Just some more photos to post.

Jordan and I were taking some moments for more photo opps.





Jordan caught Jack and I having a heart-to-heart.



I took these of Jackerooni.





Bed-hog...which when said out loud can sound like Bad Dawg. ;) I love this photo. He's a good subject for photos, no?







































I really like how Jack's paw came out when I got this photo. I turned my camera upside down and took a chance it might come out. Jack loves his paws. I love his paws too. Good boy.

Okay, I just love these two photos Jordan took of Jack, and the following one of some art we saw while walking in downtown Everett. I took the final pic of the flower. Not so bad on a really cold night where we only took about five shots total practicing some night photography. It's been too cold out here. I was snuggled into my new hat and everything...but alas...too damn cold.

Old dog, new trick!

Mastering Byzantine.
I have done loomwork beading, stringing beadwork jewelry, silver clay jewelry, wirework, metalsmithing, and now I'm really trying to get the hang of some chain maille. I've done only one other kind of chain maille, called a foxtail. I do love it, and I can imagine making more. The Byzantine chain looks like a mangled mess of wire, but it's all made out of jump rings. You can click on the picture to enlarge the view of my piece.
I found that my sister-in-law can make them and has been for quite some time. I took her advice on what gauge of wire to use, ordered up some sterling silver and learned it. Honestly, I feel sheepish that I've put it off this damn long. It was simple once I learned about the thickness of wire that I was to be using. I love this chain, thank you Theresa for your link on your blog for further instructions on this chain and others. It was helpful with a byzantine I made with too thin of wire, in too large of loops. It told me to use three jump rings in the place of two in certain joints and it worked on that project ( project not shown). It takes about ten feet of wire to do one bracelet. THAT will make ya think! I absolutley love this craft and sort of can't stop doing it.

Being funny monkeys

You all are a bunch of goofs I tell ya!

This weekend, Jordan's brothers, Matt and Jeremy, and Jeremy's girlfriend, Becca came to visit! They arrived late after their workdays were done and after a nice long bath ( Jer and Becca...sillies!), and watching some Family Guy with Matt, everyone promptly went to bed. They were only able to stay for one night, but I'm so happy that they found some time to come see our new place and to have some laughs with us. You all were lighthearted and silly and yet I got to know you a bit better this visit and I'm just so pleased. I had a really good time. I have but one complaint and that is that the time passed much too quickly and then *poof* you were gone. Monday's promising workday called you all home to Vancouver and we had a slight "empty nest" syndrome going on.







We got a new video game for Christmas. It's called Dance Dance Revolution. You play on a footpad like shown and follow directions set to music on the TV screen.

Click on this picture above to see Matt laughing in the background!



Time to refuel!

Okay Matt and Jer....that'll be enough of that!


ooOOoo...scary face Jeremy!


I got to talk with Becca a bit today and that was good to have some girl time to catch up with each other. I got to learn a bit more of who she is and what she's been up to lately. I also learned this new text book on Urbanization was 200 dollars! NO ONE TOUCH THE BOOK!!! Good luck in your classes Bec!


Jeremy and Jordan got to work on some dinner. They made their Dad's Taco Salad for us. They take good care of us! Good job guys, it was tasty! Thanks Tim!


The Cooks!


Jack's not one for having his picture taken today. hmpf!

Thanks guys for a taking the time to come see us. We had a wonderful time. Jack, what do you think?



Matt wants to know. Does he look like a Ram?

Your barn door's open! No. Really!

This blog entry I could have also named, "Earning My Keep." Most of my household chores were done yesterday. Today was a beautiful sunny day here, so I simply had to do some chores outside. The two stall barn we have out in our backyard has always had some door issues and they've gotten worse. Now, with our strong winds here, the doors are swinging open wildly and slamming shut. Slam! open Slam! shut. The doors don't close and create a good seal in order for the locks to work correctly. I decided to tackle that today.

Okay, so there were two doors that were causing issues. This is a two stall barn, each stall having double doors that overlap one another a few inches in order to close. One door simply seemed too tall for the door jam, so it wouldn't close all the way. I shaved it down with a saw, then my Dremmel handtool and got it to close easier. I still kinda wanted it tight, but not impossible. I love my Dremmel. This photo was taken before I evened it out with the dremmel. This is the door that lays under the other.































The next door with problems is on the other stall, the problem was along the vertical side of the door where it closes. This door rests on top of the other door, or atleast, should rest on it to form a seal. One of these boards sticks out way too far under the top board, for it to close well onto the other door and overlap correctly. I used my Dremmel along the door to smooth out the wood that sticks out too far. I showed you what I did here with just a small section. I had to do the entire length of the door for it to work.

























































One creative thing about these doors is their doorstops. I really do like them. See the hanging spike? When you open the door, take the spike off the nail/screw and lower it to set it into the ground while it's still attached to the door. It doesn't seem like it should be as strong as it is. I'm sure that's due to my craftsmanship. Unfortunately, only one of them really worked. The rest fell apart easily. So I redid the three remaining doorstops today and viola! I was done! Time to run around with Jack in the sunshine, which too quickly disappeared.

Think of it more as...Lake Matthiesen?

We knew this was a strong possibility that the creek would raise the water levels in our yard. We did know it. Yesterday, the yard looked fine, and look at the water so far. The water in the neighboring properties is much higher into their yards. We figure this is why there is a dip to our yard towards the back. The backyard is slowly(hopefully) eroding away.

We've really done a lot with this house already. We've moved in and organized quickly. We've addressed some circuit breaker issues. We've replaced lightbulbs, batteries, showerheads, and locks. We've cleaned the gutters, and cut apart a fallen tree. We've tried to fix our fireplace, and will continue to do so. We've raked until we've ached. We've chased away the moles using ultrasonic methods, as well as me just raking over them to blend the soil back into the yard. Exposing their holes to the frosty air I hoped would make it too cold for them to want to stay around. We've updated our cars, and they both work fantastic at this point. We have to remind ourselves that we really have done quite a bit so far. We've prepared for this new year by buying a price-reduced mower. We've created our budget and we're sticking to it. We've installed surround sound speakers. There is sooo much still to do. Are we upset at the water in the yard? No, not quite. We understand that it's there and now we're just using our creativity to see about planning for the future with it. We're both really blessed that the water is so far away from the house. We love the creek too much already to even mind this small upset.

A few small repairs....a whole lotta photos.

Start off with Fatherly advice. "My job, is to teach you risk" is how this usually starts off. Secondly, usually a "No matter what happens, remember, I'll always love you." :) Thanks Dad! Now that we're confident...hehe. First, we need some stuff...like a ladder! That would have been easy enough to pick up, if I didn't send the guys out in my 4Runner with a flat tire! After repairing that, they returned with a brand spankin' new ladder. We were wanting a "Little Giant," but heck, who doesn't! But they are like $300.00-$400.00. What they did find was one similar for more than half the price. It worked beautifully all weekend and we're completely happy with it.


Jordan has been wanting to setup surround sound speakers since he moved into his first home. Heavy discussions went down as to where to place them to reach a "sweet spot" in the room. Once we determined where it would all go, the guys were off and running on installing the speakers on the inside of the room, then moving to the attic to install the cables across the ceilings and down into the walls behind our entertainment center.


See our new shiny ladder? Ain't she beautiful?




Here's my handyman. Still smiling, mainly because they haven't crawled around on insulation just yet.

Our entry hole into the ceiling attic space is small, no?

See our mudwasp nests?





If you look at the rear of this picture, where it's kind of blurred, is cardboard on the floor of the ceiling. I'm poking up wires underneath of it, that Jordan and Dad have to grab onto and pull to the other wall. Yucky job. If I've got those details wrong guys, email me and I'll post it correctly.

















Under our entertainment center, there is a hole in the wall to the left of Jordan. The hole in the wall was so that the wires from the rear speakers could be connected to the receiver. So, we ran wires for the rear speakers up into the attic, we took those wires across the ceiling and dropped them down into the wall behind the entertainment center, finally we pulled those cables through the wall and plugged them into the appropriate outputs on the receiver.We only wanted to make one hole in the wall, and there are future plans of wires coming up from under the floor. Putting the hole here will make the next job easier. A faceplate will go up to cover the hole.

A well deserved treat. I made apple crisp for the guys to enjoy while they were testing out the surround sound. Then, we all settled in for a night of movies with lots of sound. Well, you'd think so, right? Actually, we watched no movies this weekend, and we've no television reception to speak of( I call it the weather channel, but all we ever see is snow!). We just caught up with each other, making more plans for figuring out our house and figuring out how we'd do the toilet repairs and roof cleaning the next day. We all enjoyed getting the giggles because we were so worn out from a full days activities. And just what did the girls do? Well, mainly, we fed our guys, cleaned up after their messes and watched after our pups. The best part was having a little tea party. This tea set was made for me by my Aunt Jeanette in Baltimore. She's not a blood relation, but I've adopted her because of how I feel when I'm around her.
I'm not often a girly-girl, but I can't help it when I'm sipping Earl Grey from this cup. She did a wonderful job painting this set and there's even a cake plate and plates that go with it, and a vase, and soup mugs that both her and my Meemaw have painted for me. It's just too adorable. I'm going to send her photos of us enjoying what they've made for me.

As in a previous post, our toilet needed repair, and my uncle Ron saw what the problems were by reading my blog and sent parts with my folks. My Dad replaced the handle and it's bar component and now it's up to snuff again. Thanks Dad! Thanks Ron! There was also a shower repair, and Jordo blogged about the lesson of the day for him regarding that repair. Check out his blog!
Now, onto the roof!


Don't jump Dad!
NO! Don't throw Jordan off the roof! You goofs!








Aren't you wondering about the pups yet?
Don't they seem a bit "tired?" hehe..get it...'tired'???















These two dogs played with their yard toys all weekend long, chasing balls, chasing each other, and tug-of-war. Happy silly dogs.














Well, that's pretty much it for this weekend. Thanks Mom and Dad for all your help and again for deciding to spend your anniversary with us. I hope that you'll come up again soon so we can do it all over again.

The weekend; I wasn't ready for it to be over.....

Happy Anniversary Mom and Dad!

My folks could have spent thier 37th wedding anniversary at the coast, or at some remote romantic destination, or anywhere else besides podunk washington with us. I'm so glad that they decided to come stay with us, and also to bring Maggie, their yellow lab. We had such a great time! They were such a help to us getting even more settled into our new home. My parents have always been a model for me in finding a partner that best suites me. I will always admire and respect their relationship to each other, to my brother, my husband and I.

My parents met when they were just turning about 20, in Baltimore Maryland, where Dad was stationed in the Army. Dad had returned from serving in the Vietnam War. They met in a "Gino's" fast food joint parking lot while partying with their friends. My Dad asked to bum a smoke off my Mom who was in a car next to his. After she gave him one, he made his move and came over to her car, and sat right next to her. From there, their destinies unraveled. They dated and were engaged and married by their six month anniversary. Always having a good time, always goofing around. My mom then moved from Baltimore Maryland, to Portland Oregon to be with, and marry simply in a courthouse, my Dad.

They decided to start a family right away. It took them five years of trying, but they got what they asked for with the arrival of my brother. One exact year after my brother was born, I came along. After so many years, they've continued to impress me. With raising my brother and I, my Dad trucking for 11 years, my Mom staying at home raising us, it wasn't easy. There could have been times during the years that they raised us that Mom could have complained about raising us alone since Dad was mainly home on the weekends. Well, except for summertime when my brother John and I would go on "runs" with him for extended periods. But it never felt like that she was doing it alone. It was simply that they had built the respect between them that Dad raised us by making sure we had all that we needed growing up, (and then some) and making sure Mom could stay home to ensure their ideals were passed along to us on a daily basis. We stayed home with Dad when he was home and we begged to go with him when he left our driveway each week. We spoke to him everyday and we never felt like we didn't have a Dad.
They've survived moving from coast to coast once, twice, thrice(final move during my senior year in high school); changing jobs; losing my grandfather (my mom's Dad); losing my grandmother (my Dad's Mom); dealing with melanoma with my Dad; and subsequent chemotherapy treatments and surgeries; college educations for my brother and I, and our careers afterward; forming a life without their children at home and finally enjoying it.

I remember one Valentines Day, I asked my Dad what it was about my Mom that got his attention. His answer was quick, so quick and sweet it caught me offguard and brought tears to my eyes. He said "Oh, her 'eyes', she has movie star eyes." His look was bright and sparkling as he spoke about her, in front of her. My mom said, "oh, I never knew that!" She got teary-eyed too. She says she used to use eyeliner that would extend out passed her eyelashes like they did back then. She had forgotten about that. I think my Mom always feels adored by my Dad, and likewise, he feels adored by her. They still remember everything about thier honeymoon and brag about it if you give them the chance, but please make sure you are over 18 before you ask. I'm not sure they can bridle their passion, nor do they make attempts to.

Their relationship is amazing. They still hold hands. They still make-out. They still giggle and flirt with one another. They still excite one another. They are romantic and playful. They've never strayed, and they've always remained sweet to each other. They always hold high esteem of one another, even when the other isn't around, even when it's not easy.

Congratulations Mom and Dad for pushing through all these years. I've learned a lot from both of you:

-Marriage is for the long haul. If you don't love him, don't marry him. If you love him, marry him. Once you marry him, don't stop loving him.

-We're going to love, honor and respect each other, even when it's not easy. Even when it's not easy. Even when it's not easy.

-When the times get tough between Jordan and I, we're going to build something together. I remember my folks building decks, garages, gardens, fences, spare rooms, and our pool. It focuses us on a separate task, and we'll have to work together to complete it. Seeing those tasks complete were monuments of the teamwork of my parents.

-Keep our "yes's" to one another, always more than a few counts above our "no's" to one another.

-Reach for one another first.

I already feel so adored by Jordan, so I made a fantastic start. We are newlyweds, so all of the hand holding, and "etc." is coming easy. We'll hold onto it. If we don't, just walk in front of us, and remind us how.

There are so many more lessons I've learned and continue to learn, but I'll keep this entry shorter than it definitly could be. So, I'll post our home repairs details at a later date, I felt it too important to let this anniversary go by without adequate mention.
CONGRATULATIONS!


A short story.
Family friends, the Beckwiths, recently celebrated their 60th Anniversary. They are both 80 years old. They sent pictures of their smiling faces. Not too shabby, no? Best thing was, the picture was taken while parasailing in Hawaii together in the same sling, while holding a sign signifying their wedding date. Fantastic model! They are a couple that I definitly admire. Their love for each other is completely evident and admirable as well. I can't wait to have a similar experience, that at 80, I am still beaming about how "cute" I still think my husband is and how I just never can capture enough of him around me.

Remember the movie "Money Pit?" Ya, a little like that.

Here, is our master toilet. I flushed it two days ago and the flusher didn't work. It didn't pull the inner plunger up to allow the water to drain into the bowl. I found the chain, rehooked it, but in the meantime, found it difficult to pull the handle's arm in order to reattach the chain. I noticed that I'd somehow stripped the connection between handle and arm. I don't even know how to begin to fix that. Jordan is going to go to Home Depot or Coast to Coast today to see what he can find.

This, is oil, leaking from Jordan's car, only about a week after he'd caught up on his maintenance of the vehicle. He took his car to the repair shop yesterday and they cleaned it up, and said that they could find nothing causing the issue. We are to clean up our garage floor and see if it continues to occur. The repairman said that if it continues it "could be" a pressure valve that needs replacing for 60.00. We are never pleased with repairs starting with "could be."

Remember photos of our kitchen fireplace that is closed off and cannot be used? Well, this morning, we thought Jack perhaps found a spot to pee....but upon further inspection, it's water.....What the ???



My folks are coming this weekend to help us with a project of installing speaker wires in the attic area down into the living room so we can utilize surround sound. I need to purchase a ladder today to get up in there. Dad is going to help take us on a tour of that portion of the house as well as our crawl space. Our bonus room floor squeaks quite a bit, so we're going to take a look at it. Jordan reviewed the plans of the room, and it seems pretty simply put together with one beam going down the center of the room, and other floorboards attaching to it. I've seen lots of kits out there to stop the squeaking, including some that go right from the top, through the carpet, then cut themselves off so it won't show. We may need to rely on that option, since, this is a bonus room and the crawl space may be limited in that area.

So, while I wished that my folks would come visit us and enjoy their stay, we're going to put them to work. Seems like we make everyone work for their meal and bed. And, it's not like easy chores either, like vacuuming and such...it's chainsaw pulling, furniture moving, crawlspace loving good times!

Dreaming the day away

While in Hawaii, in 2005, Jordan took an awesome photo of a turtle. I got some good shots too, but one of his just totally strikes him. It's on his blog and I should add a link to his on the right within the Links section. His blog is mostly geek stuff, so I'm sure you'll get a kick out of it if you're into technology and software development. He sometimes writes about personal stuff, or at least posts photos. I know he hasn't had time to work on it since he created it, but maybe this will push him into it.
Anyway, I took his photo and made it my own here. Click on it for a larger view. This photo makes me think I can swim right down the middle of the turtles and still be within the company of them. With all the wind and rain and grey weather up here in the great northwest, I often wish I was swimming in warm waters with the sun on my back. But I wouldn't trade the life I've chosen if it meant I'd be without my better half. Man, I love my dog....I mean, err...husband!
Here's the original of that photo since Jordo doesn't seem to have it any longer on his blog.






Okay, so Jordo got the awesome photo of the turtle...but but but....okay, here are mine. I have quite the knack for following them, no? I do admit, Jordan got the "money" shot. I think I could have a whole section on turtle armpits with as many photos as I got of them lifting thier flippers ruining the shots for me. I have incredible timing. I didn't go into too much detail with armpits here. Maybe the last one, but that's it. Turtle armpits are a bit boring, except maybe to turtles.

Ho! Ho! Ho!

What kind of Santa would you be?
If given the opportunity to dress up like Santa for the day, show off your digs and your personality flair in downtown Portland Oregon, what kind of Santa would you be?
Would you fill your belly with foam and dress fully in the part? Pull on your tallest holiday boots, shortest Claus skirt, hat and nifty scarf and sunglasses? Wear only the Santa hat, cuz hell, they can suggest you come, but they can't make you have the spirit of the season. Nor can they seem to make you put down your !@#$% cell phone. Would you dress in a cultish black Santa outfit rigged with "Ba HUMBUG" on the rim to show your true holiday feelings? Or would you wrap yourself in a blanket and grab a binky and stand off to the sidelines(left side) confusing everyone?

This was a pic from the day we went to Saturday Market with our friend that I wrote about a few weeks back. I had been meaning to post a picture of all these Santa's that we saw there. We never stayed around long enough to see why so many arrived. There were about three times as many as showing in this photo. I liked this pic best with the variety in the scene.

Happy New Year! 2006

This weekend, Jordan's brother and sis-in-law came up to help us cut apart the fallen tree I showed you pictures of in the Christmas blog entry. The tree was only about 15 inches wide at it's thickest but we still needed a chainsaw for the duty. Thank you Michael for helping us to tear that thing apart, and put all the cut up pieces away. Thank you also for letting Jordo and I have a few practice runs with the chainsaw. I was squeeling with delight using that thing. Thank you for eventually showing us the correct safe way to start it. THAT was a LOT of fun!

We had such a great time catching up. Last weekend was pretty busy so it was nice to get some home chores done this weekend and then to have time to just play and play we did.

Some highlights.
Legos, Video Games, Nerf guns, Swordfights, Legos, Video Games!








We stayed up wayyy too late, and perhaps had a little too much sugar and I'm sure the margarita's didn't hurt....but we were laughing so hard on Saturday night that we were all in tears. I thought my eyelids were going to flip inside out they were squeezed so tight from laughing so hard. Everyone's face and tummies hurt too from such hard laughter. I was showing them some sign language that I'd learned a few years back, but the thing is, doing the signs wrong ended up being hilarious. I'm not even going to try to tell you what we were trying to sign in the pics of Michael and later Mikey, but on and on, we kept laughing.




I will explain though, that deaf people come up with sign names for people. Only a deaf person can give a hearing person their sign names. The name generally has to do with a characteristic of the person. Such as if I had curly hair, someone may give me a sign name using the sign letter "L" and wave it down the side of their face to mimic my curls. The one pic of Micheal showing his one hand over another is for his brother Matt. It is the letter M. The action of the letter is also using the similar action for the sign for "fart." Yes. we're just that mature. We missed you Matt! and I think you were the only one we named! Oh, no I'm wrong. We did name Michael too. The sign for "toilet" is to use the letter "t" and shake it. For Michael, we shake the letter "M," because we learned this weekend that Michael has a few potty issues.


Thanks guys for a fantastic and funny weekend. I'm still cracking up!