New addition to the family October 27, 2009

No, not a baby, but a puppy! Gotcha!!! Hey, we’ve got to get people to read our blog someway. I have to use trickery because I know none of you are coming here because our lives are so thrilling to read about!

So, the latest happenings in the Pepper household include a 3 month old Bichon Frise named “Rex”. He is actually a new addition to the extended family because he will belong to Granddad Jack here in a few weeks. Talin’s Granddad has been in rehab for a few months after a stroke this summer, and he will be going home in a few weeks. LaRhea decided (with our encouragement of course) that Granddad Jack needed a puppy – mainly so that he would have something to do, something to keep him busy, something to keep him out of her hair. (Just kidding, Granddad Jack- I knew you would read this, so I had to throw that in!!!)

Anyway, we agreed to get the puppy a few weeks early and start trying to housetrain it. What a fabulous/awful adventure it has been!!

Who couldn’t love a face like this?????

The first few days of puppy life were not good. We were asking ourselves “WHY?????????” after hours of whining and barking at night, and refusal to use the restroom in appropriate areas. But we armed ourselves with earplugs and an extra dose of patience, and things are looking up. Once he finally figured out why we were going outside every hour to stand in the exact same spot, and that he would get a treat for pottying, he has done much better! He hasn’t had very many accidents after the first 3 or 4 days, and almost all of those accidents have been on the tile! YAY! When he does potty inside, we blame it on ourselves, because we weren’t taking him out often enough. It’s all about the routine.

He is so tiny! 5 pounds right now, and supposed to grow to around 10.

Talin looks kind of weird in the above picture, but we have discovered that a well exercised dog is a happier dog (Thank you, Dog Whisperer!). I don’t know if he’s “happier”, or just too plum tired to whine and bark- but either way, I’ll take it. Fortunately a brisk walk of about 2 blocks will pretty much do him in, since his legs are so short.

Needless to say, we are getting pretty attached to little “Rexie Poo”, and we are going to miss him when he moves to his new home soon. He is definitely going to keep Granddad Jack busy and entertained!

Pine Springs Trip and Doghouses October 4, 2009

A few weekends ago, we ventured out to the Sacramento mountains to celebrate with several others the 50^th Anniversary of Pine Springs Summer Camp. I was a counselor at Pine Springs after my first and second years at LCU, and it was definitely the most memorable summers I’ve had yet. I didn’t take any pictures while there, and spent way too long looking on the internet and facebook for pictures to steal, but couldn’t find any. I’ll keep my eyes open, and post some later…. Anyway, we took LaRhea’s RV, and here is a picture of us on the way.

This is what we call Davy’s unfortunate habit of “pawing”. He likes to “paw” us when he wants attention, and if you don’t watch it, a simple pawing will quickly upgrade to crawling in your lap (Nicole and Lindsey!!).

On a side note, Koby and Lindsey will soon be parents!! A 4 week old chocolate lab is waiting to call their house “home”, and Talin and Koby decided to make this new puppy a doghouse… and of course, then Davy had to have a new doghouse. So, for the past few weekends, the boys have been feverishly building, while Lindsey and I have been feverishly sitting on the couch watching chick flicks. Sounds like a pretty good deal to me!

What Talin estimated to be a four hour projected, has blossomed into about 12 or 15.

Now one hammered pointer, a sliced thumb and a stabbed middle finger later, we nearly have:

A very professional looking doghouse! Hopefully Davy will like it!

 

 

…….. :) …….. :) …….. October 3, 2009

The title is of me and Talin smiling, because I couldn’t think of any clever titles, and we are just feeling happy! Nothing too thrilling is going on. Just thought I hadn’t updated in a long while, and I had a few pictures to share.

Here are a few pictures from our Labor Day trip to San Antonio, we stayed at the Wild Oak Ranch, and luckily, the weather was still warm enough to enjoy the lazy river!!

Talin and Lee, both playing (or talking) on their phones.

We got to spend some time with Talin’s oldest cousin, Lane, and his wife, Paula, and their son, Lance. It was great to see them!!

It was Lance’s first time to swim, and he wasn’t a huge fan of the temperature of the water – but he was a happy camper when he got to take a ride with Dad on a float.

We also did the Sea World thing while in San Antonio, which was really fun, but I don’t think any of us carried our camera into the Park, so I do not have any pictures!!

Great, relaxing weekend!!

Cruisin for a Bruisin September 1, 2009

I just really wanted to say that, I don’t know why. It is one of the many goofy sayings that Dad used on us as kids.

Things are finally slowing down long enough for me to update everyone and share some pictures. First, I will put up some pictures of the finished master bath. We have vowed, read my lips: “No new projects!” May the Lord deal with me, be it ever so severely, if we start another one. Actually, it’s more Talin’s fault- he is the one with the home improvement addiction.

We are really happy with the results, though. It turned out great!

It’s so small that it’s hard to get that full effect from pictures. So, I guess you’ll just have to come visit!

On to the real topic of the post!! Cruisin!!! Not for a bruisin, though, for Sting Rays, beautiful beaches, and great food!

We left on Friday, August 7^th for Ft. Lauderdale. The picture below is of Nicole and me at the beach when we got up on Saturday to walk there- about a mile or so from our hotel. It was scalding hot, even at 8:00 in the morning!

Our cruise left on Saturday, and we spent the week sailing on the smoothest, most beautiful seas I have experienced yet! Our first stop was at Grand Cayman, where we were tendered out to Sting Ray City. I know, I was scared, too. I was under the impression that the barbs had been removed, but that was a false impression. They took us out to a sand bar where the water was about 4 feet deep. Everyone got in the water, and a floating bucket of squid was available if you were brave enough to feed the sting rays. I was so proud of the family- everyone got in the water! The sting rays are very comfortable around people, because they are used to people coming out to feed them, and they are not dangerous. They would swim up at the surface of the water, looking for people who had squid to offer, and they would suck the squid right out of your hand. They swam right over your shoulders and back, looking for food! It was amazing! This made Talin (and Mom, Dad, and Nicole) nervous, I think- because they were so eager and they didn’t have any concept of personal space. But, I highly recommend you try it!

These pictures are not super clear, but that’s what you get with an “underwater” disposable camera!

They loved Dad!

Notice Talin laughing at Dad when the rays were getting a little too close for comfort!

You can see his creepy eye really good in this picture.

We held one! We kissed it, too!

And my favorite picture:

Hahahahaha!!!! Nicole’s face cracks me up! Can’t see it too well? Here’s a close-up:

That was so fun! You should definitely try it, and trust me, they won’t hurt you, but they will slither all over you!

Our second stop was at Cozumel, where we enjoyed a Beach Break at Playa Mia. The water was gorgeous, and we snorkeled some and relaxed on floaties. It was blazing hot out there!

We also rented motorized scooters, and decided to drive around the island before getting back on the boat. Nicole was going to drive her own, but it made her nervous, so I let her ride with Talin and I drove my own. I almost died going full speed (about 40 mph) over a speed bump that I didn’t see coming, but luckily, I didn’t crash. God was watching over me, that’s for sure. This was the most awesome part of our whole trip, I think. We got to see the undeveloped side of Cozumel, which was AMAZING! The waves were huge, no one was over there, the water was so blue. It was gorgeous. Unfortunately, we didn’t have time to stop, because we were worried that we wouldn’t make it back to the ship on time. So, we will have to go back there to really check it out. We took the loop that goes around the edge of the island, and when we got back to town, we got lost! The scooter renting man made it sound so easy to get back, but without street signs, it wasn’t so easy. We had to stop and ask local people at every stop light for directions. Dad’s scooter kept trying to die and/or drive itself out into intersections, and no one spoke English. We were worried, but we did make it back just in time to turn in our scooters, and with about 30 minutes to spare before our ship’s doors closed. It was an adventure, to say the least. We only got one quick picture of us on the prettier side of Cozumel.

Here are just a few more pictures of us on the boat.

Fun times!! I’m so glad that we were able to do this, since there won’t be many more opportunities. Before we know it, Talin will be out of school and tied down into a JOB. Boo!!!!

Thanks, Mom and Dad, for an awesome vacation!

HG PC July 15, 2009

In case you were interested, we finally got the tile finished in our new bathroom! YAY! Here are a few pictures. I will post more once the bathroom is completely finished. We are very happy with how it turned out. We didn’t do it ourselves, as planned, because we found a tile guy who was going to do it for such a reasonable price… And we decided that we didn’t want to risk an ugly do-it-yourself look. These pictures are from the point when the grout wasn’t totally cleaned off, but you can still get an idea of what it looks like. Unfortunately the bathroom is so tiny that you can’t really get a great picture of the whole thing. So, here we go:

This is a VAST improvement from:

The rest we will be doing ourselves starting this weekend, including texture, paint, install new baseboards, window trim, vanity, toilet. Can’t wait!!

We need suggestions on one thing. It wasn’t going to work out to do an in-the-wall shelf to put shampoo and stuff on in the shower. So, the tile is all finished and we have nothing. I guess we are just going to have to do one of those shower head hanging racks. Anyone have any other suggestions??

Another improvement that has been made this summer is limestone! Here are some pictures:

Ignore the dead grass.

Thanks for the stone Dad! It looks great!!

Four Year Celebration July 15, 2009

I’m sure to the surprise of many, Talin and I have reached our four year anniversary! (Just kidding!)

To celebrate, we went to Ruidoso. Yes, another trip to the New Mexico mountains. It was a fabulous getaway! We stayed at a B&B called the Evergreen Manor, north of town. The people there were so sweet, and the breakfast was awesome! We have ranked our favorite “excursions” from the trip. Here are some pictures from the weekend:

First of all, I am brunette now. Here is a picture – Nicole wanted to see what I look like. It’s so funny that people already think we are twins, and now even more so! Although, I don’t think we look that much alike, but she is a beautiful girl so if people think that, it’s fine by me!!

Okay, back to anniversary weekend…

#3 Favorite Excursion: Lavender Springs Ranch

The cute little bridge tournament playing couple we ate breakfast with told us about this lavender farm outside of town where you can pick your own fresh lavender. We decided to go check it out, even though we have no idea what to do with fresh lavender.

There were hundreds of bees working hastily in the field, but they didn’t seem to mind the people who were getting in their way. Here is Talin cutting sprigs!

I looked up some ways to use the lavender, and I am excited because it smells so good!

#2 : Monjeau Lookout

We were exploring around the Ski Apache area, and saw a sign that said “Monjeau Lookout à“. We drove up the scary switchback gravel road, a pretty good ways up there… I think it was something like 8 miles. But it was so worth the anxiety! Not that Talin isn’t a great driver, but there’s something about driving off a cliff that isn’t very appealing to me. Anyway, when we reached the top, we climbed up a beautiful stone path, and found a fire lookout built in 1936. The view was amazing up there!

 

#1 – We opened a restaurant!!

Just kidding! This was a restaurant in Roswell.

Real #1 – Ruidoso Downs Horse Races

Neither of us had ever been to a horse race. It was so interesting! We had no idea how to read the program that tells the “stats”, but a person who we sat next to in the free seating area was filling us in. Due to his excessive alcohol consumption, he started getting overly chatty, so we sneaked to the other side of the seating area. It was really fun to watch, and for the first two races, we picked the first place horse! So, we started thinking we were good. “Maybe we should go bet a dollar on the next race.” It’s a good thing we didn’t because our luckiness wore off and we didn’t pick the right horse after that. It was still fun to watch, though!

 

Fun times! I’m so glad we were able to go on this trip. I feel like I want to do as many mini-vacations as I can with Talin before someday when it won’t be so easy with work and kids. It doesn’t seem possible that we could be married four years already. I am so blessed to have the most wonderful husband and friend!!!

Sandy and Dandy July 2, 2009

We had a great time last weekend going on a trip with Koby and Lindsey to New Mexico! We packed up LaRhea’s RV, and made our way to Mayhill, New Mexico, which is about 15 miles from Cloudcroft. The mountains were so relaxing, and it was nice and cool, with a little rain during the time we were there. We arrived late Friday night, played some games and went to bed. Saturday morning, we got up to take showers at the Bathhouse. While waiting on everyone else to shower, we found a 1000 piece puzzle that was sitting on a table in the recreation room.

So, we worked on it while we waited on each other to shower, and then couldn’t seem to pull ourselves away from it! Four hours later…

We finished! It was funny because I think we all got sick of doing that puzzle after about 3 hours, but couldn’t stand to walk away. We were pretty much the talk of the RV Park, seeing as how we were about 30 years younger than everyone else there, and then we swooped in and finished their puzzle!! The nerve of us!! So, we got some scornful looks from the neighbors out there.

We ate lunch, and then drove into Cloudcroft, where we cruised the cute little shops and got coffee. It was still cloudy and cool at that point.

We drove into Alamogordo and decided that we should make our way to White Sands before the museum closed. Of course it was sunny and hot out there, so we lathered up with sunscreen and watched a very informative video about Gypsum sand, which is what makes up the park. So, we spent some good times playing in the sand, and taking fun pictures. If you haven’t visited out there, you need to go and take your kids! It is such a neat place, but I will give you a few tips:

1. Wear PANTS. The wind blows that sand along the dunes, and whips against bare legs and ankles when you walk across the top.
   
2. Bring a sled of some sort… so you don’t have to be ripped off by the visitor’s center where they charge $15 to buy one! A big piece of cardboard will work well, too.
   
3. Take fun pictures, like these:
   

I like that picture because my arm looks freakishly long, or as Lesley commented, “Inspector Gadget Limbs”.

Don’t worry, Lindsey’s jumps got better…

This picture reminds me of Spiderman. We jumped in the exact same position… kind of creepy!

I like this picture because it looks like Koby is on the moon, launching effortlessly.

We had a blast out there, and I am so glad that we did that while we’re still young enough to climb up sand dunes and jump over them… it was tiring!

We ate dinner in Alamogordo, and then got back to the RV Park at 10:15, giving the residents of Deer Spring yet another reason to sneer. Apparently, lights out are at 10:00, and they are serious! Luckily, the socially awkward Groundskeeper unlocked the bathhouse for us so that we didn’t have to go to bed sandy. But, he wasn’t too happy about it.

Needless to say, they were not sad to see us go.

It was an awesome trip, and we are planning on doing it again – but visiting the caverns in Carlsbad next time. Can’t wait!

Productiveness June 5, 2009

I am very excited to report that the first week of my summer has not been spent in total laziness! Since we are waiting on a part to finish the bathroom, we decide to undertake a little closet renovation. So, here are the pics. I should have taken a picture when all of the junk was in it before, but that would just be too embarrassing for the internet. The hall closet, Talin’s closet, and mine were all the same. One shelf, one rack to hang things on. Here is the empty before pic:

And here is the after of my closet that now has room to organize all of my pants, shirts, dresses, and SHOES!!!

 

I had too many shoes, and had to put my flip flops in a hangy- thing…. But there is enough room for that now!!! YAY!

Here is Talin’s new closet, (his clothes live in the office):

It only looks like he has no clothes in there because he likes everything smashed up against the wall as tight as can be. His OCD-ness intrigues me.

And here is our new linen closet, at the end of the hall. It was a one-shelf, one-rack closet before. ALL towels, sheets, and blankets live here now.

I just have to say that I think I have one of the most handy husbands around. I am so blessed! I knew we were meant to be when I discovered that we both get way too excited about good organization.

 

Hellooooooooo SUMMER! May 31, 2009

Here we are, yet another school year has come to an end. I do have to say that it is the first year that I was really sad to finish. I had an EXCEPTIONALLY well behaved, sweet, wonderful group of kids in my class, and I am going to miss them so much when I am faced with a new group of mangy, undisciplined rascals. Talin reminds me that they all start out that way… so, we’ll see what happens. Anyway, I wanted to show off some of their sweetness. Here they are. Don’t worry, I keep up a blog for my classroom, and all of their parents are okay with their pictures being on it. You could see it, if you want at mrspeppersclass.wordpress.com

Here they were at Thanksgiving! Aren’t they so cute???

This is what they gave me at the end of the year! It is a platter that they had designed at a ceramics place in Lubbock, after one of the Moms sneakily got all of their thumbprints in Art class one day. Now THAT is a thoughtful gift!!

Anyway, I just wanted to show off my neat platter.

Other than finishing school, we also had a get-together at our house last weekend that was a blast. Talin’s birthday was Friday, May 22^nd, so we invited everyone from church over for hot dogs and backyard games. We had a blast, and we will definitely be doing it again this summer. Here are a few pics:

Talin got a set of foldable saw horses from me. This is David giving them to him, who went and picked them up for me! Thanks, David!

The girls talking while the boys play.

Nicole told Talin about a game they played at Harding called Polish Horseshoes, so Talin set it all up and the guys had a lot of fun trying to knock the bottle off of the pipe with a frisbee.

I almost died of embarrassment when Katy was running around in Davy’s dog run, we looked over, and she was eating poop!!

Just kidding! It was only a piece of melted chocolate candy the neighbors threw over the fence. But, it did give everyone a good scare.

We finished up the night with a rousing game of Pit! Everyone had fun screaming and yelling and laughing until our stomachs hurt. I love Matt’s face in this picture.

We had a great time for Talin’s birthday/ End-of-School Party. Can’t wait to do it again!

Talin started back to class this last Wednesday, and we are so thankful that he actually has a pretty easy schedule for the summer. He has class everyday from 1-5, but has mornings off except on test days. So, we have started our Summer To-Do lists, and you will never guess what is on them! Remodeling!!!!! I know, you are so thrilled to hear about yet another remodeling project at the Pepper house… so I am not going to be posting too much about it. Hopefully it will be over and done with so quickly, that I can’t feasibly blog about it all the time. The last big thing this house needs is help in the Master Bath. It is tiny, and we can’t help that, but we can make it look not so grungy- with the help of our Tax Refund $. So, Talin already has it gutted, new sheetrock up (as opposed to the 1960 tan tile that was on the walls… yuck!), and we have purchased everything we need to get this project finished. We are going to tile the shower and floor ourselves… which I am a little nervous about, but Talin seems to think that we are experts after doing the kitchen… I think tile on shower walls might be a little more tricky. Right now we are at a standstill, waiting on a contractor who is going to do the sloped base and make sure everything will be draining correctly. So, I here are a few pictures from the Master bath, and hopefully, the next time I post, it will be finished product pictures!!!

This is when Talin had already started pulling down tile. But this is as close to “before” as we get.

Corroded pipes, oh good!! All new now.

We are ready to put up concrete board after the base is finished, and then it’s tiling, painting and installing new vanity, toilet, and medicine cabinet. YAY!!

That’s all I have to share for now… thanks for checking in!

What a deal!!!!!!! May 4, 2009

 

One of my teacher friends and I got to talking today about giving mother’s day gifts, and she said that she bought trees for her Mom for Mother’s day last year. (Kind of a weird gift you say?? Her Mom had gotten a pool and wanted some tall privacy trees around the yard)

Anyway, they heard of this website. They bought some trees for $30 a tree… they are delivered at about a foot tall, and they are supposed to grow 10-15 feet a year!!!!!!!!!! There are several different kinds of trees to choose from and it says how much they are supposed to grow in a year on a handy dandy little chart on their website… Fed Ex delivers them Shipping is between $6 and $15 depending on your order, all you have to do is plant and water them! I was very impressed with their prices when I checked it out, because if you have bought trees before… you could really spend some bucks. Their customer reviews were great also.

Anyway, I was just looking at it, and you can get some for as cheap as $20 a tree! (one foot tall when delivered, but it will grow 10 feet in a year!) So, thought you might want to check it out.

www.fast-growing-trees.com

I could really kick myself for going to the local nursery. We spent $100 on a four foot tree that has grown MAYBE 6-8 feet in three years. !!! If we had known about this website, we might have a 35 foot tree in our yard right now!!

 

I just thought that was really exciting.. I love trees… I love shade… I know people are buying houses or moving, and this could be quite helpful! So, I wanted to share! Go check it out!