Wax Museum of Famous Americans

I had the opportunity today to go the Wax Museum of Famous Americans where I happened across a "wax" figure of Ella Fitzgerald who bore a striking resemblance to my daughter Cayla.

The wax Ella:



The real Ella:


Upon pushing the Ella Activator button she summed up her life story in 30 seconds. There were all kinds of characters at the museum today, but Ella was my favorite.



Grandma also visited the museum and snapped the above picture. She also took a movie, but unfortunately we couldn't get it to work on any of my computers.

I had to throw in this picture with her sparkly pumps we found at the DI in the perfect size.

Crazy Hat Day

Thursday was crazy hat day at school. Luckily, they found this hat when they were in Kanab. It is definitely one of the craziest hats I've ever seen. I can't help but wonder why they have a hat like this in Kanab, but then again, why not Kanab. One year Grandma Findlay forgot her nightgown on a trip to Kanab and there isn't one store in the whole town that carries night clothes, but if you need a crazy hat, I guess it's the place to go.

Brittni's Blog

Brittni has set up her own blog. She is at brittnirichelle.blogspot.com.

Grandkids..etc.

Because of comments from Jessica and Angie that they were glad to see a picture of Camie, I thought maybe I should post pictures of the grandkids that you probably have never seen and do some updates on the older girls. This picture was taken when we had everyone in town at the same time and weren't sure if that would ever happen again.

Stephanie went back to school in New Mexico a few years ago and got her Masters degree in Liberal Arts, where she met Evan, who Alyssa says is the smartest person she has ever known. Stephanie and Evan have now moved to Pittsburgh where Evan is working on his PhD. Evan is originally from Texas, and they have no idea where they will end up once he is done with school. Stephanie currently works from her computer at home. She works for the same company she did while in New Mexico and was fortunate to be able to take her job with her. She enters information about business executives into a database so when a company needs to fill a position they can access that information to find people to recruit. (That is my understanding of it anyway.) She isn't particularly fond of her job or being stuck at home working, but it is convenient for now until she and Evan settle somewhere permanently and she gets a chance to start her career.

Nicole and Jason live in West Jordan. They have the cute kids in the pictures below. Skylar just turned 9, Malorie is soon to be 7, and Braydon will be 4 in December. I don't get to see them much since I am always working and they live clear across the valley to the west. They also go camping almost every weekend all summer long so they don't get up this way much either. They are really cute kids and Nicole is a great mother.


Camie and her boyfriend Jeremy, live in Salt Lake, and she is co-owner of the Aura Spa and Boutique in Park City, the link to which is on Alyssa's blog. They did all the remodeling of the spa themselves and did a great job. It is really a cute place right on main street and business seems to be going really well. Anybody who goes to Park City for any reason should stop in and say Hi and check it out.

These pictures are from 2005 and 2007.

Alyssa

It was my thinking that since Alyssa has her own blog that I really didn't need to post about her on mine unless she did something phenomenal. Has she done anything particularly noteworthy lately that I need to praise and adore her for? Not particularly; however, apparently, her ego cannot handle the fact that I have blogged about everyone but her. One day when discussing her ego, she told us she didn't have an ego, to which Cayla and I laughed our heads off. You see, Alyssa, according to her thinking is the queen of the castle. She always gets the best chair. She always gets the remote control. She thinks she should always get the extra garage (currently her and Brittni trade off on a weekly basis). In general, she just thinks the world should revolve around her. She will admit to all these things and yet still proclaim she doesn't have an ego. When she informed me that she felt neglected because I had not posted about her, I told her I would post about her nonexistent ego, to which she replied that I needed to do it that very day (Sunday). Well, as you can see, it has taken me a couple of days to get around to it, but somehow I doubt her ego will deflate due to neglect.

Here is a picture of her with Camie and Nicole's daughter Malorie.

Shout out to Mom/Grandma

I took today off so I could face the daunting task of trimming my hedge. It doesn't take a whole day, but it doesn't get done if I have to work first. It has to be my first priority of the day and is typically a 3 hour job if I don't take any breaks. Around 9 this morning I came downstairs, looked out my beautiful new window, and saw mom out there with hedge clippers going at it on my neighbor's side of the hedge. I had her come in while I ate some cereal and then out we went. She did my neighbor's side with her hand clippers while I did my side and the top with my electric hedge trimmer. She had most of my clippings swept up by the time I finished and as it started to snow we were just cleaning up the last of it. My 3 hour job only took 1-1/2 hours and now I have the whole day to try and accomplish more things I am behind on.

Doesn't it look nice!!

Thanks MOM!!

Windows...and more windows

I had no idea new windows could make a person so happy. I don't even want to put up any blinds because I just want to look at them.

We had 6 disgustingly ugly bay windows on the front of the house that looked like this.

Inside:




Outside:




And now we have windows everywhere that look like this!!!












The tub/shower and new shower in the girl's bathroom got new windows too.








This is kind of hard to really see a difference, but...


Before:

After:

I think it kind of freshened up the outside of the house, if you don't look too closely at the old raingutters...

Since I didn't get windows in my bedroom, I'm really envious of the girls. Definitely come spring, I have to try and afford to do the remaining 5 windows on the top two floors, and if the economy really turns around maybe the 3 sliding doors too.

SMILE!!

Monday was the big day.

Brittni got her braces off and we had corn on the cob for dinner.

Not that she hasn't eaten it before, but it sure was a mess with her braces on.

I told her I wouldn't post this picture if it didn't turn out well, but I lied. It isn't the most flattering picture of her, but it does show her nice straight teeth and wider smile.

New Bathroom #1

Finally,we have one bathroom finished. This is the girl's new, improved, and expanded bathroom. There used to be a jacuzzi room that could only be accessed through my bathroom. We got rid of the old jacuzzi and divided the room in half. Half of it will be a man's walk-in closet accessed from my bathroom (that will never be occupied by a man while I live here, but added-on for resale value) and the other half became a new shower and vanity room for the girls. The girls now have a tub/shower, two sinks, another separate gigantic shower, and a vanity with a 3-way mirror just for doing hair. Please tell them they are spoiled, because I don't think they realize it!!

Here are the before pictures of the really nasty bathroom.

When the girls left for Pittsburgh on vacation, we knew we were going to be doing the bathrooms, just not when. After I got back from taking them to the airport on Friday I got a call that the contractor was ready to start on Monday. I decided not to tell them what was going on so when they came back from Pittsburgh, they came home to a completely gutted bathroom. Surprise!!

Now here we have the results, just made ready for move-in yesterday. For orientation purposes, as you enter the bathroom now, the wall opposite the second sink (just before you enter the toilet/tub area) is a new door into the vanity/shower room addition.

Finally, new sinks that are not brown and no more tiled countertop, but beautiful smooth granite.

New and improved toilet/tub area and Brittni's knees (didn't realize they were in the picture).

The tile you can see where it goes partway up the wall is that way around the entire room, behind the toilet and around the other side. This room will never have to be painted behind the toilet again. Yeah!!

Newly added room, vanity and shower. With the three-way mirror it's hard to get a picture that makes sense because everything is reflecting in the mirror.

Great new light fixture. Alyssa and I picked the lights out from pictures on the internet and they turned out even prettier than I thought they would, although it is hard to tell in the picture. The white actually has a marble look to it, which I didn't realize, but I love.

Not a very good picture of the shower, but it is the size of a bathtub without the tub. I should have opened the door and got a shot of the giant new shower head.

Now I get to temporarily move into their bathroom, while they do mine. Demolition day is Tuesday.