Happy New Year!

2007 is almost over and it's been quite a year for us. We just hope 2008 is as blessed as 2007 was for our little family. This is mostly a post of pictures and wishes for a happy new year to all our friends and family. I'm exhausted after being home alone with Peanut and Clella from 4am (when Mike left for Seattle) until about 4pm. We made it through much better than I anticipated we would. A few meltdowns because Peanut isn't allowed to sit in front of the fridge with the door open and he can't have more than one package of goldfish crackers a day and his were all gone waaaay before he was ready this afternoon. We did watch more TV than I care to admit, but it was a survival technique after his much too short nap. This is the biggest crappiest part of being self employed...no FMLA or paid leave off. The week and 1/2 Mike was able to take off thanks to the holidays just wasn't long enough.

A couple posts ago, I mentioned I was making some Christmas presents. Well, here they are finally. I was pretty proud I was able to get them all finished prior to Clella being born. I'm already thinking of what I can make for next year.

Front of a purse I made Mom as a thank you for watching Peanut one night so we could go on a little dinner cruise with our dear friends, the Idiots ;o)

Back of Mom's purse. Such a super easy pattern that I whipped this up in an afternoon while Peanut "helped" me.

Stocking hat and scarf for my niece Taylor.

Stocking hat and scarf for my oldest niece Ashlee. It's the same colors as Taylors, not sure why my camera didn't have the flash go off. I must need a new one.

Stocking hat and scarf for my niece Amanda.

Wall hanging for my MIL Joy. I have enough fabric to make 1, probably 2 more, once school is over.

And I made a purse for our niece Kelsie, but forgot to get a picture of it before giving it to her. I'll have to take one next time I see her. It turned out really cute.

Beautiful Clella Mae 2 weeks old today.

Peanut and Mike opening presents from his Grandparents in Arizona. He loves the beach basket.

Awesome Mater cross stitch Joy did for Elliot. He kept trying to pull Mater off the picture to play with him.

Uber cute hoody Joy knitted for Peanut. He's not too happy in the picture, but the cuteness of the sweater makes up for it.

And I had to post a happy face picture of Peanut. The pointing is part of him waving Hi or Bye depending on what you say to him. Or could be a message to move my arse from in front of the TV.

TTFN ~ off to nurse Clella and then to pass out in bed.

Happy New Year! ~Crys

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas wishes to our families and friends.

Clella Mae...

Born December 17th at 1:04 pm, 6 lbs, 8 oz's, 19 inches long, all her fingers and toes accounted for. Mom and Baby doing just fine. More to come.

35 weeks

YAY! 35 weeks already gone by in this pregnancy. Time is going much faster with this baby than with Elliot. It weirds me out a little to think in 2 days, I'll be just as far along as I was when I went into labor with Peanut. For the most part, the last minute things to do to get ready are done. I ordered the new car seat today and it should be here within a week and then I'll put the base in the car. I finished the list of the last minute items that have to go in my hospital bag, and packed the baby's bag. I even emptied a drawer in my dresser for baby clothes and sorted through Peanut's newborn clothes for anything that is unisex for this baby. And they've been washed, folded, and put away. We haven't bought any new furniture for this baby and probably won't for at least 6 months. I'd love to get a glider chair for upstairs and a dresser for downstairs that can be used as a changing table/baby stuff storage, but they're not a priority right now.

I've even done some Christmas shopping online and have made or started to make 3 of the 6 presents that are handmade this year. One has the sewing portion done and just needs some embellishments, and another needs about 2 more hours of TV time when Peanut goes to bed to be completed. I'd post pictures, but the recipients read our blog and I don't want to ruin their surprise so after Christmas I'll put them up.

It feels good to be crafty and crafting again. I finished my last 6 week course a week ago and that freed up a little time in the day. I still have 5 more weeks of my last 2 classes and then I am DONE with school. I tuned up, cleaned up, and played with my Simplicity sewing machine last week and it's now my downstairs machine I can use while Peanut is playing. He's getting better about not touching, but still likes to be right there watching and wanting to help with the buttons and moving the fabric. But now he's more easily distracted by his bike and the cat so I do have some sewing time while he's playing nearby. I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the new baby will be just as easy as Peanut was and is and that nap time will be often enough to be able to keep on top of what I've started already.

We dog-sat my parents dogs Saturday night so they could go out of town for a Christmas party. Elliot loved having them here, but our cat did not. She ended up upstairs until well after they left Sunday afternoon.


And Peanut's turkey shirt was his Thanksgiving day shirt that I added the turkey to and Mom finished for me, but it still fits and is long sleeves. It was a cold weekend and he didn't care what was on the front of it. We'll probably keep putting it on him until it doesn't fit any longer.

That's it for now. I'm off to do some business paperwork and then drag my school book open again for some boring reading.

TTFN ~ Crys

November?!

Gah! How can it be the middle of November already and Thanksgiving a week away? Time has been flying by since we moved back home and I feel so behind with not much to show as to what I've gotten done. I did go to the November quilters retreat that I've been going to for the last 5 out of 7 years. It was so nice being away from home with time to sit at my sewing machine and have no obligations nagging at me. I got the top for one present finished, started a wall hanging for myself and then realized I wasn't given enough border fabric in the kit, and am about half-way through making the blocks to a top I started almost 2 years ago. It doesn't sound like 4 days of sewing, but those blocks are time consuming and different from what I normally piece together. I'm also in the middle of rearranging my sewing area to create room for my quilting frame. I need to go get some clear plastic organizers on rollers to sit under my frame to store the stuff I have to take out of the credenza that is moving back down the stairs. I'm so lucky to have a husband who will only roll his eyes at me when I want to move heavy furniture back downstairs when he asked me to be sure I really wanted that upstairs to begin with. At that time, yes, I HAD to have it upstairs. Now, nope, move that baby to the dining area. I also just completed a purse for a friend of Joy's who sent me the fabric and paid me back in July and needs the purse before January. I really wanted to finish it while in Arizona, but just couldn't do it with moving and Peanut. It's a sunny orange stripe fabric that really boosted my mood while I worked on it and it was cloudy and stormy outside.

Here's a few pictures from Royal Ridges where the retreat was. It was a perfect autumn weekend, sunny yet chilly, and tons of crunchy leaves on the ground. Mike and Peanut drove up Friday morning to check out the place and for some of the retreaters to see Peanut again.

My pregnancy is going well. My midwife is very proactive about my care and really into following my concerns and letting me be an active participant in my prenatal care. Very different from my old OB who I really like, but just too doctor-y in her administration of care. We're now into the 32nd week (or just starting month 8) and probably will be going to weekly visits after my 34th week checkup. We have another ultrasound next week to do some measuring and we're still not wanting to find out the sex. Hopefully the technician can get us some good u/s pics without ruining the surprise for us. I went through Peanut's preemie, newborn and 0-3 month clothes today. It's so difficult to look at how big he is now and remember how teeny tiny he was at birth. So tiny that 0-3 month clothes hung off his feet by the inches and the crotch was below his little dimpled knees. Everything is in the washer now and I'll start packing what I need for the hospital in the next few days. We definitely don't want a repeat of the last hospital bag packing where I barked orders at Mike for what goes in the bag while he wasn't allowed to talk, look at, or touch me. And me being stressed and crying because my favorite shirt and pants where dirty and I didn't have time to wash and dry them before leaving. Ahhh, the joys of labor. I'm keeping my fingers crossed this time I'll manage better since I know what to expect, but I'm sure he'll still not be allowed to talk to, touch, or look at me.

And now these are for my mom who has dial-up and I'm not savvy enough to reduce the picture size so she can get them via email. My little sis Dee and her boyfriend Vern in their awesome Halloween costumes.
Can you figure out who they are? I don't even watch the show and know who they are.

Mike is out of town in Seattle tonight. It's either work 2 days in a row up there every other week or drive up at least once a week. Business has slowed way down, enough to cause some stress when we look to the future and all we can do it hope it picks back up. It did this last year in Tucson so I'm hoping it's just the nature of the business and won't last long.

It's time for me to get back to school work. Not having the laptop set up downstairs (cuz Mike has it) kept me from being able to post while Peanut played or ate or watched Sesame Street so I'm behind on my posting for today and have a bit to do now that he's sleeping.

TTFN ~Crys

Halloween Pictures

Blogger is behaving so here's Peanut's Halloween uber sweet costume.

Trick or Treat

Happy Halloween!

We didn't go trick or treating except to my doctor's appointment, our chiropractor appointment, and my sister's house. Peanut is too little to get it and we don't want all that candy in the house. I finally finished Peanut's costume yesterday and it came out pretty darn cute. Much cuter than any dragon costume we would of found in a store or online. Plus most of the store ones are made in China and we're not buying anything out of that country if we can really help it.

Blogger is being retarded so no pictures in this post.

No big news at the midwife appointment today. I really like this one and hope she's on call when I go into labor. She's more in line with the labor that I want to have and agrees that medical intervention is only really needed when it's truly an emergency and not when the doctor's timetable isn't being met.

I'm off to another quilting retreat tomorrow so I'm off to pack my sewing stuff and some clothes.

TTFN ~Crystal

Seagulls, Seals and Sunshine!

Long time since I've sat down to post, Crystal has been doing them lately, and shes just as busy as I am chasing after the monster. So, here goes.

Saturday September 29th through October 6th, Crystal, Elliot and I went down to Seaside, Oregon
View Larger Map to spend sometime relaxing and enjoying some time off. It was Elliot's first trip to the beach, and thanks to a little help from the big guy, the weather was fantastic! The forecast had called for rain the entire week we were to be down there, but not to be turned down, we set off anyway. Saturday and Sunday after our arrival, it was indeed raining off and on, but not to bad. The rest of our visit, perfect sunshine, weathermen are like doctors, you go to school for years on end, screw up at your job, and still find yourself employed, amazing.

Crystal's sister Dee, her boyfriend Vern and Dee's daughter Taylor came down on Saturday and spent the day with us, then had to get back for work so they left late Sunday afternoon. It was fun having them with us, just sucked they had to leave so soon after getting down there. We were alone just the 3 of us after that for the entire visit.

We went down the boardwalk to what they call an Aquarium, it was more of a hole in the wall with a small stinky tank that you could feed fish parts to seals. Took all of about 5 minutes to walk through the place once you were done feeding the seals, but it was cool none the less. One of the seals had managed to squeeze itself up onto a very thin shelf inside the tank and stare at Elliot and I as we threw food into the tank. I don't know if it was a male or a female, but I named it Shirley anyway, not sure why, just did. This is her/him, doesn't it just look like a Shirley?


After that, it was time to take Elliot out and see the great pacific NW beach front. Thankfully, the weather was great and welcomed us into the sunshine. The seagulls were of course every where. Once they see, or think they see that you have food, they are on you like white on rice. Make sure your sound is on.



This is the view of the beach from our room at the resort.


After bumming around on the beach, it was time to head down Main St. and see some of the shops. Dee's daughter Taylor went on the merry go round with Vern, and Elliot decided he wanted to go too, but not with out a protest first.

Being the softy that I am, it was time to head to the front of the line to pay the man and get us a Merry-GO-Round ride!!! YEEE HAAA! Gitty up you plastic POS horse!


He was then back on speaking terms with me, and the rest of the day we had lots of fun. It was then time to head back out onto the beach, we chased more Seagulls
Played with the brand new sand bucket, his enthusiasm died off when he caught sight of yet another Seagull, Dad's obviously did not.



Then the greatest invention since the sippy cup, SWINGS!!!!


We took a short drive down to Cannon Beach, Oregon

View Larger Map

so Crystal could go and check out a quilt shop, then up the road from there to check out Ecola state park. There was a fantastic walk way out onto the point here where you could see the rocks of Cannon Beach (Featured in the smash hit, and personal favorite movie Goonies) Way out in the distance you could see a lighthouse, I'd hate to have to be the guy that had to paddle his butt all the way out there back in the days before the motor boat!






After days of awesome sunsets, it was time to take one last walk on the beach, snap a photo of the resort, and head back to the hustle and flow of the big city again. We had a great time, and can't wait to get back down there. There's just something about the pacific ocean that gives you that feeling.



Hope everyone is doing well.

Up and running...

It's been a while since I last posted. Been busy ever since.

The drive up was a royal pain, but made better with the help of Crystals Dad Ernie along for the trip. He drove the rental truck up, I drove my truck up, we both suffered thru the onslaught of pot holes up the I-5 corridor thru California (no wonder I get so many claims out of that state). 1600 miles, one big right turn at L.A. and we were home in just under 29 hours. Hopefully, that is my last ever drive across the country moving, I'd do it again for site seeing or something, but never a move again. I was reminded how much I missed the great NW right when we hit the boarder for Oregon/California. The trees, the weather, the fresh air, it felt damn good to be back.

On the business side of things, it's really taking off. This week alone I received 11 jobs, thats a record, also set a daily record of 5 in one day. Just goes to show you, God had a plan, laid his hand on our shoulders, and made it happen. We had to work for it, but he did it and continues to show me this is where I belong.

Monday I went down to a local moving companies warehouse to take a look at a shipment that was on a trailer of theirs when it caught on fire. The story is that the driver was driving down the freeway in the middle of no where, when another trucker passed and flagged her down to let her know her trailer was on fire. This occured at 6 am, she called the fire department out, and 45 minutes later they arrived. The trailer was a total loss. Needless to say, the items inside were also a loss. So I went and spent 3 hours taking pictures of stuff that was charred, soaking wet, and stinking to all heck. While I was there, I met a corporate claims manager for Atlas Moving, one of the very big dogs in the moving industry. After a short chat with her about one of her loads, and some sweet talking on my part, I learned that she was unhappy with her firm here in the Portland/Vancouver area, because he was charging too much for his work and taking to long to complete it, and the firm she uses in the Seattle area was generating complaints of rudeness from her shippers. So, I told her what I offer in terms of pricing, and that I had never had a complaint yet. Those of you that used to work with me at 911 may find that statement odd as I think I generated at least one a month working there (and those are just the ones that were reported). She was happy to hear all of this, and made arrangements for me to be put into the Atlas system as a proffered vendor. So, needless to say, 3 days later, I was filling out the appropriate paperwork to get on that list, and as of about 15 minutes ago, it became official. I am now the go to guy here in the NW to serve Atlas and all of its adjusters here in the area. SCORE!!!!

This will likely turn out to be our lowest month yet, mostly because it took almost a week to get in touch with all the adjusters out there and let them know that we were up and running, but we will be ok. I'm confident that from this day forward, the work will be steady and bountiful as the Seattle area is still growing like a weed. Lots of housing up there (someone has to move into them!) and I've seen alot more new housing going on around here in the Portland/Vancouver area than I thought there would, and someone has to move into them also! I seem to be getting alot more people in apartments here than I was down in Tucson, which is ok, just makes finding a place to park a royal pain in the arse.

Elliot is doing very well, he is taking a nap now, which is helping me with my sanity as today is the first of 3 days where its just me and the little man. Crystal is off at a quilting retreat this weekend and probably sewing her eyes out as I type this. I could tell she was really looking forward to it, especially when she was up before me this morning and got up just before 6. I dont think I've ever seen her get up this early....ever. So I got up and dressed and helped her load her new mommy missle

Then she was off to the races before Elliot was even awake. He actually slept til 9 am! Which if you consider he was awake for about 2 hours during the middle of the night, isnt all that great.

Softball is going well, we won our 3rd game (2 and 1 overall) last night 10 to 4. I'm not sure whats going on, last time I played on this team, and this last spring down in Tucson I was hitting the ball really well, this season, not so good. Keep catching the ball with only a small portion of the bat. I'm still getting hits, but I think its mostly cause I keep hitting little bloopers that drop between the infielders and the outfielders are playing so deep (respect yo!) that they get caught when its a shallow fly ball. Its all hits in the in the books, but it's starting to make me mad I'm not making good contact. I'll hit the cages and figure out what I'm doing wrong.

Well, Elliot should be waking up soon, so I have to go prepare to play the human lounge chair again.

New post finally

Wow, I'm a slacker. I have no idea where 2 weeks went since my last post. We are finally 95% unpacked and settled. Areas still don't have everything put away where they are best organized (panty, office, and sewing area) but all the boxes are broke down in the garage, slowly being given to the recycling pickup man. There are still a few boxes downstairs to go through and unpack, but I hide most of those in a closet and they're waiting for shelving or for us to figure out where to put them so Peanut doesn't get into them like DVDs and CDs.

Peanut is doing well. He loves being able to play in the back yard and can go in and out of the house by himself without crashing on the patio again. His favorite activity is picking the dandelions and trying to taste them and watching squirrels and the neighborhood cats pass through along our fence.

Today's a short post. I'm off to get ready to be gone for the weekend. The big 3-0 hits me in a few days so my present is a weekend quilting retreat at Royal Ridges near Yacolt WA. It's the same place my November retreat is, but I'm lucky and can go to the September one too. It started last night, but it was softball night and I didn't have my stuff together or school work done enough to be gone the rest of the week, so I'm going this morning. Woo Hoo! Two and half days of quilting without Peanut telling me "Wanna see, wanna see" over and over. It's much too difficult with little hands pulling and pushing on the fabric and wanting to pull on the thread as the machine is stitching.

Here's some latest pictures:

First bike ride at Gramma and Poppys. Their deck is fenced and gated so Peanut has freedom to go in and out all he wants.

Taking a break from wrestling with Daddy. And Mike in jeans. So glad he didn't throw all of them away when we moved to Arizona where he wore pants 1 time in 1 year.

Fun with the 3-hole punch and confetti.

Movie star smile while riding his new bike in the dining area.

TTFN ~ Crys

Moved In

We are moved in to our new Vancouver house. It's a 2 story and we're hating the stairs, but our butts will be getting a work out while we're unpacking. The house was a sty so we had to do some cleaning before we could unpack or move any boxes inside. But, most heavy duty cleaning has been done and the rest can be finished as we unpack room by room. I'd post some pictures, but my camera is downstairs and I'm not going down there again tonight.

We got our TV up and running yesterday, Mike got the rest of our entertainment electronics hooked up today, along with our Internet. I got about 90% of the kitchen unpacked and put away, I'm waiting for 1 or 2 more boxes to show up as they get moved into the house for the rest of the items but they're nothing that I can't live without.

The weather is perfect. Cooler at night but not so much we can't leave some upstairs windows open and beautiful in the day time. Peanut sure loves playing outside whenever one of us is out there and he gets mad when he can see us through the window but he's inside, even if we run out just for a second.

Today was Peanut's 19 month birthday, but tomorrow is a sad day in our family. It's Brianna's birthday, she would of been 6, in the first grade, and would started school this week with her big sister. It makes my heart ache so much.

I'm off to try to do some school work before passing out at my computer.

TTFN, pictures soon.
~Crys

And so it begins!

Well, Crystal and Elliot flew on Monday the 20th with Crystals mom. I was sad to see them go, but knew it was going to make the rest of the packing and the actual move a lot easier. Elliot riding in a moving truck for 2 days would not have gone over well, so they are safe and on the ground in Yacolt Washington right now hanging out at Grandma and Grandpa Domke's house. I envy them, the weather has been a pleasant 70-80 during the day up there...here? oh the usual triple digits before 10:30 am daily. It sucks, so ready to leave.

I'm almost done packing up the main part of the house. It's been so hot the last few days in the afternoon that I haven't had the nerve to spend much time in the garage getting it packed up. But, supposed to be a good chance of thunderstorms Friday and Saturday, those are usually good for cooling off the air down to around 90, sometimes 85 if its matched with a cold front ;)

So far, I'm using the front living room as a staging area for stuff, until I get the garage packed up and cleaned this weekend. Right now, the front room looks like a warehouse.



It looks like mayhem now, but come truck loading day, it should cut the loading time down big time. Hoping to get it done in about 2 or 3 hours, then if my Dad doesnt have anything else planned for the day, I'm hoping I can talk him into one more day of golf before I go. Thats the only thing I'm going to miss about Arizona, playing golf with and spending time with my Dad and step mom Joy. I know we will get together again in the future, but still, not the same as having them be an hour away.

Monday after I dropped Crystal, Elliot and Judy off the airport, I went to my dads to help him with a "small project". I spent that night, worked on it for 8.5 hours and decided to come back the next day as it was already 10:30 at night, and its an hour drive back to our house. This is what we got done that day.

Doesn't look like much here, but the next day I went back and spent 10 hours working on it, and this is what we finished with.

Dad still has to mud it, and put on the corner rounding strips, and then paint it and it will be all finished. The picture really doesn't do it much justice really, this thing is a monster! 14' long, 6 1/2 feet tall at its highest point. The two tall arch ways are going to need some major mudding to make them more rounded, but shouldn't be too much work, I hope.

I had a lot of fun working with my Dad building it, until about 10 o'clock Tuesday night. We didn't finish the sheetrock til midnight..and I was one cranky SOB before the night was over. But, at least the hard part is done, now he can take his time to finish it. I'm guessing he will be done with it before the end of the weekend, thats just the kind of freak he is. Constantly on the go!

On the work side of things, I sent out my email today to all the different moving adjusters. The email went out about 11 am. Before 3 pm, I already had my first job for Seattle in my email inbox. I think this is going to be a great move for us. Business should double, if not triple. I'm going to be busy, but thats a good thing for our family.

I have 2 of the 4 bedrooms here empty, and I can hear the thunder coming in the distance from a little thunderstorm, that might drop the temperature down to go out and do some more weeding. If not, I can get the master bedroom emptied tonight if nothing else.

For those of you in the Portland area, see you soon! Only 8 more days til I'm released from the surface of the sun!

A sign of things to come?

Well, yesterday we went in for the ultrasound for the new baby. We have decided we are not going to find out the sex, so that was the first thing the tech asked us. Crystal told her no and so she made a note in the charts, and went to doing her business. I watched the screen with mixed emotions, did I really want to find out? I was torn right down the middle, yes...and no.

As our dear friend Ronda once wrote, "it's one of the great surprises left in life". Which I couldn't agree more with, but still, I wanted to know. "We have the technology". Great line from a great TV show (and that probably just dated me big time). Watching the screen I wanted to know! So the tech is looking over the baby, counting fingers, toes, watching the heart...all neat stuff really, don't get me wrong, but get down to the business end already! She passed over several times, and turns out the baby wasn't cooperating anyway. He/She had their legs crossed, thus making it impossible to see the goods.

I left telling Crystal that I thought I knew what we were having, but no dice. Crystal pointed out the legs crossed thing and that kinda deflated me for the rest of the day. Was so sure it was a girl...oh well, only 20 more weeks till we get to find out for real! 16 if its early like Elliot was, but we are hoping for a full term baby this time.

Here are the pictures they gave us from the ultrasound. So much clearer than when Elliot had his done.



Can already tell its going to be tied for the cutest baby ever award...Elliot of course being the other front runner.

Only 2 more days til Grandma Judy gets here, we are all very excited around here, especially Elliot, he is going to love having someone else around to change a diaper on him! WOOT!!!

19 Days til Zero Hour

Boy is it getting close, panic is starting to set in as far as work goes. I have a dining room table out in the garage to refinish the top on that I haven't even gotten stripped yet. Guess I know what I'm doing this week :)

We heard back from our potential new land lord yesterday, and the house is ours! Here are some pics:





Thankfully, Judy and Ernie were willing to go and look at it for us in person, since we are 1600 miles away. They gave it a glowing review, so we told the gal renting it that we were interested in it, and put in our application. A week later, she had finished with all her research/background check/drug test/STD/SAT's/bloodwork and finally a DNA submission, and we got the house! So that takes a huge load off of Crystals plate when she gets up there on the 20th. Now that we have an address, we can focus on the business end of things, getting a P.O. box, finding out what documents we have to file in triplicate, notarize, staple, sort and file with the various departments of government and all that jazz to be able to do business up there.

Plans are constantly changing as far as my final days here go. I wanted to load the truck on the 29th, get the carpets cleaned the 30th, have our walk thru the 30th, then spend the night at my Dad's and golf with him the morning of the 31st, but they have a cat who apparently goes nuts if another cat comes around, and the airlines won't take blackjack for whatever reason (when did the airlines stop taking animals on board?!) so, I have to stay here til the 31st, which means no golf for my dad and I. Which is ok I guess, he is going to help me return that earlier mentioned dining room table on Monday the 27th, thankfully that will only take a short amount of time, then we can go play golf :)

With any luck, after Crystal, Judy and Elliot leave on the 20th, I can get all the furniture and boxes out into the front room. If I can pull that off, loading the truck will be so much easier and quicker. Thats my plan, and so far I don't see any reason I can't pull it off. Then I can finish doing the patching of the walls, painting, and blinds replacement. Between the cat and Elliot, the blinds have seen better days. Thankfully, the person who put them up didn't bother to make them the right size for the windows, so there are plenty of slats to take out and replace the bent ones with. Not a hard process, but time consuming to say the least.

Well, that table isn't going to strip itself, might as well get something done since I'm up at O'dark thirty again.

18 months old

Two posts in two days is pretty damn good for me. I should be doing school work but blah! I'm blogging instead.

Big news from our house:


Today our little big boy is officially a year and a half years old. Hard to believe, but then when I think back to how when he was swaddled up he was the length of my forearm it's not so hard to believe. And we also have tooth number 15th! It broke through last night or today sometime. One more to go and then a break for about 6 months. Then the last 4 and he's good to go until he knocks any out or they fall out in about 5 years. We've found a house in Vancouver to rent too! Mike saw it on craig's list this morning, called the lady, and then we sent Mom and Dad to check it out. They gave it high marks and we called the lady back and it's a go. Waiting for the paperwork and all that jazz to get here and get back to her. But a big relief that I don't have to worry about driving all over once we get up there to find a place to live. It will be nice to be able to have all the utilities switched over to our name and the phone and satellite guy show up on the 1st to install that stuff. And Mike can let the Weathersby Guild headquarters know our new address and numbers so they can send their email to everyone letting them know where to send us their claims.

That's all that happened today. Tomorrow I go in for a massage and manicure. Haven't ever had either and it's about time I do a little something for myself.

TTFN ~ Crys

New Haircut

Well, we finally agree it was time for Peanut's first haircut. Knowing that he would never sit still long enough to let it be cut with scissors, we decided to see if he'd let us use the clippers. He did! It was pretty comical to watch, he kept hunching his head down into his shoulders and trying to grab the clippers. But, with only a few spots missed that were re-clipped the next night, he's now sporting a new, much shorter, buzzed look. It really made his face stand out more and make him look like a toddler, instead of a little shaggy head boy.

And I didn't even cry until both him and Mike were sleeping. I did save a bunch for his baby book. Man, it was long on top. About 3 inches or so long.

Before:During:

After:

And please pay no attention to our cat doing the nasty to her stuffed animal in the background of the during picture. She's gotta have some fun too.

That's about the extent of our excitement. We've rediscovered how much packing blows and that flat paint is absolutely the worse thing to put on walls. To touch up the areas touched and marked by Peanut and to fill in the holes in the walls we have to spackle, sand, prime, and then use the touch up paint. Stupid, stupid, stupid flat paint.

I'm off to finish watching my movie. Mike insisted I post so Mom will stop whining that she wants to see pictures. Are you happy now?!

TTFN ~Crys

Patience is not my virtue...

I can't stand the waiting part. I've never had a high level of patience. Being a dispatcher for 6 years took what little bit I had, and flushed it down the toilet. I'm getting better, but still not any where close to where I'd like to be. I want things now now now. Like this move, I want to be on the road already. I'm sick of this heat. I hate not being able to go out in the garage and work on something I have to work on because its so hot. Not so much that I can't stand the heat, I can take it for awhile, but alot of the products I use are kinda heat sensitive, and this hot air makes it hard to work with. Oh well, patience right! BAH!


We are down to 40 days now, thats not to bad. Although it will feel like an eternity, I'm sure it will go by quickly.

We spoke to our friends Steve and Ronda yesterday, and it was nice to hear excitement in their voices that we were coming back. If they are even half as excited about it as we are, then I know for sure Steve is close to wetting his pants. Other than family, I miss them the most. They by far what I would call my best friends. I can't wait to give them both hugs. Steven will no doubt try and slip me the tongue too.

I'm hoping to get back on the BOEC softball team too come spring time. I really enjoy playing that, glad I didn't stick with it here though, I've driven past that park and those freaks actually get out and play when its 110 degrees outside! INSANE!!!

Well, I'm off to Home Depot for some lag bolts. I had to build a new base for my table saw, turns out the flimsy metal legs on the factory version, wasn't meant to have wheels attached to it and the thing was caving in...would have sucked if it happened during use.

T-Minus 43 days...

Thats right, we are going for it. August 31st is the end of our lease, and its the end of our inhabitation of the surface of the Sun.

Today we called up Southwest airlines where we had purchased plane tickets for a vacation we had planned in late September, early October and found out about switching some plane tickets around. We are flying Crystals Mom Judy down on August 16th, and she will spend a few days with us, then August 20th, Crystal, Judy and Elliot will fly back to Portland and start looking for a place for us to live in. Then August 31st, Crystals Dad Ernie will be flying down here, to help me drive one of our vehicles back up with me. We will likely depart on Saturday September 1st, and can hopefully make the drive in 2 days again. If not, getting into town on Monday wouldn't be so bad either. End the end, we were able to trade in our tickets, and spent a bank busting 99.50 to buy the extra tickets :) Not to shabby!

One of our goals was to try and get a small business loan to buy Seattle, but since we haven't been in business for more than 2 years, the bank told us to pound sand. So, I sent an email to Kent Weathersby (he's the head honcho we got the business from) and asked what he thought about financing the purchase of the new city on his own, and I'd just make monthly payments to him. Being the God sent blessing that he is, he agreed to this. So, once we get up there, and get the fax machine plugged in, we can announce that we are taking claims in all 3 major cities, Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle! WOOT!!!!

I think we are going to be really busy, so Ronda, I really truly hope you might be interested in making some extra money and coming to work for me. If not, thats ok too, perhaps Big Mike might want to make a little extra dough and I can put him to work, or if things really pan out, both of you.

Stay tuned for more details as they unfold. I'm off to work, have an early departure time in the morning for a job. With any luck I'll be able to fall asleep soon. Pretty active thunderstorm rolling through right now making a heck of a racket.