To Dream

We had a lovely dinner party over at the parents place on Friday - in celebration of papa Jacks birthday and his and mama Kasey's anniversary. It's really nice to have the whole family together. Good dinner, good company, lots of laughter and took much cake...what more can I ask for. It really was more fun than I can describe - Jack even played this word game with us... knowing that he did it for us was very sweet of him. I'll have post a lovely picture of the old folks parade picture I took (Alex in his wheelchair, Carly using his walker, and finally Bryan with a cane).

Saturday morning I slept in and it was great! Got up with Chris, bid him farewell to work, then put my gardening gloves! I ripped out about 90% of the weeds in the backyard then got surprised by the sprinklers, needless to say I had mud caked everywhere. It was still fun though, and the house is looking good (don't peek into my craft room though).

Sunday was all relaxation - it's been quite awhile since Chris and I have had a day off today so it was nice just to spend time together. We got a few sucker fishies; our tanks algae levels were getting high enough that we could sustain a few. We played a few games, and in general just spent time around the house :)

On another note...speaking to so many people I've realized that there are a lot of things I want to do and see in my lifetime! I want to be adventurous and wild like I once was - or I felt I was!

A few things I want to accomplish in life...
~ Learn to speak two foreign languages fluently (perhaps german and spanish?)
~ Get my BA in either human resources or computer science
~ Learn to play the piano (I've always dreamed of playing)
~ Get a tattoo - hehe don't freak out :)
~ Learn how to surf
~ Backpack Europe with Chris
~ Learn how to snowboard
~ To travel all over the world...to special places
~ Have a hobby that makes money - even if it is just fun money
~ Get really proficient at sewing
~ Be able to do 25 guy push ups
~ Teach a yoga class with a studio nearby
~ Take belly dancing classes
~ Go to the theater every year
~ Take ballroom dancing lessons
~ Work on carpentry as an active skill
~ Relearn html

And a funny comic for you who read this.. night kids <3

Mein Garten!

I thought that I would post early in excitement of the coming celebration that is July 1st. Not only is it Canada Day – GO CANADA! – it’s also the day that I get health benefits! It’ll be a relief to know that I can finally go see a doctor without worrying that we’ll be paying mucho buckos. I can’t believe it’s been 2 yrs+ since I’ve seen a doctor... that seems almost scary now looking back. Not that I’m sick now or anything, it’ll just be another thing I can check off from my worry list. Next is to get Chris a health plan also, not like the little bugger ever gets sick :) but just in case he falls off a ladder or I throw a knife at him.

An update on the fishies - we’ve lost a few, but they keep having babies so we’re up more than we’re down. Thankfully not all of the deaths have been unexplained occurrences; some of them are just simply getting old.

In other news…Our favorite little patient is doing well and is making a speedy recovery. Hopefully he’ll have his err appliance (?) off in 3-4 weeks, as I know that would really give him a boost. We did a fathers day/welcome home day on Sunday last week and it was really nice to have the whole family together (Brian was also there, and though he isn’t legally family yet, he may as well be). We had a great dinner, and even managed some games afterwards. I’m still worried about our now wheelchair bound boy, but he speaks about the future with great fervor that makes me believe he will change his life.

Also, I thought everyone should know that I rock at Harvest Moon. We found my game cube in a box, and I’ve been enjoying a few of my old games again. I forgot how fun it was to sometimes do mindless things, it really eases some of the stress of a day of work.

Another good thing that is coming up is my long weekend for July 4th – silly Americans – where I have a beautiful 4 day weekend. I already have mapped out my time for gardening and getting the house completed, that’s right I said completed. My goal is to have the entire house arranged and unpacked by the evening of Monday 7/7. I figure one more week of putzing in the yard and then the mega weekend and I should have had sufficient amount of time to get this house into order. It’ll be nice not to have to come home and see a wall of boxes! Hopefully in time that if/when any of our extended family come out it’ll look organized and put together. Sorry that there isn't any after pics, my camera's battery died. So hopefully I'll get that done next week, but the one's that are posted are after I ripped out all the stuff. Enjoy.



An update on the kittens – they had their first taste of wet (it smells terrible) food and they loved it. Too much so, now after I’ve given them their dinner scoop of dry food they keep meowing in hopes that they’ll soften me. No such luck for them, but I’m debating about whether I should just give them a small portion for dinner on weekends as a treat. We’ll see, Chris is anti-wet cat food, hehe.

It’s silly but I feel so happy and yet so sad lately, hopefully I’m not bipolar. Sorry bipolar disorder isn’t a laughing matter. I just don’t know how to explain it. I’m happy about the house and how life seems to slowly be falling into place, but other things still keep dragging me down. Perhaps I just need a bit more sun, on that note, the garden is looking good. Well good may be an overstatement. It’s coming along, though anything is better than what it used to look like. I still have to figure out the sprinkler system because it doesn’t seem to be doing what it’s set for, but that’s another days work.

This week at work has been long… not only are we down a person (technically two, one is out on maternity), our server has been offline since Friday morning. We truly are hopeless without our computers, especially since all our records are kept and updated via our network. They with be back up, supposedly, tomorrow. In any case I have mounds and mounds of work piling up that I can’t even get to unless the computers are up and running. The next few days will fly by as I expect I’ll be busier than ever trying to catch up.

Finally Home

I got down and dirty this weekend, literally! I putzed around our small garden and actually enjoyed it. On Saturday I ripped out all our dead and dying/hideous weeds (some were probably good plants but everything was beyond saving) after going to Home Depot. Once I had done that I was already sweating, burned, and covered from head to toe in dirt. I had dirt and grime on every inch of my body...thankfully our shower has a powerful spray! I finished planting this morning, and once again the shower soothed my aching back and arms. I'll post before and after pictures next weekend.

Our house is messier than it was on Friday, if that makes any sense. I keep pulling boxes from the garage into the house and opening them...before I know it there's piles and piles of stuff around me and I can't dig myself out. It's fun to think of the prospects of actually being unpacked for the first time in our marriage. I'm so thankful - this house has brought us so many firsts for us, it's very refreshing. We attached our foot/head board to the bed, and YAY it all fits (that's right, we weren't actually sure that the mattress would fit inside of the bed frame with the head and foot board attached). After moving a few more boxes into the house I decided to put up Grandma's and Grandpa's picture (that's what's below). It finally feels like home having the painting up!


Onto the terrible two - yes the kittens.. the evil kittens. Chloe has turned into a parrot, a drooling parrot. She doesn't always remember to swallow when she's purring so she starts to drool, it's funny if you can believe that. As for being a parrot, her favorite place to sit is on our shoulders. Abbie on the other hand has turned into a hair eater. She'll climb up the back of Chris's computer chair and try to eat his hair. For me she's a little less subtle, she just walks up to me and starts biting my bangs. On a positive note they both love the house, though I'd be surprised if they didn't enjoy their new romping grounds.

It looks like I'm going to tackle my craft room today, their are wayy too many boxes lying around that would be in that room :). I'm also getting my laundry going. EEeeEE, I love having our own washer and dryer; I have always liked doing laundry, and finally being able to do it without being forced allows me to fully enjoy it again. I'll also clean the fish tanks and change their waters, they haven't been doing so great so perhaps some cleaning will do them well.

Besides all that...

!!HAPPY FATHERS DAY!!

To all you dad's out there, thanks for doing such a great job :)

We're going to do a dinner thing over at the parents house, so that'll be fun. I have to remember to bring my books over there also - I've finished reading The Mark from the Left Behind Series (I read it first when it originally came out, but I decided to read it again as it's almost been 8yrs). They really are addicting, I've read 8 of them in one month, really rejuvenates the thirst for the Bible.

Before I forget, if you've ever had a jamba juice smoothie, prepared to be blown away by my smoothies. The jamba ones are great, but mine are AMAZING!! Not to blow my own horn, but I really do make great flavors..perhaps I will learn how to cook.

An Emotional Homestead!

So we've almost got everything moved in - minus a few odds and ends. I took on the kitchen this weekend and in my professional opinion it looks great! It took a lot more work than I first expected but now that it's done I feel like I can take on the rest of the house. Next weekends project will be our bedroom, bathroom and the dreaded living room; a big project but I hope to get it all done. Our bedroom would have been finished this weekend except for the fact that no matter how much you try not everything will fit into your car - for example a 4 ft tall and 5 ft long headboard that weighs 50-75lbs does not fit into my suzuki aerio.. no matter how hard I tried! Anyways, Chris and The Jack brought it over yesterday and it's partially set up. It's weird being up off the ground, it's the first bedframe we've had in the almost 2yrs we've been married.

I had a minor emotional outburst when I couldn't fit everything into a 48hr weekend..they just don't seem long enough to do everything I want to accomplish. Chris, being the gentle giant he is, quickly calmed me down and reminded me that we can do a little every evening and take on the bigger projects on the weekends. He's oddly logical sometimes, thank goodness for my sanity. He also organized our entire closet :) which helps my sanity!

The hospital mouse is getting better, slowly but surely, he's sore from physio everyday but it's worth it. He's been using a walker and has been moved out of the Nuero ward so that was exciting. It's still difficult to get through the fog, and sometimes it seems like a continual haze, so we're praying that he'll be clear eventually. Momma Kasey has been so strong through all of this, it's really amazing that she has been able to deal with it all.

Now for some exceptionally good news! Chris got two job offers for two different positions with the same place. I am so incredibly proud of him that I can barely speak, yet I want to scream! The first time in our marriage we'll have two incomes, shocking isn't it? It finally feels like we're settling down. Chris will be looking at classes once he has his schedule and go from there! His first day is today (orientation)!!

On another note.. I never thought that I would be that avid of a gardener but now that I have 'a bit of earth' I find myself really wanting to putz around in our little yards. I've already decided on a few flowers/plants that I'd like in my garden. Eeep, my garden! Sorry got a bit excited there. We have a small front and back garden so it should be fun. I think I'll put in a few hydrangeas up front with some long grasses and perhaps some wild flowers and then in the back I want to have some herbs and strawberries in pots and perhaps some bamboo! By the way that obviously isn't our place but it inspired me with different plant ideas :)

Pst - don't let anyone know that I almost putting off posting for another week ~ It would have been chaos though, so I finally got it done!