Christmas Time!

I haven't kept up to date with this blog but I am going to try to get it to present. In the past month Harvey completed his training and graduated from puppy kindergarten. He weighs about 30pds now and loves the snow. For Christmas this year, Tyler surprised me with a brand new pool table! All he told me was that it was a game. I had no idea what it was until I went down to the garage and saw it there all set up. It has been so much fun having my own pool table. We are actually improving a lot now. It's great not having to play for each game and sacrifice our lungs to secondhand smoke anymore.

Also, we were given tickets for the Dallas Mavericksvs phoenix suns game and had a blast. We won 102-101. Lots of fans and good support for the team.
I was able to get some time off to come down to Illinois for Christmas this year. I am here until the 28th. Its been a lot of fun playing with Ruben and hanging out with mom and the family. We having been playing lots of Band Hero, Super Mario Bros Wii, eating lots of cookies, tamales, flautas, and cake. Ruben got a bunch of new toys, a cozy coupe car, little kitchen, tools, etc. We are having a lot of fun playing with him.

It's been pretty cold here with snow on Christmas and snow this morning when we woke up. Overall, its been a pretty enjoyable holiday!

Oklahoma

Yesterday we went to the property in OK that my mom and dad own. Since owning for over 35 yrs, they haven't done a thing with it. Well since I live 3hrs away from the land I decided to change that. I bought a gate so we could actually drive into the property instead of lifting the barb wire fence. We spent the whole day saturday digging a driveway and constructing a new fence and installed a new gate that we bought off craigslist for real cheap. We did all the work with a shovel and our own muscles! There is no water or electricity out there so we did the best we could.

Harvey had the best time ever out there. He acted like he owned the place and ran wild like the puppy he is. He was going non-stop until he got spooked at night and we put him in the truck to go to sleep. While we were there two other dogs came over and played with Harvey. A big pregnant dog we named "baby mama" hung out with us all day. We fed her every piece of food that we had brought for Harvey except for a handful for him to have for dinner. She is very big and will probably have puppies soon.

We finished the gate and hope to go back very soon. Next time we are going to work on a fire pit and mow down some of the grass.

6 Months!!!!

I have come to the conclusion that I am not good at keeping a blog. So in a renewed effort, I will try and update this once a week or so. Six months have gone by and my life has changed dramatically. Since, my last post I was hired at a new job, moved from Seattle, have a new apartment (living by myself!!!) and have a brand new puppy named Harvey. So far, I am enjoying my job and find it very challenging and rewarding. I like all my co-workers and my boss is the nicest lady I have met. She is very positive and willing to do anything to make sure my job experience is the best. Since getting my new job, I have finally been able to pay bills and stop using my credit card for groceries! I now actually have a savings. Though the best thing I think has been that I finally have health insurance again. Going for a 1 1/2 yr without insurance was hard but I was fortunate to never get sick so I had to only go for health maintenance appts.
I really like my new apartment and have nearly made it the way I would like it. I have two bedrooms, two bathrooms, kitchen, laundry room and a two car garage. Its like a town house. I also have a balcony that I have been decorating with lots of plants so I can have my own little garden sanctuary.


Harvey is the best thing that has happened to me in a long time. I found Harvey on accident at a animal shelter. I had orginially planned on getting another puppy but when I got there two days later someone had already adopted her. So I looked around and saw a small cage with three little puppies in it. I asked if they were for adoption and they were. Apparently they had just been brought in that morning and I wanted to hold them right away they were so tiny. The first one I held was Harvey. I didn't think he was very beautiful at first but after holding him and feeling his gentle personality I knew he was the one I was going to leave with. Tyler and I looked at all three puppies and ultimately I chose the little brindle colored puppy. I love this puppy so much and take such good care of him. He came from a horrible dilapidated shelter and I am so glad I was there to rescue him from having to spend the night there in the heat. Harvey is now 15 weeks old, healthy, bouncy, loving puppy who loves to chew and follow you every where. He is very loyal and always looks to please me. He is never alone and if so only for a couple hours. Otherwise he is with either me or tyler. He is now going to puppy training school and doing well. He can sit, lay, walk on a leash, leave it and stay. He is doing well for being the youngest in the class. On Halloween Harvey dressed up as a bumble bee and went to the Petsmart parade. He had his picture taken and was able to socialize with other dogs.
Currently, he was just fixed so he is laying low for the time being. Poor guy. He is now officially cone head!

Well that is all of the update for now. I am just busy working and taking care of my puppy. My family will hopefully be able to visit me for Thanksgiving. Other than that I will post more next week.

The Completed Arbor in My Backyard!

So, I posted pictures of the completed arbor but I wanted to post pictures of the arbor in its final resting space...in my backyard. I went to Ace Hardware and bought two hanging flower baskets and a bunch of flowers and decorated the arbor. I took a ton of pictures and the arbor is definitely the centerpiece of the yard now. I love looking at it and can't wait for it to be filled with vines and flowers.

Orcas Island

Visit from Philly

From May 12th-May 17th, Rita came out to seattle to visit me. She likes to do this a couple times a year and only during good weather. So,when I complain about the crappy weather and then she comes to visit it always turns into being the nicest weather and her wondering what my problem is with the weather. This time we went to Orcas Island and spent the night at a B&B at Otter Pond outside of Moran State Park. On the Ferry over to Orcas we had the rare treat of seeing a three pods of killer(Orca whales) on our way over. It was magical! We also saw lots of wildlife at the B&B pond and on our hikes. We also did a lot of shopping at Uvillage and got manicures and pedicures at a salon near my house. Overall, it was a fun time that we got to spend together.

Presenting the Arbor!!!!

For the past several weeks this has been mine and Tyler's project for all those rainy days last month. So, finally after several sandings, stain, and polyurethane the pine arbor is finished at last!!!! It was a beautiful day yesterday at least for two hours so we had the opportunity to take some pictures of it outside of the garage in the natural setting where it might likely get to reside one day. FYI, the arbor will be heading to Seattle to be in my backyard as we are cleaning it up and hope to have BBQs and dinner parties out there this summer. Tyler handcrafted it himself and I designed the lattice diamond pattern and all the dimensions of the arbor. Tyler is currently finishing the lattice on a cedar arbor that he is about finished making and hopes to sell it soon.

Tulip Festival

Today Tyler and I went to Skagit Valley for the annual Tulip Festival. We started off the day at a Salmon BBQ at the Kiwanis Lodge at Hillcrest Park. We each got a piece of Salmon, baked potato, garlic bread, cole slaw, pink lemonade, and ice cream. We sat outside on a picnic table and enjoyed the sunshine. We headed next to the fields of Tulips. They were rows and rows as far as you can see of red and yellow tulips. There were also fields of yellow daffodils. It is a pretty amazing sight to see. Definitely worth it to go up there and see the blooms. After taking pictures, we made friends with a cat that I wanted to take home with me. He was hiding and lounging in between rows of tulips. We almost didn't get home without him!! He followed us for quite awhile before finally giving up on us. He was so cute! We drove around the countryside and we then went to the Farmhouse Restaurant which is famous for their mile high lemon meringue pies. Tyler and I decided to eat dinner there and he got BBQ Ribs and I got Turkey pot pie and we both got ceasar salads. The pie was so good and very delicious! We then drove home in which Tyler proceeded to sleep the whole way home. It was a very nice day and very relaxing. Lots of sun and very enjoyable!!! Wish everyone could have a chance to see the flowers.

My New Table Completed!!!

Fun times

Yesterday was a pretty good day. Tyler and I decided to go to Home Depot and buy more supplies for the arbor that he is building. While we were there I said,"How bout we get some wood for me to build a coffee table with so I have something to do while you build the arbor". So, we bought some poplar wood and cedar for the legs and I got started on it right away when we got back to his garage. I believe it only took about 3 hours or so to build it. It's not completely finished. I still need to add a bottom shelf and leg supports and also I need to polyurethane it for a nice glossy finish but for the most part its finished and could actually function as a table if need be. Its the first item of furniture I have actually ever built by myself and I have to say that it is quite impressive!

Igloo-Sonic

Igloo's, Sonic, and snow!

So, we have been planning for months to go out to Steven's Pass in the Northern Cascade mountains to go and try and build an igloo. Unfortunately, Tyler's truck was not running for about 3 weeks until we repaired it. It had a broken water pump, leaky gaskets, and hose. After many months of wanting to build this igloo, we finally headed on our way up there to build it. We bought our molds at Target and were on our way. We got up to the pass around 2-3pm and had to find a good place to build it. We decided to try near the Nordic run and found a nice place in between some power lines and hidden in some trees. We started building the igloo and the snow was perfect!!! Sadly, we realized that we really didn't know how to build this and that when we neared the roof that it was going to most likely collapse. So after about an hour and feeling the temperature start to drop and it gradually getting darker we called it quits. We decided to go eat at the 59er Diner up near Leavenworth. At this point, I had a brilliant idea. I told Tyler that we should just head over to Wenatchee and get Sonic. You know that delicious restaurant with awesome Strawberry Limeade and Ex long chili cheese Coney dogs???
He thought the idea brilliant and that it would be a great B-day present for his little sister. So we drove another 40-50 miles or so to Wenatchee and bought a ton of food, drinks, and icecream. We bought a cooler and filled it with ice and put it in the back of the truck where it stayed nice and cold due to the snow that fell when we were driving back home. We got back around 9:00 and his little sister and brother couldn't stop jumping and giving him hugs for getting them Sonic. They miss it a lot.