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

Friday - dentist, golf, football

Today, I got to spend time with the boy child, well kind of. It is Friday, late in the fiscal year at work and I need to get rid of some of my accrued personal time, so I have been taking off Fridays.

Sam has been getting some serious tooth aches, so since I was off, Staci had me call to get him an appointment at the dentist. Of course, his tooth wasn't hurting when he went in and the x-rays didn't show anything, so they gave him some anti-biotics and 800 mg Ibuprofen just in case it is an infection.

After the dentist, Sam was hungry, so we went to Albertsons to get his prescription filled, then went to Sleepy Ridge to eat some lunch and hit a bucket of balls. The food at the Sleepy Ridge Grill is really pretty good. I had a BLT, battered fries, and a diet Pepsi. Sam had a Philly steak sandwich, battered fries, and a coke. The battered fries are the best. Naturally I paid, although Sam said he would buy next time. I don't really believe him ;)


After eating, we went out to hit some balls, on the way to the range, I ran into Chris Young. I haven't talked to Chris for a long time. Chris is an awesome artisit, great basketball and flag football player, and now apparently he want to be a great golfer. Good luck on that one. Its impossible.

See Chris's work at http://www.christopheryoungart.com/

After talking to Chris for a while Sam and I went to hit balls. Sam is really struggling with his stroke. He can't hit the ball straight no matter what he tries. Golf is such a funny game, it is so much different from other sports, being athletic doesn't seem to make a difference. We decided maybe Sam should not play for the rest of the year, maybe it will help him forget the bad things he does and start over. I still like hanging with Sam, even if he sucks at golf.


Tonight, I get to hang with my beautiful wife, Staci. We are going to the Utah State University (USU) vs BYU game, where hopefully USU will beat BYU. When Gary was fired from BYU I promised I would never spend another dime at BYU, but since Kevin coaches at USU, I'm giving myself a pass for this game. Unfortunately the temperature is probably going to be in the 40's so I need to dress warmly. Good luck to USU, GO KEVIN.

My prediction for the game: Hearts says USU 54, BYU 28. Head says BYU 45, USU 27.

Roman "the child rapist" Polanski

Its about time Roman Polanski pays for his crime of raping a 13 year old girl. Once again, this is something that seems so obvious, yet there are people that think he should be let go

I don't care if he is rich, or famous, or old, or reformed, or the greatest director ever, or has Oscars, or the girl he raped doesn't want him prosecuted or anything else.

People, Polanski, 49 years old at the time, first got the girl drunk, then gave her quaaludes, performed oral sex on her, had vaginal sex, then had anal sex with her, and finished up with vaginal sex. She was 13 years old!

You can read the transcript http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/polanskicover1.html Then after he was caught, he thought he had a deal with prosecutors to get out of it, the deal fell through, so he fled the country.

He has been living the high life in Europe since. France has been protecting him, go figure, the french would think this behavior is alright. Finally he was picked up in Switzerland. He is now awaiting extradition to the US. Hopefully, when he gets back to the USA he will get his time for the rape and an additional 5-10 years for running. It wouldn't bother me if he spends the rest of his life in prison.

Where Roman Polanski has been living.

Where he should spend the rest of his life. The Scumbag.

Government - Immigration thoughts

Why does Government reward bad behavior. I don't get it. We have laws, it is time to start enforcing them, not rewarding those that break them.

Case in point. Illegal Immigration - we have laws that limit the amount of legal immigration into the United States. We currently allow almost 1 million legal immigrants into our country every year, yet, almost 500,000 more come in to the country illegally. We have immigration limits for many reasons; we need to be able to keep track of who is coming to the country, make sure we are getting immigrants with the right skills, that can assimilate into our society, add to the culture, and improve the conditions for the citizens of this great country.

We don't need people to come to our country so that we can take care of them and add to our welfare system. About 49% of illegal immigrants don't have a high school equivalent education, compared to 9% of native-born citizens, and 25% of legal immigrants. We DO NEED immigrants, but we want the right immigrants, that are well educated, law abiding, hard-working and above all else want to be Americans.

If someone came here illegally, they shouldn't be rewarded. They should be kicked out of the country and be last in line to get back in. Anyone in the United State illegally has broken the law. They are "criminals". I don't understand why that is so hard for people to understand.

We need to do several things to get illegal immigration under control, and NO, giving the illegals amnesty isn't one of them.

First, control the in-flow from the borders. Build the fences, but I would also use the National Guard, Coast Guard and Army reserve to control the borders. They could train along the borders of both Mexico and Canada.

Second, quit providing services to anyone that can't prove they are in the US legally. This goes for hospitals, schools, food stamps, housing subsidies, etc.

Third, throw employers in jail if they hire illegal aliens. Add on stiff fines. Also throw government officials that provide santuary to illegals in jail.

Fourth, make every law enforcement officer responsible to enforce immigration laws. If you find someone that is here illegally, you put them in jail until they can be deported. If they don't want to leave their families they can take them with them.

Fifth, no anchor babies. If neither of your parents are here legally, you are not a citizen just because you were born here.

I realize people will say this is racist. That is a bunch of crap. I want people from all countries of the world to come to the United States. This is the greatest country in the world. But coming here comes with responsibilities. Abiding by the laws of the land is mandatory.

Instead of enforcing the laws, what does our government want to do? Give illegals a fast-track to citizenship. Reward them for breaking the law. Unbelievable. Although, our current government likes to reward breaking the law. Just look at Tim Giethner - don't pay your taxes and instead of getting put in jail, you get put in charge of the IRS. Maybe we can find an illegal alien to put in charge of homeland security.

OUCH!! Thats my tooth.

I broke off a piece of one of my teeth eating a hard shell taco from Del Taco about 2 weeks ago, so anyway this morning I got to go to the dentist to have him crown my tooth. Let me tell you, spending an hour and a half at the dentists office at 7:30 am really sucks. I even took my ipod so I could listen to my music while the drilling was going on.

First thing when I get there, the assistant puts the topical in my mouth. I think they try to make that stuff taste good, but it doesn't work. About 5 minutes later, the dentist comes in and sticks the needle in your jaw to put half of your face to sleep. By the way, the topical doesn't work. shot from the dentist still kills, but the dentist always has to say, "Now that wasn't so bad was it". YES it was.

After my face was asleep that dentist comes in and starts drilling, by this time I am dozing to AC/DC playing on my iPOD. But, the drill was too loud, all I can hear was bzzzzzzzzzz. I couldn't hear the music.

When he is done drilling, he discovers he needs to build up the remaining tooth to have something for the cap to stick to. I was wondering how he would do this. I soon found out. He pulled out some screws and screwed them into my tooth. When he is done, he asked if it hurt. OF COURSE IT HURT, you were screwing a screw into my tooth. Of course, I said "not too bad"

After getting screwed, they needed to make a mold of my teeth. Another great experience, its like having someone stick 20 pieces of really soft already-been-chewed bubblicious gum in your mouth and telling you to bite down. The goo goes everywhere, down your throat, out your mouth, everywhere. It seems like they could use about half the goo and still get the job done. But what is worse is, while your sitting there gagging, they say "OK, now don't move, I'll be back in a few minutes while it sets". A few minutes, hell I'll be dead in a few minutes. You can only live for like 6 minutes without breathing.

Well, apparently about 5 minutes and 59 seconds later, just before you start seeing your relatives that have previously passed on. The light is there, but the relatives haven't shown up yet. The dental assistant comes in to save you. She starts pulling on the dried goo to take it out of your mouth, but the goo has dried. it is stuck to your teeth and to the newly formed partial tooth. She pulls, it feels like it is going to pull out your teeth, but it doesn't.

At this point, they left me to my music while they went to make the crown. I listened to my music. It was the highlight of my morning. After about 15-20 minutes the assistant came in and put on the crown. It went on perfectly, Except for one small thing .....

It is only a temporary crown. I have to go back in 3 weeks to have the permanent one put on.

I just love the dentist office. Really, Dr. Peacock does an excellent job. It just isn't fun having your teeth worked on.