February 8, 2009

Lake Nute!! We're in the process of installing a boat ramp and will be charging $5 use fees since the puddle in our backyard is about as deep as Folsom Lake now...

February 7, 2009

Abbi enjoying one of her birthday treats on her bed. She's such a good girl because as soon as she gets a treat, she'll trot over to her bed to eat it. Unlike Hayden, who will chomp it right on the carpet and not care how much of a mess he makes. Abbi likes the mess though because then she can come in and clean up after him!

Sorry! Sorry!!

It's been called to my attention that I've been slacking at the picture-a-day thing. Well, to be honest, I have. My camera battery died and I was lame about putting it back in the camera once it had been charged. SO, without further ado, I am going to re-start the picture-a-day today. Well, technically four days ago because that's when I started taking pictures again.

Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, big girl!!

Saturday was Abbi's third birthday and we had to celebrate! We bought her a cake from a doggie boutique in Granite Bay: The Doggie Bag. According to the owners, the cake is human grade and we could even enjoy a slice with the dogs. Um, no thanks. I'll take your crazy word for it. But the dogs absolutely loved it!













After cake, we took the kids to Petsmart to pick out new collars, get new toys, and some special birthday treats. Petsmart didn't have the collars we wanted, but there was a baby boxer there that wanted to play! Hayden wasn't too keen on it but Abbi was super curious. She's such a good, patient, momma-dog and she let the baby paw all over her without batting an eye. Then off to Petco we went in search of new collars.

Abbi's birthday haul ended up being a cake, two different types of treats, some wet food that smells like FISH, a treat ball, and a pretty new collar that she picked out herself. I wanted to get her a pink one and Josh wanted a red one so we let her pick. He held a collar in each hand and called Abbi over. She nosed the red one and walked back to me. She didn't even acknowledge the pink one!! I guess it was pretty obvious which one she preferred... We initally only got one treat ball for Abbi and since Hayden can't be left out, we got him a ball to play with. Well, you can't give one dog a treat without giving something to the other... DUH!! So we had to go back out and get Hayden his very own treat ball too.

I swear, these dogs are so spoiled!!

Icehouse, CA

We're planning a camping trip, hopefully, for Memorial Day weekend so we thought it'd be a good idea to go check out the digs before we booked the site since neither one of us has camped there. Anybody know anything about Yellowjacket Campground?? Anyone??? Well, we didn't know that we'd be met with snow-plowed roads, blocking the entrances to ALL of the campgrounds. Booooo! It was a really nice drive through the forest though and the dogs had a BLAST. For such prissy dogs that hate to be cold or wet, they sure do love the snow. And we love tired dogs! We wanted to take Icehouse Road all the way thru to Auburn to go to the best pizza place we've found: Old Town Pizza. But alas, we were foiled again by the snow-plows being ever so overzealous and blocking yet another road. Safety, schmafetey. That's what 4-wheel drive is for. Right??? Well, no, it's not. Apparently, there ARE some roads that will best an off-road Nissan Titan, equipped with Rancho shocks, a 4x4 set up, good snow tires, yadda, yadda, yadda. But that doesn't mean that Josh didn't try and that I didn't get white-knuckled from grabbing the door handle, praying that we didn't slide into a tree trunk. Guys and their trucks....I swear....

We were able to make it Auburn though from Highway 49 (another pretty drive) and got to enjoy some scrumptious-ness. If you're ever in the Auburn area, check out Old Town Pizza!

You can't tell in this picture, but Josh is tramping thru the snow in tennis shoes!

A good example of why we call Abbi "Slobber Jaws"

Check out the muscles on that stud!

Assuming the deer on the hill pose

January 18, 2009

A quick weekend drive.

January 17, 2009

Josh finally gets a blanket!! After making several for family and friends, my husband finally gets his first home-made-by-me blanket. He was a little sketchy at first, not thinking he would really see a completed project. But after about 25-30 crocheted squares laying around, I think he's pretty confident that he will, in fact, get his very own blanket. Poor guy...!

January 16, 2009

Dinner in a pinch when we don't feel much like cooking. And the best part: The dogs LOVE the leftovers!

January 15, 2009

The new Ziploc brand of chicana. I'd think it would taste a little plastic-y though. Guess that's what would happen since it's been sitting in the back of the fridge for a month... I came out as a congealed chunk in the trash. Kinda gross...

January 14, 2009

Pipes from the organ at Fair Oaks Presbyterian Church. Why, you ask, was I there? Josh and I attened our friend Paul's graduation from the Sacramento Sheriff's Academy. He starts work on the 22nd at RCCC. Yea, Paul!

January 13, 2009

One reason that I love winter: grampa's oranges!! But don't ask him if you can take some to give to friends, neighbors, co-workers, etc. Oh, no!! FAMILY ONLY!, is what I was told when I offered to unload some of his harvest by taking some to work. Okay grampa, family only. Weirdo.

January 12, 2008

How we spend quality time as a family. We love taking the dogs out to play and watching how happy they are to run. And Josh and I get in tons of laughs while watching the dogs play together.

Project 365

I heard about Project365 and thought it'd be a neat idea. So for the next year, (yeah, I'm a little slow off the roll to start it at the actual beginning of the year...), I will be taking a picture a day. It may be of what I'm wearing that day, what we ate for dinner, an odd street sign, my dogs pooping, the list is endless!! Then when I'm done, Josh & I will be able to look back at everything that happened in 2009 and hopefully get more than a few laughs from it.

I hope that everyone enjoys our pictures!

Los Siete Enanos

This is what it would look like if Mexican's took over Disneyland...

Je-fuh-fuh Dunhaaaaaaaaaam

We watched Jeff Dunham's Christmas Special the other night and this was by far the most hilarious part of the show. Take about 5 minutes and watch it. We were dying.

Changes, they are a'comin....

We's big kids now!

We finally got our big-kid table! After a slight mishap with the first one (it came to us damaged), we have a brand new, awesome kitchen table. We got a really good deal on the table and 8 chairs. It's counter-height too so your feet dangle off of the chairs. And even though it's not an EXACT match to our other furniture, it's pretty darn close. This table was our reason for hosting Thanksgiving this year. Oh, and that whole family togetherness thing too.... ;) There will be a total of 6 people there and the table comfortably seats 8 (it has a removable leaf), so no worries for elbow room!



GASP! Is that a paint can in the background??? I wonder what that is doing there??

Old Man Hayden

When Josh and I were painting, I decided to go over and antagonize him with my fully loaded paintbrush. After he'd had enough, he came after me with his roller. Upon hearing my squeals, Super Chicken, er, Hayden, comes running in to save his momma and attack the big, bad paint roller. This is the result...

Pregnant??? Maybe!

So the first progesterone shot was given last week, hopefully resulting in a successful conception. We won't know for sure for another week or so if it took but we're crossing our fingers! It's a little earlier than we had planned but we're sure that it'll all work out.

We're going to see the momma when we drive to Vegas for Christmas. And the breeder has one of the pups from a prior litter from same the two dogs. He's going with a different daddy than he had previously planned, but I guess he's her boyfriend so it should be an easier breeding.

If everything works out right, we should have another set of feet running around in the first part of May. Albeit, they will be very BIG feet...which mean very big poo's... Eesh!

Even though puppy-hood is a very trying stage, it's so nice to be able to see the dogs that they grow into. It really makes all of the time and freakin' money that we put into our babies so worth it!

Ten pounds lighter, and not from a diet.

I cut my hair. Like majorly cut my hair.


Ok, now pick your jaw up off the floor. It was just time to make the change. I'd had my hair long all my life, except for one stint in 4th grade when I thought an earlobe-length cut with a poodle perm would look cute... I also thought that hypercolor, spandex bike shorts, pegged pants, Hammer pants, and banana clips were cute, and at some point, I probably wore all of the above...at the same time...

I'm still getting used to the length of it, or lack thereof. But I absolutely love that my hair has a style now. Yeah, it now takes me about an hour just to do my hair in the mornings, but I think that I'll like it so much that I won't ever grow it out again. One good thing that came out of this though is that the salon that I went to participates in the Locks of Love program so soon somebody else can be wearing my hair! Just a little FYI: you have to have at least 10 inches of hair cut off to be eligible. Yea me!

BOO!!!

Happy Halloween everyone!

We carved pumpkins last night and this is one out of the FOUR that we did. Of course, we all had to have one. And I chose one that took me OVER TWO HOURS to complete!

"If you want to kill Harry, you'll have to kill us too!"

New trailer!!! I love how dark these movies are getting too. I just wonder if they'll be able to pull off the next three movies because the crew isn't so young anymore.... I'm hoping though that it's worth waiting EIGHT MORE MONTHS to see it!!

Decisions, decisions....

We moved into a new building at work this week and this new sign in our restroom had me scratching my head. Are we, the users of the toilets, the ones to properly decide if it's solid enough to be a solid? How solid does it have to be to be considered "solid"??? Is the same sign in the men's restroom as well?? These are the things that I ponder as I'm sitting at my desk. What if you have a situation where what's supposed to be a solid, isn't quite solid? Do you flush in the middle? No, because I had to see if that would work, and it doesn't. And to actually wrap your foot around the lever to pull it up for "liquid" waste is a feat in itself! Do they seriously expect us to TOUCH the lever on the toilet?? No.Way. So after almost falling over in the stall because I was trying to properly flush my liquid waste, I decided to treat it all as solid and save myself some embarassment by not having to explain why my sleeve was soaked from falling into the toilet or why I had a mild concussion from banging my head on the wall...

My babies is so smaht!

My babies are so smart!! They graduated their Beginning Obedience classes! Even though I don't think that any of the dogs failed.... We're going to put them in intermediate for the next session and then get Hayden into agility or rally classes. Abbi could care less about running through a tunnel. She'd look at you and tell you to do it yourself!

It's a dog's life!

This is what our place looks like on a typical Saturday afternoon. Dog beds pushed and pulled until they find the comfy place. Mom's current yarn project, or two, laying out. Dog TOYS all over the place! A blanket on the floor that's been pilfered from the couch by a cold furbaby. Daddy napping. And at least one dog on the couch.



We actually folded and put our couch blankets away where they’re supposed to go and Miss Thang decided she wanted to lay in them anyway. This is Abbi curled up in our blanket basket.






Hayden, looking out the window, waiting for momma to come home.

Things that we lost in the move....

...other than Abbi's front leg:












*My red "train bag." I'm dying without it!! It's the bag I would pack everything in for my commute to and from work and without it, I don't have a free hand to fend off the drunken homeless men that seem to gravitate towards me.

*Josh's twine. Even though I think he's a little batty because I've NEVER seen this supposed twine since we've been living together, this seems to have gone missing. He was diligently searching for this last weekend and getting so frustrated that he couldn't find it. Um, sweety, it's twine. It's cheap. Go buy some more!

*A new pair of Josh's jeans, but we're not quite sure we actually had them to begin with...

*A roll of dog poo bags. The importance of these cannot be expressed unless you've been without them.

I think that's it! We still have a few boxes in the garage to unpack but it's stuff that we don't need on an every day basis. I actually don't even know what's still in those boxes... We're still not completely settled though because we have an ever-expanding list of things that need to get done before we can move on to the next project. Here's a little sample:

*Buy curtain rod for master bedroom (we're changing in the bathroom or closet right now so the neighbors can't see us nekkid).
*Fix closet shelving in the second bedroom (it started pulling away from the wall) so we can unload the boxes that are sitting on the floor in there.
*Prime and paint wooden beam in living room.
*Prime and paint pink walls. WOOHOO!!!
*After painting walls, hang pictures, clock, and hook up surround sound.
*Buy, paint, and install baseboard throughout.
*Miraculously find replacement closet doors for master bedroom.

That's all I can think of right now, without having my 3/4 page-long list in front of me. We're entertaining the idea of pulling out the sink in the master bedroom and putting in a pedestal. Just so we can have more room!! We've already installed a medicine chest in the bathroom and that has given us much needed storage space.

Warm and Toasty

Josh made the first fire of the season on Sunday. Since I like to have the windows open most of the time, the temperature in our house is almost North Pole-ish. I tried to get cozy pictures with the dogs in front of the fire, but they were having NOTHING to do with it. I'm sure they'll get used to it though and those cozy pics will come.

Yea for the changing of the seasons!!

We made it!!

Yesterday was our 1-year anniversary! I had the day off from work for Columbus Day so it was spent cleaning with the dogs...Josh had to work. He was home early enough to enjoy the cake that my parents bought for us as an anniversary present, but not early enough to enjoy a nice dinner together. :( We have a nice bottle of champagne that we've been saving for this but we didn't think that it would quite go with the mac & cheese that was for dinner... Josh brought me home some really pretty flowers though, so that made him coming home late a little better.

When we're guaranteed a night together, I'm going to make him a nice dinner to celebrate. And so we can pop the cork on that champagne!

See Dad, I can cook!!

Okay, I admit it, I'm a blog-stalker. There are a few blogs that I regularly follow without the blog owner's knowledge. One of them is my sister-in-law's sister's sister-in-law. Uh....what??

Anyway, she's got some great recipes on her blog and I saw one for calzones that looked easy enough for me to tackle. After a quick check in our cupboards and pantry, we amazingly had all of the major ingredients to make the dough and the filling. Josh got sent to the store for the filling while I was making, yes, MAKING, the dough and cooking the chicken breasts. Our filling was a small amount of tomato sauce, the baked chicken, reduced-fat mozzerella cheese, red and yellow bell peppers, and mushrooms. The general consensus was that there needed to be more cheese in there but I went in to food-Nazi mode and told Josh no!. This recipe is definitely a repeater. So thank you, Tami's sister's sister-in-law!! I may just try to tackle pizza next!

The piiiiiiiieeee is made with dough and then you throw it. Into the air... Into the air...


The finished product


And here's a little song that I'll be singing when I try to make homemade pizza.

We're Outta There!!!

We turned in our keys to the leasing office yesterday. So long, Stinktown!! We're bummed though because we're leaving behind friends that we recently made, but it'll just force us to make an effort to still get together. Now we can devote all of our time and attention to the duplex, and maybe get the garage cleared out so Josh can finally park the truck in there...

Take me out to the ballgame!!

On the 20th of September, Josh and I went to Oakland for an A's vs. Mariners baseball game. It was so much fun and both of us really needed the distraction. The weather was gorgeous: just right for a short-sleeved shirt, but with a little breeze. Our seats kicked butt too!! We were right behind the net, which was a little distracting, but so cool!

Note to parents and potential parents: DO NOT, I repeat, DO NOT take small children or toddlers to a sporting event unless you are 100% POSITIVE that they will not scream, cry, act out, misbehave, or incessantly kick the seat of the person in front of them. Having a child like that behind us really made points of the day unenjoyable. The dad ended up taking the kid home after the 6th inning, so he wasn't able to see the double play that the A's were able to make, the three runs that they were able to score off of one hit, and the last inning where the A's were able to win, which was an intense three up, three down. Reason #13595223 that we're not having kids: they ruin sporting events. We really should start making a list of these reasons...

Here are some pictures of the game. Lemme just say that I L-O-V-E my camera!!

Our seats. Ichiro and Ellis were sitting in the stands with us when they weren't out on the field.


Swing and a miss!!


Oakland fans across the field


Check that bat for cork!!


Uh oh....this is never good


The ever-classy picture of Josh with a huge dip in his mouth... The only things missing are a Natural Ice beer can in a coozy in his hand and me with a dirty baby naked, except for a diaper, on my hip. Nice.