New

Fall is my favorite season. So much to love about Fall!
The beautiful colors - the weather is down right awful where I'm from, but the foliage was gorgeous. For a week. Ha!
The scents - pumpkin, nutmeg and cinnamon yum
Warm clothes - can you say boyfriend cardigans?!
Another reason I love Fall time? I start work again (I'm off every summer). Money is always a good thing to have, no?

Since it is Fall time, that also means lots of birthdays/gifting is right around the corner. There are 13 birthdays from Oct-Dec in my immediate family/friends. Oy!
I am feeling pressure all around me to buy, buy, buy! This year my goal is to shop locally and only gift things that are of true function for the person on the receiving end. I'm sure I will succeed with this, although it might take a little extra planning/shopping time. I'm slowly working through my list and hope to be finished two weeks before Hanukkah & Christmas.

Since I am spending time/money on friends and family, I made the executive decision to buy some goodies for myself too.
Btw, I have this habit (which my therapist told me isn't good :p ) of putting everyone else in my life above my own self. All.The.Time.
I have been trying to work through this for months... unsuccessfully I might add. I'm trying to sneak in bits of "me time/appreciation" wherever I can, but it's so hard when I'm a mildly OCD stricken-people pleaser who expects nothing less than perfect for everyone/everything around me.
I'll consider this little shopping spree progress :)

New dress. I am seriously in love with purple. All shades. Almost every accessory/clothing item/purse/outerwear I've purchased/received in the past year has been purple. I can't get enough of the color. I wore this dress on an impromptu date night last week. Ryan loved it, I felt pretty, it was super cheap. 

Win-Win-Win

These boots I found in clearance on the Target site. I don't shop for shoes locally because I can hardly ever find a size 12. These aren't as cute as in the online photo (and the materials are CHEAP) - but they're black ankle boots, weren't a kajillion dollars and that's what I've been looking for.

Our book/movie/video game collection in the living room outgrew the shelf we had, so I picked out this one at the local furniture warehouse. I should have bought two. I wanted two, but I was trying to be frugal... they completely sold out that day (and come to find out, the manufacturer will not be making more). I'm so upset I didn't buy two. See where shopping responsibly gets you? Grr

When I sent a photo of the new shelf to my Momo (my mom), she asked if there was anything else I had had my eye on. In fact, yes, there was! I have needed a dining room set for a few years. At my old rental, the landlords had a set that we borrowed. After moving to the new condo, my Poppa lent me a card table. A couple of months ago I scored a free table off of Craigslist, but to be honest, I would have rather kept the card table. Ha.

My Momo (being the amazing person that she is) told me to come pick her up and we would go shop for a new dining set... her treat! Wow! Here it is folks...

I love it! My very own dining set! Isn't it funny what will excite you as an adult?. 

The support of the table is a four-leg storage pedestal (with two shelves). 

The chairs have leather seats. Ooh la la!

Psst Don't get leather furniture with a kitten in the house. Bad idea. Dutch's claws have already left a couple little punctures in the seats. Waah

I am very pleased with my finds and hope to have an update soon about some really neat local gifts for the holidays.

Happy Halloween!

It's that "sexy" time of year again...

Well, my blog followers, I'm sorry to say that you are about to read my first rant opinionated piece.
I wanted to make sure, when writing in this blog, that the content was light hearted. Interesting. A window into MY life... but without over sharing. Good goal, no?
I have seen too many blogs (and lately, FB updates. What's up with the Debbie Downers?) that have rants and raves, which honestly I don't mind too much, but a constant supply of negativity is never fun!

With that being said, and you fully warned, here I go!

October marks the beginning of my holiday season: Alaska Day, Halloween, Veterans Day, Thanksgiving, Hanukkah, MY BIRTHDAY, Christmas and New Years.
I really love all of these holidays, but my favorite of all, besides my birthday *hehe* has got to be Halloween... There's only one thing wrong with Halloween.

SEXY costumes. Uggh

I've never understood the need to dress up down for Halloween. Granted, it is more likely to want a costume that is flattering vs a gorey disgusting one, IMO there is no need to be showing as much skin as if you're in a bathing suit!

A good friend texted me the other day:
"Since when did this holiday give license for otherwise nice girls to be slutty? Save the slut for the bedroom!" HAHA
I share her view on costume choices 100%.

Why do women feel the need to sex up whatever their costume idea is? For example; why is it ok to dress up like a librarian, teacher, nun, kitty, mechanic, vampire or indian... but have the emphasis of the costume be on which body parts are showing, rather than using creativity?
Probably because these women are too worried about being judged for dressing so slutty any other day of the year. Well, news flash! Besides your s/o, creepers and Hugh Heffner (have you seen what his entourage wears on a daily basis?!) no one else wants to see your hoo hah and tits. Even on Halloween.

I was browsing a few costume websites the other day, in search of a costume for a friend. I hadn't looked for costumes online in a few years and was quite appalled at all of the crap that passes for a costume idea (not just on this one website!)

Here are a few of my favorites. Ha.

Sexy shark
Sexy mustard
Annie Annie is a CHILD!? WTF?
Sexy credit card, really? I didn't realize inanimate objects could be sexy
Sexy pineapple. What!? How is that possible? Pineapple is a fruit, and I'm almost positive that anyone who thought one was sexy, would be considered certifiable.

By now hopefully you can agree that people have reached an all new level of ridiculousness in thinking that anything can be made into a sexy costume.
If you want to be a pineapple, be a damn pineapple, minus the sex appeal.

Jewels of the Interweb

I might have too much time on my hands. You're welcome.

Seriously? I didn't know what to think about this one. I giggled a lot, and was actually surprised by their grace (cause if this was me, you best believe I'd be flat on my face in 2 bounces), but am impressed with the workout/choreography. Have any of you tried Kangoos?

This website always gives me a good chuckle. I personally try not to be passive-aggressive towards anyone because I had a 5 year relationship that was real tough because of it. This website though, oh man, I eat this up!

Winning! Or not!

These are all over Etsy. Eew.

Last, but certainly not least, I found this on Gawker. Saves me from having to post 100 links!

More fun when you're drunk?

I'm almost 27, and in my professional "grown up" opinion, I shouldn't be condoning drunken activity... but I firmly believe that any activity is better enjoyed with an alcoholic beverage in hand :)
DodgeBall or softball, sledding, dancing, sex (ok, maybe not with a drink in hand), board games, family dinners, first dates... you get my point, no?

My best friend invited me and the bf to an "Adult Pumpkin Carving" get together.
Just a few close friends, a few drinks and some pumpkins to carve. Nothing crazy, right?
Wrong!This was the equivalent of a late-twentie's house party. SO much fun was had!

I'll give you the night in photos... since photos are seriously better than trying to explain in words.

Ryan went on a pumpkin hunt (for those of you in other parts of the world than Alaska, this might entail a trip to a pumpkin patch or perhaps a farm, but no, not us Alaskans) at Safeway. $18 dollars for a pumpkin. The Fuck? I don't think so! We decided to skip the carving portion of the night and just get drunk.

Steffani found this (just like a gingerbread house kit!) and let me put it together. So fun to mix frosting and assemble while drunk (not). I'm pretty sure I made the biggest mess of my life... and left it. Oops.

Pretty Pumpkin Princess!

Which is better? Spider or ghost? Ha, inside joke. Had to be there for that one.

Tom working hard on his AWESOME pumpkin. Will show the after picture in a minute!

The boys (and girls) decided drunk seed baking was a must. Great idea. Second worst mess of the night! But... considering all of the seeds were devoured, I'm pretty sure they were delicious... that or you can apply my theory that anything is better while drinking. Even pumpkin seeds.

Ever reach that point where a couple drinks turns into too many drinks, and all of a sudden, things get very drunk GOOD?

"HEEEEY YOOOU GUUUYYYSSS!!!"

Here's another "inside joke" moment. <3 you Ranaughty!

(Stair sliding seems to happen a lot when I'm drunk)

Weeee for Drunk Wii!

I'm not even sure how I got this shot

Honey Badger don't give a shit, neither does Steffani.

Ryan passed out early, in a toddler bed. Thank goodness it held him (must be my awesome assembly skills, I put that bed together for Steff's family this past summer)!

I went to bed before I got to see the end product. This is Tom's Goonies pumpkin! Nice work, Tom!

New Obsession

I have known about Pinterest for quite a while. Lots of friends on FB have posted pictures from and told me about what a great a site they'd discovered.

At first I wasn't interested, but then curiosity took hold and I decided to look into Pinterest.
Why fight an awesome thing any longer??

I am awaiting my invite *grr* and will have to designate an hour or so a day to exploring the site/pins... I can see myself getting totally sucked in. Yikes!

Do you use Pinterest?

13

Today's post is dedicated to my major accomplishment... no matter how small it may seem to other people!

While at work in Oct of 2008, I fell and injured my knee traversing a muddy/rocky hillside (gotta love that Alaskan terrain!) in an attempt to coral an escape artist (you've also gotta love kids that run away from school!).
A torn meniscus *which I was told (by many medical professionals) is a simple fix with a very unlikely chance of re-injury* took me on a magical journey...
One which included re-injury 2 times, 3 surgeries, months of physical therapy, months of chiropractic care/massage, and every cream/steroid/injection/pill you could think of... oh, and let's not forget two out of state IME's *Workers Comp's way of trying their best to disprove you are injured and require medical care*.

Post surgery loveliness

The 3rd surgery, which took place on my birthday 12/13/10 *Happy 26th!* fixed not only my meniscus but some cartilage damage to the knee cap. Hence the robo-brace for 12 weeks. That was fun. not

Besides lots of aches and pains, lots of medical bills *after Workers Comp made the decision that the two re-injuries were in no possible way related to the first injury and they would no longer cover any treatment o_o* and lots of lost time having fun with my son/friends/family... the worst part of it all had to be the 60 lb weight gain. Long bouts of almost complete inactivity over 3 years has not been kind to me.
The last physical therapy session I completed (in May of 2011), my therapist had me try an Elliptical. I made it to 1 minute and had to quit. My knee had made drastic improvement over the past 2.5 years, but still wasn't ready for working out :(

Over the summer I conditioned my poor knee with lots of walking, stretching and massage. I even found a used Elliptical on Craigslist for $30! SCORE! By August I was able to use the Elliptical for almost 3 minutes. Slowly but surely I was improving my stamina. Go me!

Then came the disastrous hiking adventure... *small detour, to explain the second half of this post!*
I went to visit my boyfriend Ryan in Wrangell, AK for 2 weeks of commercial fishing.

Fact; fish are slippery

Fact; Killary is a salmon slayer

We took a trip up the Stikine River

Fact; I fall. A lot. 

I took a dip, more than once, oops.

We hiked up to The Tubs (a naturally occurring hot spring which has been routed to fill hot tubs out in the boonies).

On the hike back from The Tubs I sprained my ankle. Not just a sprain, no. Leave it to me... I tore both tendons off my ankle and pulled out little chips of bone too. Yay!

Being the badass that I am I <s> cried, crawled and fell some more</s> hiked a mile back to the jetboat, gill-netted for 2 days and THEN took a trip to the Wrangell ER.

This is what my ankle looked like after 2 days

Fast forward to 8 weeks later (after wearing a monstrous aircast boot, a slimmer in-shoe aircast, and now no aircast with only minimal swelling)... I hopped on *cautiously. Remember my tumbling talent?* the Elliptical and did 13 minutes! 13!!

13 minutes is a major improvement from the 1 minute I could do just 5 months ago.

I am so pleased with my knee/ankle performance, and can't wait to workout again tomorrow!

Let's all cross our fingers (and eyes, toes, arms etc) that I don't fall any time soon and start the vicious cycle of injury, treatment and recuperation all over again!

Meow

Growing up my family had 5 cats - Cloi, Darby, Luna, Fred and Jo.
I haven't had a cat as a pet for over 5 years, but I have very fond memories about each cat and miss them all dearly.

My little family already has a Golden Retriever but I've been wanting another pet to love... we don't have enough yet. can a person ever have too many pets? Yes. Meow.

I've been on the look out for a kitten for months...
This weekend, while I was browsing the Gastineau Humane Society website I happened to stumble across an 8 wk old kitty!
A baby kitty who is litter trained... who is orange (orange cats = winning)... who is an animal in need of a home?! Winning x2!
I literally jumped off the couch, ran around hooting and hollering in excitement and then drug Braeden and Ryan out of the house. We were at GHS in record time, and luckily we were the first people to put in paperwork for the kitty.

The paperwork went through and about 5 days later we adopted our furball :)

We had lots of time (and lots of suggestions) to think of names:
Mr. Bojangles, KittyKitty, Mr. Kitty, Lionel, Taco, KitKat, Pawsy, Aslan, and Houdini (because of his numerous attempted escapes the first night)... but we decided on Dutch. Double Dutch for when he gets fat. Dubs for short.
Dutch is the sweetest, most lovable, cuddle, crazy, funny and adventerous kitty. We are all so in love!

Ahh! Kitty jail!

The first afternoon he was home, we had him cornered (a LARGE space) in Braeden's room. We wanted to make sure he could use the litter box/eat before we let him explore the whole house.

Another reason for kitty jail? Lennie (our 2.5 yr old Golden). We weren't sure how both animals would react to each other. Some sniffing, licking and cautious play took place the first couple of days.

Toys! Kitties love toys! (Note to self: Buy a laser pointer!)

Braeden, my 7 yr old is head over heals for this little kitten. He wants to do nothing but play. All day. He even has gone as far as trying to convince me that he can't go to school because the kitten will be lonely without him. Nice try, buddy!

Silly cat! First habit to break... drinking out of human water glasses. Although very cute, and resourceful on the cat's behalf, thinking about dirty cat tongues in my water is not something I want to worry about when I go for a drink!

Progress!

Success! 

The best part about this whole adopting-a-kitty business (besides all of the snuggles, cute kitty faces and watching my son get so much joy out of his new pet)? My little fur babies get along... for now! 

We'll see what happens the first time Dutch scratches Lennie...

Love List #2

Time for another Love List!

This has to be my favorite part about blogging; Here is what I like and want you to see... if you don't like it, tough!

I love to browse Esty. So many talented crafters out there in the world. 

Here are a few of my favorite handmade goodies

Little Sweeties

Clippies

Stationary

Sprinkle Bakes

This website gives me the baked good giggles. 

Everything on her blog makes me want to jump in the kitchen and mass produce treats for all of my friends and family.

My next recipe to try out on this blog will be from Sprinkle Bakes

Just saw this movie in theaters. I laughed so hard! So did Ryan and all the other viewers. Perfect for a date night movie, or a night out with the girls :)

My little family's new kitty! An entry on this little furball will come soon!

Oops!

When starting this blog, I had a posting goal in mind. My intention was to have a new entry every couple of days...I didn't account for the time I'd have to invest in each post, and my life has been nothing but busy as of late.

What's that? I shouldn't ignore my child, boyfriend and pets to focus on a blog post?
I suppose you're right... Hence the lack of blogging in my life.

I'll be better from now on, I swear!

DIPAC

Braeden's 2nd grade class just had their first field trip for the school year. They went to DIPAC *Will explain below*, and I signed up to chaperone (I always do!) and asked Ryan to join also because I thought it would be fun to re-educate ourselves in the process of the hatchery.

All parts of the AK fishing industry are important to me.
My Poppa is on the board of directors and is an international negotiator for different fish advisories/processors.
In the past I worked at Taku Smokeries (our city's main fish processing plant/mail order business). Ryan is a fourth generation commercial fisherman.... I guess you could say the industry is in both of our families blood.


DIPAC (Douglas Island Pink and Chum fish hatchery) was the destination of the field trip.
DIPAC started out as a hatchery (NOT a farm) for Pink and Chum salmon, but now they help sustain ALL 5 types of Wild Alaskan Salmon:
Chum, Sockeye, King, Silver and Pink

Braeden's class went on a "tour" of DIPAC, learned the life cycle of a salmon, and got to visit the aquarium/ touch tanks. Fun!

See the rocks on TOP of the Urchins? They put them there for protection! Learn something new every day, eh?

 Window into the fish ladder (it's cool to watch the salmon swimming up!)

The DIPAC fish ladder (the guide said sometimes they have seals come up!)

Busy!

How is it possible?? How can it already be October 5th?

This month is flying by and I can barely remember to write "10" instead of "9" when dating papers at work. Oy!

Fall is transitioning beautifully into Winter in my neck of the woods. Don't worry, I'm not forgetting about the hurricane-like weather we had the end of September (hello 70 mph winds and torrential down pours!), but this past week has been filled with glorious sunshine, blue sky and lots of outdoor play sessions. The first frost hit a few days ago, and every morning there is a crisp, clean, wood-smokey, fresh smell in the air.

I <3 this time of year

I know I haven't posted in only 4 days... for some reason though, these last 4 days have been the busiest and it feels that much more time has passed! 

Today's post is a photo dump of the past few days.

Weekend breakfast:

Tried a new muffin recipe. We had these at H's (Ryan's sister in WA) over a year ago, but remembered how yummy they were and wanted to try them for myself.

Nutmeg in the batter, dunked butter and then rolled in cinnamon sugar... umm yeah, ignore that post about healthy choices.

Braeden started his 3rd season of Youth Soccer. He wasn't too pleased at first with the idea of playing soccer... but this years coach is seriously wonderful with the kids/basics of soccer and he is now loving it. 

*Video technical difficulties! Will be up soon*

Well hello wiggly tooth # 3! 

Braeden is not a 'tooth wiggler'. He will let a loose tooth sit in his mouth for weeks at a time and not even touch it... drives crazy, but it's his mouth... right? 

This tooth held on for over a month. As soon as we made a bet for when he'd lose it (at school, while sleeping, during dinner etc) he started to wiggle that sucker! It came out during morning meeting time at school. 

Guess what? #4 is almost ready to come out now!

Fred Meyer had a bunch of organization supplies on sale (they must have known I was in the mood for a good organizing binge). Medicine cabinet, closets, pantry, junk drawers... all gone through and micro-organized! I love the satisfaction I pull from a good cleaning session.

I have been saving some favorite pieces of Braeden's artwork, with intent to frame and hang them... 2.5 years later, Ta Da! This is one of my FAVORITE drawings. This portrait is a Mother's Day project from the end of Kindergarten. The 'Artists in the Schools' teacher helped them do an outline of each kid and their mom... then they got to draw/color the picture.

Holy sh*t balls part 2

If you haven't read part 1, scroll down to the previous entry :-D

Holy shit balls, part 2:
I live in a condo. At least I think it is classified as a condo... I'm not really sure what the technical differences are for a residence to be a "condo" or a "townhouse". In my opinion though, it's a condo, only because there is a "condo association" where I live.
There are many perks to renting this condo, but the most important are #1 my friends own it so my landlords rock and #2 there is a backyard (I have a 2.5 yr old Golden Retriever, Lennie).

When I was touring the property (even though I had been inside it many times before) the previous tenant showed me the backyard space and said, *I quote* "There is a nice backyard, but we don't use it because the neighbors don't clean up after their dogs." BTW - the neighbors have 3 dogs.

May rolls around, Braeden and I move in... Dog poop all over the yard.
July rolls around and Ryan/Lennie move in with us. Dog crap still all over the yard (and maybe a few extra piles when we don't immediately clean up Lennie's business).
It is now the end of September, and none of us human inhabitants have used the yard all summer because it is littered with dog deuces. ALL the time.

Yesterday, I get home from work and when I take Lennie out to the bathroom...
There is a sign sticking out of the ground right in front of my deck that reads "Please curb your dog" (with the graphic of a pooper scooper).
My first thought was, "Uh oh, someone complained to the condo association about the dirty yard, better clean up!" so I wandered around the yard with my make shift doo doo scooper (an extra dust pan and grocery bags) for about 15 minutes. I have never seen that much feces in my life (that's saying a lot considering I've made it through the baby/toddler years!) it was disgusting.
*I'd like to point out that I did not clean up only my dog's waste, but obviously LOTS of piles from the 3 dogs next door (let's face it, Lennie does NOT have dung piles as tiny as the two chiuaua's next to me!)
After depositing what had to be at least 6 lbs of poo poo in the dumpster and repositioning the sign to the MIDDLE of our yards I took Lennie and Braeden to the park.
As if I'd not had enough fun cleaning up dog excrement that afternoon, Lennie decided to drop a fatty in the exact center of the freshly groomed/packed dirt softball field. seriously?? Can my crap-tastic adventure be over now??

No. It cannot.

Fast forward to 10:30 pm, when I am straightening up my bedroom. I go to change my sheets (I clean when the mood strikes... and it strikes a lot) and when I pull back the down comforter what do I find on my bed??

MOUSE DROPPINGS

Besides feeling there must be some cosmic joke being played on me, involving lots of fecal matter, I was instantly disgusted and wanted to barf. Mouse droppings in my bed. SERIOUSLY! How much worse could this evening get?? 

(I'll have to continue the mouse tidbit in a later entry. Back to the poop!)

Sleeping was not easy last night. I was about 93% positive a mouse was going to nibble on my face while I was asleep. Thank goodness that didn't happen - one thing to be thankful for, right?

My good fortune did not last long because guess what I saw first thing in the morning when I took Lennie out to the bathroom (recyclable doggie doo doo bag in hand)... 

That fucking dog doo sign in front of my deck. 

Remember how I mentioned before that there is a condo association, and I figured they had placed the sign in the yard? I now believe that the next door neighbors (the ones with 3 dogs, who haven't cleaned up poop for months) for whatever reason are playing this shitty *hehe* game with me. 

It's really making me irritated. Like REALLY irritated. 

Perhaps I'm too upset or concerned about this whole situation, but there's only so much shit I can take, and I'm full up to here *my brown eyes*. HA!

My landlord says to be vigilant about cleaning up after Lennie, and in a few weeks if there is still a mess in the yard from the neighbors that he will contact the "association". 

Maybe the "association" will go post a sign in the yard? 

Ha.

Wanna play a game with me? How many different words for POOP did I use in this entry?