photos of the house

Since a friend asked, I dug around on the hard drive and found some pictures of the house. Of course they were taken before we moved in. I guess that means you don't get subjected to looking at all our junk in said house.

view to the east - looking out the front door

view to the north from the front yard

The mountain is part of the Red Cliffs Desert Preserve. There's a trail at the end of our street that heads up there. The view from the top is pretty amazing.

entry way

from the entry way looking toward the living room & den

living room

still the living room

den

Those built-ins are really nice. But, no, I did not get to comandeer them for my scrap space.

breakfast area

The fireplace is a double-sided fireplace, same one as in living room.

kitchen

kitchen again

laundry

The ceilings in here goes waaay up. So we use the shelves on the right & on top of the cabinets on the left as our substitute attic.

master bedroom

It has 2 "sections" of ceiling that sort of divide it up into a bedroom area and a sitting area. We have a couch up against the big window & a desk against the left wall of the sitting area. Our bed is under the ceiling fan & dressers are in that area of the room.

master bath

Note the slightly weird kokopeli/southwest/bear/whatever motif in the bath tile -- it is also in the shower and on the wallpaper in the stall. Niiice.

master bath still

patio

It has a nice covered area where we have wicker furniture & an outdoor dining table. We spend lots of time out there in the evenings. There is more patio all along the length of the house, uncovered.

view from the backyard facing west

Sorry about the weird lines. I had to do a composite of several images to get the whole view in there. I took this on a day when there was snow on the Beaver Dam mountains. It really is an amazing view and since it's west-facing, we get a great sunset every night.

spring in the desert

One of the things we've enjoyed most about living out here is our little yard. We spend lots of time out there. We eat dinner out on the patio most nights, enjoying an amazing view of the Beaver Dam Mountains and sunsets. Thomas plays out there almost every day. Yes, we had much more space in Georgia, but we just never really enjoyed it much. Might have to do with the fact that much of the 1.25 acres were straight uphill or the fact that there was no fenced area for the kid.
Anyway, we have this little patch of grass that takes me *maybe* 20 minutes to mow with an old-school reel mower. Then it's rocks and desert-ish landscaping. Thanks to the wonders of irrigation, this is what our backyard looked like yesterday.

about us

Okay, probably no one who doesn't already know us will ever read this thing, but just in case . . .

me - I'm a homeschooling mom to one kiddo. I love reading, scrapbooking & cooking. I was born & raised in Indiana (thus the 'hoosier'), lived in the South for 15 years and am currently living in Utah (thus the 'hive'). I'm addicted to reality television - Project Runway and Top Chef are my reality favorites. Lost is by far my favorite show -- best stuff on TV -- I love all the mysteries, pondering & theorizing. So much so that I listen to two show podcasts: http://www.lostcasts.com & http://abc.go.com/primetime/lost/index?pn=podcast Rachael Ray annoys the heck out of me, but many of her recipes have become staples in our household. I love Anthony Bourdain (the guy from No Reservations).

Mike - We've been married for almost 16 years & I have to say, he's pretty awesome. Geeky, but awesome. He's an engineer for a textile company, a hard worker, a good provider & a great dad. He likes to hike & backpack, so he's loving it out here. He's into Star Trek and Battlestar Galactica (new SciFi channel series) . . . so a shout out to all the sci fi geeks out there.

Thomas -- 6 years old, funny & bright. Into lego, playmobile & Star Wars. He's more like Mike in appearance & interests - but a lot like me in temperament. I don't know how my mother did it, because frankly it's sometimes exasperating. But I totally see bits of myself in it; I'm pretty sure I had some of this coming. He's had a lot of health issues over his short little life, but is really making big strides lately, particularly with his eating.

So that's us. We've lived here for 6 months. We'll be here for at least another 18, maybe more. Who knows? We're treating it a bit like an adventure - trying to take full advantage of the opportunity and enjoy it out here as much as possible.

Bandwagon

It's official. I've jumped onto the blogging bandwagon. I stalk the blogs of strangers and friends alike. Reading. Absorbing. Consuming. It almost feels like eavesdropping. I read whatever they put out here, into the ether -- never commenting, never contributing to the conversation. So I guess I decided it was time to throw some stuff out here and see if it sticks. This will, likely, turn into another, oft-maligned, "mommy blog". I guess it can't be helped. It's what I do. It's who I am.