My Kitchen

I am finally getting around to writing about my house.

Scott has been living, off and on, in a house owned by his grandmother since 1996. It has been a worry to me about our future in the house. We have been allowed to paint but not change the things we wanted to like the roof, fencing etc. I have wanted to remodel and landscape.

Recently my sister who was widowed in November 2012 had been living in ‘grandma’s’ house with her husband and children since 1997. Due to the recent passing of her husband her in-laws decided to disregard the husbands deathbed wish and included ‘grandma’s’ house in with all the farm land and sold it. My sister now has to worry about paying rent or buying the house from the new owner or moving. She has not had a mortgage for 15 years and all the equity in grandma’s house is no longer hers. There is plenty of blame all around for this current situation. Regardless of who didn’t get papers correctly signed and who lied etc after many years my sister and her kids have nothing. I am not going to be in a similar situation. I do not want to imagine life in 15 years and Scott passing and I am kicked out of my home that was never really mine anyway. I would lose all the ‘sweat equity’. I also worried that when Grandma passes away –without a legal will which she refuses to make- all her assets will be divided between her three children and NOT three children and ONE grandson. Even if taken to probate court-which causes me to shudder—going to court against family—I think the judge would say one grandson does not have rights if none of the other grandchildren have rights. So I am sure of the future in the house is not secure.

Scott readily agreed with me and went on the hunt for a house. You have seen outside pictures. Here is some detail about the kitchen.

This is a picture of the back door. This is taken before we moved in.

A picture of the flooring-I like it. The pics look like there are scratches in the floor-there are not. They must be scuffs that have been washed out.

This is the corner. The stove was not installed at this time. Nor is the fridge.

A whole view of the kitchen. The stove and fridge were placed as part of the staging of the house.

All moved in and put together!

A closer view of my favorite corner! Everything is so handy! I love my gas stove! I love the hanging spatulas and spoons for easy grabbing. It is my favorite corner in the house!

This is the other corner-not my favorite-but way better than the small orange corners I had before. I do love the refrigerator! It is very hand having the freezer on the bottom! We were very lucky that the refrigerator fit. We measured between the counters and did not notice that the cupboards above were not lined up. It barely fit between the cupboards! We were very very lucky indeed. Next to purchase is a new dishwasher. That will be a little down the line!

That is my kitchen. I enjoy it very much. We are using a card table for our dining purposes and will one day get a real table with real chairs!

Here is to the future! Which is much more secure even if I have a card table and old icky dishwasher!

Another Peek at the Stewart Shack

The following pictures are of my real life! My unorganized, less than perfect, real life!

This is the master bathroom. Yes the light bulbs are different colors-It is weird but I have not taken time to fix it nor to put away my hair band and lip stick, so it must not bother me too much.

The shower is very nice. It is real stone and quite nice. There are 2 heads with one removable.

The jets can be angled to spray in all directions to allow massage of my back and shoulders!

This is the other shower head in this his and hers shower. I like to get both ends going and really steam up the place! It really helps that I have a ginormous 75 gallon water heater! I have yet to drain it!

My mom had one of these hanging on our bathroom door as a child. She and my father would put their underthings in them. My mom started making them again and gave me this one shortly after I married Scott. It has “Keep your laundry tucked away” embroidered on it. My previous bathroom was blue and she made it to match. I love it! It reminds me of my childhood and of my mother all in one daily glance! Oh FYI there is a flap on the bottom to make loading the washer very very very easy!

Speaking of washing machines! Right out the second door of the master bath is the wash area. Hardly a room but it fits my needs!

Now onto my closet! It is a good square closet with and L bar. It has enough room for all our shoes and clothes and dirty clothes baskets! Again it is perfect for me!

Here is our bed. Not made squarely—and I call myself a hygienist! But this is how it really is. I am cold and need my WSU Dental Hygiene blanket on my side! Suzie prefers to snuggle down on my side! Sheesh! This makes it difficult to make the bed! That is my excuse for having a bed in disarray while I have no children to require my time. I guess I am just lazy! Ugh! I do not want to think that about myself. So I will conclude that I am an imperfect person with an imperfect house.

This is the spare room you will be entreated to upon arrival at the Stewart Shack!

This is also the bathroom you will pleasantly use! Heat lamp light included!

I just wanted to show the cute tile floor someone did—probably in the 80’s! Regardless I enjoy it!

Well that is another installation of our house! One day I will get the family room cleaned enough to take a picture and include it. I also need to purchase another couch for the upstairs sitting room. When that happens pictures will follow!

Introducing the Stewart Shack

Merry Christmas, Happy New Year, Happy Valentine's Day and all the rest of the holidays I seem to have missed!

Scott and I did our traditional trip to Temple Square and then to Melting Pot. It was wonderful as always!  I do enjoy that tradition we started. 

We had a very tiny Christmas this year! The reason was we closed on a house on Christmas Eve! What a great gift Scott got me!

He did a lot of the work all by himself. He got the Realtor, the loan, looked at the house first, got the paper work done etc. I just showed up for the house viewing. He did all the inspections etc. He even signed for everything by himself while I was at a work party. How great is that? He did such a great job! 

Scott in the process of moving! Just a classic shot of the fun we have.

The boxes slid and I couldn't resist another shot while I was laughing so hard. 

Here is our little house. I am calling it the Stewart Shack for now. It is 4 bedroom, 2 bath little nugget of a house! It is an upgrade from where we were living before and so life is great! I am so thankful for the house and the chance we have to make it our home. Now if we could just get a magic wand to poof all of our copious amounts of food storage from the basement of old house to basement of new house that would be great!

Happy Life

Summer and Fall zoomed right by me. I worked. I played. I slept. I went to church. The end. 

Earlier in the year Scott and I decided to try a membership at Costco. We are actively working on our food storage. We have made it a priority in our budget and thought the bulk items found at the mega store would be worth having a membership-even though we have to drive 3 hours to get to one. Overall we have been pleased with the membership and found several items we like. Now this jar of Nutella cracked us up! 

We expect large quantities but W.O.W!

I have lived in Vernal for 21 months and not once have I been to the little donut shop in a shack in a parking lot. Well, Scott and I tried it the other day and have been back 3 times since then. For a mere $1.75 you can get a small tray of mini donuts (6) covered in 1,000 toppings. Here in the pic is Banana Creme Pie and Orange Dreamsicle. 

I took one bite of the banana and caramel donuts and cried a little-that is why my eyes are so green. 

Not really-

They do turn green when I cry but who knows why they are green in this pic--must be to draw your eyes from my silver fillings I refuse to replace until I have to. 

All I can say is the Boston Creme Pie is fab as are their large warm pretzels! I want to try their soup but just cant--must order donuts!

Scott and I purchased a new bed. It is my first new bed in my life. I have always had hand me downs. We splurged on a king, Tempurpedic choice-that means it has the memory foam and the air chambers like a Sleep Number. We also splurged and got the adjustable bases. So every night Scott goes to sleep with the vibrating massage feature on while I read for a few and once it shuts off I can sleep-I just dont love falling asleep to the massage feature-oh well. I do however love the Zero G feature! The base lifts the head and legs slightly to remove the pressure from your back. I feel like I am floating in zero gravity forces! I love it! 

I am not sure I can express how much I love having my legs elevated! It just rocks. I have experienced 'leg aches' since I was a small child and frequently get them. Doctors have no idea what is wrong--what do they know lol. All I know is the Zero G helps!!! I am starting to wonder if the massage feature helps with blood circulation and is helping me also. . . just a thought.

Suzie of course loves the bed. She does not get kicked out as often because she has room to sleep in the big spacious king! She is notorious for trying to bury under the covers-in this pic she failed to get all the way under and made a V. I guess she gave up trying to get under the blankets and plopped right on the V part of the mass of blankets. She honestly cracks me up! The new bed is significantly higher than our old bed and she has no problem jumping up to get where she wants to be.

I guess our new bed is a success! All love it!

In October Scott and I went to Salt Lake City to a wedding. While we were there we had a picture snapped of us.--We are too cute!

The wedding was beautiful! One of the best I have ever been to. My friend from hygiene school was married--Maria!

Mair, Melissa and Heidi then Maria is the stunning bride in the back--She was exquisitely, classically, stunning! I am so thankful I was able to attend! 

Life has treated me well and life has kicked some bruises but all in all it is a happy life! 

Bad Case of Writers Block

I miss blogging. I miss being able to share my feelings, thoughts, ideas, dreams, worries, adventures, sadness and joy. For several reasons I have not been able to write in this venue. It breaks my heart. I miss all my readers. I miss thinking--oh grab my camera I want to share this with my blogger friends. I miss it all.

When I Have Grown a Foot or Two

I grew up singing a favorite primary song as a child. We sang it in my home and at church. My grandparents loved listening to us sing-I hope they call me on a mission, when I have grown a foot or two.....

Growing up in an LDS family I had great opportunities to hear many men and women give reports on their missions. One of the first times I distinctly remember feeling the Spirit was after a young man spoke about his mission. It was not until I was a few years older that I realized why I loved listening to missionaries--the Spirit. Anyway, I learned young that I loved to listen to the missionaries. I looked up to them and wanted to be like them. 

The I turned 16 and wanted to date some of them.

Then I turned 21 and decided not to become one of them for various reasons I know are true and right. 

Then I turned 25 and realized I was too old to dream about dating freshly returned missionaries anymore--I had to give up that dream. It was a hard thing to do. I had looked up to and forward to missionaries for so much of my life and to let go of the idea of dating and then marrying a freshly returned missionary was very heart breaking and quite a milestone in my life. 

Then I turned 30 and thought that the missionaries were too young.  Not only were they too young they were too inexperienced. They did not understand sin, repentance, mistakes, forgiveness etc like I thought I did.  I was no longer attracted to them and sought for deeper spiritual stimulation. Another milestone. . . 

Then yesterday at 39 years old I was cleaning a freshly returned missionary's teeth and as I did so I realized that I was 19 when he was born. Holy Cow! Where did my life go. How did I get old enough to be the mom of a missionary and still not have my own little one? How did I age this quick? What have I done with my life? 

Who knows. I think I am having a mid life---older missionary ---crisis!

4Th of July

Thursday I was sitting on the front steps and watering our lawn. I was playing a little with Suzie-she was more interested in all the neighbors. Quite a few of the neighbors had family over and were playing, giggling, laughing and simply enjoying the rare wind free night. I noticed that in the past this kind of situation would have hurt my heart. I would have felt lonely and alone and sad I didnt have family around. This year an amazing thing happened. I was not sad. I was happy for my neighbors. I was happy Scott was able to work and provide for us-even though he was on graveyard shifts. I was happy that while I was alone I was not lonely. I have not felt that way for 20 years. I am so happy that I am finally able to have a family-even if it is just Scott and Suzie. Everyone is in a different place in life. I know for me I have been in a lonely place for many years. I know my Heavenly Father loves me and that He watched over me while I was alone. I hope that I can feel this way for a long time. I do not like feeling lonely. . . .
Anyway, that was my 4th. Home alone but not lonely.