Deer, rabbits, and antlers

Last weekend was a very enjoyable weekend. Stephen and I went hiking twice and it was very fun, especially after a long winter of not doing those kind of activity's very much. Both days that we hiked, we went hiking in the mountains behind our house. On saturday we actually walked from our backyard into the mountains ( our backyard is the mountains ). Steve found a nice brown two point deer horn, a spike elk horn, and a small older white three point deer horn, and we both found a few old broken crusty peices of deer horns. On Sunday Stephen and I got ready for church and started driving to our church building when I realized that it was stake conferance that day.We wern't sure which building we were supposed to meet at, and we didn't know what time it started ( it was probably over because it was about 1:00 at the time ) so we went back home. At least our intentions were good. After Stephen and I took a nap, we went hiking again. We drove our ATV up into the mountain and went for a relaxing hike in the beautiful mountains.On Sunday, I found a nice four point deer horn! I also got realy close to a deer; it was laying down and not running away from me so I was worried it was hurt. I kept slowly walking towards it and it still wouldn't run.I didn't want to get too close to the deer because that wouldn't be safe. Eventually I took one step too close for the doe's comfort and it ran off. I got a few pictures of the doe before she ran off though. Steve and I saw alot of deer when we went hiking saturday and sunday, and a few rabbits too. There are many deer living on the mountains behind our house. We also came across many many deer kills. apparently there are a fair amount of cougars up there too. No need to worry, the Cougars arn't something to worry about! If you go hiking anywhere in Utah there is a good chance you have had a cougar watch you, and they arn't interested in messing with people. The reason you ocassionally hear about cougar attacks is because in some areas people are taking over their land and wiping out all of their food. It's extremely rare for them to mess with you! Cougars don't even want to mess with your dog! Anyway... now that I have given my little speech on cougars, I will continue telling you about my sunday. We saw a few other people hiking on Sunday too, and a few people on horses and with they're dogs. On Saturday it looked like we had the mountain too ourselves ; we didn't see any other people. After our hike on Sunday, we went home and made rice with chopped up Kilbasa in it. Steve improvised while making a sauce for the rice and it turned out realy good! Steve's rice sauce had cream of chicken , Cholula, soy sauce, worstechire sauce, ketchup, and cracked black pepper ( there may have been more stuff in it but I don't think there was ) in it. It sounds like a strange combo of ingredients, so I was skeptical about it, but it turned out to be realy good! It was realy nice to spend time relaxing and having fun on the weekend with Stephen, especially since life is often so hectic. I absolutely love going out and experiancing this beautiful world God created for us, especially when I am with my Stephen!

Very likely

It's very likely that I will be getting a job near the end of May. Steve and I need to earn more money. The guy that does the Opaqueing at the dental lab Steve works at is going to be quitting near the end of May to move to St. George. Steve asked his boss the other day if he could take on the opaqueing along with the work he already does so that he can earn more money. Steve's boss asked Steve if maybe I would want to do the job. Before Tracy ( Steve's boss ) had suggested that, Stephen and I would have thought that Tracy wouldn't have wanted a husband and wife working in the same place, because that isn't something that usually happens, so naturally we didn't think to ask him about me getting a job there. Stephen let Tracy know that I would like the job, and Tracy said "ok , sounds good , but it will be when Cody leaves in May". So to me it sounds like I have the job!! This is such an immense blessing and an answer to prayers! Please pray that I will for sure get this job and do well at it, because it will help Stephen and I out alot!

crazy weekend

Last weekend was a very busy one. First of all there was a lot of yard work to do. In the summer the weeds in me and Stephen's yard got really bad really fast! There were so many weeds in our yard that it was like a huge weed forest, and they all came extremely fast. I would work very hard on getting rid of them while Stephen was at work and got rid of a bunch of weeds, but because there was such a rediculous amount of them in our yard , the yard still looked like a weed forest and I knew that I was going to need some help getting rid of them. The worst part is that all the weeds that were in our yard were full of really sharp thorns, and everytime I would weed I would get large itchy red rashes on my arms. Last weekend Stephen, Stephen's parents, and I got a chance to get together and work on the yard together ; we pulled and burned the weeds. Steve's parents came over again yesterday and helped me get rid of almost all of the rest of the weeds.

Sunday morning Stephen discovered that there was a big puddle of water on the floor by our refrigerator. Our refrigerator had broken and it was not repairable. We went to Home Depot to buy a fridge and when we got there we realized that we had forgotten to measure our old refrigerator! So Steve and I got back into our truck and went home to measure. When we went back to Home depot we told the sales person the measurements and he showed us which refrigerators would fit in our kitchen. So we bought a fridge and got it in our house and found out that our refrigerator was barely to big to fit in our fridge space! Steve's dad came over and modified our counter so that we could fit the fridge in our kitchen ( Wayne was a carpenter for years so he does very good at this kind of work ). The new refrigerator is finally installed and everything is all good now. I am realy thankful to Wayne and Janet for helping Steve and I out so much!

4rth of July and Stephen's birthday

I know its been a while since the fourth of July and Stephen's birthday, but I still want to write about both those days. Last year on the 4rth of July Steve, our friend Chris, and I went on a four wheeler ride and we had so much fun that we wanted to do it again this year. So Steve, Chris, Chris's cousins and I all went on a 4rth of july ATV ride. We went and drove around on Cove mountain, which is an amazingly beautiful mountain! During part of the ride it started to rain so we went and stood under some pine trees to keep us dry from the rain and built a fire. The rain was coming down realy heavy and there was lots of thunder and lightning. The pine trees we stood under did a very good job at keeping us dry so we were enjoying the storm. When the storm ended we got back on our ATV's and drove up to a spot where we could see all the towns way down below us, it was a cool view. We hung out at that spot for a while and then got back on our wheelers and started riding again. The mountain was even more beautiful after that rain storm, it seemed so fresh! We saw a bunch of elk (mostly bulls) in a clearing so we decided to drive further down the road towards them to see if we could get a closer look at them. We parked our 4wheelers and walked quietly through some trees towards the clearing. When we got to the edge of the trees next to the clearing we just sort of hid behind them as we looked at the elk. There were so many bull elk with big antlers on their heads, it was awsome! The mosquito's were biting us like crazy though! After the ATV ride Stephen and I were realy hungry so we went to burger king and then went and watched fireworks with a bunch of Stephen's family. There is actually a realy good firework display in Richfeild on the 4rth.

On the 8th of this month it was Stephen's 27th birthday. Steve got some hammock's for his birthday so that he and I can lay outside at night and watch for meteor's, we both love to do that. The only reason we got a hammock for me as well on Stephen's birthday, is because Stephen won't even use his unless I have one too because he told me that he would just want to have me use the hammock if there was only one ( he's such a gentleman ). Stephen didn't realy want to have a cake on his birthday because he doesn't even like cake that much, in fact he didn't want any sweets because they usually make him feel sick , so He and I just went to our favorite restaraunt El Mexicano with Steve's brother, his brothers wife and kids, his parents, and a friend. El Mexicano has such extremely delicious food! Steve's dad told our waitress that it was Steve's birthday so she brought a sombrero and a mexican poncho for Stephen to wear. Steve was realy embarassed with the hat and poncho on, so after we took some pictures of him with them on he took them off. I am happy that Stephen had fun on his birthday. Stephen and I havn't laid under the stars with our hammocks yet, but we want to soon.

Fun filled April and May!

On my birthday Stephen took a half a day off of work so that we could hang out together. I decided that I wanted to go for a hike, so Stephen took me to a really neat canyon with lots of really beautiful red rock landscape and a big beautiful river. We also saw two very large eagle nests tucked into the cliffs. We hiked alot and took many pictures.

This past weekend Steve, Steve's dad Wayne, Steve's brother Jeff, Jeff's wife Cami, Cami's brother Andrew, and I all went camping in the Henry mountains. Wayne, Stephen, and I all went hiking, and Jeff, Cami, and Andrew drove around in their car and rode around on their ATV's. Wayne Steve and I all went hiking hoping to find some deer sheds but were not successful. We may not have found any deer antlers but we still had fun. We were also hoping to see some bison, but we only saw a couple of dead ones. I did find a realy cute little Horny toad and I held it for a while as we hiked. The Horny toad I found has very beautiful coloring, it has mostly yellow skin with bits of red in some spots. Stephen also took me to a spot where he had found a large peice of a dinosaur bone some years back, and it was still there. The peice of bone looked like it was probably the ball joint on the dinosaur's leg.

Jeff, Cami, and Andrew found two very large petrified trees! They also found a petrified stump of a tree which is probably a peice of one of the big trees. It's just so amazing looking at these huge petrified trees sitting in the desert!

Stephen and I have been hiking alot in the last couple of months. We love hiking and we have found a lot of elk antlers and some deer antlers. We have also seen many elk on our hikes. I absolutely love seeing wildlife in the mountains and I realy enjoyed hearing the owl hooting on one of the hikes we were on not so long ago. I found my first elk antler this year ( I realize that probably seems totally unexciting to most people but it is exciting to me ), and the best part is that I did't find just one, I found two, and they are a set! I was very excited about it because I had been trying to find an elk antler for a few years. I saw a big Bull snake on one of the hikes we went on and I caught it ; it's the first snake I have caught. Steve and I love finding snakes and holding them ( no worries we only hold the safe ones that arn't venomous)! Bull snakes are very docile snakes and I think they are quite beautiful.

Stephen and I went for a four wheeler ride Sunday evening. We went up in the mountains up above Steve's parent's house and then took a beautiful scenic way home. We saw a Bull snake on the dirt road we were driving on, so Steve picked it up and we held it for a while and then went and moved it to a safer spot.

I completely love the outdoors! My life feels so full and beautiful when I am out enjoying nature with Stephen! We see and experiance so many wonderful and neat things! I also absolutely love summer time. I feel like when it's summer time I truly come alive and my mood gets such a big lift!

Oh and about the cowboy hats that we are wearing in the pictures...... please don't make fun of us for wearing those because we only bought them to wear on hikes to help prevent us from getting sun burn while we hike for hours in the sun!

A fun weekend with Angela and Brian

I know I haven’t written in a while; I guess it’s because I have just been lazy about it. Some weeks back in March, Brian and Angie came to visit Stephen and I, and we all had a lot of fun. We all went to me and Steve’s favorite restaraunt called El mexicano, it has absolutely delicious Mexican food. We watched movies, we made cookies and brownies, we went hiking in Monrovian, we went hiking in the mountains above me and Steve‘s house, and we went and shot guns. Shooting guns was definitely one of the biggest highlights of the weekend. Brian was having such a great time and absolutely loving shooting clay pigeons and the milk jugs and bottles that we filled up with water. We were all having a realy great time but Brian just seemed the most excited about it.
We also picked some Brigham tea while we were hiking in Monrovian so we could make some for Brian and Angie to try. When Steve and I go hiking and we see a Brigham tea bush, we like to pick some and boil it and add a little sugar and milk to it. It is actually a very pleasant tasting tea and is very healthy.
I am really glad Brian and Angie decided to come and visit, it was extremely fun having them over to visit!

Disgusting smell!!!!

A few days ago I was cleaning the house and went to put something away in me and Stephen's bedroom. I walked over by the bed and noticed that it smelled realy bad around that area. I kept trying to figure out what it was causing the awful stench, but couldn't find anything that was stinky in the room. I decided to forget about it for a while. Later that day I pointed it out to Stephen and he said it smelled like a dead animal. I then realized that yes, it definetely did smell like a dead animal....yuck!!!! We looked so hard trying find the souce of the stench and still couldn't find it. Stephen finally thought to look in the shelf that holds our sheets, blanket's, and pillow cases. He searched through the bedding and couldn't find anything, but quickly realized that the smell was coming out of the vent below the shelf! A mouse or some other small rodent must have found it's way from under the house into the vent system! Stephen then told me that he remembered hearing something the other night that sounded like a mouse running on paper. Steve got up and looked around to see if there was a mouse in the house, but couldn't find one and went back to bed.

Stephen and I are realy upset that there is a mouse in our vents! As anyone that has smelled a dead rotting carcass knows, it does not smell pleasant at all, it's down right awful! Stephen has tried to find the mouse ( or other small rodent ) in the vent, but it is too far down for him to find. Now instead of just the bedroom stinking, the entire house does when the heat kicks on. We try not to have the heater on much due to the smell and keep the vent in our bedroom closed. We have been spraying febreze all over and even pouring it down the vents, which actually helps quite alot. I have been lighting scented candles too.

We were thinking we would have to wait out the smell until it goes away but now we think that maybe we can suck the mouse out of the vent with my father inlaw's shop vaccume. Hopefully the shop vaccume idea works!!!!

Number 4 tag

I got tagged. This is the fourth photo in the fourth picture folder on my computer. This is one of the paintings Stephen has done. I actually think Steve said that he isn't finished with this one. He has painted a couple others so I will put pictures of them up for you to see sometime.

I tag Lisa, Shawn, Emily, and Brian.

A trip to the vet and irritated eyes.

Last Friday Stephen and I took Mandy to the vet to get her vaccinations and to get her teeth cleaned. Mandy's breath had been smelling so bad so I decided to take a look at her teeth and they were definetely in bad Shape! They had brown and yellow crap on them and even a little bit of black on some of the small front ones! Now her teeth are all cleaned off and healthy again and she just had a couple of realy tiny teeth pulled. I am going to buy dog toothpaste and be dedicated to brushing her teeth because I don't want them to get that bad again.

After Steve and I picked Mandy up from the vet we noticed that her eyes were bothering her, she could absolutely not keep them open. It seemed like her eyes were stinging and burning or something , and she couldn't sit still she was just so uncomfortable. Her eyes didn't get better till the next day. I felt so bad not knowing how to help her out with her eyes, it was awful! I tried wiping down her face with a wet rag because I thought there might be something on her face irritating her eyes ( I didn't know what else to do ) but it didn't work. Stephen and I think it happened when Mandy was sitting in the kennel right outside the vet office ( she was there when we went to pick her up ) . The wind was blowing fairly hard and we think something in the air was irritating her eyes. We know the vet didn't do it because he is a great vet! In fact when we got home it seemed like Stinker's eyes were bothering him a little bit too.

The picture I posted of Mandy is one of me and Stephen's favorites of her. The thing she is holding in her mouth is a chew treat. It's such a cute picture of her, I love it!

Chili explosion

Yesterday I had to eat dinner alone because Stephen had to work late, so I decided to heat up a cup of Dinty Moore Chili. Well I put it into the microwave and set it for 2 minutes, like the instuctions said. As it was heating up I went to go get an elastic for my hair and when I came back to get my Chili, I saw that it had exploded in the microwave! Steve reminded me later that our microwave has a much higher wattage than alot of microwaves so you cook things in it for a much shorter amount of time. It was quite a mess to clean up!

Wrestling!

I just wanted to share these video's because I think they are fun. On the day that I recorded the one with Steve and Mandy, Mandy had been wrestling with Steve. I got the camera to record the wrestling but unfortunately she kind of stopped. I Still put it on here because even though she isn't wrestling she is still fun to watch and it's fun to listen to her growl. The one with Mandy and Stinker is realy funny and entertaining, they love playing together!

alot of Christmas fun

Last week was full of Christmas like fun. On Thursday Steve and I got our Christmas tree and had alot of fun decorating it. We didn't buy enough garland for the tree so it looks realy silly, but we are keeping it on there because it adds sparkle. We actually didn't think we were going to have a Christmas tree this year because we were having a hard time finding the time to go cut one down and we didn't feel like spending a bunch of money on a fake one. We were actually going to get a bunch of antlers that Stephen and I have found in the mountains and tie them together to look like an antler Christmas tree, ( I think that's a cool idea, Steve came up with it ) but then we found out that my sister in law's parents went and cut down a Christmas tree for us! My sister inlaw Cami had asked her parents to get one for us, because she knew we didn't have one.

On Friday we went to Stephen's work Christmas party. The party was kind of fun, but near the end of it everyone decided to play Guitar hero and that didn't sound fun to Stephen and I so that's when we decided to leave the party and go home.

On Saturday we went to the Holt family Christmas party. At the party there was a dinner and then everyone opened white elephant gifts. We had alot of fun at that party. The white elephant gifts that Steve and I got are a box of Cordial cherries milk chocolate's, a box of little candy canes, a little nativity scene, and a small stuffed Santa. I hung the candy canes on the Christmas tree today.

Flink family Christmas party

Last saturday, Steve and I finally went to the Flink family Christmas party. I am realy happy that we went because I think it has been four years ( or something like that ) since I have been to it and its the first time Stephen has gone to it. We talked to people, children sat on Santa's knee, and we ate yummy food. My absolute favorite food there was some peanut butter bars Jana and Aaron brought, those are the most amazing peanut butter bars I have ever had! Ha ha Steve ate alot of them!

Steve and I talked to grandpa alot, which is realy great because we hardly ever get to see him and we were both realy looking forward to seeing him again. I have never talked to grandpa that much ever, and it made me realy happy to be able too. He told us this story about how he got pneumonia when he was seventeen years old. He recieved a blessing and got better and says he hasn't been sick since then. I was shocked to hear that he hasn't been sick since then, Thats amazing!

Air swimming

Stinker always flexes his feet like this when he is enjoying being scratched or petted, but when his legs ar hanging in the air like this it looks like he is swimming. It is just so funny and cute! He was actually uncomfortable with the way Steve was holding him and moved himself into this strange position.

Thanksgiving fun

Thanksgiving day was a realy fun day. There was delicious food, but best of all lots of laughs! Angie, Melissa, Nicole, and I took lots of fun and random pictures and made some realy funny video's! It all made us laugh so hard! I loved being able to spend time and have so much fun with Melissa and Nicole, because I don't get to as much as I would like too; they are such awsome neices ( and of course I loved hanging out with Angie too )! Brian was even in one of the video's, it was awsome. After all that, it was pretty late ( around 10:00 pm ) and Brian decided that he was going to go to Wal mart for the Thanksgiving sale. Steve and I decided to go with him because we wanted to spend time with him. We left around 10:00 at night because we thought the sale started at 12:00 in the morning, but it turned out that it actually started at 5:00 in the morning! So we just stayed at Wal mart waiting for the sale to start. Later Angie and Chris showed up and waited with us. Wow I got tired being awake so long! Steve, Brian, and I were at Wal mart from about 10:00 at night to about 7:00 in the morning! It was crazy in Wal mart ; It was so busy that I had a lady ramming my heals with her cart! Everything has been so fun, I have realy enjoyed spending so much time with loved ones!

Here is the link to a video of Medeor's. The one at the very first looks kind of like the one Steve saw.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NSVJEdZ1Jkc

The meteor!

Stephen saw a realy cool thing recently, it happend on the 5th of this month ( last wednesday). We were at Steve's parents house and we heard Jeff and Cami's (thats my brother inlaw and his wife ) dog Annie barking outside. It was about 11:20 pm so Steve decided to go outside and see what Annie was barking at and tell her to stop. He looked in the direction of Annie's kennel to see what was going on , and heard deer running up the hill in the backyard so he knew that's what was upsetting Annie. As Steve was looking in that same direction he saw a flash of light shoot down from the sky at about an 80 degree angle. It started out white and then turned green, and just as it disapeared behind the hill in Steve's parents backyard, the sky lit up from the flash from when it hit ( kind of like when a camera flash goes off, but huge ). It was a Meteor, and It hit extremely close, It hit right in the very very nearby mountains! We wanted to go look for it but never got a chance. We think the odds of finding it are pretty low anyway, since its hard to tell exactly where it hit, and it may have not left a big mark where it landed. We will probably still go look for it , but don't realy count on finding it. Steve's dad has found a meteor though; he found it in a church parking lot! He had it looked at and tested and sure enough it is definetely a meteor. I think he found it quite a long time ago, I am not sure how long ago it was. Steve and I were noticing lots of meteor's flying through the sky that same night ( last wednesday) Steve saw that one fall, so it must have been an active night for meteor's!

Bugling elk and getting stranded on the mountain

The rut is going on right now ( mating season for the elk ), so late last friday night Steve and I decided too go listen too them bugle. Steve brought his elk bugle call ( you blow into it and it makes the sound of an elk bugling ) so that we could call in the elk close too us. we sat down on a log and started bugling. There were so many elk ; we couldn't see them because it was so dark but we could hear so much bugling, it was awsome, it is realy one of the most awsome things I have ever experianced. We were able too get the elk pretty close too us too, there were a few that came within about 20 feet of us! The elk bugling is such an amazing pretty sound , its so unique and wonderful. We even had an elk bark at us, it was weird! Oh and we heard elk fighting too ; we could hear their horns clacking together, it was totally cool!

After a while Steve and I decided too drive too another spot too bugle, so we got in the truck and started driving. As we were driving our head lights were getting dimmer and dimmer untill they went out, and so did the battery. Steve and I hopped out of the truck and started walking up the dirt road hoping too get a signal too Steve's phone so that we could call someone too come help us out. As we were walking up the road we saw a truck coming toward us and we were realy hoping that they would stop and jump our car so that we could at least have enough battery power to drive us too somewhere that we could make a call. Sure enough they stopped and asked us if we needed any help and we told them about our truck. They jumped our truck and it gave us some more power, so we started driving again, hoping that the lights would stay bright and the battery wouldn't go out again, but sure enough the lights started too dim and the battery went out and we still wern't in an area that we could make a call. We were parked on the side of the dirt road and popped the hood to let people that drove by ( we were kind of worried that nobody would drive by because it was in the extremely early hours of the morning so there wern't that many people driving on the mountain) that we needed help. Not too long after we popped the hood some hunters came driving down the road in they're truck. They stopped and asked us what was wrong ; Steve told them about what happened and one of them offered too make a call for us when they got too where they could get signal. We gave them the information too make the call for us and then they started driving away. Steve and I just had too wait now, so we sat in the truck and ate some Licorice and then tried too get some sleep. It was pretty hard too fall asleep because we were pretty uncomfortable, but I did fall too sleep for a while, and Steve did too, but he got alot less sleep than me. Around 8:00 in the morning Steve and I woke up too the sound of a vehicle driving up the road , and we were so happy because it was Steve's dad and brother. They loaded our truck onto a big trailer so they could tow it home. Jeff ( my brother in law ) looked at the truck too see what had gone wrong, and he told us that our alternator stopped working. So Steve and I got into they're car and we got a ride home.
Even though we had all that car trouble it was totally worth it because the elk bugling experiance was wonderful!

If it's not a toy it's fun

Our cat stinker loves to play with random things. We bought Stinker a cat toy the other day because we felt bad that all he has to play with is random stuff from around the house. The funny thing is that Stinker still would rather play with the things that arn't toys than play with his toy, he hardly touches the toy! He loves to play with an empty firework box, a ball of tin foil, wrappers ( and its funny because most the time I don't know where he is finding crinkly clear wrappers and stuff ), and his current favorite is the loofah that we keep in the shower. Its so funny because we have a sliding door on the shower and I often accidentally leave it open, so Stinker goes into the shower and gets it. He has done this several times now so I might as well just let him keep it. I don't want a loofah with cat hair all over it anyway!

neat creatures part 2

I forgot to mention two more neat creatures in my last post so I will tell you about them now. I have seen alot of bats this year! Just the other day Stephen was outside in the front yard in the dark, and he felt something fly past him, so he went inside and got the flashlight. He went back outside and turned the flaslight on and saw hundreds of bats swarming our yard! He then brought me outside with the flashlight off and asked me if I noticed anything different about our front yard, and I said no. Then he turned the flash light back on and I noticed all the bats! We stood out there with the flashlight on for a very very long time and watched the bats. The moths were attracted to our flash light so they would fly realy close to us and the bats would fly down and catch them. Alot of times the bats came less than six inches away from our body's, maybe even closer sometimes! Every time a bat would come close I would giggle my head off because of the thrilling, excited, and startled feeling that would rush through my body. I was probably keeping the neighbors awake, but Steve and I were having tons of fun with the bats!!!! It was a blast! Its one of the big highlights of this year, because it was just so cool!! There were so many bats that night because it had been cold for some days before and so the bugs were not out for a while. Once it started to warm up again the bugs finally came out and so the bats were eating them like crazy. I have also seen alot more owls this year than usuall. There has even been an owl that was sitting on top of Steve's parents hill and the sun hadn't even gone down yet. Another cool owl experiance is when Steve and I were driving in the car at night and we looked out the window and saw an owl flying along side us not that far away.