Music to my ears!

While I was out shopping for new clothes, Clay was home installing
a stereo in my front room closet.

I asked him if he would put the stereo in the closet and hang my Bose speakers above the closet doors. His response was "And where am I going to get the electricity from inside the closet?" I said "I trust you will find a solution and I don't want to see any wires on the wall either." He rolled his eyes and quickly changed the subject. That was weeks ago. So we I got home and saw this, I was so happy.

He was able to get the electric supply from the garage (which is on the other side of the closet) and he installed the outlet on the wall inside the closet. He ran the wires from behind the front room wall and put wall hangers on the back of the speakers. The speaker wires are no where to be seen, which is what I wanted. He is so talented and I love him so much.

You can see one of the speaker wires from inside the closet
when the closet door is open.
But that's not a problem cause the doors will be shut!

See how nice the speakers look and you can't even see the stereo.

I love my front room. I can sit in front of the fireplace and listen to my music now.

LIFE IS GOOD!!!!!

Calgon take me away!!

I had a dear friend and neighbor come over today and re-caulk my tub. The before pictures were after she removed the old caulking. (my tub didn't look as bad as this before she removed the old stuff)
Should have been faster at getting the camera ready....lol

Before~

After~

Thank you Ellen you made my tub look new again.

Time for a bubble bath now.

Our night with a Utah Jazz player

Mikayla has been playing basketball for the Junior Jazz team for 2 years now. Every year they have a Jazz Player Appearance Night. This year Paul Millsap came to play with the kids and answers a few of their questions.

It was a very cold and snowy night but we went as a family to the Energy Solution Center. We took the Trax there to avoid the traffic and parking issues. Because we got there so early we were one of the first to go into the building after they opened the doors. The stairs were not going to keep me from allowing Kayla the opportunity of the first row at the bottom by the court.
So I went down a BIG flight of stairs and there is where we sat. Kayla was so proud of her seats and just seeing her smile made the work of doing the stairs all worth it.

WARNING!!!!! These pictures were taken by Clay's cell phone so the quality is not the best but at least you can see her excitement.

See how close we were to Paul and the co host?

These were our seats 1st row....
(the seats in front of us were off limits)

Kayla before the performance.

Paul playing a game with some of the kids

He was standing right next to us so Clay snapped these

At the end of the night they picked Kayla to ask Paul a question. She asked him "How old were you when you knew you wanted to be a Pro basketball player?" His answers was when he was a Senior in High School.

This video was when Kayla was picked to go out and run a re-lay race against the other team on the other half of the court. Kayla's team even won too. She was nervous being out there with ALL these strangers watching her but as you will see she did great.


The kids were asked to pick a side of the court to stand on. One was for "He is going to make it" and the other was "I think he will miss it". The kids were not told where he would have to throw it from. Previously he had missed the half court shots. This is Paul making this very EASY shot. lol

It was a great night to spend with the family and it was even neat to see a REAL live Jazz player up close and personal! Thank you Junior Jazz.

My Baby is growing up!

It makes me sad to know my last little girl is getting to be a young lady. Seeing her wearing teen age clothes, lip gloss and heels is too big of a shock. She is getting ready in these pictures to attend a school field trip. She loves her hair to be straighten, jewelery and putting on smelly perfume. My oldest daughter, who is almost 30 now, never enjoyed these things. So it is nice to see Kayla looking like a young lady. I just don't know if I am ready for her to grow up so fast.







I feel sorry for the boys, who will be interested in her when she gets to dating age. I think her dad is going to have a hard time watching his little baby girl grow up to be a teenager. (the whole boyfriend thing) The time is approaching WAY too fast for us... We love you Kayla!

It's all about BRANDON!!!!!

My son turns 24 of January 18th. He lives in a group home in another city here in Utah. It is about 45 miles or so from my home. Being that the 18th was on a week day we decided to have his celebration the weekend before. So Saturday we started the morning out by attending Mikayla's basketball game. After we got home we received a call from his older brother, Jeremy, who is doing time in the local Department of Corrections. Brandon doesn't get to speak with him very often so this was a special gift for him. I noticed that Brandon needed some new tennis shoes so we went to the Shoe Carnival to check out what they had. The store clerk announced that it was Brandon's birthday and had him spin the big wheel. Whatever it landed on is what his discount would be.


All the shoes were a little overwhelming for him. Trying to make a choice was not easy but I think he did a great job.



He had decided that he would like to go play Laser Tag for his special day. I have watched Clay and Kayla play this before but I had never played. I thought being in a wheel chair would only get in the way of the game. BUT this time I was determined to try it with the family. Nicole got a babysitter and she joined the fun too. Here are some pictures of the game.

Brandon with his mommy.

I stayed by our base to protect it from the enemy.

Clay

Me and Kayla and part of Brandon.

Me and Nicole.

Now lets look at our scores. Clay was Batman, Nicole was Rocky, Kayla was
Flash, I was Auquaman, and Brandon was Maximus. Kayla KICKED butt but hey I wasn't in last place...Hurray for me! It was a total blast and a major work out for me.

Everyone had a fun and then we went to play some arcade games to relax from all the excitement. It's all about the tickets for the kids....

She made out like a bandit!

Clay even got into to the game...lol

Nicole

Nicole and Clay gave Brandon their tickets so he was able to get a few things at the gift counter.
From there we met Nicole and her family at Red Robin to chow down on some yummy food.

Nicole, Klint and Kennedy.

And of course Kayla had baby Kolten...


He says he doesn't like them to sing or make a big deal of his birthday, but I think he really does...Look at his smile!

His birthday cake. He thought it was too rich so Kayla and Clay had most of it.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY BRANDON!!!!

Remembering the past

I was thinking the other day as I was relaxing in my new frontroom about what a job it was to get it to the point it is today. I wanted to show some of the process of the re-modeling that Clay did. So here it goes.

Mikayla loved the fact she got to help knock down the walls.

Had my cub scout boys come help too.

Removing the wallpaper.

Steaming off ALL that wallpaper was a BIG job!

If you came over you got to sign the wall...It was cool to see all the art work:)

This was the frame that seperated the room, it had to come down too.

Now its gone

This is the arch way frame, it is now gone.

There was a lot of re-wiring to do since
we removed the wall where the light switches were.

Clay put wider doors on the bedrooms so my wheelchair could turn in easier.

The sheet rock mess!

The sheet rock made a mess on my wheelchair ramp as it went out the door

The after shot.

Wish I had more pictures of the room without the wall but you can see the room is now bigger. We painted the lower half blue and placed a country wallpaper border on the walls. The upper half was done with a textured paintbrush to give it a different look. Clay put on chair railing below the wallpaper. The wood floors added a great touch to the open room as well.

A closeup of the wallpaper.

After the wall was removed we painted the hallway red
and in this shot you can see how open it looks.

So glad we did the remodeling so I can sit back and enjoy my home. Thank you Clay!