Pepper

We got a kitten at the end of May (on the 20th) that I've been meaning to blog about. She's really cute!
Not particularly nice, but cute.
When we got her, I called her Moo Kitty, or Cow Cat, because she has black and white spots and reminds me of a cow... Hal didn't like either name! I told him he should name her then.

Meet our new baby Pepper (born April 3rd). She's not exactly new anymore, but you've never met her! :)
This is our favorite way she sits. We call the back leg her kick stand. She sits all weird all the time, lopsided with one leg sticking out the side. She's not really crooked! :)

All our animals love my pink fluffy chair! It's a favorite place to sleep.

Another of my favorite pictures. She sat up there for hours (the second time she got up) before I got her down. She was afraid to jump.

Trying to decide if it's safe to jump the 6 feet to the floor... She's such a chicken!

For some reason we don't have any pictures of her as a baby, just video, so here ya'll go! Our baby pictures! We loved how her white hairs stuck out past her black hair. She was such a little fluffy kitten!

This video was taken a few days after we got her, so she's still a tiny little baby! She was so fun! And boy did she grow up fast! She hated the cat in the mirror!


This one was taken a week later.


And this one was at the end of June (a month after we got her). She's so much bigger already! They grow up so fast!

I've got so many other videos to share! :) But not today. I don't want to over do this re-blogging thing! :)

We're just moving

Last month, we realized that our year lease on the house we've been living in was up (on June 30th). And we discussed our choices: we could keep living here, about 45 minutes from Hal's work; we could pack up, Hal could quit his job, and we could just move home to Idaho; or we could pack up and move closer to work. We decided that the third option is probably the best plan.

After looking for a new place for a bit, I found one! And was super excited 'cause it was going to be super cheap (especially compared to what we pay now)... And then I stopped in at the Sheriff's office store front that is right across the road to ask them how safe it is over there. The lady working the desk in the Sheriff's office trailer told me she'd just finished processing the report for the second armed robbery in the last 24 hours at that apartment complex.
So, we changed our minds. We don't actually want to be help up at gun point getting out of our car! (One of them was in the middle of the day, too! Scary!)

I found a different place - (that's hopefully much safer). And we signed a lease (7 month lease) at the beginning of July. Then when I was inspecting it, I found roaches living along the ceiling. So we had to wait for them to have the place fumigated. This is Texas, all apartment buildings have roaches. But they don't usually live in the ceiling! Yuck! Nasty! Anyways, hopefully they're all poisoned out now!

I've been working on packing up my house, but it's really slow going this time for some reason! I do have to get it finished today, though, 'cause the movers are coming tomorrow morning to haul all my stuff over there. Whew!

In other news, I started taking Topamax for my migraines again last month. It seems to be helping with the headaches (hip hip hooray!), but I run slower (not actual running, brain function). It's like my brain functions at part capacity. Really annoying. I already have a hard time accomplishing anything I try to do in a reasonable amount of time, but now it's almost worse. It may be getting better though...
For example... if I'm cooking dinner and I think it'll take me 1/2 hour, ordinarily it'll really take 45-50 minutes. On my Topamax, it'll take 65-75 minutes. Just 'cause.
My only other complaint is that my attention span seems to be even shorter than usual, too. When I first started the Topamax again I could focus on one thing for like 5 minutes and then I'd just walk away... ugh! But maybe as I continue to get used to the drug that'll keep getting better, too? I sure hope so!
So between the drug issues and the moving, I've been having a hard time finishing my craft projects. *sigh* Which is really a bummer, 'cause I really had some things I wanted to make! (Like a baby blanket for my new nephew, a toy for a niece who just turned 1, and something for another niece who's turning 8 in a couple of weeks.) However, it's just not working! It makes me very sad! But such is life! Maybe I'll be able to focus on things for Christmas!

Garret is sick...

There are two versions of this post here, the long one and the short one.

The short one is this:
Garret (my oldest ferret - the one who was always the chubby one) has cancer. He's dying.

The longer version goes like this:
About 2 months ago, Garret started making a wheezing sound when he breathed. He stopped eating. And he wasn't drinking water.
I decided he might have a cold (ferrets get human colds).

Because he wasn't eating his hard crunchy ferret food, I started feeding him chicken flavored baby food, by hand. It's one of the things you can feed sick ferrets, if they'll eat it. He eats it OK. I started out feeding him store bought chicken flavor baby food (Gerber, he didn't like the texture of other brands.) But, as this has gone on, I've started making my own chicken "glop"... time consuming, but a whole lot cheaper!

After a week or so, and he wasn't getting any better - (I'm still not sure if he was getting worse or not), I decided I had to take him to the vet.
The vet decided it wasn't a cold. Nor was it pneumonia (phew!). But what is it?

She thought that something seemed to be obstructing his throat when he breathes, so either he: has some infection, he inhaled/swallowed something that got stuck, or he's got cancer.

She did an x-ray, and could see something around his larynx. She put him on oxygen and sedated him. And his wheezy raspy breathing cleared up. (Weird! But when he's all drugged up on Children's Benadryl he breathes a little better, too.) She looked down his throat for an obstruction. There wasn't an obstruction. When he woke up from the anesthesia, and started breathing on his own again, the wheezing started right back up again. Hmm...

We tested his blood for a rare fungus, (the test was called Cryptococcosis Titer, so I'm assuming the fungus is Cryptococcocis), which came back negative.

Then we did 2 kinds of antibiotics, hoping it would be a bacterial infection, and clear right up...

It wasn't.

So... it's not an obstruction, it's not a rare fungus, it's not a bacterial infection, ferrets are incredibly prone to cancer... We're guessing cancer.
He's got something in his throat partially blocking his airway. He's getting enough air that the pads of his feet and his gums aren't discolored, but his tongue is purple sometimes. (From lack of air.)

We tried a cortizone shot, hoping it would help his raspy breathing. For about a day, he breathed better, and was acting like his normal self. And then he was back to his sickly wheezy ferret self... That apparently helped re-affirm the cancer guess. *Sigh*


Ferrets, apparently, get ulcers when their bodies get stressed with a sickness or something, one of the signs is them grinding their teeth like crazy, which Garret is doing, so he's on Sucralfate- also called carafate (which coats his stomach, protecting it from the acids). That does seem to be helping with the teeth grinding... Yay! Something is getting better! :)


However, since the last batch of antibiotics we waited a couple of weeks before trying to put him on Prednizone (I don't know that I actually want to feed him steroids every day...), and now he seems to have a intestinal tract bacterial infection. So, he's on antibiotics - again (different kinds this time) to try to clear that up, before we put him on Prednizone.

Next week, after the antibiotics are done, I get to start his steroids to help with his pain, & hopefully help him breathe easier!


So, 2 months after he all of a sudden just stopped eating, drinking, started wheezing, he still doesn't drink water. And he doesn't eat food. Well, he does eat, but it has to be liquid. I think that he can't take the time to chew his food, since breathing is so hard for him.

I feel so bad for my little sick confused baby. He doesn't understand why he doesn't feel good, and why I keep forcing yucky gooey medicine into his mouth for him to swallow! He's starting to grimace and run the other way everytime he sees me. *sigh*...

My ferret is sick! And he's dying!

It seems like some days he's losing control over the muscles in his left back legs.
All I can hope is that the steroids make his pain less. He's in pain. I can see it. I can't just let him die! He's my ferret!

And poor Rocket! He worries about his friend! Rocket saves Garret portions of their food out of the food bowl. As long as we've had Rocket and Garret, they've always slept together, if we try to separate them, they freak out... If I try to put Garret in his own cage to sleep, neither Garret or Rocket sleep. They just lay there. Staring out of their cages. Looking for their friends... It's sad... So I don't know what Rocket will do when Garret does die. Hopefully he'll just adapt? He will still have Cocoa... whatever comfort that is...

That's my story. Garret has cancer. He wheezes when he breathes. I get to feed him by hand 3-4 times a day. And I get to force medicines down him, too! (Currently 3 kinds, two are twice a day, one is three times a day. Bbut I'm not sure how many he'll get to take starting next week.)

Andy's campfire story

While we were in Idaho for Christmas, we had the chance (with our video camera) to record various things at Christmas.
One of the treasures we caught on tape was Dad Bradbury (Andy) telling us all a story about an experience at Cedar Badge last summer, and I wanted to share it with you all.

If you've got 3 1/2 minutes, take the time to watch this. It's fairly hilarious! I love Dad's stories! They're always so colorful and interesting! For those of you who don't know, Kime is Andy's brother-in-law, married to his sister Care. And Cedar Badge is a Boy Scout youth leadership training program.



Please excuse the rest of us laughing and interrupting... Although I think it adds to the feel of being there...

Another yuck!

As a little note, I finally got the rest of our pictures from Christmas sorted through and put up! Whew!

We did have a wonderful time with our families! See you all another time! :)

Onto this other yuck...
The other morning, (according to the data in the camera, it was April 5th) Hal went to go out the door to go to work. And came back in asking me for a stick. I'm like "what?" But I got him a broom and asked him what he was upto. He opened the door to show me this giant spider web stretched across our front walkway. On our porch was a huge spiderweb! And all I could think was with web, comes spider! And that's one big web!
No this isn't a real picture of the web, but the green lines are an approximation of what the web looked like, size-wise. The color is probably wrong, since I'm pretty sure the web wasn't fluorescent green.

Anyways, I turned and ran back in for the Raid. I was thinking that as Hal gathered up the web onto the stick, the spider would probably be nearby and we would see it and could spray it with the bug killer spray. What I wasn't counting on was quite how large and vicious looking this spider would be! The instant Hal started disconnecting the web from the posts - which broke with a small pop sound, kind of like snapping thread does - the spider dropped. I shot at it with the Raid and missed. It dropped to the ground, and then I had to find it! Luckily it was just right there and not a hard search, and I drowned the poor sucker in poison...
Then after it was sufficiently poisoned, I got the camera for Hal, and he tried to take a couple of pictures, but he was already late for work. After Hal went off to work, I got back out the camera, and got a couple of sticks to try and pose the spider with. That bugger was still alive and wiggly! So I poisoned it again. Maybe overkill, he was probably in the last moments of dying, but I don't take chances with ugly spiders. After he's stopped wiggling, I took this picture of him...
Isn't he ferocious looking?! I swear they always look bigger when they're alive and wiggly, too!
Ugh! Spiders!
Anybody know if this bugger would have killed us if he'd managed to lure us into his web? ;)

We think he liked our front door because the mosquito hawks (apparently also known as a crane fly) swarm our front door at night. Mosquito hawks look like great big mosquitoes, but they're not mosquitoes. They don't drink blood (although I've been told --falsely, I might add-- that they eat mosquitoes). According to Wikipedia, they apparently eat nectar "if they eat at all." While they're not harmful, they really are irritating to me (and they creep me out), so I'd be happy to have the spider eat them, but NOT ON THE FRONT OF MY HOUSE!!!

Ugh! Spiders!

Vacation all I ever wanted....

On Christmas Eve, after opening presents with Dani's parents and siblings in Victor, we headed to Rexburg to be with Hal's parents and siblings. When we arrived at the new house in Rexburg, we got to tour the house, since we hadn't seen it yet. (It seems like every time we visit Hal's parents we get to see their new house. Crazy, huh? They were remodeling their house in Blackfoot a few years ago, so it really was different every time we went. Then after we moved to Texas, they moved to Rexburg. So, yeah, it always is a new house!) Anyways, it seems to be a great house! It's big and gorgeous!
This isn't the best picture of the house, but it's the only shot I've got, so it'll have to do! :) I do love the trees! Icy trees are gorgeous!

And they are just around the corner from the Rexburg LDS temple! Hal's Dad (Andy) walks to work at the BYU-I student health clinic everyday, and he gets to walk by the temple. He says it's always gorgeous!
One morning when Hal and I were up before everyone else, he went out to walk around and take some pictures. Both of these last two are from that early morning walk.

On Christmas Day after we were all up, Ryan found the pickle (brief explanation: for some reason, at the Bradbury house, Santa hide a pickle ornament on the tree somewhere, and whoever finds it gets a special prize!), we got to open Santa presents, eat yummy crepes (made by Holly and Mary) for breakfast, open the family presents (the Bradbury family got a Wii), then get ready for the day, pack up, and head to Blackfoot to spend Christmas afternoon with Cindy, Kelly, and kids and open more presents!
Ryan got these from Santa... Hmmm... I love it!

Mary gave Holly the most fantastic book I've ever seen! It was huge!! It was like 16 pages long and all about squirrels. Seriously, an amazing book!

Hal's parents gave all of us adult children living on on our own gift cards to "Emergency Essentials" so we could built up our food storage/72 hour kits/emergency preparedness stuff. Hal and I now have over $200 of (mostly food) emergency preparedness stuff sitting in our living room needing to be assembled into back packs. But we have it purchased! That's a step in the right direction!

And I just have to say: Holly gave me the most fantastic shoe laces EVER for my new shoes! Bright pink! Yay! Seriously like the best present ever! :)

This is Jell-O (the hamster, not the people). Mom was trying to intimidate Jell-O with the cow, pulled from her toy box (full of zoo animals). I believe she's mooing in this shot. Not incredibly flattering, but it was absolutely hilarious, so I had to share! (Between you and me, Jell-O isn't praying, she's washing her face.)

In Blackfoot, we got to hang out with Cindy (who, unfortunately, due to her pregnancy felt awful!) and family at the Blackfoot house - they moved into Hal's parents house in Blackfoot when Mom and Dad moved to Rexburg. We got to talk/hang out -which is always my favorite part of any family get together! Just chatting and laughing!
We also played the Lancaster's Wii (they got one for Christmas from Kelly's Dad), played Snorta, (which I find an awesome game! It's got animals!), exchanged our presents to each other, ate dinner, and played Curses (which was absolutely hilarious! I tried to get it on video, but the microphone wasn't turned on, so... sorry! Nothing to see here! But Hal was some sort of Elmer Fud, French, pirate or something...) It was a lot of fun!

Cindy and Kelly gave Dad B a Snuggie and he promptly wrapped it around himself and tried to fall asleep on their love sac. It was cute!
Hal's nephew (who's 4) got some transformers for Christmas, and Ryan (who was almost 19) spent a while trying to figure out how to do them all. I think he found them frustrating. And a little hard, but that was probably because he was afraid he was going to break it if he forced the pieces together...

Kelly had to work on the 26th, so Cindy and the kids came up to Rexburg for the day and we got to hang out some more! We got to play "Ticket to Ride," played the Wii, Mom and Dad went for a walk with Cindy's kids (while I would have loved to walk, it was soooo cold outside! Amazing how cold it is in Idaho after being in Houston!), and we made ice cream! Mary got an ice cream ball for Christmas, and we made two batches of ice cream with it. It was tons of fun rolling back and forth!
Hurray for homemade ice cream!

On Sunday we went to church, and then I have no idea what everyone did all afternoon. (I had a migraine, so I slept. And woke up with a headache still. *Sigh*) But I expect that they played Wii some more! I think it was Sunday night that we watched "Stalking Santa." It was hilarious! Strange, but funny!

On Monday Hal, Mary, Ryan, and Holly all went snowboarding up at Targhee. They had a lot of fun, it sounds like! Hal took lots of pictures of the beauty of it all! But I'll leave it up to him to edit and share them!
This was a picture they stopped to take on the way into Teton Valley... *Sigh* makes me homesick!

I went down to Pocatello for the morning to see my nieces (and their mom) for a bit more. (I didn't feel like 2 hours the week before was enough!) We played, and giggled. I got to watch E, who had just turned one at the beginning of December, walking all over the house - she wasn't walking the week before when I'd seen her briefly! Wow, kids grow up fast! Skyler (my brother) came home for lunch so I got to spend some time with him, too. :)

Note: Can I just say Hal and I have adorable nieces and a nephew? I may be biased, but...they are!

After I got back from Pocatello, Becky and I went shopping! Yeah! Craft stores! :)

Dad and Mom decided it would be fun to take us all out for dinner before Hal and I flew home, so we all went to a Chinese restaurant for dinner after the "kids" got back from snowboarding.

It was super yummy! We had a blast, laughing and talking!

As an additional bit of information, I have a love of fry sauce... so before we left, on Tuesday, we stopped by Arctic Circle so I could have some fry sauce. Well, I guess I had a few french fries with my fry sauce.

And then we flew home, where our ferrets were waiting...

It was wonderful to see and talk to our families! We've missed everybody tons! Can't wait 'til next time!

Happy Easter!

We were hoping to have our photo shoot and get these posted before Easter, but we didn't get around to it before, so we did it today!

Happy Easter!!!
Our bunny rabbits and hatching chicks say Happy Easter, too!
Doesn't this one of Cocoa look like something you'd see advertising a pet costume? Perfect!

And just for good measure, a few more of our favorites:



I know it may look a little mean to hang Rocket upside down, but he actually likes to hang looking at the floor. (We keep a good hold on him, don't worry!) Not sure why he likes it, but he does... Silly boy!

Believe it or not, our wiggly ferrets didn't actually want to hold still for their photo shoot! They kept trying to wiggle away from/out of/shake off their outfits. *Sigh* Ferrets will be wiggly animals I guess...

But me being much bigger and tougher (and having already decided it wouldn't hurt them and also might be amusing for me) they had to pose anyways!


Note: Just for your information, there's something fairly thrilling about cutting the sides and ripping the stuffing out of stuffed animals... Who knew?!
And if you already knew that... why didn't you tell me?!

Oh no!

I still haven't posted my other part of Christmas visit/vacation! I work on putting in some pictures today, so I can put it up!

But in other news, I just called the dentist office to make an appointment, and after I've explained I haven't been to the dentist in about a year and a half, and I suspect I may have a cavity. I'd like to schedule an appointment please. The kind Hispanic lady on the other end of the phone says to me...
"Would you like to see the doctor or have your teeth cleaned?"

I froze.
My first thought was "I only get to do one?!"
And then I thought well, she does have an accent, and I do frequently mis-answer questions... So to be thorough, and make sure I'm understood, I say back. "Both. I'd like have a checkup and have my teeth cleaned." Thinking this will have cleared it all up.

She says back. "You can only do one. We don't have a big enough slot for two."

*Sigh*

Then I got to suggest to her that maybe I could come in for a check up and see the doctor, and do a teeth cleaning in a second appointment.

And the answer? "Course-course-course. We do it."

Now, if Hal hadn't already been to this dentist, and said he's good, I think I'd be re-thinking my plan to visit this office! As it is, I'm guessing this is just one of the instances of "hiring a receptionist, minimum wage, must be bilingual" gone stupidly. I HATE that about Houston!
Anyways, I just had to share!

My question I've got, and maybe Nickie would have the best insight into an answer, is this:
Do most dentist offices have a check-up and doctor visit one day, and have a cleaning a different day? Or is it possible to have them both on the same day?
From my limited researched about dentists here in Houston, and my experience in Wichita Falls, they seem to want to do 2 different appointments. And then if you have a tooth problem, it's yet another visit!
Hmmm... silly people! :) Clever, too! That way you can get at least 2 office visits out of people, and you always know exactly why they're there! :)

Course-course-course!

Failed already!

We have the most amazing sister-in-law (you know who you are! Love you!) who always remembers to send us birthday cards for our birthdays. It makes us feel loved and special. Amazing what a little card can do, huh?

I love that she does this! And I've decided I want to be like her when I grow up. :)

I do... awful... at it. Not because I don't remember everyone's birthdays - 'cause I always know when they are. (I'm clever like that.) Or because I don't have the card. (Two years ago, I went out and got cards for everyone's birthdays in the next 4 months - there were I think 11, and mailed I think 3 of them...)
But because I always forget to put a card in the mailbox. How hard is that really? Well, apparently very difficult! At least for me! I always think "I'll mail it closer to their birthday" and then the day before, or of, I'm like "oh no! I haven't mailed that card yet!"

Anyways, I started the year off with a bang... as in, I was late for Hal's sister Mary's birthday, which is Jan 1st. But in all fairness, I did mail it when we got back from Christmas... on the 30th.
So at least I mailed it before her birthday, right? And I mailed something!

Tomorrow is my brother's birthday (happy 19th birthday Ben!) and the day after that is Hal's brother's birthday (happy 19th birthday Ryan!) and I have yet to mail either card. So, once again... FAIL!!!

*Sigh*

Maybe I'll do better next month for Holly's birthday?

I'm hoping I can successfully do at least half of the year's birthdays on time! We'll see how it goes! But now that I've told all of you what my plan is.. I'll have to send cards, right?

So, just for my own calculations, I've got:
1 in Jan: Mary
2 in Feb: Ben(19), Ryan(19)
1 in March: Holly(13)
3 in April: "A"(3), Dad A, Michelle
1 in May: Cindy
4 (5 if I count me) in June: Hal, Lacey, Mom A, David, Dani
2 in July: "C"(1), "S"(8)
3 in August: Dad B, Kelly, Skyler
4 in Sept: "L"(3), "I"(5), Zac(11), Jake(13)
2 in Oct: Nick, Blaine
3 in Nov: Mem, Nickie, Mom B
1 in Dec: "E"(2)

That's 26 cards to mail out this year! (I'm not mailing one to myself or Hal.) Plus the card I'll send when Cindy has her baby in June. Then that'll be 27! Holly crap! That's a lot of birthday cards! One month at a time...

If you'll excuse me, I need to go mail Ben & Ryan's cards! :)

I had an epiphany!

This morning I woke up super excited! And rushed to find Hal to tell him what I'd learned in my sleep. (Yes, I periodically learn in my sleep. Like this time!)

People bet (as in gamble money) on things like football games so they can say "Hurray! We won!" and cheer and be excited... for they truly have won something.
Ta Da!!!! Epiphany!

Apparently I was still pondering my question of why it is people say "we" won, when they had nothing to do with it.
I can grasp why people say "we" sometimes... almost.
Say the High School football team wins a game. Technically the players who played (and the coach, I guess) are the only ones who win. But all of the players on the side line are part of the team, so they can all say "we" won.
I can even grasp the whole student body saying "we" won, it was the school's team.
I can even grasp the city saying "we" won. The school is in the city. (Or in the case of small schools that encompass a lot of area, the whole area can win.)

But much bigger than that and you can not possibly think you had anything to do with the win, 0r loss as the case may be. It's just delusional! You had no influence, no connection, no nothing!

So I'm back to my epiphany. You bet on the team, so you can win, too. Makes sense, almost, huh? :) I'm so proud of myself! I figured it out!

And if any of you feel like bashing on my discovery, keep it to yourself! I'm hoping I won't have to dream about crazy neighbors anymore! Ugh!

Guess what?

The Saints won the super bowl. Guess how I know?

My neighbors are screaming loudly in front of my house:
"We did it!"
"Wahoo! We f-ing did it!"
"The f-ing Saints won the f-ing Super Bowl!" (This is said with happiness, not displeasure...)
(Sorry, without the expletives it loses some of it's ... "charm." And I'm editing, not them.)

And then they dance to the music being played from the cars with all their doors wide open ...
The little kids all have balloons, running up and down the street...
There's a man (who's like 35 or something) strutting up and down the street in his tank top yelling "we did it! We did it!" over and over...
There's people calling others on their cell phones, shouting to be heard over the other people shouting...

We find it funny.
We just snuck to the window and video taped it. We'll try and post some of it tomorrow. It'll give you a taste of our neighborhood.

All I can think is... Wow... people sure get attached to their football team!
Is a team winning a game hundreds of miles away something "we" did? Or was it just "them" who did it?
Anyways, good night, ya'll!

We fixed it!

Hal helped me dye my hair last night, in an effort to fix the missed spot... (isn't he a nice guy?! While he didn't want to help me, he did anyways! I sure do like him!)
It worked! Mostly. We used a brown dye I had, and the bright red is now a darker brownish red (more what I wanted in the first place), and the blond spot in the back of my head is just brown. Hmmm... well, at least it's harder to see brown in the middle of the red-ish brown, than blond in the middle of the bright red! Yay!
And so far, my hair hasn't started breaking off, or falling out. It does feel a bit... dead. (Think old ratty stuffed animal fur dead.) Not pleasant! But I'll just condition well, and we'll see if I can get it softer again.
So, now I know. I can dye my hair twice in one day without it all falling out, it just doesn't feel real great! And I probably shouldn't try dying my hair again all by myself, unless I'm really OK with my old color showing through! Hey! Now I know why they say "go within three shades of your old shade!" :)
I know, I've got a goofy grin... At least I wasn't yawning!
Which color is better? Can you actually see a difference?

Hair pictures & oops!

When Hal got home, I had him help me take a picture of my hair.
Pretty color, huh?
Hal says it actually looks more natural looking in the picture than it does in real life. It's kind of... florescent...


So, after I dyed it, I was all excited! I was sitting here thinking about how good it looks, and remarking to myself (yes, I do talk to myself all the time) that I can dye it all by myself!

And then I heard a knock on my door. It was my friends - the missionaries! The elders stop by about once a week to chat with me for a while and share a message. They claim I'm a fun person to chat with in the middle of the day. I enjoy talking with them! Even if I do get cold sometimes! (Due to policy - either just this mission, or churchwide, I'm not sure - they can't come into my house unless there's a man here, like my husband. So we sit on my front porch to talk.)

Anyways, their first comment was that I'd dyed my hair! I was like "yup. Just barely. I did it myself." One of them (Elder Lewis, he's from Boise) paused... and then asked "what's the back look like?" I told him that I thought I did a good job, and asked him his opinion. And I turned around. And he laughed. And informed me it wasn't good. *sigh*
Well, at least he told me the truth! It's not good!
Somehow, I seem to have missed an entire section of my head! It's either that or for some reason this section didn't "take" the color, which I guess might be possible, but not likely.

Teach me to not go back and look at my hair again after it has dried! My hair - the blond part - is darker when wet. So it actually looked really good after I rinsed it, conditioned it, and combed it.

Total bummer! When Hal got home, after I showed him the front (that does look good, even if a little bright), I showed him the back. He tried really hard to not laugh. And suggested we dye it again.

So, that's the plan. We're going to dye it again. Tonight. He's going to help me make sure I get the back this time.

And before anyone says anything else: I know that I'm supposed to wait a while before dying again! I'm just not going to, OK? I'm going to dye it again now, so I'm not self concious when going out into the world. :)

This time, I'm going to use a brown dye (also purchased on clearance for 75¢), rather than the red. I'm a little afraid that it'll turn the section that I missed brown and the rest will be a different shade of red, but I guess we'll see! I think brown would blend in better than yellow... *sigh*
Here goes!

I did it! All by myself!

Periodically I think back to before Hal and I got married, to when I was living with "the girls" as my roommates. I had roommates for 2 years of college before Hal and I got married. Whether I wanted things to change or not, they did.

I think the two biggest things I reflect back on and miss are:
Our middle of the night talks... occasionally, we'd feel the need to chatter late at night, while falling asleep... Hal's not such a big fan of me chattering away late at night. He thinks he needs his sleep or something. *Pish!* Surely not! ;)
(I'm just kidding, he really does need his sleep to be functional at work!)

And having someone who was willing to dye my hair... My first semester at college I had a roommate (April) who loved dying hair. I'd always thought about dying my hair, but never actually did it; I was too much of a chicken. She convinced me it would be OK... And made an addict of me!

We started out with just one color of streaks (blue, I think). Over time I got more adventurous in my streaking, until I had tons of colors to choose from: Pink, blue, purple, green, orange, red, another shade of red, a different green, etc.) It was so much fun! We'd put them in, and within a few weeks the colors would be faded enough that we'd put in a different color (or 2 or 3).

I don't remember the first time we dyed my whole hair, but it might have been the time we tried to dye it black, but didn't leave the temporary black dye in long enough. (We're not sure if it was the temporary dye, or the not long enough that did it...) My hair went purple. Grape juice purple. After the first day or so of being in complete shock, I LOVED it! It was so much fun! It slowly faded to silver, and then went away.

Later, we tried black again. It worked this time! But we did permanent dye this time... After I had somewhere around 2 inches of my blond roots grown out (it looked so bizarre!), I asked a friend (she's a friend of my Mom's who has cosmetology experience, Deanne W.) to help me bleach it. She did a wonderful job! :)

Anyways, while I still lived in Pocatello, periodically I'd get together with the girls (Sheena and Maria) and we'd dye my hair. I've had brown hair, red, black, lots of streaks, all sorts of colors! It was super fun!

And then we moved to Texas. I haven't dyed my hair since. Hal hasn't wanted to help me! (Something about the smell or the responsibility or time it takes or something.) While I might have been able to ask one of my friends from relief society to help me dye my hair, I always changed my mind at the last minute...

But I had some dye (that I found on clearance at Wal-mart on day for 75 cents - I had to buy it!) just sitting in my closet, begging to be used! ...

Today, I dyed my hair. All by myself. It went remarkably well, I think. I'm not completely sure. I was aiming for a brown with a red tinge, but... well... maybe there's a brown tinge? I have bright copper colored hair! I seem to have some lighter patches and some darker patches. (Apparently I didn't shake up the dye good enough.) But I'm of the opinion that it looks more "natural" this way. I'll have to ask Hal when he gets home. :)

Anyways, today I dyed my hair. All by myself! :)
I'm so proud of me!

I went home for Christmas...

Well, we went home... and it WAS AWESOME!!! We loved seeing everyone and hanging out! We miss everyone so much! But we're so glad we got to see everybody! (Well, everybody who lives in Idaho. Two of Hal's brothers (and wives/kids) don't live in Idaho, so we didn't get to see them...)

We showed up in Idaho (we flew from Houston to Idaho Falls) on Monday, the 21st, and were there until the next Tuesday. We got to spend time with both of our families: in Idaho Falls, Victor, Pocatello, Rexburg, and Blackfoot.

While hanging with the Allen family, we went to Pocatello (where Sky and Lacey live with their 2 girls) and had a family dinner with all of us: Dad, Mom, seven kids, 2 spouses, 1 girlfriend, and 3 small children (Sky and Lacey's 2 girls and a little boy Lacey tends during the day). Sadly, I don't have a picture of it... *cry* :( But there were lots of us! And it was super fun!

Sky and Lacey (mostly Lacey, but Sky helped pick fabric and provided encouragement) made Hal and I the most awesome-est blanket EVER for our bed! It's all pretty and WOW and has my favorite colors: hot pink, lime green, and yellow! And it made me want to cry (happy tears) when I saw it. Thanks Lacey!!! You're the bestest! I love it! It's the most gorgeous blanket ever! :)I copied this picture from Lacey's blog. She took this of us when we opened it. (I'm the girl in the middle of the couch... just in case you didn't know! Hal's sitting on my left. Seated on my other side is my brother Zac, he's 10. Standing on the right side of the picture is Ben, he's 18, and my 2 year old niece.)
It is a huge blanket! We have a California King size bed, and it totally drowns it! (That's how blankets should be, but still!) Anyways, pictures doesn't do the quilt justice... it's way prettier in person! And for some reason we can't get the cameras to show what I think looks like the real red, hot pink, orange, and lime green in the same shot! It's frustrating! But such is life! At least I can take pictures of it! :)

At the Allen house, in Victor, we did lots of stuffs! First off we got to talk and talk and talk. That's the best part about going home to see family: just talking! But we also played games: Kings in the Corner, Phase 10, Five Crowns, and Buzzword... I think that was it, maybe? Who knows! I get all mixed up!
Unfortunately my oldest brothers seem to have "stolen" their copies of Risk from my parents house, so we couldn't play Risk with my 'little' brother, Jake (he's 12) - total bummer! It's the only game he really wanted to play!

We also got to go for a snow machine ride up Pole Canyon. (It's a road that's right by my parents house, it runs right up into Targhee National Forest. Hal took lots of pictures. It was gorgeous!
I picked a lovely "flower bouquet" for my mother from the woods. (Shh!!! Don't tell on me! Although, I don't think they'd actually mind, since everything was dead!...) It consisted of frozen weeds. It actually was quite pretty!
Here's me, picking my flowers. Sadly enough, this expression (or one similar) is fairly common in our pictures of me... *sigh*... Apparently I walk around with weird-o looks all day...
One of my flowers... it's pretty, huh?
Because Hal is always behind the camera, we have very few pictures of him. However, we did take this one of him, while up there...

And this next picture...
Anyone know what we're looking at here? Right in the center of the picture... Guesses?
I'll tell you at the end of the post! :)

We also went for a sleigh ride. On this:
My parents, if you don't know, live (and own jointly with my Dad's brother) on a dairy farm. The farm has a sleigh which is pulled by horses, that they use to haul hay to the cattle that winter in the field behind the farm.
Jake, riding on a sled pulled behind the sleigh.
My Dad, and brothers David, Ben, Jake, and Zac "accompanied" us on our cold outing. They worked, I played!
Ben, David, and Zac. Dad is in the background.
That's me! Playing! One of my favorite things to do as a kid, was ride behind the sleigh.


Hal took this from inside the house, after we went back inside and they had to do another run...

We also got to help make a Christmas present for ourselves, from my mom... it's something that apparently she's been wanting to make for the last couple of years, and hasn't gotten to it. Mom had my Dad and brother cut some blocks that were like 4 inches square.
There was some uneven edges, so Dad got out his hacksaw to cut them off... it was kind of funny. I love how my Mom is holding the block so my Dad can saw one edge off. Sounds safe, doesn't it? Then Mom and Mem sanded them smooth with the electric sander (after Mom, Mem, Hal, and I had spent over an hour sanding by hand - and not getting very much sanded, one of my brothers came in and said "why aren't you using the electric sander?" Hmmm... So Mem used that for a while. It was a lot faster!)
After they were all smooth, Hal and I got to paint them!
I actually love painting so this was no hardship for me. Except the stencils. I had my first run-in with stencils. It went awful! Ugh! Stencils!
So, you take your blocks, sand them smooth, paint them red, and then stencil on letters to spell things like
and We made it so that one side said one, and the other side said the other, so you can put it in the window and read one word from the outside and another word from the inside.
Cute, huh? We had fun making them!

My mom had to work on Christmas Day, so they did Christmas presents and stuff on Christmas Eve. It was fun to be there for that! Good times, good times! I love how excited everyone gets, and how happy everyone is! It was hilarious to watch the antics of my family! Zac (he's 10) had David (he's 26) for Christmas this year, and he made David Chex mix. (Well, to be fair Mom helped... a lot...) And then Memorie (she's 22) "helped" Zac make up a treasure hunt for David to find his Chex mix. It was hilarious! David was finding notes, and Zac's trying to help him find the container of Chex mix, but he doesn't actually know where the clues are pointing to, since Mem made up the clues. It was really funny!

After we did the present thing at my parents house, we packed up and headed to Rexburg to Hal's parents house for Christmas with them.
Bradbury family adventures will be its own post.

While we were at the Bradbury house, I took a morning and went down to Pocatello again to see Lacey and the girls. It was super to see them again and spend a few hours with them. I got to see the 1 year old walk! She wasn't walking when we were down there on the 21st, but the next week she was walking all over the place! It was super fun! Boy kids do grow up fast! :)

Anyways, that's half of Christmas vacation! Wow! More on the other half later... after I get it written...
Back to this picture:
What are we looking at here?

It's my parents house! Right in the middle! This was taken when we went up into the forest (Targhee National Forest) while at my parents house.