Back on the Air

OK. I'm finished with my break for the moment. Every month I get this wave of horomones that take everything out of me. I mean it's a struggle for me to get up and shower. I have zero energy when that happens so forgive when I take large breaks. It's just me trying to recover. Anyway...

We had such a good time in Montana. So good in fact that I gave myself permission to take a break. I only took 3 pictures while I there. All 3 are of a double rainbow that we got after a thunder storm. I took 2 more on the drive home. Both are of Mt. Rainier from eastern Washington. I never see it from that side so that was pretty cool.

We got there on Friday evening and just laid around after the 8 hour drive. It took longer than usual with the dogs. We had to drug Angus to make the trip easier. He gets pretty severe car anxiety and my vet gave me something just to take the edge off. He was out of it most of the day.

We mostly spent our time sitting around. We did go to the Sanders County Fair. It was just a little fair but full of the small town charm. I had such a good time. I got to play farm girl for a few days and fed the cows and chickens.

All and all it was super relaxing and we didn't want to leave, but real life was calling us so we had too. The dogs had a blast and I think in a lot of ways they had more fun then we did.

Tomorrow is my 27th birthday. I've been pondering what that means for me exactly and I'm not happy about it. But I'll take it in stride, like I always do. I've always loved my birthday. I'm hoping certain people will pull through for me this year. * nudge-nudge, wink-wink*

We're back

We came home last night and we're still pretty wiped after a 7 hour drive home from Montana. So, I thought I'd show you the pictures from the baseball game my sister and I went to last week.

We don't get to spend much time together and it was a blast to finally get to see her for more than an hour at a time when I stop at Mom's house.

The view from our seats and the Mariner's dugout:



After that, we sort of just played around and took pictures of ourselves. Thanks for coming with me sister, I had a great time.

Puppy Cuteness

We came home yesterday after a weekend with my in laws. I should be good for a while. We went to the zoo and went blackberry picking. We picked so many blackberries that we were able to make 3 pies, 12 jars of jam, and my mother in law still had enough left to freeze some to take home with her.

We'll be heading over to Montana on Friday to spend Labor Day weekend with her and we'll be coming home on Tuesday. The dogs will be coming with us which is exciting. Angus hasn't been over yet and Dove hasn't been since she was 5 months old. They'll have a good time I'm sure.

I managed to take a few pictures of the puppies while I was at my BIL's. They're 4 weeks now and as cute as can be. I even have a favorite.


He's as cute as can be. My neice named him Hank. If I didn't already have dogs, I would bring him home. He has the best personality out of all them, I think. But I don't really want anymore so I'll just enjoy him for the next few weeks and someone else can love on him after that.

Here's the rest of the litter:


Enjoy your Tuesday.

Busy

My mother in law came into town last night and we went down to see her. She lives in Montana and trys to make it over every few months to see everyone. We'll be staying down with her this weekend at my brother in law's house. That works well for me since I'll get to see the puppy cuteness everyday for a few days, and I'll be sure to take new pictures of the babies and post them here on Monday. Since we'll be gone, I hope everyone has a good weekend and I'll blog on Monday.

Here's some new pictures of the puppies I took just a few days ago. They'll never stop being cute.

Se7en

I was tagged my asthmagirl to do the seven. I'd like to let it be known that I'm not great with these and I do embarrass myself often when I take questionnaires. So here I go....

Se7en

7 things I plan to do before I die

1) Go to Scotland

2) Have my own farm. Possibly in Montana.

3) Have a family

4) Learn to Salsa dance

5) See a Kentucky Derby in person

6) Go to Australia

7) Ride on an Airplain. Otherwise it would be a long swim to Australia.

7 things I can do

1) Make a fabulous garlic bread

2) Be a good listener and problem solver

3) A word find

4) Train dogs

5) Keep a Betta alive

6) Clean the house in 3 hours

7) Make my own household cleaners

7 things I cannot do

1) Handle a spider in my house

2) Drive a stick shift

3) Wear a bikini

4) Stop looking at and petting my dogs

5) Go a day without a shower

6) Spend a day without my husband

7) Go without a bra

7 things that attract me to the opposite sex

1) Make me laugh

2) Intelligence

3) Inner Strength

4) Can go anywhere at the drop of a hat

5) Loves Dogs

6) Can sit and enjoy a quiet moment

7) Confidence

7 things I say most often

1) Noooo! (think Rachel from friends)

2) Dovey Dog!

3) Mini Mini! (Angus' nickname)

4) Your what hurts?

5) Stop doing that!

6) Leave it alone!

7) Do I have to?

7 celebrity crushes

1) Robert Pattison (He plays Edward in the new Twilight movie)

2) Leo Dicaprio (Titanic)

3) Val Kilmer (in Batman)

4) Orlando Bloom

5) Patrick Swayze (Dirty Dancing)

6) Jason Statham

7) US Olympic Men's Swim Team


This was hard to do. But hopefully now you know a little more about me. Thanks Asthmagirl.

Tired

I'm exhausted today. I'm not entirely sure why. I think it was because of all the hoopla yesterday with my interview. I'm not expecting to hear back from them until next week at the earliest. I'm sure they've got a bunch more people to talk to.

I think it'll be a pretty good job for me. The only thing I'm not looking forward to is giving shots. I don't like them and I'm not sure I could ever do it. But only time will tell I guess.

I've got a ton of stuff to catch up on at home today, as much as I would like to just have a chill out day, that's just not gonna happen.

Nerves

I've got an interview this morning with a vet's office. I'm applying for a vet kennel assistant position and I think I've got a good shot at it. I have to run out the door now but I'll let you know how it went. Wish me luck.

Update: Everything went really well. So good in fact that I got a second interview! YAY! I'll let you know when I get that set up.

History

I would just like to start out by saying that watching Michael Phelps this last week has been the most amazing thing I've ever seen. I think he's the greatest athlete I've ever seen and I couldn't be more proud if I wanted to be. Congrats Michael!

OK, now that that's out of my system. The last few days here have been overwhelmingly hot. Much hotter than normal. But I'm trying not to complain too much. February will be here before I know it and we'll all be bitching about the rain and cold. So enjoy it while it's here people!

In the mean time, take some time to enjoy the small things today. Like this flower we snapped while in Oregon.

Enjoy your Sunday.


Update: I was woken up at about 4 am from some wicked heat lightning that parked over our house. It's so strange to have the thunder and lightning without the rain. This is very strange weather.

Puppy Fix

And now for something much cuter than a big hairy spider.

My brother-in-law's Lab had a litter of 6 a few weeks ago. I saw them first about 4 days after they were born, and we just saw them again on Sunday. I figured we'd go back every week or so and show how fast they're growing and how very cute they are. My niece and nephew are in the pictures too. So, enjoy the 2 week old puppy cuteness.

Spider Attack

That's something a lot of people know about me. I'm deathly afraid of spiders. I've heard all the reasons I shouldn't be afraid, and I'm here to tell you that it doesn't make a bit of difference. They can go be helpful and eat bugs outside. They do no good in my bedroom at 1 am.

Normally I can handle a spider attack and be ok after a while, but this was not a normal spider. It was a giant, brown, hairy, toxic waste spitting spider. It was so bad that I woke Ogre up at that ungodly hour to go in the bedroom and kill it for me. At that moment I had enough brain capacity to go "This would be a great blog topic." So I grabbed my camera and took pictures of him before Ogre squished the life out of him.

This is him from across the room about 2 feet from my bed. He could have killed me at any moment.

This is him with as much zoom as the camera could go. Notice how he's only got 3 legs on one side, he left the other one in my bathroom a week ago.

This isn't the first spider attack in a while. This is in fact the 3rd spider attack in 4 nights. All of them emerged in the twilight hours while I read, waiting for me to fall asleep so they could strike.

I was so freaked out after this that I had to sleep out in the living room with Ogre and the dogs. I still can't even really go in the bedroom or bathroom without checking the perimeter for spiders. I hope they stay outside so hubby won't have to keep getting up at 1 am to squish spiders for me.

Now I hope you all understand if I never come back to this post because just posting the pictures is setting my alarms off and I never want to see that hideous thing again. I'm going to go attempt to scrub myself clean with bleach and ajax, it gave me that bad a case of the heebie jeebies.

Update: I showed this to one of my friends, and she counted the legs and that spider does in fact have 8 legs. Which means there is still a 7 legged spider some where in my house. I may have to move.

Walk the walk

Good news from my end. I've been walking the dogs lately, and I'm finding that i really enjoy it. I mean don't get me wrong, I come home all sweaty and gross, but I'm finding myself feeling better coming home then I did before I left. The dogs are really enjoying it too. They look forward to getting out as much as I do. Hopefully I'll keep up with it and shag a little weight off my behind.

Another lovely little picture I took while in Rockaway. This is one of my favorites.

Cheese

About 15 miles south of Rockaway is the town of Tillamook. The land of cheese, trees and ocean breeze. For those of you that don't know, Tillamook is world famous for Tillamook cheese. Every time we go, we stop at the cheese factory. I've done this since I was a kid and my parents took me.




They have a great gift shop and free samples of cheese, which I have to say is my favorite food group. When you go upstairs you get to watch people make and package the cheese, always fun to watch.


Of course they don't do just cheese, but an array of diary products which are very tasty, and in fact, we actually only buy tillamook cheese and ice cream. I find it to be far superior to other brands. I'm sort of a dairy snob.

If you ever stop in Tillamook, go there. It's fab.

The Trip

For those of you who have never had the joy of going to the Oregon coast, I have a little photographic tour so show you just how amazing it is.

We went to Rockaway Beach, Oregon. Which is about 200 miles and a 4 hour drive away from where we live. We ended up taking 101 south the whole way, which I rather enjoy. I think it's the most scenic route but it's definitely slower than I-5.

When we left home it was cold and drizzly, but had cleared up and was beautiful just as we reached the top of Neahkahnie Mountain. The views are spectacular.


We got into town safely and got to our condo that we had rented while we were there. It's right downtown with a lovely ocean front view. After we'd checked it out, we went back downstairs to unload the car and passed another family who was going to their place. When we went back to the condo, the same family was unlocking the door to the condo we rented. We told her that we had rented that one and she informed us that she owned that condo, had a timeshare and that we would have to leave. Essentially telling us to go away and fend for ourselves. Once she found out that we'd already been inside and that we had no intention of leaving, she stomped off to the realtor that rented the condo out to find out what was going on.

We called her too after the obnoxious woman had left and Barb (the realtor) told us she was on her way to the office now to find out what was going on. She told us she'd call us back in about 15 minutes. 10 minutes later the obnoxious woman came back, told that there had been a misunderstanding and that Barb was looking for another place for us to stay.

We went to Barb's office, which was right across the street and found out that woman showed up at the last minute without calling to find out if the condo had been rented. We had wondered if they had double booked it and just didn't say anything. That was not the case at all. In fact this was the first time that anything like that had happened to them. She really bent over backwards to find us a great place and make sure we were satisfied. She found a great ocean view house for no extra charge, and in fact, she paid the difference for the house and paid for use of the hot tub as well. I couldn't speak anymore highly of Barb and her company. In fact, she told us that because of what happened to us, she will no longer rent out that condo, so that what happened to us won't happen to anyone else.

Here's where we were suppose to stay:
http://www.tcroman.com/V1040/V1040.htm

Here's where we ended up staying:
http://www.obvr.com/greatescape/greatescape.php

We clearly traded up. I sent her a great email to thank her for what she did. Companies generally only hear from people if something goes wrong, rarely do they hear if their company went above and beyond and did the very best they could in a difficult situation.

Once that passed we did what we usually do, beach, cheese factory and what not. But that's all for tomorrow.

Home Again, Home Again

We made it home safely at about 10:30 on Monday night. We're still pretty exhausted from the vacation and traveling so until later when I get my groove back, here's a lovely picture we took while in Oregon.

Wait until you hear the stories.....Well, just the one story.

On our way

We're on our way home today. We may stop and do something along the way, not exactly sure as my psychic abilities aren't developed yet. We'll probably get in late tonight, and we still have to pick up the dogs on the way home. I'll tell you all about our fabulous adventures tomorrow as well as showing you all some fab pictures. See you tomorrow!

A new obsession

I've had various things that I've obsessed over in my life, I had a brief thing with the Lord of the Rings movies, still some of the best movies ever made. I also, being a young girl, had various obsessions with boys in hollywood. But nothing could possibly top the one I had with the Backstreet Boys. It started when I was 16 and ended when I was a little past 18, with the introduction of a real life boyfriend. It encompassed all aspects of my life, just ask the bff, she was right there with me. But after that, I never really had anything that again. I had things I liked, things I enjoyed, somethings I thought were pretty great. But, ladies and gentleman, Pinup Girl has aquired a new one: the Twilight book series.

I have several friends in their early teens all the way into their early 20's and they were all talking about this book called Twilight. After DAYS of having to listen to them, I decided I would pick up the first book and see if I liked it. I ended up getting the first 2 and finished them both 36 hours later. That's 1061 pages. Yes, I actually added up the pages. I'm most of the way through the 3rd book, and the fourth and last book comes out August 2nd. Guess who's going to be at the bookstore at midnight to buy it? I really don't think I need to hand you that obvious answer.

I will not give you plot or characters or anything like that. I will say that it's based in the little town of Forks, which is close to me. I'll also say that while it's geared towards teens, the subject matter can be considered for people older than that. The books are not for everyone, of course, but if you're opened minded you'll really enjoy it, I think.

There are 4 books all together: Twilight, New Moon, Eclipse, and Breaking Dawn. They are written by Stephenie Meyer and you can find them at any major bookstore right now. So, if you're looking for an easy read that sucks you right in, these might work for you.

I hope so, I'm tired of being the only one around me locally that reads these.

Outakes

Things are always pretty funny when I get together with my family. We joke and laugh together and of course the hilarity ensues, so with that I give you the birthday party outtake pictures. With a few faces you might recognize.



And of course, a few shots of the birthday girl.


Just remember family, I love you very much and you can yell at me when I get back.

When did that happen?

I'm the oldest of 3 kids, I'm in my late 20's, the middle one recently turned 22 and now my youngest sister just turned 18, on Sunday. This of course brought it all home of just how old I am now. I remember vividly my mom and dad bringing her home as a baby. She was great. I bonded with her really strongly despite the 8 year age difference. And now here she is, a legal adult, able to do things that I think she shouldn't because in my mind she continues to be the 4 year old that I took care of because my parents were working.

So I want the know when the hell this happened. I feel like I was just in middle school. The BFF and I running to the playground to swing. And now I'm suddenly approaching 30 *gasp* and wondering why I can't stop time and just enjoy life for a moment. But time refuses to listen to me and the years keep going by faster and faster.

I'm wondering why at 26, I feel so old.

Suprise!

Ogre and I are headed to the lovely Oregon Coast. We just decided to go one night and found a condo to rent on the beach with 2 weeks notice. How lucky was that. We're leaving Friday morning and we'll be back Monday night. The doggies won't be coming with us, they'll be playing and running around on a farm while we're gone, and hopefully exhausted when we come back. People have asked us why we're not bringing them and I equate it with taking kids on vacation. (Bear in mind, I have no children) It's fun to take the kids and you'll still have fun, but you can't do everything you'd like cause you have them with you.

So, I've set up a couple of posts to 'go off' while we're gone, and I would ask one tiny favor. What would you like to know about Pinup Girl? What should I blog about? Frankly, I'm still pretty new to this so I'm fast running out of things to discuss.

I'll leave you with this lovely picture we took years ago on our 1 year anniversary to Rockaway Beach, OR.