Basement finish and hunting

Spencer has gotten into hunting in the last few months. He got a duck and goose call and this lanyard to hold them for Christmas and his birthday. Yesterday morning he and Bill finally found some time to go out for the first time! 

This is his face when they realized the spot they went was not going to work at all because the water was so far away. Whoops! 

But they did get to explore a lot and they found a new place to go in a couple weeks, so they’re good! 

We’ve made so much progress on the basement! This was a selfie I took after Bill and I spent Friday night cleaning up the basement after the drywall and mud/tape/texture was finished. So much dust we swept and vacuumed up! 

And this is where we’re at now! First coat is nearly done for the whole basement. Bill has wired just about all the plugs and switches. 

Just need to do the corners the roller couldn’t reach. As soon as I get the second coat on the ceiling, Bill can clip in all the can lights and we’ll have light! It is way more work than I ever expected to get this basement done. But we are coming right along and I’m so excited for the progress and that I see the end in sight. 

 

Happy birthday!

 This has been absolutely the craziest week. The weather in Dallas was crazy intensely cold while we were there, and it even snowed just a tiny bit. This Utah girl thought it was absurd and ridiculous that this much snow shut everything down, but indeed it did. 

Our flight home Monday was canceled and rescheduled for Tuesday afternoon. We really didn’t have any faith that flight would still be there, we needed to get back to our kids and work, I didn’t have my laptop, so we made the crazy decision to cancel our return flight and drive home! We had also started to get sick and that didn’t sound very fun to be sick traveling. So we rented a car and rice the 18 HOURS home. We totally pulled an all nighter doing it, just switching off napping. Bill drove almost the whole way, 14 hours. I picked up the last chunk early in the morning when he finally got too sleepy. We got home at 6:15am Tuesday. 😂😳

Before we left, we did a few more fun things. We went to Meow Wolf. That was one of the more weird things I’ve ever done  I hear it helps if you’re drunk, lololol. We had a great time. It’s pretty amazing even sober. 🤣

We stopped by Buc-ees twice while we were there. Ha! Priorities. 

Once we got home Tuesday morning we still had stuff to do! Bill was totally out for the count. He hasn’t been that sick since Covid in 2020, I don’t think. He was barely functional until Thursday afternoon. It was crazy. But our basement drywall was scheduled to be done this week. They showed up Tuesday evening and got it nearly done that evening. We had to put the tub surround in before they finished. We bought it in November and never got around to installing it. 🤦🏻‍♀️ So late that night while I was also sick, I went to install it. It was tweaky of course, like all DIY projects are. I got two of the three panels in finally only to discover the third one was cracked! 

So I had to take it all out and Bill stumbled his way through the next day and managed to buy a new one. Our drywall guy was so nice and installed it for us when he came Wednesday. But he left the same third panel because it needed holes cut in it, and Wednesday night I was up late AGAIN finishing the installation. That again was so tweaky! I finally did get it in and the drywall screwed over the top that had been cut and left for me to finish. The mud/tape/texture guys came on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday and it’s nearly done now! 

We started this basement project a full year ago. I did the framing January 2023 and assumed we’d have it done in a few months. Ha! February included Bill getting laid off and 2023 was a really quirky work year. So the timeline definitely hasn’t gone as planned, but I’ve got paint samples now! I’m looking at carpet. We are so close! I love it. 

Today is birthday day! We did a friends party for Spencer yesterday. He made his own cake! I helped frost it but I showed him how to do the decorations and he did half of them. 

He just wanted to go to the rec center and play sports with his friends. So that’s what we did. Spencer and six of his friends came and we did pizza and cake and played soccer and football. It was way fun. It nearly turned into a disaster when the field was booked seemingly the whole party, but thankfully they left partway in and we were able to use it. It was fun. He’s the big 13! And today we’re celebrating both of us with family. Yay! 

15 years and 100 years

 We have had absolutely the best weekend. Bill came down to Dallas on Tuesday for work training running up to the main event of the 100-year anniversary of Haag Engineering. I got to fly down Friday as well to join him for the black tie party. It was so much fun! There was a cocktail hour first, then a five-course dinner in the most beautifully decorated ballroom I’ve ever been in. They brought  live cover band in and we danced for hours. It was just amazing all around. I’ve never been to anything so fancy. I met a ton of great people that work for Bill’s company as well. They are from all over the country and there’s even a guy up in Canada. Haag is headquartered in the Dallas area, but has the most minor of actual buildings there. They really lean into everyone working fully remote. It’s pretty cool. They’re currently expanding out westward. They’re thrilled to have Bill on for Utah and Idaho and they’re hiring on the west coast too. It’s a super vibrant company. We feel like we hit the jackpot finally on this company. It’s been such a great experience so far. 

We stayed on the 15th floor of a fancy hotel for the first night. It was right next to the Dallas Cowboys practice facility. The outside wall was a full window floor to ceiling. We got treated to a pretty awesome sunset. 

Bill went to an f3 workout while he was here, as he tries to do anytime he’s near a local group, which is actually really often, which is so cool. F3 has really expanded all over the country and it’s totally a thing for guys to visit and do a workout when they’re in town. I love the culture of that workout group so much. It’s been such an enriching part of Bill’s life all the way back since Seattle when he discovered them. He’s really helped build up the Utah chapter, so it’s very satisfying. I loved when the FiA group existed here too but we found it much harder to maintain so it’s mostly fizzled, unfortunately. My run club is awesome too, thankfully. 

We dressed to the nines for this party and everyone else did too! It was so classy. 

Such beautiful decorations. 

Dancing the night away. 😍

They had a karaoke sing thing where employees went up and sang from a set list of options, but the band played background for them while they did. It was way more fun than I would have expected. We laughed and sang along and had such a good time. 

We’re celebrating our 15th wedding anniversary this weekend too. We figured if Haag was going to fly us both down, we could celebrate here as well as anywhere else! 

 

Saturday Bill and I drove down to Waco to go to Magnolia Place. It was pretty cool! Mostly just to be a part of the movement that is Fixer Upper and all that Chip and Joanna Gaines stuff. We wandered around it for a lot less time than it took us to drive down and back, hahaha! But so fun. Honestly, it’s such a gift to just be with Bill. Our life is crazy and we see each other much less than I like. 

We got ourselves some delicious Tex Mex for dinner and then saw Wonka at a dine in theater. That’s a new one to me, but I’m here for it. 

We headed to church this morning and then tried our best to find a bookstore to sip hot chocolate and read at, but Barnes & Noble has no comfy chairs in it anymore. Sadness! We stopped by this fun donut shop instead and then went to a nearby mall. Look how creative these donuts are! 

We’ve got a couple more things today and tomorrow before we fly back. It’s bitterly cold here these two days. 15 degrees when we got up this morning, high 23. It’s way warmer in Utah this weekend! Good times though, Hahahah. 

Phoenix and New Job

My first piece of High Valley swag. I used it on my trip to Phoenix this weekend and it was perfect. The new job is great. I am enjoying it a ton, and it’s also a huge amount of stuff to get my arms around. So just about perfect for one week into a new job. 

My mom and sister and I took a girls trip down to Phoenix this weekend to celebrate my aunt and uncle’s 50th wedding anniversary. It was SO fun. They threw a great party Friday night. I saw so many of my cousins and aunts and uncles. We are all pretty spread our, so I really value these rare occasions we get together. We took some family pictures before the party. 

This is my cousin twin. I don’t particularly look like my dad, and she’s my cousin on his side, so I’ve always found that fun. Genetics are cool. 

The picture location was right by the Phoenix Temple. I snapped this pretty shot as I was leaving. 

Saturday we went out into the desert to go shooting. My cousin and uncle are really into shooting, so they had tons of guns to use. We had a really good time. My mom hadn’t shot a gun since her honeymoon 56 years ago. Turns out she’s quite the sharpshooter. 

It’s been a while since I shot shotguns. I shot both a 12-gauge and a 20-gauge and after a couple shots that went wide to learn the gun, I hit the rest of the clays I shot at. Super satisfying. 

Mom shot one shot with the 20-gauge. Shattered the clay to a million pieces. Winner winner! 

While I was gone Bill sent me this little engineering marvel Chloe created. 

And Aaron loving his best life in the chair that is temporarily in his room, with his hoodie blanket from Christmas, playing our Switch. 

Great picture Bill sent me of Genevieve and I just love the look on Freya’s face. She’s so long suffering but also basically hates being held. 😂

We swung by my great aunt and uncle’s house on my mom’s side Saturday night and had a delightful evening with them. I haven’t seen them in probably 11 years. Super good to spend a few hours there.