The Ya-Ya Sisterhood

Looking back, I'm not really sure what just happened.  Becky sent me an internet link one day and said something like "What do you think?", but being busy at work I assumed it was a another house to look at.  Since we are looking around the area it is common for us to exchange houses we see posted on various sites.  I was busy, I'll check it later.  Later ended up at some woman's house looking at a dog. 
Now, it is no secret that I love dogs and would gladly have more than one around.  However, there is a period of emotional and psychological readiness that would be preferred.  I didn't get that - and before I realize what was going on the dog was in the car heading home.
I'm speaking of our new addition to the family, Bella.

I don't want you to get the wrong impression.  She is a great little dog and I'm glad we have her.  She is great with the kids, a little wary of Madison right now, and doing pretty well making her business outside.  She still has puppy teeth and those little fangs of fury can do some damage to your fingers.  She eats Madison's big girl food and Madison is currently surviving on tiny little nuggets of food.  Everything will work itself out.  Bella certainly is in a loving home situation now.  I'm not so sure she was coming from one...

However, it struck me today that the balance in our home is growing farther apart.  5 females and me.  I feel like I'm living in Fried Green Tomatoes or Thelma and Louis.  Saturdays in the fall are for football.  Sorry if you don't agree - it's just a fact.  I tried to watch some games but ended up playing cashier, tea party, and coloring pet rocks.  I thank God every day for Tivo - otherwise I would have missed my Hokies win a thrilling (although lucky!) game. 

If you heard of our recent addition already you'll know we changed the name from Princess to Bella.  I'm not sure it's that much better since Bella is a character from the Twilight series that Becky and every other female I know loves.  I probably got rooked into that decision but at least I feel better that my mandate for changing the name was acceptable.

Please send me the NFL scores tomorrow since I'll be playing dress up with Barbies....

A few pictures

I found my camera cord so I hope to be able to add pictures WITH the blog posts.

Here are a few pics from our trip to the aquarium.  About 2 minutes after these happy pics we were trying to prevent Sarah and Lauren from climbing in the stingray touch-tank.   Also I wanted to show an eerie pic of a storm rolling over the mountains behind our house.  It's very odd when there is a rainstorm as our house ends up 'IN' the cloud.  Becky caught it on video but I'm not sure how to post that yet.

Utah in September

Sorry for the lack of updates.  I can't find the cord that allows me to download pictures from our camera.  For some reason I keep checking the same spots every few days without success....

However, I got another solution!

One of the new products my company is coming out with is in beta now and I can share all our pictures that way.  Well, it still doesn't get the pictures off the camera, but I didn't have any other way to transition into the main point of this post.

I've not completed my setup so you won't be able to access anything yet.  I can send invites if you'd like to see the private sections.  (I recommend that since I don't think I want to publish all our pictures on the Internet).  So send me an email so I can add you if you're interested.  (jayates@gmail.com)

Here is the site:  http://yates.decho.com

That address might change when we go live with the product so I'll let you know.

In other news - things are going well here.  Sarah absolutely loves her new school which makes us extremely happy.  I don't think we realized how poor of an experience she had last year.  I'm not going to complain, but the teaching style and attention they give the kids at this place is exactly what Sarah needed.

Lauren is as adventurous as ever.  She is fearless in our new backyard climbing the rocks and hanging off the back of Sarah's bike as she rides it on the patio.  She's a smart little cookie too and her vocabulary is growing daily.  Yesterday she told us her favorite show is Little Bear and she feels the public option for health care will be ill managed by a government entity.

We've spent some time exploring the area including a local aquarium (pictures to come), some great playgrounds, and the girls new love - the library.  We've also been checking out some of the neighborhoods to figure out where we will buy.  Top of the list right now are Draper, South Jordan, and Saratoga Springs. 

We went to my company picnic and the girls went wild on the moon bounces.  I won an award for most likely to be snowed in this year, which is something we are hearing about with more and more frequency.  Apparently this area get quite a bit of snow and there are winds off the mountain that causes drifts.  I saw a scary picture of a home up the road that is back in a cul-de-sac with a snow drift that reached the roof - about 40 feet.  Oh boy....

All and all we are feeling more and more comfortable here in Utah.  We really like the area and all the things to do.  The weather has been awesome too.  I never imagined sitting outside on the deck in the middle of the day in August and feeling comfortable.