HERE IT IS...

Okay, this post will be mostly pics, and not so much gab. I would like to point out that this is in no way a complete tour, as our home is still a mess. We moved in literally 2 days ago, so you get the cool stuff. So far. I will also point out that this is a memoir to the reasons I bought this house.

Aaaaaaaand now we will commence the long awaited picture-fest of the new Cutler Casa. Enjoy. (The pics aren't in order. I'm too lazy to do that... Deal with it.)

Sorry Carrie, here's a shot from the front!

Fire pit. WOOT!

Original hard-wood floors. I'm in love.

Bathroom. It's actually bigger than is looks. Bead Board. YES.

Thanks again Momma Gili for the new bed spread!!!

The bedroom. Looks country, right?

Old, jacked up walls are the best.

Door to Matt's domain, aka shop. Don't mess with his space.

Bet you wish you had a box car on your property? It's not the shop, in case you were wondering...

This thing is seriously sweet.

Everyone's go-to favorite flowers. The daisy. :)

Can you spot one of our chickens hiding in the foliage? :) Hint: it's grey and looks like a rock.

Door to the garage. Is anyone else waiting for Emma Smith to walk out?

I love the established landscaping. There is some work to do here and there, but the perennials are awesome!

Random, but I also love the kitchen drawer handles.

Red. Kitchen. Door. Obsessed.

AND THIS IS IT. I love this house because it's 100 years old, and all the hardware stayed! I've always wanted a home that was old and had TONS of character and a story, but you can only find those back east nowadays. Well, my friends, I found it. Woot!

This is the view of the front walk from the front door.

Eastern Idaho Sunsets..... Mmmmm. From the front porch.

A couple more shots...

Lawn

And lawn...

And lawn. We've got big plans for this lawn though... 100 ft. slip n slide in the backyard, and in the front, volleyball net. Eh? And all of those shots are completely separate parts of the yard... Whew! 2 acres of AWESOME.

HUGE maple trees. They shade the house in the afternoon. Keeps the place COOL. And Stacie, I already told Matt that he's not allowed near these at night.... We know what happens...

So that, my friends, is the beginnings of something wonderful. We are absolutely thrilled at our find. There were a few criteria we were looking for in a house: land, in the country (so we could keep our chickens), on a quiet street, old house, shop, yada yada.... Point is, we got EVERYTHING we wanted, and so much more, and for such a great deal! We are definitely blessed, and we are reminded of that every time we turn on the water and feel that crazy awesome water pressure.

And..... The end. Any questions?

For KELLIE :)

I'm not dead. Well, I feel dead after the past couple of days, but I can assure all of you, I'm well. :)

I've had a post in the draft section for quite some time, but I wanted to ensure the enjoyment of all readers by adding pictures as well, but I haven't gotten around to it. But I will......

Matt and I just bought another house, so we are working VERY HARD on getting it all fixed up and ready to move into next week. We've pulled 15 hour work days on that house for the past week. Luckily, Matt has pretty much the greatest family ever, and Susan, Jess, Lindsay, GENTRAL, Kaitlyn and Christian have been so gracious (and patient) in helping us get this house situated. Oh, and thanks Mark for sharing your wonderful wife with us. :)

I'll go ahead and post pics of the house soon too. Lemme just say.... It's freaking awesome. 100 year old farm house. Hence, the work. But it is going to be worth it. Three words... Skeleton key doorknobs.

So, that's what I've been up to lately. I hope that suffices for now, Kellie. :) I'll get those pics up soon....

April 2010

A few exciting things have happened in the last little while.

A few days ago, Matt and I went to his uncle's cattle ranch to help out for the day. We had our respective responsibilities: Matt- wrestle the calves into the shoot, Laura- once the calves are branded and tagged, give them shots.

It was such a fun day with Mark, Susan and the cousins. We got to ride horses, eat some freaking sweet chow, and learn that it's fun to work on a cattle ranch... For the day. :) We also finally got sunburned. We've been waiting for that.

Susan got some awesome pics of the events, so I'll be sure to load those once I get my hands on em.

Secondly, I've had an exciting 2 weeks, art-wise. A couple of weeks ago, I submitted 2 of my Black & White photos (from the B&W film photography class at UNLV) to an art magazine here at ISU, Black Rock & Sage. The magazine is comparable to The Vagus Nerve at UNLV. Well, I'd been turned down plenty of times regarding my artwork, so I was getting myself ready for rejection, again. Well, We got back from Utah for Easter and I had an email waiting in my inbox congratulating me for having my photo chosen to be published in the magazine! The magazine will be coming out soon, and when it does, I'll post a link to the online version of the issue.

AND THEN, if I wasn't excited enough already, some more good news cam my way. I also submitted a few of my paintings to the Undergraduate Exhibition Show that ISU puts on once a year. I went down to the gallery a few days later, where they posted all the works that would be featured in the show, and LO AND BEHOLD, Laura Cutler was on the list!!! If you have read my blog, you'll know that I had a post a few months ago that went over my life goals. Well, one of them was to get my art in a gallery. Well, check.

I called Matt AS SOON as I read that my work was accepted, and he was very excited for me. What a wonderful guy. He surprised mr by taking me to dinner and then to the opening of the show.

Proof that my shiz was here... In a gallery.

I was excited. But I was sure no one was watching when Matt snapped this pic...

Later that night, we went over to our friends' house. On the way to their house, we always see this house...

And Matt wanted me to add the caption, "How fast is your house?" or was it "My house is faster than yours..."

I don't remember...

9 a.m. class was cancelled...

Well, I can't tell you of a better feeling than coming to school and seeing that the class that you hate the most is cancelled. Well, let's be honest, there are many better feelings, but for this exact moment, it's the best.

Well, I figured it was a good time to update you all on what's been happening in the life of the Cutlers since the last post. Again, there will be more photos than commentary... You're welcome.

We left off with Christmas and Matt's first day of work...

This is just a nice view of what Idaho sunsets look like when Matt gets home.

For Family Home Evening a few weeks ago, we took Grandma Cutler bowling. She is crazy. She is 90 years old and is as sharp as a Cutco. We had a blast with her that night, and went over to Rupe's for a couple of Root Beers afterwards.

Sorry for the lame blurriness of the photo. The lighting wasn't very good, and let's be honest, no one looks good with the flash on em.

Action shot!

Matt was such a good sport...

Matt=PB, Grandma Cutler=LC, Laura=TL

You got it. Grandma Cutler not only got a strike, but she beat Matt!!!! :)

Matt took me fishing on Saturday (The 6th of March). He knows that I LOVE fishing so he surprised me one morning and took me fishing! I really have only fished up on Cedar mountain in little lakes that are stocked... But this was different! It was sooo pretty and it was such a nice day! We didn't catch a dang thing, but it was still a lot of fun. Matt started to get restless and annoyed with the recluse fish, so he made fun out of when there was to push into the river. You can imagine the rest.

Cracked out lake. Pretty awesome looking.

Inspecting...

Close up of the cracks.

After fishing we drove around to look at stuff. Right next to the cracked out lake was this bed of munga munga. It looked weird right next to a winter wonderland... Matt got extra excited because this crap is his favorite color.

Every once in a while we will line the window sills with peanuts. We love to watch our little buddies come up to the window and take their prizes.

I thought it was neat that the little doobies come right up to the window and don't give a dang who is watching and how close they are.

I was trying to be inconspicuous when I first saw them, but them realized they didn't much care if you were close to them or not.

A few other things that we've been up to...

• I don't think I posted that Matt and I got callings in our new ward. Well, we got called as Sunday School teachers for the 14-15 yr olds. They are such a blast!!!!!

• We substituted for a class, spoke in church, got callings and spoke at a fireside for youth in the first 4 weeks of living here.

• Matt's mom, Grandma Nate and I all attempted making tamales for the first time. Cindy (Matt's mom) made some AWESOME filling while I squished up the corn meal tamale mix stuff and Grandma Nate helped us spread the stuff on the corn husks, stuff em and fold em up. They were SOOOOO FREAKING GOOOOOD!!! We had a blast that night and I think we'll be doing it again very soon...

• We went to Africa Night with Cindy and Steve. We had some awesome ethnic food (kind of like the food that you see in Indiana Jones when the plane crashed and he ends up in that village...), saw some neat dances and saw some sweet A clothes that they wear in Africa. We went to a little diner after that for some pie and we laughed hysterically for about 39 minutes about different FarmVille scenarios... Don't worry. You had to be there.

• Matt is enjoying his job, and I'm loving being a house wife and going to school... Don't ask when I'll be done with school. The answer is never. Hahaha

• The other night, Matt and I were getting ready for bed when he realized that we didn't make banana bread for his boss... Yeah, he needed to bribe his boss into letting him switch 2 days of his work schedule so that we can go down to New Harmony to hang out with my family for General Conference and Easter. So we jumped out of bed and spent the next hour of our lives making banana bread. We were tired the next morning, but Matt gave his boss the bread, and now we are ret to go to the ranch!!! :)

That's about it. Any questions? Oh, and no, Stacie, I haven't any pictures of the yellowed tree yet, but I can assure you that the tree is probably dying right now... :)

Can you guess what this is? I thought it was pretty sweet looking.