Tender Story of President Hinckley's Passing

The other night at dinner Amy and I were talking about the passing of President Hinckley. Amy told me about a sweet story of a good friend of President Hinckley's. Before she was done with her story we were both teary-eyed! I looked it up online this morning on KSL.com and it made me cry all over again.

The story is about a friend of President Hinckely who passed away the same day President Hinckley did. Norman Rothman and President Hinckley were good friends who would check up on one another at church. Norman had promised President Hinckley he would not pass away until after President Hinckley did. Two weeks ago President Hinckley came to church in a wheel chair. When he saw Norman's wife he STOOD UP from his wheelchair and asked her where Norman was. The wife told President Hinckley that Norman was in a coma. President Hinckley responded "You tell him we're praying for him". The following Sunday Norman's wife was visiting Norman in the hospital when she heard the news of President Hinckley's death. The wife leaned over to Norman and whispered the news to him and told him "now you can go". His eyes filled with tears and he died within a few minutes.

What a tender story! The complete story is avaliable at KSL.com under the title "Pre. Hinckley's Friend Passes Away on Same Day."

Black Diamonds UPHILL

Last Saturday Amy and I and some friends (Heather and Catherine) went cross-country skiing!! It was THE perfect day!! Sunshine, warm weather, LOTS of snow... and we found the mecca of trails!! We usually go cross-country skiing at Snow Basin. We always go on the same trail, but knew there were more trails in the area, we just didn't know where the trails were. We found the whole HIVE of them Saturday!! There were so many we could hardly choose which trails to follow! Because we've always skied the same trail it never occurred to us that cross-country trails (like downhill trails) might have different ratings of expertise! It wasn't until we were staring up at a very, very steep hill that we realized we might be in over our heads! But we weren't to give up... so we crawled up the steep hill! It took quite a while for us to pull ourselves up the hill! There was a lot of excitement as one of us would start sliding backwards down the hill and start pulling others down with them! Amy ended up taking off her skis and tried clawing her way up the mountain carrying all her gear! Heather and I tried putting our ski-poles behind our skis on the hill to HELP stop us from sliding back down too far! It was quite the adventure! We had a lot of good laughs and even starting laughing so hard we were probably close to hysterics! You just can't help but laugh and have a good time out in the sunshine! After we FINALLY made it up the hill and forged our own trail (over a fire hydrant) back to the lodge we found a trail map and discovered the hill we had climbed up was a black diamond on the cross-country trail list! How cool are we! We are practically expert level skiers!!

"Weekend Project"

Ever had a day when you just want to DESTROY something?! Well I have found a great outlet for my destruction! The kitchen! I have been dreaming up all sorts of wild ideas for the kitchen ever since I moved in to my house! Finally, after two years Amy and I got brave and started tearing things apart! :) I had a real ego booster when I could pull the old laminate counter tops backsplash off the wall ALL BY MYSELF! Dude, body-pump is really paying off! I just knew my biceps became HUGE from the one or two times I went to the gym!

Originally, we thought this project would be a weekender or two... so far it has been over a month, but I think we are all getting accostumed to walking around the mess... and heck, now that the cupboard doors are off the dishes are much more accessible!

In the Beginning Amy was happy, even CRAFTY! This is Amy just as the kitchen remodel began...

We got to take all the cupboard doors and drawers off with a SCREWDRIVER (how cool we used TOOLS) and then we got to clean the cupboards, paint the cupboards with GRIPPER, and then paint a couple coats on the cupboards! Pshaw... baby stuff! Still TOTALLY a weekend project!

We removed some old chair-railing and even MUDDED and sanded the walls ourselves! By now the project was moving into a "slightly longer than a weekend" project! We found out the FUN way that it isn't a good idea to paint the cupboards at the same time we were sanding the mud off the walls! We also found out the FUN way that it is an even WORSE idea to turn the fan on and point it directly at the sanding project while sanding and mudding! It took about 4 DAYS before the dust finally settled! At one point there was so much dust blowing around the kitchen we couldn't see from one end to the other! I think Amy, Kim, and I gained about 30 years to our lives from laughing so hard!

This is Amy sanding... the spots in the air are not snowflakes, it is the dust beginning to build! Unfortunately I was laughing too hard to take a picture of the funnel cloud the dust made around Amy while she was sanding!

After taking off cupboard doors, ripping down chair-rail, mudding and sanding, and lots and lots and lots of painting.... behold our creation... the WATERMELON kitchen!! We lived with the red and green walls for at least a month... nothing like a subtle reminder to get your 5 fruits and veggies every day!

Fear not... the weekend kitchen remodel continues EVERY weekend! It is looking really nice! It is such a blessing to know we can DESTROY and Dad and Kris can come RESTORE and REBUILD. I am so lucky to have the best Dad and Brother in the world!

Ever Wonder What the BEST Dad in the Whole World Looks Like?!

Well you are in luck... cause I KNOW what the best Dad in the whole-wide world looks like! Here he is!! Dad came over all day long on Saturday to help put up beadboard and chair-railing and window moldings! He gave up his entire Saturday to helping fix up our house! Isn't he wonderful?! I got to go to Home Depot with him and Kris and Mom to pick up some actual home remodel SUPPLIES (I feel so cool to actually get to buy supplies from Home Depot... it's like I am actually a home owner! eeee!) and we accidentally busted a piece of chair-railing on the way home so we even get to go back to Home Depot! :)

I got to watch Dad use all sorts of awesome tools... nail guns, caulk, a sander, and a variety of different saws! Of course we had to be true to the Clayton "project" spirit... in order not to disappoint the neighborhood! We did hookup airhoses to the aircompressor at Mom and Dad's house and run the hose all the way over to my house! What kind of project would we have without a little "white trash"?!