Poor Mr. Petree...

This is how our Mr. Petree usually looks, huge ears and skinny face.

However, this past Saturday was a different story. Petree has gone to the vet for one reason or another plenty of times since we got him. He was born with an umbilical hernia which we had to have surgically fixed before his intestines fell out the hole. Then he would have these throwing up/nasty poop episodes that landed him at the vet's office hooked up to iv more than once. Another time his back got all swollen where he'd had a shot so we had to take him back into the vet for that. Luckily we found out that it was pancreatitus that was causing the throwing up/nasty poop espisodes and since then he has been on a low-fat diet and is doing really well (knock on wood). Well, this past Saturday we took him in for his annual comprehensive exam, Missy was due for hers too so they went on a little date for the day. :) We dropped them off and then went over to JC Penneys to get Michael some new work clothes. Holy cow ties are expensive! Anyways, I took Michael back home so that he could get ready for work and then stopped at the store so that I could get some ingredients to make the puppies some more treats. Petree has to have low-fat everything so I find it easier just to make our own treats. After I was done at the store I went back to the vet to pick up Petree and Missy, both passed their exam with flying colors (although Petree will be getting his teeth cleaned soon) and they sent us home with a dose of dewormer for each of them. I spent the rest of the day baking up a storm, they will have treats for a VERY long time. Finally about 9:45pm I remembered that I needed to give them the dewormer so I did and went about finishing up the treats. Michael got home from work about 10:20 and was saying hello to all of the puppies when I hear "what is wrong with Petree's face?" I had no idea what he was talking about but then he brought poor Petree into the kitchen and this is what he looked like:
Isn't that the saddest thing you have ever seen?! His eyes, nose and cheeks were so puffed up and you could tell it didn't feel good because he kept scratching his face. I'll admit, I panicked when I first saw him and was ready to take him the emergency clinic. Luckily we have an amazingly awesome vet, Dr. Emily, who answered my text at 10:30pm and said that we could just give him some Benadryl and that he should be fine as long as his breathing stayed normal. So that is what we did and his swelling started going down fairly quickly. Poor guy.

All in a row...

I was getting ready for work one morning and came back into the bedroom and found this:



They wanted to see what I was doing but they were too lazy to get up.

Sushi

My amazing sushi platter that I made myself.

Uncle Bud

I finally downloaded the pictures off my camera and found lots of good stuff. Here is a pic of Uncle Bud with the puppies, they sure do love him! They kept running up the stairs in the mornings after Bud had left thinking that he'd be up there in bed.
We miss you, Uncle Bud, come home soon!

One year older...

Happy Birthday to Michael, he turned the big 3-0 yesterday. Since he is so old now we just took it easy, ha! I had to work so after work I went to the store and picked up stuff so that I could cook dinner. I did steak on the grill, garlic shrimp, sauteed green beans and mashed potatoes. So good! After dinner we cut the puppies toe nails and gave them all a bath, exciting! :) After that Michael went and got us dessert, pie from Shari's. His present was a Raiders blanket, he got a fairly expensive surround sound system for Christmas so he was lucky he got anything at all. :) So happy birthday, sweet cheeks, I love you and I hope this year is the best one yet. He's marrying me this year so I don't know why it wouldn't be...

It's a Date!

So we have finally decided on a wedding date. Or rather, I picked a date, made sure it would work with the church and Michael said 'ok' when I told him what day it was. It is this coming May 15th. Chad is especially excited because that day also happens to be his birthday. We will have to do something really special at the wedding to acknowledge it. ;) The save-the-date cards came last week and I mailed the majority of them out yesterday. I am just waiting for some addresses from Michael and then those will be done. We started planning it about a week ago and we have an awesome theme and ideas. We are doing a circus theme, and before you think "oh no" (like Chad's and my mom said), just wait until you see it. I think it will look great and should be pretty fun. Kayte and I have talked about making the cake ourselves, so we'll see how that goes, we are going to start practicing with fondant so that it won't be a last minute panic. Our goal is to have everything purchased and done (besides the food) by May 1st. Sadly I have had to put aside home improvements until the wedding is over since weddings can be insanely expensive. My bathroom is just about done, though, so I will post pictures of the 'before' and 'after', I think it looks SO much better.

Also, our puppies turned 1 on January 3rd, it is crazy to think a whole year has gone by since I helped Missy deliver them.

We had a great Christmas with my family, it was good to see everyone. It would be nice to be closer so that visits weren't jam packed everytime, but what can you do. Our puppies still run up the stairs in the morning thinking that Uncle Bud is still here, they love their Uncle Bud!!

New Years was very, very low key. I went over to Kaytes for dinner since Michael worked until 8. Usually we do root beer floats at Kaytes at midnight but Michaels back was hurting so I stopped at the gas station and got stuff for our own root beer floats and we drank them while watching Bolt (yeah, the Disney movie) and then we went to bed, before midnight.

Now the wedding diet is in full swing. Me and the treadmill are becoming best friends, it is a love hate relationship, more hate than love.

Hope you all had a great holiday season!

Getting in the Holiday Spirit

A few weeks ago Michael and I went to Target after dinner. We always cruise through their dollar bins up front because sometimes they have some cool stuff (and really good stocking stuffers!). Well, I found some awesome stuff, I think the pictures will speak for themselves.

This is Missy in her reindeer outfit. It would fall down over her eyes so she would just stand there until we fixed it for her, it was hilarious.

Petree Turns 2!

This is pretty late but better late than never. Petree turned 2 on November 6th and we celebrated with some puppy cookies. Ever since we got Petree he has had a pretty sensitive stomach. We have taken him to the vet or emergency clinic way more than once because he would have these episodes where he would start throwing up and wouldn't stop. He would get so dehydrated that they would have to put him on an iv drip to get fluids into him. The episodes got less frequent so we figured that it was just a sensitive stomach and that he was growing out of it. Well, about a month ago he started throwing up and wouldn't stop so Michael took him into the vet where they kept him all day and gave him an iv. That afternoon they called to tell us that they had tested him for pancreatitus and the levels of whatever they were testing were through the roof, higher than the highest number possible on the test. I'm so glad Michael took him in, I'll admit I just figured it was another one of his episodes and he'd be fine in a bit. So now he is on a low-fat diet and we are hoping that he will be ok from now on. I'm glad we finally know what is wrong with him so that we can take care of him better. I love my bub. Here are some pictures of his birthday:

And one for posterity:

White Chicken Chili

Man, it has been a long time since I last posted! It has been really busy since we moved into the house and Michael made some changes to my computer, so it has been awhile since I have been able to download pictures. My goal is to catch up with everything (blog-wise) next weekend. But for now I have this awesome recipe for white chicken chili, it is SO good. I have made it twice in the last week. And Michael doesn't like it because he says it's too spicy, so more for me!

White Chicken Chili

1lb boneless, skinless chicken boobs, cut into small chunks
1 med. onion, chopped
1.5 tsp garlic powder
1 tbsp oil
2 cans (15.5 oz each) Great Northern Beans, rinsed and drained (you can use white navy beans if you can't find the great northern beans)
1 can (14.5 oz) chicken broth
1 can (4 oz) chopped green chilies (you can add two if you want it really spicy)
1 tsp salt
1 tsp ground cumin
1 tsp dried oregano
0.5 tsp pepper
0.25 tsp cayenne pepper
1 cup sour cream
0.5 cup whipping cream

In a large saucepan or pot saute the chicken, garlic powder and onion in the oil until the chicken is done. Add the beans, broth chilies and seasonings. Bring it to a boil and then reduce the heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes. Remove from the heat and stir in the sour cream and whipping cream. Garnish with fresh chopped cilantro if you're into that (I love it). You can serve it with tortilla chips, although it's good with cornbread, too. Makes about 6 servings.

I found that the whipping cream and sour cream made it really thick and it tastes delicous. However, to make it a little bit healthier you can just add the whipping cream and then after the chili is dished up put just a spoonful of sour cream in each bowl or skip the sour cream altogether. If you want to make it without sour cream and whipping cream, add 3 tbsp of flour when you add the beans, chilies, etc. this will thicken it up a bit without adding the calories of the whipping and sour cream. Try it once with the sour cream and whipping cream, it is good!

"Vacation"

Last week was a really crazy busy week, I am so glad it's over. I got the keys to the house on Friday the 23rd in the afternoon. Michael was at work so I did a walk through by myself to see what needed to be done and holy crap, it was overwhelming. The house looked really cute when they had all of their stuff in it and decorated but when it was empty it was just ugly and I realized I needed/wanted to paint pretty much everything. They also left the house really dirty which was dissapointing and just added more on my 'to-do' list. So the first three days of my vacation I cleaned and painted as much as possible. Kayte was a huge help and came over on Sunday and tackled the kitchen, it was so gross, the fridge was filthy, it honestly looked like it hadn't been cleaned ever. And we got to experience the joy of homeownership for real on Saturday when it was really windy and rainy and the sliding door started leaking- inside the house! Yeah, not cool. Luckily I know a contractor, he oversaw the addition/renovation of the hotel and he is a really cool guy. I called him and he came right over to check it out and hooked me up with a sub-contractor who is going to fix it as side work which means it will be a lot cheaper. Turns out they installed the sliding glass door wrong and the piece that is supposed to go behind the siding was put in front. Smart. So that was awesome, I will admit I panicked for a moment. I ended up getting the master bedroom, hallway and living room completely painted, but didn't touch the second bedroom, bathroom, kitchen or upstairs so there is still a lot to do. Tuesday was moving day and it went great, a lot better than I had expected. Michael asked a couple of his friends to come help and they were great. We got the biggest U-Haul truck they had and it took one full load and about another half to get everything moved. We started about 11am and were done by 5, so it worked out really well. Then on Wednesday we went back to the place we were renting and cleaned everything. It only took us a couple of hours and it was so nice to be completely done with that and not have it hanging over our heads. The rest of Wednesday and Thursday was spent cleaning, unpacking and running back and forth from Lowe's for supplies, I think they know me by name now. Friday was a shopping day, Kayte and I had decided earlier in the week to make a trip to Portland and hit up Ikea, Chipotle and the church book store. We left about 630am and got to Ikea about 915 only to find out that it doesn't open until 10. Oh well, they opened the doors about 930 so we started shopping, we got a lot of good stuff! I got a new dresser for the master bedroom, tv stand, new light fixtures, curtains, curtain rods, end table, silverware, hanging lights for the living room and a whole bunch of other smaller stuff and I only spent a little over $600, it was a good trip! We did take a little too long at Ikea, Kayte wanted to be home when the kids got out of school, so we hurried through lunch and the bookstore but still didn't get home until about 6. It was a long day but lots of fun! Saturday was spend at the last soccer games of the season (yay, it's over!) and more unpacking and Sunday was more of the same. I was so glad to come back to work on Monday, it was an exhausting week. I am so glad we are in the new house, we love it so far and the puppies love love love the backyard. We are unpacked for the most part, but there are a few more boxes to go through and some more organizing that needs to be done. I took some before/after pictures so I will post those eventually. I have a huge list of things I want to do and I have to keep reminding myself that its not going to all happen immediately. OH, we really want to replace the carpet (ugly blue) with Pergo (or Prego as Michael calls them) floors and were hoping to get the 8k first time homebuyer credit before we moved so that we could do that. I had amended my 2008 taxes so that I could get it now instead of waiting until tax time next year and I sent the paperwork in not long after we closed on the house. The check didn't come and didn't come and I had started to think I did the paperwork wrong, but then I checked the mail the morning of the move and of course, there it was. I asked Michael if he wanted to postpone the move and do the floors instead, but he didn't like that idea. So we are stuck with the blue carpet for now and eventually we'll move things around so we can get the new floors. I think we're a little tired of moving stuff for the time being, maybe next spring when it gets warm again.

And so it begins

A marathon week of cleaning, painting, cleaning, packing, moving, unpacking, cleaning, organizing, etc. I talked today with the people we bought the house from and they will be out by tomorrow evening, perfect timing! After work tomorrow is the start of a week of vacation that I am taking. We are not actually moving our stuff until Tuesday, so that will give me 3 days to get it ready and maybe paint a little. I like the paint colors that are in the house now, they did a good job with those, but I do want to paint the bedroom and possibly the kitchen. Our utilities are all getting switched over on Monday and our new washer and dryer will be delivered on Tuesday. If all goes according to plan, we should be staying the first night in our new house on Tuesday.

Wedding Bells Part II

Surprise! Michael and I are engaged! After talking about it, looking at rings, etc. it has finally happened. He told me on Monday that he was going to make a special dinner on Tuesday and wouldn't give me any details. I bugged him and bugged him and he still wouldn't tell me anything, but I had a pretty good idea of what he was up to. I can count on one hand the number of times he's made a special dinner in the past two years. The only thing he would tell me is that I couldn't come home until 630 because that is when dinner would be done. Normally I have soccer on Tuesday which goes until 630 but it freezing cold and there was freezing rain on and off throughout the day so we cancelled practice. I think he went into a quick panic when I told him. I stayed a little late at work and then went to our new house to pick up my mail that they have been holding for me and got home about 620. Here is what was waiting for me:
Oh yes, that is all sushi, he knows the way to my heart. He went to one of my favorite places and got 140 pieces of sushi so that he could spell this out. I will admit that it took me a minute to figure out, looking at it from above it is pretty obvious, but from the side (it is a tall table) it was a little more difficult. I think I was stunned by all the sushi. I of course said yes, and then ate a lot of sushi! I was so full I couldn't eat the cheesecake for dessert. Oh, and the most important part, the ring. I don't have it yet, it is getting sized and should be done in about a week, hopefully sooner! I am so happy and so excited to start this new part of our life together, once we get moved into the new house the wedding planning begins!

Wedding Bells

This past weekend we got up early and drove to Portland for a wedding- Michaels sister was getting married. We met most of Michaels family at the Pittock Mansion for pictures before the wedding, the Mansion is way up on this hill so it had amazing views of Portland. I think we saw two or three other wedding parties getting their pictures at the same time, so it's a pretty popular spot. After the pictures we were going to go to Hooters because I haven't had it for over a year, so we went to the Hooters in Beaverton and it was CLOSED. I was SO bummed. We didn't have time to drive to the other one in town so we grabbed some fast food (barf) and went to the hotel to shower and get ready. The wedding was really pretty and I loved the colors. The ceremony was short and sweet and the reception was beautiful, lots of candlelight. And they did bbq for dinner- the ribs almost made up for not having Hooters. :) I got to meet a lot of Michaels family that I hadn't met before and he got to see some people that he hasn't seen for a long time. Overall it was a really fun night, we left about 9pm and drove back home. Our puppies had been pretty much alone all day so they were really happy when we finally got home. Thanks to Kayte, Chad, the kids and Michaels friend Trevor for stopping by and checking on them!! And congrats to Michele and Jeremy, the new happy couple!

It's beginning to look a lot like...

October?! Yesterday it snowed through half of our soccer game, yuck! I figured it was just a fluke since the sun came out and it warmed up quite a bit a little after it was done snowing. Wow was I wrong. This is what we woke up to this morning:
The leaves on the trees haven't even started falling off- they've barely started to turn colors!! I really hope this isn't a sign of how this winter is going to be. Maybe this will be the only time it snows for the rest of the year, I'd be ok with that.

Finally!

We have a moving date, sort of. The people that we bought our house from finally heard back from the bank on the house that they are now buying (they are buying a short sale, which can take forever). They got the home inspection and appraisal done yesterday, so really all thats left is to get their financing squared away and they say that their loan should be done by next week. Since we agreed to let them rent back for 60 days they will be out right around the 25th-26th of this month, and then we can move in! I am still waiting for my $8000 credit, hopefully we'll get that before the end of the month so that we can redo the floors before we move in. Only a few more weeks before I can use the awesome new steam washer and steam dryer that we bought, we bought them almost a month ago but are waiting until we have moved to have them delivered and set up at the new house.