Tuesday Pick Me Upper Quote

We can complain because rose bushes have thorns, or rejoice because thorn bushes have roses.

-Abraham Lincoln

Did You Know (Australian Style)

Australia hosts some strange races and sporting events.

Here's a quick rundown of a few:

1. The Cockroach World Championship - Brisbane: Every Australia Day, the Story Bridge Hotel runs a cockroach race in Brisbane.

2. The Beer Can Regatta - Darwin: Every July or August , a race involving watercraft constructed out of discarded tinnies (beer cans).

3. Cane toad racing - Magnetic Island

4. The Camel Cup - Alice Springs

5. The Henley-on-Todd Regatta - Alice Springs: September every year, a race where bottomless boats are constructed so that their sailors can run on foot.

6. Wife Carrying Championships - Singleton

7. Pig racing - Melbourne

8. The Nude Olympics - Maslin Beach: Every February with events such as tug-of-war, Frisbee-throwing and a Best Bum competition.

Tuesday Pick Me Upper Quote

"Go ahead, rain on my parade! I've got a big freakin' umbrella."

St. George

We spent the weekend in St. George and we had a wonderful time!

(Thank you Andrea, Robert, Cedes and Chris for watching the dogs for us.)

Here is the beautiful St. George Temple

We went to a Dinosaur Tracks museum.

Here we took a drive in a canyon and walked around, but it was so cold, thus the scarf.

The scenery.

I got a little sentimental when we drove past Provo on I-15 so I took a picture of the "Y" - GO COUGARS!

At Last!

We have wonderful news; we have finally bought a home! We apologize to friends and family for keeping it a secret, but with the disappointments we have encountered in this frustrating process we wanted to keep it to ourselves.

This home was a short sale. We gave an offer on Friday, March 27th and the contract was signed and returned on Thursday, April 2nd. We close on April 28th. We have been surely blessed, as anyone who is familiar with short sales knows that having the contract signed and returned in 5 days and closing in 26 days is nothing short of a miracle.

Pet Peeve Monday

I keep a candy dish on my desk which I pay to keep filled. A co-worker who was out sick all last week due to bronchitis came back to work today. This particular co-worker walked by my desk coughed up a lung into their hand then reached into my (just filled) candy dish to take a couple of pieces that were at the bottom, and I repeat AFTER COUGHING UP A LUNG INTO THEIR HAND!!!! I was disgusted. Needless to say I threw out the bowl of candy.

Did You Know

Did you know that 99% of people cannot lick their elbow.

(I'm pretty sure Gene Simmons is in that 1% that can)








And come on, how many of you actually tried it? =)

Unprofessional advice to home sellers from an unprofessional home buyer with a very, very particular (possibly OCD) husband

1. Do not tell me your house is the greatest let the house speak for itself - its more convincing
2. If your house is on the market – CLEAN IT!!!
3. Don’t show your house when the basement smells like weed
4. A little vacuuming goes a long way
5. I know you like to be individualistic but bold/bright blues, purples, and oranges are not pleasing colors for kitchens, living rooms and master bedrooms. When I see it I put it on my mental list of something I have to do right away when I move in – in other words it’s a turn off.
6. Crown moulding can make a room go from ordinary to extraordinary.
7. When your house sits on a quarter acre of weeds, dirt, and just plain grossness more acreage is not a selling point. It just means more work labor/time/money to make it enjoyable. Here is the point – when your lot is not pretty don’t call attention to the size!
8. Get your carpets professionally cleaned before it is on the market. I can’t believe how many houses we walk through with stained carpet – it’s hard to look at the beauty of your home when your carpet stains are yelling at us (think of the Tide commercial of the guy in a job interview with a stain on his shirt).
9. I am very particular about the neighborhood, with that said, you could have the most incredible home at a great price but if your neighbors are trashy forget it AND the price is too much. This happened to use two weekends ago – we found a beautiful home the interior/exterior was everything I wanted, but when we drove by, oh the horror of the neighbors! The one neighbor had old rusty cars parked on the lawn, the side of the house was filled with old cars, trailers, bicycles, trash cans etc. There was no grass in the front yard it was dirt. Oh how I wish I had a camera to capture it.
10. Unclutter your home, clutter gives you a disadvantage. The house seems smaller, less pretty, and less clean.

Anyway, this is just some advice/venting. Maybe reading this will make you realize we are the reason we haven’t bought a home yet. But I don’t think we are that demanding (well not me anyway – if Brad was giving the advice I’m sure it would be 4 times longer).

Picnic Perfect

Today we took advantage of the incredible weather and we went for a picnic. It has been a while since we've been on a picnic and we had an enjoyable time. We found a small park with few people (so the dogs would behave).

Brad, a.k.a "The Stud McMuffin"

Me with my bug-eye sunglasses

Our beau-ti-ful collies.

Did You Know?

I thought I would keep it spring related.

Did you know that in recent decades season creep has been observed, which means that many phenological signs of spring are occurring earlier in many regions by a couple of days per decade?

Also 'tis the season for one of my favorite children's book. This book my preschool class LOVED!

The Very Hungry Caterpillar by Eric Carle.