Every year I want to make lots of treats and give them to people for Christmas. But every year, I have too much going on and my kitchen is too small. But not this year! Michelle and I got together last week and made Christmas Candy to give to people. We made chocolate covered pretzels, caramels, fudge, toffee, and peanut butter balls. It was fun and I hope it all tasted as good as it was supposed to!
I guess this is what it's come down to. Somehow the days of saying "Merry Christmas" to anyone you meet without questioning whether or not you have offended them are a thing of the past. In the last few years, I have started looking for items or displays in stores that mention Christmas, not just the holidays. I get really excited when I actually see the word "Christmas" anymore.
So I'm sitting here in my office the other day and I see a couple ants crawling around on the floor. No big deal, but I wanted to get rid of them. So, I immediately put in a service request to pest control. But, they haven't come yet. Yesterday I come in and I look down and there is a trail of ants marching in through a tiny crack in our wood floor and up my file cabinet. Then at a closer look I see them marching up Joel's desk too. So, I grabbed the closest thing to me - which happened to be some fabric freshening spray - and I start spraying away at the ants. When I came back a couple of hours later they were mostly gone. Now I am in here and there are even more than yesterday and they are exploring even more territory. My walls, my desk, my printer, my scrap booking stuff. It's really disgusting and I don't even know where to start to get rid of them. I do not have time to fight with the ants today! I guess they win...until pest control gets here.
Point of IntrusionWell, not together, but it was the first Thanksgiving where we cooked a turkey and all the sides (along with Dan and Michelle's help) so it must be documented.
We spent Thanksgiving with our friends, the Wildes. They came over Wednesday night to make pies. Well, the girls made pies while the boys played Xbox. We made five pies to share between the four of us. We like pie I guess. Thursday Dan and Michelle came over around 10:30 and the girls worked in the kitchen while the boys studied. However, Dan and Joel did find it very important that they be in charge of the mashed potatoes and gravy, so we let them do that. They both turned out to be delicious. After we ate we all relaxed and watched "Bewitched" and then "Charlie Brown's Thanksgiving". It was a very low-key Thanksgiving, but we really enjoyed it and we were blessed to have such good friends to spend it with.
This was on my friend Catheryne's blog and I thought I'd do it too.
Here are the rules...
1. As a comment on my blog, leave one memory that you and I have together. It doesn't matter if you knew me a little or a lot, anything you remember!
2. Next, re-post these instructions on your blog and see how many people leave a memory about you. It's actually pretty funny to see the responses. If you leave a memory about me, I'll assume you're playing the game and I'll come to your blog and leave one about you. If you don't want to play on your blog, or if you don't have a blog, I'll leave my memory of you in my comments. We all have some sort of memory... SO DO IT :)
This year for the first time ever in our married lives Joel and I dressed up for Halloween AND we had a Halloween party. It was so much fun to dress up and to come up with cute costumes out the of the stuff we had lying around the house. We dressed up as Popeye and Olive Oyl. And I have to say that I think our costumes turned out to be pretty darn cute. The only thing we had to buy was some dried corn on the cob for Popeye's corn cob pipe and a can of spinach for Popeye.
Some of our guests were...
I had a birthday. That's right, it came again this year. I'm hoping this is that last year that it comes because if it comes again next year I will be 30 and that means I have to be responsible and a lot more grown up than I am - I think. Maybe not.
Anyway, it was a nice day for a birthday. I woke up at 4:30am as Joel's alarm went off. He got up and I rolled over to find a very sweet birthday card and a box of Ferrero Rocher chocolates - my favorite. So I got up to give him a hug and tell him thanks. He also bought me a dock for my iPod, something I have been wanting for a while. I climbed back in bed to sleep in and soon I was awakened again by a phone call from Joel telling me that he was stranded on the freeway and needed me to come and get him and they guy he carpools with. So at 5:10am I was out the door in my jammies driving down the freeway to pick up him and Mike. They drove me back home and then went to work from there.
The rest of the day was spent lounging around the house doing not much of anything. Oh yeah, I did get some birthday phone calls, text messages, emails, cards, and gifts - thank you everybody! Then Joel came home and we went to the store to get the stuff for the ice cream cake he was going to make me. Then we came home and I made dinner and helped him with the ice cream cake. We had our friends the Wildes and the Gimbles over for cake and just sat around the table chatting for a couple hours. It's nice to have good friends. It makes getting older seem to be not so bad. For now :)
Even though I'm starting to dread them, with each birthday I have I feel blessed to be alive and to have the life that I do and to know the people I love. I have the best husband in the world and the greatest friends and family that a girl could ask for!
The week after my sisters and nieces left I flew out to Boston to work at a conference for my previous employer (from the job I had in Boise which I loved and miss terribly...). Flying from California to Boston takes a long time. Longer than I thought it would. Anyway, after a long flight with a short layover (thank goodness it was short) I arrived in Boston. It was dark so I couldn't see much on my way to the hotel. There were some baseball playoffs going on though so there were tons of people out and about. And actually I do remember that at one point I looked out the window and the sun was just about to set. We were driving by a park and there were children playing soccer and a young couple running. She was running forward and he was in front of her running backwards (and at a surprisingly fast speed without appearing to be making any effort at all - I am such a klutz I could never do that...). It just felt like a scene from a movie with the park and the sunset and the lights from the soccer field and the trees with the colored leaves.
Well, as exciting as going to Boston sounds, I don't really have anything else too interesting to report. I had a nice time but mostly I was just working long days, getting enough time to eat some dinner, go to bed, and get up early the next morning to start allover again. I was there for five days with that schedule. Even though I didn't really get to see much of the city it was still nice to go back to working with Stacee for a few days. It made me remember how much I loved the job I had in Boise and that I do miss working sometimes. But, me having a job just isn't in the plan for us right now so I'll just reminisce about when I used to have a job and not just any job, but a job that I loved...
Oh wait, I just remembered that I do have a funny story. At least I think it's funny. So, the conference we were working at was for the American College of Veterinary Ophthalmologists. Yes, that's right - eye doctors for animals. Anyhoo, one of the classes being given was a wet lab including refrigerated eye balls (from cows who had been freshly slaughtered the day before - sorry for the image). So, the eye balls arrived and the box was wet on the bottom. We were worried that the eye balls were leaking or something so I sent a text message to the doctor in charge that said "Hi Dr. X, it's Dacia. The eye balls are here but they are leaking. Help!" So I am waiting for Dr. X to respond low and behold I get a phone call. I answer it, and the person on the other line says, "I don't know why you have my number. I'm sorry your eyeballs are leaking, but I'm not Dr. X." It turns out that the phone number we had was one digit off. I can't imagine what that person thought we were doing with eyeballs, but I'm sure they thought it was very strange.
So my two lovely sisters Lacy and Tabrina came to visit us in October and they brought along two of Lacy's children Savannah and Sophie. We were so excited to have them come and stay with us and I'm so glad they did! Some of the things we did together were:
San Francisco
Anyone interested in visiting us?
Sometimes when you meet a person, you just know that you were meant to be friends, or that you have always been friends but you have just been lost to each other for a long time. That's how I felt when I moved here and met Brittany. She came into my life and just brightened everything so much and taught me so many things. And the best part about her is that I don't think she ever knew how much she was doing for me.
Sadly, she moved just a couple of months after we met, just a part of military life, but we plan to stay friends forever! I miss you Britt!
One of my biggest phobias is being out in the middle of an ocean or a lake. It gives me a lot of anxiety for some reason. So, when our friends suggested we go kayaking in the ocean I thought it sounded like fun but I was a little worried about how I would handle it. I'm happy to say that it turned out to be fun instead of terrifying and I'm so glad we went! Since I am the biggest baby on the face of the earth when it comes to water I wanted to share a double kayak with Joel instead of using my own. He was a good kayaking buddy and never tried to flip us over, but I think next time I'll just have my own kayak so that I have more control.
Joel and me in our kayak.
A sea otter taking a peak at us.
Our friends the Taylors and the Wildes in their solo kayaks.
Brittany, me, and Michelle in all our gear.
Our green green grass
(if you look hard you can see some wild turkeys across the street)
African Daisies transplanted from the Taylors' flowerbed.
Joel's homegrown spinach
Strawberries . . . not ripe yet, but YUM!
Farmer Joel hard at work
One of my favorite things to do is decorate. I love it more than almost anything else. When we moved here we didn't have anything for our living room (the place where we were living before was furnished). Well, we had an old TV and that's about it. So we did some shopping around and were able to find some good deals and put together a cute living area.
Joel assembling our ready-to-assemble couch from HomeReserve.com
Ta-Da! The finished product
(pillows and footrest sold separately - at Wal-Mart, Target, and Ross to be specific)
The other side of the living room
(black sofa found on Craig's list)
Living room wall grouping
(paintings by yours truly, clock is from Target)
Now for the dining area. We've had our kitchen table - which belonged to my parents before - for about four years now. I was ready for a bit of a change so we went to Home Depot and bought some aqua spray paint and away I went at spray painting the table, chairs, and bar stools. After spray painting the table I thought it needed something more, so I painted a design in the center. I am quite pleased with the outcome. Joel was a little skeptical of the idea but was happy with it after I was finished. I think it looks really cute with our living room furniture and decor too. I also added a curtain to the bar and did some paintings for the dining area. There are three above the bar and one on the wall next to the table. Pictures are below.
And last but not least, our bedroom. I really wanted a new comforter set and bedroom decor so Joel let me get that for our anniversary. I bought the comforter set at Target with a gift certificate from my previous employer, Meetings Etc., and I found the blue lamps at Big Lots. I had made those paintings for the living room we had in Boise, but they went perfectly with our new bedroom decor so I put them in our bedroom here. There's also a brown bed skirt on the bed, but I couldn't get far back enough to get that into the shot. The end tables used to be in my parents' bedroom when I was a kid so they're very nostalgic for me.
We hope you've enjoyed the 50 cent tour of our home!
Yes, I'm still alive, but I've kind of forgotten about our blog lately. I plan to post some things here soon so please check back in the next week or so for updates from the last month. Sorry I've been so lame!
I am a sucker for fairy tales, but I never thought I'd be in one. Lately I'm beginning to wonder. . .
Without even trying I seem to be summoning all kinds of creatures to my front door just like all those singing princesses in the Disney movies, only I'm not singing for the animals to come. I'm just watering my grass. In fact, maybe if I did sing they would all go away and leave me and my yard alone!
Last week I finally got around to planting some herbs and some small flowers in front of our house. I was so proud of what I had done so I went out to check on everything the next morning and this is what I found.
Yes, those are deer tracks and they are right in my "flower bed" (the flowers are almost non-existent and therefore not in this photo) about five feet from my front door. The next morning Joel saw three buck in our yard eating our grass before he left for work. We also have a tribe of gophers who do a wonderful job of digging holes in our yard and also eat our grass, ground squirrels who do the same, and birds (everything from beautiful blue birds and big fat black crows) that eat our grass seed before it has a chance to sprout into grass. Not to mention the skunks and raccoons that love to hang out in our neighborhood. The only thing we're missing are some fluffy bunnies. Don't get me wrong, I love wild animals, just not when they trample my flower bed and eat my grass. So I guess I'm not Snow White, because she probably wouldn't care about all that. . .
I am beginning to love living here because I can go to the beach whenever I want to and not wonder when I will be able to go again. Anyway, my cousin Abby and her adorable daughter Ava are in Palo Alto for a week or so and I was able to meet up with them in Santa Cruz the other day. After I put Abby through the torture of pushing Ava's stroller through a sandy trail leading to some redwoods just to snap a few pictures and then leave, we went to the beach. It was so nice to spend some time with Abby (and Ava). We used to be connected at the hip when we were kids and teenagers and then college, marriage, and a whole lot of distance happened and we just don't get to see each other that much anymore. Ava was very entertaining to watch on the beach too. She was so good and just had fun playing in the sand - and eating it along with her banana. I have never seen a child down a banana so fast - especially one covered in sand!
Hmmm... do sand and banana taste good together?
And the answer is - Yes, apparently they do.
Ava with her mommy
Ava with me - I think I'm having more fun than she is though :)
OK, so many of you know that I LOVE the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer and I have a borderline unhealthy obsession for it. If you didn't know that, then I guess you do now. Just because I am obsessed with it does not mean that I love every bit of every book. There are parts that bug me, but I still love it. The fourth book, Breaking Dawn, came out August 2nd and I read it in about three or four days, which is pretty fast for me. It was not what I expected at all but I really loved it. There were a couple of things that happened that totally took me by surprise and a few things that were somewhat predictable. For the most part I was really surprised though. I'm not going to say what happened in the book because I don't want to spoil it for anyone who hasn't read it yet. If you haven't read the Twilight Series by Stephenie Meyer you should at least try it. Sorry if you hate it, but you might love it just as much as I do!
We had some beautiful weather here over the weekend and spent most of the day outside on Saturday. We ran errands and washed our car in our driveway. I was very excited about that because it hasn't been washed in about a year, I'm not exaggerating. So it looks nice and shiny now.
We met up with some friends at a park in the afternoon and had a BBQ with hamburgers, hot dogs, and chicken. Everyone brought yummy food and we had a lot of fun there. After eating we played bachi ball. It was my first time playing it and it was so much fun. We played boys against girls and the girls were winning for most of the game but the boys made a come back at the end and beat us by two points. I think it would be a fun game to play on the beach too. The couple who invited us brought their pit bull and I actually like her a lot for not being a huge pet person. It was fun to watch her. She's a friendly and playful dog.
After the park we drove over to an "abandoned" beach with the same friends and just hung out on the beach walking around and scavenging for shells and stuff. We had to park our cars in front of an underpass that is now blocked off and walk down an old road to get to the cliffs above the beach. Then we hiked down the cliffs, but it is a pretty easy hike because it's all sand so it's easy to keep from sliding. The beach and land around it used to be used by the military as training grounds. That's why it's abandoned. It's a really pretty beach with the sand dune cliffs behind it and there aren't a lot of people on it which is nice. We stayed there for a few hours. The boys ran up the cliffs and jumped off. Here are some pictures from our evening at the beach.
Checking out the jump
Down they go - wait - Joel is still thinking about it. . .
And Joel takes his jump too!
Coming back from checking out other parts of the beach.
All six of us
Just us girls - Me, Britt, and Michelle
Just a little update here. I am still staying at home and loving it. We have made some friends lately and it has been nice to spend time with other couples. One of the couples will only be here till October so I'm sad about that. I've been spending a lot of time with the wife of that couple because she stays home too and they don't have any kids either and we hit it off pretty well I think. It's been fun to spend time with another girl!
The weather was beautiful on Saturday so we were outside working in our yard and making a garden. We had to dig up dead grass with a shovel and then pull it out of the garden spot with a rake. They don't have any rota tillers here so that's why we had to do it that way. We didn't plant anything yet because we want to get the ground nice and moist first. Hopefully we will start planting sometime this week. Our lawn is all dried out so we I'm going to start watering and hope to have green grass in a month or so. I'll post some pictures once it looks nice.
That's it for the update!
This is in response to the comments I received regarding my blog background etc. It started out as a reply comment, but got way too long so now it's a post!
I probably spent way too much time making my blog cute while I was procrastinating on doing other things that I really needed to do but didn't want to do. Anyway, I found the paper and stuff a http://www.shabbyprincess.com/. They have free digital scrap booking downloads. Then I found instructions on how to create a blog spread on thecutestblogontheblock.com. I spent hours creating my background only to have it not work. But, their website did talk about a free program called Paint.NET which I used to create my header. The website that ultimately helped me figure out how to put it all together and get it on my blog successfully was sjhblogdesign.blogspot.com. But, The Cutest Blog on the Block and Lee Lou blogs both have some really cute backgrounds already if you don't want to spend time creating a background. You could just spend all your precious time creating a cute header to match your background which is what I would do in hindsight. I am by no means an expert, I just love designing and creating!
Joel with his birthday cake at our quiet little birthday party.
Enjoying his ice cream cake!
