Wishing you a...

I'm actually going to make it to midnight. I think last year I fell asleep at 11:00. I'm getting too old now, I just can't stay up as late as I used to.

Mellow Times

I think this year has been a mellow Christmas for many people, with the snow storm that happened, travel plans were canceled or delayed and many people changed their plans and just stayed home. I was one of these people, but I really didn't mind. It did seem to be a very quick Christmas though, which saddens me a little because I love Christmas.

This week will be a short work week for me as I will be working Monday through Wednesday, then I have New Year's day off (paid holiday) and then I requested the day after off. So, we will be heading to White Salmon and hopefully Jesse's brother will be able to make it down here too.

I hope everyone had a great Christmas and I look forward to hearing about what the New Year brings you!

May you enjoy the blessing of family, friends and love. To all my family,

Snow, you either love it or hate it.

Okay, I love it, as long as I don't have to drive in it...

It has been crazy here with this snow and people trying to make it into work. Fortunately, I live very close to a Park -n- Ride (bus transit), so I've been able to make it into work this week. The City has been allowing their employees to leave at 3:00 so that we can make it home safely and before it gets dark.

Oregon has been in a state of emergency, I think they got it worse than we did. The frustrating thing are the roads not being plowed. I don't understand why they haven't been able to plow some of the main roads. The County has 40 plows and 60 crew members and the main roads out by us have not been plowed. At least it doesn't look like it.

I was hoping to go to see the in-laws this weekend, but because of the roads, I think we will make the trip next weekend for New Year's.

Hope everyone is surviving the cold and the snow.

Oh, this cold weather...

KD loves laying in front of the heater.


This was taken on Saturday. It is now Monday and we have over a foot of snow now.


KD out playing with her frisbee.

This was taken not too long away when Kj and Sawywer and mom and dad were visiting in Vancouver. Sawyer looks like he's about to pick his nose! I can't help but laugh when I look at this.

News

My life-long friend, Cami is in a coma. Doctors don't know what's wrong with her. She hasn't been feeling well since at least Thanksgiving. It could be a reaction to antibiotics she was on or perhaps something she caught working at the hospital. Please keep her in your prayers that she gets better and make it through this. She is strong and has been through a lot over the years.

As to better news...I am getting together with my friend that I haven't talked to in two years. She's a former co-worker and we used to go shopping together but we just got busy with our lives. This weekend we are getting together. I'm looking forward to it.

I hope everyone is doing well.

Addresses

I am starting to send out Christmas cards, okay, they're actually Christmas pictures and I need updated addresses from Angie and Jenessa. I think I still have your old addresses. Please let me know soon. Hope everyone is doing well. :)

Our Thanksgiving

We just got back today from Thanksgiving in Leavenworth. I took a moment to read people's blogs. Sounds like everyone had a great time and lot of good food! Leavenworth was fun. The first day we got there, mom had dinner ready to go and we had a wonderful meal along with mom and dad's friends, Vern and Linda. Then we waited for food to digest and went on a walk downtown. All the buildings and trees were lit up and gorgeous. We did the black Friday in Wenatchee. There weren't a lot of good deals this year, at least over there. Although I did get a few things. We also went to this awesome restaurant in Wenatchee that had Russian, Ukranian, Italian and Greek food. It was so good. We lucked out with the drive there and back, having to deal with no stop and go traffic at all. :) Now we are just resting at home from our trip back. While we were gone, Jesse's parents and brother house sat for us and watched our pets too. Everything was in goods hands.

This is the last weekend before Thanksgiving! I can't wait for all the yummy food!!! Yahoo! We're headed for Leavenworth this year, I wish it could be a little longer of a time over there. We're hoping it won't snow over while we're up there. Christmas will be spent with the in-laws.

Work has been stressful and I am feeling it but I'm getting through.

Politics and Prayer

Among many people it is considered rude to discuss politics in public. Some would say that kind of talk stays at home. I don't know enough about politics to debate anything but I do have an opinion (who doesn't) and will share that opinion on this blog.

Realizing that I should tread carefully, I do think that our country has reached a pinnacle in electing an African American president. I agree it is a historical moment that I am glad to say happened in my lifetime. There are very few significant things that happen in our lives that are worth remembering and talking about. This was one of them. However, I do agree with Angie's post about people praising Barack Obama and thinking of him as a King. He is not our King, nor our God, nor someone to revere. He is just a man like you and I. The Savior that you and I know is the God of our lives and this nation whether people realize that or not, or even accept that. For us as Christians it is a given.

But I believe everything happens for a reason. God knew this man would be the one leading our country, influencing our world and making huge decisions for the country we live in. So, yes, those decisions Obama makes will effect us greatly. God also knew the emotional impact this election would have on people. I believe God can use Obama as a vessel in a huge way. So, I ask that you pray for him, that God would have a hand in his decisions, his trials, his leadership, the people he chooses to work with him, and pray for direction. We have a huge opportunity for people to be influenced by someone of character, graciousness and humility (all of which we have already seen in the public eye), and dare I say someone who will make mistakes and learn from them and maybe even make sacrifices.

So, whether you are disappointed as to who was elected President or not, please do yourself, your family and your friends a favor by praying fervently over the next four years at least and let's see where it takes us.

Hope is not a bad thing, it's what keeps us alive, keeps us going and feeds our faith.

To all my family and friends, God Bless.

7 random facts

7 random or weird facts about myself.

1. I like watching HGTV, all those home improvement shows.

2. I love animals and would love to be an animal cruelty investigator (animal cop).

3. I LOVE watching the Seahawks and never miss a game.

4. I love music and singing.

5. I have an uncommon bone on both of my feet - weird!

6. I'm always hungry and can always eat. :)

7. I tend to be a perfectionist at times.

Alone

Jesse left early this morning to help his dad out in Goldendale. His parents bought some property and built a cabin up there a few years ago and they are trying to get it ready to go. He took KD with him and she is loving it up there in the woods, running around and playing with leaves on trees, fetching sticks. It's our first experience with her taking her out to some other place to see how she'll do off leash. It's not like we've never had her off leash, we take her to this big field and play frisbee with her all the time, but being in the woods is a little different. I'm glad it's going well.

Jess also has projects he's working on painting my friends' houses these next few weeks. It's good news after it being slow for quite a while.

We are heading to Leavenworth for Thanksgiving this year. Pray it won't be snowing on our way up there. :) For Christmas, we will be spending it with Jesse's parents and grandma.

I might have to testify in a trial on Wednesday because of my previous job as a court clerk, I'd have to testify that I saw the guy sign court documents and testify as to what his sentence was. I'm a little nervous. I'm kind of hoping the prosecutor won't need me as a witness afterall. :)


Here is a picture of Jesse's pumpkin:



I can't seem to figure out how to pick up the tags on the 7 facts about me other than just straight copying and pasting. What am I doing wrong?

The family that "preys" together

A family portrait with all the "kids." Doesn't it look like we're choking the cats? The poor things were scared to death.

Star sightings and more...

This weekend Kj and Sawyer and mom and dad came for the weekend. While here, we went to the Roloff's farm for pumpkins and fun. Do you recognize that name? You know the show on TLC, Little People, Big World? Their farm is in Beaverton Oregon, so we drove over there so Sawyer could have fun seeing all the pumpkins. We got to see Matt Roloff, the dad being followed by camera crews, also their daughter Molly was there too.






pumpkins, pumpkins everywhere




We also got to go to the park near our house.



The time ended with a family photo. It was more like, "quick, hurry up and take the picture before Sawyer starts crying or the dog turns his head."

clean house

Okay, so tomorrow we are having our house cleaned by professionals! It will be the first time doing this. I thought it would be nice to have house cleaning come since we are having company over on Thursday. We've never done this before and I don't want you to think we are too lazy to do it ourselves. Mind you, we keep it fairly clean, but house keepers do the deep cleaning like the baseboards etc., stuff that I don't normally notice.

On another note, I started taking the bus to work starting the 1st of October. So, far it's going good. It takes about the same amount of time if I drove, but I'm saving on gas and parking. I take it early enough that there are not many people on the bus, so it's kind of nice having a quiet ride to work.

I can't wait to see Sawyer, Kj and my parents this week; and maybe Amy and Robert too.

Happy Birthday, Ang!

Lots of work...

So, we have been trying to get our house ready for family coming in October. We finally have a bed in the guest room. We moved our bed up there and bought a new bed for us. We love our new bed, it was the first time mattress shopping. Who knew there are so many different kinds of mattresses.

Jesse's dad brought up his lawn mower and we finally were able to mow down all those weeds that our push mower just wouldn't cut. It's amazing the difference it makes. Our back yard still needs work. We need to get a shed to house all of our tools etc. Right now they are all just in a corner and it looks cluttered.

Next, will eventually come painting the exterior and certain rooms inside too. But all of this is with time. It won't all get done by the time company comes unfortunately. And that bothers me because I'm so Type A that I want stuff done right away.

I just need to be patient. :)

Update

Okay, so I know my blogs are not nearly as exciting as everyone else's and I don't have pictures to share! The newest news is our dog busted a hole in our wood fence and got out. She actually got her head out of her collar. Then it happened two more times (getting her head out of the collar). Since then we have tightened her collar and no more busting through the fence. Phew! By the stories I tell, it doesn't seem she is very well-behaved when in fact, she really is. Her biggest issue is that she does NOT like to be alone. She has some big separation anxiety issues which causes her to want to get out of the yard and come and "find us" or at least find someone to hang out with so she doesn't have to be alone. :0) She's pretty much turned our lives upside down lately in more ways than one. It's like having a kid! LOL.

I love reading everyone's posts, so keep it up! Hopefully I'll get some more pictures posted on mine soon.

The three day weekend felt good. Of course the weekends off always go by fast. I cannot believe it's already September, the months are just flying by, the summer is at an end and we didn't get done what we wanted, like sealing the basement walls and painting the house. There might still be time to do all that...

Kd, our dog started limping a few days ago and it seems to be getting better but we are going to take her into the vet tomorrow to have it looked at.

Nothing else new going on.

We have enrolled KD in an obedience class. We will start in a couple of weeks. I am excited because I think it's going to help build trust between owner and dog. Plus it will help with her separation anxiety. She developed kennel cough which can be common among dogs that are adopted from a shelter. She is on the tail end of it and is now just down to what the vet says is "reverse sneezing." I told you we lead boring lives when this is all I have to talk about...LOL.

Okay, so I am risking posting something personal. I think the birth control I am taking has caused me to gain weight. I switched to taking a shot every 3 months, which is way more convenient for me than the pill, however weight gain is a side effect. :( I'm not too happy about it but I guess it just means I need to counteract it with exercise, which I never had to before. Now with a dog, I guess I can go on more walks and maybe even get some jogging in. It also has effected my mood, according to Jesse. Since I've been on b.c. ever since we got married, he says that I am different than before we got married. I wonder if it could be the b.c. To him, I seem to be grumpier and more negative. Have any of you ever experienced that? Maybe I've just changed and it's not due to anything but life's issues. Anyway, I want to try and work on this, the moodiness and the weight. Please keep me in your thoughts so I can figure out what I need to do to make this happen.

20 years ago

20 years ago...
I was 11
I think that was 5th grade
That was the year that I learned and still know to this day to identify wildflowers.

10 years ago...
It was legal for me to buy alcohol
I had a year left of college
I was dating Jesse and was planning my wedding for the next year.
Still mourning the loss of grandma

5 years ago...
We had been living in Vancouver for about a year
We were living in an apartment
I was working in Oregon


3 years ago...
I was itching to look into getting a house.
I was looking for a new job.



1 year ago...
We bought a house
I worked for the County
I was 30 and wondering if we were going to have any kids.


Today
We have a dog name K.D.
I work for the City as a Legal Secretary
I was so busy at work
Is a good day because it's Friday.

Tomorrow...
I am going to our friend's band play in Portland
I might be going to a wedding reception, if I have time.
I am going to walk the dog.


Next Year...
Maybe have some things with the house updated.

We did it!

Here is the newest addition to our family. Her name is K.D. and she has the sweetest disposition ever! She is a "velcro" dog, she doesn't like to leave your side, but we're working with her. Did I mention she is sweet and cute? She is a white lab.
We got K.D. from our local Humane Society. She is 3 1/2 years old. Okay, so the history behind the name is she was named Katie at the shelter, she responds very well to that name, so we wanted to keep it. However, we decided to be creative and change it to K.D. which stands for killer dog because Jesse's cat at his parents house is named K.C. for killer cat, which he named like 16 years ago.

Okay, so I am loving the pictures you all are taking. Angie and Ness, are you using special cameras? It looks like the sepia setting. What camera would you recommend? I am not very happy with mine because you have to change the setting depending on what kind of picture you're taking and I just want to take the picture and not have to worry about that every time. Keep the pics coming.

I thought I'd post a few pictures of our house. The reason I haven't posted any sooner is because the house isn't where I want it to be yet. We're hoping to paint the outside this summer. As you can see it is an aqua blue and I don't really like the color and we are missing a piece of trim. Sorry for the mess in the house, I have shoes lying around on the floor. It's a slow process. We still are not completely unpacked and we need to set up the guest room so people have a place to sleep.

This weekend was Jesse's grandpa's memorial service. It was sad for me because it was like he was my grandpa too. I loved his grandpa, his mind was so sharp even though his body was going. People had a lot of stories to tell and it was a nice service. I must admit it was an interesting service too, his grandparents are seventh-day adventists so the pastor did things from his grandpa's perspective. It's kind of hard to explain. I think that it still hasn't totally sunk in for Jess that his grandpa is gone. It was nice spending the weekend with the in-laws though.

memories

I was looking back at some of my pictures and I just thought I'd post this. It reminds me so much of seeing old black and white Panther photos.

Okay, so every year for the past 4 years or so, it has been a tradition to go the Nordstrom's Anniversary Sale with my mother-in-law, my brother-in-law and a friend of ours. We did go this year and Jesse even came with us and he bought some stuff too. He never shops and he doesn't like it. So, needless to say I am so happy when he does buy clothes! This trip is usually a big deal for us, we start early in the morning and go all day. The past few years Nordstrom's does the Pre-Sale, where by invitation you get early dibs on the clothes that they will be selling during the Sale. You have a personal shopper, you try on your clothes, get what you want and then the day of the actual sale, you can pick-up your items. It's way fun. The whole point of the anniversary sale is for them to put out their Fall line. I usually buy suits and work clothes. This year I didn't really buy any Fall stuff except for a skirt. I mainly bought summer clothes because I need them badly. It was still mega fun. It's kind of my one event during the year that I really look forward to. Anyway, I just thought I'd share my fun with everyone!

This summer has also been spent working outside on summer projects like weeding and mowing the lawn weekly. To start off, our lawn is terrible. The previous owner did not take good care of the grass so we have a bunch of weeds in it. I'm really hoping that some weed-n-feed will take care of it and get it looking good. The back yard is the worst and we will probably have to start from scratch on that by tilling it and putting in new grass. I also have some rose bushes, which I love, but I've never had any before. Right now they have new buds on them. I have two flower beds on each side of the windows that I put some flowers in, but it still looks ghastly. And it seems that not matter how much I weed, more weeds just keep popping up. It's all been a learning experience and it keeps me busy.

As an additional note: Jesse's grandpa passed away today at noon. It was a long time coming...he fell and broke his leg/hip a few weeks ago and has been in the hospital ever since. His grandfather has never taken medicine in his life, so when the hospital put him on pain medication, it kind of went downhill from there. He was 97 years old and has lived a long life.
In memory of Hal Robison.

Okay, so I saw that some of my friends and family started blogs and so I got the bug to start one too. So, you can call me a copycat. : ) My blogs are going to be pretty boring compared to everyone else's because we don't have children to talk about. Since it's just Jesse and I and the cats, our lives are pretty boring. And mom and dad, if you don't really understand what a blog is, it's basically a journal of your life and sharing it with others and keeping others updated on what's happening.

So, this is my first blog. The most recent update in our lives is that I started a new job on July 9th for the City of Vancouver working as a Legal Secretary. If you forgot what I did do before, I worked for the County as a court clerk, going to trials, hearings, dockets and taking minutes. The Legal Secretary position is much more detail-oriented and there's a lot more to learn. For me, it is new ground because it is processing subpoenas, discovery requests, preparing dockets, creating new files, all of which these things were already done by the time it reached me when I was a court clerk. I never knew how all of those pleadings etc. got to me before, in my new job that is exactly what I do. It has been scary starting this new position but I felt on Friday after only training for 3 days that things were finally starting to make sense. Please pray that I would continue to learn quickly and that my mind can wrap around all the wealth of information.

As for Jesse, he is still painting...not the artwork but painting residential homes and sometimes businesses. He works very hard and always does more than he needs to. He has lost so much weight over the past year, his pants don't fit him and he has had to put several new notches in his belts! I guess he'll be getting some new clothes at the Nordstrom's Anniversary Sale.

I guess that's it for now.