The rain came down and floods came up

We finally moved in on Valentine's Day. I'm not quite sure why though. The kitchen was still under construction, no cupboards, counter top or kitchen sink!!! We were living off of cereal and pb & j. the staples in life are great.

Well a few days later I was walking into my bedroom and some water squished up from the side of the wood floor! My first thought was the girls spilled some water. Then I thought the bathroom sink was leaking. Travis was smart as usual and looked into the laundry room where the main drain is and we had a few inches of water in there. IT WAS BACKING UP!!!

We grabbed all the towels we could but it kept coming. It started to seep into our new hotel carpet! We couldn't stop the floods from coming. We tried calling a plumber but it was upwards of 300 at night we we decided to wait till morning.

We took apart our room and shoved everything to one side. My computer desk made a great night stand! I kind of missed it when we put it back.

In the morning we got a plumber and some fans to dry our carpet. Luckily it was bath water that came out of the drain and not um *cough* other stuff.

Welcome to Hotel Burnett de casa

In building out the basement of my brother in law we have come upon issues that I'm sure lots of people come across. The MONEY issue. We came to a stand still and couldn't go much further without this so called money.

Through Travis's work they are connected to this thing called Tradia where you can do work for trade and get other things back. Well we dove in and searched for carpet. It took awhile for them to get back to us and then they told us how things would go down. They would come install the carpet for free and we could get whatever surplus carpet they had for free. All we had to do was buy the padding. I figured we could do that.

So Travis went to pick up the carpet samples we could choose from. Over the phone he sounded really excited. IT WAS A CRUEL JOKE! He came back with grey pokey office carpet and this weird flower carpet that looks like it came from a hotel!!!


I asked Travis what other options we had like getting remnants or something. But it all came back to that one thing, MONEY. So we decided to go with the flower looking hotel carpet.

So now I have my very own hotel! The weird thing is it goes with every color we painted on the wall. The girls room has pink in it, the hallway is green and the other rooms are browny beige. and it hides things a little too well. We keep stepping on little toys and what not because it blends in with the carpet.

Let them eat cake!

This year for Savanna's birthday I thought I would put a little more effort into her cake. She really likes Cinderella so I thought I would try. I used the wrong end of the paintbrush, a toothpick, and a baby spoon. Yay for not buying decorating tips! lol

Wendover pt.3: the Gambler . . .

Smelly and I sat at a video poker machine. She says she does better on those. I sat next to her and played nickel video poker. I figure I was paying my 5 cents to keep me entertained because I knew I wouldn't win anything.
Candilander told us about this amazing thing that when you sit at a slot machine or something they bring around FREE WATER AND SODA!!! Smelly and I were really looking forward to this. We sat down and kept our eyes pealed for the drink lady(for lack of better term). After I was down two dollars we decided to switch machines. And then we heard that glorious sound of the waitress saying "free drinks?"!!! Smelly and I both said cherry coke at the same time. There version of cherry coke is coke with marchino cherries in it. Not the premade stuff. OOOOH were we excited.




As soon as we had our drinks we went to find Candilander being I was down another dollar. We finally found her and she didn't want to say how much she had lost. She was very annoyed that I was only down 3 dollars. I headed for the penny slots because thats what I'm best at and its only a penny! Smelly found another video poker machine and Candilander sat next to me. I told her I had to win my three dollars back. Not even kidding, the third time I pushed the button it started beeping because its all electronic now and it doesn't ding. I was thinking yay I might get my three dollars! When it hit that point it kept on going and I started to laugh. It beeped for about 5 minutes. I had won 1247 credits which translates to $12.47! Ya baby!
If that had been a dollar machinge I would have over one thousand dolalrs, but I dont play those because I'm not supposed to gamble. . . .
Candilander gave me that annoyed look and was being gitty for my 12 dollars. I printed my voucher and ended it there. We headed to the cash machine so I could get my 12 dollars and Smelly could get her two dollars. I think Candilander was embarresed by us but we all have fun.




here's a link to Smelly's podcast of our trip. http://www.emhedrick.com/emLogs/Podcast/Entries/2009/2/1_026_|_emLogs_|_Wendover.html

What were you thinking???

I was talking to Travis on the phone and he said he was going to the office. He had to pick up another toilet because the one they had was broken. He pulled into the parking lot and said there it is. I asked if it was just sitting there in the parking lot. He said yes. This picture is the first thought that came to my head.




Just a random toilet sitting in the parking lot. I then asked him while I was laughing but he said it was in a box. I was kind of disappointed. Oh well, my thoughts are better.

Tree of Life

The other amazing point of interest of the drive to Wendover is a sculpture! Its some tree that looks like it has tennis balls and croquet balls stuck to it. I found out more information when I googled it!!
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Metaphor:_The_Tree_of_Utah

Metaphor: The Tree of Utah is an 87 feet (26.5 m) tall sculpture that was created by the Swedish artist Karl Momen in the 1980s and dedicated in 1986. It is located in the desolate Great Salt Lake Desert of Utah on the north side of I-80 about 25 miles east of Wendover, Utah. The sculpture, which is constructed mainly of concrete, consists of a squarish 'trunk' holding up six spheres that are coated with natural rock and minerals native to Utah. There are also several hollow sphere segments on the ground around the base. The sculpture is also sometimes called the Tree of Life and was visited by the contestants on the The Amazing Race: Family Edition in 2005.

Inscribed on the plaque are the words: "A hymn to our universe whose glory and dimension is beyond all myth and imagination." It has been said that Momen was moved to create the 87 foot tall tree by the "vastness and relative emptiness" of the Bonneville Salt Flats, and that the tree "brings space, nature, myth and technology together"

Who new it was on a TV show. I must have missed that episode. Any way we had fun stopping at the tree.

In the middle of that broken piece there was a very tiny frozen pool. It was fun.

x

Salt Flats

Last Saturday my friends and I decided to spend the day together at Wendover. There was no particular reason to go there, just something to do.
The drive there is not a very interesting drive. When you look to the left. . .. nothing, to the right .. . . nothing but possibly a mountain in the distance. The first major thing you pass is the salt factory. What a great place to get salt since they are next to The Great Salt Lake AND the Bonniville Salt Flats!
We stopped at a rest stop to play at the salt flats.


*Insert Smelly's picture here*



We also discovered at the rest stop there was a pet corral, with no gate. Is it the designated poop area? No, because as we discovered on the Salt Flats, there was poop everywhere. There is no gate on the corral to lock up your horse or cow or um sheep. So I don't really understand the point of it but it made some fun pictures.









*again, insert picture here when Smelly e-mails me them.