A little bit of bragging.

I love learning new things. I also love that I have the guts to try new things. This is me loping bareback on my horse for the first time. Let me know if you ever want to go riding. :)

Listed!!

Our house has been listed for 2 1/2 weeks now. Here is the link!

www.utahrealestate.com MLS#955678

My new calling in life.

I have always wanted to try painting with oils so when I saw a "starter kit" for $15 at Michael's I thought it would be a cheap way to try. So...here is my first attempt....I think I may have to really get into this. (Not saying I am great or even good, just that I really enjoyed it.)

Remember those before pictures?

Well, just in case you don't, here is a refresher.

Thanks to Sam for helping me shovel grass clippings, and Russell for tilling.

Looks much better now, don'cha think?

Ready for planting!!!

Pots

I look forward to planting pots every spring. This year, I did it especially to add to the curb appeal.

BEFORE

AFTER

And a close up of a petunia, just for fun. I am infatuated with this color this year. Last year it was pink, the year before it was red. The thing I love most about planting pots is that you can have something completely new every year!

Curb Appeal

I spent the day planting the beds in front of my porch. I have strawberries there already, but they just weren't doing it for me.

Before

After

Much better!!!

I planted annuals. Feels like a big waste of time actually, but they are green and flowery and pretty, so I am happy. Now.....to keep the weeds out.

Noxious Weeds

This was posted by my best friend Sam on her blog http://www.believeinyourself1.blogspot.com/. I think it is a wonderful message and thought I would share.


This morning I have been working on clearing the other half of my raspberry patch. It is completely overrun by trees, bushes, and noxious weeds. I've noticed that some of the weeds are just surface weeds and pull out really easy, and others have deep roots. And often times those deep roots are entangled with the raspberry bush roots. So I have to be very careful as I untangle them so as to not hurt my precious raspberries!
It got me thinking about Satan and growing up. I think there are certain sins that are similar to those of the surface weeds. He doesn't have to plant those near my heart, because he knows, they won't take root. It is not a temptation for me to rob a bank. It just isn't. It is not a temptation for me to murder someone (well... nah, we won't go down that thought path. :). There are certain commandments of God, and laws of the land, that are no problem for me to follow. But then there are others that I do struggle with. And most of them are not the temporal laws, but the personal ones. Honoring our bodies as a temple (how many of us at one point has hated our body?), honoring our neighbor as our self. Well, if you are full of noxious thoughts and hatred for yourself, then your neighbor may be getting the short end of the stick.
As I have been on my journey this last four months of working to get my weight off I have really found that there are lots of noxious weeds on my inside. When we are born and are little children, we essentially are born with a perfect perception of ourselves and the world around us. Think of the children in your life, their main concerns are to feel loved, have shelter, to learn, and to be fed (oh and to play and have fun!). But as we grow, things happen to us, we learn bad habits, we make bad choices with painful consequences, and soon those beautiful feelings we had about ourselves and the world are bogged down by these things. The noxious weeds take over and the beauty within is tied down and cannot shine. Soon we are full of self defeating thoughts, hatred, pain, and negativity. And Satan - he is gleeful at this!! He no longer has to maintain this particular garden. Although I may not be robbing banks and killing people, I am still letting him have influence on me.
So, you know what comes next right? Lots of hard work. Lots of pulling, tugging, digging, and sweating. Watch out for the thorns, those hurt! Oh, and while your digging out all those weeds, make sure you don't pull out the precious things along with it. Things like personal values, religious beliefs, etc. And the most precious of all, the knowledge of oneself that ultimately you are a good person, you deserve happiness, you deserve joy, you deserve to be thin, you deserve to be loved, you deserve to love others, you are a child of God. These are all things that as children, we didn't doubt, we just innately knew them. But those weeds that have been planted in our hearts - the ones that tell you don't deserve any of that, that you are crap (you are not crap!), they are deeply entangled together. Not only will it take the hard work to get them out, it will also take some gentleness, patience, understanding, forgiving, and oh yeah - probably lots of tears.
I have to say; it was really satisfying this morning as I cleared a spot for each different raspberry bush. Each time I got one clear and cleaned out around the base, then shored it up with more dirt, it felt so good. The same has been for my heart. It's been a tough four months, and I think I've really only gotten to the surface stuff. I know that as I continue to work on cleaning out all the weeds, it's going to get harder, more painful, and more satisfying in the end. And then just as I make sure there is plenty of dirt at the base, water, sun, and nutrition to help my plants grow, I must do the same for my heart and soul. Make sure that my base is covered by the gospel of Jesus Christ. That I am giving it lots of scripture reading and prayer. I truly believe that as I do this, my body will start to feel clean from the inside, and it won't be such a struggle to eat to honor my body, and not to stuff my emotions. It won't be such a challenge to exercise because I’ll recognize it as something that I can do to cherish my body and what it was created for, and I ultimately I will finally be able to say goodbye to all this weight. The real Sam will immerge and it will be glorious! I was going to say "I can't wait", and partly that is true. But mostly, I’m so glad to already be on my path, already have started my journey. It's a beautiful life, and I'm excited to see what it brings! So get your gardening gloves on and join me, let's get rid of those noxious weeds together!!!

Why I smell like a campfire.

I have had many backyard projects this year. (I completely let my backyard go last year. A shame, really, as it is a very nice backyard to spend time in.) After clearing out the side yard and the patio I was (am) left with the "garden". This has never actually been a garden. It's really just been a plot of dirt that we left so that we could have a garden. Every year I say, 'this is the year we are planting' and we never do. Anyway, all the time without attention has left it quite a mess. Also, Russ has been dumping the lawn clippings there. Now that we are selling, I have decided that a nice little perk for buying the house would be to have a garden all ready to go. So....today I finally started work.

Here is what I started with. I wasn't sure how to deal with the brush...they were just too big and poky to try and throw away....So a came up with a solution!



I decided to burn them!!! I dragged them across the yard over to our little fire pit and ended up with this huge pile! I then wondered if this was even possible or if I had gotten in over my head.

Getting them to light wasn't a problem, but they burned so fast that keeping the fire lit required some spare lumber which I cut down with Russell's power saw. (I love feeling handy.)

Turns out, it all went much faster then I thought. It was hot and my arms got scratched up pretty good breaking everything down into smaller pieces, but I finished!!!!

The leftovers

All done!!!

(With the brush anyway. Tomorrow I will be cleaning out the grass and tilling up the soil. I hope it is all worth it!)

MUSE

Monday night I got to see my favorite band in the whole wide world.

I found out they were coming to Salt Lake back in November and got my tickets the minute they were available. Our tickets were General Admission so we were squished up next to people I've never met, stepped on, pushed, and and even bonked on the head once....and I LOVED every minute of it!

Here is my wristband. Proof that my elbows were indeed sharp enough to survive the pushing and the shoving and the mean tall people trying to steal my spot. :)

Silversun Pickups opened the show...I really like them too so it was a super bonus to see them live.

I was pleasantly surprised to learn that their bass player was a girl. (Girl Power)


Between sets. Waiting for MUSE!





These are from my phone, so not the greatest pics ever. Oh well.



There he is on the piano. Matthew Bellamy (Lead singer and guitarist) is actually amazingly talented on the piano. Most of their albums will feature a classical piece.



Here we are after our stroll in the snow. We didn't want Russ to get stuck in the post concert traffic so we met him at the gas station a block away. Burr!

They were without a doubt the best live show I have ever seen. (I'm not the only one who says that either!) I will go for sure the next time they are in town, or even just close to town. My ears rang all day yesterday, but it was totally worth it.

Note: I just want to say that I loved Muse before Twilight made them popular. ;)

Happy Easter!!

(Even though it looked more like Christmas outside my bedroom window this morning.)

Pretty though, don't you think? I'm sure gonna miss waking up to this view every morning.