$@%# happens!

This is how I started my day.
Chamberlain is "Potty Training" and doesn't quite get it. He went in his diaper first then ran to the bathroom, stripping down on his way. What you don't see is, the whole role of toilet paper unrolled scattered throughout the house. At that point he then yells, "Mom come wipe my bum!"

This is how it ended.
Shoveling Manure for our garden! on my family's land we started a Community Garden last summer. Its really rad because people from ALL faiths are coming together, gardening! Especially, during these tough times, people are and will, really benefit from this. In fact there is a 12 year old boy growing this year. 12 years old. The sad thing is, this is what his family is going to live off and depend on for food this summer. Other growers are growing for the Kanab Care and Share which is constantly running out of food. There is just not enough to go around. For FHE we decided to get our garden ready. I have never gardened (is that a word) before. I am so looking forward to this, the whole night my mouth kept watering just thinking about the corn, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, and sugar snaps that would come from the poop! It was a fun night we worked till the sun went down.

The picture with Chamberlain in the Wheelbarrow, yes, that is where we would shovel the poop and then we would haul it over to the plot and rake it in. Chamberlain would jump in for a ride back to the poop pile. All night long he kept saying "mom, can we play in the poop" and I would answer "yes we can son!"

My name is Ashleigh Burgess and I am a Pack Rat!

Let see this last week went by so fast. We finally sold our house after 9 long months. Great, however we had been using our house as a storage unit for all our lovely things. You think that I would have been slowly packing things up now and then with our trips to Utah County, but, of course that would have been the easy way out! We had from Monday to Thursday to pack everything. In those 3 days I discovered that I might show signs of being a pack rat. I KEEP EVERYTHING!!! I don't like to throw things away besides old and moldy food. I realized that for me everything had either a memory or it might just come in handy one day, or better yet, my kids might want it for their homes. CRAZY, I know. I just like old things. I realize that I would rather get something old with meaning then something new. I just couldn't throw anything away. It was really hard, to see this sick side of myself. I didn't realize that I had this issue until it came time to hall my grandmothers car off to the scrap yard. Its a 1989 Grand Prix LE. I wanted to keep it, even though it hasn't run since 2006, and when it did run it didn't go over 35 MPH, you had to keep jugs of water and oil in the car because it had a crack in the radiator and the oil had a mad leak! Yes, Josh and I have been hauling (i mean we paid people to tow) this car around to the 4 different houses that we have lived in in the past few years. I even went as far as, well, we can just get a tow with the uhaul and let it rest in the parking lot of Moqui Cave. I mean this car has memories people. Its the only car that I know of to date that has made it to the TV towers and floated down the creek, and still ran like a gem. Not to mention all the other random things its been through, we, as in my siblings minus Sage, all drove the car in high school. Except when Shelbie and I drove it, it was in its glory perfectly running in fact the smell was of my grandmothers perfume, Beautiful. She wore it by the bottle. It was great for us, it was this cute little sports car that held just enough people. And for my brothers it became the "Timmy" on Rod Dyrdeks Fantasy Factory. They destroyed her. Then Josh and I bought it from my father for a dollar when we were newly married. She was ours and yes josh drove it to and from work at 35 mph from Provo to Draper. The only thing I have left of her is her License plate. That is all we have left, and I have already hung it in the trophy room.

americas favorite cookie

Part one.
Tonight was my first attempt at making HOMEMADE Oreo s. I guess I can't take all the credit. I had two very handsome helpers. Lately, it seems that I cant get Oreo's off my brain. After all they are Americas favorite cookie! Last weekend I made Oreo truffles for my in-laws and then today when I was thinking about Oreo s, it hit me, I have never made nor attempted to make, homemade ones. It was an easy and short process. I cant believe I have never tried this before. They are quite tasty and a cinch to make. And did I mention DELICIOUS!!!

Part two.
On another note, its Thursday night and if we were back in sweet Utah Valley we most likely would be heading over to the Smith's abode for a little "Office" party, where we would have dinner and dessert. So in parting these are for you Micah, Jill, Taj Man, and Eden Girl. Enjoy! We sure did.

Pete and Re-pete!

Truett came for the weekend and lets just say that Chamberlain was in Heaven. The whole weekend long Chamberlain had to do everything Truett was doing. Even down to the same clothes. No Joke(although I didn't seem to get any pictures of them in matching outfits! One thing about Truett is, he cant sit still, he constantly has to be doing something productive. My mom bought this dinosaur, around Christmas time, to be put up at the cave. It has to be assembled first, so of course since it has been in the box since December, Truett, made it "his" project over the weekend. Chamberlain has been waiting for someone to put it together. It has been torch er for the little boy, since its just been sitting on a chair in grandmas room. Truett was kind enough to let chamberlain be his assistent during surgery. Truett is also a perfectionist so it was very hard for him to give up some control and let Chamberlain help! In the end we had two very happy campers. Lets just say Chamberlain cant wait to see Uncle Truett again!

Happy St. Valentines

I love this holiday!

funny how life works out...

Chamberlain and I have been a little under the weather lately, and because of that, I have had a lot of time to spend in doors. I decided to tackle my moms stacks of pictures (before the digital era), and I came across the above picture, well not this exact one, the real one I will post when I can figure out how to scan, for now this will do. This picture has a story a very funny story at that. The summer that college/basketball ended, my parents/family had the opportunity to pick up a school bus in Canada for our county, with another family the Johnsons. At this time in our life Josh and I were "Just Friends." We were working camps together, when my mom called and said I bought you a ticket you are coming with us, get yourself to Vegas! So I asked Josh if he could give me a ride on his way home to Irvine, he obliged. We left in the evening and before we knew it we were in Vegas. The 5 hour car ride seemed like minutes. By the time we got to the airport if he didn't have Boba (our boxer) in the back seat, I would have asked him to come with. Off, I went on a 17 day, 17 state bus ride across the country. Did I mention it was a SHORT bus people! There were 12 of us. Its a trip I will NEVER forget. We stopped at every tourist spot from here to New York. And all the while Josh was with me (through text). There were so many experiences and stories, my two brothers, Danny and I decided to go to Thornys game at Madison Square Garden, while I was in line at will- call. Tanner and Danny decided they were going to follow this guy into an alley wanting to sell them watches and fake ids. Hello-what were they thinking? Or the time when Truett was acting like a grump to everyone. He made a mean comment, I sprung from my seat and beat him, literally beat him with a stick I had found earlier that morning in the sacred grove. This whole time I had been texting josh pretty much everyday, multiple times a day. By the end of the trip everyone on that bus knew who Josh was. Most were convinced ( unbeknownst to me) that we eventually would get married. Funny how things work out, isn't it. Now back to the sign. We were coming into our last state of Wyoming at the tail end of everything. By this time we were sick and tired of stopping to take pictures with road signs. Here we are latitude 44.77N. Longitude -107.519W, on top of a beautiful mountain range and this sign pops up out of nowhere. My dad, who was driving pulls the bus over, and says Ashleigh go stand by the sign and I'll take your picture. Of course, I was not going to get out of that bus. Especially, with a sing that had my "friends" last name on it. My dad wouldn't take no for an answer and settled for him stepping out of the bus and taking the picture. Deep down a little part of me wishes that I would have gotten out of that bus.

Now we have this picture, that isn’t just a picture, but a memory, and a perfect description of life at Burgess Junction.

Is it really too late to post Christmas...

So yes Christmas, I know that it was a while ago and some people do not like Christmas still up in January but I have to remember it some how. So here we go. Lets see if I can remember that far back. Okay, everyone was home for Christmas except of course for Uncle Tanner. He is still serving the lord in Brasil and I believe he is loving it. At least thats what I got from the 2 hour phone call on Christmas and then the hour phone call the day before Christmas and then the 30 minute phone call the previous day, just to make sure that his call was going to work on Christmas.

It was a RARE one, we woke up to a ton of snow. Growing up here it has never, I mean NEVER, snowed on Christmas let alone stayed the day. It was a "White Chirstmas" just like the song except my parents don't have a fireplace so therefore there was no Chestnut roasting. Things we did, sleding in the backyard (please note Uncle Tim's vintage BYU hat from my grandparents era), we had our traditional Christmas eve dinner with Grandma and Grandpa Laycook and guessed it we opened pj's, and basically just enjoyed being with family. Oh and my favortie thing I refinished an art desk for Chamberlain for Christmas. Its Turquoise of course! As for New Years, Josh and I didnt even make it to 10 PM. Merry Christmas