Spiders again?!

Michael called me yesterday while he was on his way to work to tell me that he had just had a really traumatic experience. He had been working on his truck the day before and had left the hood unlatched while he was waiting for it to cool down so I asked him if he had forgot to latch his hood and it flew up while he was driving on the highway. I would have laughed really hard if that's what it was, but it wasn't. He said he laying in bed, he had just woken up, and he went to swallow, yawn, whatever. He closed his mouth and tasted something sweet. So he coughed and out came..... HALF A SPIDER!!!!!!!!!!!! Gross, it makes me want to throw up just thinking about it. He said he thinks it bit the inside of his throat because his throat felt sore, and I said it was probably just the spider crawling to get out. Ew. It makes me want to tape my mouth shut at night so no spiders can crawl in.

It's Official! (and soccer)

We're finally getting an Olive Garden in Bend!!!! I have been hearing the rumor since I moved here, but nothing ever happened. Well, they broke ground quite awhile ago and the sign out front says "Olive Garden Coming Soon" so I am inclined to believe it this time. I love their strawberry lemonade. Although we probably won't go for at least the first month after it opens, I have a feeling it will be packed for quite awhile after the grand opening. Anyways, talking about Olive Garden being official really isn't the point of this entry, it just happened to fit in. What is also official is that we OWN A HOUSE! We signed papers last Friday and it closed yesterday, so it's official. Since the sellers are renting it back for up to two months I am going over to meet them at some point so that they can show me the details and such about the house, like mail days, garbage, how to set the thermostat. All the fun things that you usually have to kind of figure out on your own, so that will be really nice. We have been sort of packing and getting things ready, but now we'll need to step it up since they could move out anytime now.

So our first day of soccer practice was this past Tuesday, it was fun but could have been a lot better. I had woken up at 5am that morning not feeling well and spent the majority of the morning throwing up. I went to work but only managed to stay for a couple of hours and then went home and spent the rest of the day in bed until practice. So poor Chad had to coach pretty much the entire time since too much movement on my part would make me throw up. We are coaching Paiges' team, so it is 12 third grade girls and I think it will be fun, all of the girls are pretty cute. Our games start the 12th so we have a lot of work to do before then!

A new friend

So this weekend has been spent pulling weeds, a lot of weeds. Right now my hamstrings are strung tighter than a banjo. We didn't have just any weiner weeds, we had weeds that we have let grow for the past two months, huge bushes and trees of weeds. Seriously, in the back yard the wind was blowing the weeds really gently and it sounded like big pine trees creaking in the wind. And they were a good foot an a half taller than me, so yeah, lots of fun. Anyways, I was moving our trash cans to weed an area and saw the BIGGEST spider. I had instant heebie jeebies, but grabbed a jar out of the recycling and caught him. Then I came inside to try to figure out what kind he was, but looking at pictures of spiders that up close almost made me want to barf, so I just took a couple pictures of him and then I let him go far away from the house. ***I actually have found out that this is a female hobo spider, so I apologize to her for calling her a he.****

Petree's Spot

This is Petree's new favorite spot outside. Comfy and in the shade. He will love it when we have a hammock at our new house! And grass, we are really looking forward to having grass.

Awesome Dinner

As much as I like having Michael around, sometimes I like it when he works nights because it means I can cook whatever I want for dinner. He doesn't exactly like to 'branch out' , so I make my 'weird' food when he's not home. Tonight I made Sautee'd Quinoa (keen-wah), it was so good, I think I am going to make it a lot more often now. And I will make Michael try it, he might like it without the mushrooms. If you have never had quinoa you should try it. It is called the grain of the gods because it is practically perfect nutritionally speaking. It has an almost ideal protein balance, so it's really filling and really good for you. Anyways, there are lots of ways to make it, but here is the recipe I used:

Sautee'd Quinoa

1 C. quinoa

1 C. water

1 C. chicken broth

small onion, sliced

6-8 mushrooms, sliced

clove of garlic, crushed

salt/pepper

butter

Bring the quinoa, water and chicken broth to a boil and then cover and reduce the heat. Simmer for about 15 minutes, or until all the liquid is absorbed and the quinoa is soft. While the quinoa is simmering, put the onion, mushrooms, garlic and butter in a pan and saute. When the quinoa is done, add it to the mixture in the pan and cook on low for another minute or two to let all the flavors mix in. Serve and enjoy.

I let my vegetables saute until they were a little brown and crispy on the edges and it was really good. It would probably also be good with other vegetables, like zucchini, but I grilled my zucchini instead. I also used all chicken broth instead of broth and water. I only made a half recipe and as you can see from the picture, it makes a lot!

I'm getting old

So I turned 26 about a week and a half ago, I am so old!!! Feels like I was 20 just yesterday. My birthday was very relaxing this year, it was on a Sunday and I spent all day Saturday cleaning so I spent most of Sunday watching a 'The Office' marathon. I can't wait for Season 5 to come out! Anyways, after Michael got home we went to a sushi dinner. I think I have had sushi for my birthday ever since I moved to Bend, it's my favorite. Michael was supposed to make me a cheesecake for dessert, he has been going to make one ever since he could do it better than me. However, he chickened out after he read the recipe, so we went to Fred Meyer so I could pick out my dessert. This is what I got, how cool is it?! You can see it sweating, it's always hot on my birthday and after we got home we got the coolest thunder and lightening storm!

Sinners...

The dogs are kind of like kids- if you haven't heard them making noise for awhile they are probably doing something they shouldn't. I decided to clean all the carpets today because I figured it was so hot that they would dry really fast. Well, when I was just about half way done with the living room our power went out because of an awesome thunder/lightening storm so I took a break and the puppies and I took a short nap on the dry side of the living room. All the doors and windows were open and it was so awesome to watch the storm, I'm glad it doesn't make the dogs freak out. Anyways, the power came on and I started cleaning again and the puppies all ran down the hall. The carpet cleaner scares them, but really loud cracking thunder doesn't? I had put a baby gate up so that they couldn't get into the bedroom because I had piles of clothes all over the floor for laundry. I decided to check on them so I turned the cleaner off and called them, and only two came. I walked down the hall and turned the corner and this is what I found:

Yeah, those are my underwear. Don't ask me how he got them on, I have no idea. I think Raider is jealous because he got stuck with the pink ones and couldn't figure out how to put them on. I couldn't really be mad at them after this, Spike just sat there and wagged his tail while I took pictures.

Garden

I finally picked all of the lettuce that has been growing in my garden, I thought it was a lot, but it only made about 3 salads. Hopefully it will grow back really fast and next year I will have to remember to plant more. I also have some banana peppers and bell peppers that are just about ready to pick and my tomatoes are getting ready to explode, I can feel it. My zuke's and butternut squash are growing pretty well, too. I wish I had planted corn, maybe next year. Although we did get some from costco that is pretty good.

House Pictures

Here are a couple pictures of the house. I have a few of the inside, but since it's technically not ours yet I don't think it'd be a good idea to post those. Right now we are waiting to hear back from the sellers about the things we've asked them to take care of that were found in the inspection. Nothing major, we just want to get a couple things checked out and a couple of things repaired/replaced so it should be alright. Now it is just a matter of waiting until closing and then waiting until they move out, we have agreed to let them rent it back after closing for no more than 60 days so it could still be awhile before we actually move in. Isn't the backyard awesome for the dogs? And I can plant a big garden next year in the back corner, we're excited!

We'll take it!

A couple months ago Michael mentioned that we should buy a house and I'll admit I shot him down pretty quickly about it. I figured we had too much debt and not enough income to get a house. Then I met with Kayte's financial planner (who is now my financial planner as well) a couple months later and he mentioned that a house is a good way to increase your net worth and he thought that considering my income and debt that it was really feasible. I had just moved positions at work which resulted in a bump in my salary so I figured 'what the hell', no harm in checking. So I met with a real estate agent who was nice enough to spend an hour with me and go over some things and then she gave me a couple of names for mortgage companies. Michael and I went to the mortgage company and we were approved, but due to credit scores and such it made more sense for just myself to be on the loan. This was a week ago and today we found out that a house we had put an offer on was accepted and if everything goes according to plan we will be homeowners for real by August 26th. The house is really cute with a great yard and it will be nice to get the 8k first time homebuyer credit so we can make some changes and improvements, I already have a pretty long list. So for now we need to get inspections and all that and then wait as patiently as possible for closing day.

Fathers Day

I know, it was a while ago but we have been busy. For Fathers Day I made Michael an amazing breakfast, biscuits and gravy, scrambled eggs, sausage, hashbrowns and orange juice. I worked really hard on it and then went to go tell him it was ready. It was about 10am and he was still sleeping but I figured he'd be ready for breakfast. WELL, I told him I had an amazing breakfast for him and he got really grumpy and said "it's only ten am, I don't want breakfast" and rolled over to go back to sleep. Talk about a jerk! So I left the room and went to eat breakfast by myself. Lucky for him he had a change of heart and realized what a butt he had been because a minute later he came out and apologized and then we had breakfast. I say lucky for him because even though I didn't tell him this, I was going to eat what I wanted and then I was going to throw the rest away. That would have taught him! I need to work on being less spiteful... Anyways, after breakfast he got his present from the puppies. I was pretty proud of it, although he still hasn't hung it up yet. I tell the puppies it's because he doesn't love them. Won't we make great parents?! :)

More Pictures

Missy is telling Harley that the collar isn't SO bad to wear. Harley still doesn't like it.

Trying to find a way outside:

I'm trying to sleep!

Watching it rain and thunder:

Snips, clips, tags and pulls

We took all four of the puppies in to the vet on Thursday morning to get fixed. They were so nervous and scared as the vet helpers put a collar on each and took them into the back and put them in their own seperate kennel, everyone was shaking. But everyone made it out alright and we went back that afternoon to pick everyone up. In addition to getting fixed they also all got micro-chipped and some teeth pulled. Scooter lucked out and only had to get one tooth pulled but poor Harley had to get 6 pulled. So we have just been hanging out at home the last couple days while everyone recovers. The boys have it the easiest (big surprise :)), they just have a couple of stitches that will eventually dissolve since their incisions were tiny. Since Harleys incision is way bigger she got stitches that will have to be removed later. Well, like mother like daughter, I ended up taking her back to the vet the next day because she had chewed out 3 of the stitches. Missy did the same thing (twice) when we had her fixed. We even had a collar on Harley but she was still able to reach past it and get to the stitches. So now she has a couple of staples and a hard collar that she has to wear for the next two weeks until the stitches/staples come out.

This looks x-rated but Spike was dead asleep on Petree until I came over with the camera, he

likes to use the other dogs as pillows:

See, Spike isn't the only one who does it, Harley decided to flop down on Raider one afternoon: Michael had to run to the store one evening and Petree was so sad he waited by the front door until he came back. I hope he doesn't do this everytime we leave! :(

How does your garden grow?

Mine is doing pretty good, thank you to Michael for putting up a fence for me. The dogs kept getting into everything, they ate a cauliflower and brussel sprout plant before the fence got put up. And it happened while Michael was 'watching' them, he probably did it on purpose so he wouldn't have to eat the cauliflower or brussel sprouts. Don't worry, there should be plenty of brocolli and squash to make up for it. :) I have three pepper plants, a banana pepper a bell pepper and a jalepeno pepper plant, they are doing awesome, especially the banana peppers. My tomato plants are growing really well too, shouldn't be too much longer until I am over run by cherry tomatoes

And here is half of our backyard, Michael really wants to plant grass, and so do I, but not in the middle of summer. So for now we are running a weed farm, it's ugly but it helps cut down on the dust and it's hilarious to watch the dogs chase eachother and bunny hop through them.

Tiny Teeth

The puppies are almost 6 months old now, which means its almost time to get them fixed and time for them to lose their teeth. We found quite a few of Missy and Petree's teeth but until the other day we hadn't found any of the puppies teeth, they probably ate them all. The other night there was something on the floor that they all kept sniffing at, I picked it up to throw it away and it was a tiny tooth. They have almost all of their big teeth now, except for Harley who has her 'shark teeth'. Her front two teeth haven't fallen out but the new ones have grown in behind it. They'll get pulled when she gets fixed, poor girl.