Christmas is over, Bring out yer dead!

If you haven't seen Monty Python's Holy Grail, then you may not understand the title. However, you will soon see that Santa is indeed dead---killed by my dear, sweet, loving dog, Ruby. Now, I completely understand that doggies don't go to hell.....their owners do. And especially owners who document their doggie's bad behavior and post it for public enjoyment. And I do hereby fully accept the consequences of the following pictures. :)









And just in case you are still holding out hope for my Santa salvation..........................





ALAS, BRING OUT 'YER DEAD!

Our home for the Holidays!

Merry Christmas. We hope you got our Christmas card and are coming to visit our site to see what's happened in 2008. And if you didn't get a Christmas card, uh, er, it's in the mail! Check out the right-hand side for each month's events. We have been very happy and blessed this year. We wish each of you the best!

Descriptions of the pictures:
1. Our beloved home, in it's full Christmas glory.
2. Yes, that is a leg lamp in the front window.And yes, my dear Hubbie made it himself.
3. Our Christmas tree room (aka Living room)
4. The Christmas spirit spewed it's "cheer" all through the great room/kitchen.
5. Notice that even little Ruby (dog) has a stocking in the lower right corner of the pic.
6. Oh, believe me. The garland goes all the way up those stairs -36 feet of it.
7. Even the master bedroom has a holiday pillow---ok, not really but it's red, at least.
8. The master bath/garden tub-needs no holiday decor. My favorite spot all year-round so it couldn't be left out of the holiday home tour.
9. The guestroom whose sole job is to hold the all-important leg lamp.
10. And, last but not least, the guest bath where a person could find respite from the Christmas overkill.

Getting ready for Christmas

This being our first Christmas in the new house, we decided to go all out. The decorating commenced with the exterior. First, the lights. Now, our roof has quite the steep pitch, we are talking like 30 feet. So, my dear husband and friend Tracy risked their lives to put up the lights. I was ready with the camera to document any broken bones, or death.


















Of course, I was willing to do my part..... on the ground. We lined our driveway with these wreaths and lanterns. Put up lots of garland, lights and wreaths, little pine trees.....and that's just the outside!














The inside was more up my alley. It was warm and toasty and only involved minimal falling hazards.

















Well, I say minimal, but then take a look at my official "safety footwear" as I hang the kitchen garland.















After all is said and done, I must say that the Griswolds* have nothing on us Lochers.


*No, the "Griswolds" is not some tradmarked name but just in case you are lame and missed the reference, you need to immediately see "National Lampoon's Chrtistmas Vacation".

Let it snow!

Everyone 'round here is so glad that we finally got snow. It's only a month and a half late and just didn't feel like Christmas at 50 degrees. But what a wonderous reminder of the pure joy of shoveling snow, icey roads, slow traffic, and being cold, wet and soggy! Oh, let it snow, let it snow, let it snow.

Being the good wifey that I am, I decided that I would surprise my hubbie by clearing the sidewalks and driveway. Now, keep in mind that I am a firm beliver that this is "man's" work. (I know, I know. Women's lib, be damned!) (Oh, and I hope my husband doesn't see this post.) But,'tis the season and all that. So I busted out the snowblower, thinking, "how hard could it be?" I don't know, you tell me:




OK, OK. we were just kidding around. You can tell that I already cleared the driveway but my little brother Benny came over and we started to clown around. There is always goofing around to be done when Benny comes around. That boy can make me laugh. It was the most fun I have ever had (and will ever have) "shoveling" snow.

A Dog's Life

This is Ruby's idea of a perfect Sunday morning......

Stretching out on the couch, watching TV and chillin' with her Best Friend.

Bowling & being rock stars

Ok, so perhaps you don't associate bowling with rock stars but let me tell you, the way we bowled and danced and ate and drank was most definately a party of Rock-Star proportions. (Ok, so maybe I am trying to be more glamorous than I am but it was super fun, anyway) We traveled to San Jose (just outside of San Fransisco) for my friend Melinda's (Meli) Bday.
We had the whole end of the bowling alley with a buffet of food and waiters just ready to replenish the food. There was a huge group of us, like 30? and we had such a good time. What a great way to celebrate Meli's Bday.

Brad's bowling form and my Bowling form. Hmmm, is it a wonder I rarely break 50? (I think I fell on my hiney right after this roll)

Yes, folks. What you see here is a "strike" on my score sheet. A strike that the computer gave me as a freebie, but a strike, nonetheless.

These are the cute friends that we bowled with, our new BFF's, from left to right, Meli, Krystal, Erica and 'D' on top. They were such a hoot!!

And there is always some time for a little PDA with my hubbie. In all likelihood, he may have been picking me up off the ground after my truley astounding bowling form








And last, but not least, the whole reason for going to the party in the first place, Meli's BDay and BDay presents. I made her this cute kitchen apron which she wore the whole rest of the night. Gee, I hope she liked it.


BIRTHDAYS, BOWLING and BFF's! What fun!

I've been tagged......apparently

The rules:
1. Link to person who has tagged you: Darla (ya, I'm proud that I figured out how to link to Darla.)
2. Post the rules on your blog
3. Write 6 random things about yourself
4. Let each person know they have been tagged by leaving a comment on their blog

So, here goes.
1) I have an odd fascination with magic, and witchs, in general. I blame this on my great, great, great, great aunt Rebekah Warren who was burned at the stake in Salem for being a witch. Yes, she is the same Rebekah in the book, "the Crucible".
2) Books, books, books, books and particularly novels. I can not get enough to read. In fact, one of my favorite new books is "Garden Spells" which is, of course, about magic and witchcraft.
3) At heart, I may have a little geek in me. I love doing financial stuff and accounting. Please, please keep this quiet. I mus'nt ruin my ditzy image.
4) My make-up is tattooed on. Yup, eyebrows, eyeliner (ouch) and lips. I will give full credit to my little sis who is a Permanent Cosmetics Sepcialist.
5) I make soup that is to die for.
6) I listen to "Docotor Radio" on satellite radio and thoroughly enjoy it. AND, it doesn't give me a complex about new diseases I may have. Actually, it makes me realize how very sane I am, comparatively speaking.

Ok, I tag Kim, Stephanie, Emily, Diane, Deb and Christina. Mostly because those are the only people who I know have a blog.

My new fav Vaca spot, San Fransisco

We took a little mini Vacation to San Fransisco a few weeks ago and it was wonderful! We gave ourselves full permission to act like tourists (it wasn't much of an act) and had such a fabulous trip. It will most definately become an anual trip and anyone is invited to come with us.

The whole reason we went down there in the first place was to celebrate Meli Clayson's Bday. We had the bestest time at her party and you must stay tuned for the blog of that.

Halloween 2008

The annual Storer Halloween dinner party was this weekend. Costumes are mandatory and as always, very creative. The menu consisted of things like "bloody bat carnage" and "spider sinew". It's always fun to order from a menu like that and just see what they bring out. And of course, you have to finish your plate before moving on to the next course. Yes, this is Benny "eating" a rat that he found in his dinner.



How cute are my 2 little nephews? A monkey and a banana with their safari mom. (Their Dad was recovering from a knee surgery and wasn't quite up to the costume thing)




Brad and I were Annie and Daddy Warbucks. Yes, that's my real hair but we couldn't get Brad's bald cap to work. Ruby was "Sandy" but was not posing for pictures.


HAPPY HALLOWEEN, YA"LL!!!!!

Officially addicted....to blogging

Now that I have the hang of this, I will be posting about our super-exciting lives every week. Can you hardley wait?

Due to popular demand........Ruby!

Several of you have asked about little Ruby Lou. So, I thought I'd do an Ode to Ruby Lou. She is alive and well, sleeping lots, eating lots and chasing the dogs on the other side of the fence. Brad is undoubtedly her favorite and she snuggles with him every night (you should hear the two of them snore in harmony). We found that she loves to go camping and is quite good at chasing mice, flies and coyotes. We finally found a vet that is great in dealing with "difficult" dogs (as in, Ruby tries to bite anyone in that office) and we will happily pass on the referral to anyone. Rest assured to all you Rubby fans, she is happy, healthy and well cared for.

Vegas, Baby!

So, we had ourselves a little Las Vegas weekend trip last week. It was tons-o-fun. We took my little sister, Britni and it was her first Vegas trip. Her reactions were the best. Here is us looking out over the Strip from the fenced-in bridge.


And of course, there's the shopping. This is my fabulous husband in a purple, yes, purple! leather 1980's throwback jacket.



We took in the sights including the New York, New York rollercoaster and arcade. This is my fabulous husband again, with first his triumph over the "Shocker" and his prize.


We ate lunch at Brad's favorite place, Harley Davidson and like the true tourists we are, left with more souvenirs than food. I think the highlight of the trip was seeing the Circ De Solei "O" water show. It was in the Bellagio hotel and we got all fancied up.



So that's it. I get points for posting twice in the same week but deduct points for an excessively long posting. Hey, I'm getting there!

New house

So, I am finally blogging about it and most of you already know, but we bought a new house!...Back in June. I absolutely loooooooove it. It's out in West Jordan, kinda middle of the Salt Lake Valley. The house is 3 bedrooms and 2 1/2 baths on the main floor, 1 bath and 1 bonus room on the upstairs and then a full unfinished basement, a.k.a. the winter project. I have lots of favorite things about the house and am still a little giddy with the excitement of having a real "grown-up" house. I love, love, love the kitchen. It is open to the family room and have pretty slate floors with granite counter tops. There is so much cupboard space that I am in appliance organization heaven. I also love the 25' ceilings in the entry and family room. Let's see, oh, I might as well mention Brad's favorite part. He has a 4-car garage that is about 1300 square feet. He is so stoaked to have a place for all his tools. I saw the kitchen, he saw the garage and we said "SOLD"!

We do love it and it quite the adjustment to go from 1400 sq ft to almost 2500 on the main level. We always find ourselves talking to the each other and yelling back, "what?, I'm in the other room!". And Ruby loves being able to lie on the floor without being walked on.

We still have lots of projects and I'll take pictures as we work on them. You know Brad, if he doesn't have a project, he's going crazy!

Lava Hot Springs-the annual family trip

Lava Hot Springs, Idaho. The home of our annual family camping trip. ("Annual" meaning we have managed to do it two years in a row). If you are deprived and have never managed to visit this quaint little town, allow me to convince you that it is a must! This little bitty place has this "river" (more like a quick paced creek) flowing right through the town. The river was formed by Lava rock and creates a few currents and bumps along the way. It's a thrill to tube down the river and hope you make it to the bottom. The best part is that if you sit too far down in the tube, your hiney will be greeted by some insanely sharp lava rock. Trust me, falling out of the tube IS NOT an option.

(You might be astute enough to notice that this is not actually our family. How do you expect us to take a picture while we are all tubing?)






So here is a partial family picture (missing Dad, Josh, Salina, Ethan and Raine)


Part of the "quaint-ness" of this little town is that it is surrounded by lots of undeveloped land, so half of the family camped out and those with small children or wimpy dispositions, stayed in town in the hotel room.













In addition to the wonderful campfire and dutch oven meals, we take the last night to go out to eat in one of the town's little restaurants. Surprisingly, the place we went to had really good steak.....and service.


This picture is of the waitress "assisting" my dad with his migraine. Apparently she moonlights in holistic medicine. (Ya, Dad knew this picture would come back and haunt him.)


And, lastly, Josh and Salina were such good sports to tote along the 2 young boys. This picture is at the restaurant/ healing house.



It was such fun to get as many family members as we could. Hopefully this "annual" tradition will survive 3rd year!

White water rafting

The annual white-water rafting trip continues in 2008! We camped out southeast of Jackson Hole, near Granite Creek Canyon. Here is how cool we look rafting......

What these pictures don't tell is the real story. Although it appears that we cleared "Big Kahuna" and "Lunch Counter", we actually bailed at the bottom. In retrospect, that capsize may have been attributed to my "hurt" thumb, which I was not aware at that time, that was actually broken. (Ok, so I fell down earlier on the rocks -not even in the raft- but didn't realize I had a broken bone. I just knew I could not bend it and Brad had to do all the steering from the rear. Which, of course we now know, does NOT work.)Yeah, I cried the rest of the way down the river.

Our dear friends were sympathetic but made us promise will we still continue the tradition next year. Sure, why not? Who knows what other bones I could break?


(Left to right, Bryan, Summer, Brad, me, Alexa, Machiel)

3rd STOP: Puerto Vallarta

Ah, one of our favorite memories of the vacation. We didn't actually see anything in Puerto Vallarta but we took this awesome shore excursion to a Sea Life Park. As you can tell from the pictures, we swam with the dolphins. It was amazing to be so close to these creatures (I know how sentimental this sounds). They were gentle yet strong but so responsive to us and their trainers. I loved the experience and would tell everyone that it is well worth the money.

2nd STOP: Zihuatanejo/Ixtapa

This was our "low-key" port. We caught a little local boat to go across the island to the LAs Gatos beach. And when I say "caught", I mean that I literally caught the boat--right in the head. The plastic roof of the water taxi was quite a bit shorter than we are used to and just when I was ducking, the boat caught a wave and lurched me forward. Yes, I cried....for a long time.....in front of everyone.....and had the worst headache of my life. But all that aside, the beach was beautiful and we enjoyed some relaxing. It was especially cute to see all the nephews and nieces play in the ocean.













And that's about all I to say about this port. Perhaps it was the crack to my head that kinda fogs my memory.

Mexican Rivieria Cruise: 1st stop Acapulco

Sounds exciting? Well, to say the least, Brad & I are not "cruise" people. I'm not sure why we thought that suddenly we would enjoy being around masses of people in teeny little spaces. But alas, we took our first cruise with the Locher family. We loved the chance to be around the family and that was defiantely a highlight of the trip. I'll do my best to blog it to sound fun, but let me assure you, Brad and I will not likely be going on a cruise again anytime soon, i.e. forever.

Acapulco, Mexico The weather was beautiful but we found ourselves with not much to do, (we were waiting on part of the Locher family to get back from the emergency room. Our cute little nephew broke his foot) so we spent a little time at the flea markets. Turns out they have the same crap we have at home! :)




Then we hailed a taxi for all of us to go watch the cliff divers at La Quebrada. The divers have to wait for the tide to come in exactly at the right time before the water is deep enough to dive into. It was an amazing sight and they said no diver has ever been killed on those cliffs. Actually they may have said that only 1 diver has ever been killed but whatever, details! Stare really hard at the middle of the picture and you may be able to see the diver. Ok, you probably can't see the diver but here is a picture of how far down the dive is.











And we ended the evening with the most beautiful sunset.