Wednesday, October 12, 2011

Sculptor Slaps and State Fairs

I married an artist ya'll!

(Read that and weep!! )


And this year, Hotstuff competed in two art competitons. The first is the Helper Arts festival's sculptor slap. (Don't know where Helper is? Google it- it's on your way to Moab) and the other is the Utah State fair.

So Hotstuff took Georgia, our bearded dragon, to the sculptor slap and decided to make her a model. Here is what he did:




The second competition he did was for the Utah State fair and this is the piece he took:



Hotstuff took 4th place (Amature div.) and won $15!!!

I am proud of my Hotstuff and the awesome talent that he has.



I know... your jealous but what can I say?? I have one awesome Hotstuff!

Friday, July 1, 2011

Cash, Diamonds and Harry Connick Jr.

For the last few years, when my birthday rolls around I ask for three things.
CASH DIAMONDS and HARRY CONNICK jr.
This year I got all three.
At work, we do birthday exchange. Each of puts $15 into the birthday pot and we pick a name randomly of another employee that we are in charge of celebrating their birthday. We plan their birthday lunch, decorate their desk and get them a gift.
My boss had picked my name for the year and at the begining of the month asked me what I wanted. I told my boss, that I was accepting gifts in the form of cash, diamonds and Harry Connick Jr. I also requested that she make her famous lemon.
Earlier this week, her huband was admitted to the hospital for some complications with this health. I told her not to worry about my birthday because she had a lot on her plate.
Thursday, on my birthday day I came into work. We have two doors to our office; a back door (for doctors) and a front door (used more for the public). As I approached the back door I noticed a sign. When I got up to the sign, on it was a picture of Harry Connick jr. with: It's Honeys Birthday today! When you see her wish her a Happy Birthday. On the front door of our office was another sign with Harry Connick Jr. on it with the same message.
At my desk, my boss had put a happy birthday sign and below was another picture of Harry saying Happy Birthday. I had one more Harry picture with more birthday wishes of: I wish I could be here in person to wish you a happy birthday. In total, I ended up with for different pictures of Harry.
On my desk, were small diamonds. They weren't real but they are the kind that are used for embellishing scrapbook pages. She had also gotten me a few other small gifts and a card. When I had opened it up, inside was some cash.
She had also made me her famous lemon cake. As I mentioned, her husband had been in the hospital and she also had her family coming in from out of town for the Fourth of July weekend. Her plate was incredibly full, she still managed to celebrate me. I couldn't ask for a better boss... and that mean more to me than cash, diamonds or Harry Connick Jr.
"Dear Honey,
I know that this isn't the kind of diamonds you would like or the amount of money- nor could I get you Harry Connick Jr but I hope you have a wonderful birthday.
~CW"
HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO ME!

Monday, May 2, 2011

She's HOME!

After 18 (and a half) months, serving a mission for the LDS Church (for more info go to lds.org) my baby sister returned home. She packed away all of her belongings, taking only what she needed and spent the last year and a half preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ in the California Arcadia mission (East LA area).

She was sent on a spanish speaking mission and ended up learning and speaking 5 different languages. Spanish, Korean, Armenian, Samoan and English!!

She returned home to all of us last week!!! It is so good to have her home. Even my Momma C, came all the way from Seattle to be here for her.



Me, Momma C and Sister AwesomeSauce


Sister AwesomeSauce and her best friend CJ

CJ and her main man JP!



Me and My Momma C



Me and Sister AwesomeSauce








When she finally got off the plane!!!

Saturday, March 26, 2011

Just in case you have missed a few things

I am a busy mom of two and blogging has fallen to the bottom of my to do list. Just in case you have missed a few things here is what we have been up to and even the new addition..... In Feburary, Hotstuff and I headed up to Seattle to see my Mom and Dad for a five day with no kids!!! We had a lot of fun and one of my favorite highlight from our trip is I got to see my brother!!! Ty took the train into Seattle and I got to spend the day with him. He lives in the great Northwest and we don't get to see each other very often. My sweet little boy had his first seizure about a week and a half ago. He has cortical dysplasia (meaning the left side of his brain did not develop properly) and as a result he is high risk for seizures. This was his first seizure and so far there has been no effects from it. The seizure was a response to the stress that his body was under. He had something that he was fighting and had not been feeling well and had a fever off and on for a couple of days. It wasn't a violent seizure, in fact it was very quiet and he just zoned out. I took in him into the doctors and he had an EEG done earlier this week. He had to be sleep deprived so both he and I took a five hour nap later that day.


For her birthday, Miss May received art supplies and she loves to draw! Of course, she draws and paints pretty much the same thing over and over but practice makes perfect! She is doing great in school and is a great reader.





Last year, we purchased Flower as an Easter present for the kids. Needless to say Flower has become a proper fat Rat!







Meet Georgia


Hotstuff informed me this afternoon that we have a new addition to our family. Georgia is a three year old Leucistic Bearded Dragon. We are all very excited to have Georgia join our family.

Sunday, February 6, 2011

Lucky #7

Miss May came into our lives 21 minutes after midnight, to be born on the 1st of February; Super Bowl Sunday. I was induced the on the 31st of January and with every confidence in the world, I would not be having this baby in February. She took her sweet time getting here but she made her entrance, on her own terms and has been doing so for the last 7 years.
This last week Miss May celebrated her 7th birthday. I took the day off and we girls had our day.
We went to Starbucks and started the day with yummy Vanilla Bean Creme, (it taste like homemade ice cream!), then went to Ogden and we got our hair done. Lunch was a pretzel from Pretzel Maker. With a quick stop at Ikea, she picked out a birthday present of crayons, colored pencils, water colors makers and paper. She is becoming the little artist! We had a yummy dinner at home, Crabby patties (which is really chicken patties). Later in the week, to keep the celebration going we went bowling. Her Grandma J and Papa Chuck, plus her Granny all joined in on the fun!
A very Happy 7th Birthday to Miss May!
The bowling alley gave Miss May an old bowling pin and signed it for her.
We all then took turns to sign it for her.
Bubba Jones got two strikes that night!!!

Our birthday girl!


Cookies and Creme Pie for her birthday!


She is growing up too fast!

Monday, January 24, 2011

Lost and Seek, Hide and Found

Forty years ago, Nana sat down and recorded my Grandfathers family history. Since then, all of our family records have sat there incomplete. In my last post I told all of you about my Great Great Grandmother, Mary Jane Neirocker.
This is whom I feel impressed to chase. I mean the woman is dead! She shouldn't be that hard to catch! Right?!?! WRONG!!!

New Years Eve 2010- The daunting task of microfiche awaited me in the large metal drawers at the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. Knowing my task was something that I couldn't torture my children with, I found someone tall, dark and handsome AKA Hotstuff to help. I was suprised at his reply when I asked if he wanted to join me and help look through census records.

"You know, that actually sounds like fun!" was his reply. (I couldn't help but wonder what mickey had been slipped to him to get him to want to do this. I really wanna know, you know for future use for fun things like doing dishes, cleaning toilets and any other household chores).

Fun!! Microfiche, fun?? Well, who was I to complain? I had help. So once again we bundled up the kids, packed some snacks, the laptop (entertainment for the kids) and off we went to the Family History Library.

I set up two Microfiche machines (one for me and one for Hotstuff) and once again searched the 1905 Census for Mary Jane. Over three hours we looked and couldn't find anything. Finally, Hotstuff got motion sickness, the kids were starving and I was ready to cry. I couldn't find her and that was all I wanted to do.

Well, I thought, it's New Years Eve. I am in downtown Salt Lake, I should just enjoy my evening and their names will be there for next time.

We cleaned up, bundled up and headed to the Joseph Smith Memorial Building for some yummy food at the Nauvoo Cafe. Since it was New Years Eve, the LDS church had all sort of New Years Eve Festivites on Temple Square. We entered the Joseph Smith Memorial Building and passed through the Family Search Center. I noticed they had activities for kids and thought to make sure to pass through here on our way out. I wanted to help my children understand what I was doing and why I was doing it.

We enjoyed our yummy sandwiches at the Nauvoo Cafe then headed out. Passing by the Family Search Center, we stopped to let the kids play and explore. I still could not get my Great Great Grandmother out of my head. I was bound and determined to find her.

I walked over to the computers and ask a sweet little old lady for some help. We sat down and played around on the computer. Even she was baffeld at why I couldn't find her. After about 20 minutes of playing around on different sites.... I FOUND HER!!!!!!!!

I found my Great Great Grandmother Mary B. Hoehn on TWO seperate census records. I discovered that she had immigrated about 1850 and at one time she had a niece that lived with her named Laura Kramer who was a stenographer. I also discovered that she and her parents were from Switzerland.

For the last 40 years, her name has been lost amongst the thousands upon thousand of names stored amongst our Nations records. Even Hotstuff couldn't understand how one woman could be so hard to find ( I mean, he had no trouble finding me!). Why would she exist in one place and not any other?

My family has met some huge brick walls in trying to find out our ancestory. So I totally hit the Geneological Jackpot. ( It's the only kinda lottery Utah has!).

Now that I have started I can see a path of where to go. I have laced up my running shoes and with my inhaler in hand, I am off chasing the path that has been made for me.