Holy Snow!!

Where in the heck did all this snow come from? I dont remember ever, ever having this much snow! In the past week we've had it all; snow, freezing rain, ice, & sleet. It has made everything so quiet and muted. I just love snow. It's so pretty! I just wish I had the vacation to be able to stay home and enjoy it.

Our snow covered house & cars. Jesus' car (the black one) hasnt moved since Thursday.

Waldo doesn't think the snow is so cool. It gets stuck between his toes. He does like to eat ice, though.

Chica has decided that the snow isnt so bad. It would be a whole lot more fun if it wasnt so dang cold, though! She also refuses to look at the camera.

Snow Angels!!

This is what it looks like when you have the big Christmas lights lining your grass in your front yard and then a foot of snow dumps on them. You get glowing snow. This is the one kind of yellow snow that you can eat.. if you want to. I thought it was cool how each lightbulb melted a little cave around itself and a tiny hole at the surface.

I want a Hippopotamus for Christmas

Brrrrrr!!!

It's so cold!! The snow came on Sunday morning with temperatures in the 20's, which is FREEEEZING for Oregon! Usually when it snows here, it will pile up, kids play all day and enjoy the snow day, then the snow melts and is gone or mostly gone by the next day. Not this time! It came down on Sunday and hasnt left. Temperatures in the 20's hasnt helped things thaw. The dogs are enjoying it, but I have to continually pick packed snow out from between Waldo's toes when he comes in. He's figured out that while I do that, if he shivers and lets his teeth chatter he gets extra loves because I feel bad for him. Poor frozen pup-cicle. Though we did make him sit over the heat register after he was outside for longer than we wanted. Chica wanted nothing to do with that!

The best part is that it's supposed to snow again tomorrow, and maybe some more on Saturday. Oh happy days.

Goodbye Smokey, We'll Miss You!

My mom had to take her 20 year old cat in today to go to the Big Kitty Heaven in the Sky. We've known the old gal's time was coming soon. Smokey, we love you and we'll miss you.

What a Fun Weekend!

This weekend was best described as wild. Thursday was Thanksgiving, as you all know. We went to my aunt & uncle's for turkey and more food. My aunts got to see Riley for the first time. They agreed, he's a keeper! We also had a sick puppy. Chica had been sick earlier in the week. She didnt want to eat and just laid around being mopey. Then, after about 3 days, she was bouncy and back to normal, but Waldo looked like this:

He didnt feel so good, poor boy. He didnt want to eat and just laid around being mopey. No worries though, he's back to his happy self.

On Friday, we went to Jesus' parents to help do some inventory control on the 23 lb turkey that my mother-in-law made for Thanksgiving. They have turkey out the wazoo, and will have turkey out the wazoo for a couple weeks. On the way home, we stopped at the liquor store to pick up makin's for "Randy's Hooch". It consists of Rum, whiskey, triple sec, and amaretto. Mix that with some OJ and 7-up and you have a super yummy drink! I had 2 that night. I slept like a rock :-)

Saturday was the stupid Civil War game. I'm just glad one UO showed up to play, otherwise it would have been a really boring game since the Beavs didnt want to put any effort into it. Grrr!

Sunday we went wine tasting. Mmmm!! We went to Plum Hill Vineyards and Kramer Winery. Somehow between leaving for church in the morning and showing up at Kramer, this happened:

I'm not sure when or how it happened, but I noticed it as we were walking in the door at Kramer Winery. It may have been there when I put the pants on that morning, who knows. But I, nor anyone else for that matter, didnt notice it until it was too late. Guess I need to go buy new pants... again.

Happy Thanksgiving!!

I just wanted to wish you all a very Happy Thanksgiving. Jesus & I have so much to be thankful for. We have family and friends who love us, jobs, shelter, and of course the unconditional love from our dogs! :-) (I had to throw that in). I just wanted to say thanks to all those people that have made a difference in our lives. HAPPY THANKSGIVING!

Walt Disney World

Magic Kingdom

First of all, I forgot to rotate it when I uploaded the picture, so I apologize for any neck crinks you may get from looking at this picture. Sorry! Anyway, this is right inside the front gate to the Magic Kingdom. I loved how everything was all "Halloween-ed" up. It was so fun!

The first ride we we went on when we got to Magic Kingdom was Pirates of the Caribbean. Having been on the original Disneyland ride, I was somewhat disappointed when I discovered that the ride had been redone to go along with the movie. Jack Sparrow had been incorporated into the whole ride. I guess I just liked the original better. But we found this hat in the predictable gift shop at the end of the ride, and since my husband thinks he's Johnny Depp (which is perfectly find with me!) we had to take a picture of him in it. I think it's so cute! :-)

Epcot

I think my favorite of all the Disney parks was Epcot. It actually might be my favorite of all the places we went in Florida. It seemed more adult oriented (the International Food & Wine Festival was a dead giveaway) and thus there seemed to be less screaming, tired kids in strollers of all sizes. I had a really yummy Grand Marnier Orange Slushy tried escargot in a little bread bowl (tasted like garlic bread) in France. We also had a cheese platter in Italy. Mmmm! I love food!

This picture was taken in front of the Finding Nemo ride. Remember how I said Epcot was more adult oriented? All of it except the "Sea" section of the park. There were different sections of the park besides the countries like "Land", "Sea", "Space", "Technology" and it seemed like all the kids flocked to the "Sea" part. It was still fun though.

It's Donald! This was in Mexico. He was outside the "Three Caballeros" ride. This is the second picture of us with Donald that we got while at the Magic Kingdom.


This yummy hunk of meat is my husband! Oh, the chunk in his hand. Sorry! It's a smoked turkey leg that he enjoyed (in the rain/sprinkles). So good! While we sat on the edge of this fountain, munching away, it started to sprinkle and rain a little bit. Everyone rushed under cover like they were going to melt if they got a raindrop or two on them. We just sat there and looked around like we were trying to figure out what happened.

The Pear Fair in the United States had the best pears I've had in a loooong time. They were cold and yummy and juicy. Thinking about them now makes my mouth water!

Who knew Aladdin was Mexican? Not me! This is where Aladdin would have been if he'd shown up for his model debut.

Animal Kingdom

The cool looking mountain that you see behind you is the Disney version of Mt. Everest. There's a really fun rollercoaster inside the mountain.

The rafts that you see behind us is the source of the wet clothes and soggy hair. It was a river raft ride that took you through rapids and over small waterfalls. Two girls in our raft got the most of the water. Every bump we went over, water poured over the side of the raft on top of them. At least it was fairly warm that day!

Jesus was so excited to get his picture with Pocahontas. I didnt get to be in this picture.

We also went to Hollywood Studios, but we were so tired by the time we made it there that we didnt take many pictures. None that were noteworthy at least.

First Things First

My husband and I went to Orlando, Florida for vacation last week. We hit Walt Disney World, Sea World, and Universal Studios. Our trip didnt start off so hot. Our plane was scheduled to leave at 6am. We boarded the plane, sat down, and got all comfy for the hour and a half flight to Salt Lake City. The plane backed out onto the runway, stopped, then pulled back into the gate. The captain came onto the loudspeaker and said that the right engine wouldnt start, so he was going to shut down everything and restart. That didnt work, so they had to call maintenance. Turns out a part was bad and had to be replaced. The people at the desk gave us updates every half hour or so, but by the time 11am rolled around, they told us that the part had to be flown in from Salt Lake City and wouldnt be there until about 2:30. At that point, we decided to take the next plane into Salt Lake, which left at 1pm. So long story short, instead of arriving in Orlando at about 5pm, we didnt arrive until 11pm. We lost a day at DisneyWorld, so the airline agreed to change our return flight to a day later without charge.

The flight back wasnt nearly as eventful. We left on time, arrived in Atlanta on time, left again on time, and were back home by 9pm. I have never enjoyed my own bed as much as I did when we returned! Our poor puppies were happy to see us, although Waldo decided to have a bout of rebellion and pee by the back door. But all is well again, we're home and happy, puppies are happy we're home.

We Made It!!

Well, we survived Florida. It was a fun trip, but I'm happy to be back in my own bed and our dogs are so excited that we're home, they just dont know what to do with themselves. I've had enough of the airport to last me at least 5 years! But that's a different story for a different day. Waldo had a little rebellion while we were gone and decided to pee all over. That was a fun smell to come home too. Gotta give my mom props though, she tried to clean it up for us. But Waldo has a knack for hiding his little puddles. That makes it hard to clean up. I'll post pictures and tell you all about it when I have a chance later this week.

The Gods Must Be Crazy!

My parents have the luxury of taking off for the weekend on some unknown adventure, be it camping, exploring, or wine tasting. They pack up the Rav, lock up the house and are off to discover new and exciting things. About half the time, they leave poor Charlie looking out the window with his sad, crying eyes, watching them back out of the driveway and drive off to face the world without him. Later that evening, I'll go let him out and sometimes he'll come home with me to play with my dogs. But he never does settle down, he just stares forlornly at the door, hoping and waiting for it to open and his beloved Mom & Dad to come strolling in. Poor guy. (How am I doing on the guilt trip?)

This time, they went up to Leavenworth, WA to go wine tasting and explore the area. Mom called and said they found a cool winery. They always find cool wineries. This one was in a big log cabin house thing and the wine tasting was free! I love free wine tasting! Especially if they have cheese. I don't wine taste, I cheese taste. But that's another story for another day.

I think my parents are having too much fun up there. I came in to work this morning, opened my email and found this:

And this:

What the heck? Crazy? I think so! So now I have new caller ID photos on my cell phone. Thanks for the awesome new pictures, guys!!

11 More Days!!

Only 11 more days until we board the plane to the Happiest Place on Earth! Jesus and I are going on vacation to Orlando for our anniversary. We're going to do the tourist-y thing and hit up DisneyWorld, SeaWorld, and Universal Studios. We're also going to go see the Blue Man Group. I'm so excited for that! We'll be in the front row, in the "Poncho Section". Should be fun! Guess I wont dress up for that outing. (I know, like I would dress up anyways). Not taking 3 day weekends to go camping, or a random vacation day here and there is finally going to pay off. It was pretty hard during the summer to see my vacation hours rack up and not be able to use them. But it will be totally worth it!

Jesus had some identification issues, so we were a little worried on how he was going to get on the plane. But that has all been solved and so instead of "Only 11 days to get this figured out, time is really moving", it's "Only 11 more days! Time's cree-ee-ee-ping". Time's moving so slow, it turned 'creeping' into a 4 syllable word!

Random Picture of the Day:

"Mighty Fisherman"

Are We Related?

Are you my Mama?

What a Slacker...

I know, I'm a slacker. So Jesus survived his Adventures in Babysitting, both with Riley-Bob and Miley-girl. Riley is such a good baby. He pooped for Uncle Jesus :-) Go Riley!

We also watched Miley so her parents could go out for dinner for their anniversary. (Wow! 3 years already? I swear my feet are still cramped from the dumb shoes I picked out that were way too high for me!) I digress. Miley was so good. She hung out with Uncle Jesus, her favorite Mexican Uncle (take that Roy!) and they looked for motorcycle headlights together. What more could a girl ask for?

I've been busy with work lately. I went down to Medford for a few days for some work-related stuff. But work-related stuff only keeps you busy for so long. So I filled my evenings wandering the grand ol' town of Medford. I successfully found the Harry & David's factory. They had Moose Munch on sale for buy 2, get one free. I know, not a huge sale, but I LOVE Moose Munch! Plus, I found Peanut Butter Moose Munch! Yum!!

Also, outside the building, there were a bunch of pumpkins that you could buy for a rip roarin' Carve-o-rama. In this big pile o' fun, there was a GINORMOUS punkin'!

In case you cant read that, it says "1,325 lbs". That's HUGE! I sent a picture of it to my cousin. She promptly replied with "Is it bigger than you?"

Yes, Kylie. It outweighs me by 5 lbs. Thanks. Thanks a lot.

Adventures in Babysitting.

Tomorrow, my husband will begin the task of caring for a overly adorable 4 month old while his mother, grandmother, and aunt head out for some gallivanting on the town. Okay, we're going to a baby shower, but it's brunch! Yum! I love brunch! Anywho, this will be his first time alone with a being unable to speak up for himself since his little brother was born 10 years ago. Holy cow! Angel's going to be ten in a week or so!! We need to do some birthday shopping! Sorry, off on a tangent. Uncle Jesus has decided that he should take cutie little Riley on his first fishing trip.



Don't worry Em, won't happen. He has a hard enough time handling the dog (who just hangs out) and fishing. I think I've talked him out of it, so they're going to spend a nice morning in front of the tv napping... or so he thinks. I'll let you know how it goes.

Check Me Out! I Do Tricks!

Since we got Chica about 4 1/2 years ago, she's taught herself multiple tricks. It's so funny to watch because she is just so eager to show them off. When she gets over-excited, she does them all in high-speed rapid fire. This dog cracks me up! Ignore Waldo traipsing through, he's oblivious.

If you couldn't catch it, I was saying "Bang!" with the thumb and first finger "gun" motion (offscreen) and she'd drop dead. Sometimes it takes a couple of shots, and her tail doesn't quite understand what the whole "playing DEAD" part is about. Goofy dog.

Happy Birthday/Congratulations Jesus!!

My wonderful husband celebrated his 29th birthday and his completion of his GED today with a big get together with friends and family. There were waaay to many people in our little tiny house! At least 35 including Jesus & I. But it was so fun to have everybody together. Our friends brought their little girl and she got to meet our dogs. I was impressed with Waldo, he was so good! Well, besides cleaning her face a million times whether she needed it or not. But that's a dog thing, he'll do it no matter what. He would go lay down right next to her and let her do whatever. It was so cute to watch! The best part was when she discovered that the ice chest had ice in it, and it's so fun to give Waldo ice!

After everyone left, I remembered that we had a big tub of ice cream to go with the cupcakes. I even got chocolate syrup to go with it. Oops! Then, about an hour after everyone left, I remembered that big bowl of potato salad that I had made the night before for the party and that it was sitting, untouched, in the fridge. There's NO WAY Jesus & I will be able to eat that much potato salad!

So tomorrow, we're going to my parent's house to have burritos (to take care of the leftover tomatos & lettuce), potato salad, and ice cream. Yum!!

Finally..

We have a clean house! If you know us, you know that we are HORRIBLE at keeping our house clean, and take FOREVER to clean it, because we can always find better things to do. It's Jesus' birthday tomorrow, and so we're cleaning the house, making potato salad, jalapeno things, cupcakes.. It turns out that potato salad requires boiled eggs. So I open the fridge, pull out the carton of eggs and think "Hmm.. I think I'll just boil the whole carton. I can make egg salad sandwiches for lunch this week. Besides, who doesnt like to eat boiled eggs?" So I put the WHOLE carton of eggs in to boil. Then, as I am taking them off the heat when they're done, I realize that cupcakes need eggs to!! It's really hard to make cupcakes with boiled eggs. Not that I've tried, I just dont think they would be a hit.

So I call my sister, and ask her if I can have some eggs because I'm an idiot and boiled all of mine. She says yes and I'm off to her house. One of the benefits of going to my sister's house (well, besides seeing her), is that my nephew is the cutest little guy in the whole widest world! Just look at this chubby little face!!


How could anyone resist?? He's such a smiley, happy little cutie-face! When I got there today, he was downing a bottle, making his cute little squeaky "I can't get this bottle down fast enough!" noises. I love those noises! Then, when he gets picked up, he lets out a big 'ol belch, and we remember who his mother is. It's okay, we'll keep them around.

Apples, Sausage, Walnuts and Cheese. What's not to like?

My most favorite time of year has arrived! It's Pizze alle Mela e Salsiccia time at Pizzicato! Let me just start by saying Pizzicato has some of the best pizza I've had in a long time. Every month, they have a monthly special for their pizza-by-the-slice, and this month is my very very VERY favorite! It has gala apples, candied walnuts, Italian sausage, gorgonzola, mozzarella, parmesan, and basil on a garlic and olive oil base. For all you wrinkling your noses, trust me, you have to try it! It's yummy and cheesy, and sweet, and crunchy, and everything else you could want in a pizza all wrapped up in one super delicious slice of heaven! I think I'll go there Monday for lunch too. And probably Tuesday. And Wednesday. And maybe Thursday...

Maybe I'll go there every day this month until the fateful day when they change the monthly special and I'll have to wait another 334 days to enjoy the yummy-ness that is this pizza. I shudder at the thought...

Yoga.

I've recently decided to start taking a Yoga class at a local yoga studio. I really wanted my sister to do it with me, but alas, it's just me, myself, and I. My first class was on Tuesday, and I arrived at the class in my fancy new yoga pants ready to be contorted in all sorts of new poses. I was the youngest person there by at least 10 years, probably more. Also, the studio is upstairs, next door to the pet store. The pet store has birds... upstairs. So throughout the whole time, we were relaxing to the "cheep cheep" and "SQUAWK, hello!" of the birds next door. At least we couldn't smell them.

All in all, I loved it! Once I got past the "everyone's looking at me" and the "I look like an idiot twisted up like this" and realized that nobody's looking at me, they're concentrating on themselves and probably even thinking the same thing, I totally relaxed. I didn't think the poses we did took a lot of effort, but boy howdy! My shoulder muscles were soooore Wednesday morning!!!

I'm so looking forward to next week's class. And getting my own mat.

The Voices of My Dogs

Have you ever imagined what the voice of your dog sounds like? Okay, I guess it's not limited to dogs, as my lizard has a voice too. Come on, you know we all do it. I happen to know that a friend's dog talks really fast with a lisp and repeats himself a lot.

Well, you know Benny the Cat from Looney Tunes? His famous quote is "Which way did he go George, which way did he go?" Click here to listen to it. THAT'S WALDO!!! He's such a big clumsy, goofy dog, it fits him perfectly!!

Chica on the other hand, has a more feminine voice, but gets a little high pitched when she gets excited. Like this picture...

She's so crazy and bouncing off the wall, I just dont know what to do!

Wow..

What a boring blog. Someone should really post some puppy pictures or something.
Hey! Here's one!!