I'm Bringin' Sexy Back

HOLY COW!!! It's been 8 months since my last post, and if we're being honest, giving up and trashing the blog did cross my mind... many times in fact. Alas, I'm breaking the dry spell and bringing "the Gospel" back. Hopefully I'll continue to post more a menudo.
I don't even know where to start, as far as catching up goes...
Bri and the kids and I are still doing well, still livin' the dream. Taryn is 3½ now, and Beck just turned 1½. Beck is a smiley, energetic, adorable ball of fire, and Taryn's 16th birthday is just around the corner! (16 in every aspect: knowledge, vocabulary and especially ATTITUDE)
Not sure how else to scribe all the thoughts racing through my head as to what's gone during the last 8 months, so please forgive the following flood of information:
I took a Regional Sales Manager position for a payment processing company (and work from home now), Bri started a pre-school that she teaches at our house, Beck started liking Sponge Bob for some reason, my brother Michael and his wife Sarah had a little boy - Andrew, Bri's sister Kirstie gave birth to twin boys - Madden and Ty, my sister Stephanie and niece Kailee decided to move to Houston in June :( , our ward got split AGAIN and I got called as Ward Clerk, our ward just got a brand new building, we got a Wii, Taryn goes to Brianne's preschool, Beck can walk now, Bri got called as the Ward Humanitarian, we bought a piano, I became a facebook junkie, Taryn started dance class, Beck loves Mickey Mouse Clubhouse (and all the music), I got to go to Omaha for a week for training, I got to visit Winter Quarters Temple and Visitors Center, my brother Johnny moved down to Douglas and is going to Cochise Community to get his Pilots license, my brother Ryan switched from Marine Reserves to Active ARMY, Michael is on his 2nd tour in Afghanistan, Bri's parents just moved in with her sister Shauna down the street, Bri's youngest brother Jared got engaged and is getting married on June 18th, the 4 of us (Bri, Taryn, Beck and I) are going on a beach/Disneyland trip next week, we subscribed to Netflix and can now get movies thru the Wii, Taryn can beat Johnny at swordfighting on Wii Resort, Taryn and I camped out in the backyard in preparation for mine and Beck's trip to Payson for the Father and Sons campout, and Bri and I rearranged our room to make room for my "home office" (none of that was in any order). Hope I didn't leave anything out, although I'm sure I did.
Wow! That was A LOT. That would've easily been about 100 facebook statuses, right? All in all, it was a pretty eventful 8 months. So much so, that you'd almost excuse me not posting... ALMOST.

...and what a LABOR day it was!

Wow, super long again since the last post... I'll work on that. Anyway, to the title story... So, for a while now Bri and I have been talking about putting beadboard (aka wainscotting, aka Cape Cod Plank) in our kitchen, and were fortunate enough to inherit some from the Davies in our ward who had plenty left over after their projects. Probably the hardest part of the entire project was agreeing on a color to paint it. It wasy easy enough to decide to paint the beadboard instead of the walls, and to put a chair rail on top of it, but it came down to 2 very similar Behr™ colors, Heron (Bri's) or Regatta Bay (mine). They are both darkish blue colors, but Heron is more teal, and RB is more grey. Guess who won out? Here's a hint, look at the pictures! On Monday (Labor Day) our Project Manager, someone who has beadboarding experience (Bri's dad) came over and showed me what it was all about. Together I'd say we did a pretty dang good job. I attempted to take the existing baseboards off the wall to replace in front of the beadboard, however DR Horton made sure that those things will probably never come off. Scratching that idea, we decided to set it on top of the baseboards, which turned out really nice. We glued it to the walls for added support before we nailed it all down, having to cut holes for the wall plates on outlets/switches. Then we cut the chair rail to size, 45°d the edges to come together, nailed it up and had to call it a day. Tom showed Bri how to caulk the rest, and the next night Bri and I stayed up forever caulking then painting the chair rail and beadboard. With just a little touch-up painting left to do on the baseboards, I'd say it turned out pretty nice. The only thing that would have made it look nicer would have been... REGATTA BAY COLOR! (Sorry, Bri - my blog, my opinions! I still love you, though).

click on pictures for larger view

****************************************************************

Special "Thanks" to those who contributed to the project: the Davies for the beadboard, Dan for taking me to Home Depot to get the chair rail, Beck for being a good boy while mommy and daddy painted, Taryn for the first paint strokes on the beadboard, the Deans for their use of the nail gun and mitre saw, Bri for her long hours painting, caulking and touching up, and last - but by NO means least - Tom, my father-in-law for his long hours, instruction, tools, lunch, and a fun day of construction.

****************************************************************

Meal Fit for a King...

So for my birthday, the one gift I wanted from my mom was that she cook me my favorite meal... the best thing I ever ate growing up, Bisquik Lasagna. You replace the lasagna noodles with a mixture of Bisquik, milk, salt, pepper and grated zucchini, then layer it with meat, cheese and sauce like a regular lasagna. It rises to the top of the pan, and you've got a fluffy biscuit with tons of the beef/cheese/sauce mixture...mmmm... the best food ever!
She came over in the afternoon and cooked at my house, and we all had a blast sitting around talking and eating. Kailee my niece commented that I ate mine fast, and I told her I'd be done with my seconds before she even finished her firsts... and of course, I was right. And then I had thirds. I told you it was good! Afterward, Johnny made me type up a résumé for him, so in turn, I made him help me take Beck's crib apart and move it to his own bedroom. For dessert, Bri had bought a frozen Oreo pie, which was also delectable. All in all, one of my favorite birthdays EVER!

Another Year Older, and a New One's Just Begun...

In celebration of my b-day, I am looking back at all the cool/fun things that have happened to me since my last birthday. You could say figuratively that I am "putting my memories up on a shelf." If you scroll down on the right hand side, you'll see an at-a-glance picture of the Top 10 Things That Happened to Me This Year. Some things that didn't make the list were: working 3 jobs, getting a Facebook account -which enabled me to get back in touch with a lot of my old friends, a short but memorable trip back to Blythe (although for a sad reason), and many others...
By way of explanation, on number 8 "Taryn has turned out just like me," what I meant was that she likes a lot of the same Disney movies I do, she loves playing "Mario," she's learning to speak Spanish, and she's got a mischevious streak to her - scaring people and putting cold things on people asking "is this cold?" - She is her daddy's girl... definitely one of the best things to happen to me this year!

Daaaa Beach, da beach, da beach, da beach...

I can't believe it came and went so fast! So this year's Beach Trip theme was Pirates. We had a whole week in the group site at San Clemente State Beach Park, and the weather was beautiful! It never got over 75°. Taryn had a blast, and keeps asking when we're going back. She had a lot of firsts. She rode a skateboard for the first time, flew a kite, swung a bat, and played hopscotch, which is now her favorite thing ever... Beck seemed to enjoy himself too, tasting sand for the first time! Bleck! Bri and I got to eat at Pipes (the best place in the world for breakfast burritos) a couple of times, yum-o! We took a roadtrip up to Longbeach on Tuesday, and saw my dad and had lunch at our [used-to-be] favorite Peruvian restaurant. He had a blast playing with the kids and watching Taryn play on the jungle gym and at the splash park. We had fun cooking with our team on Thursday night, we did French Dips subs with pasta salad. On Saturday night we had a BYOB (the last initial standing for BEEF not BEER) and Bri picked up some pretty good sized ribeyes that we grilled, and I threw together a pretty sweet corn salad for the potluck. We all came back with some pretty sweet tans, however a week just wasn't long enough! We opened the doors to get out and stretch in Quartzsite on the way back, and let's just say we'd forgotten how hot Arizona could get!! Viva La Playa!!