Aowah

Sleeping in the Sun & Ugly Beards

2012-01-19T17:54:00.000-07:00

I am really jealous of my dogs. All day long they lounge around, doing whatsoever they please while I feel chained to my desk, eyes glued to my computer, counting the hours til work is through. More often then not these two little devils give me moments of amusement in my all too stressful day.

Sleeping in this small bit of sun or waking up with these ugly beards.

Long story short... I love my dogs and all the silly little things they do to make my day seem less harrowing.

Fresh Hot Breadsticks...yum

2012-01-14T20:46:00.001-07:00

What is better than fresh hot breadsticks? Total trick question, nothing is better. We had a little par-tay with some good buddies over the holidays and of course I couldn't go empty handed. I thought of doing the conventional veggie tray but I didn't want to be the person who brought the "healthy" food. It would be like lying to all my good friends, pretending to be that "healthy" person. Anyone who really knows me, knows that I am in love with junk food and have been since I first tasted sugar.

Back to the story... rather than purchase those little veggies I grabbed a hold of my mom's fabulous breadstick recipe and was adventurous enough to double the batch. This normally wouldn't be complicated but my mom has the math worked out in her mind and the recipe on my card is somewhat inaccurate. Triple this, double that, not even really sure what I really did but after a little cooking-by-phone {Thanks Mom} I successfully came out with two tasty pans of parmesan-y goodness.

Brought to you by Ikea.

2012-01-10T22:09:00.000-07:00

We finally broke down and bought an "entertainment center." After days... months.... years of talking about the idea we came into a little Christmas cash and went to Ikea to spend it. Mind you Sam is not a fan of Ikea, but somehow this cabinet and media bench won us over and we are so very pleased with our purchase.

Our house is over 100 years old and therefore has no space and no storage. After building these little white monuments to organization we still don't know what to put in all the drawers. (this is when you gasp) Don't worry I am sure within the next week the drawers will be full and we will be perusing Ikea for something else to solve our storage needs.

End of day one

End of day two

Just a note.... of warning. If you don't like puzzles or building things with instructions that have no words only pictures, I would suggest purchasing your furniture somewhere else. I had no idea just how deconstructed these come. (Sorry about the crappy pictures, those are courtesy of my phone that I can't figure out how to change the camera settings cause I upgraded Ice Cream Sandwich.)

What to read?

2012-01-08T22:31:00.000-07:00

I love to devour a good book, but lately I can't seem to find anything worth reading. I mean the kind of book that you are willing to lose sleep over just to read another chapter. While looking through some family photos I came across this picture of me, cute huh? I guess I loved books at an early age. Seeing my happy little grin reminded me of some great books I have read over the years so I thought I would compile a list.

Children's Books

Goodnight Moon

The Runaway Bunny
Three Billy Goats Gruff (making the voices is my favorite part of this book)
Madame Lagrande and Her so High, to the Sky, Uproarious Pompador

Sneetches
What Was I Scared Of? (gotta love those pale green pants with nobody inside them)

Illustrated Books (Garth Williams)
Tall Book of Make Believe
The Happy Orpheline

Young Adult Books
The Giver
Swing in the Summerhouse
Wizard Children of Finn
The Twenty-One Balloons
The Summer of my German Soldier
The Goose Girl (The books of Bayern)

Adult Books:
Amelia Peabody Series (Historical Fiction/Mystery)
Molly Murphy Mysteries (Mystery)
Jane Austen (Romantical)
Anne McCaffrey - Dragonriders (Science Fiction Fantasy)
Green Rider (Fantasy)

Feel free to share some of your favorite books with me! I need a good book.

Just a doodle...

2012-01-05T22:07:00.000-07:00

In college I was immersed in art classes. I never had the motivation to just draw for myself but the minute I got a new art assignment I dove in and didn't come up for air until I had it finished. I loved the chance to take that white blank canvas and transform it into space. Sadly I have failed miserably at keeping up my drawing talent. I am writing this blog post to hopefully motivate me to get back into hand rendering, separate my mind from the computer and get my hands dirty.

The following images are from college, well the first four are from my college career. The last image is in fact drawn by Sam. We have been pondering ways to make our house more efficient and aesthetic so Sam sat down and rendered this little beauty, I was to say the least impressed. Now I just want to see it come to life in my living room.

BaBee Shower

2011-12-27T22:06:00.001-07:00

About 6 months ago I did a little Owl Shower which I was super excited about. Then I got another challenge... a Bee Shower. So I talked about it for a month solid and drove everyone crazy. Who knew I have this strange fetish with party planning? I don't throw parties, I'm kind of a party pooper but someone (Wendy) told me about the Hostess with the Mostess blog and I have been obsessed ever since. Never mind that the parties they show cost more than I would spend on groceries for 2-3 months, I want to be that party planner. So with a little help from family and my frugality I have been able to pull off some sweet baby showers, if I do say so myself.

I made little bees out of easter eggs, yarn and a whole lot of hot glue. The banner came from some Hostess with the Mostess inspiration. The little desserts were shortbread tarts filled with raspberry lemon mousse, chocolate tarts with Oreo mousse and shortbread with chocolate mousse. My mom was the major pastry chef and I couldn't have done it without her. The party favor (not pictured) was bags caramel covered popcorn drizzled in white and milk chocolate, yum. I am so behind on blogging that cute little Elsie Kay is now here with the family!

P.S. Stay tuned, in February there will be a very bright and colorful baby shower, so excited!

Deck the halls with Star Wars snowflakes

2011-12-17T21:44:00.001-07:00

Making snowflakes has always been one of my favorite ways of decorating. This year since we are pinching pennies it seemed like a cheap way to deck the halls. I have been browsing lots of deal websites recently and one of my favorites is Woot. On this silly site I found a link for Star Wars snowflake templates...how cool is that? Thank you Anthony Herrera for sharing these wicked awesome flakes!

Download yourself a Yoda or Storm Trooper to help you celebrate this wintry season. Don't be fooled though these bad boys aren't too easy to cut out. If you decide to try them for yourself make sure you have a sharp Exacto knife and a bit of extra patience. Here are the three characters that I was adventurous enough to cut out.

Merry Christmas!

2011-12-14T20:02:00.000-07:00

Finally in the Christmas season, too bad with the launch of EyeCamo we are being super careful for Christmas: i.e. not much in the present department. I (Sam) did the new banner by the way. Amber has a lot more talent than that, trust me. She is just super busy, so I took it upon myself to get it done. Luckily, Christmas will be over soon, so you wont have to look at the monstrosity much longer.

On another note, we are making headway with EyeCamo. I hope you support us as much as you can. Tweets, facebook, and blog posts are very welcome. *hint* *hint*

Hope you are all well, and have a great holiday season!

P.S. Congrats to my sister Holland for having her baby girl and my other sister Heather for finding out that it's a girl!

EyeCamo

2011-12-07T13:36:00.000-07:00

Since Amber isn't adding any posts, I thought I would give a quick update. A couple of months ago I (I really should say we.) got involved with a business opportunity. It evolved into a company that Amber and I helped launch called EyeCamo. The website is still a work in progress, we had to take down some imaging due to which license we will decide to use. We also are waiting on product images, they'll be done tomorrow, so stay tuned. EyeCamo is a perforated decal meant for sunglasses, ski/snowboard visors, motorcycle helmets and windows for people to show their likes and personalities on the outside. We have a million ideas for application. Anyway, we landed accounts in the university bookstores this last week, as well as 9 Fanzz stores so far. We are working on a number of accounts but wont let any names slip until they are finalized. The Fanzz and university stores are a big deal for us, so we are pretty excited. You can follow us on Twitter and Facebook to help the cause.

For the love of dogs

2011-09-28T21:56:00.005-06:00

I bet you are sick of hearing about my dogs... sorry here I go again. Actually the post isn't really about my dogs, it's about making something crafty to hang on my walls. I was searching the internet for ideas of new projects and came across some inspiration. I kept saying "one day when I have kids I will make silhouettes and hang them on their walls" then I realized duh I don't need to wait. The next closest thing to kids were my pups. I took profile pictures of my ragamuffins, traced them in Illustrator, printed and cut them out by hand. Hobby Lobby supplied the fabulous vintage shaped oval frames and I was all set. All in all it was a quick fun project.

Tangled Birthday

2011-09-12T19:37:00.004-06:00

My niece for her 5th birthday requested that I make her a Tangled theme cake. I got really excited so I hopped on google and searched to see what wonderous creations other people had done, sad to say I was somewhat disappointed. Then I came across a cake that added the floating lanterns and it was like it all just clicked. Luckily the only toy my sister could find for the cake was Flynn and Rapunzel in the boat. Lanterns + boat scene.... perfection! My only regret was not putting the lantern reflections in the water. But I am pretty sure Caillean still loved it.

My favorite part is that she kind of reminds me of Rapunzel, her long blond hair with just a bit of curl on the end and she never stops moving. Sam and I even gave her a chameleon beanie baby so she could have her very own Pascal. Needless to say I may have enjoyed celebrating her birthday as much as she did.

Whooo?

2011-09-01T23:25:00.004-06:00

I recently had the opportunity to help with a baby shower. Actually aside from the food I kind of took over... oops. After some internet research and preliminary sketches I had my heart set on an owl theme. Luckily the other party planners agreed and let me go kind of crazy.

We divvied up the decor and party favor responsibilities. Two of the girls took care of the delicious caramel and white chocolate covered pretzels topped with a flower hair clip. One of the girls attacked the pom poms with fervor and they came out amazing. I was in charge of the owls. I think I made about 15 felt owls, each little guy with its own personality. At Sam's request I even made an albino owl (I know the eyes aren't red/pink). I also added little paper owls with bejeweled eyes to the "floral" arrangements... ok so they were cherry tree branches not flowers, but I thought they were just right. Luckily I was able to use vases and other items purchased for bygone weddings.

I also designed and created the invites using the same idea as the felt owls. For a pattern and instructions on how to make these darling little owls visit Moonstitches.

Jenga!

2011-08-14T09:44:00.001-06:00

Nothing like a good 'ol game of Jenga. We had our niece Boston over this weekend for a sleep-over, good practice for us childless couples. She couldn't stay still long enough for a picture, unfortunately. A quick shot of Amber will have to suffice.

National Treasure

2011-07-25T23:24:00.004-06:00

My nephew Indy thought long and hard about what he wanted for his birthday party this year and he certainly had a little inspiration from the movie National Treasure.

His first request was a cake, not just any cake but a cake in the shape of a pyramid (like the one on the dollar bill). This pyramid also needed to have gold coins in the middle. That is one tall order but my mom and I took it in stride. Luckily we had a couple months to ponder the 3 dimensional request. Our solution: rice krispies. Due to their stability we were able to stack and carve them without adding frosting layers (I hate excessive frosting). Using a long knife for straight lines and a little gelled food coloring as paint, I added a few finishing touches and voila... a pyramid.

The second request was a treasure hunt, like the movie. My mother and I pondered and brainstormed. Pretty soon we had a list that included secret messages, compass directions, a book with ciphers, a puzzle with a message, clues hidden in jello, puzzle boxes, musical clues, glow in the dark clues, etc. While trying the make the clues age appropriate we overshot our goal and made them complex enough to make the hunt last 2 hours. Despite some squabbles over who was the leader, and one little girl who seemed to have all the answers, we finally found the treasure (bags and bags of candy) hidden in the dryer.

The best part of the party was the excitement of a mob of children moving toward the next clue, knowing exactly their goal. The night was quite the success and I can't wait to organize such a birthday party for my own children one day.

FREEEEEEEEEEEEEEEE!

2011-07-15T15:23:00.000-06:00

I can relate to this. Thanks Bill Murray.

Homemade Marshmallows

2011-07-04T13:41:00.003-06:00

While combing the internet for interesting dessert recipes to try I came across a recipe for Raspberry Lemonade Marshmallows. They sounded delish but a little daunting... making marshmallows... people do that?

I borrowed a candy thermometer from my wonderful mother-in-law and jumped in with both feet. All I had on hand were frozen marionberries but I thought they would be a tasty raspberry substitute. Had to buy some unflavored gelatin (not cheap). Besides those two ingredients everything else were common ingredients.

Day 1: Created marionberry puree

Day 2: Whipped up marshmallows/Cooled mixture overnight

Day 3: Cut apart the little pink clouds of delight

Sadly my attempt turned out a little stickier than the recipe mentioned. This was due to a fiasco with a candy thermometer and a pot that was WAY too small for making candy (use a tall pot). Despite the stickiness the marshmallows are quite delightful and have a wonderful sweetness with a puckery undertone.

06/07/08

2011-06-07T00:05:00.004-06:00

Seems like only yesterday we were hanging out at USU, watching Arrested Development and attending weekly game night. But today is much better than yesterday because today is Samber's three year anniversary.

Can't tell you how much I love my Sam! He is my world and I can't seem to get enough of him. Here's to you babe - Happy Anniversary!

Bear River

2011-05-30T14:18:00.002-06:00

Bear River is a city that seems to have been forgotten by time. It's been a tradition for as long as I remember to visit my Uncle Lee's house for Memorial Day. A sleepy farming community, Bear River us one of my favorite places in the world. I'll try to take some pictures to show why. Let's see how well this blogger app works.

Hair, Hair, No Longer Everywhere

2011-05-23T13:49:00.005-06:00

We are on the cusp of summer and no longer could I put up with long hair. Sam hates finding them in his car, on his suit, pretty much everywhere. I shed more than my dogs do, sadly. Long story short I chopped it off for summer and I am enjoying the freedom.

Dear Summer,

I am now ready for warm weather, long days, and lots of fun. Would you please cooperate?

Sincerely,

Amber

Ok so I couldn't help playing with the effects on my mac and made that last little beauty :)

Origins

2011-05-17T21:43:00.007-06:00

I have a very logical organized mother who doesn't profess to have artistic capabilities. She can make a mean batch of cookies or rolls that are as addicting as heroine, ask her to be in charge of an event and you need not worry about anything. She is Wonder Woman! I have a few of her qualities, but my overriding talents lie in the creative world of art.

Recently she and I started a major undertaking. We are going to take all the old negatives/slides she has, make them into digital copies and organize them. My dad was BIG into photography so this is no small goal.

While looking through these photos I realized where my artistic capabilities originated, they came from my dad. I only was able to spend 10 years with my dad but seeing the pictures makes me feel like some part of him is living on in me. So here is a small selection of photos from my dad's expansive collection.

Stats

2011-05-04T11:41:00.000-06:00

Why we are getting page views from Africa, Asia, and Europe, we'll never know. How many of you are checking your stats for your blogs? Do it from the dashboard.

Www.Aowah.com

2011-05-02T11:32:00.002-06:00

For all of those who really know us, you'll know where the word Aowah comes from. First of all, if you don't know, I am not going to tell you. Second of all, this word has come to mean "friends" to us. Aowah has become a very dear friend, that's why we have decided to keep it! All of our blog URLs now redirect straight to www.aowah.com. We're happy to announce this proud addition to our family.

Over the next couple of weeks, we hope to add many more features as well as give our blog a little face-lift.

Stay tuned.

Little Rascals

2011-04-30T00:51:00.004-06:00

So how stinking cute are these kids?!? While searching through hundreds of photos I found this quirky collection of pics from Easter 3 years ago. Sam and I are so lucky to be loved by these little rascals. We only wished they lived closer so we could see them more often.

Love you Bry, Boston and Indy!!

Eggs + Dye + Children = Chaotic Fun

2011-04-23T20:24:00.006-06:00

The smell of vinegar, the bright palette of colors each in its own separate container, the excited children surrounding the table ready to wreak havoc on what little sanity adults have. What a beautiful moment in time. Eggs will be dropped, colors will be mixed, spills will happen and yet the whole activity is enjoyable.

The big hit this year was the white/clear crayon. Much like the Ukrainian eggs (Pysanka) we added layers of color using a wax resist method. Nothing terribly impressive but my nephews thought I was amazing. Pictured above is the dragon I created for Bryant. Perhaps next year I will try the Pysanka, for now my handy little crayon will do just fine.

Boston Baked Bean

2011-04-20T17:56:00.004-06:00

Another year and another cake to make for my niece Boston's birthday. Every time a birthday rolls around my nieces and nephews clamor with excitement to describe in great detail THE birthday cake. Boston's theme was flamingos, specifically Littlest PetShop flamingos. The only problem is... we had no flamingo.

I created an oober cutsie tableau of bobble headed, big eyed animals having a leisurely day at the lake. Little did Boston know her mother had found a flamingo at the store and we left a perfect little spot on the lake for it. She went to bed super happy with her flamingo-less cake. The next morning she woke to find that the perfect Littlest PetShop flamingo found its way onto her cake!

My cakes are nothing like Cake Boss or my amazing cousin's masterpieces (lilaloa.blogspot.com), but I do enjoy making them and the kids keep coming back for more.

The Penguin

2011-04-08T16:36:00.005-06:00

I just felt like blogging today even though I really don't have anything particular to blog about except the one subject I can always fall back on... the doglets. Here is Chief posing with their FAVORITE toy. Guess how long this silly little penguin has lasted... days? months? years? Roughly 1y 6m in dog toy terms that penguin is Methuselah. As you can see by the action image we are still wondering how it has lasted to this day.
After all the playing and running around the dogs get so so tired. Whenever the house goes quiet I know my pups are snuggling fast asleep perched on the back of the couch. So sweet.

Hidden Archway

2011-03-30T21:01:00.006-06:00

While surveying our house for renovation ideas we came across something strange. The wall between our office and the living room had a closet, which wasn't strange. The strange part was the inside back wall of the closet had a vertical indent coming from the floor and then just above the top shelf it arched over. We traced that line to the rest of the wall and realized we had a hidden archway–someone had walled up an amazing architectural feature and we had discovered it. I felt like the house had just whispered to us a wonderful secret. Unlike secrets though we wanted to share it with the world and Sam wanted to bust it down instantly upon discovery.

After weeks of him knocking on the wall to feel it was hollow and sharing the excitement of the idea with our friends and family I finally agreed "ok, let's knock it down." That was the starting gun and Sam was off to find his new Dremel Multi Max he got for Christmas. Without hesitation he cut into the wall and so began a long day of demo. Slowly but surely our archway came to life and we could feel the anticipation building, anxious to see the results of our decision.

Sam was of course barefoot through the entire process which resulted in the image of his foot below. Thanks to an incident in the past year he was fully up to date on his tetanus shot so no trip to the doctor to interrupt our fun. We did stop to eat lunch and ponder what to do with our big hole in the wall. A door, yup a door; we are going to create a lovely set of bifold doors that will allow the room to be open as well as private when necessary. Who knows perhaps we will one day move on from having dogs to children and they will need a room of their own. At present there is no door which means everyone gets to look directly into our messy office but I guess that is the price we must pay. The whole project is making the house feel more open and usable, which is a blessing for such a small house.

There is still a lot of work to be done; tear down the remaining wall, move a light switch, fix the flooring, patch and paint, etc. Oh yeah and we have to make those fabulous doors. Hopefully we can get back to this arch soon and then I can show off the finish product. Stay posted for "The End."

Heart Day

2011-03-14T23:59:00.004-06:00

I know Valentines day happened about a month ago but I never seem to get the chance to update my blog on a frequent basis. So here it is–an entry about that day of the year when the world falls in love.

I will be the first to admit that February 14th is not my favorite but this year since we said we wouldn't spend any money I had to come up with something creative. I had plenty of paper in festive colors and plenty of reasons why I love Sam. So I cut out what felt like hundreds of hearts each with a reason why I love my Sam and plastered the house with them. Sam liked them so much we left them up til just a few days ago.

That same lovey dovey day my wonderful mother-in-law Marylou invited all the girls to come over and dip goodies in chocolate. There were plenty of traditional items including cinnamon lips (YUM) but my new favorite thing to dip in chocolate.... grapes. Somehow a bit of chocolate and caramel make grapes into something divine. Trust me, they were delicious! Besides all the tasty food it was great to hang out with the "Rimmasch" girls. (sadly Heather couldn't make it)

My favorite part of the whole holiday was the surprise homemade card that Sam created from my scrapbook papers, inside he wrote a lovely note in Portuguese. I can't read Portuguese but I am pretty sure it said he loves me. I certainly love him!

Last Minute Cali

2011-02-07T21:33:00.016-07:00

So on a Tuesday afternoon Sam calls me and says... let's fly out to California tomorrow morning and hang out for a couple days. I about had a heart attack. I quick made hotel reservations with the help of my wonderful sister who works at Marriott and the next morning at 7:30 am we were on a plane to Oakland.

The whole trip was actually for SwimKids where Sam works. A large dehumidifier needed to be driven back to Utah by, you guessed it, us.

For a couple days we worked in the morning and then had some fun in the afternoon exploring. We hiked in the Redwood Regional Park where there were plenty of signs that said "mountain lion territory," so comforting. The trees were majestic and dusk made the forest seem to close in around us.

We drove to Oakland and crossed the toll bridge ($4) through some crazy fog. All that seemed to exist was the road, the bridge, and us; the rest of the world was white. Saw an amazing sunset, drove our rockin' PT Cruiser (terrible car) and visited Preservation Park. In the heart of Oakland was an entire block dedicated to preserving homes from the late 1800's, sadly we didn't get to see the houses in their daylight glory, but they were still amazing and gave us lots of inspiration for our own little house.

On Friday we had the whole day to play around in San Francisco. First Stop—Fisherman's Wharf. The sounds of the sea, people milling about and sea lions barking. We picked up some tasty chocolate to savor while strolling through the shops. Soon we were super hungry and ate at a restaurant with a lovely view of the sea. There were plenty of street performers to watch, antique shops with dirt cheap prices, and even a security guard who couldn't help himself and was dancing to the music.

After leaving the hustle and bustle of the wharf we headed to the iconic San Francisco bridge. We parked our little hunk of PT Cruiser junk and walked along the coast to Fort Point, a masonry masterpiece built during the Civil War and tucked under the Southern end of the bridge. We ventured through all the corridors, walked up amazing granite circular staircases and gazed up at the massive bridge from the Fort's roof. This unplanned site seeing was my favorite part of the trip.

The next day we woke up super early, returned the rental car at the airport then had to walk 2 miles to pick up the huge Budget Rental truck. Luckily there was a sidewalk on at least one side of the road the entire time. Sadly we passed a dead seagull and a very smelly dead raccoon. Once we got the truck we rushed off to Fresno and picked up the cargo. From that point on we drove, and drove, and drove.

We did get to stop in Las Vegas for the night at my sister's house. Got to surprise the niece and nephews, pretty good reactions of shock from all three. Had a great time hanging out with the fam and then woke up the next morning and drove home to our little house.

Here is one last "postcard" from Cali, Sam enjoys taking texture pictures and we found plenty of great surfaces wherever we went.

Fall Update

2010-11-11T19:19:00.009-07:00

To start fall off our niece Caillean and nephew Bryant turned a year older. Sadly Bryant and fam recently moved to Nevada. To send my birthday wishes I created a card with his favorite cartoon characters... Phineas & Ferb. I have to admit it is a pretty funny kids show. Here is the result of my obsessive creative efforts. (yes I cut out each and every piece of this puzzle)

For Halloween we spent the day celebrating Bryant's baptism. He even asked Sam to give a little talk about baptism, so cute. After all the spiritual and family fun of the morning we carved pumpkins. I found a little inspiration and carved an homage to Tim Burton's beloved Jack Skellington.

To top off the fall fun we had YW in Excellence this week. Our theme was "Daughter of a King" so the night was full of princess-y goodness. I made 50 cupcakes and after an extensive search for the perfect princess toppers I had to make my own. Thank heavens for glittery foam stickers and Robert's Crafts perpetual 40% off coupon.

SwimKids

2010-10-20T22:31:00.004-06:00

Recently I have been doing a little freelancing for my husband's work SwimKids. They needed alittle logo overhaul since they have decided to offer more than just swimming lessons. They now offer yoga, pilates, dance, creative movement, ballet and of course swim lessons.

A little creative change...

2010-10-03T22:31:00.003-06:00

After what seems like an eternity of no motivation to design for myself I finally did it. The new header featured on our blog is an homage to my love of typography. I'm not quite sure I'm finished with it yet but at least for now we have the whole family accounted for including Chief and London our spoiled "children."

So this week we are taking our pups to a new grooming place entitled "The Dogfather Groomery." The sign has an upright chihuahua dressed in a tux jacket, red bowtie and is sporting a little black mustache. Between the quirky name and the the equally amusing illustration we aren't really sure what to expect. Honestly I am hoping they come back with little bowties rather than the typical bandana around their necks. We'll cross our fingers and hope for the best.

PS we haven't been able to get the pics off our camera, we are working on a solution so that we can actually post something good in the future. Hence the fact that there is an image of a strange winking chihuahua.

Getting ready to....

2010-03-31T10:50:00.000-06:00

Sell the house. We haven't officially put it up for sale, but we are hoping to in the next month or so. We've spent the last two weeks painting.

We still have a lot to go. We are selling it ourself without a realtor to cut down on the equity that we will have for another home. Why you ask? We desperately want a garage and a fenced yard for the pups. We have our eyes on a couple of properties, mostly in Sandy. We're pretty excited. Let's hope all goes well.

Ubuntu

2009-12-26T13:29:00.003-07:00

Christmas is gone. We had a good one. Amber and I had a lot of fun and were able to see the family. We got a lot of stuff that we asked for. One of those things we didn't ask for was a new PC. My brother Ben gave it to me. It was completely and utterly unexpected. But one of the best gifts of the year. So, I took the chance of going Linux. I haven't really played with Linux since the days of Redhat (and even then I didn't get into it much.) To make it a little more user friendly for Amber, I went the route of Ubuntu. I'm pretty happy with it so far. So from now on, expect to have a lil' bit of Linux infused with our posts. Happy Holidays.

Crazy for Crayons

2009-12-09T21:24:00.006-07:00

At the beginning of November, while tweeting for work @M2Results, I came across a contest that called to my love of hands-on art projects. Veer, a stock photography company, asked any and all creatives to find a unique way to recreate the company logo by hand. (no computers allowed) I loved all my tedious art classes in college and I frequently spend hours making hand cut cards so this request was right up my alley.

With a little inspiration from a picture on my iPhone I decided my medium ... crayons. Something about the vibrant colors and glossy sheen said "Amber, we aren't just for elementary school projects." I purchased 4 boxes of 64 crayons and only had about 10 left. Overall it took about 2 1/2 hours to create, not including the extra Wal-mart run at 11:30 for the fourth box of crayons.

Alas I didn't win, but I had a great time! Did I mention there was a Macbook Pro, CS 4, & plenty of other sweet prizes on the line. Yep $8000 grand prize, but no dice, mine just wasn't creative enough. Veer recently put up a gallery of all the entries and the quantity of amazing logos is astounding. Make sure to check it out!

Where's Waldo?

2009-12-09T13:49:00.002-07:00

For all of those who are wondering, yes the Where's Waldo app is here. And yes, I did already get it. And it's pretty good. It is exactly like the book, except that some of the characters in the pages move ... oh yeah, and there is music.

Let's update.

2009-12-05T11:37:00.006-07:00

Since our last post we've :
1.) Bought a new car
2.) Re-arranged the furniture for the Christmas tree
3.) Got in the Christmas Spirit
4.) Added subtle changes to the blog, including Google Voice.

Unfortunately the Saab had some problems this last week. It only has 74k miles on it and the transmission had some problems on my way (Sam) to work. Instead of hassling with it, we bought a new car. We'll get the Saab fixed in a bit and decide who will drive what car. Amber will probably take the Saab for the automatic, heated seats, and LCD screen.
Our house is cozy, but fits us well. Everything has been redone to the structure: new electrical, plumbing, roof, floors, paint. The problem is the layout. Our 1600 square feet is spread between our ground floor and the basement. The basement has a large room that is bigger than our front room and kitchen combined, one unfinished bedroom/storage room, and a laundry room (that also contains our furnace, water heater, and water softener.). This means we have limited options in our furniture. Like so:

The tree

Here are some other miscellaneous items around the house.

It's that time of the year again....

2009-10-19T17:28:00.005-06:00

When we have all the sweet holidays. I'm not saying that St. Patrick's day isn't sweet. But, do you get a pillow sack full of candies or pumpkin pie? What about a white Christmas? I think not. It's also the time for insurance premium renewals, car registration, and birthday season. Fun and not so fun. We also get the puppies groomed right before the holidays. Here are some before and after pictures. Some from the iPhone, some from the camera. They're fast, so it's hard to get a good picture with them without a camera with amazing shutter/aperture speed.

Before

After

Horse Chestnuts.

2009-09-25T15:36:00.005-06:00

For those of you who have not made it to our little home in Riverton, you're missing out on the chance to see one of the most beautiful Horse Chestnut trees ever. Our tree is over 30 feet high, who knows how old it is. Unfortunately - the chestnuts are not edible. Their color on the other hand is as Dick Van Dyke would say, "Truly scrumptious." Here are some pictures. And a picture of the dogs as well.

The leaves

I wish I had taken more pictures in the summer, these are usually bright green and very sharp. Emphasis on the very.

The backyard grass is starting to come in, as you can see. Where this pictures was taken, we find the most sparse grass in the yard.

An Endorsement!

2009-09-18T09:46:00.003-06:00

Kanye has decided to endorse our site. He's not the best sponsor, at least he is a celebrity.

Check out our new link.

http://kanyelicio.us/http://aowah.blogspot.com/

2009-09-18T09:44:00.003-06:00

If you MMS with Blogger does it work? If you can see the picture, appearantly so. Last night we went to the fair and had a great time. It was raining so we got to walk around a little damp. But there was no one there! It was awesome. Lately Amber and I have started to watch Heros. We started from Season 1. I'll have to work to not let it suck me in. I tend to get wrapped up in stories. No matter how lame. We got Netflix and cancelled our Comcast (dirty low down cheating dogs) - saving us 60 bucks a month. We were pretty stocked. And I get to watch quirky old sci-fis and independant films.

Netflix for the win!

(p.s. MMS doesn't work.... I had to add the photo later.)

iPhone blogging

2009-09-01T13:56:00.002-06:00

Aowah my fellow bloggers! I've set up mobile blogging via text. Maybe this will incentivate Amber and I to blog more. How hard is to text in a small post every once in a while? Not. That's right. This weekend my sister: Evelyn is going to get married - making her the second child to get married in the Rimmasch Clan. Ben is 2 weeks after that, so we'll see if we have something to blog about. On a different note, our good friend Cam has started a blog. And we have added his link to our page. Good luck Cam!

P.s. Texting = typos. Accept it.

Birthday Cookys

2009-07-28T22:01:00.010-06:00

In the weeks since visiting Moab nothing terribly exciting has occured. Well I did have a birthday but that happens once a year so it really isn't exciting. To my delight the company I am interning with this summer gave me the day off with pay which is quite gracious. Sam and I spent the day indulging my love of shopping. We even dined at the same restaurant our first date took place. He is quite the romantic and spoils me whenever possible :] . Part of my gifts included a 1930's cooky press that his great grandma once surely used while wearing a little house wife apron waiting for the kids to return from school. Beside one fatigued part, the press was in mint condition including a camel cookie template which is quite delightful.

I couldn't help myself and made cookies the same night. It was as though I had fallen into an episode of Leave it to Beaver. That is until I started to call the cooky press (yes the recipe book quaintly spelled it "cooky") inappropriate names due to the malfunctioning handle. Of course after my half hour struggle to make everything work, much to my chagrin Sam figured out a solution in about 20 secs. The end result were some tasty lemon-lime cookies that wowed my family.

.:MOAB:.

2009-06-30T18:33:00.010-06:00

In the middle of June the Rimmasch family took a little trip down nostalgia lane. We all hopped in the SUVs and traveled down to Manti where we saw the Mormon Miracle Pageant rehearsal. (This was Kim & Marylou Rimmasch's first date) The entire time the rain poured down while the actors traversed the slippery hill.
Just a couple blocks away we stayed in a quaint bed & breakfast that is as almost as old as the city itself. Our room had fabulous wallpaper that looked like the walls were made of river rock.

Once we had our fill of Manti we traveled to the great land of Moab, my birthplace. Although there was much rain during the drive when we arrived in the city it was dry and the perfect temperature. We of course went to Arches where we had the chance to hike and see amazing natural formations.

It was a great trip and only gave us the desire to go to Moab on a frequent basis.

Cats, I'm a kitty cat. And I dance dance dance....

2009-06-11T10:38:00.004-06:00

So we found a cat and her kittens in our driveway a couple of days ago as we were coming home. When we pulled up the cat and her 9 kittens booked it. We noticed that several went into our garage. I went in there and flushed them out, or so I thought. Apparently one stayed. Amber was coming home from work yesterday and heard a kitten crying from the garage. After a couple of minutes we found him. We were trying to catch him, but he was angry. I would be too if I had been separated from my mom and had to spend the night alone - cold. Not to mention being hungry for all that time. Our friend Will grabbed him - and the cat sunk his teeth into Will's finger. After we got him inside he calmed down and we found out he was a big cuddler.

London and Chief were very curious.London decided she wanted to keep a close eye on it and slept where ever it slept.

He was very cuddly.

Chief is very curious.

At first the cat didn't know if he liked the dogs.

They had a stand off for a half an hour.

We want to keep him, but both Amber and I are allergic. So our buddy Drew is going to take care of him for us.

Our baby! And other stuff.

2009-05-28T21:59:00.004-06:00

We're pregnant! No, no we're not. Don't get your hopes up yet. But we do have a baby. We were at Amber's mom's house last Sunday night, just talking and hanging out. When, Chief comes up the stairs from the play area with this in his mouth.

He wont chew it, he just likes to hold it. We let him have it for about an hour. And he will hold it just like this.
If you take it away, he tries to get it back. We have the most awesome dog ever!

Last week, Amber and I decided to go on a long drive, just the two of us. We found ourselves on the West side of Utah Lake. We spent about an hour or two driving around and looking at houses.Picture from our iphones.

A couple of days before that, we went to Will and Emily's baby blessing. It was awesome! And baby Gil is way cute. Will did a good job. The Spirit was definitely strong, also it was the first baby blessing that I was invited to participate in the circle.

On the way back we saw this sweet motorcycle club. At the beginning there were motorcycle cops on their white Harleys, after them there were hundreds of people - from the burly biker in chaps to the woman in a parka on a trike. It was at least a mile long.

More pictures from our iphones.

I also had to go to Tucson on business. This was the little plane that took me from Tucson to Phoenix on the way back.A little of a mess and not well thought out, but this is what has happened lately.

Spawn.

2009-05-28T21:42:00.003-06:00

I have an app on my iphone that is kind of like those electric globes that you find at science centers - the ones that you touch and the spindles of electricity surge towards your fingers. Except in this case these colored lines follow your contacts on your iphone.

It's called Spawn.

Honestly,

2009-04-21T10:26:00.010-06:00

We don't update the blog often because we think we don't have much worth saying... or reporting. We went to Seattle three weeks ago. I had to go for an ECS conference, and decided to bring Amber along.

Restaurant that Tom Hanks eats at in Sleepless in Seattle.

We had some good seafood and some not so good seafood (Crab Cracker). <--- Don't go there.

It was really pretty on the way up, we drove all night.

We....

We went to the Aquarium.

Saw the sea otters.

And some sea life.

Searched for architectural details.

And went to Pikes Market.

All in all, it was a fun experience.

When we got home the dogs were looking really shaggy and we couldn't get them groomed for weeks (One can't groom their dog after a neuter/spay for fear of infection and exposure to other dogs).

The pictures aren't that great, they're from my iPhone.

After all this, we went to the happiest place on Earth!

The firework show was good, as always.

We went for a whole week, it was great.

New Orleans Square.

I bought Amber some Mickey-shaped earings.

Amber loved this flower arrangement.

Me.

It's been a good last month. We've seen and done a lot. But we're happy to be home with the pups. It was pretty hard for them (and us) to be gone for so much time.

Puppies - Sad.

2009-03-16T20:04:00.003-06:00

So, we got the London spayed and Chief neutered this week. It was really sad. We also got London's dewclaws removed. They were both very lethargic and in a lot of pain. They didn't even want to eat or drink. We even tried to give them meat and they wouldn't eat. Here are some pictures.

We later had to buy a cone for London because she wouldn't leave her incisions alone.

What's new?

2009-02-14T16:50:00.003-07:00

Let's start off by saying sorry for not updating in a while. And, Happy Valentine's Day!

There isn't a lot that is new with us. I don't know if I would call it monotony, but Amber and I find ourselves doing the same things. So, as far as news is concerned: nothing has really happened.

Otherwise we have been updating the house and our phones. Pictures are yet to come.

For Valentine's Day, we bought each other iphones and we kind of just took the day really chill like. I've been having 15hour plus work days lately. This seriously cut down on our together time that we are accustomed to. I also sent Amber flowers (shown below).
There may be yet to come. We'll have to just wait and see

Elevate has started to take off and I'm starting to get paid a bit more than we're used to. It's exciting and really enjoyable. We're grateful for so many blessings and to be so happy.

Family Room Make Over.

2009-01-17T13:57:00.001-07:00

Indy on our couch this morning.

So, when we bought our new sectional (picture above), we didn't notice that one side was lower than the other. Basically it's broken. On our list of tasks we hadn't gotten around to replacing it - until now.
Here is one of our two new chairs. The puppies love them. Yesterday when we first got them home Cheif jumped up and instantly took a nap. The couches came with little pillows. And the following pictures are what I got Amber for Christmas to match the chairs.

BackFront

In addition to the pillows and the chairs, we put up some curtains that match.

Cheif and London love to perch on top of the couch.

Now, we just have to put some more pictures up, get a new couch next week, and choose a carpet to be bound for our rug.

... Which we already have samples of....

One year!

2009-01-07T16:25:00.000-07:00

It's been a whole year since I asked Amber to marry me. Luckily she said yes. The whole story goes follows: On New years of last year, I was with Amber all night. We stayed up until 6:30 in the morning just talking the night away. It was that night that I decided to marry her. The next day I told my dad, and asked him for his jeweler's number. I chose a diamond that day and had it put in a temporary setting. It took until the 7th for it to arrive. In the days between, I had thought of a whole intricate plan on how to ask. When the ring finally came, I couldn't wait. I called her up and picked her up. We went to a place that was special to us. And there she said that she was cold, I told her that there were some gloves in my pocket. She reached in and found the ring. When she realized what it was I knelt down. She proceeded to cry and said, "Sam, is this for real?" I responded, "Amber, will you marry me?" She responded, *sobs* then, "Yes!"

So there you have it. It's cheezy I know, but I love her with all that I have.
SWAK!

I like this picture.

Oh Christmas Tree

2008-12-22T21:49:00.000-07:00

This year I feared that there would be no Christmas tree in our home...a little depressing since that is my favorite part of the holiday. Well my grandma took pity on us and gave us an extra artificial tree from her basement of wonders. Unluckily it took 2 hours to simply set up much less add lights and decorate. Therefore the naked tree has been up for awhile, like 2 weeks. To my great surprise when I returned from work today the tree was shining with lights. Thanks SAM! Since he took the initiative I had to finish the job.

Here is the before:

and the after:

Oh and I found some great retro wrapping paper this year at Target. It was just too great to pass up..."its beginning to look a lot like a 70s Christmas"

It's Snowing!

2008-12-13T11:11:00.000-07:00

We're having the most cozy morning. We woke up and it was (and is) snowing. Everyday we are loving our little home more and more. It was built in 1911, so it's super sturdy and quiet. But, in the last 4 years, everything has been rebuilt/renovated - the floors, ceilings, walls, electrical, plumbing, roof - everything. Needless to say, it's a good little home, and we love it!

Chief and London have been really fun to have around lately. We got them haircuts this past week.

They look really good.

We let them out in the snow this morning - they didn't know what to do. I think that it was too cold for them, they went out played for several seconds and decided they wanted to go back inside.

Now we're all sitting on the couch watching Christmas movies.
The puppies are spooning.

The limit.

2008-12-10T19:12:00.000-07:00

Anyone who knows me, knows that I like to push things to the limit in everything that I do. This applies to everything in my life from money to relationships, from cars to motorcycles. These pictures say a thousand words.

These were my car tires.Overall view.
Comparison with the new ones.The original tread.

And here, was my motorcycle tire.
The picture isn't very good, because it was taken with my phone, but the tread is just as bad as my car tires.

Macs.

2008-12-03T14:35:00.000-07:00

So, ladies and gents. I'm using a mac willingly for the first time since I was forced to in the 6th grade. I went to Horrace Mann Elemntary in Redmond Washington, where they had macs with color screens. Shocking, I know.

The reason is this: I'm getting a new job with a company called Elevate (P.s. I will not be leaving ECS). And they use only macs. My dad, is the new CEO, and he got a new Imac and a new MacBook Pro (from the company). That meant that I had to set them up and get him and my mom running. So, since then I've had to use them here and there.... And ... I'm not minding it. I know, I know. What am I thinking? Well, for one, they do use Pc chipsets now. They're just PCs with Mac OSX. I have to argue that the user interface is pretty neat and functional. On the other hand, if I build a Pc with the same amount of money it costs to buy a new MacBook Pro ($2,799.00) I would have one incredible Pc, that would blow all of these macs out of the proverbial field, if you will. And I know that you will.

In real news, Amber is pregnant! No, not really. I just wanted to have something awesome to say.

Yesterday I met with New York Life, to look at our options with a Roth IRA or a Roth 401K. It was interesting, but not very educational. They babbled on about this and that, trying to push me into a life insurance plan. Until the very end, we got down the the nitty gritty. Just for being young, they thought I didn't know anything. Irritating. But it was good to see what's out there besides First Western Advisor.

Thanksgiving

2008-11-28T18:59:00.000-07:00

Thanksgiving this year was superb. The annual frisbee game was good.

We went to American Fork, and ate with Amber's side of the family. After the meal, we conversed and later played Scrabble. Amber and I stole away and took a short nap too. There are too few naps that are as enjoyable as the "Thanksgiving Nap." Such as the "Sacrament Nap" or the short "Class Power Nap" in a Biology class.

Amber and I have started a revival of 1980s computer games. Recently, I finished Kings Quest II and have started Kings Quest III
Amber and I have also been playing Heroes of Might and Magic II. All I have to say is, "Good times."

The Christmas season is beginning, I'm not looking forward to shopping. I like to get in, get what I see, and get out. I don't like waiting - this is why I don't like the bank. I do love Christmas lights though. I did my dad's lights this year. It took me nine, seven hour days to complete. Everyone should come and see it. I'll post pictures soon.

Snow!

2008-11-05T16:12:00.000-07:00

I love the snow! I love wearing my snow clothes and using my scarves. Also, this year, we had a pleasant addition to this winter season. This morning was the first time that our puppies had seen or played in snow. It was the most awesome thing. I took some pictures when I took them out the second time.

London jumping up the stairs to try and get inside to escape the cold.

Chief staring me down, debating whether or not to come to my calls.

London running in the snow.

The funniest part of the whole thing was that every time they stepped, snow would be kicked into the air - as the snow flew in front of them they tried to run faster and bite the snow. Faster and faster they went around the yard. It was really fun to watch them play in the snow.

Unfortunately, they don't like to go pee outside, so they had a lot of accidents today.

We did it!

2008-10-12T13:39:00.000-06:00

We put our down payment on our puppy(s). That's right ladies and gents, we bought two. We couldn't decide which one we wanted, so we bought both of the two we were interested in - Cheif and London.

They are super cute and so fun to play with. We played with them for an hour and a half yesterday before we had to leave to go to Comedy Sports with Amber's sister and hubby. The only drawback is that we're going to Disneyland in 3 days, so we left the puppies with their parents (Lola and Charlie) until we can pick them up when we get back from California. It was really hard to leave our puppies, but we will bear it for now.

Locks of Love

2008-10-10T22:02:00.000-06:00

So I finally decided to follow through with my recent threat, I chopped off my hair for locks of love. It was a bit traumatic but it's all for a good cause. Although I still seem to have phantom hair that I flip back over my shoulder only to realize that part of my hair is non existent.

The Puppy!

2008-10-10T12:34:00.000-06:00

We have finally found the puppy of our dreams! Amber is allergic to dogs that shed, so we chose a schnauzer (surprise!). Anyone that knows me, knows that isn't a surprise. I love schnauzers and I love the dog that my mom has now - Paco

The litter looks like this. The puppy that we want is the one they call Rome. We are going to call him Chief. We are super excited. But, we have to wait until after we come back from California. We're leaving next week and will be back on the 20th. Wish us luck.

Finally, wedding pictures.

2008-10-08T21:50:00.000-06:00

The moment that everyone has been requesting is here. Amber and I have gone through all of our wedding pictures. Other than the ones we shall post here, you can find an assortment on our facebook pages. When all was done and said, we had over 9 gigs of pictures alone. We still haven't looked at the pictures that my sister and friend Sam Enderlee took either. That being said, one can understand why we didn't have our pictures posted before.

October

2008-10-07T09:32:00.000-06:00

Months have passed since, we last blogged. Carla has been getting on my case to blog more. The thing is, I just don't have that much to say to the masses of bloggers. Amber and I are going to California in a week, and we are really excited. My dad, Kim, is the COO of a Cendant company called Worldmark, by Windham - previously known as Trendwest. They just finished a project right next to Disneyland. Rumor has it that it is the nicest hotel/resort next to the Happiest Place on Earth at the moment. This means, we don't have to pay a dime! Dad is taking us along to evaluate the new resort. I think we'll have a lot of fun. We do get to attend the Disney Halloween party, neither of us have either done that before, so it should be good times.

As election time nears, we get increasingly more tense to the fact that Obama could become the next President. We don't want him in office, but at the moment, we just want the campaigning to stop.

Lately we've been spending a lot of time together and with the families. We've had little or no time to hang out with our friends or the buddies. It's sad, I know, but we're still really happy.
Our plans to get a puppy, have finally solidified. After Disneyland, I think we'll take the plunge and purchase our first canaine together. It'll be so fun (and frustrating) to have a puppy around.

To all, a good Aowah! and a little of Aowater as well.

Puppy Dog!

2008-06-18T07:31:00.000-06:00

We are getting a dog! Amber and I have really wanted a dog. But, when I realized the depth of Amber's allergies with animals, dogs in particular, I said, "No." After a couple of months, Amber broke me down (and so did the numerous pictures off of KSL). So in about a month or more, we'll have ourselves a cute 'lil schnauzer.

Eat your heart out Matt!

Invitations

2008-06-04T12:23:00.000-06:00

Invitations are out, and they have been for some time. But, we're too busy to up date the blog. We are just hoping that everyone got one. Everyday I think of someone else to whom I need to send an invite. We're excited to get married! Only three more days! Can everyone believe it? We still can't. We hope to see you al l there.

Marijuana

2008-04-16T14:02:00.000-06:00

At Emerald City Smoothe we've run into a small dilemma. Students from Riverton High coming over and using our bathroom to smoke macoinha. Ben and I are pretty sure that we're feeling some residual effects. A customer came in that was driving a brand spanking new Jeep Grand Cherokee - the 420 HP version (hemi). I said, " Those are so nice, they're the fastest SUV on the planet." Ben said, "Your face is the fastest SUV on the planet! You can quote me on that." So, I will.

"Your face is the fastest SUV on the planet!" - Ben Rimmasch

Hates?

Dodge

2008-04-08T10:00:00.001-06:00

I have it. The Dodge. An eclectic truck from the 74s has entered our life. After siphoning the gas, changing the oil, oil filter, gas lines, fuel filter, a carb clean, stabilizers, and added lead the beast runs. It's nice to have a big block V-8 318 5.7 L, but the gas is horrendous. 14 MPG is not the best way I would like to travel. It's going to be sweet when we restore it though.

May 10th... no, June 14th.... no, June 7th.

2008-03-19T12:30:00.000-06:00

That's the gosh darned day dang it! It's the 7th, deal with it.

Marriage

2008-02-08T14:11:00.000-07:00

It's official. The date has been marked and scheduled. Amber and I have a date in the Salt Lake Temple for the 10th of May. 9:00 Am is our time in the large sealing room.

It's time to grow up and move on with life. For this, I'm excited. I initially didn't want to take the plunge, but as I enter this venue of my life I'm excited and feel the exiliration of progress. One step closer to perfection is fine with me.

The beginning.

2008-01-25T20:58:00.000-07:00

Under the careful promptings of Matt and Carla, I've fallen and created this blog. In the infamous words of me - Aowah. Now anyone can experience the magic and secret powers of the aowah in all it's forms - including the latest - aowater.