Fixer Upper

I haven't been very good about posting updated pictures of our house!

I think its because I say I'll wait until this or that gets finished.

Then I realized, it's pretty much all done!!

I first must say that this could not have happened without my amazing husband!

He is truly a man who does not care or have opinions.

Whenever I was trying to decided on something, 

I would ask him what he thought and his answer was always,

whatever make you happy.

Awe, those kind of guys are slim to non to find!

He honestly gave me my dream home.

I wish there was a way to repay him back for all the hard work he put into making

this a dream come true for me!

A year had come and gone from our move in date.

I couldn't believe it.

Since we gutted the whole inside, we took a year off from work.

The outside was horrendous!

Nothing on this house had been updated or fixed in a good 20 years I'm guessing.

I take that back.

The owners before us said they had re done the landscaping out front the year prior.

Say whaa??

Oh, you mean tearing out the grass and putting in a weird

shaped curbing surrounded by kitty litter type rocks?

PERFECT update!

I am one to find the diamond in the rough, so I knew this house had great bones.

Casey and I would always talk about fixing up the outside, but never had a starting date.

One Saturday morning Casey pulled up with the tractor and started demoing.

It was a HAPPY DAY!

Here is the before in all her mint green glory!

bye bye kitty litter that got stuck in your shoes and would get spread through out the whole house.

The funny part was, we really didn't have a plan:/

New concrete or pavers?

New brick or stone?

Paint the brick or stucco?

Shiplap and new brick??

Ugh, the choices were endless.

We had so many guys come to give us bids, sometimes even twice!

In the end we decided to do pavers.

I was nervous.

People wondered why we were doing pavers when Casey does concrete for a living, lol!

I wanted our house to look different than the others on our street.

Not living in an HOA neighborhood, I felt compelled to throw caution to the wind.

So a couple of weeks later, we tore out the driveway!

The pavers I chose were different than what I thought I wanted.

After many trips to the store to weigh my options and driving neighborhoods to get ideas,

I picked 2 different layouts.

 The driveway was going to be bold with dark charcoal and a white square paver.

The walk way was more of a mix of the 2 colors and more subtle to the eye.

The more they worked on it, the more I was starting to LOVE IT:)

Once we got the walk way in we realized that the front door was not centered by about 6 inches.

Enough to be noticeable and bug us every time we would pull up to our house.

I'm a girl and figured we were stuck with it.

I guess I was wrong!

Next thing I know, Casey and Russ, our neighbor had a saw and were cutting out the front door!

It was comical. At least to me it was.

I mentally couldn't imagine what they were going to do to fix the problem.

Welp, it was simple.

Take off the baseboard, cut around the door, slide it over and re drywall and then paint.

Voila!!

Next was deciding what materials to use on the house.

Long story short, I picked shiplap:)

Let me also tell you, this was not an overnight project.

It took about 2 months.

And the whole time I was sick as a dog!

I was early pregnant and the most nauseous I had ever been.

Plus I got the flu on top of it.

I remember one day laying on the floor of the living room so sick.

Hair was a mess, house was a mess.

 A worker walked in to fix something and I couldn't of cared less what he thought of me

laying dead on the floor.

I'm so glad this part is over with!!

Here is the house with shiplap, not painted yet.

Picking paint colors was easy, because I already knew what I wanted.

WHITE!!

All white.

Trim and all:)

White makes me happy!

The painter wasn't so sure.

He tried to get me to pick another color as accents but I stood my ground.

6 coats of paint later I had my farmhouse almost complete!

I also love the turquoise door and the garage door made the whole thing what it is!

Oh, here is Casey's truck loaded up with new trees and bushes.

It was comical driving down the road with this massive thing in the back!

And the finished product!

Still looking for the perfect wreath and finishing touches.

But this is definitely HOME SWEET HOME!

Grandmother

My sweetest Grandmother passed away.

Even though she was old and lonely without her husband, and

constantly reminding us that this was going to be her last birthday, holiday,

whatever it was here on earth.

It didn't make it any easier when the day arrived.

I had a special bond with both of my grandparents.

I lived down the street from them until I was 12!

We sat next to them in church every Sunday.

When I was sick, she made me a special bed on the couch with

ironed sheets and fluffy pillows.

She gave me a bell to ring when I needed something.

Sprite and homemade soup was served to me on a silver tray in glass dishes.

Spending the night meant bubble baths and a deluxe homemade breakfast the next morning.

She was always prim and proper.

Reminding me to cross my legs and to pull my shoulders back and sit up straight.

We picked blackberries in their yard every spring.

She taught me how to cook.

They let Stephanie and I drive their Chrysler Imperial in high school that we dubbed "QUEENIE".

She let me do her weekly hair- do, or perms and cuts after I graduated beauty school for a couple

of years until I went off to college.

When I met Casey she told me over and over again what a special young man he was

and to not let him go.

Or maybe she was saying, don't screw this up!

So many wonderful memories... too many to count actually.

I had no doubt that they loved me!

This is on the steps of the temple after Casey and I got married.

That man behind them is my Grandpa Jesse.

My parents grew up in the same ward.

I love how both of my grandparents are friends with each other.

We got a text that Grandmother was sick and on the way to the

hospital where she was diagnosed with pneumonia.

A few days after being admitted I was at Lanes baseball game when I got the text

that now was the time to come say goodbye.

I love how Heavenly Father seems to have the timing thing down!

It was a Saturday afternoon so pretty much all of my cousins, aunts and uncles

were in her room all at the same time.

We all got to be together to say our goodbyes to the one woman who we all feel

is the best Grandmother anybody could ever have.

I hate to put this picture on here because these were literally minutes before her passing.

But I love how she is surrounded by the people who loved her most.

The spirit was strong, all of our eyes filled with tears.

We were sad she had to leave us but so happy she was not in pain anymore and in

heaven reunited with my Grandad and her son that passed away and birth.

 Since we are such a big family and Grandmother hadn't been living in her

home for a couple of years, they decided that we would make assignments and supply our own

food for the luncheon after the funeral.

Honestly, it was great that way!

The menu was soft tacos/taco salad and for dessert, a grandmother specialty... FRIED PIES!

I was put on the fried pie committee along with my seesters and Aunt Judy!

She is the pie queen, next to grandmother. of course:)

We went over to Aunt Judy's so she could give us a crash course on how to master

the fried pies. She actually bought my grandparents house so it was fun being back

in Grandmothers kitchen, making one of her staple recipes!

We passed the course and were loaded up with Crisco (6 big cans worth) and apple filling

to go knock out 200 pies at home!

I started making and cutting out the dough that same night.

It only took 3 hours for that part!

The next morning I started filling and pressing.

I got about half way when I ran out of pie filling.

With Grandmothers fried pies you do not use canned filling.

I ran to Safeway and loaded up on apples.

As we were getting in the car Rusty complained that

his side was hurting him.

 I shrugged it off and let him stay home from school.

I started cranking out the filling before I needed to take Lindi to swim lessons.

We got home and Rusty seemed to be getting worse.

He had a high fever and looked really pale.

I knew I had at least a couple more hours filling pies before Grandmothers viewing that night.

Rusty finally fell asleep on the floor for 30 minutes.

All of a sudden he woke up SCREAMING and yelling that it really hurt and that he couldn't breath!

I threw down the spoon and ran over to him.

I tried to lay him flat to see exactly where his pain was but he was flipping out that it hurt.

When I pushed on it, he yelped really loud.

His lips were started to turn blue.

AGH!

I called Casey in a panic. He said to go to the doctor.

I said ok but realized they wouldn't be able to do much.

I decided to scoop him up and take him to the ER.

My kitchen was a mess, Rusty had no shoes on.

Lindi was crying and a hot mess from swim lessons, I had sticky apple filling on my hands,

we were a site for sore eyes!

Oh, and when I was checking him into the ER I looked at the clock and realized Lanes

bus was going to be there in 10 minutes!

Casey was too far away.

Luckily my sweet neighbor Michelle came to the rescue and picked him up for me.

We got taken back quickly.

The doctors ruled out his appendix but wanted to get an x-ray of his chest

to make sure he didn't have pneumonia.

I only started to panic when the doctor told him to hold off on food and drink.

I text Casey to please hurry and get here fast! 

As we waited Casey came about the same time as his parents.

Papa helped Casey give Rusty a blessing.

They took Lindi home with them which was SO NICE.

Lindi was DONE!

Not long after they left the doctor came back saying he had some hazing on his lung

right where his pain was.

It wasn't pneumonia but a virus like pneumonia and it would run its course.

PHEW!

 4 hours later we were out of there!

Casey took Rusty with him in his truck.

On the way home he barfed, nice.

Papa came back to our house and watched the kids so we could go to the last 30 minutes

of Grandmothers viewing. He is the best!

Casey had a church meeting to be to so I got the kids in bed at about 9:30.

Then I got back to work making pies!

Casey got home right as I was starting to fry.

We had ourselves our own little party.

100 pies later at 1:30 am, we were finished!

These things are delicious but definitely a labor of LOVE!

I think we had a total of 400 for the luncheon.

And they got gobbled up!

The next morning we dropped Rusty off at Casey's moms house.

She was so nice to watch him all day for us!

We headed to the cemetery for the family prayer at 8 o'clock.

I like how this funeral had some twists to tradition.

I loved how we went to the cemetery first.

It wasn't hot, the air was crisp and it felt more peaceful and not rushed.

We stood around and chatted while we waited for everybody to get there.

Lucy flew in the night before so I quickly snatched her up and snarfed on her:)

Uncle Jim dedicated the grave and said a family prayer.

We took pictures for about 20 minutes.

Here are all of my dad siblings.

Jim, Karen, Judy, Marcia and my dad.

And their spouses.

I don't know why Uncle Skip isn't in it.

Most of the first cousins.

We couldn't pull away a few from chatting.

It was about 9:15 and the funeral didn't start until 10.

We called in breakfast burritos and had ourselves a little tail gating party

in the parking lot of the church.

Grandmother would not have wanted us to be hungry at her funeral:)

Since we had already had the family prayer, there was no family procession into the chapel.

We arrived and sat down at our leisure, another thing I really liked!

Her service was wonderful!

Full of stories and beautiful music.

Afterwards we walked into the cultural hall for lunch!

It was a feast!

Lindblom's know how to eat right:)

The best part about this all, is that even though both of our Grandparents have passed on,

they were able to form close knit extended family relationships.

I have the best cousins in the world.

We see each other often, and I love it!

In fact, we will all be camping together this July.

I am grateful for forever families and both my Grandad and Grandmother.

So happy they have each other again:)

Spring that sprung

Marcie text wondering if anybody wanted

to meet her and Scarlett at the mall to get a picture with the Easter Bunny.

I knew Rusty would love that.

Lane quickly passed and opted to stay home and play football with friends:)

And Lindi, well, I prepped her as much as I could before arriving!

Girlfriend has a love hate relationship with Santa and animals.

Since this is a giant Santa type animal it could go really bad.

I think in her mind she thought we were going to see actual bunnies.

She kept saying that she wont cry because they are small and fluffly and

will pet them and will be careful.

Her eyes got a little bigger when we walked up and she saw the Easter Bunny.

No tears though!

Well, when it was our turn she came unglued.

But it makes for the best picture, lol!

We had our three legged egg hunt at the Goodmans!

I tried something different this Easter.

It worked out quite nicely!

The kids woke up to a note instead of baskets:

A picture after church.

After lunch they got to find their Easter baskets!

We hid them in our weed infested backyard.

They thought it was pretty fun.

I will carry on the tradition!

My mom had a birthday so we took her to JoyRide Taco!

I sure have a groovy mom!

Of course we had to walk next door to Liberty Market for dessert!

Lucky us, we scored the last dossant of the day!

We split it 7 ways and got some more goodies try out.

My mom gave me all of my old dresses I wore growing up.

This one is probably my favorite.

So fun that Lindi gets to wear it now!

We snuck away one weekend with Travis and Sunni.

Tucson seems to be our choice of travel with them:)

It was part birthday present for Casey and part anniversary get-away for us.

The first day we all got pedicures!

Those boys have no shame in getting their tootsies pampered!

We ate at our favorite Mexican restaurant for dinner then saw the

movie the Huntsman. Of course we picked up DQ then went back to the resort

and played games all night!

We were surprised to find a lovely fruit and nut platter and sparkling water

on the table with a note saying welcome and enjoy your stay!

We felt so VIP we had to put on our lush robes and play the part, lol!

We enjoyed sleeping in (by far the best part of any kid-less vacation),ordering room

service for breakfast and playing more games!

We like to get the suite so there are 2 rooms, 2 bathrooms and a living space.

Travis must have started getting mouthy so Sunni and I tried closing him up in the murphy bed:)

We went to the pool for a few hours then came back to get ready for our big night out on the town!

We went to Flemings for our favorite steaks then off to NITRO CIRCUS!

Who cant resist a show full of dumb heads who are willing to put their bodies at risk for

others entertainment?!

See that long ramp to the right?

See that man sitting in a recliner flying in the air over the little black ramp that

says nitro circus?

Ya, that's what the show is all about.

And it is awesome!!

They have dirt bikers, BMX riders, scooters, rollerbladers... you name it!

Of course it was another late game night.

It's so sad to go home the next day.