Happy Fathers' Day! And We've Had a Busy Week.

Thomas and I have not only been blessed with wonderful Moms; we both have pretty cool Dads, too! Our fathers have worked hard to provide for our families. Along the way, they've helped us learn to love nature, prize knowledge, and appreciate the world around us. Their influence has helped to shape and mold us into independent adults! We wouldn't be who we are now without Kenneth Paulson and Jeffrey Bradshaw.

Dads, thank you for your patience, your counsel, and your encouragement! We love you both very much.

(Lisa & Ken at the beach 1997)

(Thomas & Jeff hiking 1998)

I got to visit with my former roommates last Sunday. It's fun to chat with these lovely ladies! Beth just got back from a "study abroad" trip in France. Megan is getting married at the end of the month. Dara lives just a couple blocks away. It's not often enough that we all get together!

(Dara, Beth, Megan, Lisa)

We worked hard to get our thank you cards out this week. I fashioned a stamp from linoleum (like we used for our invitations) and stamped the many cards. If you don't get one soon, please let us know. We most likely received your gift, but it could've been attributed to someone else, or it might be one of our "mystery" gifts. Some things were left without cards/labels but we did our best to try to match everything up.

(the stamp I designed & carved)

(the stamping process)

(lotsa lotsaoxen cards!)

We also made another trip to Ikea to purchase another bookcase! We have a thing for books, and have managed to nearly fill this second bookcase. Thomas mostly assembled it and we're grateful to have it in our living room, replacing the boxes of books!

(my handyman)

We planted some flower seeds and two tomato plants in our little "garden" area. Hopefully they will grow and produce :o)

Friday night, we attended the Mt. Timpanogos Temple. It was our second time attending that temple, but interestingly enough, the last time we went was around Mothers' Day!

To finish out our week, we enjoyed a wonderful visit with Thomas' brother Robert and his family. We took a walk, made a yummy meal together (recipes at the Bradshaw Bistro), and had fun with their twin daughters. We feel so blessed to have had so many opportunities to see family lately.

(Lydia)

(Ruby)

And finally, just for fun:

(we're big on dairy products...)

(this dandelion stands about 4 feet tall; the diameter of the puff is about 5 inches! and it's just outside our apartment.)

oxox

Saving Through Scavenging

Lisa has been tried and tested with her husband's incessant freebie-seeking and deal-hunting habits. However, we both agree that it's worth it. As an example, yesterday we went shopping at Walmart and WinCo. Through a variety of ads in the mail and coupons collected, we were able to redeem quite a haul, at just under $13 of real savings with nine (9) coupons and three (3) price matches. Below are the free things we got in one "fowl" swoop (like our neighbors the turkey vultures):

In other news, we got sick for free these last few weeks (not pictured). However, despite it all, we were able to enjoy the company of Lisa's mother and sister for several days:

And a few pictures showing one facet of Lisa's creative side:

Oh, and check out Lisa's sister's blog here. She's a talented GIMPer.

...oh, and by the way, THANK YOU!

Dear readers,

 We just wanted to let you know how big you made our month of May. We track the number of visits etc. to our websites (www.lotsaoxen.com, blog.lotsaoxen.com, www.lotsaoxen.com/wedding, and bistro.lotsaoxen.com). In the month of May, we hit some neat milestones!

 On May 10, 2010, we reached 2,000 visits.

 As of May 19, 2010, our pages have been viewed in 20 countries, including Denmark, the Philippines, and Brazil. We've reached every continent (except for Antarctica...).

 And, as of May 14, 2010, our pages have been viewed in 200 cities. Hooray for multiples of 20...?

 Today, we're up to 2,249 visits from 212 cities in 23 countries.

 Of course, not all of our visits are from people we know. We also get to look at search engine queries that brought up our page (that searchers then clicked on), like:

• whatever happened to dristan cold medicine 
• stuff for thomas and lisa to do tonight 
• sacramento car oxens
• emergency kits for temporal and spiritual preparedness 
• layered pasta dishes  
• oxens sick february 2010

  Anyway, we just thought we'd share! Feel free to drop by the Bradshaw Bistro for a new recipe. And here's a couple photos for you to enjoy:

(Thomas & Lisa at the Provo temple in May 2010)

(at Lisa's parents' house)

oxox

Entertaining photos for the masses

Holy lapse in blog posts! Sorry, loyal readers!

We've been back in Provo for a couple days, after spending the Memorial Day weekend in California. We were able to attend my sister Morgan's high school graduation.

(Morgan & Dad)

(Morgan & Lisa)

On Friday, it rained for a good part of our drive. We saw a stunning rainbow around Wendover (on the Utah/Nevada border)!

(Wendover rainbow)

We were also able to see Thomas' sister Elizabeth & her sweet family. They braved the curvy roads and came up to my parents' home on Saturday. We had a blast playing with the little ones and chatting with Liz & Saki.

(Mere)

(Glenn)

(Saki & Elizabeth)

(the whole family!)

My dear friend Lanessa made it up there too, and we sat together at the graduation.

(Ken, Lanessa, Lisa)

(Mom, Morgan, Ruth, Glenn, Liz, Lanessa, Dad, Lisa, Thomas... with Saki & Mere in the front)

My aunt Ruth was visiting the Sacramento region, too, and we got to visit with her for a bit. On Sunday, we went to my aunt Lucy's house and chatted with the two of them and my cousins Gail and Terry.

Later in the evening, we visited our old neighbors, the Kings, and saw their married daughter and her two kids.

After such a busy weekend, we are glad to be back at our quiet home!

(he makes me smile!)

Last week, we worked on a little garden patch outside our apartment. We have yet to plant anything. We've got a pretty good crop of rocks, however. We also had our neighbors, the Magnussons, over for dinner. We played Parcheesi afterward, which was fun!

(right outside our living room)

oxox

Hello, world.

This is not a computer program, though (sorry if you don't get it).

But in another usage, we want to thank all those that have visited our sites. Between the bistro, the blog, and the wedding site, we this week hit 200 (two hundred) unique cities from 19 countries and 26 states (plus D.C.). That is over 2000 visits and just short of 5000 pages viewed (until you read this and put it over said number). Feel free to help us out in our effort to be visited by more places around the world!

We don't have any pretty photos this week, unfortunately, due to a misplaced charger. Here's one you can enjoy from our lesson a few weeks ago (no, this is not a live photo, but instead a reenactment):

We got library cards for the Provo Library. We are now officially among the literarily elite in Provo.

We had grilled cheese sandwiches. Those were pretty good. We also went shopping and got MORE food! Some may eventually be featured on the Bradshaw Bistro...

We also finally tried out our blender and sacrificed the contentment of our stomachs for a milkshake. Or so we'll claim a sacrifice.

Thomas has been working on a pollen count widget with his former roommate (yes, they parted on amicable terms). If you have a Mac, we may need beta testers in the future. Let us know...

Lisa has been working. And working. And working. Luckily she found LibriVox, where you can find free public domain audiobooks for download. Coincidentally, they mostly use books from Project Gutenberg, which Thomas is using for another project...

Lisa has created a few free photo books at Hot Prints. They let you make a free book every month from uploaded photos and there aren't any gimmicks. Good deal...check it out. They do include a 4-page advert in the middle of the book, but you can easily pull it off the staples...

Oh, and check out our new wedding photo album on the wedding site by typing "wedding" (unless you're using Internet Explorer, which requires you to click on "Home" at the top of this page and then go the wedding section). These are a few of the photos we've received thus far. If you didn't know about our shortcuts, just type "short". Not in a text box. Just start typing now.

Happy Mothers' Day, Moms!!

Thomas and I have been so very blessed to have truly magnificent mothers. We are grateful to have their influences in our lives. They've taught us both to love reading and to live with integrity. Kathleen Bradshaw and Geneva Paulson are irreplaceable figures in our lives! They bore us and raised us up to be who we are today.

Moms, thank you for your sacrifices, your friendship, and your wisdom!! We love you both very much.

(Kathleen reading with Thomas)

(Geneva holding baby Lisa)

This week felt a little bit crazy! Monday night we went through some of Thomas' old schoolwork and things. It was fun to see his old French school notebooks, spelling tests, and Valentines from classmates.

On Tuesday, I got a call from my sister. It wasn't good news; my cat had passed away. I was extremely distraught. Good ol' Peekaboo had seemed healthy when I was home for the wedding. She came into our family when I was nine years old - she was 4 at the time and named "Pepper". It took a long time for her to warm up to us, but she and I always had a special relationship. We changed her name because "Peekaboo" fit her so much better - especially with the exclamation point markings on her face! She was always low-maintenance and more easy going than our other cats. She used to come to my whistle, and once in a while she'd get a little crazy, playing on her cat tree. Home won't be the same without my "fwend".

(Peekaboo)

(Peekaboo playing)

On Wednesday, Mr. Bradshaw and I did laundry together. We even got some snacks at a local Mexican grocery store.

On Thursday, we went up to Salt Lake and had dinner at Cafe Rio with my dad! He was out here working on my cousin's place again, so it was nice to get to see him again before he headed back home. The three of us also checked out the Gateway Mall to see if we could find some Mothers' Day gifts. We were successful (although... I can't say the mall directories were any help...).

(Lisa & dad Ken showing off his handiwork at his nephew's place)

Friday night, our ward had a Cinco de Mayo potluck. We were not the only ones to bring refried beans, but there were other yummy dishes to enjoy as well.

Saturday, we cleaned our place and had some yummy waffles. Thomas helped with a move-in a couple houses down, and in the afternoon we went to American Fork to attend a session at the Mt. Timpanogos temple. Its quiet beauty was a welcome change of scenery from the very utilitarian (but still pretty) Provo temple. We enjoyed our visit and afterward stopped by the Deseret Industries thrift store.

(Mt. Timpanogos Temple 5.8.2010)

(The Bradshaws at the Mt. Timpanogos Temple)

(Beautiful flowers at the Mt. Timpanogos temple)

Today, we had a nice Sunday School lesson on Deuteronomy. We taught our class of four to "Beware lest [they] Forget" the Lord. It's fun to be in a calling together!

Don't forget to check out the Bradshaw Bistro for some delicious recipes and food reviews!

oxox

Ah, spring...

Spring is here at last, not to stay for long but at least enough to make the searing summer in this sere strange state bearable. As alluded to in the previous post (and the low frequency of them in general), we've been busy. Lisa continues to work hard at her job, and Thomas is working part-time with another job opportunity possibly opening up concurrently, so we've been blessed to be relatively productive. We both have several projects lined up for the summer on the side as well, so you (the reader) will likely hear a bit more about those in the future...

(Lisa enjoying a meal from the Bradshaw Bistro)

We received scores of gifts from both known and unknown admirers (please let us know if you think you're one of these), so thanks again! We hope to thank you more personally in the near future.

Anyway, as for events this week (as always, the order is non-particular)...
We cooked (see the Bradshaw Bistro for more on this)
We saw the Vancouver, BC Temple cultural event
We cleaned (now that we have a vacuum)
Lisa's dad helped repair the Pontiac
We organized our wedding gifts
We went on a walk or two
We taught Sunday School
We watched a movie
We read (past tense)
We ate too much
We laundered
We shopped
We worked
We lived
We etc.

Hmmmm...yeah. Not too exciting on this end. But life is grand.

Oh, and a special note for a few:

Happy Birthday, Saki! (27 April)


Happy Anniversary, Jeff and Kathleen! (27 April)


Happy Anniversary, Robert and Camille! (3 May)