One more day

Until I see BA!! :) Beth Ann is coming in to celebrate Labor Day here in Seattle and I can't wait to visit with her. We talk on the phone once every one or two weeks, but it's nothing like seeing and talking in person. We'll visit the market and walk along the pier, maybe enjoy a short hike, relax in the hot tub, and definitely talk. (You know me - I have a hard time shutting up!!) She wants this to be relaxing, so we'll do whatever she wants to do. Maybe we'll even get a little stamping in... :)

I woke up with a headache today...I'm sure it's due to my excitement. I neglected the office yesterday, so I need to finish it up and then clean up dishes up from dinner before I can take pictures of the inside of our house.

TTFN

I finally got around to uploading all of the pictures taken outside and around the new house. I teased you a couple of days ago with three, but click on the picture below for links to the rest. I should have all of the pictures of the inside uploaded by tomorrow night- probably just added to the current album.

Ticker Factory

I was inspired from Mindy's website to add the weight loss ticker (over on the right side). I thought that might help...who knows! I was also able to add it to my igoogle page, so it's the first thing I see when I open it up. Maybe this will help remind me. Anyway, it's a fun tool and they have several different ones. Check them out at www.tickerfactory.com . Okay, off to the grocery store for some essentials. :)

Karen Kingsbury

**EDIT** WHOOPS! Apparently, Ever After is the sequel to Even Now.
If there was ever a book series that I was completely absorbed in, it's the series by Karen Kingsbury about the Baxter family. I loaned the Redemption series out but I have the Firstborn series and Sunrise. I'm reading her newest book, Summer, right now, which I'm finding hard to put down! You'll want to read these in order of the way I've listed them below.

The whole story starts with the Redemption Series:
Redemption
Remember
Return
Rejoice
Reunion

Then goes to the Firstborn Series:
Fame
Forgiven
Found
Family
Forever

And finishes up with the Sunrise Series:
Sunrise
Summer
Someday (Spring 2008)
Sunset (Spring 2008)

Other books I have of hers include:
Forever Faithful Series (Waiting for Morning, A Moment of Weakness, and Halfway to Forever)
Like Dandelion Dust (stand-alone title, meaning not part of any series)
Ever After (stand-alone)

If you would like to borrow any of them, please let me know. I bet you could find most of these in your library, too. :)

Visit her website for more info.
http://www.karenkingsbury.com/

Happy reading!

New House

Thought I'd shoot some pics around our new house. As you can see, we've got lots of trees, flowers, and greenery. :) This first shot is what you see when you first drive down into the driveway. The front door is on the left, in the first "break" of flowers. You can see our new patio furniture (used from CL) and the hot tub on the right. Further up and back before the hot tub is the fountain and pond, which I forgot to get a picture of.

This second shot is of the side of the house. There's a hill covered in plants and a small staircase leading down to the grassy yard below. The hot tub isn't in the picture, but it's on the far left. Bexar loves to race down the hill to retrieve his ball. I can wear him out pretty quickly this way, if I can just get his ball back from him!!

This last one is of back behind the garage. That's his new kennel up on the hill. There's nothing but woods to the right and the garage is to the left. It's really beautiful out here and we're so blessed to call this home!

**If you click on the pictures, you can see a larger view.**

Call it a miracle

We have finally dusted off the digital camcorder that we bought many many moons ago and have figured out how to take still shots and download them to the computer. I can't believe we've had this really nice camcorder for so long and haven't used it! We could have used it in Hawaii!!! Agh!


Anyway, I used it to finally get some items up on Craig's List. Our old printer is so old that nobody wants it for free!!! I can't even give this thing away. It even works and nobody wants it - so sad.
Bex was sad to see his daddy go this morning. Just look at the poor guy. Doesn't he just make you want to cry?! He's wondering when daddy will be back home...

Well, I'm off to the bathroom...and NO, I don't have to go - at least not right now!! I need to clean out the cabinets and get all of our stuff unpacked. Boy will that be nice! I also need to finish unpacking the office and get the guest bedroom ready for Beth Ann. Yay! She's coming on Saturday!! I can't wait. :) THEN, after everything else is done, I can focus on unpacking my craft stuff. What fun! I love finding a place for everything. For now, I'm off to clean. :)

No more duplex!

On Saturday, we went and finished up at the duplex. Nathan scooped poop (his favorite) and filled in the holes in the back yard while I finished up running the rug doctor and wiping down the kitchen. It felt so good to finish it. Then, we went across the street to the convalescent home to listen to the big band music and check out the old car show. It was so fun and we wound up getting to watch some professional swing dancers and had a free lunch of hot dogs and chips. :) It was a nice reward to the end of our hard work. The car show and band is actually an annual event and we heard them as we were unpacking in our duplex last year but never walked across the street. The music was nice to listen to while we finished up working, too. :-)

We also ended up running errands for most of the afternoon, which was quite tiring, but we're enjoying getting more stuff done on the house. Oh yea, we left Bexar in his new chain-link pen but when we got back, he had pushed his way through the bottom of the panel and bent the chain to heck! Ugh...that boy! Thankfully, he was standing in the driveway when we pulled up. So, when we went to pick up the free desk from Craig's List last night, he got to stay in his tiny crate!! And he had the same opportunity again this morning while we were at church. For some reason, he just doesn't like being in that pen. Even if one of us is staning in it, he will come in and turn around and go right back out. Very strange, that boy. Maybe he's just not used to the surroundings out here and everything is so new. Hopefully he'll get used to it soon.

Today, we're working on getting the office set up and unpacking some boxes. It's slow going but fun to organize things and get them in their proper places. I'm off to clear out boxes...TTFN

Moving Fun

Well, we finally got moved into our house. We had lots of help from men that we go to church with, so we were completely finished in 2 hours - that was loading and unloading! It went quite smoothly and we were so thankful to all of those that helped. Since the move, I've been working on getting things unpacked and organized, which has been lots of fun. I love organizing! The not-so-fun part has been the cleaning at the duplex. :( Ugh! I'm hoping to be done with it today!

We've also been making lists of things that we want or changes we want to make and have already begun checking off items. :) After church on Sunday, we bought some chain link panels from Home Depot and he built a big kennel for Bex. It will suffice until we can get a fence built. :) Also, the washer that came with the house was quite old, inefficient, and VERY loud but it still worked. So, after much research and looking at several models, we bought a nice, new, efficient (energy star rated 171) side-loading washer. It's even pretty! First load is

Today, it's off to the duplex to finish up some much-needed cleaning. Neither of us are feeling very well - must be the crap we've been having for lunch these days...Burger King, Taco Bell, etc. Have a great day!

Aunt Flow is here

And she was so rude to barge in at a time like this! I'm extremely busy but she didn't care. So rude! I didn't get much done today...was in quite a bit of pain. :(

But this meant that I got to catch up on my blog reading! :) And somehow I happened on this wonderful offer: http://www.5minutesformom.com/2032/insignia-37inch-flat-panel-lcd-hdtv-contest/#comment-366645

Tomorrow morning is our closing...FINALLY!! :) I'm very excited. I hope I can sleep tonight!

I'm off to bed early so I can get some sleep. TTFN!

Super Saturday

Today was such a fun day! Nathan slept in while I watched some HGTV. After he got up, I attempted to make some form of migas with the few ingredients I had (eggs, onion, cheese, tomatoes, & tostada chips). I say "attempted" because they were edible but definitely were NOT a success! Hopefully they'll be better next time. Then, we made our way over to Monroe to help some friends move into their new house. Their house is beautiful and has a great floor plan. The unloading went very quickly because lots of people showed up, which was very nice! :) We then stopped by Costco on the way back and shopped for about 2 hours! All we bought was food, but we looked at quite a bit of stuff as we planned for changes in our new house. It was tons of fun and Nathan was able to shop for quite a while before getting "the shopping face." We were tired of being on our feet...I think it's the concrete floors that have that effect on your legs. Finally, we stopped off at the library, where we exchanged some decorating books for a couple of books teaching Spanish, as we both want to become fluent...eventually. I just made dinner and am finally sitting down at the computer. For some reason, I'm really tired and am thinking of going to bed soon!

Today was super fun!
TTYL

Getting excited

Late this afternoon, Nathan & I went to meet the Dents, the couple that we're buying the house from. We asked them to show us different things around the house and how to work/repair/& maintain everything. It was so fun going out to the house again and I'm really getting excited now! I finally got all of the files packed up today and I cleaned out the refrigerator - YUCK. I've got lots of cleaning to do this week, but thankfully we've got until September 1st to get it completely cleaned...so no pressure here! I also have extra time to move other things if I need to move stuff later. I really wanted to stay at the house on Wednesday night, but I don't think we will until the weekend. Nathan will have to begin his commute very soon and I think he's trying to enjoy this short commute now. That's all that's going on...still boxing and cleaning. :-)

Sweet Hubby

Last night I was busy cooking tacos with refried beans, Spanish rice and of course guacamole and queso, when hubby pulled up and began unloading the car. I couldn't imagine what took him so long at the store, as he called me when he left work and I asked him to get some ice while he was already stopping. I looked up to see him walking in with a beautiful potted plant. I don't know what it is...still have to look it up. He made my night. He proceeded to go back out to the car and bring in another potted plant - I think it's a begonia. When I thought he was going out to shut the trunk, he came in with another potted plant - a bromeliad (sp?)!! WOW! I couldn't believe it...I haven't had a special surprise brought home since October! He is so wonderful! He really knows how to make my entire night! I'm so blessed to have a sweet hubby. :D

Fun Friday

It's a fun Friday here in Kirkland! It's been raining all morning, but Anne and I persevered through the drizzle and walked this morning. :D I did a load of dishes and have been on the phone cancelling accounts, starting accounts, and changing addresses. Man, that stuff takes time! I don't know where the morning has gone.

I'm off to see Harry Potter with Anne in a few minutes. It should be a fun movie. :) Afterwards, it's boxing time! Okay, off to change and splash some perfume on to cover my stinkiness!

TTFN

Knee-deep in boxes

I'm not sure if I've already posted this, but we're moving! We bought a house and are closing on August 15th. I am very excited and can't wait until we get into our own place. The duplex has been convenient, but now we'll have a little room to stretch out. I think Nathan is excited about the hot tub. :) I took some pictures of it when I was out for the inspection and will post them once they're scanned. So for now....I'm knee-deep in boxes. Of course I'll send out all of the new info after the 15th. :D

As you can imagine, I won't have time to stamp. :( But I'll have my own "studio" when we get into the house. WOO-HOO!!

It's late and I'm tired, so TTFN.