Face Lift

While Carl was in Malta, I decided that I wanted to surprise him with new cabinets. Unfortunately, those cost money (who new?) so I took on a little project. I only had 5 full days, which means only nap time and nights after Ben went down, so I knew I had to act fast. I took off the hinges and handles, then with the help of my brother Seth, I cleaned and stripped the cupboard fronts. After those dried, I stained 24 cupboard fronts, 5 drawers, and then the actual cabinets in the kitchen. On Saturday, once everything had dried, I put everything back together, and put on brand new handles. It took quite a bit of work, and my kitchen and garage were a huge mess in the process, but I'm so glad I was able to do it. Carl was thrilled with his surprise. As soon as he walked in the kitchen he said "Oh my gosh!" Yay. I love surprises. We've been wanting to do it since we moved in, and now it's done! What do you think?

Carl took the camera to Malta, so I wasn't able to take a lot of before pictures, but I did find this one. Sorry I had to be in it.


And after. Now they are shiny, smooth and have handles that are not from 1976. Click on the pics to notice the handle difference, that's my favorite part.

The Laundry Room

So here it is, a few months ago. Exposed pipes, cement floor, old light fixture, oh and in case you're wondering what that line under the dryer hook-up...that's where the dry wall ends. That white stuff that you see on the bottom half is in fact styrofoam the previous tenants used for better insulation.



My dad ripped out several built in shelves we didn't want, and added actual walls, including a protruding wall above the washer and dryer, covering up all the pipes. My brother Jared added a gas line to accommodate the gas (not electric) dryer we now have.



Seth laid the tile, grout and sealer. He also put in the new base board (as well as painted most of it), after ripping out the old stuff.


All I had to do was paint the walls this lovely blue Carl picked out. Isn't it nice?


Lastly, Seth brought in and hooked up these beautiful Maytag front load washer and dryer my parents so kindly handed down to us. Aren't parents great?



So there you have it, one of woman's very best friends: the laundry room. A huge thank you to Dad, Jared and Seth for putting in lots of time and energy so I can do laundry at home at any time of day. Everything looks so nice. I've been taking laundry to my parents house for the last 10 months, and though I'll now have to buy my own soap, I'm so very excited for this new addition to our home.

The Best 2 Years

Sometimes it's appropriate to tell your husband how you really feel, honesty really is the best policy. Anniversaries are the perfect time for that.

Dear Carl,
I'm so hopelessly and desperately in love with you. I love you more every minute. Thank you for marrying me and for making me feel prettier than I am. You're my favorite thing and I'm so excited for the rest of our adventures and babies. You're my best friend and I love you a lot a lot a lot.

Love Deb



Alright, enough of the mushy stuff. This year for our anniversary, we decided to cash in our voucher for 2 nights at the Riviera in Las Vegas. Thankfully, Grandpa Christensen was done with teaching for the semester at SUU and was happy to watch Ben for us during our little vacation. (And congratulations to Grandpa on becoming Head of the English department!)


Ben doing one of his favorite things with one of his favorite people. Thanks Grandpa! (Don't they so much alike?)

We drove down to Cedar City to drop off Ben, stayed a couple of days and headed down to Vegas. The first thing we did when we got there (after a trip to the drive through) was go to the temple. It was a quiet Tuesday afternoon with very few people, and a perfect start to the trip. This was a new temple to add to our lists, making it #8 for me and #14 for Carl... Just pretend you can tell we're outside the temple. There was no one there to help with a picture.

Carl touching a sting ray at the Shark Reef at Mandalay Bay

The Imperial Palace has this sweet car show with a bunch of classic cars, some of them for sale and a few of them worth over a million dollars. We just window shopped. One of the main attractions was Johnny Carson's first car. That one wasn't for sale. Otherwise, we might have talked numbers.

And of course, what would Vegas be without a trip to the Showcase Mall? Did you know the M&M World has like 6 floors? If you're wondering what's in the bag, it's a peanut M&M mouse pad for Mothers Day that we bought for my mom, a lover of computers and a big lover of the peanut M&M. Happy Mothers Day to both of our lovely mothers. And to Grandma and Grandpa Christensen: thank you so very much for taking such good care of Ben while we went away. It was so relaxing, and great to have alone time. Ben had a lot of fun, he still talks about it. Thanks a million! We love you.