Bryan & Brittney Austin

We are foster parents!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010 by Monkey and Britter Brit

Well, we have opened our hearts and home to a foster pup named Buddy. He is a 2 year old beagle that was found as a stray in Riverton. We will take care of him, feed him, and help him find a home instead of making him stay in a cold kennel. This way he will have a yard to run through, dogs to socialize with, and a soft place to lay his head. Check out secondchancepupps.blogspot.com for more information on his progress. I am starting a blog about our adoptable puppies that we will take in to help possible families see what kind of dog they are getting. It is really great!

Below are the photos I promised of Darcy running in the 10 k.

Well this last weekend Bryan and I, in a last minute thing, went up to Strawberry Reservoir with our friends, Brad, Brieanna, Xander, Gayle, and Kenny for a short camping trip. It was a lot of fun. We got to ride the four wheelers up some cool trails, hang out and chat with our friends, and enjoy the wilderness. Since I had to work Friday night, Brie, Buddy and I made our ways up Saturday morning. Everyone else had gone up Friday evening. We got there, had lunch, and went for a short four wheeler ride before getting rained on. The rain was nice though. It has been so hot lately that it was nice to finally get some cooler weather to cool us off. We had chicken and rice for dinner in the dutch oven and it was really good. Well then everyone but Brad and I went to bed. Wimps! But Brad and I stayed up late talking about movies, music, and the universe. Brad has watched so many television shows and retained so much information. I was a little surprised at how much he knew about the stars and planets. We then woke up the next morning, had breakfast, and packed up and went home. We did not get back until about 3:00 pm though once everything was packed up plus we had to make a couple of stops on the way back when Gayle's trailer tire was losing air. We relaxed for a bit before going over to my mom and dad's house for dinner and the showing of True Blood. Good weekend for sure.

Xander Man

Xander kept on exploring the area. I snapped a quick pic of him trying to escape.

Buddy was obssessed with this lim, he tried dragging it multiple times across the grass.

Xander loves riding on the four wheelers.

Xander loved our tent as well. He played it a few times.

Buddy is such a good boy.

Mom was never far behind the little explorer.

Xander running back to camp. He is so cute.

Bryan has started his new security job with IHC now and when he is asked if he likes it his response is "It's work." I don't think he is too happy that he has to work again, but who knows. His hours are a little crazy. He is going to get 44 hours this week, 40 the next, and then 38 the week after. The only bad thing is he works the next 5 Saturdays. But we are happy that he at least has a job and is not unemployed. We are grateful for that and the fact that we have our health, a roof over our heads, and each other.

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Two weddings madness

Thursday, August 5, 2010 by Monkey and Britter Brit

So this last weekend was a little crazy for us. We had two weddings to go to in one weekend and they were both for cousins. Friday, I had asked for the day off because it was really too much to try and go back and forth, we got up early and headed downtown for Bryan's cousin Jordan and Kellli's luncheon at the Joseph Smith Memorial Building. It is crazy to think they are already married now. They are so cute together and we really like them. Kelli is such a cutie and what a doll. It was a great luncheon and we had some great food. It was cute they even sang to one another. We had to get going unfortunately to start to head to Idaho for Nick and Andrea's wedding reception. As we were getting ready to head to Idaho though Bryan got a phone call.....

Drum roll please...... HE GOT THE JOB!! WOOO HOOO!!! He will be working for IHC as a security officer and it is the best news in a long time. I am so excited that he has finally found something. He starts next Monday. So needless to say, we were a little delayed in getting to Idaho since he had to go in for a drug test right then and get probed and proded with shots and blood draws. After Bryan was done playing the pin cushion we headed to Idaho.

Friday night we went out with Nick and Andrea, my parents, Darcy and Danny, and some of Nick's buddies and went out in downtown Pocatello. Not exactly Bryan and I's scene so we ended up just walking around. We stopped at this place called the Pie Hole and it looked like it would be some good pizza but it really was not. It was actually really bland with no flavor and not good pizza at all. The pizza was thin crusted, greasy, and had no toppings. All the people that were in there would not have been there had they ever had The Pie Pizza. Now that is yummy pizza. So we walked around talking for a bit before Rich came and picked us up and we ended up playing video games instead. We were the designated drivers so we waited until the partiers were ready to go then we drove them all home.

The next day was really quite relaxing. I loved it. We woke up at like 11:00 am and then had an awesome homemade breakfast made by Grandma with her homemade biscuits and sausage gravy that she makes that is so good! Yumm! Then Bryan, my dad, Danny, and Darcy headed out to go golfing for a bit. Mom and Grandma went over to the Rowe's and helped set up for the reception. Nick and Andrea actually got married the Wednesday before (long story as to why we were not invited to that) and they were having the reception the following Saturday for family. I spent about an hour and half just sitting out in the field behind my Grandma's house and pet the horses and just got lost in time. I loved it. There was a storm rolling in so the wind was nice and cool, and I could hear a train blowing it's horn far off in the distance (I love that sound). The horses were friendly and let me pet them (both of them are rescue horses so they are skiddish around many people) and I just enjoyed life. That is what I want in life is all that. Then I took my time getting ready and once everyone got back and ready we all headed out to the Rowe's house for the reception.

The only thing I have to say that is negative is that the hosts (Ron and Donita) could have been a little more friendly towards us. They did not acknowledge Bryan or I once, Donita ignored us trying to talk to her, and Ron did not even say hi. That is all the negative I have. Other than that... WELL one more negative, the mosquitos were terrible. Other than that the reception was nice. Nick and Andrea are so cute together and you can really tell they love one another. We love Andrea and she is so much fun to be around. She is down to earth and so pretty. We are excited to have her become one of the family.

Well eventually I will plug in my camera and update this thing with more pictures. Especially now that I have to. We are participating in a foster program for animals. The animals are rescued from shelters so that they are not euthanized and placed into foster homes for them to get adopted out. It is going to be great. The program is http://www.ruffpatchrescue.com/ and it does not put the dogs down. Our first little one will be a 2 year old beagle male. We don't know a lot about him but we can't wait to meet him and help him in his little journey. We get to name him too since he does not have a name and we will help get him publicity for getting adopted. We are excited and I will post more pictures when I can. I only have the one that was sent to me by the program coordinator. We will continue to update on the animals we are trying to help.

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Four Wheelin' and 24th Weekend

Monday, July 26, 2010 by Monkey and Britter Brit

Well we had a blast with my cousin Richard when we went out two weekends ago and went four wheeling. Rich brought his dirt bike and really got it dirty for the first time. He did great too. He was riding that bike like a pro.

(BELOW: We found these cool clay pits that had all sorts of colors of clay. We decided to climb on top of the pretty colored piles for some kodak moments.)

Well to start us off, Rich was supposed to be down to Salt Lake by 5:00 pm. Well it was more like 8:00 pm by the time he got there though. We had a few stops to make before leaving the Salt Lake Valley (gas station, Wal-Mart, Wendy's for dinner, and Smith's for firewood). Once we were finally on our way it was supposed to be a short drive to Little Moab just on the West side of Utah Lake that we were supposed to go. Bryan had been there once before and swore that he would be able to find it again no problem. We he couldn't find it. Typical man not to be prepared with directions. So we found a dirt road that we drove up for a bit and found a camping site just off the road. We were getting tired and it was almost 1:00 am by the time we finally got to the spot. We ended up just unloading the toys (aka four wheeler and dirt bike) and threw the sleeping bags in the beds of the trucks and slept while being eaten alive by bugs.

(BELOW: I try to take photos of the landscape but I am not the best photographer. Here are just some site seeing shots from us riding around the small valley and out in the open land we drove through.)

We woke up the next morning to find the four wheeler had a flat tire. GREAT! At least we were not far from a Wal-Mart and after Rich took his bike for a short ride up a hill (which he actually got stuck on and stalled out on and got stuck for about 10 minutes) we loaded up again and made our way to Wal-Mart. We also had forgotten bug spray (stupidly) so we had to go either way. Rich is such a great person to be around and he is so funny. He was obsessed with finding some soft serve ice cream and we were in luck because Saratoga Springs main had a Artic Circle and Rich got his ice cream that he was craving. It was also free fry day there so we also all got a free fry.

(BELOW: Bryan wants to be on top of the world with his toy so I snapped this pic while he was trying to get the four wheeler out of the truck.)

(BELOW: We got in so late that we slept in the bed of the truck without a tent. We got eaten, well I did, and I got this pic as Bryan was cleaning up the bed of the truck. I love how helpful he can be when he wants to be.)

(BELOW: Can you find Rich in this picture??? He stalled out while going up the hill and was stuck for about 10 mintues until he figured it out and got down the hill.)

(BELOW: He finally figured it out and made a good comeback.)

We then drove back out to find a good place to camp and drive for the rest of the day. This is when we found Burning Chair Pointe. The story behind Burning Chair Pointe is that sadly some campers don't follow the rule that if you bring it in, you take it out and to leave the campsite as you found it or better. Well when we found the spot at the top of the hill that we wanted to camp at there were beer cans everywhere, an old pre calculus book, and a folding chair. It was pretty obvious that this chair had fallen into a fire with the previous campers and after they pulled it out they just left it there. Rich found it appropriate to call the spot Burning Chair Pointe considering. We later that night built a bon fire with our "premimum wood." Rich made an awesome speech as to why we had all gathered around the fire and officially initiated the camping spot's name by throwing the chair into the flames. We all cheered! It was great. Again why Richard is such a great guy, he has a wonderful sense of humor. We fixed the hole in the tire of the four wheeler with the kit we bought at Wal-Mart.

(ABOVE: This is the infamous chair that gave Burning Chair Pointe it's name.)

(ABOVE: This is Rich's sweet set up.)

(ABOVE: Our awesome setup.)

(BELOW: Our view of the mountains.)

(ABOVE & BELOW: Bryan had to ride through a big water puddle. It was fun for him to get drenched.)

(BELOW: Rich enjoyed the shade and playing games on my ipod and we tried to stay cool in such hot heat.)

(BELOW: Want to see Bryan with heat stroke? Just look below. He had such a bad headache and he was sick and fried all at once. He was miserable.)

(BELOW: Just chillin' in the shade of the truck.)

Rich and I spent about two hours taking a nap after Rich and Bryan took a short ride. I had finished setting up camp. Bryan during our nap took a ride on the four wheeler without a hat, no sunglasses, and it was right in the middle of the day. Needless to say he got fried on his forehead, neck and arms. He was redder than a lobster who has been boiled. He was cooked. We ended up going for a great ride though after Rich and I woke up. We rode about 22 miles on this great trail that was fun as hell. It had some moguls that Bryan flew over and we got going pretty fast. It was a blast. Rich did awesome on his bike too going through them and he was moving out pretty fast. We went back to camp once to fill up again and we were off again. This time we went the opposite direction and we got lost. The trails we were following were ending and we kind of had to find our own way for a bit. It was also starting to get dark at that point and we were a little concerned for Rich. He has a dirt bike so it did not have a light on it. We finally found a trail that led us back to the right road after having to walk Rich's bike down a very steep rocky hill and we made it back to camp before the sun completely disappeared.

(BELOW: Bryan driving the four wheeler and getting fried.)

(BELOW: While we were driving I tried my best to get some good photos and since Rich was the only real target, I took some photos of him driving his dirt bike.)

That night we made ourselves some hobo dinners and chatted around the fire. Bryan did not feel well at all from the heat stroke so he went to bed early. Rich and I spent most of the night just talking and dodging the bugs and embers from the fire. We had a blast though. The next morning we woke up and loaded up everything and made our ways back to Salt Lake where we ate at Rumbi for lunch, got some awesome Maggie Moo ice cream, and ate a delicious dinner at my mom's before Rich made his way back to Idaho. All in all a great trip.

Well we had another three day weekend this last weekend and we had a good time just relaxing around the house most of it. Friday we just laid around the house watching movies and staying cool. Saturday morning Bryan and I got up really early to go support my sister, Darcy, as she ran the 10K that was held on by Deseret News. She did awesome and ran the race in 57 minutes. That is really far. 6.2 miles. She ran it fast. I was really impressed and so proud of her. She is a great sister and knows how to set a good example. After the race Bryan and I made our way back to the car because we are not really parade people when we realized that I had dropped my car keys somewhere in the crowd. We retraced our steps and luckily someone had handed to a police officer. Thank you Jebus. We went home and rested for a bit before meeting up my sister. We went and saw Inception at the movies with my sister Darcy and it was a great movie. I would highly recommend it anyone looking for a good thriller. I love Leonardo Dicaprio in his new found dark films that he is in. He is really good at it. The whole cast was great and we really enjoyed it. Saturday night we hanged out with Bryan's family and went to Village Inn where Amber treated us to dinner. We had fun. Sunday we just enjoyed the day and took Blue and Daisy to the dog park across from Liberty Park. They had a blast and enjoyed their time with the other friendly dogs. Well some were friendly. This one couple had three dogs they brought and two of them had wolf in them. That really made me nervous for sure since one of those dogs kept coming after Daisy. She is not one to back down easily and will fight any dog that challenges her and this dog challenged her more than once. We had to leave earlier than planned because of it. Blue made lots of friends like he always does and he had a lot of fun. He is such a fun loving dog and so affectionate. He is really smart too. He is now learning to sit and shake and it is so cute. He just raises his paw without you having to ask and just putting your hand down. Gotta love them! :) Well that is all the latest with us and I will post a couple pictures of Darcy running later and more of the doggies too when I get my camera plugged in again.

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Just a Quickie

Thursday, July 15, 2010 by Monkey and Britter Brit

Well just a quick post for sure. I have officially given my notice at my second job. My last day at the Church Riverton Office Building cleaning poopie toilets will be the 20th of August. School starts the next week and I have to be done no matter what by then. Woo hoo, a light is at the end of the tunnel finally. I don't really know how we are going to make it financially, but we will figure it out.

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July

Monday, July 12, 2010 by Monkey and Britter Brit

Sorry I have not updated in a bit. We have been pretty busy with home improvements, hanging out with good friends, and ... sleeping. It is crazy how much more I sleep since working two jobs. It can put you out. Especially when your spouse keeps you awake all week with snoring, kicking, pushing, punching, and the most recently growling. Bryan has been scaring the hell out of me lately with his latest sleeping habit. One night, after spending all night watching scary movies and films, I was laying there not able to sleep because Bryan had kneed me in the back (I need to start wearing bubble wrap to sleep, I swear). I was staring into the darkness when I heard this awful growling behind my head. I thought my mind was playing tricks on me and turned around. I did not have my contacts in so I could not see what was growling. I reached out and touched Bryan's face and he jerked awake and we both jumped and well... I screamed. It scared me so bad, and he did it again last night so I just shook him like I always do to get him to roll over. I now understand why they all used to sleep in different beds. It makes sense if you really want to sleep good.

We had a good 4th of July weekend. We got to spend more time with Cassie and her boyfriend Todd and Cassie's family as well. They are doing pretty good considering that they only lost their dad a year ago. I admire how strong and great these women are. We went to the rodeo at West Jordan since we got free tickets to go for volunteering at the demolition derby the week before. They had some great fireworks that we got to watch from the stands actually and we had a great time hanging with such great friends. The rodeo was pretty good but for sure the bulls won this time because they only had one qualifying run. The barrel racers were awesome though. There was 19 of them and only two knocked the barrels over and rest were all really close to one another as far as time went. It was a close call.

Bryan took the time to put in our new front door which is now red. I love it. It looks really hot on our house. We have also been clearing all the weeds and built up dirt from the side of our house. All of it compliments of our neighbors that do not clean up their yard at all. We are slowing making our way to the back yard which is our next project to fix. Sod, sprinklers, new stairs out the back, and a dog run will be kind of pricey but needs to be done. We have made a few trips to the dump lately cleaning stuff out. We finally got rid of our evil Japanese elm that was growing the cement. Now to kill the stump. We also since the doors in front of the washer and dryer are straight but the frame around them are ridiculously crooked we found some curtains to hang and a nice rod to hide the crookedness. I am slowly but surely getting rid of all the hard water that is building up at our house in the sinks and toilet. It really sucks living in Magna with all the stupid hard water. It really blows. I spent 2 hours on the bathroom yesterday just cleaning the toilet and tub. I ended up taking a razor blade to both to get off the hard water. It worked great once I had my system down.

The pups are doing great. They are running around playing and getting dirty constantly. I think took about 3 pounds of dogs hair out of Daisy the last time I brushed her. She has such a think coat and sheds a lot. But they are loving life hanging out in the shade of our back yard and barking at anything that moves. Blue is doing awesome with his training too. He has learned to shake now and is perfecting it. It was so cute last night because when it was time for bed, we brought the dogs in to put in their kennels to eat and sleep for the night but Blue did not want to go to bed. He first tried his usual hug me and sweet eyes for a snuggle. But when that did not work. He sat and shook trying to get out of having to go to bed. It was hilarious to watch. What awesome dogs we have. We even took Daisy over to the dog wash by our house for a bath yesterday and she did awesome getting in the tub and sitting still to get a bath. I love that place because Daisy is way too big for our tub and you can wash them and dry them there for only $5. It is awesome.

Bryan is honing in on the kill for finding a job. He is exhausting every resource he has even and working hard around the house to help. I am excited though because I will be done with the second job by the second to last week in August because I start school then and my labs are at night. It will be nice to be done with two jobs.

So seriously, I am so pissed off at my aunt and uncle Ron and Donita. They are being kind of jack a's about my cousin, Nick's wedding. He is getting married the last week of the month and not me or Bryan, nor my mom and dad, my sister and Danny, not even my grandmother is invited to the wedding. Why you ask? Because Donita and Ron gave Nick an ultimatum telling him if he did not make up with his sister, which there is a lot of history there, then he could not invite anyone else but his parents and her parents and his brother, Richard. Who the hell tries to force someone to make up with someone and uses that person's wedding as leverage. That is just crap. They are putting the bride to be through hell! I can only imagine what they are going through and no one should have to put up with that. Ever! I don't care if they are fighting and he did not want to invite his sister, it is his and Andrea's wedding, NOT DONITA'S AND RON'S. The thing that really frosts my cookies is that they are trying to blame Nick for us not coming. That is called manipulative and narcissistic and I can't blame Nick for not giving into his parents crap. Donita even had the nerve to plan the bridal shower on a Monday so my mom could not go. We have always put wedding showers on the weekend for them and they had the nerve to do that to my mom. She is really hurt by all the crap they are not only putting Nick and Andrea through but also herself. Her own brother is the one preventing her from being at his son's wedding. WTF!! Well, all I can say last is Ron and Donita are burning a major bridge with this move and I don't imagine we will be seeing them much anymore. I am more than fet up with all this. I will never forget the time Donita told me that I could not get in the boat because I wasn't family. I am her niece and she does not think I am family. That freakin' hurt and she has never apologized. She never will either and oh well. I brushed it off my shoulder and have made efforts to be nice to her but she is messing with my mom and Grandma now and that I will not ignore. She will not be talked to at the open house at all and I am only going to show support to Nick and Andrea and that is it.

We are loving Netflix still and lately I have been watching some awesome horror short films. They are both from two series, Masters of Horror and Fear Itself. They are both seasons of just short horror films and I recommend them to anyone looking for good series. They are both created by the same guy, a Mick Garris. He is awesome in the horror section and does great with both series. Masters of Horror got started when Mick Garris invited all his favorite horror directors to a dinner and they all agreed to direct one or more of each short films and show off their mutual obsession with the horror genre. Fear Itself had the same basis of how it was created minus the dinner. They are all interesting and different in many ways with each short film.

Well that is the latest in our lives.

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Fun Weekend

Monday, June 28, 2010 by Monkey and Britter Brit

We had a great weekend this week. It was wonderful because we actually got to finally spend some time together. Friday night, since Bryan was busy with chores and other tasks during the day, we had some oh so yummy (sarcastically) Beto's mexican drive thru food. It was really not that good at all and neither one of us ended up finishing the food. Yuck. We put our food down quickly and started watching a BBC presentation series called Life. It was pretty good and it was about all the meat eaters in the animal kingdom is the one episode we watched. It was pretty good that we put our food down quickly too because it showed some of the meals that the animals were eating and it would have made us even sicker if we had tried to eat and watch the series.

Saturday was pretty busy too. First we started off with a little yard work followed by a trip to Lowe's for some home improvement needs. When we bought our house, the front door frame was bent but we did not really notice until it kept bending and soon became so hard to close we just shut it one day and latched it shut. We have not opened it since and have been using the side door instead. We are just lucky enough that the movement of the door has not affected our alarm system and it will be easy to replace. Bryan the handyman and his dad, Don, the master handyman, will replace the door this week. When we went to buy the new door, the doors only came with the frame built in and we could not find a door that we could just put on the old door frame. I admit I was nervous about the thought of trying to do that big of a job and not having a professional do it, but when I found out that Don had done it before, I was suddenly comforted. Don is great at all the tasks that he does and between him and Bryan they are unstoppable for any task. I am so lucky to have such a great husband that is so good with his hands and is able to do those things that I am not capable of. We also got some brand new dead bolts and more decorative handles for the doors too and I love them. Also the door that we got is also under work by yours truly. I am currently updating the plain white door with a splash of color. Spanish red to be accurate. It is a really deep red and I have just fallen in love with it. It is really going to look good and accent the tan exterior of our home. It even kind of matches the burgundy curtains we have in the front window. I am really turning into a person that loves the colors that are a little more bold and powerful instead of just earth tones. I like both really. We still have tons of work to do on the house for sure. The work never ends. We also finally got the tree cut down that was in our sidewalk. We are in the process of killing the roots now and starting to work on cleaning out the side of the house and slowly making our way to the backyard to work on. Slowly but surely. No one tells you that when you buy a house that it is really expensive to maintain plus not to mention that any improvements you want to make will cost a fortune. Again I am lucky to have such a hard working husband that can work hard on our home improvements and saves us so much in installment fees.

So after the trips to Lowe's and some small home improvement tasks, we made our way out to Herriman to my good friend Cassie's house. Her aunt was in charge of the demolition derby in West Jordan and we got to go be timers. It was a blast. We had the best seats in the house for the derby, front and center for all the action. There were multiple roll overs and they are so much fun to see. It is funny how excited you can get when you know that the cars are about to collide. The adrenaline is great! We also got some free rodeo tickets for volunteering like we did. It was a win win situation for sure.

After the demolition derby we went and got some yummy Coldstone's ice cream and Jordan Landing then sat and chatted for a while with Cassie and her boyfriend, Todd. We like Todd. He is really nice and he treats Cassie good. We can tell that they really compliment one another and we hope every thing works out great between them. After ice cream, we went back to Cassie's house and watched the Skeleton Key. I have never before seen this movie and it was pretty good. You really had to think a little at the ending but it was good. Kate Hudson really surprised me in her role and I was impressed that she was able to do so good in a horror suspense show where it is she is always in the romantic comedies genre. I was impressed. I would definately recommend it for sure.

Then on Sunday we literally slept in until like one because of the fact that we did not get home until like 4 in the morning from Saturday night. It was worth it though to get to hang out with Cassie and her Todd. It was a blast. We then got up and lounged until about 5 in the afternoon before heading over to my parents for a yummy dinner. My mom made home made hamburgers, home made potato salad, and some yummy beans. We then watched the episode of True Blood, our favorite television series right now. It was a good one too, that was really intense and we loved it. We can't wait for next weeks episode. We then went home to put another coat of paint on the door, lay out more mulch in the flower beads, and then just spend the evening lounging. It was really nice to get such a good rest weekend to prepare for the week and weekend that lies ahead. I have to work the usual 60 hour week Monday through Friday, then I have to work 4 more hours on Saturday, then to work Monday through Friday at the day job, but only Wednesday through Friday at the night job. It is going to be a long two weeks coming up. But I will make it through somehow.

Well that is all the latest from this weekend. Eventually I will update with more of our life pictures.

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