My new coin collection...

I know this seems unusual but I have started to collect coins. I bought a safe about 6 months ago and it came with some $2 bills along with gold plated half dollar coins and uncirculated dollar coins. I have had fun putting items of value in my new safe. I have all my nice jewelry and some money tucked aside. But now, I have begun to also add to my coin collection. So I am headed up to Layton today to go pick up my birth year of coins for $12. I think it would be neat to have.




I am also thinking of buying 10 pennies for $9. Sounds a little crazy huh but these 10 pennies are from 1943 (WWII) and they are made of steel. Apparently the 1943 steel penny is the only U.S. Mint coin ever produced that does not include any trace of copper. Sounds pretty cool. I doubt any of these will really go up a ton in value but it is worth a shot.

I've lost my boyfriend to his 1950 Chevy truck...

Here it is Valentines Day weekend... it is raining outside.... and Chris is still working on his truck!! For the last week since it's arrival from California, he has been out there non-stop. You would think the rain would slow him down since we don't have a tarp or anything for him to work under but no..... At least I have a lot of housework and the Olympics to keep me busy. I keep teasing him that my date for Valentine's Day is Bojangles.
Bojangles' perch to keep his eye on the neighborhood and to watch Chris...

My first trip to Florida to visit my birthmom and her family!

Arriving from the airport....
We did a road trip to Key Largo! So beautiful!

From a movie a long time ago...We are all short!!! Except Chris.
Jeannie, Jenny, Scuba Dale, Peggy, Chris and me
A great night!
Looking at all the boats and pondering what my future boat name will be...yeah right!
By the marina...
We saw a ton of alligators! They can run 30 miles an hour so I was being yelled at for taking this picture despite the river between us! lol! But I know how to zig zag and the alligator doesn't.
My gambling addiction was satisfied. I even bought a Florida lotto ticket.
Capt Jack Sparrow
Peggy, Dale, me and Chris along Ft Myers beach
Burgers for lunch
Greek food for dinner
Peggy and Dale's house- Whiskey Creek
Flea market- my favorite glass shop ever!!
We bought 25 $1 items.... had a hay day! No explanation necessary!

My new bathroom is complete

Bojangles keeping his eye on the bathroom progress. Despite our best efforts to keep him away, he ended up with paint speckles all over his body and face (notice on his side leg).
Mirror, light and cabinet hung
New cabinet
My new vanity
The finished product = JOY!!!! Compare that to the BEFORE picture!!
The heavens are singing today. The sun is shining brighter and my new bathroom is complete!! I got to use it for the first time last night and I can't explain my happiness.

Bathroom renovation

Last weekend Chris agreed to paint my bathroom after losing a bet. He then got a great idea in his head that since he was repainting my bathroom, that for my Valentine's Day gift, he would also buy me a new vanity and mirror. Ahh- how sweet. I love having a handy boyfriend! I would much rather have that than roses and chocolates. So, we checked out Home Depot and Lowes. We found a beautiful vanity for fairly inexpensive. And what turned into just replacing the vanity and repainting, has now turned into a full remodel of the bathroom. :) I am happy as a clam because I have wanted to update my bathroom for years and it is finally happening. Here are the stages of our remodel.

After the old vanity and mirror had been ripped out...
Chris refilling the toilet paper holder hole...
Taking down the old light...
Primer on ready to paint....

More photos to follow!

2009 in real estate was a good year!

In Utah, things have been slow in real estate for about 2.5 years. Prices have steadily decreased unfortunately, however Buyers are now buying. Buyers buy the bottom 20% which is driving prices even further down but sales are up. For that, we are grateful. We are so excited the government extended their tax credits until June 2010. Because of this, Chris and I have helped 15 people buy a first home and we have helped numerous people upgrade to a bigger home. We finished last year up super strong. We received a few awards from our office for the last quarter in 2009 which was a nice thing after having a very rough few years in real estate. Here are some photos.

Mister Bojangles has magic tricks up his sleeve

Chris got some new shoes for Christmas. They are nice casual shoes to wear outside of work. Last week, he placed his new shoes side by side on top of a trunk in our guest bedroom. The next day, one of the shoes went missing. Da da daaaaaaaaaa. So we looked around the bed to see if it fell off the trunk-no. We look everywhere in the guest bedroom-wasn't there either. We then searched all our bedrooms and the entire house-nope. We looked under couches, chairs, we looked in the dirty laundry. We really searched every place it could be including the back yard. Sometimes socks end up out there mysteriously. Bo has a way of sneaking them out thru the doggie door. We scoured the entire yard. No shoe anywhere. It wasn't until we searched everywhere high and low that we come to the conclusion that the missing shoe must have been taken by Bojangles back behind our fence. He has a favorite place he runs to that goes back beyond our fence line. Neither of us can get back there. Chris was getting sad about his shoe so one morning, I decided to try and get back behind there. I realize I can't make it because of these prickly rose bush thorns that hurt when I try to squeeze by them. After our last ditch effort to locate this shoe in our home's black hole, Chris gets angry. His shoe has been missing for several days now. He gets his other shoe, scolds Bojangles so he knows what he is in trouble for and leaves for work. I look at Bo and just ask him nicely to please bring back the shoe.

After returning home from work that evening, what do we see in the middle of the living room floor............ the shoe!!!! A little dirtier from the last time we saw it but it is back in the house. We praised our little Houdini that night. And we keep our shoes in the closet from now on!!!
The shoes....
Where the kidnapping took place...
The alley behind our neighbors yard with prickly bushes halfway down....