We can do it, yes we can!

Chris and I started the exercise Program P90X several months ago.  It’s a 90 day program and we were supposed to be done sometime in November.  A little after a month through the program, we both got sick.  After not working out for a week, it was very hard for us to start up again.  It was really hard to be motivated for it, especially since the workouts were an hour long, 6 days a week.  We looked into something more cardio based to start off with and found Insanity.  It’s a 60 day program and we’re on week 2.  The workouts are only 40 minutes and a lot more intense.  P90X seemed to be more for building muscle where as this one seems to be more for losing weight.  We plan on starting P90X back up again once we finish Insanity.  I’ll keep you updated on how it’s going.  We have our fit test next Tuesday.  Hopefully the results are positive (goes without saying, but still had to be said). 

For Thanksgiving, we had planned to go to Portland to visit Chris’ Aunt and Uncle.  That didn’t happen because of the fact that we got snow a couple of days before and we live on top of a hill.  The snow finally started to melt the afternoon of Thanksgiving, but by then it was too late to make it.  We’re planning on having Christmas dinner with them.

My dad and sister are picking up a chocolate lab puppy for us tonight!  My dad’s going to raise it until we get back from Belfast.  We have our reasons for doing it this way than getting a puppy when we get back.  We’re hoping his chocolate lab (who’s 14 months) will teach it good manners.  We’re also hoping they’ll wear each other out.  More to come later (with adorable pictures!).

So much for updating often

We’re still in the U.S. and have no idea when we’re going to Belfast. 

News from the past few months:

-  Chris’ parents moved to Arkansas.  My dad said that it was because I moved to Washington.  Perhaps…

-  I went to Arizona the end of July for a couple of weeks (it was so much fun to see everyone again)

-  Chris’ sister is living with us now.  Originally we were supposed to be in Belfast and she was going to look after the cats and the house.

-  Chris and I celebrated our 1 year anniversary by going to a lodge & spa for a night.  It was a lot of fun.

-  We haven’t really done too much or planned anything because of the fact that we were supposed to be in Belfast last July.  Our lives our currently on hold (or so it seems).

-  We did end up getting a new fridge when I found out that we weren’t going to be leaving for at least a few months.  The people we got the house from took their fridge with them and put in a crappy one from the 70’s that was not energy efficient.  Now we have a nice French door one.

-  Our dryer started making funny noises.  We are planning to buy a new washer and dryer once we get back from Belfast, so this was horrible news.  I did a little research and figured out that we just need to take it apart and put some WD-40 in certain areas.  Luckily, we haven’t had any problems since.  I just hope it will last another year without any problems!

-  I have so many plans for our yard area.  I can’t do anything until we get back from Belfast, so it’s been frustrating.  We want to fence the rest of our backyard and I want to put a white picket fence around our front yard.  I also want to put retaining walls up for our side yard and plant fruits and vegetables.  I also have big plans for a deck in our back yard, but that won’t be happening for a while.

-  I’ve been baking and cooking lately (once in a great while).  I enjoy it, but I hate how dirty our kitchen gets (and I hate cooking/baking in a dirty kitchen, which is usually how our kitchen is).

-  We installed a kitty door panel (it goes where the sliding door would go) for the cats to go out to the balcony.  Before I would just leave the sliding door open enough for them, but I started looking for another way because I would get bugs in the house.  The first month or so I would leave the flap open during the day for the cats.  I tried training them a few times, but it didn’t work out so well.  One morning, because I guess I wasn’t up early enough, Rigby managed to figure out how to go outside.  Chris’ sister got to witness this milestone.  Marvin eventually figured it out as well, so I no longer need to leave the flap open the flap for them.  A few weeks ago a raccoon had managed to get on our balcony (great feat seeing how we have netting over the top).  After that, I’ve been locking the flap at night.

-  I planted most of my spring bulbs, which I probably won’t get to see. 

Job!

Here I was trying to be good about updating.  It's been more than a month...

I do have a pretty good excuse, though.  I have a job now!  I started the beginning of April and have been sooo busy with that.  I work for the U.S. Census Bureau working on the decennial census.  I get to supervise the people who go out and interview the households that did not return their questionnaire (or return it in time).

I really enjoy it.  I was surprised by how much I like teaching.  It's actually made me think about getting my teaching certificate and trying that out.  We'll see, though.  That would be a ways away.  It's nice to have something to do again.  This job is perfect because it ends this summer, just in time before we leave for Northern Ireland!  I'm actually going to be doing administrative type things for the project Chris is on (the whole reason why we'll be in Belfast).  I'm excited for that since it will give me something to do while Chris is at work and I'll get paid!

My little sister comes this Saturday to visit for almost two whole weeks!  Unfortunately, since I'm working full time, we won't be able to do some of the things we planned on (like going to Canada since we both have never been).  

Oh, and my tulips in my garden look great (minus all the weeds that we have since I haven't had time to pull them, much less clean in general). 

Spring!

My flowers are coming up!  These pictures were taken a week ago.  In the first picture, it is obvious that the deer like my flowers.  I put up netting around the flower bed and it's helped so far.  The rest of my hyacinths have opened up.  They look very nice.  It's raining, hence why I don't have an updated picture of the flowers.

Tulips Hyacinths

I also used the netting to put around the balcony that's off our kitchen.  I created a little outdoor area for the kitties.  They really enjoy it. 

Lastly, I finished my Wilton Cake Decorating Class at Michael's last Friday.  It also happened to be our 6 month anniversary.  I surprised Chris with this awesome cake that I made.  Who would've guessed that I could make something like this.  And after 4 classes!

It was my first attempt at making the full rose.  And he loved the bouquet so much!  Chris didn't want to cut into the cake.  I had a lot of fun taking that class, though it was a lot of cake that we had the past month.  Who knows how many pounds I've gained because of it.  I plan on continuing on at some point with the next class.

Decorations and Birthday Fun

Chris and I finally started decorating our house!  It's definitely starting to look more like a home.

Wine rack

Hallway Pictures    I really like how it turned out

Hallway pictures between rooms

Our bedroom

Downstairs

I started the first Wilton Cake Decorating class at Michael's in the beginning of March.  Last weekend his family came over to celebrate his dad's birthday.  I made and decorated my first cake for the occasion!  Chris cooked the meal while I got everything set up.  The whole thing turned out great.

My flowers have started to come up!  The only problem is that the deer also like them.  I went looking at them one day and some of my irises were cut in half!  Every day since then more and more are missing parts.  I'm going to put a net around it to see if that will solve it temporarily.  They apparently don't like daffodils.  Thank goodness I can have some flowers if everything else gets eaten.  They also like tulips, which I planted late and are just starting to come out.  Who knows how long it will be until those start going, too.  Next time I'll post a picture of the flower bed and my newest project.

Our House

I love our house, though there are a few little things that need fixed.  We have the "man cave" downstairs as well as a 1/2 bathroom with a washer and dryer.  Upstairs we have the living room, kitchen, and small dining area with a sliding door that leads out to a small balcony.  On the other part of the house we have 3 bedrooms and 2 bathrooms.  One of the bedrooms is currently our office.  The other one is the guest bedroom, which is nice to have for when people visit.

I love having a window to look out of when I do dishes

Master bedroom

Guest bathroom

 Side yard.  We weren't aware at first that all that rock area was part of our property as well.  It's just so random.  I have no idea what I'm going to do with it yet.  Well, recently I've been thinking about putting a garden up there.  My other garden is the one in the middle of the grass with the gray sheet over it.

Back of the house.  Someday we plan on redoing the deck and putting in stairs. 

Our property is such a weird shape.  The house behind us has a yard that seems like it cuts into our yard (odd that they did it like that).  It's a V that comes to the side of our house (giving us about 5 feet of clearance to the back yard).  Our side yard seems so separate from everything else.  We have a raised garden bed, which took me several days to pull the weeds out of.  I planted several flower bulbs several months ago and they are starting to come out of the ground!  I planted the tulips late, so I hope that they will still grow. 

We've finally started decorating recently.  It's turning out well so far.  Next time I'll probably post pictures of what we've done so far.  It's mainly been putting up pictures in the hallway.  It finally is looking like someone actually lives here! 

The Season of Christmas

So the whole reason I was going to make a blog this time was to post pictures of my house for Lynette.  Funny thing is, I can't find them.  Yes, I could go outside right now and take a picture, but I'll save it for another day (sorry).  I have a bit to write about with updating anyway.  I still have the Christmastime and my birthday and snowshoeing. 

I really wanted to make a gingerbread house for our first Christmas.  Well, I want to get in the tradition of making one every year if we're here.  We had originally wanted to bake and design the gingerbread house ourselves.  Once it was a week until Christmas, I thought it to be a lost cause.  We went over to his friend's place to hang out where I saw their gingerbread house and was inspired.  Apparently Michael's had gingerbread kits on sale!  I went and stocked up on gingerbread house making stuff (molds, decorations, frosting designs, frosting tips, colors, etc).  We finished our house a few days before Christmas and were both impressed for our first house.

Christmas was fun.  Chris and I opened presents up in the morning and his family and friend of the family came over to our place for Christmas food and games.  We plan on spending Christmas with my family, but we couldn't afford it for our first year.  It was a very nice first Christmas together.  For the New Year, we had a few people come over.  Speaking of which, I had a couple of friends visit me during December and one the beginning of January.  That was fun.  Guess I have a lot more to update than I thought.

Marvin (the yellow cat) has been our expensive kitty lately.  We took him to the vet in December because he would bite his back pads on his foot and make them bleed (and getting blood all over my carpet).  I just wanted to make sure it wasn't infected.  It turns out his back lymph nodes were swollen.  Medication wasn't working so he got a biopsy on them a couple of weeks ago.  He also got a head cone because he was starting to bite his front foot and I didn't want more blood on the carpet.  He's ridiculous with that thing on.  It reminds me of Little Bo Beep (see picture below).  So the results of his biopsy were that they were filled with fat, because of an allergic thing.  At least he doesn't have lymphoma.  That would've been sad. 

I'll write about events from after New Year's on the next blog (along with pictures of my house, unless I make them separate).