Morning G'lori

Getting over the hump of the blog....

2009-09-09T11:50:00.001-07:00

Hi everyone, thank you for checking in, for the calls, and the emails. I love you and I'm sorry it's been so long since I've posted out here. Most of you know that earlier this year, my brother John died suddenly (within ten days) of being hospitalized for a rare blood disorder that no one knew he had, not even him. While that's been such a thing to endure as a sister, it's been even harder to watch my parents go through. John was a big part of my life, and my blog audience. It's been hard to get out here and realize that a big part of the reason I blog was to connect to him and that is well, gone forever. I post out here because my family and friends are far away from my daily life and so this would give us ways to connect and share pictures of what we're up to. I've not had much inspiration in the last five or six months to be out here, but I feel like I'm coming out of a fog. Bear with me, and again thank you. I've not felt like I could post out here until I got to say this. I realize it's not poetic or anything like that...it just really sucks and it's really hard to run from the thoughts of the reality of how torn apart our family is. We've tried gardening and making improvements on our home. We've made new friends and doing good things with old ones. We've tried celebrating the milestones of our little miss Evy and even conceiving another baby due in late April, or early May. We've tried celebrating holidays and birthdays and anniversaries. While we can see clearly how wonderful these other things and events are, there is still this underlying current of intense grief. Please don't post any comments to this post. Writing it was hard enough. I know the kind words and if you want to share something with me please email or call me directly but I don't really want to hash out this post anymore than I've done already. Now, it's time to get into my day and just be happy that I made this post so it can drop away from my mind and I can find this blog world a place of inspiration and sharing.
Love to you all.

nuh uh! Has it been that long?

2009-03-12T16:41:00.000-07:00

Okay, so it took for my friend Tracy to get me to get some more pics out here. Thank you for kicking my butt into gear. Here are some new photos!!

This is another outfit that my great Aunt Wanda made for Evy. I love it, it's so soft and sweet!

What's up with us lately? my gosh, who knows! We are LOST in baby land. Everything really is just revolving around playing with this little girl.
Lets see. She's six months now, and has two teeth. She sits up and mumbles momomomom and whispers pahpahpah. She's so happy, she smiles all the time if she thinks she can get you to smile or if you smile at her. She LOVES it when I take her swimming and doesn't mind being dunked or splashed. She kicks off the side of the wall for me to catch her and I love it.
We'll probably be starting foods at the end of her six month. I'm so sad that her lovely baby breath will change as well as her pretty much stinky-proof diapers.
We've begun sleep training and it took about a week, but last night she went all the way through without waking or even moving. Lets hope it's a trend instead of a surprise! It was not easy and I was ready to get a hotel room and let Jordan take care of this milestone. She sits up, drinks from sippy cups (is it drinking if she's soaked afterwards?) okay okay, she 'plays' with sippy cups. She claps. She rolls around on the floor to get to her toys. She is so strong and interested. She sits with us at the table in her high chair ( thank you uncle Don!!! We love it!) and eats her spoon...or sticks it in her eye. So, she'll either learn to eat or we'll have to get her a seeing-eye dog.
Speaking of dogs, Jack brings her toys here and there, (which she promptly brings into her mouth! $%&* that is disgusting! He also "hugs" her which is his way of rolling into her to cuddle. She loves it and can't help but love to poke his eyes and pinch his ears. I protect him though covering his eyes. I think he appreciates that. Otherwise he pretty much ignores her...he'll walk right by her and maybe give her a sniff or just a lick and then he's on his way. They are going to be a good team when she can roll a ball!

In one of the pics, you'll see I have a hand brace on. I have encapsulitis or something like that in my left thumb. The doctor thinks it's from hormones from being pregnant that make your tendons soft and flexible...that I then did some damage after she was born by lifting car seats and Evy and such. In another month I should be all good. By the way, I made that baby carrier. It's a mei tai carrier. Thank you Mom for getting me to make that, I love it.

Happy New Year!

2009-01-08T22:13:00.000-08:00

Hawaiian Evy...

2008-12-15T17:36:00.000-08:00

Images over the last few months...

2008-12-15T16:39:00.000-08:00

Conjoined?

We were checking outfits to see what fit and what Evelena's outgrown...she fell asleep midway through checking a pink sweater!

The rest is just further proof that Jordan and I are "out of the picture" and it's all about Evy! The pink swimsuit is one I pined over while I hadn't found out if we were having a girl. It was my determined purchase (besides a pair of pink shoes) when we found out. SOOOO CUTE!!!! Then, I found one in aqua and dang, this girl shines in both colors.

Patty Cake Patty Cake, Baker's hat!

2008-12-11T12:08:00.001-08:00

Evelena's been busy!

Silly Hats

2008-11-25T16:20:00.001-08:00

Hi everyone yet again! ( I KNOW!!! TWICE IN ONE MONTH!!!)
I just want to give praise and thanks to all who have made and keep making little sweet things for my daughter. I just want to show them to the world! So....here I go! Oh, and some other silly photos along the way.

This is a hat that my friend Jean B. made for Evy, I love it's eggplanty goodness!

Here is the apple hat that I made for her waaaay back when...

Breakfast for two! Gotta get her going with some strong coffee in the morning, otherwise she just sleeeeeeps alllllll daaaaay!

Here is a sweater that my dear Betty B made for Evy. It zips up the back! The booties were made by my great aunt Wanda as were the yellow and multi-colored blankets.

Here are some bags that I've made. The leather strap one is from "In Stitches." The lotus bag is an Amy Butler fabric and design. The turtle bag is a diaper/beach bag made with turtle fabric I picked up in Hawaii last month. The pattern is from "Boutique Baby." I figure if Jordan has to drag around a bag it shouldn't be as frilly as mine and later we can use it as a beach bag. It has sooo many pockets!

Okay and finally, here is an apron that I made for my friend Jean. I think it turned out so damn cute! The pics don't do it enough justice but there were limited ways to try to display it in my house.

It has been a busy month for sewing projects and playing with my girl. She plays with toys now and can roll onto her side. She's been smiling since about week five and they just keep coming! She sleeps mostly thru the night although last week she caught a little cold and has been hard to please at night. She's feeling better and I'm hoping that her brag-able nights continue soon. She's 24 inches long and twelve and a half pounds, so she's right at where she's supposed to be.
Well, I hear her waking from a little nap. She's been putting herself to sleep about once a day lately without having to be rocked or nursed and so I can tell she's starting to bloom back to life so I best go enjoy some playtime before we get too deep into the evening.

Lots of love to you all, and have a great holiday!

Handmade

2008-11-24T10:13:00.000-08:00

It's time to share some of the hand made gifts Evy has received!
This first green hat, my friend Tai made. I love the picot edge! This is an adorable hat that she's sadly just outgrown. The little hearts have been stretched to their limits. Beautiful hat though. There were booties to match too that she can still fit into. Great outfit Tai!

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This outfit was made by KungfuBambini.com, by my friend Violet. Thank you Jill and Jeff for checking them out. I have a few other outfits from her that won't fit till next month...I can't wait. Also, Violet just opened up her own storefront in Portland Oregon, called appropriately, "Violet." Go check them out. Directions are on www.KungfuBambini.com. Koodos Violet! You do beautiful work.
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This is a hat that I made for Evy early in my pregnancy. It is a style that I saw my friend Gabi make for another friend and I just had to give it a whirl. Plus, I got to make pom poms...YAY!

This is a bonnet and blanket set my great Aunt Wanda made. She is my Meemaw's sister. She crochets and is learning to knit. This is my favorite blanky for Evy. I love the sweet pink and the shell pattern. The bonnet's pretty cute too, no? She also sent along other blankets and a dozen pairs of booties! So, there should be more photos to come!

This is a hooded blanket that I made for Evy last week. My friend Angela showed me the finished product of what she had made from my Amy Butler book of patterns for little kids, so I HAD to give it a try, it was so cute! It's lined with a sage colored fleece and it's so yummy.

Okay, and finally, this is the Yoda outfit I made for Evy this year. It is all knit. The hat has been felted. The sweater is a kimono style sweater, and I just looove it. I want to make more for when she's bigger, but I thought it came together just perfectly for this outfit. I also printed and ironed on the saying "cute I am" to a tee-shirt for her, and idea from my friend Teresa. I also printed one that said "Change me you will!" an idea from John and Heather C.

Well, that's about all I've got pictures of. I made another one of those hooded blankets and also a diaper bag. I'll have to see about getting pictures today during nap time. It's time to get back to it! Thanks for checking in!

Loving it!

2008-10-15T10:23:00.001-07:00

Howdy everyone!

I know, I know, it's been awhile. Thanks for hangin in there with me and checking back. Thank you also for getting on my case about when I don't post often enough.

Here are some updated pics of Evy, because, well...honestly, we've done nothing much more than play with her since she's arrived. I've gotten to go out a few times to see my girlfriends and she's come with me most of the time. Other than that, it's boring ol' house chores that ya'll don't need to know about. So, on with the show!

The first pic up top is the view I have of her most of the time, as she's nursed, she then rests on me and thats the beautiful view I get.

The pics below are of Evelena in an outfit that my Meemaw crocheted a long time ago and my mom had stashed away. Jordan and I did a photo shoot that I think turned out pretty well. I wish Meemaw could have seen what a beautiful pair her outfit and our baby make! She did such a fantastic job on such an intricate project.

Enjoy!

What a long strange trip it's been!

2008-09-17T14:55:00.001-07:00

Howdy everyone and welcome little miss Evelena Rose Matthiesen!

Weighin in at six pounds five ounces on her birthday, August 24th, 2008, it's Evy Rose!

The Birth....(feel free to skip, but I know some people get interested in this sort of thing. There will be more posts, but I just have to get this off my chest first and foremost in order to move through this) I understand coming to the blog just for the photos, so feel free to skip ahead!

Saturday, August 23rd, when Jordan and I were out to lunch with my folks after yet another doctor appointment, non-stress test and monitoring, my water broke. So, we finished lunch and did some shopping (yep, shopping!), headed home for showers and mowing of lawns while we waited for labor to start.

After four hours, the hospital called and said for me to get my butt in there as they would like to monitor everything instead of having me labor at home as I had wanted to do until it was truly time for me to head to the hospital.

When I arrived, I was not really dilated past 1cm, so they tried a drug free induction method that places a Foley catheter inside my uterus, blow it up the size of an egg in order to to irritate my cervix and make it dilate. This was about three thirty in the afternoon. It immediately sent me into contractions, and felt like I went from 0--60 in five seconds, no natural ramping up time for my body to catch up. I have to say, I think that method really sucks as it is abrupt and painful and invasive.

I labored all day, through the night and by 8 or 9 am I think, I was finally at a whopping 4cm (so the foley worked...but would my body take over and start doing it on it's own? um, no...) and Evy was not low enough in the canal! I was no where near where they wanted me by that time. They, the doctors, really like a person to not go past a 24 hour window after having their water break to the time they have the baby due to risk of infection. My on-call doctor was willing to go past that a little bit, and I was happy....but this did not stop them from inducing me further with the drug Pitocin at 8am. They amp that one up(level 1 through 12), so that is good to start low and try to get used to it, but by 1pm, I was still only about 3/4 of the way into the dose they wanted me on in the drip and that scared the hell out of me, because I was not progressing past about 6cm. At around 1:30, I finally asked for an epidural as the pain got to be overwhelming. My fear of not progressing was also getting to me, and I feared what amping up the Pitosin would do. I was starting to panic honestly at that thought most. That the contractions would be closer than they currently were, which was every minute to two minutes and become even more painful. My doula said it right when she described it as "drowning."

The contractions became tolerable with the epidural, but the pressure increased. The monitors started concerning the doctors even before this point but became even more concerning because as labor progressed, Evy's heart-rate decreased. She was not handling the contractions well and she was showing signs of distress. I could see her heart-rate change on the monitors, but I really wanted to do this labor and delivery on my own. This is where a birth plan truly becomes a birth wish list, a distant dream of how perfect I could imagine the big event. The doctors were now coming in and talking so fast about getting me prepped for a cesarean and I was still coming to grips with saying that I was willing to do the epidural. All of the reasons why I didn't want an epidural came rushing back to me and I felt guilt and emotional pressure about the decision. I thought I had forced my body to require the c-section because I was induced and because I had the epidural.

I asked the doctors to leave so I could regroup my thoughts with Jordan, my doula Annie and my mom. They all gave such great support I really couldn't have done it without them....The doctors came in and dosed me further in my epidural and rushed me off so that I could have my cesarean and get my daughter safe from harm which was the very place that kept her safe for so long.

The doctors let me have two guests in the delivery room, and Annie and Jordan did a great job supporting me. They are my heros and I really couldn't have surrendered myself to the process without them. When they delivered our little girl at 3:30pm and I could hear her screaming, it was the sound that makes every mom and dad cry. We knew we had done it, that we had gone the distance. It was the most reassuring sound that made me forget any concerns I ever had about the delivery and birth plan.

The doctors said the umbilical cord was wrapped around her neck twice and that mixed with the blood pressure issues were probably the reasons for her stress during labor. All in all, she was healthy, alert and had great coloring and breathing, so Jordan got to carry her back to our room with us and we recovered for about three days.

So, those are the gory details.

Thank you Jordan for your unending support and love and strength. You did great, you helped me and you helped Evy. I can't believe you watched all that you had to see, searched further into the experience for more and came out of it wanting to do it again. I know it was hard to watch and help me make decisions that were not easy, but you showed a lot of character in your support, and in your desire to really be involved with the entire experience. As you said I was your hero, you are mine.

Thank you Mom and Dad for your support and love and strength. I know, deeply I know, that that was the hardest thing you've had to watch me go through, but you both did great just being in the room, or around the corner when you couldn't watch any more. Thank you for realizing that you didn't have to agree with my decisions or even like me, or Jordan or Annie at the times of the decisions. I know you just couldn't walk away either. I know we all learned a lot about ourselves those couple days and all of it was good-so very good. Thank you for the many flowers and balloons for the hospital room, it meant the world to me to know that even when you weren't in the room, your presence was and it cheered us all.

Thank you Annie for doing the job that you were truly meant to do. You are a perfect birth coach for me, providing me with exactly what I needed throughout the pregnancy, labor and delivery. You are amazing and you made me feel amazing. I am so glad that we got to know each other. I found an amazing friendship with you and I look forward to our future.

Thank you Tracy P for coming up as soon as you heard that my water broke. I know our visit was short and that you didn't get to hold her that day because getting Evy took so long and you were over extended, having to get back home to Portland...but your visit, though brief, meant the absolute world to me. I'm so glad that over this past weekend that you got a good visit with miss Evy. I just can't even explain how much support I felt knowing you were there and so excited for us during such a huge event in our lives. I love you and I miss living so close so we can get together more often.

Proud parents, finally coming home!

Pretty baby! Yes, there will be many hats...and many photos...

Annie, you were and are amazing!

Here is how we spend most of our days, Ev attached to me in our Moby wrap.

So there you are, and here we are. I'm sorry it's taken so long for me to get all this out to you, but like other events, until I can share them in just the right way for me, I can't really get onto other stuff. So, now that the story is out there, and some pics are posted, and some of you have access to more photos on flicker ( if you want access, just email me) I will be better about posting. Posting this one seemed so big, that I just couldn't do it until I had the right mental space. I think getting out last night for a late night stroll with Jordan and Ev really got me in the right space to get this done.

Thanks for checking in!

Barefoot and Pregnant, not bad!

2008-08-19T10:40:00.000-07:00

mmmm...cookies!

Old Wives Tale?

2008-08-05T18:04:00.001-07:00

I was watching "House of Babies" and a midwife asked a mom-to-be what size shoe she wore. The mom-to-be responded 7.5 and the midwife said something to the fact that she could vaginally deliver an 8-9lb baby with no problem.

My only comment is this....I'm so glad I wear an 8.5 wide!

Here's to hoping Evy's more in line with how much I weighed at birth as well as Jordan and we'll be fine with our little 6.5 pounder!

Tick Tock!

2008-08-04T06:10:00.000-07:00

Howdy Howdy!
Thank you for all the emails and phone calls. I'm a bit slow on emails lately because as of two weeks ago this week, I've been designated to the couch and bed by doctor's orders. My blood pressure has spiked in this last month of pregnancy and so it's best for me to be laying down on my side. Everyone says they'd love to take a month off, but this is difficult for me as it's not a vacation, it's laying on my sides...which tends to hurt after even one day and it's also hard not to get down about it as well since I feel absolutely fine and energetic. The main thoughts that make it worthwhile are 1. I'm not relocated to the hospital for the duration, and 2. It's in the best interest for me and my baby to just take it easy.

Here is my 8 month pic that has needed to be posted! I think in other photos I look a bit livelier but this sort of says-it-like-it-is. It was getting harder to get around but overall just felt more chubby than weighed down by the baby! Thank you Jordan for taking photos this time, it was getting harder to do self portraits!

I'm about two weeks away from my due date and I'm on mandatory bed rest due to that blood pressure spike I mentioned. I was low bp, like 110/70 for most of these months, but in the last few weeks have jumped right on up to 160/100!!! Crazy! I have absolutely no other symptoms and all my tests keep coming back normal except for that darn bp! The doctors have not wanted to diagnose this as Pregnancy Induced Hypertension because I don't meet any other criteria at this point. So, there is less to worry about I suppose, no medications, nothing to change except diet and bed rest. Not bad! Thank God for Mom and Dad for coming to stay up here to take care of Jordan and I ( mostly me cuz I'm a hard head and am up a bit more than I should be when they aren't here) Otherwise I would definitely find it in myself to still take care of my chores and make sure Jordan still found it easy to get his meals and laundry taken care of as well as easing his burden of taking care of me. Thank you Mom and Dad for going to my doctor's appointments with me and Jordan( which have been two or more times a week now with doing non-stress tests and normal prenatal visits which also include another non-stress test!) Thank you Mom for doing all that I can not and much much more. Thank you for taking my blood pressure and for dealing with my frustrations at being on the couch sometimes with such a great sense of humor. Thank you for your endless energy for doing my chores and for cooking great meals ( be they salt free ). Thank you Dad for keeping me entertained with so many games and movies and reading material and for taking such great care of Jack! Thank you Maggie for coming up to play with Jack when I cannot. Man, I miss playing with my dog!!! I'm missing you guys this week but you have to get your own stuff done and I totally get that. I appreciate all that you've been able to do! Thank you John for making the long trek up here, it was great to see you and play some games (or at least watch the games!!) Thanks for making me an awesome dinner too! Thank you to my many friends that have found the time to stop by and visit for a few hours. It means the world to me!! And thank you to my many friends that have found the time to call to catch me up on the outside world. I know it's only been a couple weeks, but you've all made the time fly faster and have kept my spirits up. Thank you Jordan for doing all my nesting chores that I can't do! You've just been the absolute best! I love you and I'm so excited!!!

Here are my ninth month pictures, thanks to Mom and Jordan for helping me to get some final shots! Next ones coming should be of our new addition!
Cheers everyone! Thanks for stopping by!

Prepping for a winter Evy!

2008-06-20T11:24:00.000-07:00

When I found out I as pregnant, I could not help but start going through my baby knitting books. I found this book "Natural Knits for Babies and Moms" awhile back. It is the same book I used to make my nephew Roman's little sweater vest, which I LOVED how it turned out. So, I saw in there, a chunky soft sweater with a cable in it. I've not tried doing cables yet and was wondering about being able to do it. Also, I've never seamed sleaves before so I had two challenges ahead of me. Let me tell you, now I agree with everyone I heard from...cables are eeeeeasy! If I can do it, well, you get the drift! So, never fear the cables, they are very cool and very easy to do.
Anyway, I had purchased this teal green right after I tested positive on the ol' pee stick since it seemed it would work for either sex. I LOVED working with this yarn, it is a mix of alpaca and silk and put out by Debbie Bliss. So, here's my first real sweater, and my first cable. It even splits at the top since babies really have no neck so it won't get all chunky in there. It should just lay or splay out to the sides.

Now I'm working on a felted Yoda hat (finished) and kimono style Yoda sweater for her to wear to Jordan's work. Jordan says I'm such a good wife for a geek to have! Thank you Theresa from Country Yarns in Snohomish for your unending support with my knitting trials, for convincing me I was capable of doing cables and seaming, and for giving me the phrase "Cute I am!" to go on a baby onsie for Evy to wear under her new Yoda outfit when it's done. I'll post pictures when that's all set, perhaps by the end of July? And no...it's not a Halloween outfit...it's just the way we are and I won't be able to stop laughing at my child she will be so damn cute in that outfit! Hopefully I'll be laughing with...not at her, but she won't know the difference for some time. :)

Ciao everyone, and thanks again for checking in!

One lucky little lady!

2008-06-20T10:30:00.000-07:00

Evelena sure is a lucky gal!

Last weekend, Jordan and I drove to Astoria to meet up with my folks, a few uncles and an aunt (my one set of aunt/uncle came all the way from Baltimore!). Over the weekend the girls and I headed off to a baby shower that my mom threw for me at Windsor House of Tea to meet up with the beach gal pals, Jan, Sharon, Carol and my long time friend Vicky. The same day, the guys went on a Sturgeon Derby with about 20 other guys on about five different boats into the Columbia. Jordan was the only one on his boat to catch a sturgeon and it was 49 inches, so one inch too short to be counted legal. They all had a great time though! The derby was such a good idea, thank you Stuart for putting that on, even though you were the only guy to catch a legal fish that day...sounds a bit "fishy" but we'll let you get away with it! The bbq afterwards was fantastic too, thank you and Nancy for hosting that. My uncle Don won an award in the derby...he won the "Yes you do indeed need a fishing license" award (complete with "prize" of rules and regulations for fishing in OR/WA), as he had purchased his license in Portland, but forgot to bring it and had to therefore purchase yet another one in Astoria in order to participate in the event. Jordan won an award too! He won a new urinal for the boat as he lost the boats only one trying to rinse it out. Tidy honey, you'll never live that down with the guys!

Anyway, enough about the guys! This is my blog! :) You have your own! Post pics of the fishes when you get them from Mom and Dad. Mom and Dad? Remember to bring them up with you next time or have them posted to CD for us so we can post them!
But about the baby shower...I just really am lucky and so is little Evy. These gals at the beach have been so kind to me and Jordan. They've driven to our wedding, we've partied with them at the coast and they've just been so welcoming and kind, and super funny! My folks are very lucky to know you all. Just a few weekends ago, Jordan and I were at the coast to do some more fishing and Carol and Jim threw a bbq, but to our surprise, it was a SURPRISE GRANDPARENT BABY SHOWER!!! It was just for my folks for being grandparents!! Isn't that a great idea!!! It was a potluck party, complete with favors that the gals had all made and were supercute. They gave perfect gifts for grandparents-to-be, like books to read to her and sand play kits, clothes, blankets, binkies, and toys. It was super generous and I'm still in shock, as are my folks.
Anyway, these gals were also at the High Tea at Windsor this past weekend and we had such a girly time.

Here are pics of the gifts;

Thank you Mom for the Horse Jumper which just cracks me up and the contoured changing pad and cover!
Thank you Aunt Nan for the baby robe, slippers, bib and changing pad all in pink turtles and thank you for her little bear! You and uncle Art are so cute for picking that out together.
Thank you Carol for making Evy her very own Raggedy Ann and for the infant to toddler rocking chair! I can't believe you went so far as to make Evy her own doll! That was a lot of work!!!
Thank you Vicky for the rain slicker, boots, ducky bath thermometer and safety kit! That rain gear is just too cute, I can NOT wait to get pictures. Also, thank you for the Super Hero Tee that says "Milk Mama! MM I make milk, what's your super-power?" That was awesome!
Thank you Jan for all the scrapbooking gear, the Care Bear, the subscription to Family Fun magazine, and the beautiful box they all came in. I can't wait to have pictures to scrapbook of all the fun she has and trouble she gets into! It's absolutely adorable.
Thank you Joan for the musical rocking baby globe. It is so cute! I wish you could have been there, but am so glad you got time with your kids over father's day weekend!
Thank you Sharon for the light show toy, I've never seen one before and I'm just so entertained with it!! I bet Evelena will be too!
Thank you Nancy for the handmade blanket that says "I love Mommy! I love Daddy" It is sooooo soft! I love fleece and I love these blankets you make. Thank you for making sure we had one! (I was secretly wishing for one!)
Thank you Mindy and Jen for sending along a ducky toy and a ducky outfit for Evy! You were missed at the party as I always enjoy being around you. Can't wait to see you again when we have our little girl to show off! It was very kind of you to send these things to her!
Thank you Christa for her nursing pillow, this will be more handy than I can even imagine at this point! We missed you there on Saturday but it was great to see you at the Sunday Market in Astoria!!
Of course there were more trinkets than I've shown here, but there was just so much generosity I just can hardly get my head around it.

Okay Okay, I can bet some of you are wondering about a recent picture of the ol' bump? hehe...Here you go Dixee! :)
Dad....yes, the barn is still bigger! Maybe not for long, but for now!

How Girly Can it Be?

2008-05-12T12:50:00.001-07:00

Welcome to Evelena's new room she gets to come home to! Thank you Jeremy and Becca for all your hard work painting this room for us and for hanging pictures and helping to put the furniture in just the right spot! Thank you Dad and Jordan for putting together just the best closet that I could ever ask for! Now if I could just organize it! I tried to do the pics in a way that sort of showed you a flow of entry and a look around the room. Hope it works out for ya'll!

Okay, and here I am at 6.5 months! At the last dr. visit, I was up a total of 10 lbs...so, while not terrible by any stretch, I can definitly feel it. Good thing the pants still fit, it's all in the shirts that are getting cramped! Tomorrow I get to go for the 3-D ultrasound, so hopefully there will be some good shots there to show you.

Thanks for stopping by to see what we've been up to! I finished knitting Jordan's winter hat and scarf, just in time for Spring to well...spring! Ah well, next year, he'll be set! Now I'm working on my first ever sweater, and I'm starting small, a tiny sweater for Evy to wear around Christmas time. It's even got a cable in it so I get to try that for the first time. Finished a couple quilt tops and a lovely handbag. Hopefully I'll get the gumption to take some pics and post'm. I don't come by gumption too easily lately but I'll see what I can do. Perhaps now that I've mentioned it to you, I'll get encouraged to share. Much love to you all.

The Reveal!

2008-04-08T10:43:00.000-07:00

What were we guessing?

Me? I think...due to conception time and heart rate, it's a girl.
Jordan? He thought twins because heart rates got real hard to detect the night before the ultrasound.
My mom, thinks it's a girl because she craves mexican food.
My dad, thinks it's a girl due to high heart rate.
My friend and THE best massage therapist and reiki master BJ Babcock thinks it's a girl after "playing" with the baby during week 17 which felt FANTASTIC!!!
Loving sis'n'law, Dixee thinks it's a boy due to genetics.
Angela thinks it's a girl.
Gabi hopes it's a boy and thinks it's a boy because I wasn't very sick!
Jean and Judy think a girl.
Owner of Country Yarns and dear friend Theresa thinks it's a boy.
Vanessa thinks it's a girl because this alien isn't moving much and I've not been sick.
My favorite checker at Safeway thinks it's a boy because I've not been sick and craved both salty and sweet foods. If I've left you out, let me know and I'll add you to this fun list. Now, lets find out (if you haven't already scanned below to see!)

The ultrasound went great. Linda, our U/S tech got me gooped up on the table, turned everything on, and she started scooting her little wand around. Right away she stopped it and said "well, would you like to know what you're having?" ( I thought she meant that she wondered if it was okay if she used pronouns like "his little heart looks great" and "her little bladder is full which means her kidneys are working fine" sort of thing") but she had actually found out within the first few seconds what we were having. What a crowd pleasing immodest little one we have! She asked me what I thought it was. I told her as I told you above that my hundred bucks was betting on a girl, but that it was only based on statistics, not on "feelings." She said "well, you're right!" So, in August we'll be welcoming little Evy Rose (short for Evelena Rose) into our home and hearts and we are just thrilled.

Thank you Dad and Mom for coming up for that appointment. I'm so glad you accepted my invitation as I really wanted you there to make sure it was all going to be alright. I appreciate your support with all my needless worries. All the measurements went great and Evy is in the 34th percentile for size, which means she's on the small side which is great the doctor said. They don't want her to be in the lowest tenth percentile, or the highest tenth as that means too little or too big. They said perfection is within the 30th and 60th. I found out the reason I'm not feeling kicks so much is because the placenta is anterior and that means that Evy has lots of cushion in the front to shock absorb her kicks and punches. Too bad other places aren't shock absorbed because that's quite a surprise sometimes! This also means that Jordan and others will find it difficult to feel kicks too.

Want to know how they can tell if it's a boy or girl from an ultrasound? I thought it was pretty cool! I always thought they looked for a penis and testicles and that if they didn't find them, then you were having a girl, but that's not so! They can detect the labia of a girl thru ultrasound and we've got pics here of them. You'll see a pic with three big white dots (hip bones and coccyx??) and an arrow pointing in the middle of them. Look for the two small white lines! That's it right there! Confirmation!! Pretty neat eh? You see her legs shooting off to the left? Coooool!

And here I am at my 5 and a half month mark. It's 22 weeks tomorrow! I love this new top! Usually portraits are a little more planned than this one, but I was doing it by myself with my tripod and running out into the yard each time and posing was getting difficult. I wonder what my neighbors thought! "Why is she running out there and posing?" because the camera was really close to the house and no one would have seen it. It probably appeared as though I was running out, looking at the house and running back in. It was hard not to crack myself up....and now I think it's time for a nap before I hit the gym. Goodnight everyone!

Overdue Thank You!

2008-04-04T21:33:00.000-07:00

Four weeks ago, Jordan's youngest brother Jeremy came to visit (and take and pass his police prereq tests!!! CONGRATS!) and in his car he hauled a load of goodies from their mom, my MIL Pam! Our baby is so lucky to have such generosity in our family! Thank you Pam for sending these goodies along! There were two super soft minky crib sheets ( shown above the Activity Station- which is the coolest one I've ever seen!), three bibs, four blankets, two bath towels, two swaddle blankets, and a zipper sleepset, along with four new toys one of which is a monkey which we just love. The elephant is so cute and that darn dog. The elephant and dog have a nice bell in them too that won't get on our nerves like squeekers in Jack's toys! The surfing duck has LOTS of fun sounds, crackles and textures to play with and it snaps onto car seats, and strollers so I'm pleased about not having to chase this little guy around for our baby.
Thank you Pam for sending these surprises up to us to congratulate us on our pregnancy. Things are going really well as it's already week 21!!
I'll post pics soon of my growing belly and announce what we're expecting if we haven't already spoken on the phone or thru email, once I get the ultrasounds back from Jordan. He left them at work after showing them off. Silly proud daddy showing off our baby's bits!
Check back soon and thanks for the calls this week folks, it was excited to see how many people had our ultrasound dated on their calendar and it just absolutely meant the world to us.
Congrats Jeremy and I just know you'll do great on your upcoming interviews for Police Academy in counties near us! Thank you for bringing these new toys for us to play with. They are all washed up and ready to put away, once we figure out the nursery furniture and themes.
See ya'll in the funny pages...

Ragtime isn't just great music!

2008-03-19T11:03:00.000-07:00

This is a rag quilt. You sew your tops and bottoms(precut square sandwiches of fabric) together with flannel in the middle. It only works with all flannel fabrics. When you're done, all your seams are on one side just like normal, but instead of backing the quilt to hide it, you cut tiny slits in it, and wash and dry it and it frays for decorative interest. You also fray the border to make it consistent. I displayed photos of the tops and bottoms, though I'm not sure which is the top or bottom. This is a small quilt (41in by 41in), perfect for the floor for laying on, but not one for laying over babies, its way too heavy, but in such a nice way for children and adults. Super soft, cushy, squishy and fun! Thank you Angela for helping me cut all these fabrics out!

My sister in law, Dixee and I found this cute pattern for baby quilts at Craft Warehouse in Vancouver. My friend Angela and I helped her put one together, and I'm hoping Dixee has it on her blog to show off because it turned out soooo cute....so cute in fact, that I had to make one. But which to make for my bebe? Well, I found such great deals in the after Thanksgiving sale, that each quilt only cost about 15.00 to make so it was an easy thing to consider. Now, which one will I get to use? Which one will go in storage? Any guesses?

Here are some stats to consider.
Last week, the monkey's heartrate was in the 170s, last night, it was 148. Heart rates are no sure fire way of indication, are they Dixee? but there are some believers that girl bebes have higher than 150 heart rate. Though, I haven't seen in what week that matters, because as the pregnancy progresses, it slows, right?
I'm nineteeen weeks along and haven't ever been nauseous, never threw up. My mom wasn't either with her pregnancies and she had a boy and a girl. The major symptom was tiredness. I had some food aversions, but it swayed me toward salty and sweet stuff and only carbs...I don't think I had much protein until the second trimester started.
Other Old Wives Tales( and books are even written!) indicate that if you have sex..wait let me describe this with what I read...
Male sperm travel fast, but die fast too...not long lived.
Female sperm travel slow and are long lived.
So, we had sex three days before I was to ovulate according to a test and some reasonable mapping, this would indicate a girl.
Jordan's father only reared male offspring.
Of those offspring, so far, they've had one male and no females. I've heard this matters, but we'll see!
I still believe that it's all a fifty fifty shot. I've had no premonitions about what this child is. No dreams, nada. I can't tell you if I'm carrying in the front or low because I think by the time that stuff starts to show, I'll have an ultrasound. Other than that, we don't care what gender this little one is...it just will make it easier to figure some stuff out, like names! If it's a girl, Evelena Rose, if it's a boy, Sage. Jordan said it one day and it's stuck. Evelena is after my Meemaw and my great aunt Lena. My meemaw was named Evelena but later changed it to Evelyn. I always loved her original name. But it's also a tribute to Lena, who was a wonderful support for me during my early twenties and definitely had that awesome gramma feel. I miss them both terribly! For Sage, we've figured out no middle name, but for Evy, well, we just had to have some pretty plant name in there! So, it's either Evy ( or Lena, or Rosie or Eva..or?), or Sage
...
Lets see....what else would help indicate? I know!! An ULTRASOUND!!!
Well, we've got 15 days till we get that, and we're so excited to find out so we can stop playing the he/she game. I can also stop trying to figure out what to knit or sew for both genders and I can finally figure out how to decorate the nursery.
All in all, just to continue with the stats, I've still only gained four pounds...so that's about a pound a month. I'm hoping that it stays low like this but I'll fess up with it all as I go. It's always something I want to ask pregger moms...only because I totally fear gaining fifty pounds! Oh, and the blood pressure and sugars have all been fine and normal, and this week, I've gotten to feel the little bugger move for the first times. Once two days ago, a short little one..and yesterday which lasted about twenty seconds. Now I just wait and wait and wait for more.
Thanks for checking in ya'll. Email or comment what you think this alien might be, or questions to further determine what I'm carrying around. I'm curious how people guess.

Home Improvements Show and Tell!

2008-03-13T09:07:00.000-07:00

I told you a while back that we had repainted our bedroom and master bathroom. We also replaced some of the fixtures as well. We took pictures when we moved into the house and got settled originally, but those photos were stolen when our home was broken into. I did not take "before" pics sadly, so you'll have to work from memory or just judge for the first time. Oh, and yeah, we're aware we need some wall art. We're thinking of wedding pics, but we need to consult with Evrim about getting a few of these for our walls.
BTW, Jack loves to play "Where's Waldo" games in these pics. He follows me around everywhere these days and has always loved to be in the pictures. When I'm aiming, I can just say "sit" and he'll do it wherever he is. It only works when I have a camera, otherwise, the "Sit" command means "come here and sit right down in front of me." He's a silly guy!

In the bathroom, we've still got to install moulding at the ceiling, but we'll wait until we're working on the nursery moulding and do that one and what trim work needs to be done in the laundry room. I think we got the lines pretty straight but they'll just be covered up anyway. Jordan did a GREAT job with the trimwork and moulding using his miter saw that he got from his folks. They also got us an air compressor and so that will make all this trim work we still have to do go by so much faster. But the work we did was to install a new faucet, repaint, remove shower door and replace with a spa shower curtain rod and curtain( Thank you Matt for helping Jordan with this part), replaced hardware with a brushed nickel instead of the ever present gold that was in there. We still need to replace the light fixture, but that will come. I actually like the one that's in there, Is there a way to repaint the metal?

When Mom and Dad come to visit, they often complained about the lack of light in the living room. Hell, there's a lack of light in the kitchen too....I think it's the use of the fluorescent lights that our fans use. In any case, I added some track lighting above our fireplace that is set on a dimmer switch. Thank you Gene and Gabbi for your help! We love our new lighting! I can aim the lights wherever I want to and I like how it highlights this watercolor painting my Aunt Pat painted and gave to us for our wedding present. Isn't she good? Such talent in my family I swear!

You can see where there was no light if you go here.

Ever since we moved into this house we've wanted to replace the kitchen and laundry room flooring, but money was tight after we were burglarized and then replacing Jordan's car, so it's taken us 2.5 years to be able to do this work. Thank you MadHammer for all this beautiful work. It's made us really love our kitchen.
I think I'll set up the photos as "Before And After" for each shot. Hopefully this makes it easier for viewing. Let me know.

Before and After Kitchen View 1

Before and After Kitchen View 2, you can see in the old one where we have the laminate I chose sitting there. We chose a pecan wood. So far, so good!

Laundry with new blue paint job to match washer/dryer instead of mint sagey green that is everywhere else in the house.

Laundry View 2 is where we had our carpet removed from the entry way from our garage and had the laminate installed. This makes better sense for an entry way rather than a hard to clean carpet. Now we can sweep up pine needles and mop away the yuck.

okay, okay, enough with the house already!!! What does Lori's womb improvements look like? Well, here I am in all my four months of pregger glory.

Now, lets see...what about Jack?

Thanks everyone for stopping by. Drop me a line sometime and we'll catch up.

See my vest, See my vest, made from real gorilla chest!

2008-02-11T10:16:00.000-08:00

Okay, so it's not really, but any Simpson fan has to agree that's it's a fitting quote!, The vest is really made from fine marino wool, cashmere and some acrylic fibers (Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmarino) , which is good, because that makes it more resistant to washing. Washing this vest will be important because it's made for my BIL and SIL Matt'n Dixee's baby boy that's arriving next month. This pattern was from Natural Knits for Moms and Babies made in a six month size. I LOVE how this came out, sort of like a little bee hive and it's super soft. Thank you Theresa from Country Yarns for all your endless help on this and thank you Angela for offering to finish it for me when I wanted to throw it under my car after having to restart it, or frog it for the third or seventeenth time. Lo' and behold, I did finish it on my own, and blocked it just in time for the baby shower. Whew! I got her a little white button down shirt in white with blue and tan stripes, some kacky pants, and some sort of undershirt to go with this little vest. Angela made him a little stemmed hat in a blue to match the shirt and got him a pair of matching "Baby Legs" which are leg warmers for babies. I'm loving seeing this new product on Liam and Abigale. They are adorable and I see why the need is there. When babies are crawling around or being held, their pant legs ride up exposing their chubby legs to the cold. This stylishly solves that problem. I got a pair for our baby to be ( ours is in white with little blue and green skulls on it, hehe) I've also heard that it helps to pad their little knees from crawling too, so why not multipurpose? :)
Dixee, your baby shower was a lot of fun and it was great to see everyone and get to laugh a bit with our families. You got a LOT of great stuff and I got a lot of ideas from it, hehe! I'm so excited to meet this little guy, I don't think I can wait.

On other notes, I'm nesting here at home. Jordan has painted our laundry room as we got a new washer and dryer and this week we're getting new flooring installed in our kitchen and laundry, so the paint job will really finish things up nicely. I'm not totally sold on the color for the walls, but we shall see. Now see, that thought scares Jordo as he's the one having to paint and he'd have to move that washer and dryer again if the paint doesn't actually end up pleasing his wiferoo. I'm hoping that it will appear to lighten up once our decor is setup again and the flooring is installed. Once that's done, a new fridge will finish up the look in the kitchen and he'll be happy. If we could afford to fix the fireplace and install an electric if anything just for aesthetics, well, that'd be cool for me. In this house, aesthetics can definitly wait though. There's just too much to do before looking at spending a grand on the fireplace alone! I don't even want to know how much it is to repair a fireplace, but I would love to have that taken care of. One thing at a time, one thing at a time.

So, what am I doing with my time? Well, two weeks ago, Jordan and I shot another wedding so I've been post-processing the photos. So I've been here at the computer most of my days, heading out for occasional knitting and my water aerobics class which feels more like playing like a kid in the summertime pool instead of work. I try to get in a bit of warm up swimming laps beforehand just to appease that part of me that finds water aerobics hard to be considered a hearty workout.

Things about this pregnancy so far since I'm 14 weeks!
-Loved, LOVED LOOOOVED coffee, now don't want it, could care less about it, been like this for weeks. Same went for Splenda. And hey, my blood pressure went way down too!
-Craved anything with vinegar like adobo or pickles, Cheetos, hot cocoa, chocolate, iced cream ( thank gawd that one passed!), fish-sticks and any vegetarian thai dish/soup with tofu. I went back to my vegetarian ways for a long time only now wanting meat here and there.
-Can't cook fish in the house, no way, no how. This sucks because we are trying to use up the salmon and sturgeon that Jordan caught last year on his fishing trips! Ugh!
-I buy snack foods that sound good at the time, but never get into them. Jordan is finding he's getting a lot more snack crackers than ever before.
-Jordan puts on his cologne outside. I don't use it much anymore.
-I must have juice. I dilute it and find it just as good, and it has to be 100% juice, but still, I never bought the stuff before so that's been weird. (cranberry, concord, and pomegranate. , YUM) A little bit goes a LONG way.
-I don't want water unless it has about a half a lemon or lime in it.
-I can't do Pilates anymore because lying on my stomach feels too odd and wrong and a lot of those abdominal exercises are contraindicated. DARN!
-I had to leave the democratic caucus early because the smell of people breathing made me sick. It smelled like teenage boy funk. Hey, at least I got to sign in!
-All my pants still fit, but it is more comfortable at this point to wear the pregger pants as they fit well in the leg and allow a sweatpant like feeling in my lower abs, and hey, that's comforting!
-No baby bump yet, but am readily waiting to have something to rub like Dixee Anne has! Lucky bump!

See ya'll later!

Holy Stick! The things I've pee'ed on!

2008-01-28T15:41:00.000-08:00

Jordan and I discuss whether or not to start our family about every six months. We create our "plan" and discuss again in six months to see how we're fitting in that plan. This has worked out just great! Actually, better than we could have imagined. There are loose ends of course, but we've been meeting out goals left and right.

At dance class in mid November, I arrived feeling "in the family mood" and told Jordan that I thought I was ready to start a family. He then asked me if we should stay for class or just go home ( with a wink ). I love his ever ready attitude! Of course, we stayed for class, I'm too frugal and too interested in dance to let that go!

So, later that month, I take an ovulation test, because by then I had been really wondering if we were ready. I also realized that if people really thought about it, they'd probably never be truly ready. The test tested positive that in the next 12-48 or some odd hours I would ovulate. I tell Jordan, "You know, I don't think I want to be pregnant our first month." ( without using protective barrier birth control. Is that too much info? I'm just here to say that those suckers work! ) Anyway, I can digress...Jordan reluctantly lets me get my way for the next week. By now, it's about a week before my next cycle begins and I pick up five pregnancy tests from the dollar store (hey..they're only a buck!) and I take one, just for fun...and I had been feeling "different" lately, but was just sure it was giddiness in our excitement to be looking at starting our own family in the next year. The test says that it can take 3 minutes, but that once one red line appears, and not two, that the test is finished and is negative. I let that one line appear and throw it away. I knew we couldn't have nailed it our first month out, plus we were careful around ovulation time. But...two days later, I cleaned out the trash can and find that test. I smiled thinking about it all, and flip the test over to see that there are two lines on that sucker!!! WHAT? Now, the instructions state not to believe test results taken anywhere from 10 minutes from the time the test was peed on, so I take another test and VIOLA! Right away, two pink lines. I went to the store, got a new different $12.00 test stick to pee on. It shows well...you see the picture....

The next day, the doctor confirmed it, four weeks later, an ultrasound defined it, another four weeks and we heard the heartbeat(this week.) I think I'm finally starting to believe that I just might be pregnant.

We wanted to wait until our 12 week mark before we shared with you all. As you can see, I just can't keep a secret from y'all, so I just decided not to write at all. I'm sorry for my absence, but I appreciate all of the checking in I've gotten via email and phone calls. During the month of December, I barely could talk to my mother because I just couldn't lie to her. I kept any conversation short and she was wondering what was going on with me. Sorry mom, but I wanted to share it with you in the right way on Christmas. My parents will be grandparents for the first time, my brother an uncle for the first time. Jordan's parents get more grandchildren and the brothers continue to be good uncles. We are so excited to be on this road with so much support. Now, I think it's time to get some pictures of myself before I balloon out with this child. Thank you mom for taking me shopping for such adorable maternity clothes, I can't wait to have a bump to fill it in.

Good catch of a good throw!

2007-11-13T21:44:00.000-08:00

Jordan caught this scene and I can't help but post it in awe. We see this every time we go dancing at the Eagles with a couple of couples and I'm just amazed every time.

Enjoy!

Free as an Eagle, hoping to soar for 66 years ourselves!

2007-11-12T09:43:00.000-08:00

"When I look at her, and she smiles, the whole world melts away."

Jordan's Grandparents celebrated their 66th Wedding Anniversary this weekend. We drove to Portland early Saturday morning and dropped Maggie and Jack off with my folks for the day. Mom was making her Thanksgiving dressing that Grampa Matthiesen complimented a few years back when we had a Thanksgiving party at Jordan's old house. Mom dropped off her dressing as a way to contribute to a party she could not attend due to other plans. Well, Grampa raved about it and now every year, if Mom has the chance, she makes a batch for Grampa. So, as I watched mom smile her way through making another double batch she handed me a large portion to go to them as we headed out the door. Mom thank you, and Grampa thanks you, he was so pleased to get some more!

As the day went on, we picked up Matt and Dixee to share in this special experience of going to the Eagles lodge for this special occasion. The Country Dutchman were playing that night and are all friends of Jordan's grandparents, Ted and Betty. They are always so surprised to see us and so happy that we're there. It really is a homecoming of sorts. Everyone is so full of hugs, and smiles and good stories. They were happy to see Matt again as it has been years since they've seen him, and it's been more than a year since we've been able to catch up ourselves. We've taken Jordan's grandparents to this lodge before to see their friends and to listen to this band and dance the night away. We don't know how to polka...we don't know how to waltz or foxtrot....but we always put ourselves out there to sway to the music with everyone and make the best of it out there. Everyone is so nice at the Eagles and we adore making special trips to take Gramma and Grampa there.

Let me just say that it is always so inspiring and emotional for me to attend these events. To me, this is such a testimony. Let alone the shared interest of dance between Jordan and Grampa, the shared love of music between them as well, but to watch everyone absolutely fills me with love and joy. I have wanted to be here since Jordan and I started dating, when we were engaged and when we were newlyweds. This is where I want to be when I'm 60...when I'm 70, when I'm 80 and beyond. I want to be in the arms of Jordan and our friends dancing around a dance floor, staying up till midnight, eating pie and sandwiches at 10:00, playing raffles, knowing the band, and having my family take us there so we can smile our little heads off all night long as often as we can. It is enviable to watch Jordan's grandparents smile and laugh and saying the sweetest things about each other.

Jordan's grampa told everyone that night that they were married in 1941, right before Pearl Harbor's invasion. Harold, the concertina player announced that Ted and Betty were celebrating their 66th wedding anniversary. Grampa shouted from his seat hello's to dancer-bys...People stopped their dancing to come say "Congratulations" and to shake hands and to share stories. To one couple, I overheard him say "When I look at her, and she smiles, the whole world melts away." My heart swelled, I couldn't help but put my hand there to keep it contained it within me.

Gramma requested a song..."Can I have this Dance, for the rest of my life" and the band happily obliged. And even if she didn't dance, I remember her dancing with Grampa in years past when they've celebrated their 64th anniversary before. This time, she sat in her little chair as Grampa sang along. It was so hard to pull it together and not just lose it in the sentimentality of it all. I think of my meemaw and peepaw, my mom and dad, my friends Barbara and Kraig, the only loves of each other's lives and I watch it in Jordan's grandparents, and I can't help but find it so touching. I've been so lucky to see so many people in love wanting to be able to share it and wanting to express it and keep it and simply wanting it for others to find as well.

Here we are~Matt and Dixee Ann, Jordan and I. Here is Grampa dancing with their friend Bris. I just love her and was so glad she could join us at our wedding two years ago!
An Indigo Girls song "We're better off for all that we let in" comes to mind for me today as I'm reminiscing and going over photos of the weekend. I can never help but go further into our stash of photos. May you all have a wonderful day. Thank you for joining me today as everything is so tender.

P.S. Maggie, Jack misses you and wants you to come back soon so you two can play again, ok? He's sulking and dropping toys at my feet and way too excited at possibilities of "going for a ride." Camp Matthiesen misses you!

oh, and you know this girl just loves to goof around at a dance! Ooh la la sending kisses your way!

Back in the Swing of things!

2007-10-19T09:30:00.000-07:00

And I couldn't be happier! When Jordan and I were dating, we were dancing about 2 nights a week, sometimes more, but rarely less, for more than a year! Then we got married and moved and something changed, we got busy, we didn't know the community, job changes, and so on. We've been out of the dance scene for more than a year and I've been missing it. Jordan and I decided to hop back into it and go out dancing. We went to Danceworks Studio in Redmond for a level 3 West Coast Swing Series lesson one night. Later in the week we went to Kirkland Dance Center for an intermediate WCS lesson and dance, and then the next night, we checked out Century Ballroom in Seattle to see if we want to pick up Lindy again there since they seem to be the only place offering it up here. We are LOVING it. The instructors have been great and we're remembering what we can. We can always fall back on East Coast Swing and the small repertoire of moves ( oh, about 20?) we have there, but I had totally forgotten my favorite dance, the lindyhop. So, we're starting over in that series...dammit. We were up to level 3 instruction at one time and also into the Balboa dances too. I've found a venue up here for Blues dancing, but so far I don't see a level 1, but maybe when our schedule clears even more I can talk Jordan into that one since I know he loves that one as well.

I have to say still that I miss the Portland venues and people that we used to dance with. The Century Ballroom is just so much older than the Portland Viscount, and the instructors well...I miss my Brenda and Brian and all the others there. The Century Ballroom was so crowded and people were actually trying to show off and do aerials. I thought it was so rude. It seemed like leads were not watching where they went themselves or where they sent their follows and so I was kicked more than I used to be, or ever remember. Maybe because it was an underage night that we went. The CB has dances from 9:30 till 12:30 on a Sunday night ( all ages ) and a wednesday night (over 21). These are some die-hards that can do this and still go to work in the morning! So, I'd love to say that this week coming we're going to check out the Wed. night dance, but Casey McGill is coming on Sunday, so we'll brave the crowds again because that is some kick-ass swing. If anyone else knows of places to go around Seattle for dancing, please leave a comment, we'd love to find more places and people.

Washington Apple!

2007-10-16T18:46:00.000-07:00

Thank you Jordan for taking the pic of me and this sweet little hat.
Fall weather is arriving up here in Monroe, the leaves are changing colors and the crisp wind is really picking up. I've gotten into the spirit in my knitting too. Apples are a sign of the season right? Jordan's Brother Matt and his wife Dixee are expecting their first baby and so I knit this cute little newborn hat for them and sent it this week as a surprise. Isn't it cute? I loved making it and I can't wait to see pics of the li'l sweet tator with it on.

What will people think of when making patterns for babies? We shall see....I couldn't help but go through a bunch of knitting books today for babies, so we'll see what I come up with!

This one just is so cute to me, "Made in Washington" takes on a whole new meaning!

I've got a little coif!

2007-09-19T14:23:00.000-07:00

Here are a few things I've done this week being home and being crafty.
I'm supposed to be finishing up the paint job on our bedroom and master bathroom. But...I felt like knitting instead of really going at our paint jobs, and look at my little hats ( called coifs in the book I was working from ). Jordan graciously did the finishing paint work one energetic evening (while I was out at a knitting club relaxing with some sweet friends of mine...Jordan told me to go..I swear!) and our bathroom is almost done, done done! YAY!!! We are so excited to spring this house out of the 70s!

Sooner...or later...I should have posts about our recent home remodeling stuff we've been up to. I didn't remember to take "before" pictures, so you'll have to rely on memories or past posted pictures. Once we add trim work to the bedroom, and moulding to the ceiling in the bedroom and bathroom we'll be pretty close. We were looking at re-grouting the bathroom floor tiles because the previous owners used a 1/2 inch grout line and then never sealed the light tan grout and it's since stained and impossible to clean. BUT, we found grout paint. So, this week, I'm on acid...I mean..I'm using acid on the grout to clean clean clean, then I'm painting it all a color called Pewter and sealing the s@#$ out of it. This should look nice with the large white tiles on the floor. I'll show ya'll how it ends up and if I recommend the product one bit. OK, so once that is all done, then we're onto new closet doors, OR, hanging fabric? I tried to paint the doors we have, but I hate them...all those slats in the bifold...I just hate them. The tracks are all f@#$ed up too, so I'm not even motivated to go that far. New doors would be easiest...fabric would have more character. Neither option really saves any money.

ooOooo..and I'm also showing off my new haircut~~ Cute waves my daddy gave me, no?

Thanks everyone for a wonderful birthday week, I've had a lot of fun with my friends and family. Happy Birthday brother John and best gal-pal, Tracy, Oh, and my dog Jack too( can't believe he's SEVEN!)! I love Virgos! WOO HOO! Just what will this year bring to this 33 year old??? Ahh...a girl can dream. (right now, I'm just dreaming that the bedroom and bathroom are finished up by the time Mom and Dad arrive...but I'm thinking there will be some work to be done since it's only a few days.) Dad, perhaps we can work on a burnpile together?

Off to fight the good fight.
Ciao!

It all went to pot

2007-09-16T12:07:00.000-07:00

Here I am with my new sister-in-law, Dixxee Ann! That's right, Matt's a married man and I LOVE who he chose as a bride. Beautiful Dixee Dixee.

Here we are showing off our painted pottery that we did in Astoria a few weekends ago. I painted a coffee mug and a sushi plate. Dixee painted a dish for her nursery and a photo frame for her new hubby. She's so scrapbooky crafty!

Dix, it was so fun to craft around with you! Thank you Mom for picking up the finished goods for us and for taking us to high tea!!! Such a girly time.

A summertime party for Gramma M!

2007-09-10T11:12:00.001-07:00

Gramma Matthiesen had her birthday over Mother's Day weekend, so I put together some collages of the goings ons. The one collage with the grandparents has some items that make us really think of their home and the many parties we've enjoyed there.

This first one of Becca also includes her trying on a knit hat that brother Matt so lovingly created at my folks house. I think it looks fun with these others.

I also love the last collage of the boys being goofy.

Just for Theresa!

2007-09-09T23:34:00.000-07:00

Theresa, I found these photos for you from Grandma and Grandpa M's party this passed summer. I'll try to copy to disc and get them to you later this week. I'm sooo excited for this week!!! See you soon! Shoot..these are the only ones I have of you preggers as can be...sorry there are so few but I like the way this came out.

Blog posts..who can keep up? Happy 4th of July in September!

2007-09-07T12:59:00.001-07:00

Alrighty Dixee, here are the 4th of July pictures! I'm sorry I couldn't make it to this party, it looks like fun. There was jet skiing, and fireworks and a barbeque...let alone, a bbq that Grandpa Nelson did up, so I know it was good. I couldn't find the picture you were talking about, but feel free when you come up this week to look through what I've got.

I'm trying to put together a slideshow of the trip to Victoria too..so check back and lets see if Lori can get her butt in gear!

Butt, that's not all!

2007-08-27T19:19:00.000-07:00

In beautiful Eagle Creek Estacada, Jordan and I got to shoot our second wedding!

Here are some of my favorite pics, and Jordan posted one on our photo blog...these may appear there shortly too as we're catching up on some things. I encourage you to click on the photos in order to see them larger than they appear in this entry. Thank you Kim and Don, and we wish you both good fortune and fun.

Did anyone go to that alpaca site?

2007-08-05T22:39:00.000-07:00

If not....dangit, check it out!

I know, I know..where 'haaaave' I been? Most of ya'll know this by now, but I just can't seem to post any new blogposts until I get it out there, you know?

A month ago, my meemaw lost her battle with cancer. I thank you for all your concerns about her health and all our well-beings throughout her struggle. Simply said, she amazed me till the end and I will always love her. I think she got the best care and kept the best attitude throughout her dealings with cancer, and I'm so proud of my parents for helping her through this. I flew to Maryland to attend the funeral and to help my parents finalize things with moving and packing and then the quickest drive back. Great thing is that we got a stow-away! My uncle Don has decided to move to Portland, Oregon!! I'm so happy to have him near, and I wish him all the luck in the world getting started in a new city.

On the homefront, Jordan is borrowing my uncle's electric guitar and it's sounding sooo good! He's been taking lessons for about two months on my acoustic and he's really getting the hang of it. I'm pretty proud of him, he's impressing me with this one. So far it's about remembering chords and practicing transitions from chord to chord, but he's also been finding some strum patterns that he can keep up for quite a while. I swear, sometimes when I'm in here working on photos or something, I'll hear him practicing and I can't tell if he's learning off of a pod-cast, DVD, or playing it himself. Today, I heard him playing a blues riff (is that the right word?) that I know you all know( think louie-louie) and I had to go check on him to see if he was just watching someone else play...today, he was hooked into our stereo playing the blues! It was pretty cool.

What have I been up to? Well, after two weeks of being out of town, Jack and Maggie went in for surgeries to remove lumps. They both tested negative for any cancers and they've healed up really well by now. Now that we're back down to one dog, ( maggie went back to Mom and Dad), we're getting excited about adding more to the household...so I think long about December we'll be considering some options...in dogs that is.

Cheers to new blogposts, cuz some really exciting stuff has been being worked on and I really can't wait to share it with ya'll.

Thanks for checking in on me.

Never Mow Again!! Buy Two Alpaca Today!

2007-05-26T22:17:00.000-07:00

www.AlpacasofStorybookFarm.com

www.AlpacasofStorybookFarm.com

Storybook Farm invited me to do photography and create an extensive website for thier alpaca farm!! So, Jordan and I jumped in with both feet and took lots of pictures. The Herd Info page is my favorite, because each animal links to more information and a bunch more photos. I really like how that worked out. My second favorite page is the Smile button and what it offers. It supplies the reader with lots of funnny pics of alpaca, so go check it out and see if you don't feel more warm and fuzzy.

Jana and Karl Feil are the owners and have been wonderful to work with while trying to create a website that was enchanting as an experience as possible. Word of mouth is the best advertisement opportunity. The more publicity Storybook farm has for their farm, the better. Ask around, and talk about alpacas more often for a bit. Get the word out for this farm located up here in Snohomish/Monroe Washington. If anything, speak of how this farm's website photos really made you smile.
;)
They are goofy friendly creatures that produce a nice product and you'll never have to mow again. Oh, you'll have to scoop poo...but mow? never.

www.AlpacasofStorybookFarm.com

Also, let me know what you think of your experience on the website.

PSS. Shearing day is coming up soon, so check back for goofy E.T. like shots of shorn alpaca.

www.AlpacasofStorybookFarm.com

How do you think I FELT??

2007-05-21T12:28:00.000-07:00

I'm addicted to felted knitting projects lately. A new yarn arrived at a local yarn shop and all my knitting girlfriends started knitting with it. Its a wool soy blend. Then, they get brave and wash their finished project in hot water and it all shrinks to size. It hides any mistakes and blends colors softly...it also creates a solid material less "netty" than knitted goods. Since there's not a lot of intricate knitting and purling and lacework to worry about, it's mostly knitting and sizing, so it's right up my alley. I used the yarn to make a handbag designed by Patrons for their soy mix yarn that felts when you wash it. I embellished it with metal handles from "Country Yarns" in Snohomish. I like it, and I think it will go great with any pair of jeans.

See the fun blue handbag in the back of the first photo posted? I made it to match a knit wrap done in a waterfall, cascading design I made last year. (I posted our Alaska trip blog and I was wearing it in the "baby it's cold outside" picture.) I created this using a free pattern from Ben Franklin Crafts, using a blend of Cascade 220, and Knoro, Kyurion as well as fun fur and boa yarns. I'm working on another one like this but using different color choices as I was really hoping for more light blue to come across than what did. This one took about three days time with concentrated effort towards completion. I later gave it to my gramma Carol as a thank you gift for providing Jordan and I with an awesome vacation experience in Victoria, BC. (look for upcoming pictures or slide show) I also gave her a couple balls of yarn in watermelon pinks and green colors and a crochet hook. She wanted to remember how to crochet so I refreshed her memory after I took her to "A Taste Of Britain" in Vancouver Washington for high tea as an additional thank you gift. I've had such a wonderful time getting a new gramma in my life. We have a lot in common and I'm so glad she got me into knitting.

Okay, see the funky shoes in the foreground of the above picture? They are felted and unfelted clog slippers. I found this pattern at "Country Yarns" in Snohomish. I knitted up a pair in Cascade 220 verigated lime and a majestic green. I used a beautiful fun strand that was not made of wool for the upper trim of the clog. When they were completed but unfelted, my mom laughed at my project, and sweetly told me that I'd wasted my time because these oversized slippers were never going to work. She implied that the money and time had been wasted. Teasing me she did until she saw my felted new slippers appear after a day at my Uncle Ron's house using his top loader washer. Her only comment was "I want a pair!!" I laughed and asked her what colors she wanted....and she told me she wanted the EXACT same pair as what I'd made for myself. Happy Mother's Day!! For Mother's Day, she received her very own pair of handmade clogs. Thank you Mom for taking care of Jack while we were in Victoria getting some rest and relaxation. I hope you enjoy your new slippers. I've include mixed pictures of before and after shots using my completed clogs and how they appeared beforehand so you can see the difference.

Keep up with me and what we're up to as I've just completed a laptop bag/messenger bag designed by Amy Butler and using one of her fabrics. I need to get photos to post. Also, keep up with our photo blog located on the right panel of this window in the links area. I'll work on creating slide shows and other stuff. "See" you soon!

Maggie and Jack make it to YouTube!

2007-05-21T01:01:00.000-07:00

Mom and Dad got an Easy Button from Staples. Jack and Maggie had the opportunity to learn a new trick.

We've got some smart dawgs....

Check it out!

Congratulations Jer & Becca!

2007-05-11T09:16:00.000-07:00

While we have a chance to catch up on things, I want to post a belated congratulations to Jer & Becca who were wedded on March 25th! For a little bit of their story, here's the speech I gave as the bestman at their wedding, along with some photos of them we took on a recent trip to Victoria, B.C..
-----------------------
Hi everyone, first I want to thank the new Mr. & Mrs. Matthiesen for inviting all of us to come and share in this special day. And thank you everyone for being here today! For those of you that don't know me, I'm Jordan, one of Jeremy's older brothers. I have to say that at first I was surprised that he picked me as his best man after all I put him through growing up, but I couldn't be more excited and honored to be up here tonight.

Jeremy and Becca met while working in Walt Disney World down in Florida back in 2004. I remember a few nights before Jeremy had left to start working there when he and I went out for drinks together. He was so excited to go and live in a new area for awhile and excited about the new job. We knew he'd come back with some fun stories to tell, but neither of us had any idea he'd come back with something much greater, his new girlfriend, and future wife, Becca.

I remember talking with Jer while he was away and hearing about this new woman in his life. They were always having so much fun together and it sounded like they were inseparable. And when Jeremy had returned from Florida he was either always sleeping or always on the phone with Becca. It was driving him crazy to be that far away from her and I'm sure it was driving her crazy as well.

When she decided to move out here and attend school in Portland, I thought we were going to have to hold Jer back to keep him from running out east and "helping" hurry her along. Since they've been together here, they really have been inseparable. It has been wonderful to see them teasing together, laughing, loving, growing with each other, and taking on anything life throws at them; and I've been impressed to see that they did it not just as individuals but as a team.

Jer & Becca, I feel this is one of the strongest things you have together right now, besides your love, you work as a team. You solve problems together, you talk out ideas together, you're both concerned about how the other one feels, and you know how to have fun with each other. Now, don't lose sight of who you are as individuals, but cherish this team work and friendship you have.

And with that, would everyone please raise their glass and join me in toasting the happy couple. May you be friends to each other as only lovers can; and may you love each other as only best friends can. Congratulations Jer & Becca!!!

My buddy

2007-04-09T16:04:00.000-07:00

This is Jack in his chair in our office. This is what he does all day if it's raining, and it's spring, so he's doing this a lot. He keeps Jordan company while he's working from home. Our office is the coolest room during the winter and so we run a space heater in there. I think the added heat makes him stay so long. Isn't he cute?

The Many Faces of Autumn, in Spring

2007-04-09T11:49:00.000-07:00

Every once-in-a-while, I get to babysit 2 year old Autumn. Last week, Jordan handed me our camera and encouraged me to stop playing around and get to taking some shots. It's been a couple of weeks since we've picked up our camera so it was nice to get it back in my hands again. Here she is playing at my vanity table. I printed these shots out for her mama and papa and they were very pleased. Thank you Autumn for being sweet and beautiful and patient. You did great making up a game for yourself in my mirror.

Craft Room Output

2007-03-19T16:32:00.000-07:00

What HAS been coming out of my craft room lately?
I've been going to Ben Franklin Craft's "Yarn Yoga" which is just a stitch and bitch group that meets once a week and we all do our needle arts together and share ideas and learn stuff. While there, I've been able to pick up a few gal pals, and one of them is Gabi. I showed Gabi my yarn bag which is that same nappy bag you may remember from way back when and she LOVED it so much that she wanted to make one with fabric that she had left over from her wedding tablecloths she made with Amy Butler fabrics. Gabi's never sewn though. I invited her over for lessons and we made her the same nappy bag, changing pad and changing pad carrying case in about four weeks meeting once or twice a week for an hour or so. I was so in love with those fabrics that I went out and got me some different Amy Butler fabrics and did the same bag again on a lazy Saturday. I altered the length of the shoulder strap so that it now is more of a side satchel and goes over the neck and swings to under the other shoulder, just like we did for Gabi's.

My exterior and interior fabric choices

Showing off my roomy zoomy pockets!

While I was sewing this stuff up and looking online at fabulous yummy Amy Butler fabrics, I found something that a gal made. It was a simple velcro enclosed lined handbag large enough to hold diapers and wipes. Gabi is expecting a new li'l boy in a few weeks so I whipped one up for her to add to her baggable stuff and stuffed it full of wipes and diapers. As a side note, DAMN diapers are expensive!!! Anyway, I'm going to two of her baby showers and made her a little carryall for little niceties to tag along with her as well...some herbal tea, homemade peppermint lip moisturizer, and a spray of Rescue Remedy and some lavender essential oil. She can fill the rest with other little bits. It can't hold much, but it's a bag to put in her bag and it's homemade. From one sewer to another, she'll know what went into makin' it. At least she won't have wipes and diapers freely floating around her huge diaper bag.

I was sooo excited doing those projects. I want to do some more tote patterns that are out there, but I should practice doing things with zippers first. So, I picked up a McCalls pattern that had a bunch of totes in it, including one I'm totally excited about doing...it's a bowling bag style.....oooh, I can't wait!
Anyway, the one I'm doing now is a tubular duffel bag but I can't figure out how to get the handles evened out just right so I can move on to do the lining and the sides and get this sucker done, but I did do the zipper and it totally works and I'm completely thrilled.

Hopefully this week, this thing will be done. I'm using some scrap fabric I had in a give-away pile as the lining since no one will generally see the inside and it won't be terribly off in color matching. I'll show the lining when it's complete.

But Lori, what ELSE have you been up to?
ha ha ha...I'm so glad you asked!
At the yarn yoga, I can't do sewing, I can only do needle arts which is crochet or knitting...so I'll show you my two latest projects. I should show you pics of my adorable hat that I completed but I know a lot of you have already seen it on my head so I didn't feel the need to put it on today to take the pic....maybe later..anyway, onto my other WIPs, work in progresses.
A friend of mine, Angela showed me how to make this easy knit baby blanket...however, it's working corner-to-corner and is going to take me about a year to complete. It's monotonous and boring which makes it good to do while being at yarn yoga so conversation doesn't mess up any potential counting. I just liked the shiny jewel toned yarns...mmmmm....microspun yarn. Since it's corner-to-corner, it has a great streeeeeetch to it and makes it yummy to crumple in your fingers. This one's going in the hopechest. I'd like one in ruby red, indigo and purple....but different designs because this is just dull. I'm glad it's purdy.

Soooooo....I wanted to learn to crochet, remember? Anyone? Okay, well, I did....so I made a couple washcloths and thought I could do this bath mat until I lost the directions. I just found them yesterday so I'm going to work on this too. It has a star on it that are made by making "popcorns". I really dig the monochrome affect and think this would do well in either of our bathrooms. If I made another, it'd be great in our master because there's lots of white going on in there....I dunno...I just wanted to learn. I like working with the cotton yarns though...it dries my fingers out. I think I like the idea of mats more than washcloths...the cloths are just weird to use in the bath so far. I haven't found a great design for a luxury washcloth worth making just yet.

Yes, but Lori...what ELSE have you been up to?
Yeesh! ya'll really ask for the world, you know?
Okay, so I know how to wire-wrap a round or oval cabachon...it's gotten easier and now I'm a total pro, happy with my work and so on...but what about square? Rectangle? Hmmm? Okay, here's my first attempt at angles AND at using my Dremmel and polishing wheel and polishing abrasive. It totally took away my knicky bits. I would do LOTS different the next time, but this appeals to me anyway. I'm into the rock itself...it looks like a mountain scene to me. No one at the store knew what kind of stone this was....I just knew it was MY stone.

I also learned a new chain called the Half-Persian or Snake Chain. It was hard to learn but I got it now! I adore this chain. Don't mind the dog hair.

Lori...c'mon...what about the children? Won't SOMEONE THINK OF THE CHILDREN?
Okay, so lately, for the dawgs in our life, we've been taking them for rides in the new honda hybrid...but Jordan complains that his new-used car is getting dirty and full of dog hair from such trips. Sewing projectereeno for Lori!!! I found some tye-dye terry cloth at a local fabric store and used some yardage of light denim I had already and created large lightly padded dog beds for Jordan's car. I put ties on the side of one to hang from the top of the seats in something for car-seats for kids I think. I got to use beads that I got from a festival I went to a few years ago and traded a few beers for, so it was nice to create something with them finally. They got to be for a toggle for the blanket loop attachments. I made the other one to cover the base of the seats. Anyway, there they are! I'm making some red ones for my car. Cool part is that when we camp, we can take these out and voila! Dog bedding for two dogs! Friends house? Dog bedding....Car broke down? People bedding. hehe. Each one also folded in half makes for a really comfy dog bed for one of these mongrels all stretched out even. AND, since it's terry cloth, it absorbs an adequate amount of moisture.

So...other than all that....I've not been up to much...hehehe.
Ciao

Dawgonit!!!

2007-03-18T14:49:00.000-07:00

Jack and Maggie. Maggie and Jack.
Love them we do (how did they make those faces for me? I'm totally cracking up!), but we're realizing they are getting older and we're watching the puppyhood slip slowly away as they approach their 7th year. We have many plans for them of traveling and hikes and long walks and play time. In fact, we've got high dreams of introducing a new puppy to them in the next year. Trouble brews though as we realize they both have dog aggression issues that, though are not severe, they do stop them from being invited back to large dog park-like lodging centers for when we travel without them ( rare though that is ). What would they do with a poor defenseless puppy around? Jack is especially bad with sharing toys with anyone at times and will become quite aggressive with other dogs. Maggie has not been a problem for him because she will either enjoy the combat, or back off and go find something else to do.

Another issue is potty training Maggie to 'go' in the kennel and not just any ol' place she wants to in the yard. We had gotten the command "Kennel! Go Potty" through to her for a short bit and we were again impressed with the mind of a lab. For a while. Recently, she'll go there, and stand and just stare out. You'd think, "oh, she must not have to go" ( because you wait and wait and wait and repeat the command over and over and wait and wait) so you release her and let her play, only to find she 'goes' somewhere in the yard.

Here they are with their training collars in place. I like how Jack is expressing his distaste for this item while Maggie doesn't seem to give a rip as long as she thinks she's going somewhere.

Additionally, on our walks, we're tiring of pulling our dogs back to us in a "heel" position. That seems to be a part of their training that slipped the furthest from it's perfection they once knew. I think we are to blame. Silly humans...

Mags and Jax were trained using the sounds of a "choke chain" and it worked for their training, "if" you like to stop every few feet, and give the "shing shing" sound of giving short bursts of pulling on the chain to remind them that they need to back up and walk beside us. They happily bounce backwards, and you can take another few steps to repeat commands of "NOOOoooOOO!" and "HEEL" all the while making the "shing shing" sounds with the collar. This makes a mile walk take oooh, about five hours. We both require large amounts of valium afterwards and feel like putting our dogs in the kennel overnight so our patience levels can rise to a decent level.

So, about three years ago, I discovered the "Gentle Leader" and "Halti" alternative harnesses. This was BETTER!!! I LOVED what they could do for Jack and Maggie, when you've got them moving. The theory is that you aren't "choking" them, or allowing them to be choked by a chain that pulls tighter as they pull, but instead redirects their face which they don't tend to like, so they pay more attention to me and don't pull. I have to say, these are a great tool.....when they are "walking." If you stop to talk to friends, tie your shoes, take a break though, they shove their faces into any legs or ground they can get to and rub and dig and scratch at their faces. This aggravates me, Jordan and probably any friend we've been around when we've put these devices on our dogs. We found this acceptable because those moments are rare and they don't pull like they do with a regular canvas collar, or try to pull so far ahead like with the choker.

So, we have a few issues with our dogs, right? Oh, and I should also mention, sadly a criticism for our lovely Maggie-pie. She LOVES her toys. So much that she will constantly get her toy and shove it, drool and all into any available lap over and over and over and over...well...ya...you get the point until you put the toys away. And by away, I mean behind a latched door. She NEVER tires of this game and it can be a bit much with company around where it tends to get worse. If no toys are available, she'll bring you carpet fuz, lintball, or toilet paper roll. All with this happy face of "Look what I found?!!! A lintball!!!! don't you want to throw it? Throw It? THROW IT!!! kind of mentality as she squishes it into you, looks at you, looks at said lintball, back at you, lintball, you, lintball. It's a good thing she's soooooo good looking. She's gotten used to us saying "that's enough" and putting said lintball on the floor and giving a hand signal to leave it alone, which she ignores, picks up said lintball and goes away and eats it.

SO, we called in a dog trainer, Melissa Lynch, a recommended trainer from our local natural pet store called "Sam's" to answer a few of our questions and provide a tune-up in our training.
The short and sweet of it all for the dog aggression we described to her; Maggie did not have the socialization early on to do well with playing with other dogs and get the training that requires since she's had that issue all her life. Jack has progressed into a more mature dog ( than he used to be ) and is now tired of puppies and their play. He would prefer to play with Maggie or anyone willing to throw the ball, but it's his ball and don't make him stress over fighting for his toys. There would be no use really in trying to get the dogs to do something they do not like to do just to make us feel better ( like being social in a dog park). Just because what we think is fun ( wondering free in a park) does not mean that this is fun for Jack and Mags. They enjoy the freedom in their home and their yard and are adequately exercised. If we enjoy the dog park so much, we should go alone. We admitted the last two times we went, we did not take the dogs so that we could relax and enjoy ourselves. Additionally, Dog Parks "should" be for dogs that are well trained and listen to their humans and do well with other dogs. This doesn't seem to be the case in general as you watch people yelling and running after their dogs and having no control over aggressive behavior. In a perfect world, it would be perfect but a dog park is far from it. Even if you can control your own dog perfectly, you can't control the others. Oh, I almost forgot, about the dog boarding/kenneling stuff. Even if we had good training for Jack and Maggie and we were able to control them, the care-takers would not be adequately trained and therefore, the training would go to waste and they would have the "Jackyl and Hyde" that they described to us the last time. Nice one minute, a terror the next, and then back into nicey nicey land.
She recommended having a dog/house sitter when we're away if we want them to be at their most relaxed and well exercised state, someone trusted, and insured and someone that would not bring their own dog over.

Next....the collars, the "heeling" command. Our trainer Melissa went to her car and produced a "prong collar" probably more well known as a pinch collar. She placed it on me first, and tugged and I felt relatively no pain ( she did this on my hand, not my neck you silly people!), and so I allowed her to test it on our dogs. They did WONDERFULLY and did not try to be inappropriate when they sat because they were comfortable around their face. I LOVE THIS COLLAR, and they are sooo much more relaxed when they walk now...they even bounce or trot. VERY CUTE. (plus, it looks like they have chain maille on so you know I love that!) This is how I now 'walk maggie to the kennel' to reinforce that "Kennel! Go Potty!" command. I walk her in until she 'goes' and provide praise and treat when complete. Play is also the third reward if she poops. Her playtime is now dictated upon when she evacuates. Gotta love working from home to work this in! The prong collar is only for training so they never wear these when it's not necessary and never for being tethered to something...which ties in the next thing we "fixed."

While Melissa was here giving us advise about our dogs, Maggie was insistent with her toys as she does. Melissa tried hiding the toy behind her, squirting her with a water bottle and each time repeating "NOOooOOO" in a very serious low tone. Didn't work. Nothing works we tell her...except getting ourselves upset and probably Maggie too. Again, she went to her car and this time produced a six foot lead which she anchored to the couch and the other to Maggie's canvas collar. This part was the amazing part. Maggie went to the end of her lead, found she was tethered and then, just simply, lay down. She totally relaxes with this tether bit and she has her toy and a bone and just entertains herself or naps. We now do this for about fifteen minutes max if she becomes anxious like this and have found that she was probably full of a lot of stress during those moments and just didn't have a way to calm herself down. Now that she's tethered, she's getting the idea better and better each time and only seems to mind if she's tethered and someone tries to go outside. We'll see if practice won't make perfect with that one.

So, just a small update on how we're doing with the pupperonni's. Aren't you impressed with the posing these guys did for these photos? You KNOW it was mean of me to do since it wasn't nice enough weather for a good walk after leashing them, unleashing them, trying a new collar and so on. They are two of the most patient dogs sometimes. After the training session, both Jack and Maggers got new canvas collars and six foot leads as well as new prong collars for each. Melissa said that introducing a new puppy is a totally different issue for the dogs and that from meeting them and hearing our tales of their terror she says that introducing new 'family' member puppies are totally different than dog park pups and playing with our friend's dogs. They establish rules over time and aggression isn't going to be an issue. She will also be there for the initial introduction of the new puppy when the time comes and that will make us all feel better. The trainer was worth her money and we're practicing more and more and trying to learn new things about our dogs. I found a book on my own at the library that I recommend for understanding dog behavior....It's called "The Other End Of The Leash," "why we do what we do around dogs." It's by Patricia B. McConnel Ph.D. I'm totally getting into her book and it's an interesting lesson in animal behavior. If you're into dogs, animal behavior or both, check it out and lets discuss!

G'nite for now, it's late, and I've been at a late night knitting event so I best get some shut-eye.

Ducts say Roof Roof!

2007-03-17T13:40:00.000-07:00

wait...ducks say "quack quack".....and what about a roof?

Okay, we've been busy around here, I can admit that. But...what HAVE we been doing that we can admit to on a public blog for all family and friends to see? Not much...so with that, I'll see you later, check back soon.

Oh? So you can't be fooled that easily? Well then. To further announce that Jordan works from home with his new company, I'll announce that he's taken over the office completely and barely lets me check email every few days when I remember. Its no small wonder that I haven't been able to post any new blog entries, but after getting a letter in the mail from my parents requesting more photos and updates and one email from my MIL, I'm pushing Jordan out of the way to show you what we've been up to.

We've been in contact with our local Public Utilities District to replace our furnace. They offer a line of credit that is hard to beat and they do energy testing and such and then offer up contacts to go through for replacing our furnace. Our furnace is the original that came with the house, so it's at least 30 years old. Jordan says it's a Wesco furnace. Our heater began making noises or maybe 'continued' making noises when we moved in. It scared the hell out of us the first time we heard it. It's similar to thinking that aliens are hovering over the roof. Very X-File-ish. WOOO-OOOOO-OOOO-OOOOO and very loud. I'm glad it only last for about 10 or 15 seconds but that's about every time it really kicks on to add some more heat to the house.

Our furnace resides on our small kitchen pantry. It takes up half of it. If at all possible, we need to have that moved to the garage with the water heater. When this gets replaced, our new one will offer air-conditioning, which will help in resale value, but was not of huge interest to us as we were pretty much fine with windows last year. Our solarium does heat up the living room and kitchen to a great deal, but we're going to discuss covering that with curtains so that we don't need to be running A/C if we don't need to. We both like the fresh air too much anyway, and the hot season is rather short. We can sweat it out unless we have company.

So, we've been having contractors in and out of the house lately giving bids that could choke a horse. Ideally we'd like to have the furnace moved out of the pantry and into the garage and, in fact , one contractor is saying we have no choice due to limited clearance for servicing. To move it would require concrete cutting to get it into the garage, re-working the duct layout, and running electricity to the new location making for a very sizable bid. The PUD also has strict efficiency requirements and says that there must not be any exposed metal duct work and our ducts are so poorly insulated right now that it would all have to be stripped and resealed (adding $2k to the bids). Some are recommending that we just replace it all with flex ducting which is plastic and probably a new system would be cleaner than the existing ducts. Apparently the price to replace is about the same as the strip & seal. All in all, this is probably going to be a project costing around $12,000.00.

So, before we do these changes, anybody want to buy a nice house? Needs a little work, but we've got contractors all set up! hahaha. KIDDING!!! We're loving this home and knew that there would be things along the way that would need updating. It just sucks because we were thinking we'd have a deck and hot tub in already. HA HA HA>>>>>Want to know the definition of dreamers? Look up Jordan and Lori on dictionary.com.

So, while we've got that going on, we've also finally finished up the project of replacing our barn roof.
Previously, when we moved in, it looked like this.

During a windstorm here the metal from behind was pulled upwards and sort of looked like a cow-lick on top of our roof. One of the bungees holding it down had broken and we had begun to think that perhaps metal sheets and bungee cords were not the best laid plans our previous owners had for roofing a perfectly well-built structure which is our two-stall barn.

We tried to hire Jordan's brothers Matt and Jer to replace the roof, but Matt injured himself pulling all the roofing off so they could not continue. We then had an exposed roof to deal with, and the guys had discovered that some of the plywood would need replacing as rot had begun to set in. We bagged it for that weekend and ended the weekend with an awesome bbq that Becca and I pulled together with Jordan manning the grill. We called a local guy, Jeff to come take a look and with all our weather problems we had out here, it took a really long time for a small project to get completed, but it's better than ever.

These things I believe....or not....

2007-01-31T10:34:00.000-08:00

Things that make me go "Nuh-UH!"

The other weekend, Jordan and I were listening to some public radio station and the topic of second hand smoking came up. Right now I just can't remember in what context because the call that came into the show knocked my mind for such a loop, I just have to share. This guy called in saying that what we've all learned as truth, that smoking cigarettes and second-hand smoke from smokers is detrimental, is actually a falsehood! He continued that it's all propaganda against the tobacco industry and it's making money for the Nicorette products that are out there and other products like it. It was like finding out there was no Santa! Me? Lied to? No way! This caller then even said there was a Smokers Club for smoking enthusiasts and I just now got around to finding it....so I had to share.

There's also Forces International!

Not that I'm going to light up or all-of-sudden start enjoying the smell of smoke when I have to walk through it...because I won't and haven't for a long time...it's just interesting that this site and that these people exist...so here, broaden your mind, or hell, at the very least bring home some interesting dinner conversation. I'm not outraged, I just hadn't expected that this existed in the first place. Get information where you can, and give it the amount of credit it deserves, but always ask more questions even if you think you've gotten all the answers you were looking for.

By the way, that website has a comedy section that I'm checking out. I'm looking at the Smokers Rights Comedy Videos links called "Who's your Nanny?." It's fairly funny and sad and has to do with Ontario! Sue, let me know if it hits home with how things are governed up thar, cuz I'm outta the loop on whether or not it's this strict! If it is, then I'm sad...if it's just a farce well then, it had me laughing in an "oh my" kind of way. I'm going to check out the comedy stuff a bit more and then perhaps the politics of it all....

Okay, I was just laughing OUT LOUD at the "Best Commercial Ever." Check out that video there....totally had me.

additionally, the "talking dogs" video on the regular comedy link from that web page is awesome. Nothing about tobacco...which you're all pretty happy about.
http://www.smokersclub.com/video/comedyvideo.html

(the pic of the four bees on the weed was taken in Canada in 2006 by either myself, or Jordan...I just thought it was another example of "nuh-uh" things we've seen, now those are some busy bees!)

Tongue and Cheek

2007-01-30T11:50:00.000-08:00

Hi guys,
I just wanted to share some silly shots I got of the magster and jackson. Maggie is soooo purdy, it's hard not to take pictures of her all the time. Jack's shiny black coat is hard to capture w/o it just showing a glare, so it's nice to get to take some shots of different fur now and again.

I mean...isn't she just gorgeous?

Here's Maggies shadow is actually Jack panting, but he was left mysteriously out of the shot.

I think her tongue is growing though....soon, it's not going to fit in her face.

When asked if she can touch her tongue to her nose...

Maggie, what's your thoughts?

Did Jack just eat an orchid?

Here are some left over shots from the snow that was on the same card as these new ones so I best get these out there so Maggie's momma and papa can see what fun she's been having at Camp Matthiesen. I took the first three, and I credit Jordan with the last shots.

Okay, the weather is changing out there and we've been getting out there and hiking around a bit, so stay tuned to see when we actually get somewhere and bring our cameras all on the same trip. Thank you for all the thoughts and prayers for my meemaw, we all really need them and appreciate your support, love and thoughts and calls. Additionally, my Dad's dad, my grampa, recently fell in his home in Arizona and has undergone hip-replacement surgery for the hip he broke during that fall. Please keep us in your prayers that this year gets better for our families. A lot has been happening all around us and with our own personal and professional struggles and triumphs it's proven to increase in pace instead of leveling off or decreasing.

Meemaw, Maggie and Me!

2007-01-11T10:55:00.000-08:00

Howdy everyone! Thanks for continuing to check in. Things have been crazy busy here since about Thanksgiving so I've taken some time off from my blogging. My mom's mom, my Meemaw has recently been diagnosed with cancer. She lives in Maryland with my uncle, Don. Mom and Dad decided to temporarily move back home to Maryland to help care for her and Don while Meemaw goes through her radiation treatments. Meemaw has most of her family around her, but there was no stopping Mom from going home to help out where she could. In the meantime, we've got Maggie!!! Maggie is Mom and Dad's yellow lab and Jack's sister. It's been absolutely fantastic getting another dog. We've been wanting more for a long time so this is a way for us to test our patience to see if we're really ready. The answer is a resounding YES YES YES. I LOVE having two dogs, most of the time. I'll let you settle in on some fun pictures of the two of them playing yesterday and today in our new 5 inches of snow. Mainly I wanted to blog about Maggie and Jack today so that Mom and Dad can "visit" with thier gal pal that I know they miss very much.
Maggaggie, Magaroon, Magpie, Magnum. Enjoy!
Also, don't forget, you can click on the pics to enlarge'm

Alaska Pics

2006-12-03T22:19:00.000-08:00

Howdy Everyone!
Just wanted to finally get a chance to post some awesome pics, made by Jordan during our cruise to Alaska. I edited the first one here, and I took the one seal pic . You'll see we got to see some glaciers, some beautiful mountains and some wildlife. I hope to post some more pics along the way, but this month is crazy and I feel a bit blessed to have the time just now to get these out to you. We hiked through town and into the wilderness at each port. Dad got ill at one port and Jordan had to take his place on his snorkeling adventure. I think it was worth it, if anything just to have the story of having snorkeled in Alaska. Enjoy and write soon.
I had a chance to learn to knit ( as I spoke of in the other Alaska pics showing Vicky wearing my hat and scarf I made), here I'm modeling my wool wrap that I knitted just in time for our cruise.

Before this month is through...I shall post about last month...

2006-10-29T20:13:00.000-08:00

Howdy ya'll!
Wow, September just whooshed by and lo' and b'hold, here it is just about the end of ol' October! Things have been crazy busy here, but in very good ways.
Jordan and I travelled to Alaska in the beginning of September and stayed with our friends, Vicky, Matt, Madison and Emma. Thank you for showing us around Hatcher's Pass and the gold mine, and around Anchorage. I can't wait till you move closer and we get to see you all so much more.

And, where do these wild blueberries go Madison? In your mouth of course! Low growing blueberries are fantastic as well as the currants we could pick off the sides of the mountain we were hiking. I can see what all the hub-bub is for the bears!
We're hiking up to an old gold mine and the town that was created around it. Dormitories, cafeterias, schoolrooms and the processing areas. Other materials were mined and separated from the rock that they pulled from these mountains but gold was the goal.

We all went out for dinner and drinks later, and met up with Paul and his wife. Paul and Vicky and I all graduated from the same high school. Paul is newly stationed up in Alaska and it worked out so well to get together and catch up.

The next morning Matt drove us to the city and Jordan and I met up with my folks to begin our cruise down the inside passage of Alaska. Jordan and my Dad and I decided to take a walk through the Saturday market before we got on the bus that would take us to our cruise line.

Short story though, DO NOT FLY UNITED!!! We were due to fly out on a Thursday. We had called the week prior about our flights to make sure we were heading straight into Anchorage from Seattle. They said yes, straight shot, that they had heard of some flight changes but our flight was unaffected. We had called about a month before to do the same thing because my folks who were also flying to Anchorage from Portland were going through Seattle then on up to Anchorage...But, United had changed their flight so they would have to fly south to LA then back up over Portland, up to Seattle, then up to Anchorage. They did all this changing of flights without ever notifying them. They said they had tried, yet my parents were never notified. They changed their flight and went through Alaskan air instead, straight into Anchorage. Since it didn't seem that our own flight had changed, there was no need to try to change anything. The day of the flight, Jordan called to check on our flight and they let us know that our flight HAD changed and that our flight time had changed as well, and we'd have to be at the airport ready to go in about an hour to fly three hours south to come five hours north. Since that was undo-able, we changed our flight to the next day still with United so we didn't lose our 450.00 in airfare that we had spent. We still had to go south to LA to get the straight shot flight into Anchorage. We took one three hour flight, an hour or so layover then four and a half flight to go three hours north from our home. Also, a policy that seemed to drive the icky feeling in deeper is that you have to buy your food on any flight shorter than five hours. Not that anyone likes airplane food, but that was a loooong day and having to fork over ten bucks for us to have a couple of snack boxes was just tormenting. Though, I have to say, snack boxes are a much better idea than airplane food ( think sun chips, hummus, applesauce and such, so not bad...only bad after forking out so much money for the flight and having it go the way it did). The telephone customer service was terrible as Jordan tried to fight with them over what could be done for them to make us happy since no contact had been attempted. Their records showed United tried to contact us, yet no contact was made. What they did offer us were two fifty dollar travel vouchers ( not to be used with airmiles, nor combined) to fly with an airline we care NOT to support. Can't say it enough, I'm calling it F-United.
But I DO NOT WANT TO DIGRESS from the AWESOME time we had with Vicky and her family. Thank you for allowing us into your home, showing us such a great time, getting together with Paul whom I haven't seen in four years, and just plain being yourselves, being funny and loving and welcoming. I can't help but smile thinking about the good times we had.

PS, you'll note Vicky is wearing a blue hat and scarf...Kudos to me for my first and second knitting projects! Vic, you look Mahvahlus! Love you all and can't wait to see where you end up. I'm crossing my fingers for Bremerton!

Our first year anniversary!

2006-09-24T20:43:00.000-07:00

On September 3rd of this year, we were able to celebrate our one year wedding anniversary! We can NOT believe how time has gone by so swiftly and yet, we also can't believe how we've fit so much into one year. We've moved to a new city, a new home, gotten new jobs, created new friendships, tried to maintain friendships that were created before we ever knew of Monroe Washington, missed our friends and family and well....a whole slew of 'stuff' that's brought us one year of marital "entertainment."

To those that wonder how we spent our anniversary, I'll let you know Jordan drove to Portland Oregon to pick up a small cake from JaCiva bakery and drove it back up here for our date. JaCiva is the same bakery we used for our wedding cake. Jordan got mixed roses that were reminiscent of our wedding day flowers and we drank a bottle of champagne I'd saved and chilled especially for our occasion. We listened to our CD of dance songs from our wedding and we danced in our living room to our songs until our legs ached, our eyes were teary and we were laughing about how much fun we've had together. Thank you all who came to our wedding last year, we go over the pictures often and think of you and how far away you are, but how close you still feel to us. Please call to catch up, it's been too long.

Some words of wisdom that we had received about marriage included this statement; "the first year is the hardest."
If that's the case, then I think we'll be fine. I can say that I thought what "they" meant by saying that is that you take that first year and get to know whom you've just married. For us, it was something a bit different. We already had known each other for years. We met in 1999. We started dating in 2003. We had dated for essentially two years before we wed and had lived with each other for one year of that time. We sort of 'knew' what we were in for with each others daily habits, so I think we didn't have anything to adjust to. What I hadn't expected was how Jordan and I were going to deal with all the stress life handed us. Like I say, we moved. We moved from our families which we were both so tightly connected. We moved from our friends who helped fill our hearts with laughter and support and defined how we spent our time outside of work. We further moved from the comforts of routine and how we entertained ourselves. Within one year of marriage we dealt with my IRS Federal and State audit, our new home being burglarized causing $5000.00 worth of damage, Jordan's car breaking down and needing replacement, a tree breaking our fence, our barn roof falling apart, wasps taking over our attic and buzzing in our walls, ceiling fans that won't get reattached into the ceiling, inefficient furnaces, and a shower that takes five minutes to warm up. I can't even say that we had one argument over how to deal with any of these trials. In fact, for a bunch of them, we have had quite a bit of laughter if not in mere disbelief of it all. I have never thought of us at opposite ends of a spectrum, trying to make the other know where the other is coming from. Instead, I imagine us both looking out into the world standing really strong and open and willing to take on whatever comes next for us to overcome, or to welcome what new great joys life has to offer.

So, the first year is the hardest year? Maybe it's the most creative year for us, because even with all of this stress, Jordan and I have managed to create a strong bond around our new interest of photography. Most of you know that I usually have my hand into some new crafty stuff(so far this first year of marriage has brought me into teaching jewelry making and learning how to knit and quilt), but to find someone that's willing to either go along with me, or think up more interests to jump into, well, it's been a lot of fun to say the least. When Jordan and I started teaming up with this hobby, I think we started improving like crazy. It's wild to get so jazzed up about something between us. So, I'll stop boring you with details. I'll thank you again for following along with us for as long as I've had this blog. Keep up with us as we post new pictures of the life we see.

Additionally, we've finished the slideshow of the wedding photos of the shoot I got to do. You should be able to follow this link to it.

2006-08 Tiffany & Keith's Wedding

Sep 24, 2006 - 102 Photos

Let me know your thoughts. I'll also post this on the past post so it's available.

Please check back in, as we'll have pictures and details of our cruise from Alaska to Vancouver B.C. Jordan took most of the pictures and all I can keep saying is WOW. I love you Jordan and thank you and happy anniversary!

Our first pro shoot

2006-09-05T12:05:00.000-07:00

You may remember Tiffany from past posts and her dog, Oden. After seeing a few shots that Jordan and I took, she asked if Jordan and I would do photos for her wedding. We jumped at the opportunity. Not that we're ready to make a living out of doing wedding photography, but that we'd get a chance to see what it was like. I got to be with Tiffany all day during her getting ready hours, and Jordan joined us later for ceremony shots as he had to arrive after work. So, here you go! Let us know what you think of these few. We're creating a slideshow to show the rest and set to music so there should be a link coming in the next couple of weeks.

My friend is a bully.

2006-07-18T10:02:00.000-07:00

Rather..Jack's friend is a bully...an english bull terrier named Toby. He's just a pup that Michelle and Micca got a couple months ago. He and Jack run around and play very well together. When Tob' stops chewing on everything in site, he's going to make a great pal for M&M. Jack now has someone to push around and play alpha male. Toby finally gets to be pushed around and take a bit of what he's been dishing out to other smaller pups. Good boys all in all.

Catching our Breath, Catching Up

2006-07-12T21:09:00.000-07:00

Howdy everybody!
Thank you all for writing to me saying how much you've missed the posts and catching up with us. I'll try to catch ya'll up while I show you a few photos of the Portland Waterfront Blues Festival this year. Our main objective was to see Dr. John, Rebirth Brass Band, and Buckwheat Zydeco. The first pic is from Buckwheat Zydeco, and the remaining first few are of Dr. John. His music is cajun, creole, funk, jazz, sultry heat of the new orleans bayou...it gets me EVERYTIME. I sincerely think everyone should have a listen, have a beer, have a CD, and have a dance.

It was three days (for us) of sun and music and much needed relaxation. We have been up against quite a bit lately as you may have noticed by the slacking in bloggeroos....I just completed Tax Audits from Oregon and the Federal IRS. The reason being, I trusted a tax preparer who claimed she was certified to prepare taxes. Additionally, she passed herself off as a tax lawyer, which she indeed once was. She is now disbarred and has a civil lawsuit against her. She came as a recommendation from me from friends who were also duped. All of her clients have had to go through the audit process. Unfortunately, my tax auditors have changed names, changed jobs, changed titles and so on, and so I've had to deal with this process for a year. It's been on my mind...for an entire year. But now, it's gone gone gone. An adjustment had to be made, but I'm not bitter for it as I see it as taxes that should have been paid. The amounts owed were not so significant that we need to consider more than some adjustment to our current budget, so for that, we're grateful.

This is Keith Frank and the Soleil Zydeco Band. We hadn't heard them before, but we were impressed. Zydeco is definitly music of New Orleans. It's accordian and washboard sounds send me back in my mind to Jazz Fests I've gone to, and the city itself. There's zydeco dance too that you can do to it that's similar in some respects to some swing. Jordan and I took a lesson one time, with hopes of more. I think we'd try again to find some lessons if we were planning a trip.

In the meantime...Jordan's car decided to overheat while trying to drive home from work. The radiator is broken and a heap of other things are wrong with the car. Since we've already put more than $600.00 in the car this year, and we were looking at another $2000.00, we decided it was time to find another car. After a ton of research on Jordan's part, and another ton of test drives on both our parts, we decided on the 2005 Thunderbird classic. It's a two seater, convertible with about as much luggage space to hold my lipstick, but it drives like an absolute dream and damn is it ever FAST!!! Then Jordan made me get out of the car and leave it on the lot. After a bunch more research and me having to wake from my dreams of a thunderbird, HE decided on a 2003 Honda Hybrid Civic. The best emissions and fuel efficiency out there seem to be the Toyota Prius, but we couldn't afford the additional 10K on the price tag. It's rumored that in a few years, the Prius will be able to do 100 miles to the gallon of fuel. At that time, we may reconsider, but right now, we're really having to watch our dollars, so the next best thing was this Honda. Better yet, it's a certified used car, so we get more of a warranty than buying out of the papers.

A zydeco band we fell for after our one and only dance lesson was Buckwheat Zydeco and it was great that they were in town for this blues festival so we could listen to them live and feel their energy. THIS is a LIVELY band.

Okay, onto Rebirth Brass Band! These guys are a FANTASTIC funky brass band. I LOVE thier energy. Its pure, raw and moving. The band itself is engaging and gets everyone shouting "RE-BIRTH!" or they shout at the crowd about where the party's at and the crowd yells "RIGHT HERE" I've seen this band a bunch of times at the Maple Leaf in New Orleans, and Hanxta is 'in' with this group and create's their tee-shirts. I'd go as far to say that he's good friends with them. He and Gabby were behind stage while Michelle Medler was waiting to come on. You may recall, the Medlers played in the band at our wedding, she was the sax player, her husband, the trombone player. Rebirth has gotten Michelle onstage a couple of times now so far and it was completely kick-ass that I got to see her perform at the waterfront with this awesome band. Great Job MICHELLE! You looked hot! You sounded hot! I'm so proud to know you and so proud of you! ;)

Well, I suppose that's about it for now. I can tell you that I'm worried about my grandfather, and that he's been ill with a bad back. He's laid up pretty good with a slipped disc in his spine after trying to do some heavy lifting. It's really painful for him to get around at all and surgery isn't possible at this point with his health. Additionally, I have a cousin that I grew up with in Maryland who's been diagnosed with cancer and she's going in for surgery at the end of this month and they'll do additional tests to make sure everything has been removed. My thoughts and prayers continue for their strength through thier ordeals and if any of ya'll would take a moment to send some positive energy their way, I'd sure appreciate it.

A is for Alpaca

2006-06-07T22:41:00.000-07:00

Howdy everyone! Long time no 'see' I know, but things have been a bit crazy with the car shopping, working, thinking up new ideas for teaching classes, keeping up with Jordan and Jack and taking photos and such. There's been a lot of personal stuff going on and I'm frankly a bit drained. I'm hoping to recoup on my next day off and actually get this house a bit cleaned up, I'm hoping that a clean house will revive my will for bigger and better things. I've been trying to come down off of caffeine for a month now and have successfully figured myself into a half caff world. Basically, I'm equalling about a cup of real coffee a day. Its affecting my mood in a good way and I'm liking it! The downside is that I'm not as jazzed to get moving so I'm waiting for my natural energy to flow better. I'm hoping by the next month I'll be decaff all the way. We'll see...so far I'm more relaxed and happy.

Last week, I rode my bike to work, and it was a LOT of fun to get movin. It's about five miles in and so ten round trip. I don't have to deal with too much traffic on the roads since I'm not traveling during the commute times, also I take the back roads so I can eliminate as much of that stuff as possible. The worst part was that my rear really hurt for two days! I was testing the route for commuting to work but I think I'll need to warm up into it. A few days later, I walked to work. I got about three miles down the road and I was really enjoying myself...although I had realized I hadn't given myself enough time to really do it....so I was stressing and rushing and hurrying and sweating. I was thinking a lot about a coworker of mine, Angie. I was just thinking about some work that she had to do the day before and about something she said to me at another time, and well..just thinking about her. She's a really nice and funny lady that I work with and so it was easy to think up stuff. But lo' and behold, her truck pulls right up next to me. So, she gave me a ride into town and to work so I didn't have to walk the remaining two miles! She wasn't even working that day! Isn't that cool that I was thinking of her and she appeared?? WEIRD! And, my legs hurt for two days, shin splints from hurrying and not walking correctly. I can be prone to them pretty easily and so I should have known. I'm glad I didn't get a couple more miles in. Jordan picked me up from work and that would be my plan if I walk, or if I bike and it gets too late and dark, even though I have headlights, and tailights, rearview mirror, helmet, bullet-proof vest, and reflectors up the wazzoo! We're safe folks and don't want to scare ourselves or anyone else. I was just kidding about the vest, and the wazzoo.

Why is A for Alpaca? My friend Michelle, whom I've posted pictures of before of a picnic we had, was going to sheer her parent's Alpacas with the help of her folks, and a groomer. She said that I was welcome to come along, take some pics, and help if I wanted to. I headed over and everyone was so nice, but I just couldn't stand around taking pictures, so they let me help! I got to help! I was so excited. I just love this first picture, it's my fav.

It was an experience I was not expecting, and I was completely out of my comfort zone doing any sort of animal husbandry especially with alpacas! I was so out of my own realm that I paid a lot of attention to what I was doing. And you know what? All that personal crap that I've been worrying about lately? Well...it all got sort of shoved aside for a day. It was hard work, and it was smelly work ( think intensified wet dog) and I hurt and I didn't envy Michelle because though I helped sheer about five or six alpacas she helped with all 18 I think there were. But it was actually more relaxing than any other thing I could have been doing that day. I think it also really helped to help someone else and get away from "myself" for a bit. Too bad I had to leave, but I was meeting a friend in Seattle. But then, Michelle had to miss a day of work from being in pain, so maybe not so bad that I had to leave. ( as a side note...in the pic above with Michelle and her Dad, Carl, and the groomer, Bruce, the fleece is being shorn off and it's done so in a way that when it's collected and bagged, you can pull it out of the bag and unroll it and it appears just as it's shown in the picture, as if it were already a blanket. This is a beautiful white alpaca, and it's Michelle's.)

Jordan and I wanted to get out for a drive, but the weather has been so bad....well, we tried to take advantage of the situation. Here are some photos of what we've been up to lately. I hope you enjoy them.

Michelle's parent's kittie

Okay, before you go....guess which one got the haircut!

Portland Bridges

2006-05-26T12:35:00.001-07:00

We went to Portland Oregon last weekend and tried to get a good city photo. This is what Jordan came up with and I think it turned out so nice. Click on it to get th full view and if all you get is code, refresh the page. I love the fuzzy water and the reflection of the bridge. I tried altering it into a b/w photo and that turned out really cool as well. We can't wait to try some more night shots. I took some shots, but really didn't feel any of them were worthy of sharing. Some more shots will happen soon so we'll be sure to share.

On another note, Jordan's car isn't working as of two days ago. So many repairs are needed that we're going to donate it to a worthy cause. We are looking at getting a new or used car at this point and he's commuting to work by bus.

Jordan is one that can better make up his mind with the most amount of information given to him, so he's doing the research now...Well....not now, but when he's off work...but not tonight because we're going dancing.... ;)

Anyway, back to the bus situation...you may ask why not just commute by bus then? Evidently, we're not able to find a bus service that leaves monroe and feeds directly or even indirectly to Bellevue. There are buses that leave Monroe, but the last one goes out at 7am. It's a little unrealistic for his work schedule to work until 7 each night and go in that early. Right now, he can drive halfway ( Bothel ) and then bus in and back. This bus schedule is frustrating when Washington is such a commuter friendly state. I mean, hell...you can get a bus in Battleground WA to Beaverton OR if you can transfer...this should just as easy up here. I think commuting will improve as our area ( sadly ) grows.

Okay, I must get ready for work. ciao!

Say Cheese!

2006-05-15T10:08:00.000-07:00

This week was really full of work work work, so we decided to play a LOT this weekend. It was an easy incentive since one of Jordan's brothers, Matt, came up to visit. We went into Seattle on Friday night and all day Saturday late into the night. Saturday at Pike's market, there was a Cheese Festival, hence the photo of the title of this blog entry that Jordan took. We wore Matt's little legs off showing him the city, and then numbed his backside on lots of road trips around the city. Pike's marketplace is a fantastic place to enjoy loads of entertainment. Its hard not to stay with the moving crowd so that you can just stop and listen to one piano player, one guitar player after another, one barbershop quartet, or watch magic shows, or a set of people painted silver and setting motionless like mechanical puppet and puppet master until all at once they will both go into a song as if the puppet master is moving his character. We were delighted with all this wonderful entertainment on this warm crowded Saturday at the market. With the cheese festival was also a wine tasting tent, so it was great to get some tasty treats along the way. Jordan got me some fresh flowers as the roses he got me the week earlier have begun to wilt. He likes to make sure that we keep flowers on a pretty consistent basis. Thanks babe! All of the fresh foods available on display at this market to take home really make one want to go home and prepare something delicious and colorful and fresh. Since we knew that we'd be in the city for a while still, we couldn't get anything that would soon spoil. We'll be back though!
Saturday, we ended the day driving around to someplace called Fisherman's Terminal to check out a place that we think we'd like to go swing dancing. It's a bunch of piers with fishing boats, sailing vessels and yachts. We dined at their crowded fine dining restaurant watching yachts take off with prom dates, and chartered boats leaving port for a fun filled evening on the water. We longed to be on the boats with them, but were content to head back into the city for some night lights. The pub where they have live music and dancing looked fine enough to return to. Lots of close parking and the scenery around there is nice.

Okay, anyway, here are some photos of what we did, what we saw and where we were and what we did about what we saw where we were. Enjoy!

Home Run Picnic

2006-05-08T09:48:00.000-07:00

This past weekend, Jordan and I got to go play with our new friends, Micah, Michelle and Tiffany. The background is that Michelle and I work together, and I replaced Tiffany at work, as she left for a more lucrative career. She's also in Massage school right now! Go Tiffany! Micah is Michelle's husband of two years, though they've been together for ten and known each other for like fourteen years! This is fairly similar to our friends, the Collins'.
Micah and his brothers all play wiffle ball on their parents field. They were nice enough to invite us over to play and these are some shots of the day. Jordan hit two home-runs, let alone the base hits. The guys all keep stats, so it will be neat to see how that goes over time. We're ready to go play again. Michelle and I rested on the side lines with Tiffany (seen in a photo down below together)and later, Michelle's sister Nicki. Michelle and I both brought snacks and wine. It was a yummy picnic and great to relax and get to know one another better. The little pup is Odin, Tiffany's new pet. He's all of 12 or 16 weeks old and ADORABLE. He ran the field and cracked us all up. There's only one shot of the photographer, ah well...probably a good thing that day. You gets what you gets! Enjoy!

By the way, we all think that Micah and Jordan could pass for brothers they look so similar!

I really like this shot of Nicki helping her sister Michelle stand up. Sister helping sister. The long arm on the left, is Nicki, the younger sister. The other, Michelle. The roles switch throughout life, as one sister helps another but in this case, it's mostly Michelle that needed the help. I really like this shot.

Ciao!

Two Eyes, One Nose, Tulips!

2006-04-29T22:03:00.000-07:00

Today, Jordan and I finally made it to the Skagit Valley for their annual Tulip Festival. This festival is more than an hour NW of of our home. What we've read is that it's a great festival during the month of April. What we learned is that one should probably arrive earlier in the month. We retrieved a local map for all the flowering areas from a gas station ( gas was priced at 3.11!!!) and off we went. We kept looking at the map that was marked with little tulips each time we should see a field of tulips, yet, we either saw a dirt field recently turned over, or a field of recently deheaded tulips. There were many houses around and ranches that had blooming tulips in their yards, yet the fields were empty. We figured that we just missed it but it was confusing since so many homes still had beautiful showy blooms. We took a few more turns, happy to be out and about on a shared day off from work, and destined to picnic no matter the weather! We finally got to see what's left of this valley's fame. This current week has been filled with sunny sunny days and about 70-75 degree weather. Today though, it was blustery cold, windy and rainy. These are the shots we were able to get today. Enjoy. I know there are a lot of photos of flowers, so I hope you are patient looking through them. I've concluded this entry with our own creations and interpretations into today. I will say however that Jordan got crafty with his camera and taught me something new. You'll see two shots that are similar in their effect. The first one is his own, and the second is my try at it. My shot is called "Jordan gives me a flower," or "Here, smell this!" Thank you Jordan for always being interested enough in our shared interests, and patient enough as well, to take the time to show me something so cool. Thank you also for lending me your jacket today when it got to be so cold. Should I share with everyone that it snowed up here today? Nah, suffice to say we had a roaring fire tonight in our woodstove and shared a bottle of wine that we picked up along our trails today trying to recover.

Nature Reclaims! We saw this home on a wrong turn that turned into a right nice photo.

Okay, onto the Festival. I encourage you to click on the photos to show more detail, and if all you get is code, Refresh the page and it should appear correctly.

Pastures of Bleu

2006-04-20T21:29:00.000-07:00

I love that shot. It's not a cropped photo, it's how it was taken and I just really like it. Jordan and I spent last weekend at the Collin's ranch in Battleground WA. We got in late on Friday night, and after an hour or so of catching up, we crashed. I think that was around 2:30am! I got up around 7 to walk Jack around their 5 acre property and we ended up wandering over to the pastures so Jack and Bleu could meet. Blue is an Arabian horse, and maybe Heather will give me more details about Bleu. All I know is, he's GORGEOUS! He's also very smart and sweet. Jack and I hung out at the gate, which wasn't hot-wired, and Jack sniffed under the gate to get to Bleu. He was in a play stance and the two of them were sniffing at each other. It was very cute of each of them. Bleu sort of left me alone, staying out of reach of my hand. Later in the hour, he was sniffing at my face, and tasting my sweatshirt when I finally got a good petting in. He then leaned into my hand and really enjoyed the scratching I was giving him. Jack just kept eating Bleu's grass, instead of settling for the grass that was on the outside of the pasture. He later lost all that grass in my car. Thanks Jack! The next morning proved more interesting when Heather and I let Jack into the pasture with Bleu. Jack now knows what hot-wired means. He has not learned what causes it yet. I have confidence it won't take too many more zings like the one he took to figure it out. Poor boy, but he recovered quickly. He ran around the pasture, but mainly stayed out of our way as Heather got to working Bleu. He cantered around the pasture and huffed and entertained me so much. Heather, you and Bleu are a fantastic match, I'm so happy you have one another, you are very lucky. We tried to visit with the other horse, a miniture something-or-other named Tinkerbell. As we entered his pasture, I put down my camera bag outside Bleu's pasture. We walked across Bleu's pasture to Tinkerbell's. We got in and started sharing treats. I was trying to get Jack and Tink to play and run around, when Heather showed me that Bleu had gotten a hold my camera bag and was dragging it with it's contents into his muddy pasture. AHHH! I shook the box of treats to get his attention and poor Heather went in to save my goods! Thank you Heather! No harm done, just a real good scare! My lenses, my flash...AHHH! All is well Lori...all is well...whew! At that moment, Tinkerbell was running around, towards me, and then turning around. I learned reeeeaaaaal quick he was trying to kick me! I learned he must be part donkey, cuz he sure is one heck of an ass! He tried the same thing towards Jack and after a few times we shot out of that pasture's gate in a hurry, getting out of the rain you'll see forming in the sky in the pics below and out of all horse contact for a bit. I encourage you to click on the photos to make them larger. If the newly loaded pages only shows some weird code, choose to Refresh your page and they should appear correctly. I've been having troubles lately...or rather, Blogger has, and so that's been the only remedy! Have fun! We sure did!

Heather and Bleu have a chat

So, Bleu, after all this running around, what do you think?

hmpf!

Morning Joy

2006-04-14T09:46:00.000-07:00

Did I mention that we love it up here? This shot was captured around 5:45 this morning. What a way to wake up!
If you click on this photo and get code, simply refresh your page and it will appear correctly.

Cabachons and Labradors

2006-04-09T22:14:00.000-07:00

Howdy!
The passed two days I got to take part in Carolyn Eddy's fantastic wire wrapping class at Gem Faire in Seattle. Friday I got to make a bracelet and Saturday, a wire wrapped cabachon to create a pendant. Let me know what you think! I'll post pics of the bracelet later this week, I just don't have the time tonight to get it up here. Sorry! This entire project, including the chain all started with one clasp, one bead, and a lot of wire. I think a pretty good job for a first timer.

Jordan and I got to playing with Jack after work today and here are some playful photos of our special little guy. I like the way Jordan took this first photo, getting Jacks face in focus and blurring the background as he moved the camera with Jack's motion. I sense the movement! Good Job Jordan!

Did I mention Jack was really good about having his picture taken?

Jack? Tell us what you really think!

Okay, so maybe he's not as good as I thought...sticking his tongue out at us and all!

All in all, we had a relaxing weekend catching up on chores, crafting, date nights, playing with Jack as usual and Jordan playing on his computer getting Windows installed on his Mac. Check out his blog for details on how that went.

Catching up!

2006-04-02T16:19:00.000-07:00

See Mom and Dad, Jordan read the manual! Just in time too! We were wondering if the JD could pick up sticks. We got our answer today as we saw it just chomp'm up with no problem what-so-ever.

We LOVE our John Deere. We have so many trees on our property and they drop a bunch of twigs everywhere. I started a new compost pile of sticks, twigs, and kindling today, from the fallen limbs that were too big for any lawn mower and it will come in handy when we finally do our burn pile. One of these days, we'd love to just have a firepit to sit around and have a beer, so I'm sure the steady supply of kindling will be appreciated.

I found Jordan relaxing while mowing too. He got comfy right away! Hee hee Jordan...you didn't think I caught you, did you? He's not steering! He's laying back, enjoying the ride!!!

Only one casualty of the day...poor poor rug.

Spring is coming in beautifully around here. The sky today was fantastic! Flowers were blooming everywhere, and soon our mystery fruit trees will reveal themselves!

Dad? I forget what you called this plant that is essentially our backyard. Can you tell me what it is again? I thought you said some sort of buttercup, but I think I'm remembering wrong.

I tried a new jewelry technique this morning, and it seemed to work out real well. This is made from chain, wire and one bead. Several lengths of wire are woven to create this ring. I'm going to make one that has no bead on it, and I think I'll love it even better. I'm just not a fancy gal.

Well, that about covers us for a bit, at least from my end. If Jordan has some things to catch ya'll up on, he'll be addin' on in a bit. We're barbeque'n tonight since the weather is so sunny and warm. I want to get to some quilting tonight so I can finally get this project from under my wing and show it to ya'll....in the meantime, there's still some daylight to burn...and Jack needs a playpal!

NOTE: I noticed if you click on the pictures to make them larger, you end up with some weird funky code. Refresh the page, and they will show up just fine. I'm still figuring out why that happens, but "refreshing" is the closest I've come to any resolution. Enjoy!

When life hands you lemons....

2006-03-26T09:02:00.000-08:00

Make lemonade! Or, Lime-ade

Having a ball with Jack

2006-03-21T23:21:00.000-08:00

Hey everyone - Jordan here. I thought I'd go ahead and start adding some posts as well. Here are a few photos from a photo session I had with Jack on Sunday. I thought I'd experiment some with the camera and tools on our computer.

In this first shot you see him patiently waiting for the ball and thinking "throw the ball...throw the ball...come on and throw the ball...just throw the freakin' ball...throw the ball..."

Jack's especially good at photos when you have a ball in hand (or in the air, on the ground, within smelling distance...)

Once the ball has been thrown a bit, it lands on the other side of the fence near the creek. Of course, being the good dog owner I am, I make him anxiously wait as I snap a photo (actually a few photos, but I'll just post one of our favorites).

Once I finally finish making him wait and give him the ball, I'd say he qualifies for the happiest dog on Earth. What do you think?

Grand Opening of "The Garden Spout" in Portland Oregon

2006-03-20T09:44:00.000-08:00

My great friend Hank Carver is having his grand opening today at The Garden Spout in Portland. The link is on the right of the page here. I encourage all of you faithful readers to check him out today if you can. I believe there may be some great things in his store to checkout. I wish I could be there to encourage him today as he opens his doors to the public and begins a journey into self-employment. If I were there, I would be encouraged to check out anything to start some early spring propogation for my garden. Perhaps some grow lights, and some warming blankets to start my seedlings. I have also heard he has some neat Venus Fly Traps! The Garden Spout is directed towards indoor gardening and hydroponics or soiless gardening. If you haven't the space outdoors to garden, may as well take advantage of every corner inside your home. Good luck Hanxta! I miss you, love you and wish you all the best! Now, everyone, go check out his store! 503.803.7970 for his location in SE Portland.

I'm feeling thorny!

2006-03-15T13:57:00.000-08:00

I came home today from driving Jordan to work. His car is in the shop yet again and I have today off work, so it worked out well that he could get to work and still get his car worked on without having to take a day off or work from home. Between the costs of his car right now and two major home repairs that need done (fireplace and barn roof), we're crunched on money. So, I had some extra energy that needed burning off thinking about it all. The weather did not hold out for me. Its cold, and it's rainy...and right now as I post this, I'm soaked and craving a hot shower...but so far, even the heat of our home is stinging my back, so it may be a bit.

The neighbors property has quite a bit of berry bushes on it, and they were creeping over our fence. I figured that the chore needed to be done..and it was free! If we ever plan to replace the fence, which it definitly needs....okay, I won't even think about more home repairs....I just won't....a shower will do me good...a shower will do me good....

What I mean is...if we ever decide to replace our back fence, keeping berry brush clear of the property line will help.

Now I have one heck of a burn pile. Berry brush burns, right? Please gawd, tell me it burns.

I have a question. I have a large amount of yard debris piled up in a corner of the yard left from the previous owners. We've added branches to it, but mostly it's yard clippings...and they've made a mess of things, I see there are companies out there that clear yard debris for a price. Since we've no truck available to us, are they worth the cost? A compost pile to me, should be in some sun to get some heat on it to break it down. Am I wrong?

Jordan, can we get yard debris pickup at our house? That may be some sort of a start.

Okay, another question. We haven't run our mower yet. Does anyone know if the John Deer can handle breaking down small branches and pine cones and such? Is it going to mulch it a bit? Or will it just refuse to do anything with it and spit it all back up all over our yard? I can pick up the big branches all around and add that to our growing burn pile....but the small branches, long as my arm, thin as a pencil stuff....do I gotta?

It seems that we're doing a lot of cleanup for this home, and repair right off the bat. Its good though, and only sometimes frustrating...like after being burglarized...an added expense we were not expecting.

Onto that shower!

Hikeroo

2006-03-05T20:48:00.000-08:00

This weekend we decided to try to get to know the area some more, and we needed to stretch our legs again. This time, we tried hiking to Heather Lake. We found it on a google match for hiking in Snohomish Co. and it was ranked as "easy." We're not sure what the hell hike they were talking about because though this was not an impossible hike, it was not easy. I put it up there with hiking to the top of Multnomah Falls. Many switchbacks, steep inclines, hiking through large rocky puddles, and stepping up high lifts. It gave Jordan's knee a bit of a pain by the time we decided to turn around and just come back to the car. We got only a couple miles in when we got to fallen trees across a snowy trail. Folks were hiking out with snowshoes, poles and the like. We were told that beyond the fallen trees was a beautiful Heather Lake another mile and a half in and we'd be in about four feet of snow. I'm not sure if the path was covered or cleared since we did not go on. We had only anticipated an "easy" hike, so we were not prepared for bad weather on steep slopes. We were both wearing the equivalent of tennis shoes and had little protective gear about us. The hike itself was immensely quiet, which was relaxing and largely unpopulated. The fragrant smell of pine was delicious to breath in. Getting our heart rates elevated and playing around with climbing on things was a lot of fun. The website we saw said that the hike was 4 miles round trip, but we really think that they were off somehow. We're going to try again in the later Spring when the snowmelt has occured. We've so far heard that the hike in is worthwhile. Later that day, we found a small interpretive trail for Mill Lake or Pond. Jordan took the second to the last photo. Our only complaint is that we shot during the daylight hours and we could have done better nearer to dusk. The sky was so white, we're wanting to see some color up there. The sky was lacking in color at that time of day, but we had to shoot if we were going to shoot and there ya go! I took the other photos. Enjoy!

My first quilted blanket

2006-03-02T21:49:00.000-08:00

Amy Butler from Midwest Designs is one of my favorite designers of sewing patterns so far.
http://www.amybutlerdesign.com/products/patterns_top.php

I have only a few of her patterns, but definitly want to support her making more. I've purchased and created a quilted baby changing pad, and it's corresponding diaper bag, and put it away into the hope chest for the future if there ever is a need. I posted pics awhile back when my Mom and Dad came to visit and Mom and I sewed that set together. I loved making that stuff, it was a lot of fun. I'm not overly joyed about Amy Butler's line of fabrics. I keep finding others that meet my tastes a little better. She's definitly into some retro fabric styles which draw my attention to being interested in her patterns in the first place, but I just haven't found any that make me think " I must HAVE that!" The most local fabric store carries about four of her fabrics but they don't really match any decor we have, or clothes I wear. I think it will be a while until I can catch onto her fabric tastes.

I have been wanting to sew her "On the Go, Comfort Throw" set, and last weekend I finally picked up some fabrics to put a set together. The pattern again, took some tweaking ( just like her diaper bag did). It said in order to create the borders, that I cut them out first in rectangular strips. Then, cut the miter edges. After that, attach all the sides together. I was then to attach the border ( a fabric donut by now) to the middle block of fabric. When I did this, my corners got all bunched up. I've attached borders before...and even mitered the edges, but not in the order A.B.'s design said to do it. So, I took it apart, and attached each border panel to the middle panel, THEN attached all my corners, sewing out the mitered edges. Next time I won't even cut the mitered edges...I'll just use the strips and cut the miters after I sew them out....Anyway, once I got the top done, it was time to mark my quilt lines. Jordan helped me use our yard stick and make the criss-cross pattern in the middle and the lines that go all the way around the quilt on the outer border. I tried to do it myself, but fabric shifts and two people weighing down a yardstick worked out much better. Thanks Jordan! Once we got it marked, I attached the backing and batting and set up to quilt my blanket. It worked out beautifully! The lines were just right and I'm just so pleased. It took one day to make the top, and two leisurely nights marking out the lines and one day to finish the blanket and cut out the parts for it's carrying case. I put together the carrying case in about two hours the next morning, and I love it. Its lined in silky rayon so the blanket just slips right in, and it's got three pockets that I got to use designer stitches on. Now I'm ready for a picnic! Thanks to my adopted "Aunt" Pat, we have the cutest little picnic basket in cheery periwinkle. Thanks again!

I took a quilt class in the past, but it was only a class on how to create a quilt top and how to finish the edges, not on how to actually do the quilting. I did love learning the quilting technique. They recommended in class that we send off our quilts to be quilted by a professional. Now that I've done this method, I can't see why I'd do that unless the quilt really warranted a designer touch like waves or something really cool and wacky like I 've seen. I do not have the hands yet for whimsical quilting, but for lines and stitching in the ditch, I think I have a lot more confidence now. Sending off a quilt to a pro would cost around 80.00 on up depending on the size of the quilt top. After spending so much money on fabric already...I'm happy making my mistakes at home and saving a few bucks to use on more fabric. I may even grab that old quilt top and finally finish it up.

Next on the sewing list is to finish up the baby set. There is another fabric that I want to use to make another changing pad that Mom and I found, and I need to make their corresponding carrying cases. In the comfort throw set, there is also an accessories bag, eye pillow and pillow case to do, so I'd like to get these all done to complete my sets. They are all really small projects, so should be fun to get some immediate gratification...course, working three days on a project isn't so hard either.

All this and I'm still trying to learn how to knit my first scarf. I would hope that would be done this week, my gawsh I think I've been working on it and setting it aside for three weeks!!! That's just crazy! Then I can get onto learning how to make the hat! I'll show pics when it's done. It's not that big of a deal, it's just knitting, no pearling. I got inspired to knit from my Grand-mother in-law Carol. I saw her using a circular needle and it got me interested enough. I picked one up and asked one of the gals at Ben Franklin how to knit and off I went. I made a LOT of mistakes on it, and had to tear it apart completely the following day. I was making a kite! It was getting wider and wider and wider and...well, you get the point. The gals there at BF all laughed at me and asked, "how many stitches did you start with?" hmmm...you know, I didn't know? They all thought that was hilarious. So, I learned that you keep an even pace by counting how many stitches you have every once in a while and if it's off, you GO BACK and correct it. I've gone back about 20 or so times so far...but I think I could be hooked on knitting too. I don't think I could do garments, but scarves for sure, they are an easy thing for my hands to do. The gals at BF promise that doing the hat will be just as easy...but I think I get to introduce another needle into the bunch and don't get to work on my circular one. Ah well....I'm not too old a dog yet that I can't learn a new trick here and there. Like I say, I'll post pics when it's done hopefully with more detail than this blanket shows, but I was in a hurry before work today. I finished it up yesterday morning, but didn't get a chance in any light to take a photo to share with ya'll. You can click on the pic and it will be larger to show detail of the blanket and it's carrying case showing off Amy Butler's pattern in the front pocket of it.

That's about it from up here in Monroe. See ya in the funny pages!

Hiking around

2006-02-25T18:16:00.000-08:00

Jordan and I went hiking today. The weather has been really nice, so we thought we'd get out and get our legs used to moving again. We hiked up. We hiked down. Yes...we hiked all around. We hiked in Duvall, Sultan, and Carnation Washington. Too bad the sun sets so early still, or we'd probably be out there all day. We hiked without Jack, sad to say, but we didn't really know where dogs would be allowed. Now that we know more about our town, we'll be sure to plan around it better next time.
Okay, here I am, on a log that I had to shimmy across to get onto. The moss? Its very cold and drenched with recent rain just in case you were wondering. Jordan likes these angled shots. What do you think?

Another shot from my hubby.

Jordan always gets me to smile by telling me he loves me. Corny as it is...it always works. I'm such a sucker.

Jordan and I found a hiking spot with cabins...so we snuck into one. I tried to fool around, but all Jordan wanted to do was meditate.

Just kidding. He was into fooling around too. but...I digress. Jordan took this other shot from the same park.

There are several railroads in the area that used to be covered railroads. They have since deteriorated and even been burned through vandalism, and ruined by high levels of water. We were at the end of one of them today. I took this shot.

I like some cool stuff that nature can do. Like here...all the curly q branches just got my attention. Probably not much of much...but somethin ta me.

OK, onto the money shots. These two shots are Jordan's, and I completely love them. We were hiking in Sultan, following a very scary trail into some seedy backwoods. Signs promised public fishing, so on we went. The trail was leading us nowhere, until finally, WHAM, here we were on the side of a cliff. There was an existing small narrow rocky trail that we continued on. There was a river down below flowing a beautiful green. We were hearing cries of eagles while we hiked. Pretty soon, we stopped. We saw an eagle in flight hunting above the river. We were switching out our lenses when we realized the cries of eagles came from about 20 feet overhead. Jordan and I were amongst three bald eagles. One in flight, and two perched overhead. He grabbed the new lens and swiftly shot through the narrow trail. He did it so fast that when it was all over and the eagles were gone he wondered how he got to where he was. I'll leave you with these final pics, then I'm off to date-night. The first pic is mine, of the general area we were hiking in. One eagle is in flight on the top right. I liked getting the fishing boat in here too, mixed in with the water...the mountains..the snow...ugh, we love it up here.

OK, photos promised from yesterday.

2006-02-22T08:32:00.000-08:00

Here are some fun shots from the weekend that I think turned out okay for all the practicing we did on Friday with the camera. Saturday and Sunday weren't too full of photos. Maybe Jordo can post them on his blog, because I know he took some of his networking project. Jordan???

Jordo

My husband's hands

Ghost of a dawg. This was actually how the shot was taken. Maggie moved perfectly out of the shot and I got her ghost image.

Jack, not perfect, but perfectly Jack.

My Dad's blue eyes

A local not-so-hot spot that I won't be going back to. This shot was enough.

Sew what?

2006-02-21T09:26:00.000-08:00

This past weekend, my folks came up to visit! Mom came up to sew with me on her new awesome sewing machine ( I'm secretly calling her names behind her back for upgrading from my own machine. %#@$*&!!) My model of machine is fantastic and just right for me, or so I've told myself over and over again. Mom likes quick projects for right now, and she favors baby projects. She loves the fabrics, how soft they are and the colors. I think she just looooves to say "oh, how cute is THAT!" But I've been collecting some Amy Butler designs for a while and have been wanting to do the project that Mom and I worked on over the weekend. It's a baby changing pad lined with terry cloth, on some awesome bohemian chic fabric I found. There is also a diaper bag ( or knitting bag, or whatever bag) with eight pockets on the inside thanks to our inginuity. There was a fault with the design the way we saw it. Adding two side bottle pockets on the interior would have destroyed two, well, four total pockets, so we shimmied with it until we had saved those four pockets ENTIRELY and also added our final bottle pockets. We are soooo goooood. I love the fabrics I picked out. Mom commented about my choices and how loud they are. In the end, she loved what we ended up with. The pattern on pattern designs I selected came out just like I wanted them to. Now, this set is just about ready to pack away into the hope chest. I also got some other fabrics for a picnic blanket that I'll be working on today and learning to further enhance my quilting skills! I get to quilt the whole damn thing! Ya hoooo! Good thing I don't have to do any binding on the edges, it just turns like a pillow case inside out to hide the edges. I see no harm in still calling that quilted. Do you? The rest of it will have patterned quilting done throughout....just no binded edges. Anywaaaay....

My mom's hands working away.

Our finished project. The changing pad rolls up, has a tie to keep it rolled up, fits into another bag ( not shown, unfinished) and then placed into the finished diaper bag shown. Damn we're good for only having two days.

Dad worked on chores that needed doing around the house while Jordan was at work. He got our fireplace blower fixed! Dad, you are so talented! Thank you a hundred times over! We didn't have to replace any parts. Dad wired some wires together that were hooked up to the internal thermostat of the blower, so that the faulty thermostat was no longer in the equation. This means now that our fireplace blower is always on, if plugged in. Thats perfectly fine for us! We've built a fire everynight since it's been fixed. Thank you Dad, because for another reason. Jordan and I have been trying to repair and fix up our home after our burglary that we've put all our improvements to our home to the side. What you repaired, well, it sort of rekindled ( hehe, fireplace reference...I'm so punny) our own appreciation in the 'regular' chores around the house rather than he and I taking as many security management issues into account. Thank you for puttering with our home, climbing ladders to get to lights on our barn and so on. This was just for Friday! We still have Saturday to contend with!
Dad is also a perfectionist and just had to clean the window of the fireplace so we could all enjoy the view of our roaring fires. He really had to scrub at it to get it just right. Mainly I think it just looks like I made him work hard for his dinner.

Here's Dad after he's built our very first fire that will actually help to warm our home. He and his gal Maggie.

Saturday the guys worked on networking our home while Mom and I sewed the bag. Jordan, can you blog about what you actually did so that the details will be worked out right? Visit Jordan's blog for details. I will post this one photo. Basically the guys were climbing around in the crawlspace in our attic tugging networking cables from one end of the house all around. They climbed around in insulation, they drilled into ceilings and cut into walls. You'd never know it today as it all looks very well hidden and the outlets make it look really nice and finished. Where there was no crawlspace is where I captured Jordan...in the rafters of our garage being a monkey with wires. He scooted up ladders and climbed around our house with ease....well, until sunday morning when his muscles ached from holding tight poses and climbing around. Great job Jordan and Dad. Dad, your help was completely appreciated and needed to get this project done. Jordan has been wanting this done for quite some time and I'm so blessed to have you there to help him figure it all out together.

Okay, so we didn't just work work work all weekend...did we? We have some artsy photos and some funny photos. Which would you rather see first? I'll go with funny. This will prove we can all laugh at others...no wait...I mean 'ourselves.'

Artsy will have to wait until another day...this blog has too many photos for today...guess I'm a little bit excited getting back into the swing of things, but hey...I gotta go sew! Mom, I wish you were here to help me again! Love you all, and miss you. Thank you again for making such a good time for us possible.

Point Brown, our weekend away

2006-02-14T09:20:00.000-08:00

Jordan and I relaxed for an extended weekend at Point Brown resort. On our drive to Ocean Shores WA, to Pt. Brown, we had a wonderful sunny day to take in Mount St. Helens. We took the long drive. We stopped off at parks, had picnics and practiced our latest hobby. We have several shots for this weekend, but unfortunately with said robbery, I'm using an old computer. It's taking a really long time to load the photos, so I'm just going to post a few here to give you an idea of what we saw this weekend.

Spring is springing into action with the buds of pussy willows. These are one of my favorite trees ever. Course...I have about a hundred more with the same ranking. These two photos of plantlife were taken in a wildlife preserve around Aberdeen WA. In this preserve we saw two hawks, but other than that, it was just a peaceful two mile round hike.

I'm not sure what this plant is, besides being purdy. I liked capturing it while it's trying to make it's display of flowers.

But...lets head to the beach already! The resort is NOT one we'd recommend. Our room tauted amenities such as fireplaces, jetted tubs, pool rooms, exercise rooms, pools and hot tubs. The water was aweful brown and yucky, which we were warned to bring our own bottled water for drinking. We hadn't thought that would pose a problem with bathing. It did. The smell was of an expired aquarium. Pt. Brown resort is on a well....and well...we wouldn't recommend they remain on a well. The fireplace did not work. The pool was five miles away at a community center. The billards room and exercise facility were in another building, for which we were not given codes. The hot tub was a blessing, as it was clear warm water in which to rest our tired bones. We were grateful for the hot tub. The view from our room was fantastic though. I could post many pictures from our balcony, but this computer is too slow to make it entertaining to post many pics, so I'll keep it simple until we're able to upgrade.

Jordan caught this photo of one of the surfers out on the Pacific Coast in his head to toe wetsuit. I love this photo. There were at least four surfers out our balcony catching waves. It was fun to watch. I have known people to surf the coasts in WA and OR, but I've never gotten the chance to see it.

We walked the length of beach from our resort to the jetty and back. So...here we are!

Jordan must be tired from all this walking and photo tak'n.

This photo is from the wildlife preserve. All of these signs stating the high voltage were split like this.

Our last morning in Ocean Shores, we were hanging out on our balcony and began to smell fuel. There were two firemen/women walking the length of the beach. No one else was on the beach, and we thought due to the ocean swells that were intense that morning. Only one couple with their small child was on the beach trying to fly a kite. The firemen/women stopped to chat with them, pointed at the ocean and finished up the conversation and left. Come to find out, they were asking the family if they smelled diesel. As we checked out of our resort we asked about the smell and the front desk clerk told us that a fishing boat had crashed in the early morning into the jetty. We were off to see what had gone on. We felt so sad that this happened. This was probably more than one family's income at stake, and here it lay....all crumpled up in the rocks. I'm sure hoping they had insurance, and a savings account. I've learned from our burglary, that even with insurance, you can be out of sorts for quite a while. First, you pay the deductable, so you're out that money, then you wait for the claim to come through. If this guy's boat was making a living for himself, he's probably out of work until he can replace it. We could somewhat empathize for this sort of loss.

Booby traps, Weapons, Security systems, Pitbulls, and and and ???

2006-02-01T09:19:00.000-08:00

Last week, after our last posting, our home was broken into. We were burglarized. We are picking up the pieces, restoring our broken bits of home, and our faith in man-kind. We are not living in paranoia. We have constant thoughts of pity for the folks that felt they can only get by in life by taking from others. We think it's pathetic. Optimists we are, we are happy that this robbery was not much worse than it was. There are circumstances out there that would have made this much more painful. We could have had loss of life, injury, or a missing dog and there could have been more vandalism than what occurred. We have not restored any missing items, and even looking at my blog photos is somewhat painful. The pictures featured on our website are mostly all that is left of photos we've acquired since we've moved into our home. We feel blessed we can come back to our blog and visit our good times. For now, it's a reminder of what a loss we've seen, so we're not visiting too often, plus, not having a PC or digital camera of our old caliber makes it tough to want to keep up.

A stranger entered our home, rummaged through our "stuff" and stole. They were somewhat calculating, inviting themselves into the backyard, to either check for us in the backyard, or check the back doors and windows, or both. They left the gate open.

They tried our front window, with no success....our screen was removed.

Our front door was busted in, breaking through our deadbolt, and chain. These were the first impressions our friends, John and Heather had of our home. They were in town for the evening visiting us after a job interview for John. We were further blessed by their presence during a time when we needed the distraction, and welcomed the support through dealing with the local police and helping us to restore the door and it's frame. Thank you John and Heather for helping us to remain somewhat sane that night.

So folks, I've not been really wanting to write about this event. I hate reliving it. I hate wondering what else we'll come home to when we leave our home. True, it's only stuff...we KNOW this....and before this event, I truly did believe that if someone wanted our stuff more than we wanted to further protect it, then they could have it. I had a friend in high school, Vicky. Her folks had always left their front doors unlocked. They did this so any of their kids' friends could stop by if they needed a place to go to. When I asked about someone stealing from them her reply was simple. "They must want our stuff more than we do." They never had a break in. I took that philosophy with me through two car break-ins, and now through our home being broken into. I can say that the loss of stuff, isn't all of it. Now, Jordan and I, well...our conversations revolve around this event. Our routines that were just getting set have been disrupted, there are feelings of loss and fear. We know these feelings will dissipate over time, we're confident our subjects of conversations will eventually stop being about what weapons to acquire and what booby-traps to set while we're away.

Please enjoy our past photos and blog posts.

Just some more photos to post.

2006-01-22T22:43:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-01-19T17:52:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-15T21:30:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-01-11T15:32:00.000-08:00

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?

2006-01-11T11:02:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-01-09T09:40:00.000-08:00

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.....

2006-01-08T14:56:00.000-08:00

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.

2006-01-06T09:26:00.000-08:00

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

2006-01-05T09:10:00.000-08:00

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!

2006-01-02T19:04:00.000-08:00

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.