Goodbye to Justice!

Now that I am sure I have you all hooked by my title I shall explain. Justice was our car. Named by my brother after I told him I could think of no name that would do my car justice-get it? This car was the first car I ever actually owned. It was the first proof of my independence. I got Justice shortly after moving away to college and felt so responsible making payments every month. 7 years later and at 160,000 miles Justice bit the dust. Ahhh. What a good lookin' car!

Since I am documenting the cars wonderful existence I suppose I should also document her demise. Please skip ahead if you're not up for some reading.

Kory and I were on the way to Ogden one night when, halfway through the canyon we noticed the car was all the way on hot. Kory immediately put the car in neutral and we were able to coast to Brigham where we figured we would just fill up the antifreeze and be on our way. Our luck was not with us as we opened the antifreeze holder (I honestly don't know if there is a name for that, Kory will be so embarrassed when he reads this!) and noticed it was full.
After a quick call to Kory's dad and a couple of ideas of what it could be we decided to forgo Ogden and head back to Logan...very, very slowly. We were able to go about a mile before the car would overheat and then we would have to pull over for about 10 minutes to let it cool down. Oh, did I mention the heater wasn't working either? Keep in mind that this was in the middle of February on a not so warm night! I honestly started considering how I would cope if my toes fell off. Luckily we did have a blanket in the trunk. After the HOUR and a HALF drive from Brigham to Logan we had to decide if the car was worth fixing or if we were going to be putting more money into it than it was worth.
Long story short, after taking it to the mechanic and telling him not to really dig but give us his best idea we were told he thought if he took it all apart he would find that "combustion gases were entering our cooling system" translation being: much more to fix it then the car is worth. :-( I guess from 1999-2003 Hyundai made a thinner engine cast causing this to happen. Since we had just put new tires and a new windshield on the car we figured we would try and sell it for a low number and someone could either use it for parts or fix it up. Within 5 minutes of putting the car on KSL we had 22 missed calls and by the time Kory got home from work, 35. WOW! Needless to say we sold it that same day to a mechanic who thought he could fix it up. Goodbye Justice!

I always thought car shopping would be so fun but when you NEED a car in a short amount of time it can be sooo stressful. Luckily we found the car that spoke to us and love it! (I told Kory I was waiting for a car that spoke to me, he told me it wouldn't happen, but alas, it did!)
For those of you who were so completely bored by this post, so sorry. I'll try and do something much more thrilling than cars next time.

Hawaii!

About a year or so ago, we were talking with my sister-in-law Kami and her husband Stephen and decided we should celebrate with a trip when Kory and Stephen graduated from college. They graduated this past December which meant time for celebration! Hawaii was chosen as our destination and February for the time so we could get out of the winter for a little bit.

We decided to go to Oahu. We were also lucky enough to convince Kory's parents and little sister Karli to tag along. Stephen found us a great little house right off the ocean to rent. Our backyard was literally the beach, it was BEAUTIFUL! I know you would rather see pictures than read me rattling on and on so, here you go! Please enjoy a teeny snippet of our vacation!!

Our Backyard.We never knew this is how pineapples grow! This is a field on the side of the road.

Pearl Harbor (below)
1st: Part of the Arizona that sits above water.
2nd: Kory with the Mississippi(?) in the background.
3rd: You can look at the Arizona from this area.Sea Turtle on the beach-"basking"
Sea turtle in the ocean.
We of course took a morning for the beautiful Laie temple.
I just had to throw this picture in because really? how cute!

I couldn't resist a picture of Kory "surfing" the waves.
This is obviously just a small picture of our vacation, I wish I could show you all the pictures but I think you would get bored after awhile. It was such a blast and soooo warm!

I Need A Vacation!

I just looked up the temperature for outside. It said it was 23 degrees. I said to Buster (yes, I regularly talk to my dog) "Oh good, it is fairly warm today!" WHAT!!!! Am I going crazy?!? 23 degrees is fairly warm? This winter is polluting my brain. I think I need a trip to somewhere tropical. Yes, that is an excellent idea. I think I will go to HAWAII! See ya in a couple weeks with lots of pictures!

Ideas Needed

Help! I need ideas! Since Kory graduated in December I am going crazy! He has so much spare time on his hands now and is going crazy for projects. In the month of January alone he has: Designed and made curtains for our bedroom. Attached hardware to our entire kitchen.

Finished staining the beautiful crib my dad built. (no, not an announcement but maybe baby call can come now that the crib is finished?)

And helped me make this baby blanket for my sister. These are just a few of the things he has done and only in the month of January! I am fast running out of ideas and projects to keep him from going crazy! Anyone? Help!

2 Year Project

Okay, so my title is a total lie. This is a project I have actually only had a year and a half. But seriously? That would have been a weird title. I also have only worked on it 8 months out of that year and a half and only at nights when the TV is on. But as you can see none of those numbers or descriptions would have made a good title, hence 2 year project. :-)

I had a goal to finish this before we put the tree up this year and barely made the goal by a day! Whew! Now I need to find a new project!

The Finished Tree Skirt.

Each Snowman in all their glory.

Dancers

Check out our new dance! I totally stole this idea from my cousin. Thanks Pam!!! I get a kick out of it every time I see this. Who knew we could shake our booties so well!!


http://elfyourself.jibjab.com/view/g060RuUhOPW1IaqTrx5I

Random Happenings

After rushing to find my camera to get a picture today I started looking through the pictures on the camera and saw so many fun things I could have blogged about! Thus, my random post of various random happenings in our lives.

First, the picture I was rushing to get today. I have been telling Kory that Buster (our dog) has become quite addicted to the cherry tomatoes growing in our garden. Of course he doesn't believe me, who has ever heard of a dog loving cherry tomatoes? I stepped outside today and there she was eating tomatoes right off the plant! She got a little camera shy once I got there but I feel I now have documented evidence!

Selecting the perfect tomato!
If you look closely, you can see the red tomato in her mouth. (proof people, proof)
And of course, the satisfied after-effect of the tomato.

Conference! Kory's family was lucky enough to get some tickets to the Sunday Afternoon Session. It is always such a special experience to be there in the building and hear the powerful messages, feel of the spirit as the prophet walks in, and, my personal favorite part, being in the same room as the Mormon Tabernacle Choir when they sing.I must say we had a pretty good view!

The wonderful fam! Sorry Kory!

We had the chance to go to the rodeo this summer. Ever since we have been married we have been telling each other how fun it would be to go to a rodeo. This year we decided it was time to actually do something about it and it was a blast. I think I'm ready to make this a yearly tradition.
The "Indians" did some very cool tricks bareback.

Not our sexiest portrait. I promise we are much cuter and skinnier in person.

Finally, I have to do a little bragging because I am so proud of my accomplishment. You will see on my sidebar I have a recipe blog that I follow faithfully. melskitchencafe.blogspot.com. Well not only do I love ALL the meals I try from her website but I also always marvel over how pretty she makes her food look. She had a salad on there that looked challenging, gorgeous, and delicious and I was determined to try it. It took me forever to make and I used at least 10 bowls to make it. It turned out to be so YUMMY! Kory got extremely impatient at the end when I was arranging it all on a serving platter (it took me probably 15 minutes just to make it pretty enough for a picture) so I could get proof of my hard work. What do you think? For a beginner I thought I did a dang good job!

So there you have it a small catch up on the random happenings in our life!