Life these days

The other day the neighbors lawn guy mowed our side yard on accident I believe. Well it was a nice morning and I decided I needed to mow the other side of the yard as well as edge and weed eat. Our lawn looked awesome and I can't wait to make more improvements! There are still weeds to the left side of the walkway where our bushes used to be. We are going to borrow Steve's rotitiller and clean up all the beds. I can't wait!

I had last Saturday off and I declared it an Angela day . I got my hair cut, got my eyebrows done, and went to the Banana Republic Outlet store and got a dress, new pants, and two new shirts. I came home and watched an episode of Private Practice and then cooked up a storm. I made mushroom stroganoff, chicken enchilidas, more baguettes, english toasting bread, chinese chicken salad minus the chicken, and homemade Thousand Island dressing.

My little pretty lady Eleanor was quite the cuddler the other day. She make me smile.

Steve came over on Sunday evening and put in our new dishwasher. Oh man how I love it. So nice not to be able to hear the dishwasher when it is running, and to be able to watch tv. Our last dishwasher was so so so awful!

We didn't have any power from 11-2 on Monday due to a windstorm. I laid in bed with the fireplace on and watched netflix on my phone. Eric was in heaven and so will I.

Tuesday there was snow all over the ground, these crazy kitties thought it was so cool.

Today was my cleaning day. I vacuumed the whole house, cleaned all three bathrooms, and vacuumed the bathroom cupboard. Then I got this awesome idea to make the cupboard pretty, and oh how I love the outcome!

While I was cleaning the guest bathroom I decided to make the guest bath cupboard pretty too, and add a few items to make people feel at home when they come visit. Now I just need buy a small bottle of contact solution and it will be complete!

Paul had Tuesday and Wednesday off, which was good cause his knee was hurting so he needed to rest . He went to Safeway to pick up some milk for us and brought me home some awesome presents. Look at my daffodils and orchid! Oh man I love them and I love my man, he knows how to make me happy after a long day at work. :)

Oh and my kitties are happy I am home today and are following me everywhere, well Eric is following me but Eleanor just keeps sleeping everywhere. Haha. Love my babies.

Now I must go swimming and figure out what to make for dinner. Then I am going to craft it up till Paul gets home!

Thank You Angela!

Thank You Angela for introducing me to this show!! I have been loving it so much, I just had to write a post about it.  Justin is hooked too, so we watch it together.  We started watching Downton Abbey on Saturday and now its Monday and we are starting season 2!  I'm already sad about reaching the end of the season, but I'm happy to know there will be a 3rd season in September.  And Amber and Becca, if you haven't started watching it yet, I highly recommend it!  But watch out, it can become obsessively addicting!

Iphone dump. My life in pictures

This was about a week ago I believe. I hadn't seen Paul in weeks. We were both tired, the kitties were cuddly, and we watched a lot of tv. I took a nap, and it was an absolutely wonderful weekend.

I got these awesome Asian bowls at a small Asian grocery store. I got four of them to use for yogurt and small snacks. Love them! And the tray is something I got for my mother in law for mothers day, the collage will be the bottom of the tray, I just need to buy some spray glue to attach it all together, I want to keep it myself!

Snow at church (there was no snow at my house or Ambers all day). We came out from church to at least 5 inches on my car, insane. Paul and I had breakfast sandwiches last week. So yum. Oh, and I have been drinking a lot of tea lately, so calming and nice and yeah.

My lunch many days in a row. I am addicted to Greek Gods Strawberry and Honey yogurt with fresh strawberries and and granola. I love eating that along with Dave's Killer bread with honey and butter. Oh man, when my cramps were killing me this was my go to.

On Thursday we drove down to Salem and hung out with my grandparents for a few days before going to my cousins wedding. I absolutely love hanging with my grandparents. I want to go back.

Our drive to Salem was amazing, I had classy coffee, watched my grandma read the paper, and ate some amazing blueberry cobbler just made by my grandma. Oh heaven.

I found this sweet picture on my phone (it was in an app so I had forgotten about it) and couldn't help but post it. My lovely babies, so cuddly.

I got some awesome family recipies from my grandma! I will never buy Caesar or Thousand Island dressing ever again. My grandma's homemade stuff is heavenly! Paul loved it too! I told her house is the only place I get homemade dressing, and she paused for a moment and said, "well, I never really thought about it, you didn't used to be able to just buy dressing in the store".

Paul and I spent a lot of time downstairs in the family room where my grandpa (who we call Pop) has his special chair and tv. We watched a LOT of sports, I fiddled on my iphone, took naps (Pop too). It was so relaxing!

Saturday evening at 5:30 Tom and Jodie got married, the church was beautiful. (I stole these pictures from someone on facebook). They had an awesome photographer and I can't wait to see the pictures!

Today I took a nap with Eric while Paul watched Top Gear, then I got up and went swimming and apparently Paul slept by Eric the entire hour I was gone. Hehe. :) We went to H-mart today to get meat for pho and some fruits and veggies, and we dressed up Eric as well. Hehe, he loved it...

These pictures are out of order, I appologize. I have been uploading them straight from Picasa because I can upload them all at once (instead of five at a time) and it is fast. You have to put them all in the right order before you hit upload...and I forgot.

I LOVE this picture of Pop and I. I will cherish it forever. The top button of his shirt wouldn't button, Paul tied the tie for him, we got the sweater on, my grandma combed his hair, and then he decided he didn't want to wear the tie. At least I have pictures to remember the whole ordeal!

So it takes a while to get Pop places these days with his decreasing mobility and his walker. We were the last people to the reception because we had to take a few breaks and go on a few elevators to get there. There wasn't a single table that had space for the 7 of us (my parents, bro, aunt, uncle, Paul, and I to sit. (someone had saved seats for Pop and Grandma). We ended up using the small place card table and sitting seven people around it. Crammed, squished, but easy to talk and we were with family. It was kinda fun. You can kind of see how cramped our table was in the bottom left picture.

On the way to the wedding Paul didn't want his picture taken, what a shame. :) I on the other hand don't mind, I love remembering through pictures. The church was beautiful and my mom and brother look awesome! :)

Tom (my cousin and the groom) was so excited to see Pop. Pop was a star, everyone was excited he could be there. And there is Paul and I getting the tie on him. :)

This is completely random but I am completely addicted to Downton Abbey. I watched both seasons in about a week. I am sad I am done and can't wait for the next season to come out. If you have netflix it is a must watch!

That's all for now folks. Its 12:22 am and I should be sleeping, so should Paul, but we are watching Top Gear because we both napped and aren't too tired. Oopsies.

Busy but Fun Weekend

Hi Everyone!

I can't believe its Monday already!  This weekend was Justin's birthday, and it all went by so fast.
His Birthday was on Saturday.  He's so funny, he reminds me of a little kid.  He woke up early because it was his birthday and because he was excited about opening his presents!  I got him a leather Bible (he already had one, but it was a huge one and not really good for carrying around) and some fabric with the promise that I will attempt to make him a shirt (short sleeved).  He's been asking me to make him a shirt for years and I found a pattern that looks doable.  Can you tell I'm not all that confident about undertaking this project? :)

That night we went out to dinner at a restaurant just around the corner from us.  Its fun not having to get in the car to go somewhere nice.  Then on Sunday we had Justin's family (7 people) over for the afternoon and dinner.  We had a baked potato bar-it was so good!  I should have taken pictures, but things were pretty busy.  I decided to make baked potatoes in the slow cooker and they turned out perfect!  Thanks again Angela for your baguette recipe.  I made some and then sliced it up and buttered it with garlic butter for garlic bread.  Everyone was amazed I had made it.

Justin had requested carrot cake so I tried a recipe from Pioneer Woman.  Every recipe I've tried of hers has been delicious, and this cake had the same results.  I also melted some butterscotch chips and formed 'Happy Birthday' along with some swirlies on wax paper for decorating the cake.  I was really happy with how it turned out:

I also have some pictures of my sewing room/office that I finally cleaned up and organized the weekend before:

I wish I could just sew today, but I have two assignments to finish by Wednesday morning.  I hope you girls get to do something fun!

overnight in Discovery Bay

Hello Girls!  After a long week working, we were able to get away on Sunday night!  Jeremy's parents had to go up to Port Angeles on Monday, so Sunday night they booked a two bedroom Condo and we went along! It was fun and relaxing!  Tim and Tawny came up with the kids and we all went swimming for about an hour and a half.  They didn't spend the night, but stayed for some grilled hamburgers (OH SO YUMMY) and Hanna and Joey (Jeremy's sister and her husband) came up and spent the night too.  We stayed up until about 1am.  I painted my nails.  We laughed.  It was fun.  

Here are my boys asleep in our giant king sized bed.  You would THINK this means lots of room and sleep.  You can't tell that well, but Shea is sleeping sideways and pretty much kicked me in the head all night long.  It didn't matter how many times I turned him.  Not to mention his diaper got SOAKED through (I think he drank a lot of juice before bed, because I didn't really monitor his intake) and his diaper fell apart right in the middle of the bed.  Yep.  So I got to sleep on a towel and a blanket for the rest of the night.  This is why I was up and they were all still asleep at 7:30, I just couldn't lay there anymore.

So I hung out on our balcony for a little bit.  So sunny and beautiful!

I tried to take a picture of myself.  It was so sunny though!

After a bit Shea got up and we ate some breakfast.  Here he is posing and shouting "BREAKFAST!!" (which he just automatically does now - if the camera comes out, he shouts whatever he is doing and gives a cheesy smile)

After cleaning up and checking out, we went with Jeremy's moms out to Fort Warden and walked to the bunkers.  We parked outside of the park, because they started charging 10 dollars to park, and its silly to pay that when we're only going to be there for like 20 minutes.  Shea loved the bunkers and kept walking down the "dark tunnels".  I even went.  I usually hate them, but it was sunny enough and I had to show my son how to be brave, haha.  It was a loooong walk to get in and out of the park, even though we parked really close by.  Shea got really tired and would only let me carry him, so I got my work out and was about dead by the time we got back to the car.  At least a 2 mile walk with a 32 lb. toddler on me.  We stopped and made some croissant sandwiches for lunch and then headed home, because I had to work at 5.  Work was thankfully uneventful except for two people who walked in the door 20 SECONDS to close and ordered two large desserts.  I was kind of mad, because I had to re-clean a bunch of stuff.  Really, who does that?  They even looked at the time posted on the door, checked their watch, and then decided it would be OK to come in and order when we were basically closed and I was the only one working.  LAME.  I never go to restaurants that close to closing.

And here is my belly pic from last week!  I'm feeling so biiiig - I know I'm not really that big, but things just feel a little more uncomfortable this week.  Oh well.  I'll get over it.  4 more months to go!  I started posting on my other blog and there is a page called "belly watch" if you want to a see a week by week progress ;P

Today we are heading out to Preschool Storytime at the library, and then to run a few errands in Silverdale (buying diapers, ugggh).  I also finally cleaned out my refrigerator, and noticed that other than 1.5 gallons of milk, some yogurt, and eggs, we pretty much have no food but condiments. Yeeeeaah, need to remedy that!

I love days off. I think I have mentioned this more than once.

So I had two days off, worked two, and had two more off. Such a relief after the mega amount of work I did the last week. I had a student both days I worked which is awesome because I get paid more when I have a student, but sucks because it is way harder to get my work done when I have to explain every step of everything that I do.

On Wednesday Gabe and I went to Ikea and it was awesome. I got a curtain rod and curtains and Gabe helped me make them the right length by pinning them. I had to buy an iron because mine completely broke and these are no sew curtains. They came with iron on adhesive so that I just ironed the bottoms to the right length and cut off the extra, I am super pleased with the results! I think it brings the dining room together and I am so glad to have a way to cover the huge screen door! My kitties were quite helpful as I was ironing. They thought I was doing super fun stuff. If they only knew. Haha. Ill have to take a better picture of them open because that is how they will look more of the time. :)

I got a new table runner for the dining room at Ikea too. I have ironed it since I took the picture (didn't own an iron when the picture was taken haha). I love it though! I bought a 4lb container of strawberries the other day at costco and we just ate the last of them today. I think they lasted 4 days. I want more already!

I am super addicted to a show called Downton Abbey. I stayed up one night when I got home from work to watch an episode and my kitties kept me company. I don't usually get addicted to shows and want to watch them all the time but I seriously can't stop thinking about this show! Ridiculous I know.

I didn't take a picture of them but I made snickerdoodles on Thursday for a going away party for one of the students on our floor who had completed her 240 hours. These cookies are amazing. I forgot how good snickerdoodles were, thank you pinterest for reminding me! Amber and Candice, you will be addicted if you ever get a pinterest. I know Becca and I are!

In other news I have swam 4 times a week for the last three weeks! I am so happy I have gotten in a good routine. I think I will only go three times this next week though because Paul and I are going out of town Thursday through Sunday for my cousins wedding in Portland. We will be staying with my Grandparents in Salem and I can't even tell you how excited I am for this missing vacation!

Playing Hooky

I have been really unproductive in terms of school work.  I have the whole week off, and my dear husband reminded me today of all the work I was saying I would get done.  After sitting in front of my computer for an hour doing nothing I decided to take the day off and not even try to do schoolwork.  I'll save that for tomorrow. I ended up having a great day and getting some other things done.

I tried Angela's baguette recipe.  AMAZING!  It turned out so good.  I have joined the 'never buy store bought baguette' club.  Here are my pictures:

Fresh oven baked bread is my weakness.  I cut a slice and spread on some spinach cream cheese and five minutes later: 

I also went on a great walk with Beatrix.  There's a trail really close to our house that used to be a railroad line.  It was so refreshing to be alone in the woods walking next to the river.  I loved it.

Tonight I made Herb Roasted Chicken from Pioneer woman.  Its so easy and so delicious!

Even though I love living here, we haven't made that many friends yet.  So Justin and I have been spending a lot of time together.  Its been so good.  The other night we went and saw 'The Vow' at our local theatre.  I loved it and cried-it was similar to 'The Notebook' in that way.  Its funny because there were a bunch of other women there too, and during the emotional parts I heard someone openly sobbing behind me.  -signs of a good movie.

Justin and I have been working out together too.  Its been great because when one of us isn't motivated the other one will make sure we do our workout.  shhh don't tell anyone, but I've been getting him to do Pilates dvds with me. ;)  They are really tough, but we've done them about 5 times already this week!

Well, its getting late and I should go to bed.  Good night ladies!