Avery

So silly.

Page Arizona

We visited Page, AZ for Todd's first Ultra Marathon!  He signed up for the Antelope Canyon 50k (about 32 miles) and his brother Mark signed up for the 50 miler.

Todd and Mark were both leading their races and could have won!!  Little did they know, the race crew was scrambling to finish marking the course as the race was in progress.  Mark missed a turn because signage wasn't up in time.  Todd caught up to and passed the race crew as they were marking the course....twice.  He even helped place flags on one section.  At one point the course was marked incorrectly, leading Todd and five others 6 miles out of the way.  Eventually the race crew fixed it so the rest of the runners could stay on course.

Todd ran/wandered 34 miles and then called me to come pick him up.  Mark and other runners did the same.  He was a little disappointed that the course was so poorly prepared and he didn't finish the race.  But at least they gave him a bowl of chili at the finish line.

Other than the flop of a race, the trip was great.  We stayed in a cheap hotel.  Avery and I hiked to the Horseshoe bend.  We ate dinner watching the sun set over Lake Powell.  We hiked through Lower Antelope Canyon (which was AMAZING!!!.)  It was short but beautiful.

 

Avery is giving the cameraman a crusty

   

And a close up of that crusty:

   

   

I forgot her gloves so she wore mine. :)

Descending into Lower Antelope Canyon

   

 

It was cold but we bundled up
  

   

   

   

This looks like a cat:

   

I see a face in this photo.  Do you?

 

Lots of Projects

Since the air is so bad and we've been pretty much stuck indoors these past few months, I have been building up a storm. I have a precious 2 hour block during Avery's nap and a few hours after she goes to bed to work on projects to my heart's content. It has been great! 

Each project I tackle I find myself more than once swearing and wondering why I am attempting such a senseless thing... (After all, what business is it of mine to build furniture from scraps of wood??) And then when I finish I get so excited that I just want to invite the whole neighborhood over to see all my hard work. :) It's kind of a roller coaster but it keeps me busy and I am learning a lot. Here are the recent projects: 

Built in spice rack:

 

 

   

I love the carved detail in the frame.

   

   

I made these ripoff canvas prints.  Just painted texture cream on top of photos that I stapled to painter's canvases.  The "HAMMOND" sign was a Christmas gift a few years ago. (Thanks Beth!!)

   

This beautiful beast is nearly done.  It is way bigger than I had anticipated but I love it!

   

I sanded and stained all the edges.

   

This is a ripoff from pottery barn.  The real thing costs $1200.  

I built it out of old garage shelving (bought for cheap from ksl.com) and it cost me about $100.

   

Love hanging Christmas cards on this huge frame!

   

This seesaw was such a big hit that my niece threw up all over it from laughing so hard!  Ha ha!  

I made it as a Christmas present for my sister, but plan to make another one for myself cuz it was so easy.

   

Here I stenciled this bird-photo onto a stool we got from Todd's late Grandma.

   

I love the old weathery look.

   

 And of course the toy-hiding coffee table to match the media console.

   

Good thing Avery is too little to open this on her own. :)

 

Hapy 2014

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year! For Christmas, Santa brought Avery a toilet (she tells us when she's got to go) but she takes the squishy toilet seat off and chews on it. Needless to say she hasn't figured it out yet, lol.
 To celebrate the New Year, we went down town where Todd's band, The Statuettes, played at the Salt Lake Eve. They were on the news, it was really cool! (Literally cool, it was 35 degrees!) Here are a few recent photos:

Playing in the snow together is comprised of 20 minutes of putting on snow clothes, and 3 minutes of Avery swinging her hand back and forth in the snow, then she's ready to go back inside.

  

My big girl:

   

Christmas Morning

   

To Daddy love Funion (her nickname)

   

   

  

   

  I usually make resolutions that I forget somewhere around May.  Here they are this year:

1. Be more adventurous with food.  I already ate a portobello mushroom!

2. Go one week gluten free, followed by 11 weeks crap-free.  That's right, I'm giving up crap for 3 months.

3. Don't talk with my mouth full.  This one is especially hard for me because I'm such a people pleaser.  The instant someone asks me something I feel the urgent need to respond right away so they know I'm not ignoring them.  I guess I'll hold up a finger or something, (not the middle one lol) then swallow, then answer.

4. Don't worry about pleasing other people so much.  This one is my favorite! :)

More Before & After Photos

Here are a few more b & a pics of the house:

 

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

   

 

Happy Birthday To Me

We celebrated my birthday by going to Moab for a trail half-marathon (Todd) and 5k (me.)  Avery stayed with Grandma for 3 days and for the first time ever we didn't sleep in the same place!  It went really well, except for coming home early with the flu, and picking up Avery who also had the flu, and giving the flu to my mom and sister.  That part was awful.

During the 5k I felt my love for running re-ignite and I'm planning on training for a half marathon next Spring.  I felt kinda wussy (OK really wimpy and wussy) for only doing a 5k when Todd did the half and Mark and Van did the whole marathon.  But at least I did a running event, right?

Since our trip was cut short I only took a few photos.  Here's the best one:

Here are the 31 things I almost completed in the last year:

1. Take swim lessons - check

2. Learn to ski- check

3. Ski back country (I've always been afraid of this!)- check- and I kinda hated it!

4. Hike Lone Peak- didn't make it.

5. Hike Twin Peaks- didn't make it.

6. Do a duathalon- check

7. Take a cooking class- didn't make it.  But I did cook a lot of pie crusts!

8. Buy my dream home- check

9. Fix up my dream home because I'll probably have to buy a less expensive scummy house and make it my own- check

10. Visit my sister in Vernal every couple months- check

11. Take Avery to the beach- check

12. Take Avery desert camping- check

13. Kayak down a river- check

14. Learn to install hard wood floors- check

15. Mountain bike a marathon distance- check and this one lost me 5 pounds! I'm not kidding, it was hard!!

16. Learn to make a pie crust that doesn't taste like concrete- check (see #7)

17. Use apples from my yard to cook with- check

18. Actually truly FINISH this darn house we've been working on- check

19. Compete in another bike race- didn't make it

20. Do the Dirty Dash- check

21. Backpack somewhere with Avery- didn't make it. I was really sad about this one.

22. Learn to build furniture out of wood- check

23. Run a trail race- check

24. Plan a trip- check

25. Take a trip!- check (no where too exciting, just Moab but I loved it.)

26. Take a trip without Avery- check

27. Become comfortable with power tools- check

28. Bring someone dinner who needs it- check a few times

29. Throw a party in our new house- check

30. Figure out why I'm dizzy all time time- this one is in the works.  I'm wearing a heart monitor right now.

31.  Forgive myself for not completing this whole list- check!

Coffee Table

What a difference a coffee table will make!

 

   

   

   

They call this the 20 second tidy up coffee table, but it took me 2 minutes to toss everything inside. Not bad!

I made the coffee table myself. I bought bare pine from Home Depot and followed the instructions on ana-white.com and made it! I'm hooked on this wood-working stuff, it's really fun. :) For my birthday I got a kreg jig, air compressor, and 2 nail guns.  So cool!

The ironic thing about this table is that I actually stained it with coffee.  The coffee-stained coffee table, get it?