Happy Birthday Deputy!

Today is Jason's birthday. He had to work today, but was in his parent's zone so he stopped by for dinner and cake. Jason's family has a tradition of singing the Happy Birthday song off key at every birthday celebration. I'm glad he didn't miss that this year. :)

Weekly Ads: A Couponer's Friend

Jason and I have been trying to coupon more to save money on our household and grocery items. Well, on anything we can really but you see the greatest results in those areas. We have a friend who shares her coupon abundance with us. We are grateful that she does. :) It is a lot of fun!

Date Night at the Temple

This is the beautiful picture I took just before we went in.

Oh, it's so wonderful to live so close to a Temple;
to go and feel the peace that comes while serving in that special place;
to hear the blessings and be reminded of the covenants we've made.

Oh, it is wonderful indeed to live so close to a Temple.

Issuing a Ticket

My nephew Ethan is excited about police officers and their work right now. Tonight Ethan was at our house playing and Jason helped him write a pretend ticket for his dad, my brother. They like to park in front of the fire hydrant when they drop off and pick up their kids from our house. Well, Ethan picked up on this and the fact that you're not supposed to do that. Ethan was ecstatic to present his dad with a $124 ticket. ;)

Daddy, Daughter - Inseperable

We were taking a walk on the path in the park.
I tried to take Lainey from Jason and she gave her signature mad face.
She just loves her daddy too much, even to leave him for me.

Paving the Way

We added some cement to our driveway. Oh, my word! It helps so much to have it poured all the way back to the sidewalk. Before it was at this really crazy angle which made it hard to pull in and park straight. Now we have more room for all three of our cars. Happy parking indeed!

We had Juan, who works for Aho during the week, and our neighbor Steven, who does cement work as part of his job, helping us lay a good slab of cement. They really did a good job.

The pouring...and splattering.
It travels pretty far.

The finishing

and finishing

and done!

One of our little friends took a few steps into the wet cement.
It was classic. She really thought it was solid cement.

Paul wanted to help so badly and of course we were very reluctant to let him.
At one point Paul was able to try working with the tools
while we waited for the second trailer of cement.

We had some extra so we put in a pad for the garbage can and lawn mower.

This is what the kids were doing while we worked.

Desk: Cupboard Doors

I love how Jason's turn out. They're so fun to see them come together. We now have the doors on. Yay! I love the storage and the workspace. He'll be working on the drawers next.

Desk Unveil

We have the desk in. I LOVE it! I have so much room on the desk top and in the cupboards. We still have to put the doors on and make the drawers, but this is the beginnings of my lovely new desk.

It's Spray Time!

We're spraying the pieces of the desk!

Finished Faces

Here's progress on the office cabinets and drawers. The faces are on! He's working on the doors now and we're getting closer to painting time.

We're building again

We are finally getting around to building an organization unit for the office. I'm so excited! I can hardly wait. All of our stuff has just been on the ground up until now. I'm anticipating having places for everything and no clutter. We're using Ana White's plans for something similar to this.

Sharing Zucchini Bread

Our neighbors behind us, Earl and Geri, have been sharing zucchini with us. What better way to use up excess zucchini than to make zucchini bread (with chocolate chips of course). So we shared some of the bread with them.

Wrapping a Black & White

Jason's previous agency is going to black and white patrol cars. Painting the car black and white is expensive. So what you do is paint the car one color, black, and then have it wrapped in the other color, white. We were excited to get the chance to do the wrapping. It was really cool to work together with Jason. And it turned out pretty cool.

The roof was actually my favorite part.

No vinyl.

Yes vinyl!

What once was black, now is white.

Father's Day Barbecue Grill

Jason got a Grill Master for Father's Day. With having to put in sprinklers, sod, and fencing this will come in handy. We've always wanted to get one, but the idea usually comes at Christmas when they aren't on sale. So we put it off until summer...and on and on. Well, this is the year that we broke that vicious cycle. We actually bought one. We both love it. He gets his hamburgers and hot dogs and I don't have to cook!

Here he is working the grill!

Planting our tree

Taking a break

I have already said just how much Lainey loves her daddy. He had to take a break from what he was working on to snuggle his needy little bug.

Friends

This is the last day of Jason's first month with Benton County. Training is going well; he really likes working with them and for them. I really enjoy their 12 hour schedule. Even though he stays with his parents for the days that he works, it seems that he is home a lot more. Plus he gets every other weekend off without fail. I love that!

Here are just a couple pictures of some great officers that Jason had to leave behind. Luckily they have become great friends and we will always stay in touch with them...whether they like it or not. :) (top: Dale Wagner and Kurt Berry, bottom: Jason Gilbert)

Jason's New Job

Some of you may think that I've forgotten about my husband starting a new job. I haven't. We've just been busy. And I haven't taken a picture of him in his new uniform because not all of the pieces have come in yet. Soon...very soon!

He really likes working for Benton County. He says they are very nice and supportive. They tell him how glad they are to have him working there and part of their team. They do love to tease the new guy though. His Lieutenant told him that the new guy always brings cookies for the guys on the day of his first roll call. For Jason that was today. So I made some monster cookies and chocolate chip cookies for him to take in. (Let me just say here that I love monster cookies. Not only do I love what goes in them, but that recipe makes an horrendous amount of cookies. Yum!) He said they were gone within minutes.

We're excited about this next step in our lives. I've said that if I could just take the people of Othello with me when we move, we'd be set. Yes, job with Benton County...people of Othello...that would be a good combo. Or even the people of E-burg...now that would be the icing on the cake. Anyway... that's all for now.

Frames at Club 24

Jason built and hung these frames for a gym in the Tri-Cities called Club 24. It's a really neat place with 24 hour key card access. Just look at how nice they look...and how straight!

Dreaming of an iphone

We were content with our basic edition cell phones...until Jason got a hold of his friend's iPhone. Our friend Shela caught this on camera for me.