Staying warm in Idaho

We just got a huge heating bill for the October month and it was scary! Lots of locals here have told us that to survive -20 degree weather we would need lots of wood to burn.

Most people bought tags to cut down trees then haul the lumber to their homes. We didn't have anything to haul (or cut) the wood, but Krystal found a guy in town that is a logger and sells and delivers large amounts of wood.

So we recieved a half of a cord of wood last week. But how to chop it? We don't own an axe yet. Our neighbor was chopping his wood and he said that if we helped chop his wood, then he would help us chop ours. So I (Nick) went out there and began helping him chop and stack wood. His beer-drinking buddies arrived (with 12 packs of beer) and many of them helped us chop and stack. After we chopped his wood, he and his buddies came and helped me chop our wood. Got it done in 30 minutes! Really nice of them.

Our fireplace has had problems getting enough ventilation. I got up on the roof and looked at our chimney and found about 1/2 an inch of soot caked all over the inside of the chimney. I borrowed a 15 foot chimney sweep and swept it. It made a foot tall pile of soot in our fireplace. I cleaned it out and we got a roaring fire in there last night. It warmed our home to a cozy 75 degrees while it was 30 degrees outside.

It may not be the cleanest solution, but it's how we survive in this cold weather climate for now.

Libby Update...and her stitches.

Wow has she changed in the last couple of months. She has been doing the crab crawl for a couple of months, and she is so fast! She has such an adventurous personality. It is cute and sometimes very scary. On thursday I was cleaning up the toys ( a daily ritual, about three times a day) and I heard her open the oven drawer. I went running in and she had her hand stuck somehow. I pulled it out and a part of the drawer sliced her finger around the knuckle. She was bleeding pretty good, so we hurried up to the ER in Soda and they glued it instead of actual stitches. She didn't even cry, and they gave her a teddy bear :)

So her new things:

-She has started pulling up on everything, and it scares Mom half to death. Dad says she has to fall to learn to walk, so I relax.

-She loves to empty everything, with anything in it.

-She just started to climb up on things, like the shelf table in the front room.

-Libby has two top fornt teeth. Cute!

-She also has her own launguage. One of her favorite words is "Nawaja, waja, waja." She does say real words like Dada, Mama, doggie, Hi, and she barks like Chio. It is so funny;)

-Libby is becoming alot more independent. She loves to feed herself, and now drinks out of a big cup. Cute!

-Libby loves her Daddy. She wakes up when she hears him leave in the morning, and will cry if he doesn't give her hugs and kisses bye bye.

We are so blessed to have such an angel in our home and we enjoy every minute of her. We love you Libbers!

-

Halloween Eventfulness

We are still alive, we have been some poor excuses for bloggers lately. Since the last time we blogged, Halloween happened. We had the annual (I guess starting next year) Grace High School Spaghetti Dinner/Concert/Fundraiser. Kids performed without fear, and no food was thrown = It went awesome. Plus our music program made over $800 in one night thanks to many parents and friends.

Our next event was the actual Halloween Night. It was our first time that we've had the opportunity to give out candy (no one came to our creepy apartments in Ogden, with good reason). Krystal was scared out of her socks by a kid wearing a two foot devil-mask with evil eyes and a scary grin. Our Obama pumpkin unexpectedly lived through the night without being smashed, and all went well.

Visit from Rhett, Holly, and Lucy!

We had a short and awesome visit from Rhett, Holly and Lucy. We just had time to show off the new house, Wii, Battlefield Russian quotes, church, the slag flow, pictures, staying up all night with two crying babies, and some eating.

I am going back to school!

Well I am very excited to tell everyone that I just applied to ISU and I am so excited! I have missing school so bad. Don't get me wrong, I love being a mother, but I love learning as well. I am just full of butterflies, and I haven't even sent my transcripts in yet. I have been giving myself a little guilt trip for having the desire to become more educated. I don't want to leave Libby, and sometimes I feel like it will make me a bad mom if I leave her with someone. I have just been thinking a lot about it lately and decided I need to finish. Libby is old enough that she can be left with someone ( at least for the Spring semester, then she can be with dad for summer) for a couple of hours. This is something I need to do for myself, and I constantly have to remind myself that it is not a bad thing to do something for me once in a while ;). I only had a year left at Weber State, so we will see after the credits transfer over, I would regret it if I didn't go and finish. I don't want all of that 4 years of hard work to be for nothing. I also was thinking, what if something happened to Nick? How would we pay the bills? I don't like to even think about it, but reality is, it could happen. They have a general music program also, and I think that is what i want to do, but I still have to look into it a little bit more. YAY!

Summer's End

I love summer. It s by far the very best season. Here is a little video of our past summers and we look forward to fall and winter for some new adventures. Every season has it's perks. I love the cool crisp fall sweater weather. There is a little nip in the air that lets you know cold is coming. The people in Grace love to ask me if I like snow, so I think this winter will be a doozy.

I can only name six quirks?

Well Since I am limited to only six, let me think here......

The one that bothers Nick the most is that I squeeze the toothpaste from the middle of the tube. I know this bothers him because he tells me, but I guess it doesn't bother me at all, so I have never stopped.

I have just realized that i don't like apple cider because it tastes like apple pie. I like apple pie, so I don't know what the deal is with that. Weird.

I have this deep, embedded love for buffalo. When I was in High school, my family and I went to Yellowstone and saw about a hundred. I was obsessed for a while, but now I just like them. I didn't tell Nick that, but on our first date he made a buffalo sound.(next time you see him, ask him to show you.) That is why we got married.

I am the Vice of the Enemenopee society. It is a club that my cousin and I started while we were camping. There is a big list of stupid rules, and to join you have to eat a well ketchupped, well roasted marshmallow. So far we have around 40 members that range from family to friends to obscure relative friends (feel free to join). I even sent out a newsletter once.

Dumb jokes. Need I say more. Nick's favorite is: I say "Holy Cow!" as I pass a cow pasture and anyone caught looking at the cattle is pointed and laughed at. Here's another: What's Beethoven's favorite fruit? Ba-na-na-naaaa.

I like to give my plants (and fat spiders) names. I have a tree named Bob, a cactus named Jethro, and a catface spider named Jimmy. Care to meet them?