The New Yard

Yay!!! We have a new yard. Its about time I put up pictures of the project. I tried to put a picture with the same angle before and after. Here they are:

Front before - We had already taken out the shrubs along the front of the house and by the entry sidewalk.

Front after:


This is the front left side before. We killed the grass a month earlier.

Front left side after:

Front right side before - The wood is from a 20 year old flowering plum tree we had to take down (it was dying).

Front right side after: Sorry Sam, no more basketball hoop.


Backyard right side looking out towards street - before:


Backyard right side looking out towards street - after:


Backyard - left side before:

Backyard - left side after: I built the shed. I'm so proud ;)


Backyard left side looking to the west - before:


Backyard left side looking to the west - after:


The Firepit area- Backyard right side - before:


Firepit area during construction: You wouldn't have believed how many tree roots there were. It took several days with back hoes and a bobcat to remove them all.


Firepit area completed:



More stuff:


We really love the whole yard, but our favorite area is the firepit. Unfortunately, it was finished too late into the fall to really enjoy it. We have had a couple of parties, but the weather didn't cooperate.

We can hardly wait for spring to see it all grow and bloom. All the plants/trees are flowering. We have lilacs, flowering pear tree, crab apple, rose of sharon, day lilly, daisy, and more. It should really be a show in the spring.

We also put in a whole new sprinkler system, it is awesome. It is all automated, I only water what needs to be watered. No more watering my windows and doors. Staci is soooo happy. No more hard water spots to try to clean up.

I still have a couple of yard projects to complete. Next spring I will put in exterior lighting and a fountain. I just wish Yard Crashers would have found me before we started. Maybe they will find me next spring and I can tell them our yard already looks better than what they can do, but I would still use their help on the outdoor lights ;)

Signature Landscaping and Maintenance did the yard and did an excellent job, we couldn't be happier. Seans uncle owns the business. If you have a landscaping project call Quinn Ashby at 801-420-1530 or email to sales@signaturelandscape.org.

The Adirondack chairs in the firepit area were purchased from a local manufacturer. They can be found online at gardenfurnituremill.com The chairs are very comfortable and the price is very reasonable. Since we are local, Kent the owner built and stained the chairs for us. They were done in just a couple of days.

Not being able to talk sux

Yesterday I had another surgery, this one to help me talk. It is really strange, I didn't think I talked very much anyway, so I thought it would be easy. But IT ISN'T.

The surgery went well, I think. First thing they do is make you suck down as much Oxygen as you can, to get it into your lungs, then they put you out and stop you from breathing for 5 minutes. Now I can say I have held my breath for 5 minutes and lived.

During this 5 minutes, they go down your throat with instruments, and shoot up your paralyzed vocal cord with collagen to make it big enough to cover half of your throat, they call it the mid-line. This allows the vocal cord that isn't paralyzed to vibrate off of it and allow you to speak. I wonder how the heck they decided this would help and who they tested it on. I wouldn't want to be that Guinea Pig. Then they have to test it to make sure it was done right. They had to do all this in 5 minutes, or I could have died. That may be a little overstated, but still.

After the operation, I had a sore throat and a little bit of a headache, probably from lack of oxygen (my opinion, not the doctors). But I feel pretty good otherwise.

Anyways, (my wife hates that term) the hard part is that you can't communicate. I didn't think I talked much, but I guess I do. Staci asked if I want to to get a coke. Easy response right. NOT. It is the small things like, what do you want to watch on TV, to eat, to do. Do you feel ok, what do you think about this or that. The simple little things that make your life simple. Hell, I started carrying around a piece of paper and pen, so I could answer questions, but it doesn't work in a car, if I'm driving I can't write, If I'm the passenger, I don't want to make the driver read. See it SUX, and can be dangerous.

I didn't go to work today because I didn't want to be tempted to talk. I had a meeting I had to call in to. Thankfully, we have instant messaging, so I could have some input to the meeting. But it was difficult.

I hopefully will be able to talk a little tomorrow, and I will be back at work. Thats all for now, I will talk to you later. ;)

Favorite Things (one)

My very most favorite thing is my cute and funny, wife Staci. I realize this may seem obvious. Hopefully it is. Everyone should have someone like Staci. She is AWESOME.

10 things that make her so AWESOME.

1. She loves me more than anything. I realize I am pretty easy to love (haha)
2. She loves our family more than anything. Yes, I know, she can't love 2 different things more than anything, but she does.
3. She is cute and funny. I tell her this all the time, she would prefer to be beautiful, intelligent, creative, sexy, honest, loving, sweet, charitable, etc. Don't tell her, but I think she is all of those things and so much more.
4. She loves going to movies. She can tell you who is in every movie ever made, what it is about, and whether it is good or not. She loves going to the movie with our whole family in tow. It can be a little uncomfortable, like when we all went to "The Hangover" together. She likes the movies so much she even goes by herself sometimes.
5. She is the best mother ever. Her top priority is always her family. She is always trying to do things with/for her kids, whether it is going to the movie, watching them play softball, going out to eat, getting pedicures, depositing cash in their bank accounts or just giving them hugs.
6. She loves to read. She loved the Twilight series. I'm not sure if her favorite was Edward (he's so beautiful) or Jacob. Right now she is reading a new author, a story about people with some sort of animal genetics. Pretty strange, but she is enjoying them, especially how nasty they are.
7. She likes to sit in bed with me and hold hands while we watch TV. We have so many TV shows we are trying to follow we hardly have anytime for anything else. We watch Bones, Greys Anatomy, Private Practice, Two and a Half Men, How I Met Your Mother, NCIS, NCIS -Los Angeles, The Mentalist, The Office, 30 Rock, Chuck, Parenthood, Mercy, Trauma, In Plain Sight, Psyche, Castle, The Marriage Ref, The Ghost Whisperer, Criminal Minds, and I'm sure I missed a few.
8. She is low maintenance. She looks great, even when she isn't wearing makeup. She doesn't need expensive clothes, cars, jewelry, and doesn't really like to shop.
9. She is an optimist. She doesn't like anything that is negative, she doesn't like politics, arguments, Fox News, MSNBC, the NEWS, or even the weather if it isn't going to be nice. She does like the gossip magazines, although she will deny it. I keep telling her to just get subscriptions, it will be less expensive, but she won't, so she doesn't have to admit to her addiction.
10. She is who she is. What you see is what you get, she is honest, caring, sensitive. She works hard, she loves Diet Pepsi, Big Hunks, Kettle Corn, Red Vines and almost any other candy. She loves visiting with family, even my brothers and their wives. She loves to wake up early on weekends and sit in her chair by the window and fireplace and drink tea out of china tea cups




HAPPY MOTHERS DAY, I Love you