Dig the Digs

Three whole years in one house must mean SOMETHING.

For us, it means these years...

are over.

We're stayin' put, rooted, firmly planted, homesteaded...settled.

But it wasn't always

like that.

Take a stroll with me to

The Vacant Homes of Memory Lane

Memory Lane, Cedar City, Utah

Home #1 and 2*: Camino Royale

Okay, okay...Camino Manor. But LOOK at this beauty, this manifestation of architectural majesty...)

*We actually lived in TWO different units in this complex. Crazy...but good times.

GOOD TIMES: Free rent (we were the managers. So proud...); surrounded, literally, by good friends and great weekend outings; campus mere steps from our front door; fireworks from the stadium in the summer; Shakespearean Festival musician next door=free play tickets; charming white wood paneling (after I attacked the 70s paneling with a paint brush wielding white paint)

BAD TIMES: Coin-op laundry; 3-inch gap at bottom of front door (think bitter wind seeping into apartment in winter); elementary school-style toilet (complete with ferocious sounding flush),; built-in couches (no joke)

Home #3: Cedars West Apartments

A temporary stop-over until Christopher's impending Hall Director position was vacated--stay tuned for that move...I know you want to.

GOOD TIMES: 3 bedrooms!! (i.e. more places to stack the boxes); a family of cats that lived across the parking lot and came to visit me (They sensed the animal-loving vibes...and maybe enjoyed the food.); great view from back upstairs window, air conditioner and no gap under front door

BAD TIMES: Coin-op laundry AGAIN!; strange smell

Home #4: Juniper Residence Hall, SUU Campus

GOOD TIMES: A quaint, private little apartment in the bottom floor of a dorm while the rest of the poor college students resided around and above is in their cramped rooms and shared, communal bathrooms; free rent, no utilities, plus 2 paychecks (Christopher got paid for being Hall Director and I had a full-time job elsewhere); constant flow of residents in and out of our open door ( I LOVED it!); free play tickets (Love the Shakespearean Festival); the birth of Ultimate Croquet, Water Bottle competitions and FREE LAUNDRY!! (albeit in the dark dungeon of the basement); chaperoning group dates as the only married couple amidst a crowd of singles in hot pursuit; unending supply of heat that we didn't have to pay for!; VIP parking spot (never had to search for a place to park...and that was a big deal)

BAD TIMES: Cinder block walls; rude awakenings at 2 a.m. when fire alarm sounded due to burnt microwave popcorn 3 floors up


Memory Lane, Las Vegas, Nevada

Home #5: Mesa Club Apartments

GOOD TIMES: Great friends; great ward; 3 blocks from Christopher's school, 2 from mine; surrounded by actual drywall, lots and lots and lots of windows; 10 minutes to airport, 10 minutes from Strip, but far enough to avoid having to smell it; pool; great shopping

BAD TIMES: black widows and cockroaches on our deck; knuckle marks in front door from previous owner; low-flying airplanes

(Temporary) Home #6--House sitting

GOOD TIMES: Huge pool with slide, waterfall and hot tub; HUGE kitchen; use of car (see above); sprawling back deck to hang out on at night when it cooled down to 105 degrees; not having to clean a house for a month; a bathroom bigger than our apartment

BAD TIMES: getting lost in the house, leaving our cat a lone man at home for a month

(Temporary) Home #7--Basement of my parent's house until we found our current home

ALL good times! ;) Thanks, Mom and Dad!

Memory Lane, Home Sweet Home

Home #8

GOOD TIMES; Fabulous friends, great neighbors, fantastic ward, incredible view, home projects galore and no packing in sight!!

Here's to 3 years in one place!

The Office

Quotes (and tidbits) of the Week

"If these walls could talk, they would say, ‘This is a magical place. You are safe here. We are talking walls. We’re not going to eat you.’ ”
--Michael

“Cookie, Kevin, cookie.”
--Michael

Visuals to ponder:
*Dwight in a wife-beater*
*Kelly dancing*

(After being smacked in the head by Dwight during YMCA at Cafe Disco),

“Owwww. Hey, come on, man. That’s not even a Y.”

--Michael

Audio to ponder:
Dwight’s laugh after paying the secretary to say, “I won an art contest!”

Ho-Hummmmmmmmmmm-mingbird

We recently started our own aviary.

Last Spring, we rented out our tree to a single mom and her kids and they liked it so much they decided to stick around through driving winter snows, whipping winds and another round of Spring’s uncertainties. (Mother Bird has impressive nest-building skills, I might add…)

Our ornithological-minded ways fluttered through the bird community, attracting a very outgoing and somewhat bewildered hummingbird friend of Mother Bird. Little Hummy invited herself (himself?) into our garage and stubbornly refused to return to his/her natural habitat without receiving nourishment and a falsetto rendition of

“Feed the Birds, Tuppence, Tuppence”

by Christopher.

Little Hummy is currently renting the bottom portion of our tree.

Motherhoodly

Motherhood in Eight Commonly Used Phrases

"Wash your hands....with SOAP!"

"I'm not listening until you stop whining."

"What, Bennett? What, Bennett? What, Bennett?

(Repeated thirty to forty times per minute in response to "Hey, Mom!")
"Do you need to go potty? No? You look like you need to."
"Oh, really? Wow!"
(Also repeated thirty to forty times per minute in response to outrageous stories related with much enthusiasm.)

"You're hungry AGAIN?"

"I said in a minute and it hasn't been a minute yet."

"Love you. Good Night."

Happy Mother's Day!

The Office

Quotes of the Week

"Oh, it is on like a prawn who yawns at dawn."

--Andy

Dwight: "We need to do something. I'm thinking maybe a coup or we take Ryan hostage.o harsh.

Phyliis:Those sound too harsh.

Dwight: No, I'm not saying we DO those things,I'm saying something LIKE those things.

Jim:Of course. What is LIKE a hostage?

Dwight: Excellent question.

Andy:We could write a strongly worded letter.

Dwight: Words will never be enough.

Jim: Strongly paint a picture.

"This is awkward to talk about, but there may or may not be but definitely is a mutiny forming in the warehouse right now."

--Jim

"I am not to be truffled with."

--Michael

"No matter how I look at this, I am in the wrong. And I have looked at this thing like a hundred different ways. From my point of view, from their point of view.....98 other ways."

--Michael

"What I tell you 'bout building forts in my warehouse?"

-Darrell

Michael: I need your help. This whole Pam-Ryan debate is messing with my head.

Jim: I don't want to be biased, but I am very close to Ryan. You know that.

Michael: You're close with Pam, too.

Jim: Yeah, she's nice I guess. You know what? Best thing to do, pros and cons list.

Michael: Pro for Ryan, he went to business school He's my number one choice, I like his hair.

Jim: Cons, Ryan. He defrauded the company, he has never made a sale, he definitely stole my iPod.

Michael: That sounds pretty biased.

Jim: You didn't hear my pros. Environmentally conscious because his mom drives him to work every day."

Andy: You don't understand clothing, Toby. You're dressed like this amorphous blob of khaki."

Toby: "Alright, look...what you've got to understand is when you come to work you give up certain rights.

Dwight: Listen up, Flenderson. You're being weak and ineffectual. I'm cowboying this meeting, okay? Here are the new rules. Earth tones only. Also, women are forbidden to wear pants."

(Sorry about the spacing--it's driving me crazy, but won't change...)