The Bear Den

Trip to Oahu - Day 1

2009-12-19T18:26:00.000-08:00

There were a couple of tourist-ey things I wanted to do just to say I was there, Shawn wasn't always happy about doing these things, but oh well. The first tourist stop was the Dole Plantation. We were there for 40 minutes and we didn't even stand in line for the pineapple ice cream, the line was too long and Shawn was whining. The gift shop was probably the most exciting part of the visit, deciding what to buy was the hardest part. We did take the 20-minute train ride, which was semi-interesting and mostly boring. We did learn that EVERY pineapple is picked by HAND! That's crazy! An experienced and efficient pineapple-picker can pick up to 10,000 pineapples per day!

"The Man" started his pineapple plantation in 1900.

Acres and acres of pineapples! The soil is red due to the high amount of iron.

That's the Dole Plantation in a nutshell. Honestly, it was cool for the brief period of time we were there, but definitely not the highlight of our trip.

On to the better part of Day 1 - the North Shore! Does "Eddie would go" mean anything to you? If you're from Hawaii, it probably means a great deal to you, but I didn't even know who this Eddie guy was before reading about him. Eddie Aikau (pronounced eye-cow) was "a pure-blood Hawaiian big-wave surfer from Oahu". He was a lifeguard at Waimea Bay who was credited with saving hundreds of lives. On a side note, Waimea Bay is big surfing mecca, where in the winter months, waves can easily reach 40 ft high! To make a sort-of-long story short, in 1978 Eddie was chosen as a volunteer to serve as a crew man on a voyage to Tahiti. The voyage was planned to prove that Polynesians can navigate a canoe using only the stars. While the launch of the voyage was successful, Eddie and the other crew members soon encountered bad weather. The hatches on the hulls were not shut properly, water quickly filled the canoe and the canoe capsized. Their safety equipment was completely flooded and the crew was unable to communicate to get help. Eddie volunteered to paddle on his surfboard to the nearest island, but at first the captain advised against it. The following day, Eddie insisted on paddling again and the captain reluctantly agreed. The crew knew that if anyone were to go, Eddie could do it. Without a life jacket (Eddie said it would slow him down), Eddie paddled, he was never seen again. The rest of the crew was eventually rescued. "Today the name Eddie is synonymous in Hawaii with trying, going for it, risking it for your friends" Cool story, huh? All over the island, you'll see bumper stickers, shirts, signs, and all sorts of stuff that say "Eddie would go".

Eddie Aikau

Every few years the biggest big-wave surf contest is the Quicksilver in Memory of Eddie Aikau contest. It hasn't happened for the last 4-5 years because the waves have not been big enough. We were very fortunate to be in the right place at the right time because this very contest was happening the day we planned to visit the North Shore. Adam told us that the waves were crazy huge, so we had to take a peek. One person we talked to said the waves were 50 ft high at 3am! By the time we got to the contest the waves were about 20 ft high. There's only a two lane road to/from Waimea Bay and traffic was bumper-to-bumper, no really, it was. We drove in traffic to as long as we could take it, then we parked and walked the rest of the way. It was worth the walk though. It was easy to the see the waves because they were so big, but the surfers were so far away that it was a little tough to see completely clearly without binoculars or a ridiculously huge camera lens.

A guy with a ridiculously huge lens

A couple of those guys in front were in the contest and I believe that ones of those dudes was this guy Bruce who won the contest.

A big wave, not huge, but big enough. It's hard to appreciate the actual size of the wave without comparing it to something. My lens was certainly not long enough to get a good picture of one of the surfers.

It was definitely cool to have been lucky enough to go to the contest. It's just mesmerizing to watch the waves and to realize how powerful they can be.

Later that day we met up with Adam for dinner and walked around downtown Waikiki. There's a main strip with high end shops (Tiffany's, Gucci, Fendi, Prada, and alike) and a bunch of restaurants. I was beat in the evening. The sun is hot and exhausting and I still had to get used to the time difference.

Our Trip to Oahu - Intro

2009-12-19T10:00:00.000-08:00

Aloha!

We took a trip to Oahu from December 7-17. Shawn and I wanted to visit Adam and we figured we should take advantage of the time we have alone before we start a family. I booked our stay at the Hale Koa, an all military resort directly on Waikiki beach. The trip started with our plane from Philly leaving an hour late and we barely made our connecting flight from Houston to Honolulu. The flight to Honolulu was soooooo long, but it was pretty cool to see the island from the plane window after sitting in an uncomfortable seat for nine hours.

We chose to visit Oahu because Adam is stationed at Pearl Harbor plus we were able to get a good deal at the Hale Koa resort. Even though there are inter-island flights, we chose not to visit other island as there is so much to do in a short amount of time on just one island. We did a lot, but didn't come close to doing everything you could do.

Oahu, the third largest island of Hawaii is also the most populous. Did you know that Honolulu is the 12th largest city in the U.S.? I didn't know that either, but that is clearly evident while trying to drive to or from Honolulu during rush hour.

A family member recommended a guidebook to us for our Hawaiian travels and it was extremely helpful. The author also wrote guidebooks for the Big Island, Maui and Kauai. The book is called Oahu Revealed. The author spent about 2-3 years researching the island for his book. Honestly, the book was our bible for the vacation, we took it EVERYWHERE. If we really didn't know what to do for a few hours, we could just open the book, drive to an area we hadn't visited yet and find something cool that the book talked about. It included maps, driving directions, information regarding the hawaiian lifestyle and language, and unbiased feedback on beaches, restaurants, etc.

Adam was also helpful in guiding us to the right places around the island. So with our awesome guidebook and Adam's advice, we had good ideas of how to plan our vacation.

One of the first pictures I took, I was waiting for Shawn to get the rental car.

The Hale Koa resort from above (I did not take this picture). We stayed in the tower on the right with wonderful views of the ocean.

The view from our hotel room, looking out at Waikiki beach.

Inside our hotel room. We ended up with 2 double beds, but NBD because Shawn had a sinus infection for the better part of our vacation and he slept by himself several nights.

Our rental car, a Honda Fit. I loved this car and I would trade my Corolla in for a Fit but Shawn won't let me. I drove the entire time while Shawn was my co-pilot and navigated us through the streets of Honolulu and throughout the island. The streets were often poorly marked and the freeways were confusing at first.

I will be organizing our trip by days (day 1, day 2, etc.) and I hope to incorporate a little bit of history throughout.

Enjoy & Mahalo!

We're baaaaaack!

2009-12-18T18:48:00.000-08:00

Aloha!

Shawn and I are back from Hawaii and my new project for this weekend is to document our travels on my blog. Stay tuned, I have some cool stuff to share.

Storm Chaser

2009-10-29T18:37:00.000-07:00

Ok, maybe not a storm chaser, but a storm watcher. I took these pictures a couple of months ago. I thought the clouds look pretty cool and it was amazing the watch the storm roll in and roll right out.

Welcome Fall!

2009-10-29T18:20:00.000-07:00

I was excited to decorate the front door and stoop for fall. I started with a couple of mums and pumpkins, but it just wasn't enough. This past Saturday, Shawn's mom and I found a really cool wreath at Michael's. I thought that a lot of the wreaths were over-priced, so I was going to buy all the materials and make one myself. Bad idea, don't do it. Jane and I estimated the price of a homemade wreath and it would have been more than $50! I bought one for $35 and it's much prettier than one I would have made. To add to the decorations, I bought a few more pumpkins and a bale of hay. Finally, I carved a pumpkin WITH NO PATTERN may I add, and it didn't turn out half bad. Take a look.

It kinda looks tacky in the last picture because you can see the candle, but from the road, it looks pretty good. We got a lot of compliments on it tonight during trick-or-treating.

Hellloooooo Again!

2009-10-29T18:01:00.000-07:00

It's been forever, huh? Busy is not even the word. Shawn got back home at the end of September and ever since then we've been on the go. Here are some things that we're working on:

Finishing the basement (pictures to come)
Painting the family room/kitchen
Training Cole to run with me
SCUBA Diving lessons

This week was exciting though. On Monday, October 26th, Cole and Shawn celebrated their birthdays! Shawn turned 27 and Cole turned 1. I bought Cole a small dog cake and I made Shawn a dark chocolate fudge cake. Here are some pictures from Cole's birthday and some other random pictures I found on my camera:

Another Cole Video

2009-09-06T06:17:00.000-07:00

Fun in the Sun

2009-08-09T08:27:00.000-07:00

Saturday was pretty hot outside so after I finished staning the fence for the day, I let Cole out for some fun. I really wanted to take him to the lake and practice swimming, but I still don't have a really long lead. I thought the sprinkler would be second best. Cole loved it! He definitely tired himself out.

Alright already

2009-07-29T14:55:00.000-07:00

Shawn's bugging me to blog about the fence and the bathroom. I started a couple of projects within the last couple of weeks, and my thought was to work really really hard and finish both of them sooner rather than later. That way I could blog about "before" and then "after". Well...that's not really happening and these projects are taking me longer than I originally thought. I am the only one working on them while I work two jobs, keep Cole entertained, and squeeze in a social life. So anyway, here's what I have so far.

Our Bathroom

Let me just say that I want to change just about everything in our bathroom, but that would cost thousands of dollars and it's just beyond my expertise. What I could do is slap a new paint color on the walls, change the hardware (okay, I didn't do that, Shawn's dad did), and add a few decorations. In the future, I would like to remove the large and useless tub, make the shower stall bigger and tile it, add a linen closet, change the toilet to a white one (it's an off-white color), and put in dual vanities. I know, it's a lot. Oh, and change the linoleum to tile.

Here's what I did:

I took Megan's advice and got samples even though I was dead-set on a color. From top to bottom the colors are: Vintage Map, Tahiti Blue, and Azalea Leaf. Azalea leaf was obnoxiously bright, and I wasn't really feeling the Tahiti Blue. I chose Vintage Map which was the color I had my heart set on from the beginning.

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

Before:

After:

(I'm not entirely happy with the light fixture, I may return that one and get a new one, we'll see)

Before:

After:

The blinds still have to be installed and I'm going to looked for fabric to make a valance for the window.

I also painted the closets and organized them.

Shawn's:

Mine:

The much-anticipated fence (or as I like to call it, Shawn's revenge):

This is the worst project, EVER. Not only was a huge project to install the fence in the first place, but now HE wants it stained. Ok, I'm kinda kidding because I want it stained too, but he skips town ever so conveniently when we decide we want to stain it and it has to be soon. I'm kidding about that too. The fence will look awesome once it's all stained.

Here's one side of it, not stained:

Here's the other side, stained:

And here's a corner to compare:

Okay, so that's an update of my projects. Once the fence is done, I could stain the deck, but that's not as pressing as the fence since the wood for the deck is treated. I would also like to paint the laundry room, but we'll see about that, I'm pooped!

Treadmill 6000xiGT Cobra

2009-07-06T18:57:00.000-07:00

Ok, that's really not the name of our new treadmill, I just added a whole bunch of letters and stuff. The new treadmill arrived a few weeks ago, but it's so freaking heavy that I needed help. Mark and my mom came over tonight to not only help me with the treadmill but drop off our new (well, new to us) queen mattress and boxspring! I'm pretty excited about the treadmill because it'll save me time from going to the gym and Cole will be able to use it without slipping off the back (the belt is 60" long). Check out Cole breaking in the treadmill.

While Andi is away, Cole may play

2009-07-06T18:49:00.000-07:00

While I was at the wedding this weekend Cole stayed at my mom's house. My aunt and cousins also stayed at my mom's for the holiday weekend so Cole had a lot of attention, and when I got back on Sunday he was EXHAUSTED. He hasn't been this calm in months! Don't you think Cole kinda looks like Yoda from Star Wars in the first picture? When his ears are like that I'll start talking like Yoda and in a Yoda-like voice to Shawn. "mmmmm, exhausted I am young Jedi knight"

Wedding #3 2009 - Sarah & Janos

2009-07-06T18:34:00.000-07:00

Happy 4th of July!

I took my friend Amanda as my date to Sarah and Janos' (pronounced Yanish, Hungarian for John) wedding this past Saturday. The wedding was gorgeous and Sarah obviously gave a lot thought to the colors and details. It was also really nice to hang out with my friends from PT school for the night. Here are some pictures from their big day.

Wedding #2 2009 - Chad & Jaclyn

2009-06-28T15:52:00.000-07:00

June 27, 2009

Chad and Jackie had a beautiful wedding. Her colors were perfect for summer, Nectar (I think that's what she or Chad called it) with greens and oranges. They had the reception at the Whitemarsh Country Club and the dining and dancing area was decorated perfectly.

The groom and I.

The bride and I.

Megan was my date, er, arm candy for the evening.

Rachel, Me, Megan.

Jess being Jess.

The guys.

I had a great time at the wedding, drinking and dancing with friends all night long. We continued the party to Dave & Buster's and then another bar before turning in for the night.

Wedding #1 2009 - Big Pete & Alycia

2009-06-28T15:17:00.000-07:00

Their wedding was great! The ceremony was beautiful, Alycia's bridesmaids wore black, very classy.

Shawn and I (obviously)

The girls (and Bam-Bam).

The guys.

Pete and Alycia went to Jamaica on their honeymoon hence the tropical leis.

Us being goofy and little intoxicated.

A little side story for everyone.

The reception was all but over and everyone was hanging out and enjoying a couple more drinks before the place kicked us out. I was sitting at my assigned table minding my own business, when Crack! Out of nowhere something hit my brow bone millimeters above my right eye. Immediately I covered my eye and put my head down on the table, I wasn't sure how badly I was injured, all I knew was that it hurt like hell. I was hesitant to uncover my face because I thought I was going to be covered in blood, however, there was no blood, hardly even a mark to show for my SEVERE pain. Well I quickly came to realize that Andy (my namesake) threw a miniature chocolate bar as hard as he could trying to hit Goody or someone near me, but it hit me instead. Now, I may have acted a little over the top soon after it happened, and I may have yelled for Shawn at the top of my lungs, and I may have held ice on my eye for the rest of the night so everyone felt bad for me, but c'mon, I just took a chocolate bar in my eye traveling at a very high velocity.

Strange Foam

2009-06-28T15:07:00.000-07:00

I noticed the other week that there is this strange stuff in the garden. It has only popped up in the flower bed with the day lillies. It's so weird because it'll show up one day, almost growing for a day or two and then wash away with rain or just disappear. The stuff is airy and light, kinda watery, I think it may be some sort of mold. The mulch we have that the builder put in is not high quality, so that may have something to do with it, I think. I want it to go away forever, it looks gross.

New Cole Pictures

2009-06-28T14:58:00.000-07:00

eight-seven

2009-06-15T18:17:00.000-07:00

A lot of people in our neighborhood have watched Cole grow over the past few months. I get comments like "he's getting so big" or "look at those paws" but more often than those is "how much does he weigh?" Up until two days ago I was guessing his weight and apparantly I'm a really bad guesser. I was saying around 60-65 pounds. Mark weighed him yesterday and he's 87 pounds! He'll be 8 months old next week and he's gotta a lotta room to grow.

Cole waters the lawn too!

2009-06-15T18:04:00.000-07:00

If you've read my blog at all then you probably know that Cole is so helpful around the house when Shawn is away. Cole now knows how to water the lawn. He doesn't even need my help to unravel the hose, he does that all by himself. In fact, I found Cole with the hose halfway across the yard! I guess he saw a spot that was a little dry. Cole must love watering the lawn because every time I let him out he goes straight for the hose and starts watering. To conserve water, I moved the hose inside.

Floods #1 and #2 of 2009

2009-06-15T17:46:00.000-07:00

I wish I would have taken pictures from the first flood because it was WICKED. The flash flood brought tons of debris from the corn fields and it was all trapped by our fence. So that wouldn't happen again, Shawn cut off two of bottom sections of the wire so that the debris can flow right through. WELL.......Cole is very determined. I take that back, Cole is a contortionist! He managed to wiggle himself underneath the fence where Shawn cut the wire back a little bit. Not only did Cole break free from the yard. This happened right before I needed to leave for work (perfect timing). So I'm chasing him around my neighbor's yards and to make matters worse, he was running after the neighbor's German Shepherd, but this GS is not so nice. Cole wanted to PLAY, Cody wanted to KILL. Somehow I got a hold of Cole and nicely dragged him back to our house. Anyway, I needed a quick fix until we can install the invisible fence. Mark came up with the idea of weaving a cable through the bottom of the wire and pulling to taught so that the wire itself is not flimsy for Cole to crawl under. First, I'll show you pictures of the second flood of 2009, then the pictures of the cable we just installed.

You can see that the cable takes up the slack of the wire fence. Hopefully, since now that the wire cannot be pushed far in either direction, Cole will not be able to crawl under again. Keep your fingies crossed!

Hello from Cow!

2009-06-15T17:43:00.000-07:00

Shawn did this so I took a picture. Apparently Cole and I have similar tastes when it comes to stuffed animals because if Cole makes it upstairs, he goes straight for Cow. Cow has survived a few dog bites, not to mention tosses down the stairs and spikes on the floor compliments of Shawn.

Going back in time

2009-06-07T17:22:00.001-07:00

I have a bunch of pictures from the past couple of months, so I'm just going to post a few.

I've been wanting to get Cole a bed for a while. We knew we would have to buy the biggest bed, but they are so expensive in the pet stores. My mom came across one at Costco and when I took a look at it, it was perfect. It was big and gusseted, which is what I wanted for Cole. The best part was it only cost me $19! Some large dog beds can run in the hundreds. It didn't take Cole long before he used it, and now he lays on it when we're watching TV.

Cole goes swimming, or at least tries to! Cole really likes to play with water, but he would not jump in the pool. Coaxing would not work, so the lifevest went on and Mark just pulled him in the pool. As soon as Cole was in the pool he froze and wouldn't move. When he tried to swim, he was very uncoordinated and probably would've sank to the bottom of the pool if it wasn't for the lifevest.

Puppies will be puppies. When Shawn and I picked Cole up at my Mom's after Pete and Alycia's wedding my mom met us in the driveway and told us that "cole was hurt". My mom explained that he was running around the pool area and slipped or tripped and ripped (did not try to rhyme) the pad on his left front paw. She said he was okay, but he limps. My mom tried to wrap his paw, but he didn't want anything to do with that. Cole definitely didn't seem to mind the injury, but he was obviously favoring his paw. He limped for a few days and we held off walking him for about a week, but now he's back to normal.

My Green Thumb. I'm not big into buying a lot of annuals for my gardens, I'd rather spend the extra money and buy perrenials. I would like to fill the gardens with different colored and shaped shrubs and leaf-plants (as I call it) so that for most of the year my garden will look the same. I bought a burgundy leaf plant and two purple Salvia plants to add to my garden. I did buy a few annuals to fill my hanging basket, a great wedding gift we received last year. For our anniversary, my dad and Lori bought us two planters to put on our front porch. I think they look great.

Last but not least. Shawn's dad made us a raised dog food/water bowl thing. Since we have so much stain left from the cabinet, we stained the dog bowl thing to match the kitchen cabinets. Now, Cole doesn't push the water bowl across the kitchen floor and spill water all over the place.

Anniversary Dinner

2009-06-07T17:04:00.000-07:00

Shawn and I went to a restaurant in Middletown called Alfred's Victorian. The weather was perfect, so we opted to eat outside on the patio. The restaurant was in an old brownstone and the decor was very true to the victorian era. They advertise an herb garden, so we took a tour. May I say that the herb garden could use an overhaul. It was a little overgrown and unkempt.

The menu was great. Shawn and I each ordered soup for appetizers. I got the seafood bisque (very Jess-esque) which was awesome! Then we both ordered filet for the entree. My steak was slightly overdone, but the veggies were very good. Last but not least, we both ordered a dessert. Shawn got this triple chocolate cake with ice cream and I got the chocolate cheesecake parfait. mmm, mmm, good.

Even though we were both very full from dinner and dessert, we wanted to take a stab at our anniversary cake. To our surprise the cake was actually good, very good. It was moist, no freezer burn, and I even have a little bit of it left yet.

Happy New Year, Happy Birthday, Happy Something Day

2009-06-02T19:29:00.000-07:00

Today is our 1st year wedding anniversary. Shawn was being all sweet and stuff in the car on the way to dinner and instead of saying "Happy anniversary" he started to say "Happy bir---". I'll post some pictures from our dinner. I also have tons of updating to do, so expect a lot of blogs in a short amount of time.

All in all, Shawn and I had a great year (when he was home), maybe that's why I had a great year because he wasn't home all of the time. haha.

Most Recent pics of Cole (and one of his smart and good-looking owners)

2009-04-19T17:26:00.000-07:00

"I rehabilitate dogs, I train people" (Cesar, of course)

2009-04-19T17:12:00.000-07:00

We were off to a very slow start with training Cole on the treadmill, but that has changed. Cole has no problem walking on the treadmill. We want to get to the point where we don't have to be there with Cole while he's walking/running on it. We'll use the treadmill as a supplement to our daily walks outside and when the weather is crappy.

Another comparison

2009-04-19T17:00:00.000-07:00

Cole at 9 weeks old modeling his baggy yet very stylist waterproof jacket:

Here's Cole at 20 weeks old modeling the same stylist waterproof jacket, but it's no longer baggy, in fact it barely Velro's around him.

It's not a purse, it's a dude bag.

2009-04-19T14:02:00.000-07:00

I bought this treat bag so my hands could be free when I'm walking and training Cole. It's especially handy in puppy class. Shawn's man hands can't fit in my treat bag so he's been putting crumbly dog treats in his jacket and pants pockets and now his pockets are quite gross.

This was his solution.

I just started laughing, then Shawn got really embarrassed and he refused to use it. So there.

Fencing 101 (and not the sport)

2009-04-19T13:28:00.000-07:00

Shawn and I have many big projects in mind for the house. The first big one that we decided to start first was fencing in the backyard. We looked at a few different types of fences, privacy, vinyl, picket, but then we settled on a split-rail fence for a couple of reasons. First, split-rail fences are very cost effective compared to vinyl and especially privacy fences. Second, we wanted to create a defined area for Cole (and eventually kids) without it feeling closed off. Third, I'm not sure if we had a third reason. But anyway, the project started last Saturday with Shawn, my mom, and Mark making the 1.5 hour trip to Honeybrook, PA on a rainy morning to pick up 46 posts and 120 11' rails. The bulk of the fence was put in by Shawn and his Dad over the course of one day during the week. A lot of the fence was also done yesterday, but we're still not quite done. You see, Shawn and I want to cut out a 14" wide trench under the fence so we don't have to maintain the grass, instead we'll put decorative stone there. Cutting out the trench wouldn't be so bad if we didn't have 450 ft worth of fencing. We're excited it's almost finished and it'll be so nice to let Cole run wild in the backyard.

The first section of the fence

The two front gates.

The vinyl-coated wire is the keep Cole IN and other dogs OUT!

There will be a gate in the back as well.

Our fence reminds me of a dude ranch, so anytime you're free, come on over to the Bear Ranch!

There's a first for everything

2009-04-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

As soon as Cole turned 5 months old, the price of PetSmart's doggie bath increased from $11 to $32! As a young puppy, we took Cole to get bathed every other week or so for socialization and to make him smell good. We're definitely not paying $32 to pay someone else to give Cole a bath, so I wanted to do it myself (with my mom's help). We took Cole out back and pretty much just hosed him down, it took less than 10 minutes and cost me $19 for a really big bottle of dog shampoo.

It was worth a try

2009-03-28T17:37:00.000-07:00

So, Cole's jumping on the furniture problem has continued and it doesn't seem to be getting any better. Shawn and I read a lot about training dogs on the internet. While searching for "how to keep your dog off the furniture" I came across the idea of putting pieces of aluminum foil on the furniture you don't want the dog on because dogs hate the texture of the foil. Since this method seemed to come up several times, I decided to put it into action. I ripped off a big piece of foil to cover the whole seat of the couch. Now I should tell you that Shawn did not think this would work AT ALL. He thought Cole would LOVE the foil and just rip it in a thousand pieces. So anyway, I put the piece of foil on the seat of the couch, Cole walked over slowly and then.....ripped the piece of foil into a thousand tiny pieces. Damn it! We're right back where we started. But, I captured a few pictures to prove Shawn right.

S'more

2009-03-28T13:34:00.000-07:00

Here are some more pictures of Cole from about two weeks ago.

Make like a tree and get the f*** outta here!

2009-03-28T13:16:00.000-07:00

Shawn planted our Christmas tree in the backyard, but he couldn't wait several more Christmases to plant others, instead we bought five 7-8 foot Douglas Firs to plant next to our first one. Eventually we would like to put another row of trees in front of these. Sometime this spring we'll be putting a split-rail fence in around the yard, but it's not going to enclose the trees. Take a look:

Cole and I played in the yard while everyone else worked:

His new little thing

2009-03-23T15:38:00.000-07:00

Can you guess what Cole's "new" thing is????

Yep, it's hilarious right??? NOT! He jumps up so quickly now that we're pulling him off of the couch or chair instead of preventing him from getting up there in the first place. It's unfortunate though because as soon as he jumps up he's completely relaxed, and as much as we want him to be relaxed, we definitely do not want him on the furniture.

Here are some more pics of Cole from the weekend.

Class of 2009

2009-03-10T18:23:00.000-07:00

Cole graduated from Puppy Kindergarten tonight! He did so well in class, and we even won the sit-stay contest!!! Cole was also dubbed the class clown because he does have a tendency to talk when the teacher is talking and is easily distracted during assignments.

Here's the graduate! (and take notice to his ears)

On a sad note, my mom & Mark's beloved dog, Mae, was put to sleep yesterday evening. If you had the chance to meet Mae then you know she was a really great dog who loved people (not so much other dogs) and swimming in the pool. We miss her so much already.

Jack of All Trades

2009-03-01T16:16:00.000-08:00

I have to say since Shawn has been out of town Cole has been very helpful around the house. Cole picked up right where Shawn left off!

I caught Cole doing some bills! If only he could pay from his own account!

Another day, I found him shaking the dust out of the floor mat! Whatta guy!

The next day he even ran an errand for me to buy a couple of cards at Target! He's so thoughtful.

For my birthday, he helped my mom set the table for dinner & cake with a special birthday tablecloth!

Cole will even turn the channel to my favorite TV shows!

I don't know how he does it! He helps out so much around the house and he still has time to exercise!

It's so nice to have an extra pair of paws around the house.

BTW - Happy Birthday to ME!

2009-02-24T10:33:00.000-08:00

Ding Ding Ding We Have a Winner!

2009-02-24T10:08:00.000-08:00

I had off work for the last couple of days so I decided to work on my New Year's Resolution. A few people at work go to this place right by the Med Center called Downstreet Salon and they recommended it to me. Today I had an appointment with Natasha. I was excited but nervous, I was hoping she could fix my hair from my previous botched highlight job. The moment you step foot in the salon you already get a good vibe. It's retro, cool furniture, tons of staff, I could tell right away that everyone knew what they were doing plus all of their hair styles were awesome. Natasha and I settled on my new haircolor/highlights (and yes she used toner at the end to settle the highlight color down). At first I wasn't even going to have her cut my hair, but she convinced me to go with a few more layers and then I added in some ideas and before I knew it my hair was much shorter in the back, angled on the sides, and poof! I had a style. Here are the results:

Thanks Jodie for the suggestion!

He does have a sweet side

2009-02-19T16:08:00.001-08:00

So I kinda have to brag a little in this post. As most of you know Shawn is very blunt and sarcastic, and most people don't really see his sweet side, and seeing is believin'. I have a stuffed animal that I've have since I was born, Cow, and Shawn hasn't exactly been nice to Cow over the years. I can't tell you how many times I've found Cow at the bottom of the stairs after Shawn spiked her or had to save Cow from suffocation after Shawn tied the mini-blind string around her neck. I know, it's sick. Sooooo, I get home from work on Tuesday, eat dinner with my mom, then have to get ready for puppy class around 7pm. I go upstairs only to find the bed MADE and Cow sitting nicely on my pillow with a little gift-wrapped box on her lap. Now, we don't celebrate V-day (or as Shawn likes to call it VD-day), but it was an early B-day gift. He did good!

Don't mind that the gift is already open, I re-created the scene.

Cole weighs 40 pounds! (but that was before his balls were cut out)

2009-02-16T17:12:00.000-08:00

Cole just turned four months old yesterday. Unfortunately he got his balls cut out for the occasion. Yes, now instead of a male dog he is considered a neutered male. Poor puppy. He took the surgery very well. I expected him to be drowsy, sleepy and wearing a big cone around his head when he came home, but he was none of that. Since we didn't take him on his am or pm walk, he was bouncing off the walls.

Here are a few pictures we took from the weekend:

They're finished!

2009-02-16T17:02:00.000-08:00

The stools are finished! It's so nice to sit at the island. Now we can eat here too which is cool because it's just the two of us. Here they are:

My hot new whip

2009-02-04T11:03:00.001-08:00

Beep, Beep! So we didn't plan on buying a new car last week, but we had no choice. Shawn's truck was acting up and as it turns out the transmission needed to be replaced. We knew it was going to be expensive to replace (probably more than the trunk was worth) so we went car shopping. We didn't have to look very hard since we bought the car at the first place we went to. The Hershey Med center offers a bunch of discounts to their employees and one of the discounts was at Faulkner Toyota. It worked out perfectly because we wanted a Toyota Corolla, a reliable and fuel efficient car. The woman was trying really hard to sell us a brand new 2009 Corolla sport, and as much as I really wanted that car, it just wasn't what we needed. We settled on a 2008 Corolla with very low mileage and with my discount we ended up with a pretty sweet deal.

Long time, no blog

2009-02-04T10:49:00.001-08:00

Ahhhh, it's been forever since I blogged. Shawn and I have been very busy. In the past few weeks we started puppy kindergarten with Cole, bought a new car, and filling our time with plenty of other stuff. Cole is getting so big, his coat changes almost daily it seems. He's starting to grow light tan hair on his sides and now he looks more like a miniature German Shepherd than a puppy.

Here are a couple of older pictures I didn't post:

too disappointed for words

2009-01-18T16:18:00.000-08:00

the Eagles lost, it sucks, don't want to blog, don't want to do anything. Dawkins will be crying for all of us. Will update my blog with recent photos later, too sad now.

The Unchartered

2009-01-10T09:21:00.000-08:00

Shawn and I decided that last night was a good night to introduce Cole to the family room for two reasons. Cole was knocking down the cardboard between the kitchen and the family room anyway and Shawn and I wanted to relax on comfy chairs and watch tv. He loved the carpet, so much so that he wants to eat it! We'll have to watch him a little more carefully until he's used to it, but he's getting better and better. Oh, we signed Cole up for puppy kindergarten, we start in about a week.

Here are the new barriers:

Cole + Snow = C U T E

2009-01-10T09:13:00.001-08:00

Baby Steps

2009-01-10T08:22:00.000-08:00

Okay....so I made an appointment to get my hair done the other day. I figured I should take advantage of my week off from work. (vaca is almost over, boohoo) I looked online for salons/spas in the lebanon area and I found this really cool one off of Route 72. The hairdresser asked me what I wanted to do with my hair. I gave her pretty much free reign, but I told her that I wanted to be able to pull my hair back and I didn't wanted racing stripes on the side of my head. Long story short, I went to a hair salon a couple of years ago for a cut and highlights and the straight male hairdresser highlighted my hair with platinum blonde and when I pulled my hair up I basically had 3 Adidas stripes on both sides of my hair. I got my money back from that one. Anyway, the hairdresser at this new place was very nice and I even told her of my bad experience with highlights, she laughed. She wasn't going to do a whole lot with my hair except to cut it shorter and highlight, good for me, I wasn't ready for a drastic change yet, baby steps baby steps. I love the cut! She did a great job. I'll probably go for maybe more layers or long bangs another time this year, but for right now, the cut is good. The highlights looked great in the salon, but only in the salon. The salon was dimly lit, so when I looked at my hair after she had finished styling it, I thought it was great. I was in such a good mood. Then I got into my car and looked at my hair in the natural light. It was awful. The highlights looked yellow against my dark hair. Why the hell would she use that color??? Anyway, I didn't really panic because I knew I could fix it, but I was pissed. Do these people actually do this for a living? How many other people's hair do they "f" up?

Alright, so don't mind the curls, she felt the need to curl the ends of my hair, something I usually would no do. I like the length, and the color doesn't really look too bad from this perspective.

Here's the birds-eye view: not too pretty in my opinion

Another thing that made me mad was that the hairdresser started the highlights like a 1/2 inch from the roots. Here it looks really yellow/orange/brassy. Not cool.

From experience, I knew that I could lighten the highlights by re-dying my hair. So that's exactly what I did.

I'm processing.

I have to explain this picture. I needed to take Cole outside, but my hair still had dye on it and since it was raining outside I needed to put my hood up, but I couldn't do that because the dye would stain my hood. Sooo....I donned a plastic bag first, then put my hood up, genius!

Here's the finished product. Much better. Definitely more subdued.

Yeah, I'm happy.

At the end of this whole thing I decided to modify my New Year's resolution. My new New Year's resolution is to visit different salons in the areas in an effort to find a hairdresser that can cut and highlight my hair well. I'll try a new place every couple of months or so and document my experiences on my blog.

Versus

2009-01-07T16:14:00.000-08:00

Okay...Here's Cole at 5 weeks old.

And Here's Cole at 10 weeks!

He's a whopping 23 pounds! I was trying to replicate the same pose as in the first picture, but it's little hard for me to hold him with only one arm now.

Eagle Pride

2009-01-05T13:52:00.000-08:00

I bought Cole a new scarf-thing, this one is a little better than the PetSmart one. Shawn really like it. I tried to find Philles fabric, but when I saw this fabric I had to buy it because they won yesterday.

Another home project

2009-01-04T13:21:00.000-08:00

Shawn's parents bought us wooden stools for Christmas to sit at our island. The stools were unfinished so we could use the same stain as our cabinets to match. First, Shawn had to shave off a couple of inches from the bottom of the stools so they would fit under the counter. Then, we each took a stool and stained them yesterday. So far we have one coat of poly on the legs. We'll probably put three coats of poly on everything, but there are so many nooks and crannies which makes putting the poly on difficult. We hope to finish everything in the next couple of days.

A New Year & A New Scent

2009-01-02T18:09:00.000-08:00

Happy Belated New Year! This New Year's was low key and just the way I like it. Megan and Neal visited us, we played with Cole, watched TV and watched a movie. Well, I watched the movie through my eyelids, Megan told me it was good. She took a lot of good pics of Cole. Check out her blog for all of the cool pics. http://www.ferrisandsimone.com/

Anyway, today was Cole's first bath. Thank god because he smelled like shit. I mean like he rolled in and ate shit. So PetSmart charges only $11 to wash puppies. I thought it was a good deal plus he'll get the socialization time. Cole was a show stopper at PetSmart. All of the little kids wanted to pet him and adults were asking tons of questions. He did so well in the store. When we got home, Shawn and I decided that we were going to teach Cole how to lay down. First we told him to "come here" then we told him to sit (we also put our hand in the air like you're signaling stop because we want him to learn hand signals too). Then with him sitting and with a treat in my hand I slowly lowered my hand to the floor and said "down." And he did it! We did 10 reps, haha, I know, reps, but by the end he was able to do it without any treats!

Here's a picture of Cole all nice a clean and with his bandana from PetSmart:

Cole likes to look at his reflection in the refrigerator and dishwasher. Shawn said that he was staring at a reflection of Shawn in the dishwasher for like 5 minutes.

Here's a random picture of Cole modeling his raincoat/winter jacket. He's only worn it once outside, but I like to put it on him from time to time because he looks ridiculous in it plus I paid $25.

So Megan came up with a pretty good NY resolution. So I was thinking and I came up with my own NY resolution. It may be stupid, but I figured that if I blog about it and enough people bug me about from reading it here, then maybe it will happen. Here goes. My resolution is to change my hairstyle at least once this year. I'm tired of the same old long and straight hair. It's comfy and I know what to do with it, but I think I need a change. It's time. What do you think? Any suggestions?

Fly Eagles Fly

2008-12-29T18:10:00.000-08:00

This is Cole's reaction to the Eagles Fight Song. Can you see a pattern? Ok, I promise I'll stop posting these.

soooo blue!

2008-12-28T08:42:00.000-08:00

This is Cole's reaction to my singing Bruises by Chairlift.

This is the longest Christmas ever

2008-12-27T19:13:00.000-08:00

Shawn, Cole, and I have been very busy. Cole is a well-travelled dog by now. We all went to my mom's for Christmas Eve dinner. I don't have too many pictures from that night because Shawn and I spent most of the night following Cole around the house to make sure he's not biting furniture or decorations.

Here's Mae with her new toy:

At the end of the night Cole was pooped!

Our Christmas Celebration continued after I got home from work on Christmas Day. We all went to Shawn's parent's home for dinner. Cole had a few accidents in the house, but was pretty good the whole day. He and Sadie (his parent's dog) played a little bit, which was nice to help Cole become more socialized. Cole found Sadie's bed and "fell" into it, have a look.

After work on Friday, Shawn, Cole and I drove to my dad's house for a visit. Cole did very well. He and Murphy (their dog) chased each other around the house. Murph did well to put Cole in his place. Most of their cats avoided Cole except Oreo (Lori's mom's cat). Oreo just stood their while Cole barked at him. Oreo also put Cole in his place. We had a really nice time. Lori made a great egg casserole and baked french toast, it was awesome. This is Cole on the way home from our travel adventures:

We have one more day of Christmas. Adam flies in from Hawaii tomorrow, so we'll probably go over to my mom's to see him and open presents with him. I told you, longest Christmas everrrr.

Let sleeping dogs lie

2008-12-23T16:56:00.000-08:00

Here's a very new picture of Cole sleeping half inside his crate and half outside.

Cole barking at a toy

2008-12-23T16:46:00.000-08:00

Papa Bear, Mama Bear, and Baby Bear

2008-12-23T16:07:00.000-08:00

Cole at 8 weeks old

Sleeping by his dish, he does that a lot
He's so big already! His head is almost as big as mine!

Sleeping pup again

So we picked Cole up on Sunday, December 21. Cole got a little carsick on the way to my mom's house, poor lil guy. He felt a little better by the time we stopped the car and was ready to play.

He's definitely becoming more familiar with his surroundings and with Shawn and I. He'll play for a half hour or so, then nap, then maybe eat and drink before he starts the cycle all over again. We're both working hard on house training him. We think he's getting the idea, at least he only peed on paper in the house twice today as compared to several times yesterday.

He went to the vet today to get his first series of shots. Shawn said he did very well and didn't even yelp when he got the shots.

All in all, so far so good. He's so funny to watch. His paws are way too big for his body so he's always losing his balance and flopping all over the place. It's also cute to see him watch Shawn around the kitchen because he'll cock his head curiously at every move.

I'm taking tons of pictures, so for most of my future posts will just be updated pictures of Cole. It'll be interesting to watch him grow. Shawn researched his growth rate and according to a site online Cole will grow about 10 pounds per month! He's already at 16.8!

Enjoy the pics! More to come.

Here he is...

2008-12-03T05:33:00.001-08:00

Here's Cole at 5 weeks old. We had first pick of the 4 males. It was hard to decide because they're all just so darn cute. I narrowed it down to two puppies, the teal collar and the green collar, both puppies were so calm and they just layed in my arms, but the reason I picked the teal collar is because the other one looked cross-eyed. Cole's dad is HUGE at 110 pounds, so Cole has a good chance of being a large dog!

Sorry for the blurry picture (I blame my mom), but here's Cole! It was hard to take pictures because the breeder didn't want us to use flash right in their eyes, so I turned my flash off and the puppies just move too fast. More pictures to follow in three weeks. We pick him up on December 21st.

Holiday Lights

2008-12-03T05:24:00.000-08:00

This is somewhat of a bad picture, I haven't mastered taking photos at night yet. Anyway, I wanted to show everyone the lights I put up BY MYSELF. It was quite a project. I had to figure out which extension cord to use where and how to hang a lit wreath on the door. What you see here took me about one week to finish, no lie. I just took my time, one strand at a time. Also, I didn't have a ladder so I had to lasso the tree on the left, it turned out alright. Once the bushes in the front get bigger it'll look better, but for now, it's fine.

Happy Turkey Day!

2008-12-03T05:17:00.001-08:00

I spent the holiday at my mom's house. Shawn and his parent's were out of town since I had to work on Friday and Saturday, I wanted to be close to home. Here's Mark, my mom, and Kris making dinner:
Dinner was great although it took only about 10 minutes to eat and about 5-6 hours to cook. oh well.

Hannah took a picture of me so I could at least make an appearance on my blog:

Dinner was ended with Joel and Hannah wrasslin' which is not uncommon. I think Hannah won this round.

That's all. I didn't take a whole bunch of pictures on Thanksgiving, too busy eating.

Plan B

2008-11-22T06:35:00.000-08:00

So it's snowing pretty hard right now. And you know how I mentioned that we don't have a snow shovel yet and that I was glad our driveway was clear yesterday??? haha, not anymore. It's covered with snow. Granted it's pretty fluffy snow and I'll probably be able to just sweep it away, it's still kinda hilarious. I was going to hang Christmas lights outside, but I'll probably clean inside.

Here are a couple of pictures of the garland I placed around the house. I started decorating for Christmas as soon as Shawn left!

It's snowing!!! (or at least it was)

2008-11-22T05:03:00.000-08:00

We had a little bit of snow on Tuesday evening, but it didn't amount to much. The rest of the snow arrived overnight on Thursday. I woke up to find the whole neighborhood covered in white. The first thing I checked though was to make sure our driveway wasn't covered because we don't have a snow shovel yet, haha. Thank goodness I didn't have to shovel. Here are a few pics I took Thursday evening and Friday morning.

I took this picture and sent it to Shawn, aaawwwww.

Still no luck

2008-11-22T04:57:00.001-08:00

I haven't tried very hard to get the pictures of the actual installation of the cabinetry, but I took a few pictures today.
We have so much more room now to store food, in fact all of our food is stored in the large pantry. I'm still getting used to where I moved things, but it's working out well. I also like having a desk in the kitchen too. We wanted a spot in the house where we could put our bills and keep a calendar so we could be more organized.

Hellloooo!

2008-11-17T18:04:00.000-08:00

I know, I know, I haven't posted in a while. I have a really good reason though, I swear. Shawn took my camera with him to Las Vegas so for five weeks I couldn't take any pictures. I did buy a new camera battery charger for Shawn's camera, but when I tried to transfer the pictures from his camera to my computer it didn't work. It didn't even work on Shawn's computer. So when I figure how to the pics from his camera, I'll post them. I took a lot of pictures of when Mark and John installed our new pantry and desk. The cabinetry is complete now and Shawn was very surprised that I actually worked on it when he was gone.

In exactly two weeks I'll be choosing our puppy! There are four males to choose from, so we're not sure which one will be ours, but here is a picture of one of the puppies at one-and-a-half weeks old: How cute! btw, it's a German Shepherd.

Ok, I'll be working on the pictures of the cabinetry.

It's been awhile

2008-10-01T16:36:00.000-07:00

I haven't blogged in a while and I feel bad about it. Sorry to the hundreds of fans I have out there. haha. I'll try to keep it more updated as best as I can.

Anyway, about 2 weeks ago Shawn and I dog sat for a woman I work with. She has a pit bull mix named Maddie. Maddie was such a good dog and it took her only about 5 minutes to tear that toy apart.

The friday of that same weekend my mom and I went shopping at the Hershey outlets. We got some great deals and I started Christmas shopping already! I also bought Shawn's birthday gift, see for yourself:

I gave him an Eagles jersey!! And that weekend they actually won!

Next to come...update on the new kitchen cabinetry!

There's a first for everything

2008-09-13T09:22:00.000-07:00

Shawn has drill this weekend so I'm just chilling today. I thought since the rained has cleared for a little while, I would cut the lawn. This was the first time ever I was going to cut our lawn with our riding mower. I actually had a pretty good time. It was nice to see the lawn freshly cut, it made the house look nice. Anyway, here's a picture of my handywork.

Looks nice, huh? Well look a little closer.

A little closer yet...

Do you see it?

Here it is! I know it's gross. Well, while I was cutting the lawn, occasionally the mower would make a different sound then spew out a huge hunk of cut grass. That's what I though happened when I was cutting the front lawn, but instead I chopped a mommy rabbit in half. I started to tear up especially when I saw her baby run away. I can't believe I didn't see them sitting there, I feel horrible! I had to leave it on the front yard because I didn't want to touch it.

There were some pieces of fur in the grass.

The Fluffy Kittens!

2008-08-27T15:51:00.000-07:00

Haha, Megan "stretching"

Amanda in the outfield looking a little nervous.

Goody hosts a wiffleball tourney every year, so this year the girls wanted in! A whole day of eating and drinking, you just can't go wrong. Plus all of the proceeds went to Relay for Life. Newbie, Jess, Amanda, Meg, and I formed a wiffleball team and we named our team the Fluffy Kittens. I love the name because it's so girly and we were the only girl team in the tournament. We were the most "losingest" team, but we felt we were improving towards the end. I think next year we'll having a good chance to win a game.

After the game, we decided to have a wife race. Even though Hainley and Goody aren't married, Goody carried Hainley on his back for the race. Everything started pretty well, Shawn and I were in first. then everything went completely wrong. Not far into the race, my legs gave out and were just left dangling there and then my arms got tired and we went down! Megan and Neal weren't far behind us.

All in all, we had a fun day spent with our friends. Looking forward to next year's tourney.

Rock Out

2008-08-24T12:31:00.000-07:00

Shawn's parents visited us this past Friday. John needed to measure our cabinets because we would like to put additional cabinetry in the kitchen. For dinner, we all went to the Farmer's Wife (a local diner), I got stuffed shells. Anyway, his parents painted the old rocker that his mom used to rock Shawn in when he was a baby and gave it to us. It goes perfectly with our room. I would eventually like to get a chairpad or small pillow for the chair that matches our duvet.

Phew!

2008-08-13T17:31:00.000-07:00

Hopefully I'm all caught up now with my blogs. I'll try not to do that again because trying to remember what I did this morning let alone two weeks ago is bad enough.

Practice Run

2008-08-13T17:23:00.000-07:00

Sooo...we dog-sat for friends this past weekend. Shawn thought it would be a good idea to practice before we got a dog of our own. I wonder if we could do that with a baby when the time comes? We would probably never have kids then, ha. Shawn brought Sammie home on Thursday after work and we watched her until Saturday evening. She was such a good dog. We took her for walks, played catch, and just hung out. If we get a dog it won't be until January '09. Right now we're thinking about getting a German Shepherd.

Wedding Bells!!!

2008-08-13T16:58:00.000-07:00

Jodie and Dan got married!! I was so excited for their wedding and Shawn was able to attend! We made good time on Friday and arrived at the church a half hour early, awesome! Jodie looked beautiful and the ceremony was just perfect. Amanda also looked great that day. The reception was gorgeous and we had a lot of fun. Unfortunately the guys left early, but that just left us girls to dance the night away, and dance we did. Megan and I fell asleep early, and the next morning we visited Dan's parent's home for brunch. We got to see Jodie again before she and Dan leave for their honeymoon. I can't wait to see them again!

What a bright idea!

2008-08-11T17:45:00.000-07:00

Shawn and I bought new lamps at Wal-mart the other day. Yes, Shawn agreed to buy new lamps to replace his Eagle lamp. We could've bought them in black to match the furniture, but I liked the silver. The design of the lamp matches the curtain rod almost perfectly! We think it goes well together, even if they are two different colors.

Downtown ME

2008-08-11T17:36:00.001-07:00

Saturday afternoon Jodie gave us a tour of Downtown Portland. We visited some souvenir shops and I found my newest t-shirt! Portland is such a cute town with brick buildings and cobblestone roads. I would definitely want to visit again, when I have more than 24 hours to visit!

Girls Gone Wild

2008-08-11T17:22:00.000-07:00

It was Jodie's last night out as a single woman, so we PARTIED! We started getting ready after we got back from downtown. We were all drinking wine, doing our hair and make-up and just having a good time. Jodie opened some very naughty gifts while we waited for the surprise limo to take us to dinner. I forget where we went to dinner, but it was good. I ordered the chicken tenders, I wasn't that hungry, and a gummi bear martini, YUM! We went to a few more bars after dinner and had an awesome time.

Maine or bust?

2008-08-10T17:02:00.000-07:00

I think I'm crazy. For the second weekend in a row I'm going out of town. Last weekend was to Ohio. This weekend I'm traveling to Maine with Jess and Amanda for Jodie's Bachelorette Party. Very worthy cause, but I wasn't looking forward to how tired I knew I was going to be on Monday. We all met at Jess' house at 7pm on Friday evening, we hit the road by 7:45 pm. It wasn't too much of a struggle to keep each other awake. We listened to music, listened to Amanda's life stories, and drank plenty of caffeine. We arrived in Portland at about 4 am. I think I got 2-3 hours of sleep that day.

Another Shawn Project

2008-08-10T16:22:00.000-07:00

The hardware we bought in Ohio looks really great in our bedroom furniture. At first I picked out a handle without looking at the price, and realized that it was $15 PER HANDLE. Then I found a handle that was a little more reasonably priced at about $4 or $5 per handle. The handles didn't fit perfectly, so Shawn had to drill new holes, so although it was a little time consuming, in the long run we saved a lot of money.

Shawn's Projects

2008-08-10T16:13:00.000-07:00

Shawn wasn't satisfied with the potrack because he thought it looked a little weird drilled directly into the drywall. So...Shawn cut, routered, and stained a piece of wood to hang the potrack from. We purchased a new light fixture for the kitchen too, and it matches the potrack a little better. Take a see for yourself.

Clean clothes...

2008-08-10T14:40:00.000-07:00

For future reference: the drain for the washer is on the wall behind it, NOT on the floor in the trough. Oops. We made the mistake, but everything is fixed and it works great. No more laudromat!

The rest of our OHIO trip

2008-08-10T14:17:00.000-07:00

On Saturday Shannon and John took us on a tour of downtown Columbus and The Ohio State University Campus. The campus is just a tad bigger than Ship's. It was pretty cool to see the stadium. Shannon and John also told us stories of how crazy it is during football season. We ate on campus at The Varsity Club, I ordered a cheeseburger! Then afterwards, we visited a campus store and I purchased another necessary t-shirt.

On our way back to their apartment we stopped at a local mall and visited The Great Indoors, a HUGE store that has all kinds of home stuff, everything from appliances to decorations, it was crazy. Anyway, we bought hardware for our bedroom furniture. Pictures of the new hardware will be posted in another blog. Then we hit up Cold Stone Creamery for some ice cream. I ate my ice cream too fast, so I just took a picture of the empty bowl. I got chocolate ice cream with Reese's peanut butter cups smashed in it. It was yummy!

Later that night, Shannon and John cooked steaks and corn on-the-cob and "wii" played Wii. I beat Shawn in Mario Kart!!!

So on Sunday morning we picked up the washer and dryer and pretty much hit the road. Good thing we left when we did because we hit horrible traffic on 70 west. There was a really long stretch of construction which narrowed the two lane highway down to one lane for miles. We probably spent an extra hour just sitting in traffic. NOT COOL! Needless to say, Shawn and I were NOT happy. We finally arrived home around 9pm, carried the washer and dryer into the house and hit the sack.

O-HI-O

2008-07-28T17:39:00.000-07:00

This past weekend Shawn and I drove to Columbus, Oh to visit Shannon and John. We also went to pick up a washer and dryer Shannon gave us since she really didn't need two washers and two dryers. Our trip to their apartment was smooth sailing, we made good time and we didn't really hit too much traffic. Our trip home on Sunday was the exact opposite. Besides the trip home, we had a great weekend. We arrived at their apartment around 10pm or so and we all stayed up to 3am! Even I stayed up that late!!! We drank a little bit, gabbed, and played Wii. I even woke up Saturday morning with a sore right shoulder from playing Wii. Shawn beat me in boxing, but I beat him in everything else. haha. Actually, Shawn made me play the bowling game until he beat me, so he beat me in 2 games. I have s'more pictures from the weekend, I'll post in another blog.

GUITAR HERO!

2008-07-21T17:17:00.001-07:00

Shawn and I chizzlaxed with Guitar Hero before he left for the Yankees game. We co-op'd, Me on the guitar and Shawn on the bass. I'm still chicken to try the 'hard' level in front of a crowd. I need more prackiss.

Finished Bedroom -- for now!

2008-07-20T17:10:00.000-07:00

The painting is finished! At least for the bedroom. Now only several more rooms to go, but that can wait. The color of the walls is khaki and Shawn and I think it goes really well with the black furniture. We also painted the trim a bright white so the wall color would "pop" more. Our next big purchase will be a mattress set, so once we get that, our bedroom will be 99% complete. Shawn insisted on black curtains so he can be assured that no light will peek through when he's sleeping. Our duvet pattern is light in color which, we think, goes really well with both the walls and the dark furniture. So that's that---for now.

Drilling 101

2008-07-20T17:03:00.000-07:00

We employed Mark to hang the pot rack in the kitchen. Mark measured and Shawn drilled. Well there are now 4 extra holes in our ceiling, oh well. I think the pot rack looks great, and it's really handy, plus it allows more room in the cabinets. It's a little off-center because the studs are off-center, so Shawn is going to fix that in the near future and we're going to put up track lighting instead of the globe light that is in the picture.

Painting 101

2008-07-20T16:59:00.000-07:00

So, Shawn and I decided to work on our bedroom first. My friend from school gave us their bedroom furniture. We weren't really crazy about the stain, so we chose to spray paint it black! Now that the furniture is painted, it looks awesome!

Gardening 101

2008-07-20T16:50:00.001-07:00

My Dad and Lori bought us some plants for our house. To give the front garden a little more color I decided to transplant a green bush thing from the front to the back and put in it's place the pink hydrandrea. We're eventually going to make a garden the back around the central air unit, so we decided to put the other plants they gave back there. Pictured around the AC unit is the Japanese Maple, Phlox, the green bush thing, and the Crape Myrtle. Once we get a little more crafty, we'll fill in that whole area with mulch and other things.

4th of July!

2008-07-20T16:45:00.000-07:00

I don't have any pictures from our party on the 4th, but we had such a great time. We grilled hot dogs and burgers for our friends and family, and everyone helped out by bringing yummy side dishes. I promise I'll get better at this blogging thing and make sure I take pictures of events I want to blog about. Anyway, as a housewarming gift, Megan, Neal, and Amanda got us the best gift EVER....Aerosmith Guitar Hero! Now, Shawn and I can play at the same time, but he won't let us compete against each other, he's a little intimidated by skizills.

First Day at The Bear Den

2008-07-20T16:40:00.001-07:00

The neighborhood is going down hill with us in town! We had a good time signing our lives away earlier that day, yeah right. That evening we moved some kitchen stuff in and celebrated with some much needed champagne. Thanks to Jess, Goody, Amanda, Dan and Jodie, we had an airbed to sleep on that night!

2008-07-20T16:25:00.000-07:00

THE BEAR DEN! Here the grass looks really good, but since it's been so hot and dry lately our grass is looking a little brown and dead :(

1st Post!

2008-07-20T16:21:00.001-07:00

I just want to welcome everyone to my blog! I'm not one to write a lot, but I wanted a way to keep everyone updated on stuff Shawn and I are doing in life and especially to the house. We're slowly getting settled in and we've started on a couple of home projects. As we do more around the house, I'll keep updating my blog. Enjoy!