar

Last Sunday we took a 2-1/2 drive to attend an adoption seminar about financing an adoption for under $15K. It was amazing and well worth the drive. We learned a ton of new information. I have been meaning to post about it, but life was crazy last week. I want to share some of the notes from the class; I want to do anything I can to help others adopt.

1 - The tax credit is $12K for families who have adopted. I've had this explained to me several times, but some how Kelly explained it so we could understand it. I never understood if you got the money back or not.
Let me see if I can explain it... For up to 5 years who can collect back on your adoption amount, but you can only collect as much as you pay in taxes that year. For example: Our adoption cost $10,000 total. The first year we paid $4,000 in taxes. We get that $4,000 back that year and our new balance is $6,000. The next year we pay $4,000 in taxes so we get another $4,000 back and that leaves us with a new balance on our adoption fund of $2,000. The 3rd year, we pay another $4,000 in taxes, but we only $2,000 back because that is the balance of the adoption. I hope that makes since to every one! I have had this explained to me a dozen times and I never understood it until now!

2- Pretend like the child is already here. We need to buy diapers, formula and day care (just to name a few things). So we figure up how much that would cost and then put it into our adoption fund. This helps in two ways. First, we are saving even more money towards our child and secondly, we are learning to live on a small income by pretending to spend the money now that we will have to spend when the baby arrives. We are struggling to do this, but we feel that paying for Josh's education is as just a worthy cause.

3- Adoption through the Foster Care System is under $1K. I have already mentioned why we don't think Foster Care is right for us right now. It is something I want to do someday, but now is not the right time for us. And I feel really bad feeling that way, because there is thousands of children in the foster care system right now that need permanent homes. But I stand by our decision for two big reasons. One, I really want to start my parenthood in the baby stage. I want a baby as young as I can get. Two, I couldn't deal with the heartache of them going back to their families. The main purpose of Foster Care is to help the family get back together. These families are giving a hundred different chances to get their lives back in order so they can get their children back. I am not ready to love a child only to have to let them go.

4- Special Needs is totally different that what I pictured. The lady who taught this class has adopted several special needs children. For most of those children they just needed a simple 15 minutes surgery and then they were fine. A few website to check out are www.spence-chapin.org, www.chask.org and www.cradle.org. A lot of these children can be adopted for under $6K

5-There are several agencies that have reduced fees or grants attached to their waiting children. These children can be adopted for $6K -15K. Their websites are: www.wacap.org, www.holtintl.org, www.adoptionadvocates.org.

6- A few other websites that have children with grants already attached to each child: www.brittanyshope.org, www.untilallhavehomes.org, www.reecesrainbow.org, www.chancesbychoice.org, www.hivtohome.org.

*I hope all these websites work. I didn't check the links as I typed them in.

Kelly talked about several other things. If you want to learn more she teaches the class, I believe, about once a month. If you would like to get in contact with her just leave me a comment and I will email you her email address. She only charges $10 for the class and all the money is donated to an adoption cause. She also teaches other classes like just an Adopting from Africa or other countries. She lives in Layton and the class we went to was on a Sunday evening. We didn't get home until super late that night, but it was well worth it and we hope to attend other classes in the future. Be prepared - she has homework! With the class we attended she has a mandatory reading of two books: There Is No Me Without You by Melissa Faye Greene and One Tattered Angel by Blaine M. Yorgason.

PLEASE HELP US ADOPT

We have decided to switch agencies, probably this summer. The odds of getting a placement with our current agency are quite low. They average about 100 birthmothers to 1,000 waiting couples. I don't like those odds. The positive side to our agency was the price, but that just isn't enough anymore.

We have been looking at international adoption, but I don't know if we will pursue that yet or not. I would like to do it someday, but I would like to be more familiar with how adoption works before we start looking over seas.

There are several agencies here in Utah that look like great agencies. We are looking pretty seriously at A Guardian Angel Adoptions. They have great odds. About once a month I hear that they have birthmothers due immediately, but no families to place the baby with. If I had the thousands of dollars they require, we would already be parents.

I am still clinging to the hope that we can adopt without going into debt. So we have decided to try a few things. I just added a link in our sidebar where people can donate money to our PayPal account. I have seen other prospective adoptive couples do this, so I hope it has good success.
We are also looking into doing some fundraisers. We thought about doing the Little Ceaser pizza kits, but the Boy scouts in our area are doing that right now. We might consider it again in the fall. We are also looking into selling candy bars. We would love any suggestions!

Baby Cake!

Here is another baby cake I recently made. I think this is my favorite one so far. I tried something new this time and I LOVED it. Instead of wrapping ribbons and bows around each layer, I bought some headbands and put those around each layer. I hope the bottom one doesn't stretch out too much. Then I also bought several of the clip on flowers that seem to be the "in thing" right now and I clipped those on the headbands. I made a cake that had a little blanket like this one, but I just tied it to the side. This time I draped it over the top layer (burp rags & bibs), wrapped the head band around it and then just untucked a little bit to show the cute saying, "Thank Heaven for little girls." This really is so true in so many ways for my friend.