Fighting

*Buzz*


*Buzz*


It is my phone again -- but instead of a text someone is calling me! I think it is Carley so I quickly put the groceries I am holding on the counter, floor, and fridge (aka- I dropped them all over the place). I don't really care though - they are not my groceries.

Jeffrey darts over and snatches up my phone before I get to it. He looks at who is calling and ANSWERS! The booger. I let him talk a few seconds but then start asking for my phone back because he is trying to do an impression of me and it is no good.

And he refuses to give me the phone and continues tormenting the person on the other end of the phone call.

I attack.

Not a little attack.

A big one.

I am going for leg hairs here.

I am stomping on toes.


At this point I discover it is Missy on the phone and I really needed to ask her some things so I REALLY wanted the phone.


I go after the leg hairs with a vengence. This is causing some very interesting octaves to come out of Jeffrey's vocal chords. It entertains.


As he dashes outside, I let him go.


I finish with the gorceries but then go stand in the doorway and do my best glare. He ducks behind a car.


I go back inside and rearrange a few magazines.

I go stand in the doorway and do a better glare. I get my phone back.


I sit outside for a little while talking and then move inside to Chris's bed and watch him unpack some things.


As Missy is telling me a story I am suddenly attacked! Chris has tackled me and I am now sat upon! What to do? Missy is getting concerned by my muffled screeching. Chris stuffs a pillow in my face.


And then another pillow -- for good measure I suppose.


I struggle against his weight and he jumps up leaving me lying on the bed with a phone on my nose & two pillows over my face. I mumble "I am fine" to a troubled Missy. Chris laughs & mocks my "I'm fine" since I am still stuck under pillows and half hanging off the bed. But I survived.


Jeffrey bounds into the room to rescue me --- about 1 minute too late. Boys. Sheesh. He jokingly asks if I was raped and I confirm this fact. Chris informs him that since I tried to rape him (Jeff) a little bit ago he was just trying to even the score.

Busy busy busy

It has been a busy past couple of days!

Friday I did my first sub job of the year which is always soooo fun.  But that means I worked a 12 hour day so that I would not have to use too much of my PTO at my other job.  Then I cleaned & rearranged my house & painted some more on my deck over the weekend.  Chris came home on Sunday but he went out for the evening and I went to bed early because I had another sub job/12 hour day on Monday.  That sub job was not too hard but it was a little disjointed and disorganized which was a little stressful and it was 6-8th grade which is not my "easy" grades.

Then Monday evening I should have just relaxed but I was invited to a movie so I went and saw The Other Guys with my friends.  It was so funny.... one of those 'this is so ridiculous' movies that can just be stupid but is still funny.

Tuesday I had a friend over for dinner and before that happened I found out two guys were in town and going to be staying at my house for a day or two so I made up the beds in the den. I also painted on the deck before starting dinner.

Paige and I had a great dinner and a lot of fun talking and Chris was there for a little while too. I made yummy yummy Au Gratin Potatoes, a Pasta dish, green beans & cookies.  Yum.

Wednesday was pretty "normal" and low key.  I painted more on my deck and got the whole "inside" done and am now waiting for my dad to bring a ladder over so we can finish the outside.  I also finished more of the porch but it still has a ways to go.

Thursday I had a work birthday party to go to at the Brew Pub. That was super fun.  There were about 12-15 people that came and our boss ended up paying for all of us which is always super great. :)

Thursday after the party I watched the end of a movie with Chris and then he took off to go see friends. My kitty kat has an injury of some sort or is just super sick & stiff.  He is listless & he cries when you touch his ribcage area. So I spent most of the rest of the evening just petting him and watching TV (GREY'S premier!)

At one point kitty kat disappeared for a bit and when I went looking for him I could not find him. When I finally discovered where he was he was sitting in the driver's seat of my truck which was sitting in the garage. Apparently I had left that window down.... for days. Oops!

When Chris got home I was laying on my bed petting kitty kat still. He came in and talked for a while and then went to bed. His MCAT scores should be up between now and Tuesday and I think I am close to being as stressed as he is about it.  Stupid empathy.  haha.

This weekend is going to be all about the house again. If the weather is good I will be finishing painting the porch and working on getting some yard stuff cleaned up.  My lawn boy has been ill this week and the lawn is starting to look a little on the shaggy side. Hopefully it does not rain today so he can get it done. And hopefully he is no longer ill.

Signing off til next time!

My goal today.....

.... to be iridescent.  ;)



Catch Phrase (aka uncontrolled laughter)

I love Catch Phrase.  For anyone who has not played this game --- you need to.  It will change the way you see all your friends. 

Catch Phrase makes me laugh every single time I play.  My friends and family think I have played too many times cuz I can guess the correct word or phrase within seconds of someone saying something usually but everyone has a different way of describing something so I don't think it has to do with how often you have played. I just see a roledex in my mind and the possible answers are narrowed down quickly.



This time the "funniest moment" was when Amanda (my teammate) was trying to get me to say "nautical mile".   She told me it had to do with sailing so I was shouting out things like yar, starboard, ropes, sails, etc.  She then told me it was distance, like foot, yard, meters.  I finally shouted, "Mile!" and she said "YES, but a sea one."  So I was slightly confused and searched my Rolodex.  I finally came up with KNOTS! I was quite proud of myself but then she said "No, THE SEA"..... well a knot is "the sea" form of telling distance so I was soooo confused. At this point we are howling with laughter already. 'Nautical' finally pops into my head as the buzzer is getting close to buzzing me but my mouth was ahead of my poor brain and I shouted out "nautical knot!"........... and the buzzer buzzed.  As soon as I said "nautical knot" I knew it was supposed to be "nautical mile" but I thought Amanda had told me NO to mile which is why I came up with knots in the first place.  She was laughing sooooo hard at me. 



We gave the other team their point and moved on, still wiping tears from our eyes.  The next thing Amanda tried to get me to say was Rug Rats. Her way of doing this was "Little kids!  Carpet rodents!"  Well that carpet rodents put me over the edge... I was laughing sooooo hard. Amanda was laughing so hard she stopped the buzzer so she could calm down cuz she was afraid she might throw up! It was the funniest moment I have had in that game in a long time.

Ahhh Catch Phrase ... you complete me.  ;)

Home intricacies

So I bought a home back in March that was a junker (think dog piss that soaked through carpet, padding AND plywood) and have been fixing it up, remodeling it, and kicking it since.  I kinda wish I had been blogging about it the whole time cuz there were some CRAZY things going on.  But what I want to write about here is how great customer service is ... again.  I know I talked about it this morning already but I had another good experience so deal with it.  :)

OK so ... I have an automatic garage door that we got working! But it has no car button thing so if I want to park in there I have to go inside, go in the garage, hit the wall button, and then drive in. I don't wanna do that! haha. 

Well I took the damn thing apart, took pics of the whole thing from every angle and took it to Home Depot.  I asked at the customer desk for the garage door opener expert.  haha.  They sent me this girl that had to have been like 22.  I was kinda expecting a grizzled old man.  But she really knew what she was talking about and she looked at all my pics, zoomed in on all these parts, explained the whole thing to me, opened a garage door opener and went through all the directions with me. I have not set it up yet cuz I was distracted by other things today but I am thinking it will actually work!  yay!

Now I just need to get lots of stuff rearranged in my garage so things will fit better!

G'night!

Good customer service

This weekend when we were in Bothell we ate at a restaurant called Canyons. We went not really knowing at all what would be served - we just like the way the building looked.  There were old-time cave type drawings on the outside of the building and it intrigued us.

Once inside we knew we had made the correct choice.... the food looked amazing! We opted to sit just inside the bar so we could sit at one of the high tables (we are snobby like that). This meant that our waiter was the bartender and he only had one other table to take care of.

We ordered - Jessye got enchiladas, no sour cream, hold the meat, light on the cheese.  I got a Thai Peanut Sauce Chicken Wrap.  While we were waiting for our food the waiter came back to confirm with Jessye whether she was vegan/vegetarian.  She said she was not really either.. just preferred her food that way today.  He said - "Good, I am going to tell them that you want the mexican rice then. It is cooked in chicken broth and they were going to give you plain white rice because they thought you were vegetarian. But the Mexican rice --- you need it. It is amazing."  Jessye & I were soooo impressed. Most restaurants really do not consider things like that.  It never even crosses their mind.  We praised the poor boy so much he was embarrassed I think. 

This of course brought Jessye and I around to the topic of customer service & vegetarianism.  When we were younger (like 10 years ago) and we would go out to eat with our parents they would say that we wanted the vegetarian option and we would get the *craziest* looks.  No one knew what that meant.  Now days if you ask for a vegetarian/vegan option and the restaurant does not offer it the customer, not the waiter, if the one giving the *craziest* look!  I like this switch!

Seattle Expedition

This weekend I took a very improptu trip to Seattle with my friend Jessye.  She has been interviewing for a job in Bellvue and, although they loved her from the 1st interview, they had her keep coming back to meet with more people to find the perfect department for her to fit into.  At one point she was on her way from Portland to Walla Walla and got a call that they wanted to see her the next morning and she turned around and drove to Seattle at around 6pm in the evening! Crazy.

But at the interview this weekend she got the job!  And then we leased her an apartment! She has to live with her aunt until Friday this week but she will be in the apartment by Friday night! It is in the cutest little community and town (Bothell) and is not too, too far from her work.

We drove there on Friday after work.  We arrived around 7ish and went straight to Whole Foods to find some dinner.  I had never been to a Whole Foods and I am pretty sure I would move into one if I could. It was amazing! I made a salad, had mac&cheese, some garbanzo salad, tempeh, & tofu!

We walked around a bit to get our restless-ness out and found some super-duper cute stores.  All vegetarian cafes, Frozen Custard store, and more!

After that we went to Jessye's aunts house. It is on a little lake and is so cute. We basically went straight to bed after talking for a little bit. 
We woke up early and headed for Bellvue. We parked and went to Starbucks.  According to the workers there they generally have some idea as to why they are slammed with people early on a weekend but this time they had no idea they said! The line was out the door and there was no seating (and this was a Starbucks that had seating for at least 35!) There were people sitting on the fireplace outside the Starbucks, there were people sitting 1 floor up at some other tables, there were people standing around.  There were just soooo many people for 8:45ish on a Saturday morning!

We walked around a little eating & drinking our Starbucks. Nordstrom opens right at 9:30 and that is when Jessye's interview was so we stood right outside and were one of the first ones in.  I wandered around looking at fun things while Jess was at her interview.  William Sonoma, Hugo Boss, Lucky, Pottery Barn, Arden B., REPORT, J Crew, Chicos. After Chicos I decided to stop off in the bathroom. I was wearing my huge blue/gold flower ring and do not like to get it wet- I took it off. And promptly walked out. Obviously it was gone when I went back.... sooooooo grumpy.  I LOVED that ring.

Once Jessye was out of her interview we walked down to a Farmer's Market we had seen driving in.  It was SO cute. There was a man there selling his Ice Cream (Burton's) and he made us sample EACH one! It was amazing! Haha.  We both ended up buying a little bowl. I had Toasted Almond Fudge & Jess had Toasted Coconut.  Yum.

After that we drove to the Fremont area to walk around and look at cute stores & just hang out. It was a fun area.

We then decided it was time to eat again and went to Bothell to a place Jessye had seen last time she was in town with her mom looking at places to live.  It was called Canyons and it was sooooo good. I had a Thai Peanut Sauce Chicken Wrap. Yummo.... (more to come about this later)

Next we went to a little community in Bothell that Jessye had liked earlier. She wanted me to see what it looked like. We went into the leasing office to ask about it again and ended up leaving with lease in hand! Woo!

Then it was on the road again to head for my parents house in Yakima Valley. We made it there by about 7pm I believe and ate some stew and nectarine cobbler!  Then we played Apples to Apples with Mom, Dad, & Amanda.  After that we played Catch Phrase (more to come about this later). When my dad's forehead started wrinkling a lot from him trying to hold his eyeslids open we decided it was time for bed. Mom, Dad, & Amanda were leaving the next morning to go chop down a bunch of trees in the forest for firewood.  And Jessye had to drvie to Walla Walla & then Portland to pack up all her stuff!

All in all it was a very fun/good/productive weekend!  I have to go for now but I will be back soon I am sure!

Peace out.

Labor Day Weekend

This weekend I did many, many fun things.

I saw my cousin Ashley on Friday night. She was up for a wedding this weekend.

I drove to Spokane Sabbath morning in time for potluck at the Valley Church with Virlinda.

I took a nap in the sun.

I met Missy at her apartment and then we went to Chilies (chipotle pasta!!) and went shopping.

We went back to Missy's apartment and watched The Pelican Brief.

We slept in a little Sunday morning and then drove to Sagel, Idaho for Ronilea's daughters 2 year birthday! A LUAU was planned but it rained every now and then so the party was mainly inside. I got to see Katie Schlehuber!!!  That made me happy!  I made salsa (YUM) and we had pineapple, pizza, grapes, canteloupe, watermelon, broccoli salad, corn on the cob, smoked ribs, and chipotle salsa. We also had Italian Sodas & B-day cake (a cabana hut!).

Ronilea has a gorgeous home & it was so fun to be able to spend time there and see everyone.

Around 7pm I headed for Camp MiVoden to spend the night there. I got there in time to see the sun go down over the lake. My favorite time. I adore that Lake. It was so peaceful and serene. I stayed with the Parkers (I kicked poor Chris out of his room- ha) & it was very fun to catch up with Cherie again. One of the main reasons i went to camp was to see Sami but I was not even sure if she was going to be there. I found her on Monday morning though and it was so fun to catch up with her and talk about old times. It has been a year or more since I last saw her! 

After hanging around camp while everyone cleaned up for the end of the summer I went to Hayden & grabbed some food & then went to do some shopping in the valley. After getting a few lovely purchases I went to the Wallaces to see who I could find there. I ended up only seeing Cheryl and Noah but that made me very happy. We talked, laughed, & watched part of Star Wars :)

On the drive home Jessye and I were texting each other cuz she was headed to my house from Portland. About 2 hours after she left Portland though she got called to an interview in Seattle for 11am on Tuesday and had to turn around and head for there.

As I am typing this though she is on her way back to Walla Walla again.

On the way home I was also lucky enough to get a ticket. Boo. I can NEVER seem to make it to the 3 year mark and clear my record. I was SOOOO close this time. Luckily the cop took pity on me and lowered it to 93.00 (only 5 over the speed limit) cuz he could have nailed me for about 500. Awesome I know. I need to slow down. Ha.

Well that is all for now. I need to be working. 

ta ta

The Fox & his Rose

"You are not at all like my rose," he said. "As yet you are nothing. No one has tamed you, and you have tamed no one. You are like my fox when I first knew him. He was only a fox like a hundred thousand other foxes. But I have made a friend, and now he is unique in all the world."




And the roses were very much embarrassed.



"You are beautiful, but you are empty," he went on. "One could not die for you. To be sure, an ordinary passerby would think that my rose looked just like you--the rose that belongs to me. But in herself alone she is more important than all the hundreds of you other roses: because it is she that I have watered; because it is she that I have put under the glass globe; because it is for her that I have killed the caterpillars (except the two or three we saved to become butterflies); because it is she that I have listened to, when she grumbled, or boasted, or even sometimes when she said nothing. Because she is my rose."



And he went back to meet the fox. "Goodbye," he said. "Goodbye," said the fox. "And now here is my secret, a very simple secret: It is only with the heart that one can see rightly; what is essential is invisible to the eye."



"What is essential is invisible to the eye," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.



"It is the time you have wasted for your rose that makes your rose so important.



"It is the time I have wasted for my rose---" said the little prince so he would be sure to remember.



"Men have forgotten this truth," said the fox. "But you must not forget it. You become responsible, forever, for what you have tamed. You are responsible for your rose . . . "



"I am responsible for my rose," the little prince repeated, so that he would be sure to remember.

Happiness

Lately I have been thinking about happiness. I think it is something I think about when I have too much time to myself.  haha.  I am generally a very happy person but every now and then when I am super bored/lonely I get unhappy about things. I am not really even sure why. I think it is normal. 


One of my favorite songs right now is Pursuit of Happiness by Kid Cudi.  The chorus states:


"I'm on the pursuit of happiness and I know everything that shine ain't always gonna be gold

I'll be fine once I get it, I'll be good."


I like being on the pursuit of happiness. It is a good place to ALWAYS be.  Because if you are happy, you should be striving to stay happy; if you are not happy you should be pursuing that happy!


Every day I should make a list of at least 5 things that make me happy. And I cannot repeat items for a week! Good goal!

Wake up and be AMAZING!

Wake up, America. 

It's morning. 

And morning is amazing

It's when we charge into the future

When we blasted off for the moon

Scaled the highest peak

And flew for the very first time

Morning starts and changes everything

It's a clean slate

A fresh start

So come, Dreamers

And Trailblazers

Champions

Come, Builders

It's morning

Wake up ..... and be AMAZING.