February 17, 2009

A sign of my commitment to not only weight loss, but to be more healthy. We're getting out and moving more and we've been much more happy for it. Instead of DRIVING the dogs down to the dog park, we're taking the 10 or so minute walk down there with them.

February 16, 2009

A Christmas gift from Dan & Tami. Josh and I were talking about how lucky we feel to have each other and that we love the life that we have. That discussion made me think about this meaningful gift and the meaning of the words. Boy, do we really have a story...

I found a quote from M. Scott Peck that I thought is really relevant to our relationship and how we've gotten through some sticky situations:

“The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.”

February 15, 2009

The sight of a very sad dryer... It stopped spinning today. After the first stinking load!! We, HA!, who am I kidding? I had to hang dry EVERYTHING after it was washed. There wasn't a hangable place in the house that didn't have hangers on it. Everything from Josh's heavy work pants, to chones hanging in the doorways. And let me just say one thing: hang drying makes for very stiff, very uncomfortable, chones.

After some threatening words and some coaxing of the drum, the dryer started working again.

Valentine's Day 2009

So I'm a little slow in posting pics and here are the pics that I took on our annual snow day trip that coincided with Valentines's Day this year. We got to Donner Lake after a four-hour drive, took two pictures, and promptly dropped my camera in the snow. I ran it back to the truck to thaw and thankfully, it's still functioning.

This is what we faced going up the hill


And this was part of the reason why. The other reason is that people were being LAME and only going 40 mph on clear roads!!


The little girl looking out the window, fogging it up, then getting frustrated because she couldn't see out of it anymore.


Abbi in the snow. I wasn't able to get any of Hayden playing in it, because of the aforementioned camera incident...., but they were having a BLAST! It was pretty fresh powder and they thought that they could walk in it but were totally surprised when they sunk down to their heads! They both learned pretty quickly that it wasn't solid and then only started walking in the trails that we'd made in the snow.


We stopped at Cabela's in Reno before heading back home. It's a pretty cool place and it's HUGE. We went to go check out the guns and dog stuff (THREE WHOLE AISLES!!) and stopped by the restaurant. We both got bison burgers and fries and this was all I could put down. Josh loves the bison meat but to me, it just tasted like high quality ground beef. Much to his disappointment...


With the storms that we've been having, we're hoping to have another snow day soon!!

February 14, 2009

View thru a dirty windshield during the FOUR HOUR drive to Donner Lake. It was so worth it though to see the dogs act like crazy animals. Wait! They are crazy animals!!

February 13, 2009

I forgot to take a picture today....

Lazy Days and Lazy Dogs

DISCLAIMER: Animal abuse, or negligance at the very least, can be seen in the following pictures!

These were pictures from last night. The cold, rainy weather has been keeping us inside more than any of us have been in a while. And whenever the dogs need to go outside, they flatten their ears and crouch down, like they're being assaulted from above. Then they scoot back inside as fast as they can!

The last picture is Hayden telling me that he's had enough of me taking his picture while he's trying to sleep. HA!

And Josh is seriously questioning his judgement in getting me a new camera...

February 12, 2009

The best, and possibly the worst, thing in the world. These are the feet of little Hayden's blankie: his Bad Cuz. He carries this around with him all of the time and thankfully, doesn't make it squeek. Anymore... He'll have it in his mouth and shake his head violently so the thing is hitting either side of his face. But watch out!! He'll lose grip of it sometimes and it'll go flying! Ask Josh about the time when he got hit in the head with a hard rubber football...

February 11, 2009

Just because we're on a "diet" doesn't mean we can't eat yummy foods!! Josh surprised me with this dinner last night. We were both nicely satisfied after peppers and rice.

February 10, 2009

A wet, sad reminder of warmer days.... Josh said he's "missing the taste of bbq" so I took this picture for him. When really, we're not using it because we ran out of propane. Where's Hank Hill???

February 9, 2009

Mom, mom, mom....we REALLY wanna go outside and plaaaaaaaay! How could you say no to a face like that?? Thinking of wet, muddy dogs with wet, muddy paws will MAKE you say no to that face!!

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.