A Couple of Survivors

OK, so you all probably think I'm totally crazy right now because this is my third post about squirrels. I'm not crazy, I swear! So on Tuesday this week as I was working from home, I heard a familiar little knock on the back door. When I looked out, it was a squirrel! I thought they were all dead! I was too slow to get the camera, but the little guy came back on Wednesday, and with a friend. So, if you're keeping track, that means we have/had at least 7 squirrels living in our backyard! I wonder how many others survived the "plague" that killed the poor little guys I found in our garden. When the two squirrels were hanging out here on the back porch, it was actually pretty cute (even though I'm still VERY MAD at them). They were standing on their back legs and hitting and jumping on each other and just totally playing. I'm seriously starting to think they might be part human . . .

Anyway, I finally got a couple pictures so you can see that I'm not making things up. I wish I could catch them looking in the window with the camera—it's crazy!—but I'm always too slow. Enjoy!

Todd's Birthday and DEAD Squirrels

First I want to just tell Todd "Happy Birthday!" His birthday was Sunday, which was also Father's Day, so he was totally loving it. He now 31 and officially in his "30s." I love him very much and am so happy for the great spirit he brings with him into our home on a daily basis. He makes me laugh always (even though I don't want him to know I think he's funny) and he's the best snuggler in the world!

And, to keep you posted about the squirrels that raided our garden—they all DIED! No, we did not kill them, and we have no idea what happened to them really. I went out to the garden on Saturday to try a do a little weeding. I got through the row that used to have the lettuce pretty fast, and then reach for the next row and there was a dead squirrel laying there. I screamed and jumped back and looked over just a little farther and another dead squirrel was just a foot or so away, and then another and then another! There were dead squirrels all over our garden! It totally freaked my out and ran screaming for Todd. We were so sad that they all died. We were mad at them, sure, but we just wanted them to leave, not die! We think they were either attacked by something because a couple were a little mangled, or they were poisoned and then eaten by birds or something. Needless to say, there will be no pictures of the little guys now. I'm a little nervous to harvest from our garden now too, considering it might have killed several small animals. Yikes!

We Hate Squirrels!

This year we were totally on the ball and planted a really great garden. We planted yellow squash, zucchini, peas, red peppers, green peppers, jalapeños, onions, tomatoes, cilantro, rosemary, and lettuce. That's a ton of stuff, right? Well, we were especially excited about the lettuce because it came up so fast, but lo and behold, we went out back the other day and the WHOLE ROW of lettuce was completely gone! At first Todd said, "Did it all just die?" But the row was so cleaned out it didn't look like anything had ever even been planted there. And then we noticed the cilantro was eaten down to the ground. What in the world? Then we discovered the problem—SQUIRRELS! We now hate squirrels! We have a family of them living in our garden and they are the culprits! These are no ordinary squirrels either. It's like they think they are human! When I work at home, my office space is right by our back door. Several times I've heard knocking at the door and look out the window to find a squirrel just standing there. I make faces and yell at it to go away, and I even bang on the window, but it just stands there looking all innocent, staring at me. What is the deal with these squirrels? I also can't even go walk over to the garden area of our yard because they start "squeaking" at me and it totally freaks me out! Todd bought some "Critter Ridder" yesterday, so we'll have to see if that gets rid of them!

P.S. Next time the darn things knock on the back door, I'm taking a picture so you all believe me!

You Are Cinderella!

Dignified and hard working. With a gentle and soft-spoken manner you have something many people don't. Patience. Even through the moments of heartbreak you're still able to hold onto all of your hopes and dreams. Bide your time; your dream will come true.

Which Disney Princess Are You?

I found this quiz on my cousin Julie's blog. It's funny that I ended up being Cinderella—I have the Cinderella song "A Dream is a Wish Your Heart Makes" as the ring tone on my cell phone, and I love it. Totally fitting! Everybody make sure to take the quiz. Just click on the link above—it only takes a couple of minutes and it's fun!

Hair Catastrophe

So, I'm thinking I'll be taking the "Hot Sticks" I decided to try back to the store. Can you believe my hair? It looks ridiculous! For those of you who haven't seen me in a while, my hair is getting really long. It's about halfway down my back now, but in this picture I look like a short-haired poodle!

The story is that I went to the store to buy some hot rollers on recommendation from my cousin Julie, but they were $35 and I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to spend that much. There just happened to be a box of Hot Sticks right next to the hot rollers that seemed interesting and they were only $14. I was sucked in by the price and decided to try them out instead of the ones Julie got. Obviously a HUGE mistake. I should always remember that you usually get what you pay for! Suffice to say, I had to re-wet my hair that day to make it look normal again. Thank goodness it wasn't permanent.

Tulip Festival 2008 and My Birthday

OK, so I need to figure how to do the slide shows because we have so many good pictures from the Tulip Festival this year. Until I do that, you just get to see some of my favorite pics! We actually went on my 29th birthday (yikes!), which was on May 3, with Curtis and Amanda and their sweet little girls. We had such a great time! We parted ways after walking around the grounds for a couple hours at Thanksgiving Point and Todd and I grabbed a bite to eat at the deli there. They have "Thanksgiving" sandwiches that I love—turkey, cranberry sauce, lettuce and cream cheese on whole wheat! Yummy. After that we went shopping so Todd could "give" me my presents. I ended up getting a really cute outfit that consists of a black shirt and white skirt. (I have the black shirt on in the picture with Brock and Mia's headstone if you want to see it! It's from Down East.) After that we continued our good day of eating and went to Cheesecake Factory, my favorite restaurant ever! We shared the most fattening but completely delicious appetizers called Buffalo Blasts. These puppies are shredded chicken stirred with buffalo sauce and then fried in wonton wrappers. THEN you dip them in more buffalo sauce and chunky blue cheese dressing. These things were to DIE FOR, and would actually probably make you die if you ate all of them. Luckily we only had two each. :) We also shared a yummy entree and a piece of cheesecake. I can honestly say I was sick after that meal, but is was soooo good. Sunday we went to my parents house in Morgan and had another good dinner. Then I was spoiled and given some great presents from them as well. All in all it was a successful birthday. Now let's hope the big 30 goes just as well next year . . .  





P.S. I'll try to post more pics later—for some reason it's been a struggle just to get these ones on here!

Cute, not sad!

I've had a lot of people ask me what Brock and Mia's headstone looks like, and I always say that it is so cute! I'm sure that sounds weird to people sometimes because it was such a sad thing that happened, but I'm so proud of how cute we always make things look. This year for the twins birthday we celebrated by giving them a little shepherd's hook and wind chime. We also took some cute tulips, and my mom added some other spring flowers. So to answer the question sad or cute, my vote is for cute! 

A Flying Todd

Well, last Friday was Todd's lucky day! He was invited to go flying with my uncle Roland, who happens to be a pilot with his own little plane. Todd loves it whenever he gets to go with Rol—he just thinks it is the best. I however get very nervous, and being sure I'm not the only one that hears about small plane crashes on the news ALL OF THE TIME, I'm sure you all won't think I'm too paranoid. He always seems to come back though and my uncle says once we have a little one on the way, Todd won't be allowed to go with him anymore. So anyway, this ended up being one of Todd's longest flights in the little plane because they flew to Vernal to have lunch with my uncle's brother. Todd finally remembered to take his camera this time and he got to take some really cool pictures as they flew over Flaming Gorge. He had so much fun!