Really? What are the Odds?

About 4 years ago our brick mailbox was taken out by some teenagers that were street racing. The car that hit our mailbox at the time had an open tank of NOS gas (VERY flammable) in his trunk that started his car on fire. A fire that my neighbors and I had to put out. The kid was slightly injured and citations were issued by the police department to him. His parents insurance kindly paid to rebuild our mailbox. It was a NICE sturdy mailbox with a cement cap on the top and cement house numbers on each side. You could check the mailbox from both ends. It was nice--until today.....this is what we found outside today right after lunch. Nice, huh? Whoever did this didn't even have the courtesy to stop and claim responsibility. They just kept right on going--away from the damage they caused. They even left a few car parts behind for evidence. Now, we called the police but honestly, its gonna be like looking for a needle in a haystack to find the guilty driver. It will cost us about $1,000.00 to replace it and have it as nice as the last one that was damaged and rebuilt. Really? Two mailboxes destroyed in a relatively short period of time? Who has this happen TWICE? What kind of lousy luck has perched itself on our shoulders? What are the odds................Terry and I could only look at the mess and start to laugh--two times just makes it a comical story to tell! We are collecting any loose change for the "Rebuild the Mailbox AGAIN Fund". Send your loose change to us--WAIT--we can't even receive mail--we DON'T have a flipping mailbox anymore!! Life just gets better and better! I'm smiling!

I LOVE THIS Cowboy

I love this man--cow poop and all!Yes, I'm talking about Terry and not my horse! Although I love Cowboy the horse too--just not as much as I do Terry!  Terry is such a hard worker, he can do ANYTHING, is considerate of others--especially me, loves his family--especially all 6 of those grandkids, is good with animals, makes a mean omelete, shows respect for the elderly, loves a good joke, finds the humor in most situations, and is an all around good guy. Even makes a great part time cowboy when needed! (Part time cowboys are needed in Peance Creek, Colorado EVERY year the last week of October to gather all those cows off the range and bring them back home to Utah!) Thanks hon for still making my heart flutter each and every day for the past 32 years. Cow poop looks good on you!

Colorado Sunsets

We just spent the last 9 days over in Peance Creek, Colorado gathering the cows from 29,000 acres of land. Yep, that's 29 thousand acres. The property is 27 miles long by 4 miles wide. It takes an hour (in a vehicle) to get from the bottom of the mountains to the top of the mountain range. It can make for some really looooong days--especially if you are on horseback. We LOVE this time of year tho. We love spending time with and working along side family to gather the cows and bring them back to Utah. I did a combination of horseback riding, riding my razor all over the country side, and driving our truck up and/or down the mountain to follow horse riders. It was a great time and believe it or not.......I can't wait to do it again! We had some rain, sunshine, warm days, cold mornings, freezing nights, and even some snow. The weather was soooo much nicer than in years past. The evenings provided us with some really breathtaking sunsets. My cows all made it back to Utah and am glad that part of owning cattle is behind us. Later in the month comes weaning calves, more vaccinations (we vaccinated the first round when we got them back to Utah on Wednesday),  checking to see what cows are pregnant, and deciding which cows go to market. Oh, the joys of owning cows......... My horse, Cowboy, did a great job herding and gathering cows--this was his first year with the cows. He wanted to be right in the thick of everything! Have to say that Terry looked really good sitting on Cowboy too! Just had to throw that in for the "ick" factor for my daughters! Love you, girls! By the way, I used my new chinks while in Colorado. I got lots of cow poop on them and even some horse poop so they are officially broke in!

Not to be Outdone!

I just couldn't let Terry be the only one to try his hand at leather work. I decided that I needed a pair of leather chinks (aka short chaps) for cow camp this year. The scrub oak is VERY tall over in Colorado and last year I tore a pair of jeans on it. Sooooo, I made my very own pair of chinks! It was harder than I thought but very fun and satisfying to get them J-U-S-T the way I wanted them. I saved myself many hundreds of dollars and get to claim bragging rights cuz they're made with my own two lil hands! Terry helped do some of the things that were really difficult but I did all the blinging stuff by myself. Even though my project was way smaller than building a WHOLE saddle, I think my sense of accomplishment was pretty near what Terry felt after 7 months of his project. I'm pleased as punch that they turned out so well. Terry thinks the cows will be scared off cuz of all the bling but I say--no bling is ever too much! What do you think? BTW, I threw a "Paisley" pose in for good measure. And don't worry, I'll actually wear cowboy boots with my new chinks and not bare feet! And I'll break the chinks in on the back of my horse! A HUGE Thank You goes to our friend, Tom--same guy that helped Terry build his saddle. Thanks for sharing your time, talents, and equipment, Tom! You're a handy guy to know!

Quite an Accomplishment!

So one of the things on Dad's "to do" list before he dies or gets too old to do is to learn to make a saddle. A good friend, Tom Brough, owns a boot and shoe repair shop and decided that he wanted to make Jared a saddle to show their family appreciation for Jared's service in the Marine Corp. Dad decided that he would like to make one also so him and Tom set out on this great big huge task of making saddles. I  always wondered why places charged so dang much for a saddle. We're talking several thousand dollars per saddle, people! I now understand that big price tag! TONS of work go into those babies! Anyway, Terry and Tom started back in March working 4 or 5 evenings each week. Some nights, an hour or two; some nights only 20 to 30 minutes depending on the task. Most Saturdays involved 2 to 4 hours working at the store or here at home. Tom has built numerous saddles in the past and finished his for Jared back in July sometime but Terry lagged behind due to work travel and responsibilities at home or date nights or church things, etc. BUT today was the day! He finished! It is such a great accomplishment to finish a project this big. There were times when he wanted to quit but he didn't! There were times when he forced himself to go and was glad in the end that he went each time. It is a beautiful saddle and he learned many skills while building it. Terry and Tom grew closer while they worked along side each other and swapped stories of growing up and experiences that each had in their lives. Terry also learned patience as he had to break this huge job down into small sizeable tasks. We learned better time management  as a family as we supported him being gone each night and still trying to feed and work the horses, mow the lawn, fix and eat dinner, home teach, do home repairs and maintenance, etc. The smile on Terry's face today when he FINALLY finished his saddle was worth EVERY and I mean E-V-E-R-Y minute and hour that he was gone working on it. As we left the store today, I felt a little sad that the saddle is done and we won't be spending as much time visiting with Tom. He is a great guy and we can never repay him for all his time and effort and encouragement on this project. I'm soooooo proud of you, Terry! It's BEAUTIFUL! Job well done! Thanks for sticking to it and finishing this project--you are ALWAYS such a good example in life to me. Check out his gorgeous saddle and talents. We're both proud as peacocks!!! And you can officially check saddle making off your "to do" list, hon!

Fall Foliage

This past weekend we took a trip up to Strawberry. The foliage was breathtaking! I LOVE this time of year. Love the crunch of the leaves underfoot, the colors, the smells, pumpkins, pumpkin chocolate chip cookies, soup, hoodie sweatshirts, cornstalks, the decorations, LOVE IT ALL! It's been really warm here in Utah this year--nice to see some signs that fall is actually on it's way.

Before and After......

New back porch and sidewalk

Front porch before the latest and newest model was installed

New front porch--covered, new decking, new steps, paver bricks, and painted railings. I learned how to weld by helping Dad install the railings!

How the back looked when we bought the place

Just in case you think that we have been spending our summertime fishing in streams, lazily dreaming, and watching the clouds go by.......think again! We've been working our tooshes off on the Ioka house--inside and outside. We are officially done inside--everything is painted and finished--all new appliances, flooring, doorknobs, new bathroom, new cabinets, new lighting, new doors, carpet, wooden flooring, tile floors, the WORKS! We've put in new windows, two new porches, paving bricks for walkways and a nice new patio in the front, new lighting, covered the two porches, put on a new roof, tore off old porches and buildings, burned TONS of junk, and cleaned out tool buildings. Now we hope to get new siding on before winter comes. I'm pooped just thinking of the hours we've spent on this house. It's a cute house now tho! I'll post some pictures later of the inside and how nice it turned out. We actually just put renters in it last week in hopes that they would keep it nice and warm through the winter and not let any pipes burst. Anyway, it's been a fun project but am glad that we can finally see the finish line!

Need fire? Hire Terry--he'll burn ANYTHING!

John clearing out one of the tool sheds. You couldn't walk into it when he started!

The original porch on the front of the house

My New Ride

Lookie, lookie at what my hubby bought me this past week! Am I lucky or what! It's even my very favorite color! What a guy!! We took it down on the Piute Trail from Thursday through Sunday. We had a blast with this thing. Who knew, but when you buy a Razr, you become part of a group of people that can absolutely talk your leg off about accessories and bling that you can buy for your own Razr. Everywhere we went we saw a Razr. Lots of red ones out there. It was soooooo fun sitting side by side inside of riding my own ATV and being pooped by dinnertime. My ol' Honda has served me well for 5 years but this new set of wheels is right up my alley!  Trust me when I tell you that we rode LOTS of miles this weekend and she has TONS of scratches on her from being in tight brush but she did well. I even gained a new riding partner--aka my dog, Bailey! Shes LOVES it too! We had a WONDERFUL time together -- the new wheels just made it THAT much MORE fun........Love ya hon. Thanks for the new wheels!  By the way, Dad likes it cuz it has DRINK HOLDERS!!

Happy Anniversary!

Can you believe these two just celebrated their 5th wedding anniversary? Where has the time gone? They took off and went to Salt Lake for a getaway to mark the occassion and we got to dog sit Cannon. I love these two crazies. They make our already disfunctional family complete and fun. Love you guys! Keep smiling and adding laughter to our lives! Congratulations on FIVE years and hope it's 80 more years together for you!

Crazy Family Time

We recently spent a weekend with these two crazies. What can we say about family? Mostly how much we truly enjoy spending time with them. We don't slow down from our overly busy lives enough to just enjoy laughing, story telling, jokes, experiences, and just good ol' BS sitting around and doing nothing time. We had a great time with Anthon and Becky. We enjoyed the late night ATV rides too! ;) Nature at its best, eh? Need to do more of those--minus the mud cuz Anthon is a WILD man when it comes to mud! And next time let's try to find the other boot or maybe a new location for the one left behind!! Thanks for a relaxing and fun weekend guys. Let's do it again EVERY summer! BTW, we were on the very top of a HUGE rock plateau and it was POURING rain. Becky and I were frrreeeezzzzzing--even in August! We're glad our family is crazy--gives us something to laugh and smile about and makes for more fun times. We've never been good at boring and "normal"!!

Bathroom Remodel

Forgot to post pictures of the new bathroom in the Ioka house. We decided to take out the bathtub and just do a big walk-in shower. We ordered the walls and trim and Terry did his magic in creating the "tub" or shower floor. We used a darker color on the walls and a lighter color for the trim, soap dish and shampoo shelf. It turned out really nice and I LOVE it! Glad we went this route. We liked the material so much that we are putting in a vanity top to match the lighter  color and then...........the Ioka house will FINALLY be done at last. Only took us 2 years of 1 or 2 weekends a month to get the inside of this place done!!!!! I LOVE this house now though. Sooooooo much better than when we bought it! I could sooooooo get used to only living in 800 square feet too--doesn't take but a quick blink and this place is spic and span! The first picture is what the old bathroom looked like before the remodel. Glad I'm married to a handy guy. There isn't much that he can't do! Please ignore the awful flash reflection in these pictures--couldn't remember how to turn the flash off. And PS Amber, I had to do the painting (3, yes I said three, paint colors in there!)  in the new bathroom--Dad wouldn't do it for me. So you just need to suck it up and get yours painted without him!!

A Ride of a Lifetime!

For Terry's Birthday Celebration this year, we went for a hot air balloon ride in Eden, Utah. It was soooo much work to get the balloon off the ground but once we were up in the air.........WOW! The scenery was breathtaking and the quiet--UNBELIEVEABLE! There were a total of 12 balloons that day. Each balloon was colorful and  were different sizes.  We were lucky enough to fly in a basket with only the two of us and our pilot, Mac. Other balloons held as many as 8 people. The ride lasted for a little over an hour and we were definetely not ready for it to end. We landed in a field and had to lift the basket over a farmer's gate and then fold the balloon back up and put it and the basket into the trailer that carried it on Mac's truck. We learned alot that day about hot air balloons and flying. We know that we would like to do it again someday. After the balloon gear was packed away in the trailer, we all headed back to the launch site for a brunch and an initiation. There were 4 of us first time flyers to be initiated that day. When you fly, you become a member of the "aeronaut" family of flyers. The initiation is fun, lengthy, and private--uh, secret to the point that they ban you from ever flying again if you reveal the details to a non-flying areonaut!!  Afterwards, we enjoyed a beautiful and relaxing brunch. These aeronauts really know how to put out a food spread! There was BBQ pork loin, hamburgers, chicken, hot dogs, brats, spicy mexican fajitas, chips galore, fresh fruit, cake, salads of every kind imagineable, and on and on and on.......it was good stuff. These people really enjoy spending the mornings together and enjoy whooping it up when they are done with their ballooning activities! They are like a ward family. We had to be to the launch site (a field owned by Wolf Creek Resort) at 6:30 AM and we didn't leave the brunch area until 11:30!  And we were some of the first to go......but I had to pee and there were no facilities so we went on.  They were a great bunch of people that were excited to have a few newbies join them.  It definetely was an experience of a lifetime. And we are already talking about doing it again in the wintertime when the scenery would be different and the balloon could stay in the air longer. All in all, a GREAT way to celebrate a birthday. It comes highly recommended -- by us -- 2 of the newest aeronauts around!