What we've been up to...

Removed pickets...

 Replaced pickets (the job is done now even though it's not in this picture)...

 Removed nasty carpet and paint...

 Replaced with nice carpet and paint!

 New table and breakfast bar stools...

 Painted wall and hung pictures...

 Hung out with these crazies...

 New wood for the stairs went from this...

 To this...

 First snow of the season in our new house...

 Christmas decorations...

 Went to the zoo with these crazies (Not pictured: Marshal, Rachel, and Casey)...

 Saw the Christmas ship parade...

 At a big bon-fire at Redondo Beach...

That about catches us up!

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Things I'm loving about our new house

It took us a while, but we've both finally decided we like our house! :) Here are some reasons why I do...


My pantry!

Yes, those are pull-out shelves on the left...I LOVE them! I'm getting spoiled for whatever house we buy next!

My dining room. It's still not quite finished (things aren't in their final resting positions- including the light), but it's getting there. Still in love with the wall color...

My appliance garage...love this invention!! Which also makes possible...

Uncluttered countertops!! (pay no attention to the dirty dishes please...)

I'm also digging our view...it's not much compared to some, but it's way more of a view than we've had before. I love being able to see Puget Sound whenever I want to!

I love the sunsets here! At our rental house, we were surrounded by trees (which I also loved), so we never saw the sunsets. Here, we can see them in all their glory.

We closed!!

We finally become homeowners on July 27th...or, at least that's what we thought. That's when we got the keys. We found out on the 28th, however, that the recording office at the courthouse rejected part of our package, so we didn't actually close until the 28th when that got cleared up! We should have known something else would happen at the end of our journey as the whole process has been one challenge after another! But, that's all in past, and we have a house. Now comes the hard part of fixing it up. Several projects have already been completed which feels amazing, and several rooms have new paint. Soon, we'll have new carpet, too!! I'll post pictures soon.

Still waiting

We were supposed to close on our house on June 14th, then July 1, then July 9, now...?? Grr....this is getting super frustrating!

On the up-side...we have all our paint now! We just need a house to actually do the work in. Can't wait to see how it looks when we're done with that (huge) job!

My last month...

May 3: Pack for trip to Cozumel, Mexico
May 4: Travel to Cozumel, Mexico
May 5-16: Vacation in Cozumel, Mexico!!!
May 17: Travel to Seattle, WA
May 18: Doing laundry and packing for trip to Johnson City, TN
May 19: Travel to Johnson City, TN
May 19-21: Spending time with Tyler's family for Pa's funeral
May 21: Travel to Seattle, Wa
May 22-25: At home cleaning furiously and doing laundry
May 26: Jerilyn and Jacie arrive for a visit!
May 27-June 1: Painting the town red with the girls
June 2: Jerilyn and Jacie leave for Kansas
June 3-4: Packing for the upcoming move and for trip to Plain, WA
June 5-6: Weekend in Plain, WA with Tyler's cousin and family
June 7: Picking paint colors, doing laundry, mowing the lawn and babysitting
June 8: Park day and babysitting

Whew...I'm ready for life to get back to "normal," however, I don't see that happening any time soon! Makes life interesting, though!

Coz Underwater

Attack of the...squirrel??

An innocent trip to the zoo...a picnic lunch...a recipe for disaster??

The squirrel...Tyler tried to be nice and give it ONE of his bbq chips. The cheeky little bugger decided one was not enough and jumped onto the bench and grabbed the entire bag! Only, his plan backfired when the chips all spilled out of the bag as he was racing off.

He had to come back to get any of the food he worked so hard for :)

The carnage


Happy squirrel

Not-so-happy Tyler...he really likes BBQ chips ;)

Vertigo, baby

I have spent the greater part of the last week flat on my back. It's been lovely...okay, not really. After apparently injuring my ear on Sunday during a dive, I started having intermittent dizziness and lightheadedness on Monday which grew worse until Tuesday afternoon I was trying not to move at all for fear I would 1)lose my lunch, or 2)fall down and die. My dr. says it's not serious and it just has to wear off. I am feeling much better than I was and can now function somewhat normally. Why do I tell you this? As a preface to my next story. I think my spinning brain made me lose touch with reality completely! Even in dream-world, I am normally fairly mellow, and my dreams are based on what could actually happen. Not the other night.

My dream started off with me and a bunch of other people in a forest at night with torches. I could tell the people were squared off; one side against the other. Everything was tense, but not dangerous. Then, one side accidentally killed someone from the other side! In a flash, people were running around trying to kill/not be killed. After running for a while, I found a long ladder (think hatch rungs from Lost) and scrambled up. At the top, I found myself inside a very large space craft. It was well-lit, and lots of people were scurrying around trying to get to safety. There was a main hallway and thousands of little pods that attached to the main ship. I hurried to find an empty pod, but they were all full until I reached the very end of the spaceship. Here, I found the best pod of all. I think it must have been the captain's pod. It had potted plants and a piano and leather furniture. I was super happy to have been so patient (read: late) and staked my claim in this pod. As the buzzers were sounding that all the pods were going to be closed so we could take off, I see this guy racing around the corner. I stood in the way of the hissing doors so he could slip by to safety. After he caught his breath, he told me that he was the captain of this ship, but someone had radioed him that they had lost their sippy cup and he had to go find it. So, he had done that (it was a red sippy cup and the lid looked kinda like a transformer), but had almost not made it back in time. He then intruduced me to his droid helper/sidekick that I wasn't even aware was in the room. Then we took off and flew around for a while and landed in a tree. The pod doors hissed back open and I heard someone yell "Cut!" Then I found out I was actually on the set of/actress in the brand new Star Trek movie and none of it was real.

I don't even really like Star Trek.

Weird, right? Really weird. I guess that's what happens when your brain is messed up :)

Sewing project

I saw this idea on another blog, and thought I'd give it a try. The idea is to make cheap maternity shirts with clearance shirts you find (or Goodwill shirts, Salvation Army shirts, just cheap shirts!). I found 3 shirts I liked and bought them 2 sizes too big. This is important so you have room to grow!

Then you sew elastic on each of the side seams. The more you stretch the elastic, the more the sides will bunch. This is personal preference. I don't think any of the 6 seams I sewed ended up exactly alike.

But then, I am not a professional, nor did I feel the need to use silly things like pins to help myself out.

I am an eye-ball-it kind of sewer, at least for now.

Then, you get a finished product: a nice shirt that will grow with you without spending a ton of money!!

Here are my three shirts. Normally, I'm not a bright-color-wearer, but when perusing clearance, you can't be choosy. And, they're actually really cute anyway :)

And, to answer the inevitable question, no, I am not pregnant, but I hope to be soon. Doesn't hurt to get an early start on preparations, right? :)

Trying again with the visitors...

First time...

I'm trying to blog from my email!  Nothing really cool to say, but it did get a new roller brush for my vaccuum this afternoon.  Now I have no excuse for dirty floors :)

I also got a new swimming suit for our trip to MEXICO!!  So excited for warm sun, fine sand, and crystal blue water...wish we could leave tomorrow!!

Okay, I admit it!

I'm a horrible blogger. I should have known this would happen when I couldn't keep a journal or a diary going longer than a few months. I guess a post here and there is better than no posts at all, right?

Life lately has been...challenging. In good ways and frustrating ways. We're STILL waiting to hear about a house we put an offer on back in September (we didn't originally get chosen for it so we've only actually been waiting since the middle of December, but still...ridiculous!). I LOVE LOVE LOVE this house! I just drove by it again today and poked around at my leisure (it's vacant), and I could just picture us living there. It has all the great qualities of the other houses we've put offers on (but obviously didn't get). Four bedrooms for whenever kids come along (or people come to visit...hint, hint), 2 1/2 bath, a gas fireplace, a nice flat big backyard with a play structure (again for the kids, or the visiting people if they so desire)...oh, and a super-nice deck where we can grill in the summer and look at the stars. Love the deck! I already have a honey-do list made out for the house as well as paint colors picked and I can totally see the finished project in my head. We just need to get a go-ahead from the bank that funds the existing mortgage and we can close in 3 weeks. Hopefully we will hear something soon.

My job at the scuba shop has been interfering too much with my home life so a decision was made by both Tyler and I that it was time for me to step away from that for right now. I don't have a definite end date yet, but probably within the next month I will finish up there. I will miss seeing all my friends, but I know this is the right the decision, and I truly look forward to being able to give my husband and house the attention it deserves again.

I recently got a treadmill and have been trying to use it at least every other day. It's been good for me, and I've lost some weight which has been a nice benefit.

Tyler's job was somewhat in question about few months ago, but that has all been resolved and he feels confident that he will have a job at Boeing for as long as his boss does :) (i.e. his boss LOVES him and won't let him get laid-off while his boss is still working there).

One last challenge we've had has been to figure out where we want to go for our 5 year anniversary in May (I can't believe it's been five years!!). We've finally (I think) decided on Mexico so we can see Chichen Itza (one of the 7 Wonders of the World) and check one of those off the list. We'd love to see all 7 in our lifetimes. Plus, Cozumel has great diving and snorkeling and we can get some pretty good rates there. I'm looking forward to it!