Mom Has Skills Too!

Hooyah! It is November. Since it has been 6 weeks since the previous post we just thought we needed to get something out there. Katie upped the ante by posting her halloween skills but I think that Mom did one better! Or would that be two? In any case here are her efforts:

This is Matt in his French Beret!

In memory of the Moki Dog! (We miss him).

Ashley guarding against trick or treaters! She scarfed up all the Kit Kats herself. Only a few more years and this will catch up to her.

It Doesn't Get Any Better Than This

A couple of Sunday's ago, Jo and I were at the Marriott Center (BYU Campus) for a regional conference. It was an inspiring meeting and on the way out the weather was just gorgeous. A beautiful fall day, a touch of crispness in the air. Everything was perfect. I was holding hands with Jo and just happened to comment, "It just doesn't get any better than this...A good family, a beautiful day, and everything just seemed to be going good." OOOOOOPs. Big Mistake. We hadn't gone 20 feet and were going down the stairs and about 5 from the bottom. Jo stumbled. She started to fall and since we were still holding hands I just about landed on top of her. Right in front of 22,000 people. We recovered as gracefully as possible, Jo took off her high heels and walked barefoot to the car. The next day, when I was going to get on the computer, it quit. I lost all my email and other files...Bad day! Well, then as I was rebuilding this computer, I was looking at the kids computer and it was loaded with viruses. When I tried to clean them off, you guessed it another computer crash. So last week I spent about 40 hours fixing computers... and I hate doing that. The only good thing...I did get all my files recovered thanks to a neat little piece of software called File Scavenger. ($49).

Then today, when Jo was calling people for the job that she has, got yelled at bad by a California dude. Kinda ruined her day.

I guess we were right when we said that it doesn't get any better than this...It is just possible that things can go downhill in a real hurry.

Welcome to the Projects

Quite a few years ago a neighbor saw me working in the yard and yelled over, "Hey Bailey, welcome to the projects." At first I thought he was talking about the bouroughs of New York City and I couldn't quite figure out what New York City had to do with little ol' Alpine, Utah. I may not be the quickest car on the track, but I think I've finally finished the race.

This summer we have been busy on several yard and home improvements. First there was the iron fence PROJECT and the required painting PROJECT. This set off the driveway PROJECT, which in turn created a situation that made the sprinkler PROJECT necessary. The sprinkler PROJECT set off

the east side stairs PROJECT. All the sprinkler lines had to be re-routed; consiquently the stairs had to be ripped up to set the new sprinkler lines. The Alpine winds forced the roof PROJECT because I had 15 year shingles on an 18 year old roof.

Ashley is anxious to have the basement renovation PROJECT finished, and as you can see, Jo is working on the weed PROJECT by the hedge on the west side of the house (I have never seen this many weeds in our yard ever.) Of course Ashley is supervising Jo. Isn't that just how it works? I supervise the contractors, Jo supervises me, and the kids supervise the parents. Wouldn't you know? Don't you think Ash would look good in an orange highway vest?

The fix-the-dryer PROJECT is still waiting to be done along with the the laundry room renovation PROJECT and even the daily laundry PROJECT is taking a break.

I have been working on my Alpine Prints website PROJECT and last Saturday was the Stingham reunion. I won't call that a PROJECT, because it was family deal. (Check out the pictures here.) And now both Jo and I have the Temple & Family History council leadership PROJECT in our BYU stake.

So, just like the old neighbor said, "Welcome to the PROJECTS!"; right here in the bouroughs of Alpine.