Summer Has Begun At My House!

What do you do in the summertime? We work like crazy until everything hurts, even our hair!

Here's what we did on Saturday:
Loaded up 40 bags of cow poop in our van--yep, Sam is freaking out because there is still evidence left in the van!


I'm slowly learning that you can't just plant your flowers in the spring and expect them to flourish. No no my friend, you have to do some soil prep work FIRST! Check our how depleted our dirt was? It's all clay that is rock hard, welcome to Utah! In Seattle everything you planted survived! I remember when my dad bought 50 tree saplings and planted them in the backyard, thinking that half would die (we had just moved to Seattle from Idaho)and they ALL survived. We had quite the forest in the back yard!


Meanwhile, Sam's friend gave him a trampoline on Saturday. I was completely surprised because last year I wanted a trampoline and Sam put his foot down and said they were dangerous and he refused to get one (sadly, he's right...I broke my elbow on a trampoline...ever hear that story? hee hee). Anyway, I guess his friend got him in a weak moment because he agreed to it. My boys sure are happy about it! Carson is jumping with the sprinkler under the tramp. Oh man, that brings back memories!



Then we headed to my parent's house for some good ol' Carl-Clark-hamburgers on the grill! Carson took this picture:


As we were preparing dinner, I heard Carson laughing and giggling. I walked onto the deck and heard him say: Now the dog has to smell the hippo's breath!
I guess it's better than making them "hump" because those days can't be far off! I choose to appreciate his innocence now! I had a good laugh!!


After the burgers, we came home to spread the cow poop into our flower beds. The kids played on the tramp, of course. We moved the tramp over by the kids swingset. So now, they can jump from the swingset, onto the trampoline, and SPLAT onto the cement on the other side of the tramp. Any bets on who will achieve this stunt first?


Check out this lilac bush in my backyard!! Every time I go into the yard I can smell them and they are dreamy!!


Now check out my good looking flower beds with their new "fertilizer". I bet they are so happy right now!!!




Now check out Sam-I-Am the raking man!


Finally, way past the kids' bedtime, I went outside to get them off the tramp and they were just laying down enjoying the night. Precious!


On a side note, I'm so glad we have central air now because today was 88 degrees and it was hot! I loved that I could walk inside to a cool 70 degrees! I really would not have survived as a pioneer!

I Knew If I Waited Long Enough...

I knew if I waited long enough there would be something blog-worthy to report!!

Ever since I got back from Seattle I've been trying to unbury myself from work, housework, and church work! I feel like I'm ready to face the world again and last night I faced it and my eyes were full of smoke!

Let me explain...
At about 10:30pm I kept hearing all these sirens go by, pretty close to my house. I was in the bathroom about to wash my face and since my bathroom window was open, I heard my neighbor say to her husband: "I wonder if it's the Bishop's house?" My heart sunk to my toes and the skin on my back went all prickly! I didn't even care that I was in my pajamas and I was underwireless in the support department. I ran outside and looked up my street. Sure enough, people were running in the direction of the many firetrucks and flashing lights.

SADLY, my first thought was "Oh crap, I hope the house isn't in my ward because I'm feeling a little stressed in my calling right now...." I KNOW, that is a TERRIBLE first thought, but it's the honest truth!!

I rushed up the street to see what was going on. Here is the scene:


See the road that the "fire line do not cross" tape parallels? THAT IS MY WARD BOUNDRY and the burning house was on the other side of the "line" so they are not in my ward. ***Big relief*** I'm terrible....

Since the entire neighborhood was out watching the scene I was able to piece together a little bit about the owner of the house. She is an elderly lady who is a terrible pack rat. In fact, she lives at her son's house most of the time because she can't move around in her house. The only reason she knew her house was on fire was because she saw it on the evening news and then came over to the scene! I'm not sure what started the fire, but the firemen couldn't even get into the front door because there was so much junk in there! They had an axe and were chopping down the door, finally gave up, and broke a window and climbed in that way. The only flames I saw were coming out of the swamp cooler on top of the roof. The smoke was everywhere, it never stopped pouring out of the house the entire time I was standing there, which was about an hour.

Sam saw this flood light raise up out of the firetruck. It was awesome because it lit up the entire house just like it was high noon. Sam drooled a little and said "Carrie, can we get one of those for our mini van?"


They got out the ladder and two firemen climbed onto the roof with a chainsaw and axe. They were cutting out chunks of the roof and working on the swamp cooler where the flames were...



Look how hot it was!! The ladder was totally melting, it was so SCARY!!
Okay, just kidding, my camera is acting retarded and does this to most of my pictures lately!


At about 11:45pm some news people came over to a few of us and asked us if we knew the owner. They were all poised to film us for the news. I remembered what I looked like, in my pj's and missing support, and honestly told them that I did not know the owner. Under my breath, as I was walking away, I muttered "and even if I did know her I wouldn't be caught DEAD on TV looking like this...." I guess I have no problem letting my whole neighborhood laugh at my appearance, but heaven forbid all the strangers out in TV land saw me....

Today I saw my Bishop and he said "it was nice to have a neighborhood social that wasn't a church function!" I understood completely what he said, but I don't want to be misunderstood here: I really do feel bad for the owner of that house. The smoke damage alone ruined anything she had. It was so bad that I had to go home and wash my hair because my afro had soaked up the fumes and was stinking up the house! I'm just glad the owner was already living with her son because it's going to be a long time before that house is fixed!

Kami and Ben, Sitting In A Tree....

K-I-S-S-I-N-G....

From now on, when somebody asks Kami what her last name is, she is going to have to say "Petty, you know, like Tom Petty?" Because I'm free! Free fallin'....

Yep, the youngest of the Oram clan is now a newly wed. How fun for her!! Actually, how fun for me too because I got to go to my favorite location, the Pacific Northwest, and party with my family!

After reading Cody and Nalani's blog, I clearly have some good blogs to follow.

The day before the wedding my family decided to head to Seattle for a little touristy stuff. I think I've been to this troll under the bridge like 100 times, but Darren said he'd never been there! How is that possible?? Anyway, we went again so he could see it. My mom posed my dad like this and I thought it was funny! It sort of reminds me of Alfred Hitchcock...


If you've never driven through the Wallingford area of Seattle, you should.
Very strange, yet very interesting. Here is a store front in Wallingford... Need I say more?


Kami picked a great day to get married because springtime in Seattle usually brings rain, but when she came out of the temple, the clouds parted and we had sunshine!!
Sam and I are precious.


Karmen did the flowers. She taught us a life lesson! Did you know that you should never hold your bouquet of flowers straight up and down? "Point your blooms towards the camera!" she kept reminding us. Here is Maile, me and Nalani demonstrating how much better your flowers look if you follow Karmen's advice!


Here is the Oram family. Aren't they a good looking group? Basically, this is my second family--I love you guys!!


After the wedding, we headed to Daurell and Jana's house for the luncheon. It was good and good for the funny bones because as always, we CACKLE when we are together! I sort of feel bad for people who aren't used to our loud laughter, but we've only scared a few away so far...


Sam and Darren found a rope swing at Daurell and Jana's so Darren captured this awesome action shot of Sam!


After the luncheon, we had a little time before the reception, so we went to the Kirkland water front. This was pretty close to our hotel, so a big THANKS to Nalani for hookin' us up.


Darren trying to be GQ! Nerd! Can you see the Seattle skyline in the background?


The reception was so fun. It was held at a friends house in Redmond. It had a beautiful view, and Susan was fine too!


Kris, what is wrong with smiling? My cousin Kris was unable to make the last Washington trip for our Grandpa's funeral. We were very happy that he made it to the wedding!


Check out Kami and Ben's cake!! It was just as tasty as it looked too!


Our final day in Washington we headed back into Seattle. We found Gas Works Park after driving around for quite awhile, but it was worth it! There is a huge hill in the middle of the park and I paid Darren and Sam a dollar to roll down the hill...and they did it! Suckers, I would have paid them 5 dollars!!





I took this picture of Sam and I thought it was kind of artsy-fartsy. I have no clue who those kids are, but it kind of makes the picture funnier...


Here is Darren posing by the brass pig at Pike's Place Market. I tried to get Darren to climb on the pig, but he wouldn't. Probably a good thing too, weird things happen when you climb that pig...check out Karmen and Nalani climbing that pig!


I'll tell you what WASN'T fun, leaving Seattle at 4:00am and driving all day back to Salt Lake. But guess what is worse than that?? We got back to Salt Lake at 7:00pm and Darren and Susan had to get out of my van and into their car and drive to Rexburg, which is another 4 hours!! Oh man, that must have sucked!!! Ha Ha Ha.

It was a wonderful weekend, congratulations again to Ben and Kami Petty!!!

The Past 48 Hours...I Think I Need A Vacation!

Good thing we're heading to Seattle this week because we need a break!! The past few days have been so busy so let's get right to it, shall we?

There is an Easter tradition I don't really care for...coloring eggs. It's messy and then the eggs just rot in my fridge. But, until the kids are grown I have a feeling that I'm stuck doing the tradition. After the eggs were hard boiled, Carson smelled every one of them to insure they were not rotten and then he'd give me a "thumbs up" approval. Yes, I was grossed out.



I invited a few people over to color the eggs because the more they did, the less I had to do. Sorry, Fern, this is the only picture I took of the coloring project, I'll bet you were saying "Ug, why did I have to show up at the same time Carrie was coloring eggs?" hee hee.


A bunch of people from my neighborhood decided to get together and have an Easter egg hunt. There is a nature preserve area next to our local park. Lots of sagebrush so lots of great places for plastic eggs to hide! A good time was had by all!




Last night, Sam and our friend, Ryan Jones, removed our old furnace and put a new furnace in its place. I had no idea what a huge project that is! Thank goodness for great friends! It's step #1 to getting central air. I'm pretty dang excited! For 5 years I've lived in the desert with nothing but a swamp cooler! We all know what happens when I get hot....I get CRANKY! So this summer I should be lots nicer to all ya'll!

This morning (Saturday) Carson and Parker woke up all excited because they had to find their Easter Baskets (The bunny comes on Saturday). I love the baskets I found this year, lots of froo froo (is that even a word?)



Then Carson gave Parker his own private "easter egg hunt". Notice how Parker is right behind Carson? Carson would "hide" an egg and Parker would grab it right after he hid it and put it in the basket. Very funny.


Today's big project was to create a cement pad for the air conditioning condenser to sit on. How many guys does it take to mix cement? Right after this picture was taken, my dad about had a concussion. See that metal drill that Sam and my dad are holding? Well, that swung around when Sam turned it on and knocked my dad right in the forehead. I felt so bad! One Band-Aid later, and things were okay.



Sadly, that wasn't the only injury of the day. Parker tripped down the cement stairs that lead to our backyard and split his chin open. So, while Sam and my dad finished the cement pad, I hung out at Instacare with Parker. He was so brave! This is his first experience with stitches.

5 stiches later, all is well (except I was sort of queazy for the rest of the evening, I could see his bone when they were irrigating the wound...gag...)


The cement pad looks great and so does my hubby!


Tonight Sam pressed the kids' handprints into the cement. On Monday Sam and Ryan will finish hooking everything up and then I will be as cold as I want to be in July and August!!!



Happy Easter tomorrow everybody! Say a little prayer for me because Sam and I are speaking in Sacrament meeting tomorrow. **GULP**