March 29th

We had a great visit with Lydia and the kids! We met Kara, Anna, & James along with Dylan & Lindsey at the Dinosaur Museum at Thanksgiving Point. It was fun to walk around and look at all the dinosaur bones and exhibits but of course for the young (and young at heart) the most fun was the room they had an interactive water/sand area that you could build your own dinosaur world and construct hills with sand surrounded by the flowing water. It included trees and lots of dinosaurs. OK, you can include Grandma in that fun activity. Grandpa Nix and Grandma Pat joined us and it was nice to have the chance to visit.

Lydia and I attended a bread making class at the Bosch store. We learned lot of fun things that we wanted to try out. On Friday I drove Lydia and the kids back down to Arizona. We took the Suburban so it was a very comfortable trip. Part of the way Lydia and I listened to the CD of New Moon (#2 of the Twilight Series for the uninitiated) but we decided to let the kids watch a movie so we had to turn it off. That worked out nicely because it gave Lydia and I a chance to visit in the front while the children enjoyed the movie in the back seat. On Saturday we experimented with our new bread making skills. It tasted better than it looked but we tried it again and it turned out beautifully. I had a few issues with Lydia's oven timer so I had a tendency to let things cook a little too long. I took care of that by sending her a new one when I got home that will ding for a whole minute when the time is up.. one soft little ding was just not enough for me, especially if I was distracted playing with the children or watching the new Twilight movie that came out Saturday... (likely excuse). Maybe next time I go down my baking efforts will meet with greater success. The children were great, Sarah is absolutley wonderful, Colling gave up his bed so Grandma could sleep in it, and even Mason pitched in to help me wash dishes.

I drove home on Tuesday, the 8 hour drive went by fast because I listened to the rest of New Moon and started on Elipse. It was a beautiful day but after I got home it began snowing so I was glad I missed the storm! I don't know if I will drive or fly down in April to take my turn as Lydia's patient but I will probably borrow the CD's again. I spent Wednesday and Thursday house cleaning and running errands.

Jef came home on Friday morning and Dylan and I met him at the Bungalow. Jef and Dylan worked hard and I made bread and chocolate chip cookies in the new 'compact' Bosch Mixer Jef bought for the bungalow. It only has half the capacity of my Bosch mixer at home with a different design so it will take some getting used to. My bread and cinnamin rolls were really good, so were the cookies!! Then I went over to play with Anna and James while their parents went out to dinner with some friends. Saturday I actually worked at the Bunglow sanding and staining the old mouldings for the ceiling. Jef and I were able to put up the last of the sheetrock in the dining room now that he and Dylan had fixed the sagging ceiling. Progress is slow but it is beautiful to see!

I am still looking for a job but I am enjoying my enforced retirement very much.

Cockaynes are here!

It is a nice day, the snow is almost gone, the sleds are put away... but the kiddie swimming pool is available. It is so fun to have the grandchildren here!!!

Vermont Adventure

I came home from Vermont with wonderful memories and a terrible cold. Oh well, you can’t have it all perfect and spending a week loving and cuddling 2 cute kids (with colds) I have to say is so worth it! I enjoyed being able to see Emily and Austin’s farm house. A century and a half can really add character. Of course it has been updated but the original rough beams and floor boards give it a wonderful warm feeling. My favorite was the kitchen area, so big and bright. Lucy, Gavin, and I put together several puzzles and played games on the island.. it worked out so well. My room was the addition, warm and cozy with my private heater, and the only room with a level floor. I even ventured down into the scary basement to stoke the wood burning furnace, I would put adding another light down there high on my personal priority list.. but then getting to wear a head lamp seemed to work out OK, and it was a new and exciting experience… I am not sure I would recommend February as a prime vacation time, the snow was deep and I didn’t get to check out the old barns because there was too much snow and ice in front of the doors and I would have had to go on snowshoes! And by the way, Vermont is COLD! But with the snow it was also beautiful, just like a postcard..I loved to just stand and look out the windows, with the field and barns on one side and the forest on the other. We went to Barre to check out Austin’s new office and his new sign. And I discovered that one little shop had the same cute wallets that we had seen in Bozeman and Lydia had admired so much.. and that they are made in Canada! Small world. To make sure I appreciated the weather in Northfield, they took me up to Montreal, Canada. It was fun, but the wind made the cold a lot more difficult to deal with. I would like to go back in the summer when I can walk around old town. I thought it was interesting – architecturally- that the houses had external stair cases up to the second floor apartment. It must have been a popular thing because they were like that all over town. Why waste precious heated space with a stair. I also liked the underground shopping area downtown, what a great concept. The Biodome was also a wonderful idea, they figured out that indoor activities are preferable in the frozen north!!! I liked being nice and warm while I watched the animals play. Emily liked her new rug and we found the perfect spot for it. She was able to take off work for a day on Tuesday and we had a very pleasant opportunity to visit and look around Montpelier. We stopped at the chocolate factory and the cheese outlet. We found some great bargains, went out to lunch, and then she took me to the airport. It was a delightful end to a fun week. I got home late on Tuesday, while I waited for Dylan to pick me up (the plane got in early) I was outside .. the temperature was above freezing .. it felt like spring!!!

Mom's Out-a Here

I'll soon be on the midnight flight to Burlington via JFK. I'll call Sam and Heather when I get to JFK to see if they're up yet. Lucy and Gavin will pick me up at the airport with the help of their friend Lora since both Emily and Austin are teaching at the time I finally arrive. I sure hope they recognize me since they haven't seen me for 6 months...you know how much Grandma's can change in that amount of time. Oh, they'll know me, I'll be the old lady who looks like she's been up all night!!! It is supposed to be snowy every day so my suit case is full of warm clothing and my snow boots. I am very excited to be in Vermont, after all I'm not going for the weather .... obviously. I'll take pictures, have a fun week...I will be having a great time visiting.

Pictures of the Bunglow

Jef has been out of town since Sunday so the progress on the bunglaow patiently awaits his return! Dylan stopped by on Monday to get the trash out, and then stopped again on Tuesday to bring in the garbage cans. That is a big deal since the only way to get them to the street is down the stairs, and then back up to put them away till next time. I spent Monday evening with Kara, James and Anna. Dave was gone snowmobiling with his cousins, Kara made a great dinner, and after dinner she Zoned me while I cuddled with James and watched Anna, the energy ball. It was fun to visit and just relax. Tuesday morning they closed the canyon at 6 AM to do avalanche control, that meant I had to be at the resort before 6. It reminded me of the 'good old days' opening up the Racquet Club at 5:30... I don't miss those particular mornings!!! And since we were there anyway... we opened Gritts at 6:30, it was a long day. By the time I got home I just wanted to curl up with my fuzzy blanket. This morning I was back at Gritts but at least it was a regular 7:30 morning. After work I went over to the Bungalow to take some pictures. Everything was so dusty that I decided it was time to do some cleaning. To bad I took the pictures before I cleaned the floor..it looks even better now! Jef's hard work has turned out beautifully, we are really pleased with it so far but there are some more things to finish on the columns and then we'd like to refinish the woodwork in the livingroom and dining room..and then there is the ceiling... and the floor... and the attic... and the wiring... We are not worried about being bored.

February 9th

I am in the Recruiting Office today. I worked up in Employee Services on Saturday and as a cashier at Gritts on Sunday. I have to really concentrate on where I am supposed to be next! When I fill in weekends for my departments it really makes for a long week!!! Recruiting is very quiet today, I just have a couple of jobs out there but they are not posted on line so I am in wait mode to hear from the managers about whether they want to hire someone or just limp along for the rest of the season. They will need to decide by Friday since I will be out of town, enjoying the season in Vermont after the 16th for a week or so. Even though I am taking the midnight flight from Salt Lake I am so excited to get to see Emily's new house and play with the kids for a while. I am so ready to vacation!

Jef is in Texas this week, working. It has been his first trip since the first of December and it has been very nice having him home, or should I say at the Bunglow, working on projects there. It will probably slow down a little but I think he'll try to work from here more so that he can continue to make progress on the Bungalow.

I have set a date for Grandpa Nix's 90th birthday party. Saturday August 15th..plenty of time to make travel arrangements. We are hoping that the whole family can be there, that's why we made it a 90th year celebration as opposed to a birthday party because December is a much more difficult time for everyone to travel. Now that the date is set it is time to get started on the details... suggestions are welcome!

January 17th

Halfway through January, that is simply incredible!!

We don’t spend much time at the ‘old’ house, after work Jef and I meet at the bungalow. I make some dinner and he gets to work. Dylan comes over during the day between classes and works on some projects and sometimes helps us in the evenings.

Update:
The 2 long attic walls are in place. Looks easier than it was since we had to pry up the roof rafters in some places to get the new walls standing straight (they may be the only actually straight walls in the whole house at this point.) It makes the space look really huge and we have modified our original plan… we will put in a wall to separate the space and have one bedroom (about 14’ square) with a family room (about that same size) at the top of the stairs. Putting in a bathroom will mean that we have to do some major roof remodel so that will have to be done later..

Jef has been working on putting the wing walls back in the living room (someone took them out years ago) and adding 2 columns. Even just roughed in it makes a big difference in the space, we really like it. Of course this also includes a beam that allows us to remove the supporting beam in the attic. I think Jef is enjoying himself, it is no doubt way over engineered but he is having such a good time building it. We also made 2 interesting discoveries.. first was that the house is made of adobe bricks with plaster walls on the inside and regular bricks on the outside.. and second that the living room and entry/dining room were originally separated by large pocket doors. That’s what happens when you start tearing things apart.

Probably the next project will need to be putting in a stair to the attic (the ladder is OK but we need a larger opening), running the electrical wiring (the old wiring is original to the house and very scary), and getting the wires run for the TV and internet so Dylan can move in to the house and be able to do his homework on line. It is so close to the university that he goes over and makes himself some food and works on a few things before he goes back over to the school.

I have taken my rug project to the bungalow so that I can work on it during the moments that I am not holding up boards or handing screws or drills to the work crew. This rug is something new and different for me, instead of braiding, it is woven, and instead of wool or polyester this one is made of cotton fabric. Since this is my first one I am anxious to see how it turns out when I take it off the frame. It is looking good, I have high hopes that it will work out when all is said and done. So does Emily since it would be her (somewhat late) Christmas present…