Which are worse? Scorpions or Mice

I believe one of mine and Brad's biggest fears of owning a home is what we will do when faced with infestation. Whether it is a large insect, mouse, or some other frightening creature, its only goal in life is to terrorize little children living in the basement (and getting great joy out of this for many years). My biggest nightmare came true, when I received a phone call from Stacy who frantically tells me that there a scorpion in our house. My initial response was to not return home, but later I conjured up enough courage to go home and face it. Stacy had bravely trapped the varmint underneath a glass bowl and left it there for the patriarch of the home to take care of it. I had little indication of what I was to expect upon arrival, but was terrified to see the size of this deadly insect. Below is a picture and it does not do justice for the utter terror that the scorpion inculcates into anyone that looks at it. Scorpions are creatures that kids take to school for show-and-tell-day and impresses all of his friends because he has a scorpion. Well, I left it there for a couple of hours and refused to have anything to do with it. Stacy and I finally decided to tag team it and we slipped cardboard under the glass bowl so that we could transport it to the toilet to flush it down. I don't remember what happened after that but next thing I knew Stacy grabbed the bowl and shook it over the toilet and I flushed it down several times. I don't know what drives me to take such chances. It was exciting and scary at the same time. I do need to admit that Stacy was the stronger of the two in our house, but she did not have the traumatic experiences that I had as a young boy with mice.

Baseball with the Bushmans

Before I start, I'd like to thank Brooke for letting me use these pictures. Our camera died, so if you visit Brooke and Troy's blog, you will see the very same pictures. And now to my story...

Since we live fairly close to all of the sports stadiums in Phoenix, we like to take advantage of any of the good teams that come to town (well, all 2 of them so far...). You can see the Cardinal Stadium from our house, and the baseball field isn't too far away either. Last Friday, we went with the Bushmans to see the Dodgers play, and to see Manny get booed. For a split second I felt bad that he was getting booed so much, but then I remembered why the people were booing and I didn't feel bad anymore.

After the game, they opened the top of the stadium and there was a fireworks show. This isn't our picture...I "borrowed" it from online, but this is what it looked like.

Dishwasher

For the first time since we've been married, we now have a dishwasher. It's the most amazing thing in the world. Despite it's wonderfulness, it was white. Note how I stress the word was. I was talking to Laurel one day and she was telling me about how on Design to Sell, they put stainless-steel contact paper on a dishwasher. Brilliant. She then told me about the wonderful world of spray paints and all the things they are made for now. Glorious. So, after a trip to home depot, and $17, we have a better dishwasher. You be the judge.

Before: (well, after I started dismantling it...)



During:


After:

Handiman Matt

Ever since we got here on Friday, we've been keeping ourselves quite busy. Our house is 1000 times better than it was when we bought it. I'll do a before and after post later. Here are the pictures of us working and working and working. I'd also like to give a special thanks to my mom and dad for coming and helping! Without my dad our tile would not have happened.

We did take some time and go to a baseball game! Indoors! Diamondback vs. Phillies

Farewell Provo

In no particular order, here are some pictures of our final days in Provo.

Wind Caves

Last weekend we went up to Idaho Falls and hiked to the wind caves near the Tetons with my family.

Happy 3rd Anniversary to Us

Yesterday, July 14th was our 3rd anniversary. We went to The Melting Pot in Salt Lake and it was way fun. The best was the cheese fondue and the chocolate. I could sit and eat that cheese fondue for hours it was so good. Probably not good for me, but good nonetheless. Matt has been wanting to have lobster as of late, so he finally got to have some. I hate lobster, so he got it all to himself.

Camry Club

We've known it for a while now, but we needed another car. Our dear Ford isn't as reliable as we'd like it to be. In all the experiences I've had with Fords, they tend to blow up at 120,000 miles--something I like to call the Ford 120. (Sorry Tim, but it's true.) We found this Camry for a really good price, and it only has 13,000 miles on it. So far we've been really happy with it. We don't have to shout at each other when we ride in the car. Yes, our Ford is that loud, for those of you who have not ridden in it.