Another week has come and gone, and October is nearly over. I absolutely love this time of year. The weather has definitely turned - we went from 78 degrees as our high on Tuesday to a 48 degree high on Wednesday, which was a little absurd. We have had nice clear and crisp skies, the moon has been gorgeous, and it smells like autumn. Halloween, Andy’s favorite holiday, is just around the corner which means that my favorite holiday, Thanksgiving, will soon be here as well.
Last weekend I surprised Andy with a three day trip to Seattle, (my birthday present to him.) We had a lot of fun, and decided that we need to spend more time exploring the city closest to us rather than looking for those that are further away. That Saturday we saw Spamalot, which is in Seattle for a couple of weeks. It was easily my favorite show that I have ever seen. The fact that I am a big fan of Monty Python probably helps. We spent the entire show laughing so hard that my sides hurt when we left.
This week was insanely busy with work. We really didn’t see much of each other all week long. So, we spent the days looking forward to the weekend when we were planning to attend our friend’s Pumpkin Carving Party. Yesterday we headed down to Carleigh and Joe’s house for pumpkin carving fun. We went to a pumpkin patch... where the corn maze had sadly been destroyed by the windstorm last week... and picked out a couple of pumpkins. We had a lot of fun eating, carving, playing with baby Jacob and their new kitty Tazz. I put a new album, Pumpkin Party, up on my page because I got quite a few cute pictures yesterday!
Oh, we also started a weight-loss challenge in my office two weeks ago. For 13 weeks, ending in January, everyone in the challenge has to pay $1 for any week that their weight does not go down. The person with the highest percentage of weight loss at the end gets to keep the money. So, I started Weight Watchers with a friend two weeks ago because I plan to win the challenge. (It ends on my birthday, which means that I deserve to win, right?) So far, so good.
Andy and I are looking forward to this Halloween, last year was our first year in our new house and we spent the holiday in Arizona with my sister and her family. We had a lot of fun in Arizona, but we are also excited to see what Halloween is all about in our new neighborhood. I hope that you all enjoy your Halloween’s and this autumn season!
Sunday, October 28, 2007
Sunday, October 21, 2007
Timber (Old Site)
Last year we had “the storm of the century” here in lovely Washington state. It was a night that I am likely to always remember. A night when two friends and I decided that a little wind wasn’t going to stop us from seeing White Christmas in downtown Seattle. A night in which we later escaped the city over I-90 with waves from Lake Washington crashing around my car. A night of dodging fallen trees and stumps to get home. I remember how my power went out mere minutes after I walked in the front door, and watching blue “explosions” throughout hours as more and more households went into the dark. That night led to many people in the Puget Sound area being without power for a stretch of days. I remember the aftermath the next day, and watched my neighbors re-erect fences for months to come. I remember that night, thinking how very lucky I was that none of the huge trees around my house decided to fall. Mostly, I remember thinking that I was glad this was a “storm of the century” and hoped that it wouldn’t repeat itself in my lifetime. Well, that was just the dramatic beginning of a very fun winter season for us last year.
Fast forward about 10 months after the “storm of the century”, and Washington is welcoming in another wind storm. Granted, this one is supposed to be at about a level 7, whereas last year’s was a level 10... but, still it is estimated that there will be several power outages and more fallen trees. “Our house will be fine,” thought I. “If any of our trees were going to come down, surely it would have happened in the ‘storm of the century’ last year.”
Um, no... I came home on Thursday night to flashing clocks all over my house. They were all flashing 12:19, which told me that the power had just come back on a few minutes earlier. Boone was whining, so I started to take him outside... and that is when I saw the tree. It was hanging precariously over our fence, swinging back and forth. The tree is now resting, more stable, over our fence. It covers most of the length of our backyard and is resting on the edge of one of our cedar trees. Andy and I are very sad because it was our favorite tree to look at. Not only did it have beautiful leaves, but it was a favorite tree of the squirrels - we would watch them running up, down, and over the branches. Alas, now we have to figure out how to get rid of the thing before it takes down our fence for good.
On the bright side, the tree deposited at least 25 good size branches in the yard for Boone’s enjoyment. We hope that this storm was not an omen for more to come. I mean, the news people have already coined last year’s as “the storm of the century”. It wouldn’t due to have two of those a year apart, right? Are you listening Mother Nature?
Fast forward about 10 months after the “storm of the century”, and Washington is welcoming in another wind storm. Granted, this one is supposed to be at about a level 7, whereas last year’s was a level 10... but, still it is estimated that there will be several power outages and more fallen trees. “Our house will be fine,” thought I. “If any of our trees were going to come down, surely it would have happened in the ‘storm of the century’ last year.”
Um, no... I came home on Thursday night to flashing clocks all over my house. They were all flashing 12:19, which told me that the power had just come back on a few minutes earlier. Boone was whining, so I started to take him outside... and that is when I saw the tree. It was hanging precariously over our fence, swinging back and forth. The tree is now resting, more stable, over our fence. It covers most of the length of our backyard and is resting on the edge of one of our cedar trees. Andy and I are very sad because it was our favorite tree to look at. Not only did it have beautiful leaves, but it was a favorite tree of the squirrels - we would watch them running up, down, and over the branches. Alas, now we have to figure out how to get rid of the thing before it takes down our fence for good.
On the bright side, the tree deposited at least 25 good size branches in the yard for Boone’s enjoyment. We hope that this storm was not an omen for more to come. I mean, the news people have already coined last year’s as “the storm of the century”. It wouldn’t due to have two of those a year apart, right? Are you listening Mother Nature?
Tuesday, October 16, 2007
The Return (Old Site)
I know, I know. I have neglected my duties. Two weeks without an update... They have been a busy two weeks! We have done a lot of things and made some significant progress.
1. Andy and I completed the last week of PRIDE training, bringing us a step closer to becoming licensed foster parents... and therefore, closer to adopting a child. We did learn a lot of valuable things in this class, and it gave us a wealth of material that we can refer to for years to come. The class focused not only on foster and adoption issues, but also gave tools and resources to aid in parenting.
2. We are now also certified in CPR for infant, children and adults. The class that we completed, which took the majority of a Saturday, also taught us how to treat choking infant, children and adults, how to operate a portable defibrillator, basic first aid techniques, and how to prevent contact and minimize risk of blood-borne pathogens. This class was highly informative and even a little fun... I was surprised at how much had changed in the ten years since I had completed my last CPR certification. This class was another item we have checked off on the path to foster licensing.
3. Andy celebrated a birthday. We went out to a mongolian grill for dinner, where they had unfortunately mixed their pork with their beef... so I had quite a nice allergic reaction which made me consider asking for a new epi-pen prescription... but that’s beside the point. Andy received several nice gifts, chief among them were a finger labyrinth from his dad and “The Dangerous Book for Boys” from my mom. (I haven’t seen Andy that excited about a book in a long time.)
4. We dog-sat Porter for a weekend, which Boone found to be quite a lot of fun. While Porter was with us, he and Boone played nonstop. We went on a walk to the park, and Porter and Boone also “helped” us with our yard work.
5. About that yard work... four hours and a couple of blisters later, we filled up our entire green bin with leaves. One of our piles, (of my creation,) was at least twice as tall as Boone. Of course, there was a wind storm last night and we now have enough leaves to fill up another green bin. (Hurry up garbage men!)
6. I finished “Cesar’s Way.” It was a really cute book with plenty of good advice. I’m not sure if it’s what I’ve learned from the book, or simply the progression of my relationship with my dog, but we are doing really well now.
7. Boone turned five months old today. Over the course of the last two weeks he has grown significantly, has gone through a severely clumsy phase, and has lost nearly all of his baby teeth. His favorite game has now changed to “Run around the ottoman as fast as possible.” It is usually cute, but sometimes a little dizzying. Boone is fully immunized now and we have been enjoying walks, although we are still working on “heel”. (I have a feeling that will be an ongoing battle.)
8. We started watching some of the new shows on television... really, the only show we’ve added to our viewing is Chuck. We absolutely love that show and can’t wait for it to come on every week. If you liked Alias, and have a sense of humor, it is a must see.
I know we did more in the last two weeks, because we’ve been running around like mad... but I’m not quite sure what is missing, so... there you go. I hope you are all doing well, stopping to enjoy autumn, preparing for a fun halloween, and appreciating life! I have updated Boone’s album and am adding a couple of links as well... take a look if you would like.
1. Andy and I completed the last week of PRIDE training, bringing us a step closer to becoming licensed foster parents... and therefore, closer to adopting a child. We did learn a lot of valuable things in this class, and it gave us a wealth of material that we can refer to for years to come. The class focused not only on foster and adoption issues, but also gave tools and resources to aid in parenting.
2. We are now also certified in CPR for infant, children and adults. The class that we completed, which took the majority of a Saturday, also taught us how to treat choking infant, children and adults, how to operate a portable defibrillator, basic first aid techniques, and how to prevent contact and minimize risk of blood-borne pathogens. This class was highly informative and even a little fun... I was surprised at how much had changed in the ten years since I had completed my last CPR certification. This class was another item we have checked off on the path to foster licensing.
3. Andy celebrated a birthday. We went out to a mongolian grill for dinner, where they had unfortunately mixed their pork with their beef... so I had quite a nice allergic reaction which made me consider asking for a new epi-pen prescription... but that’s beside the point. Andy received several nice gifts, chief among them were a finger labyrinth from his dad and “The Dangerous Book for Boys” from my mom. (I haven’t seen Andy that excited about a book in a long time.)
4. We dog-sat Porter for a weekend, which Boone found to be quite a lot of fun. While Porter was with us, he and Boone played nonstop. We went on a walk to the park, and Porter and Boone also “helped” us with our yard work.
5. About that yard work... four hours and a couple of blisters later, we filled up our entire green bin with leaves. One of our piles, (of my creation,) was at least twice as tall as Boone. Of course, there was a wind storm last night and we now have enough leaves to fill up another green bin. (Hurry up garbage men!)
6. I finished “Cesar’s Way.” It was a really cute book with plenty of good advice. I’m not sure if it’s what I’ve learned from the book, or simply the progression of my relationship with my dog, but we are doing really well now.
7. Boone turned five months old today. Over the course of the last two weeks he has grown significantly, has gone through a severely clumsy phase, and has lost nearly all of his baby teeth. His favorite game has now changed to “Run around the ottoman as fast as possible.” It is usually cute, but sometimes a little dizzying. Boone is fully immunized now and we have been enjoying walks, although we are still working on “heel”. (I have a feeling that will be an ongoing battle.)
8. We started watching some of the new shows on television... really, the only show we’ve added to our viewing is Chuck. We absolutely love that show and can’t wait for it to come on every week. If you liked Alias, and have a sense of humor, it is a must see.
I know we did more in the last two weeks, because we’ve been running around like mad... but I’m not quite sure what is missing, so... there you go. I hope you are all doing well, stopping to enjoy autumn, preparing for a fun halloween, and appreciating life! I have updated Boone’s album and am adding a couple of links as well... take a look if you would like.
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