fall

it feels like fall has been upon us for a while now, and i still haven't been able to find time to drag Jae around for a beautiful fall drive.

unacceptable.

as i was walking home from church last sunday, i looked up and noticed this beauty in my neighbors yard. it may not be up in the mountains, surrounded by a hundred others just as beautiful, but i'll take it. for now.

happy halloween weekend!

our house: second wind {ish}

it seems we've finally started making progress (again) on our house. it was seriously like we hit a brick wall a few weeks ago and have hardly had any energy to pick back up again. what's with that? doesn't our energy level know that we still have tons to do on our house? i wish it wouldn't forget that so easily.

anyway, we got more than half of our kitchen/hallway/half bath subfloor put in, with the (huge) help from some family. i think we finally got the ball rolling again and if we can just get to drywalling then i'll feel a lot better about things.

have i mentioned the countertop installer guy calls about every couple weeks to see if we're ready for them to come do the countertop yet? and every couple weeks, i tell him with a very sad, head-hanging-low kind of voice 'no, we're not ready yet. our cabinets aren't in yet. we don't even have subfloor in our kitchen yet.' and he says he'll call back in another couple of weeks. well this week he called again, and instead of the usual 'should i call back in a couple weeks' he said 'maybe after Thanksgiving?' haha oh my goodness! even our countertop guy has lost all faith in us.

it has become my goal to be able to actually schedule something with the countertop guy the next time he calls.
it will happen.
in the meantime, here are some pics to update you. even though they probably don't look too much different to you!

Jae, James (BIL), dad - working on getting a new floor beam in. it proved to be more difficult than we had anticipated, but these smarty pants finally got it figured out...using a car jack! and the credit must go to Jae for that idea.{Jae's bro Jordan was there to help, too, but he escaped the picture.}

sister Susan helping me get that awful wallpaper off the bedroom ceiling. notice how wallpaper is called 'wall'paper...not ceiling paper. it's that way for a reason...

dead bird found in our garage. no idea how it got in there or why it was dead. lovely.

our {sub}floor! funny story - we went back a couple days after we'd installed this part of the floor, only to realize we had nailed and glued down that front piece of flooring on top of the electrical cord meant for our dishwasher. excellent. fortunately for us dummies, we only had to unscrew a few screws and were able to pull the cord out without much difficulty. awesome, right?? yeah we are.

i hope to have more pictures from working on it this weekend...

mr. Benjamin

we got to hang out with our cute nephew Ben the other day.
did i mention he's cute? adorable? cuz he's both of those.
when we left, Jae said he hopes our kids are as cute as Ben.
cuz Ben is sooo cute. {that's props to you, Jens & Audree)

{i know, i'm sorry - more crappy phone pics. i'm too cheap & i'm waiting for a wicked awesome sale for a new camera. until then....love me anyway}

the mr. got some new pretties

pretty shoes that is! although i'm sure 'pretty' wouldn't be the word Jae would pick to describe them.

i thought they were definitely blog-worthy. then again, i'm a {major} sucker for shoes, even if they aren't for me. i'll let the new kicks speak for themselves....

the picture doesn't do them justice. just trust us - they're sweet.

a first

this past weekend, we went to our first hockey game.
Utah Grizzlies vs. Bakersfield Condors.
it just so happens that i'm from the bakersfield area.
exciting? totally!

no, but really it was pretty fun though.
and even if it wasn't that great, the tickets were free.99.free my friends.
can't go wrong with that.

did we get any pics of the actual hockey game??
nope.
but we took pictures of ourselves!
and did plenty of people watching.
turns out a hockey game is a pretty ideal place for people watching.

cute matt & lindsie invited us...

thanks again to the snyder's for a fun night out. love you people.

reminder

" God didn't promise days without pain,

laughter without sorrow,

sun without rain.

but He did promise

strength for the day,

comfort for the tears,

and light for the way."

for those hard days that seem to never end.

for the times your faith is questioned.
this is what we need to remember.

this is what {I} need to remember.

talk to me.

ello.
it's tuesday.
and it has officially been a pretty lame day.
just one of those, ya know, when you're just tired and grumpy and nothing seems to go your way, which only encourages the grumpiness and yearning to be cuddled back in your bed for the rest of the day.
yes, definitely one of those days today.
here are some random thoughts for this lame tuesday...

i need a haircut. yes i need it so much that i had to make those words big sized. i would like to say i need a trim, but i'm afraid it's been so long that it's going to require something closer to a 'cut' then just a 'trim'. which makes me sad.

on the bright side, today the weather was beautiful. such a sunny, cool fall day. lovely.

the Mr. and i made (tentative) plans to go to...{drum roll please..} China for our next anniversary (which is in a couple months). YAHOO!!! excited. (Mr. - you better be able to get work off!)

in some ways, i'm kinda glad that the guys next door to the dance studio i work at were complete imbeciles today and gave me reason to yell at them. got rid of some of my aggression and frustrations.

i was listening to bluebird by sara bareilles today and it brought tears to my eyes. not sure why. just an emotional song listened to by an emotional girl, i guess. i told you - today was rough.

none of my watches currently work. the batteries are dead in every single watch that i own. and have been dead for quite some time now. secret??...i wore one of my watches today, knowing the battery was dead. just felt like it. kind of embarrassing when people notice i have a watch on and ask for the time. "well, my watch says it's 4:15, but it says that all the time, so maybe you shouldn't go by that.." maybe i should finally get some new batteries.

my fingernails are painted black right now. and i love it.

i had a pb&j for lunch and dinner today. i know...i'm still about 5 years old. and really healthy.

does it seem like every where you look/go/read/etc people are having babies? or talking about them? or getting pregnant?? man, i've noticed it a lot lately. i can't lie, it makes me want to join in the fun too. and then i remember that i don't have a house for a baby to live in even if i was ready to be pregnant.

i got a gift card from work for hitting my 5 year mark. i marched that gift card right to the mall and got me some new boots. they're the riding kind. and yes, everytime jae see's me in them, he asks me how the horse riding went. he's really funny, that jae.

it's now 6:50pm. that means in another hour and ten minutes i'll be done with my 13 hour work day. {until tomorrow, when i do it all again}
cannot wait.

{wannabe} book worm

so i officially just finished reading the third and final book from The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo series.
and holy wow...
that's about all i have to say.
that was a pretty intense set of books.
i know, i'm a bit behind. i'm sure some of you are like, yeah, i read those like last year.
i'm a little slow jumping on the bandwagon, and apparently jump on after it's already passed. {how that works, i'm not exactly sure..}
there was a lot of garbage in those books. like A LOT. and by gargabe, i don't mean like, bad book-writing or anything, just some seriously icky stuff. but if you skim past those parts, the story line is pretty awesome in all three of them.
i think i liked the third the best of all the game. good story. good intrigue. {is that even spelled right??}
so anyway, now that i finally finished my three books, i need another book to read.

is it weird or dumb or lame or whatever other word you'd like to insert that my first instinct is to pick up a book that i've already read and liked and read it again? i want to expand and find new books and love new books.
but i also sorta just wanna keep my list of books that i love the way it is and re-read a few of them.
i've never really been one to read books during all the big hype when they are first 'discovered' by the whole world, hence i have yet to read 'the help', for example. although i have heard {from the whole world, i think} that it's pretty spectacular. and i don't doubt that it is. but i don't know if i'm feelin it yet or not.
weird? probably.

sooo i shall search my brain for other books that i've stashed away in my 'future books to read' list and see what i come up with. i am also planning on raiding my sister's library to see if anything jumps out at me. i do enjoy having a book to read.
ideas??....cuz i know you have them and you're just dying to share them with me ;)

hug-a-bug

this comes from Intermountain Healthcare's website (which happens to be my place of employment) and a co-worker shared it with our department. i really liked it and thought it was interesting, so i'm passing it on to you..

(from Terri Flint, Ph.D, director of Employee Health Services)

Have You Had Your Hug Today?

 

"My family hugs. We hug each other when we see each other and when we are saying good-bye. We like to sit by each other and tease by tickling. And there are times when I will drive two hours just to get a hug from my niece, Katie, because she gives really good hugs. It is said that you need four hugs a day for survival, eight for maintenance, and twelve for growth. I believe that hugs with your pets count also. My horse, Piney, will exhale on my cheek and his warm breath just fills me with love from head to toe. It counts for at least 25 hugs. I know there are some families that do not give hugs. (You can tell because when you go to hug them, they become cardboard figures.) I hope these people have found other means to feel comforted and nurtured. And if not, Piney is available! Have you had your hug today?"

now go ahead...give some love!

girlfriend shout-out

so i have this friend.

this friend is a girl.

so she's my girlfriend.

and she's pretty stinkin awesome.

and this is why...

so on friday, i was walking to my car after work. tied to my car door handle was this:

i was very confused, to say the least.

at first, i thought, hmmm, maybe someone got cars mixed up and this isn't really for me.

then i was like, well maybe it's from someone i work with. except it's not my birthday or anything, so that'd be weird.

maybe Jae? but he's in the middle of a busy work day and not in salt lake anyway, so i doubt he'd have driven clear up here.

{side note: i work at Primary Children's but don't actually park there at the hospital - we have to park offsite at a random UofU parking lot about 10 minutes away from the hospital and be shuttled into work}

i actually thought it might be my girlfriend because she lives not far away from where i park, but it's a huge parking lot with tons of cars and how would she be able to figure out where i was parked?? it'd take forever!

i was in a hurry, but i wanted to see who this present was from! so as i was driving, i was happy to find a card inside and quickly opened it. this is what it said:

{front}

She said,

"That's a lot of money

to spend on a purse,"

and i knew

we couldn't

be friends.

{inside}

I'm glad we understand eachother.

then there was a little note from my dear girlfriend. this present really was meant for me!!!

in the bag:

oatmeal cream cookies {we used to buy boxes of these and eat the whole thing, just the two of us} and 2 cd's.

i cried.

there was no particular reason for this present, just because she's awesome and random and sweet.

love you mary elizabeth cleverly oveson  :)

 ps: you should know it was miss mary's birthday just yesterday, yet just the day before she was thinking of me and doing something oh so sweet for me. love that girl. (again) happy birthday mary!

our house: new things!

i haven't done a house update in awhile. i guess that's because i feel like we've hardly had any time to work on it lately. but here are a few things that have happened in the last month:

**sorry for all the crappy pics; they're from my phone**

bathtub!

can lights in the kitchen ceiling! all the electrical is done :)

washer & dryer hookup

a fan in the bathroom

getting the fireplace & chimney cleaned up

all clean! well, as clean as it's gonna get for now. i failed to take a pic before he started cleaning it. it was nasty and spider webby and ick. glad i didn't have to do it.

yes, that's a viney plant growing in from the outside into our house. great.

it's exciting to see the new things in our house. but it's so slow-moving, we're starting to go crazy!!! oh, and just to give you an idea of why things move so slow.....

yeah, can you see all those nails??? look real close. there's a KAJILLION of them! it's so much physical work and time to get the stupid floors up. luckily they're all up at this point. next step is to get the new subfloor down.

that might happen someday.