the one about some old stuff

Can you believe this is my 300th post!?!

I have been wanting/needing to catch up on some stuff, but I have misplaced my camera. I know, sad, right? Anyway, I finally decided to just do some catch up on some old stuff that has been piling up.

First of all.. I LOVE this weather, I love Fall and I love Thanksgiving. This truly is my favorite time of year. I love everything about it. I did notice, however, that the leaves and stuff are past their beauty. It is starting to get into that ugly pre-winter stuff. But it has been so nice lately, that I don't really care. Its amazing and I love it! I am also reminded of all of the things I have to be thankful for. I have noticed that many of my friends have been blogging once a day about the things they are thankful for. I love that, and I love reading them. I would love to commit to that, but considering my recent posting track record, I probably wouldn't make it. I know I have said this before, but I love blogging, I just don't have time. Actually, I have time, I just don't spend my time wisely. I am a chronic time waster.

Well, lets play catch up, shall we?

We no longer have roommates. (phewwwww...) We had 2 this summer and now they are both gone. My buddy Spencer moved in last Spring, and he left in August. He was ready to move on, and I don't blame him. He needed to find a job and he wasn't having any luck here. He moved back to the Wasatch Front to be near his family. We also had Brett's friend Morgan. He moved here mid-July and left at the end of October. It was fun having both of them, but I am also glad to have my home and my life back.

Quayd finished his flag football season last month. He liked it ok, but he is super excited to play tackle football next year. Now we have started indoor soccer. Brett and I are coaching. It is kind of a pain to coach, but I enjoy being so involved. Plus, we are the perfect candidates for coaching since we only have one child. That way we have no distractions and we don't have to worry about taking care of other children. Oh and also because we are huge suckers. Brett and I were playing co-ed softball and it ended in September. That kept us very busy. Now women's volleyball has started. Our team isn't very good, but we have fun. I have to keep reminding myself that it is just for fun.

Brett got a big fat promotion at work a few months ago, and I am not sure if I ever mentioned it. He now takes care of outside sales and he does a great job at it! I have been very happy to see him take more pride in his work and to finally enjoy what he is doing. He takes very good care of his customers and they take care of him too. I am so proud of him!

Same old, same old at The Country Bear. Here are a couple of the fun things I have made this month.

I am still loving working there. It is a VERY LOW STRESS job and that is what I love the most about it. Also, I love being able to use my creativity on a daily basis. Sometimes, my craft projects get put on the back burner, but making all of these fun things for work forces me to do it, and I LOVE it!

Quayd has become quite the little hunter. You know, Brett hunts but he is not an EVERY WEEKEND kind of hunter. Actually, he hasn't even had a tag for anything for about 5 years. He likes to go when asked, but doesn't make a huge effort to do so otherwise. Me? Hunt? NO THANK YOU! My father-in-law was a very avid hunter, and so is Brett's brother Cory. A few months ago, Cory asked Brett and Quayd to go with him to hunt prairie dogs. I figured Quayd would be bored of that in no time, but he actually LOVED it. They sent this picture to me. They helped Quayd with the gun, and he shot this himself. (Sorry if it is gross or disturbing to anyone!!) Brett said that Quayd got so hyped up over shooting! So after that, Quayd started begging to go prairie dog hunting every weekend. Once Elk season rolled around, Cory had a tag for the book cliffs. He invited Brett and Quayd to go with him. They went early one morning and came back that night. We figured Quayd would get bored. Well he didn't. He LOVED every second of it. So the next weekend, they decided to take a tent and stay all night so they could get up early and go. (It was still fairly warm at this time.) That night when they were going to bed, all three of them were still and quiet and Cory did an Elk call. They heard bull Elk calling back to it. They weren't very far away. Within 400 yards. Brett said Quayd was FREAKING out, he was so excited!!! They called back and forth for a little while, then finally went to bed. First thing in the morning, Quayd was ready to hunt. Unfortunately, they didn't get anything that day. But Cory got one during that next week while hunting with some friends. Quayd was excited for Cory, but disappointed that he missed out. A couple weekends later, Brett's friend Todd and his boy had tags for diamond mountain so they decided to take our trailer up and camp for the weekend. Quayd was more excited than anyone!!! Again, no luck on the hunt, but he still had a great time. The next hunt is in December. Brett's Grandpa Lane and his twin brother Elmer have tags for Elk in Colorado. They are both getting pretty old and not in the best of health, so Brett and Cory are going to go along. Oh, and guess who else will be going??? Yep, good old Quayd! It has always been cool to me how when the weather starts to turn cold, and the feeling of harvest sets in some men have this instinct that makes them want to hunt. It's like a survival instinct or something. I see it in myself too as a woman. I always feel like I need to stock pile food and can fresh fruits and veggies. Maybe I am crazy, but I notice this about Brett and I every year. I could see it in Mike, I see it Cory and I am sure I will see it more and more in Quayd as the years go by. Pretty cool stuff. On a funny note, Cory came over and dinner with us tonight. Quayd asked him, "When we goin' huntin' again?" Cory said something about deer or something and Quayd pipes in, "Well I know where we can get us a nice deer. Out in the book cliffs! We saw lots of nice ones when we were out there." He said it like an old pro. Just like he had hunted them a thousand times before.

Ok, on to other things. The status report on Triple Scoops Ice Cream, since many of you have asked, was good. We did well, for just starting out. We were able to get ourselves out there and get recognized in some of the neighborhoods. I am glad we have a head start for next Spring. We made a few mistakes, and we learned from them, but we will be pumped up and ready to go in a few months. I am so proud of my nephew Brayden. He has been an awesome business partner! He is very involved and works hard to make Triple Scoops a success. We are hoping to get involved in the community Holly Days celebration in a few weeks, which includes a parade of lights. That is still in the works though.

Another news tidbit, is that I celebrated my 31st Birthday last month. It was very laid back and not too exciting. Which is GREAT! My Birthday was on a Sunday. The Friday night before my Birthday, my buddies Kandice and Jamie took me to dinner and a movie. We had Casa Rios then went to The Stepfather. (Intense!) Saturday, Brett took me out for dinner and we met up with some friends at Club XS. It was ok. The morning of my Birthday, we went to breakfast with my Brother and his family. That night, we had baked potato bar with my family at my Grandma's house. Monday, I went to breakfast with Holly and Kandice. That was about it. Oh! On Monday mornings, I help in Quayd's class, so that Monday I took treats with me. I told them that they are all my friends so I wanted to have a treat to share with them. We had donuts and orange juice. It was fun, and the kids thought it was super cool. They are happy with any chance for a treat, right? Here are some of the awesome gifts I got. This is my new favorite thing on Earth, besides the two people that gave it to me.
Brett and Quayd got me this nice, soft blankie. I have been dropping hints for one for quite sometime, so I am glad Brett finally took the bait. I love it! It is so soft and I cuddle up in it all the time. Kandice got me this awesome necklace! And Grandma Galley brought this by on my Birthday.
She is so sweet, and her bread was AMAZING! It didn't last very long. This was my cake from my family party. Holy Delish!!!! It was awesome. I love white cake and white frosting. And last but not least, Holly made me some of her amazing cupcakes, and gave me this adorable turkey.
It was a great Birthday. I didn't mind turning 31. 30 didn't bother me either. Age is just a number, right? I actually enjoy being in my thirties. It makes me feel more grown up and more respected. People take a 31 year old woman way more serious than they take a 25 year old. Maybe not, maybe that is just in my head, but it makes me feel better. I feel like I am officially grown up now. I have been married 11 years, I have a 7 year old and I am in my thirties.

Ok, I guess I will end it there. I will post more when I find my camera. Hopefully soon. It's not to far away because I just had it the other day. I have some great Halloween pictures to share! Happy 300th post!!!!!!! Thanks for reading! :)

the one about the ice cream truck

My cute little nephew, Brayden, and I have been talking for months about starting an ice cream truck business. Everyone just laughed at us and thought we were silly. We already knew we had a vehicle. My Grandma has this old van that was not being used and we knew that it was already as good as ours. Well two weeks ago Friday, Brayden and I sat down and made a business plan. We went to my Grandma and asked if we could use the van. She was so excited that we were really serious about it, she offered to help us get our business started. Once everyone decided that we were serious, they were all on board and we all got super excited! We, meaning Brett, Quayd, My big brother Brandon, his wife Danette and their other son Brennen. We didn't think we could actually get it going for this year, but we thought we might as well start working on it now so we would be ready next Spring. Anyway, that Sunday, we decided to see what it was going to take to get the van running. We popped the hood. It didn't have a battery, so we took care of that. We poured a little gas in the tank, put air in the tires and no joke, it started right up!

We even took it for a spin around the neighborhood and it ran PERFECTLY! Once we realized that getting it going was not going to be as hard as we thought, we decided that if we all worked hard, we could get it done for the last couple months of summer. So the next step was to figure out how to make it look presentable. The old paint was awful! There were huge rust spots and it was chipping terrible. We knew we wanted it to look nice in the end, so we decided to sand all of the old crap off and just start fresh. We scraped, sanded, grinded for a whole week.


It was the suckiest job EVER! Brayden and his dad and Brett & I worked day and night. We did it in my back yard, so my whole house, inside and out, was covered in dust!!! Of course, during all of this sanding, I was running errands and making phone calls all day everyday to line up ice cream, bank account, sales tax info, business license, insurance, and on and on and on and on..... In the meantime, I was still taking care of my mom/wife duties, watching my nephews all day and working part time!FYI, setting up a business is HARD! Anyway, after the sanding was finished, we had to paint. My brother lined up a shop for us to use so we drove it there and had to mask everything. Of course, it needed a few coats of primer first. And each coat of primer had to be sanded again. So we all worked hard on that too.






Some of it was just to boring for the little boys, but they were so good and helped when they could. And when they couldn't, they rode bikes! Seriously though, they were such good boys.
Now let me back up a little bit. I showed you how awful the outside was... well we haven't even gotten to the inside yet! My grandparents had been using the inside of the van for storage. Yes, I said storage.... Look at that hideous wood paneling and orange upholstery. YUCK! And you can't even imagine all of the wasps nests we found! Anyway, the inside needed a makeover too. Brett ripped out all of the consoles, couches and carpet. The sub floor was in bad shape so Brandon replaced it. Brayden and I painted the inside, Brett did the linoleum and I reupholstered the ugly orange stuff.


As I said before, we never thought we could be up and running this summer. But here it is two weeks later and we are hitting the streets! I can't believe it. We went out and about yesterday and did quite well. There are still a few kinks to work out and a few things to fix up, but all in all, we are good to go. Now you have already seen the before pictures.... are you ready for the after pix??? The two big black things on the top are speakers.... Oh yah. We even have REAL ice cream truck music!!!



I can't believe we did it! I am so proud of it and it turned out better than I ever could have imagined. This old van has so much history in our family. I know that sounds stupid, but it really does. My grandma drove it for years and everyone knew it was her. We went on road trips in it and wherever else we needed to go that we could all fit inside. In fact, I even rode to my wedding in this old van!!! My skirt had the hoop things in it and was so big I couldn't get into a car and I didn't want to take the hoop slip thing off. I told all of my bridesmaids to hop in in the van and I plopped down right in the middle of the floor! It was so funny. Most brides ride to their wedding in a limo, but not me. I rode in the action van. We have called it the action van for ever, and it has a tiny squeak so we say it has a little mouse inside. When we first started it up and heard the squeak we all said, "The mouse is still there!" We have so many fun memories in this old van. The money will be used to help the three boys buy cars, college, or whatever else. For now it will be split between Brayden and myself. And when he gets older, the two little boys can run it and split the money. Since there are three boys, we decided to call it Triple Scoops. If you want to see us in your neighborhood, just call me, text me, email me or even leave comments on my blog or facebook. I have a blackberry so all of that stuff comes right to my cell phone. We are trying to find the best neighborhoods, so any help we can get is gladly accepted! Coming soon to a neighborhood near you!!!