Landscaping

With spring here, kind of, we are starting to do our yard and make it look presentable. Gar has it all mapped out in his head which is good, because all I do is mow the lawn. We have a ton of plans and are starting with the front yard. Next to the garage, we had this weird tree, it was growing sideways and just not that pretty of a tree.

So about a week ago, i went to the theater to do my show, and when I got back, the sideways tree was gone. It look SO much better! We are not sure what we are going to do with that space, maybe use if for more parking space, who knows. But it looks so much better already!

So with that started we marked off the front yard with what we (and by we I mean Gar), wanted to do. We wanted to rip out those ugly dead bush things, make them square planters and re-do that little walk way with pretty stones and make it NOT ghetto!Then Gar ripped everything up. The pic below is it ready to start from scratch. It is really crazy, the process it takes to re landscape your yard, and how Gar knows what to do, I will never know. He just knows.
First he did the walk way and it makes the biggest difference. I love it. This pic is RIGHT after he did it. I need to take a new pic of this with the grass trimmed and it all cleaned off. But isn't the stone pretty. It matches our brick on the house perfectly! So with that done, he started the planters.
Again, last Saturday, I went and did my show and came back to this....
He was DONE, I was So happy, and it looks so great. The pic above is before the lawn was mowed and trimmed and it still looks so beautiful! What a difference! I may plant some flower in there, but I'm thinking i will just leave it with just the bushes. It looks so nice and clean and I love the squares! The next project is to make the sides of the front porch in to planters. That will be a HUGE job, but it will look amazing!

Then Gar trimmed up the crazy tree we have in the back yard. I was growing pretty crazy and he is amazing and make it look presentable. You should have seen it, he was literally on top of the tree cutting and shaping it. It was great, we did end up making a bird really mad because Gar cut the branch that her nest was on, but we put it back in the tree so she can be happy again!

I can't wait to get a fence built on this side of the house. I'm not a fan of chain link, and this is the only part of the fence that is chain link, so it will be nice to one day put in wood fence to match and for more privacy! But the tree looks so much better!

While we are outside working, Toby is right there watching us through the fence. Gar got this pic and it is too cute.

I really don't think this dog could be any cuter! He has a TON of toys and like to get them all out and play with them all. If we get him a stuffed animal, he will usually chew it apart and we have to end up throwing it away because all the stuffing is coming out. Well, he has this one we call squirrelly. We got it for him 2 Christmas's ago and the first thing he did was chew the ears and tail off. But that was all he did to it. And he still has it. It is his favorite toy. He plays with it the most and it is funny, because if we are downstairs and ask him where squirrelly is, he will go upstairs and get him. It is so funny. It's Toby's little woobie.

Well the other night, we were going to bed and saw this... He was laying on the bed cuddling with squirrelly. He has done it a couple of times and this time we were able to get a pix. I love him, he is TOO cute!

The Adventures of Super Toby!!

So..I don't blog on this page much..but when I do it is good! I have a program that can turn pictures into comic pages (of course I do) and so I made this one of Toby.

A new place of emplyment

Most of you readers out there (all 7 of you), know that I got a new job.

If you didn't know, I recently was asked by the Sheraton to come and interview. They offered me a great package that I couldn't say no to, so I took it and ran. I gave my resignation letter to the Hilton and was off to start a new career at the Sheraton, all this after a long 7 years at the Hilton. I am done, i have cut the cord. It was a strange feeling to leave, a few tear shed, but it was a much needed change that had to happen for my career to further itself.

I have officially been at the Sheraton for a week now and I am loving it. I haven't received my first paycheck yet, but I am really exited to get it and start paying of those damn bills.

So that is what has been going on. It was not planned, but in Gar's and my life, when it is supposed to happen, it just does and it happens fast.

Arizona here we come... (or there we went)

BUSY TIMES....

First: could The Office be any funnier, B: Grey's is back, and Forth: could LOST get any crazier???

Ok - Back to the subject at hand....

We took of first trip of the year to Arizona to hang out with Aurora for her 17th birthday. That's right, Gar and I have a 17 year old daughter... CRAZY huh!!! We decided that we would drive down and make it a fun road trip. I had a free night's stay at the Red Cliff's Lodge in Moab so on Wednesday, we drove down to Moab and got to our room. That is a great hotel. We went for a little hike at dinner by the river and sat in the hot tub. It was a great way to start out our first vaca of the year.

These pix are on our hike. This little canyon is where they filmed that Mission Impossible was filmed and hottie/crazy Tom Cruise was rock climbing, so that was pretty sweet.

There is my HOTTIE, he kick Toms' a$$ any day!

The pic above is the view from our room, you could walk down right to the river from the rooms, it was so beautiful there. Moab is one of my favorite places. And going there this time, i didn't get in trouble with my HR.

Then it was off the PX, well actually Scottsdale, that's where we stayed. We had a blast with Aurora and her boyfriend and her other friends. We went to Dave&Busters, a really fun arcade place that it not in UTAH, of course... This pic below is all the kids playing Skee Ball, I am addicted to that game.This is, from left to right, Amy, Patrick and Bubba playing a car racing game.I love the boxing game. My arms get SOOOO tired, Gar got a pic of me, but is was not that flattering, so here is one of him playing it. Then on Saturday night, Auroras mom, Laura planned a murder mystery dinner party that was set in the 30's. It was a blast. Everyone dressed up. Here is Aurora and Patrick all dressed up.
This was all the women. Aurora and I got out of the costumes as fast as we could so we are in the back. The 2 girls in the maid outfits are Bubbas good friends, Amy and Sara. Their job was to serve us. They were such good sports.
This is the MEN! Gar had an ascot on, but it is not in this pic... It was a good time.
We were so sad to go and leave bubba, but we had a great trip, the weather was perfect and we go to spend some quality time with bubba!

The driving was ASWESOME! I think this was the first road trip where i didn't fall asleep. We took our time and went the scenic routes and it was a blast. This pic is us at the Glen Canyon Dam. I am SO in love with this pic. Aren't we so dang cute? So that is our trip in nutshell, a tiny nutshell. I will have to post later about the new job!!

NKOTB

Gar is going to laugh that I'm actually doing a post on this... But it needs to be done.

If there are true fans out there, then you know who these boys in the picture below are - They are my first love, the ultimate boy band - Yes, New Kids on the Block. You can remember such sweet hits as... "Please don't go girl", "Hangin' Tough", and "Step by Step", just to name a few.

Hello and Welcome Back Boys...

Joey, Jordan, Jonathan, Donny, and Danny

(poor Danny, still not that cute)

The rumors are true, they are releasing a new album and going on a tour... I just don't believe it. I was at their concert in Germany and almost lost my life (literally, not even kidding about that, Ireally almost died, strangled to death by a rope and a 700,000 mad 15 year old German girls)...

I could go on and on about the memories of NKOTB, but I will spare you readers... Anyway, you can bet that I will have their new album and be the first in line, along with my sisters, to get a ticket to their concert if they come anywhere close to SLC.

crazy grass and boy bands...

So last year when we bought the house, we signed the papers and officially owned it in June. So we were not there in the spring time when flowers usually bloom. Well, mid-March this year, we noticed somethings growing out of our grass by out porch...

It turns out that, we this is what we think happened... The people we bought the house from wanted to get it re-done and sold quickly, so it appears that they just put grass right over the flower beds... So we now have on one side daffodils growing right out of our grass (top pic) andTBD flowers growing on the other side (2nd pic). It is quite funny. AND, now by our two little tree/bush things in the front year, we have some daffodils growing around those as well. Gar and I just laugh. Gar has some plans for the yard, now that his show is over, he is excited to do some projects.
The house is always keeping us on our feet. We love it, but as time goes by, we find little things, characteristics if you will, that only a 59 year old house can have. Like if we have the space heater on downstairs and we heat something up in the microwave, it cuts the power... I always seem to forget that and with the cold weather, I tend to blow that fuse a lot. That is just one of many fun little things we love out the house...

Gar and some of our theater friends have got a band together, I think I have mentioned this in a previous post. They wanted to start a band that does 80's music. They have been practicing for a couple of months now and had their first official paying gig at the Woodshed (this great little bar downtown and it is smoke fee, LOVE IT!)
The band is called 88m.p.h. (what movie?). Once they have a full set, they will try and get more gigs! I will let ya'll know when they are, they are really good. I'm not just saying that cause my hubby is the lead singer and a total hottie up there playing the guitar, they are really good. And their song selection is SMF!!

Garrick the Artist

If you are a frequent reader of the gstdean.blogspot.com blog, then you are well aware that Gar and I are HUGE fans of LOST. Gar was at work and totally NERDED out and made this design. I think it is pretty sweet. It would be pretty cool to have on the back of a t-shirt.

Gar's freelance work is blowing up. He was hired by the Desert Star Theater to design their back drops and a sign that will be in the show. He was up day and night literally... And he even let me help! I painted the edges and help with with the black and white. It was so much fun.

This is the finished product and the theater LOVED it. He really is an amazing artist. The holes in the bottom are for lights. Pretty fun!

He also did the backdrops for them. The show is the "Wizard of Odd". So he came up with a couple of concepts and it just evolved from there. They are HUGE, something like 26ft X 35ft. This first one is my favorite. This is the munchkin village (or kinda the smurf village).

They just turned out perfect. When they printed them to actual size, they said they look amazing. I can't wait to see them.

I love the "Emerald City". If any of you have been to the Desert Star, you know that they are all spoof's of different shows and they make a ton of Utah jokes, that is why the "Emerald City" is really downtown SLC and our mountains. If you look close, you can see the U and the Y on the mountains.

Gar is still working on more freelance project, the man never quits.

His show, Civil War, is over this weekend and then mine starts... Good times, then we are off for a little vaca... We are going to Phoenix to hang with Aurora. I can't wait!