Happy Mother's Day from Zeus and Poseidon

 

Happy Birthday Cordae

Happy Birthday to my sweet grandson, Cordae! Grandma and Grandpa love you!

Poseidon acts like a Puppy again

On Saturday January 23rd a friend that was up from Vancouver, Washington and I went over to Alki beach to go for a walk. We brought Poseidon along with us, leaving Zeus at home with Daryl.




Poseidon was being camera shy and tried to hide behind me.


When Poseidon was a puppy and we went for walks he would often grab the leash and carry it around in his mouth like he was helping me take him for a walk. Since he has not done this in a couple of years I was a bit surprised when he put the leash in his mouth and started carrying it, leaving me very little leash. I still had the handle of the leash though. At one point he wanted to play tug a war with the leash and even dug his heels in, but I was not going to give in and kept walking, dragging him along at times but not for far.

Good Boys!

 The first time that we introduced our grandson Cordae to our dogs he cried. Since we had him for Thanksgiving we tried again. We tried earlier in the day with success. After mom got there she asked if he had "ridden" on one of the dogs yet. We both said no.

 We initially tried to see if Poseidon would sit still long enough for us to put Cordae on his back and get a picture -- but no. Poseidon did however give Cordae his version of a kiss - a lick!

So we tried with Zeus instead. This time with Zeus. This picture here Cordae is actually pulling on Zeus's fur and Zeus did not snap, did not growl, and did not pull away nor bark. Such a good boy!

Zeus with Cordae on his back. Such good boys! Neither were rough, neither were roudy with Cordae. Good boys Poseidon and Zeus!

Halloween

In my garden I had been growing pumpkins at my husband's request.  Unfortuanately he thought they were orange pumpkins until I pointed out to him that the package said they were white decorative pumpkins.  I had printed out templates of Winnie The Pooh, Tigger, Minnie and Mickey along with one other template.  I couldn't decide which ones to use on the two pumpkins that we had grown.  He made it easy he said I want Piglet.  I was like ok... where am I going to find a Piglet template for a pumpkin?  I went back to searching and found pictures of a pumpkin with piglet but no template that could be downloaded.  I said not a problem I have photo software that I can take a screen shot and then reverse the color to get the template.  This is exactly what I did.  So I carved Piglet and Winnie the Pooh on the two homegrown pumpkins.  I had already purchased a regular orange pumpkin because I wanted the seeds from it to plant in the garden next year.  See I'm thinking ahead here. Despite me being allergic to the pumpkin vines I am going to plant pumpkins again I just have to wear long sleeves and wear gloves when doing anything with them.  I then had to debate on what I wanted to carve on the orange pumpkin.  I debated this while I carved Piglet and Winnie the Pooh.  I trick that I found on the two white pumpkins because they were so small, I still cut out the top so that I could light the candle that I would be placing inside, but with these two I cut the bottom out of the pumpkins to allow me to scoop out the guts of the pumpkin and assist in carving the pumpkin.  Now with the templates I taped them to the pumpkin then used a push pin and transfered the design to the pumpkins.  Great time saver, although I should have used duct tape instead of regular tape to hold the template to the pumpkin.  While I was carving these two pumpkins I decided since I'm on a Winnie the Pooh and Piglet theme, that I might as well make the orange pumpkin Tigger.   The orange pumpkin was easier to carve having more space to reach my hand inside, however my previous transfer of the design method didn't work so well with this pumpkin.  Why?  It was easy to see the pin holes on the white pumpkins, not so well on the orange.  However I didn't let this stop me!  I taped the template to the pumpkin (once again I should have used duct tape -however I had none available at this time) and just used the pumpkin carving knives and began carving the pumpkin using the template as my guide on where I poked the holes.  Once I had the template carved I put a candle inside to see where I needed to expand so that light could be seen thru as that is the whole point of me spending an entire Saturday carving pumpkins. 

Zeus and the backyard

When Zeus discovered the pumpkin he decided that he liked the smell and would start rubbing up against it. I find it absolutely hilarious! The photos below are what I managed to finally capture last night.
















Zeus smelling the pumpkin leaves in the garden.

Poseidon the Gardener

From the moment Poseidon found my watering can he wanted it in his mouth. I guess he wanted to help me garden. He carried it around in his mouth and would not give it back without coaxing from me.

Poseidon enjoys the outdoor toys that we bought him after we got home from vacation. As you can see he's already destroyed the rope that was attached to the ball.
Poseidon getting ready to shake the ball in his mouth.

Garden update

My lovely garden! It has and is providing many vegetables that are yummy and delicious! I have corn on the cob that I need to pick, green beans, artichokes are growing, pumpkins are growing (which I found out that I'm allergic to the vines, I broke out in hives when rubbing up against a leaf when I was picking the green beans. I have cantelope growing, sweet peppers, and a whole bunch of tomatos that will soon be ready. The cucumbers are sweet and yummy like they are supposed to, I am amazed at the difference in the taste between what I've grown and what is bought at the store. I'm currently contemplating what I am going to grow over the winter and am already planning on my crop for next summer. Next summer corn, roma tomatos, herbs.

As you can see in one of the pictures we've added plastic flower pots to the side of the garden that we built, I'll be moving the herbs to these boxes to give me more room for vegetables in the actual garden. Daryl is also suggesting putting the pumpkin on the outside of the garden in between the garden and the tree to fill in that space as it is taking over everything!

Enjoying the weekend

The boys aka Zeus and Poseidon like it when either of us are home on the weekend, probably more when Daryl is home as they get to spend more time in the backyard while we work out there. They enjoy running around and being able to "wrestle" in the backyard with each other.














Awww happy dogs!












Looks like Poseidon is happy to be outside!













Zeus enjoys rubbing up against the pumpkin leaves in my garden. I guess they smell good!













Look at that happy dog!












This is how big my garden has grown since it was planted

My Garden

Over the past several weeks Daryl and I have been building a garden for me. It gives me something to go out and work on that does not involve a computer, thinking like a computer, or anything about the house. It helps relieve my stress as well. We built a wooden fence (the slats) to keep the dogs out and although we still have to build the door I have plants planted in the garden already. Zeus and Poseidon are very interested in the garden. Just wait till they find out that I planted something for them to eat! Can you guess what that is? Keep thinking on that and I'll tell you at the end of this post.















So what am I growing?

Well, the plants that you see are: Chives, Cinnamon Basil, Italian Oregano, Husky Cherry Red Tomato, Sweet Pepper, Corn, Artichoke

The seeds that I planted: Corn, Cantalope, Carrots, Cucumbers, Garden Beans, Pumpkin,

Of the list above can you guess what I planted that Zeus and Poseidon will be able to eat?

If you guessed Carrots you are correct!

Our Grandson Arrives!

It's a boy!!


Our grandson, Cordae, was born this afternoon, April 19, 2009 at 5:40 pm. He was 7 pounds and 10 ounces and 19 inches long. Our congratulations go to our daughter, Lyndsay and of course the proud papa Kornell.







The proud parents!










The Proud Grandpa!










Nana and Cordae

In General.......

I've been doing a lot of thinking in general lately, not about any one thing. One of the things that I've been thinking about is what I can do around the house to help accomplish the goal of getting the house remodel done. While the house is 100+ or close to that years old (so I believe) there are lot of things that we want to get done, but not a lot of time nor money either. We are trying to tackle everything one project at a time, little by little. But life, time, and money gets in the way. We both feel a bit lost in where to start, and I have no idea of what to do. I need to come to the realization that his house is now my house as well since we are married. It's not an easy task. Why? Because not a lot of my stuff is displayed or out. I will eventually put on display my collection of dolphins, someday. But between now and then we have a lot of work to do.

Another thing that I have been asked quite recently is: are we planning on having kids? Let me answer this question this way, while he already has two adult daughters, we are going to try for a child. However, we are going to wait another year or two before we start trying so that we can get more financially stable after the wedding. Which at that point we will need to have gotten the upstairs cleaned up a lot more anyway.

Choices

Everyone has to make choices every day of their lives. Sometimes they regret the choices that they made and wish that they could go back and change the decision that they made. Do I regret some of the choices that I made? Yes. But I know that I cannot change the fact that I made the choices that I did, only try to become a part of their lives, if they will accept me. I regret not seeing my baby sister grow up, not being there for her. I wish I could go back and change the decision that I made when she was so young. All I can do is hope that she will realize that I will always be there for her should she decide to reach out for my help. I hope that she will realize that I love her and always have even though I haven't really been there.

While some of the choices that I have had to make over the years were hard, I believe that they have made me a better person, but I will always regret not being in my sister's life. I remember growing up with someone that I will always call my sister no matter what has happened over the years. Yes we have grown apart, yes we fought like hell when we were younger, and I think in all honesty we were jealous of each other. At least I was, and I'm sorry that I haven't kept in touch, didn't come back to visit when I could. I'm sorry.

The man I love

This is the man that I love. I will always love him no matter what happens. I have loved him from the day that we met. He once told me that he would never get married again, but I didn't care. I didn't want anyone else....I wanted him. I was content to be with him just as his girlfriend. When he surprised me by proposing to me yes I was surprised. I was more than surprised I was shocked. He works hard, even harder than I do at times. While he works at lot at Airport/Burien Towing he knows that not only am I working, but I'm taking care of the house, taking care of our pets ....yes pets... we have 3 cats and 2 dogs. I love him, and I don't know what I would do without him.

Good job love!

The Vice President of Airport Towing nominated my husband Daryl for Tow Person of the Year with the Towing and Recovery Association of Washington. While I don't know what he said to nominate my husband I strongly believe its because of everything that he has done to make sure that the company goes on after the sudden and tragic loss of two family members of the company. Airport and Burien Towing are a close nit family run business so it hit the company, family, and friends hard with the loss that they had this year. The tow truck is a gingerbread tow truck that was donated for the auction. There were two Tow Person's of the year both because of a tragic loss in the company. Once again, good job love. I'm proud of you.

Yoga

Today, I start yoga classes with a friend and coworker. What made me decide to do yoga? Well, I want to start feeling better and start getting into shape. Since Daryl and I plan on trying to have a baby in the next 2-3 years I want to be in better shape than I am now before we start trying. Plus I also want to lose 20 pounds. While I have started eating better, eating better is only the first step to being healthier. Along with that comes exercise. While I just said the one thing that I do not do on a regular basis I am going to start. Mostly because I will have the motivation to keep it up since I will be going at the same time as my friend. We are doing this as a team, to support each other. But there are other health benefits to yoga. Since we will be doing hot yoga... yoga in a 105 degree room, it will help relieve stress as well, as well as help with my asthma. Thankfully I haven't had a problem with my asthma in a long time but still I don't want to mess around with it. I want to help it. Yoga is supposed to help increase lung capacity as well. We will be going to Bikram Yoga here in Bellevue, WA close to where we work. http://www.bikramyogabellevue.com/index.html


On a work note, it is review time and I have to fill out my review and figure out where I want to go within the company and what I need to do in order to obtain that goal. While it means more hard work is ahead for me in order to achieve my goal, I think it will help achieve the overall goal of using my education that I worked hard at achieving. Yes it will also cost me some money for the training, and while I probably could see if the company would pay for it, knowing that everyone is having to shrink budgets because of the economy, I'm not going that route at all. I will see what I can do when I decide to move forward with the additional training. I know I will do it but it is just a matter of time and money. For now, I need to finish filling out my review. Figure out what my strengths are and where I need to develop.

My Best Friend

Without Stacy I would not have been sane on my wedding day. She helped me plan that beautiful day from the very first day. She once old me when Daryl and I got home from our vacation to Victoria, that everyone had expected me to come back engaged and were all saying, "What happened?" Little did we know at the time that Daryl had planned on proposing when we were in Victoria British Columbia. He had not purchased my engagement ring yet, and in fact he was trying hard to shake me from his side so that he could go to the jewelry store to purchase the ring. He later told me that he had planned on proposing in Victoria but that the atmosphere at the restaurants just wasn't right. He said, "The one restaurant that was perfect we ate at on our first night there and I didn't have the ring yet." Too funny!

Anyway, without Stacy's help I would not have made it to my wedding day. I owe a lot to her and I don't know if I will ever be able to repay her for what she did for me. I will always be in her debt and in her gratitude. I will always be there for her and her family no matter what. To my best friend, I thank you from the bottom of my heart.