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.

It's about time

After 18 years it's about time that some updates were done to the house. It has been a busy summer. I've replaced half the sprinkler heads on the place to new and improved ones so that the grass will grow greener. And this time it's not like what mom says about greener grass on the other side of the fence. It's water that is making the grass greener...not the other stuff.

Last week was a BIG week. Got the last of the iron fence put in and painted. It is a very delicate shade of black.



Also, since everyone is deciding to move back in, we thought we needed to keep the kids off the street...so we are adding an extension to the driveway. It's only about 18 years too late; but who's counting. Certainly not me.

Pouring the mud...Glad that wasn't my job

Last, and certainly not least after all the huffing and puffing of the big bad wolf; half the shingles were gone on the house so we thought we'd get ready for winter and get some new ones. These are fancy architectural shingles that are supposed to last for 50 years. I expect that I won't be around to collect on that warranty as I'd be beyond the century mark by that point. I just didn't want to have to worry about them ever again. If I do, I will be really ticked.

Supervising the roofing crew!

Jo supervising me!

Raspberries are on and it appears to be a good crop this year. BTW, that is the last project for the summer; redoing the landscape around the raspberries and the stairs on that side of the house.

Happy Projects to you too!