In which I get closer to moving to Spokane

Went to Spokane for a few days and had a really great time. I got to see my little brother kick some butt on the motocross track, looked for some jobs/houses and did some bird watching. Here are the only good pictures I got from the track. I think Dylan was just too fast and I couldn't get a good one. The one on the right, That is Dylan on the far right. And of course Zach cheering him on.

As far as jobs, I applied at the Coeur d' Alene Resort Spa, Z Spa in Coeur d' Alene, and The Davenport Hotel in Downtown Spokane. But also I got a kick ass haircut from a lady that knows my parents and she is looking for a massage therapist in her salon. I would have to pay rent there, but she seem s to think I could build a clientèle really quickly. I guess if Jeffery got a job quickly enough I could do that, but just not sure.

REALLY good birdwatching at the ol' Liberty Lake State Park (I think that is what it is called) Those were some of the biggest and brightest red winged black birds I have ever seen. They were even twitterpating. I really didn't get any good pics though. I hardly even needed my binoculars. They all flew and sang so close to me. The sparrows were flying circles 3 feet from my head. So Cute. OH, and I saw Gosslings. So small and yellow swiming next to mom and dad.

In which there is drinking AND birdwatching

So my little mesh feeder is very popular with those little birds. I have seen up to 4 fighting over it. Its really cute. I have been trying to take a lot of pics of birds lately. They are hard to get and most of my pics are pretty blurry. I think that is because I don't really know how to use my camera very well. I had heard rumors that we had some mourning doves around here and I finally saw him. The pics ok, but I got greedy and opened my window to get a better look and that scared him away, click on the pic to see it better. Also here is another pic of a scrub jay outside. Too bad the cars are there :(

So last night was my work party. It is a potluck where we invite all our dealers to come in and work on their spaces and we help them in any way we can. People brought beer and wine and tons of non- vegetarian food. So I didn't eat much but got my fill of plenty of wine. Not sure how much of help I was, and I spilled my wine at one point. So I think I was hurting more than helping. I did make Chocolate Blueberry Tartlets!
I think they were well liked too, most of them were gone. I was told that the crust was just as delicious as the chocolate and blueberry. Yay me!

Yesterday was a beautiful day, so I spent some time planting and taking pictures of the kids and birds. Also I thought I would share a Picture of my garden in front of my house. Not a lot of plants yet. But they are coming! Stupid weather has really thrown them off.
Here is Tycho, sitting in my garden. He is notorious for just sitting in the sun with his eyes closed and meditating for hours at a time. We could all learn something from him. All the cats like to go in the Garden. At first I didn't want them to, but they just like to sit in there. It's cute. Except for Puma.... He digs up the sunflowers Jeffery worked so hard to plant, and them pees on them. Not so cute.

We are still very much looking forward to moving back home. And as wonderful as it is going to be, the whole thing is starting to feel stressful. I am not really worried about getting a job, for me of Jeffery. We are smart and very qualified in our fields. I am EXTREMELY worried about finding a place to live. Oh my god, I am not sure how that is going to work. So "first and last and deposit AND pet deposit" SUCKS! Not to mention I am going to insist that for one thing we will NOT live in an apartment! We need to have space outside. What we have now is incredible and I highly doubt we are going to find anywhere in Spokane that has a rental on a little property. I guess I would settle if there was a park or woods in walking distance where I could take the pup to run. So everyone in Spokane keep your eyes and ears peeled for us!

EMERGENCY 2nd BLOG OF THE DAY!!!!!!

While cooking myself a delicious veggie sausage for lunch today, I looked out the window to find a little bird feeding off the seeds I recently put out for them. I mounted it right near the window so it is quite close. I very slowly went to my camera... and look what I got!!!!!! If you click on the pics, the big Pictures look a lot better. Pretty cute huh?





I used this book to figure out that they are Pine Siskins. I named this one Barney.


And then!!!!! I look out in to the yard and there was this adorable Scrub Jay! He was hard to get. They jump around all over the place, and well my camera doesn't have the best zoom. So here is what I got. This sneaky little fellow is one of many that loyally live on this property. They tend to live in the same area for long periods, and they have long relationships with one other bird, for years at a time. Fascinating, well it is to me.
CLICK ON THE PIC!!!!! Enjoy!

In which there is a big announcement

So big news, we are going to move back to Spokane. After we find jobs of course. I guess I couldn't live away from my family forever. I don't really yearn to be in the city of Spokane, at all, but I am really looking forward to being back. Plus things are feeling a little stagnant these days and a change like this would be good for us.

Well we got the car. Thank god! Better gas millage FTW! It isn't the prettiest car in the world, but it sure fits our lifestyle!

Here is Yuffi and Jeffery Enjoying some video games.
And here is Yuffi sleeping like a little fawn.

We have had a couple nice days in the past week or so. But the rain is going to be back this week. So I went outside today with the pup and took some pictures of all the pretty flowers and plants that are blooming. They are on the right --------> And towards the top of the page. CLICK ON THE PICS TO SEE BIG ONES!!! Aren't the lilies pretty? And the tulips are here! I could not stop taking pictures!

Work is going pretty well, I really love all the things I learn about old crap. We have a "cleaning party" ....Sounds like an oxymoron.... this Wednesday. It is a potluck and I get paid to eat, drink and clean old crap. But I need to bring dessert. Oh boy.... Well I don't cook very well, so we will see what happens. I really want to make "tartlets", but I think it is only because I like the name. I looked online for some recipes, and found a chocolate one, so I think I will try that. I will report back on that one.

I haven't been reading enough. At all. TV has kinda taken over a bit. But not regular TV. We got Netflix and they let you watch from your computer, and NBC.com lets me watch episodes too. In fact I am watching "30 Rock" as I write this. So crap, too much TV. I think it is all too freaking funny. I know that people talk bout how TV can rot your brain, but I think I am just going through a phase. Oh well.

I made this pin cushion last night. It is in honor of Arbor and Earth day. He is a branch from a tree that got cut down to make fliers for the arbor day celebration in Olympia, that were all over the place in Oly the other day. He does not find the irony funny.

In Which Spring Is Here For A Day

I know it has been long but, I am back. I apologize for the lack of communication, but as you may have noticed, I do that.

It is so WARM today! SO SUNNY! What a nice surprise. We tried to go to a park and hike around a bit, but Yuffi puked in the car and it isn't quite ours yet, so we just went home. OH! We MAY be getting this car. It is a Subaru Legacy Wagon. We are testing it for the weekend to see if we want to trade it for or Explorer. We met these people on craigslist.com and they want a bigger car and I want a smaller car, so it is a good match. So if all goes well, this will be ours.

So all of my sprouts died. Super sad. They were growing too tall because the light wasn't enough, so I put them outside when it was sunny, but I guess it was too cold so they all wilted. So here is the next attempt at sprouting some plants on my own. I know it looks weird, but I think the glass tubes will help, and I got a new light. One of the sunflower seeds has sprouted, so we will see. the other thing in there is Chinese Lanterns. They are supposed to have big red leaves, and I think that will be really pretty.

So my garden outside is coming together slowly. Here are my tulips. I really love tulips. Especially red ones because I remember when I was a kid, in the spring I was amazed at the tulips that came back every year no matter what my parents did to the garden. There were yellow ones and really pretty red ones. So they have fascinated me ever since. The other things in there, well I can't remember what they are, but they get really tall stems in the middle of the bushy part with little dainty flowers on top. Really nice. You can see that they are pretty bushy already, even though they had been trampled on by the neighbor dog numerous times.

Here is Puma in the window, I just thought it was cute. The cats LOVE the fact that we have no screens in our house. We do not.
You may be wondering how the cats are doing with Yuffi. Well, kind of better. Damacy really tries to lay with her, but she flails around too much. She is always flipping her long collie nose around. She has actually hurt me a few times. But Puma chases her. Bad. She yips and runs from him, but she asks for it when she puts her collie nose in his face. Puma is REALLY scary when he is mad. Hence the name. And she is way too puppy to understand to leave that kitty alone! She is really giving me a hard time lately. She doesn't listen when it is time to come back inside after being out. So she goes to the neighbors yard and either poops, or worse, eats others poo. Horrible habit! And she doesn't listen anymore when you tell her no. She only responds when you are either walk at her or running at her and just when you can touch her she jumps away and runs where ever she wants. Really frustrates me! Anyway, she is young as Jeffery keeps reminding me. and all this will go away in the next few years.

Here is a pic of Jeffery and I. I just found it on his phone, thought I would share. It is a little blurry, but, I thought it gave it a little appeal.



Ta ta for now.

In which there are many plants to see

Hello hello! Well I finished another Neil Gaiman book. This one is called "Coraline". It is written for a juvenile age group, but was even a little scary for me. I decided that I really liked it but, It wasn't what his adult books are. I did not feel as attached to the character as I did in his other books, but I guess that is why it is for a younger audience. They are working on a movie from this book. It will be a little like the James in the Giant peach movie in that some of it will be in live action, the rest in computer graphics. It will also be in 3-D, which is amazing and I suggest that if you haven't see a movie in 3-D yet you see this one next year. We saw "Beowulf" (which the screenplay was also written by Neil Gaiman) in 3-d and we were completely blown away.

As you can see I have a few sprouts! Very exciting or me. It looks like some might be growing too tall, and Jeffery says that may be because there isn't enough light in that bulb. So we may get another and see if that helps. If you have any advise for me, PLEASE post me a comment because I really want these to go in my garden soon.

I have really been experimenting with my camera a lot. Getting better and better at it but I still have a lot to learn. Here are some of the plants around the property that I found pretty. Also WE HAVE HORSES HERE NOW!!!! YAY!!! A friend of the owner of the property is keeping her 3 horses here now and that makes me happier than ever. they are really sweet, love carrots and I will get to ride them soon. I will have to take some pictures of them.

I am working at an antique mall in Centralia these days. I really is a lot of fun for me. I work with about 4 older ladies who are just a hoot and it really is like shopping as work. I have to know whats in the store, so they make me walk around and browse, so much fun. They have a really great book collection and a little bit of old clothes that look like fun dress up clothes from when you were 5. Too much fun!

In which I gush about functionality

Tis Monday. I think I am ok with that, I have been ok with a lot of things lately. Contentment is a beautiful thing. Had a really great weekend. For the first time in a while it felt really functional and that is a new thing I really want to master. I think the main reason is the lack of an "influence", which is hard but felt really good this weekend.

There really is no better feeling than when I finish a good book. The feeling of not being able to live without the characters. That this book has effected you so much you can't even imagine your life without it. That no book could ever be what that book was for you, and in a way that is true. But I have to remind myself that there will be another book that will effect me, just not in the same way. Last night at about ten I finished Neil Gaiman's "Neverwhere". Absolutely FANTASTICAL! I can't get away from his books. There was an interview in the back of this particular copy and one of the questions was"Why are you so drawn to the mixture of realistic and Magical elements in your fiction?" and part of his answer was " I like to make the kind of fiction that allows me to write about the world I see around me, and reconfigure it as I need in order to try to make art." And that is just his appeal. It feels real at first, and then everything that you thought about the "real" world changes into something you never thought possible. I am getting to the point that I am enjoying fantasy so much I want to believe in things that may make me look crazy to others. Thank you Neil for giving me hope of magic.

Jeffery built a jump for Yuffi out of PVC. It really just reminded me that I have a lot of more work to do with her. I tried to run her along side me and to jump when we got to it, and she would jump fine, and understood that very well, but she does nothing but look at me when running along side me and sometimes nip at my heals as her herding instinct kicks in. So it is time for some leash training, which I didn't think I would have to do. Hopefully she won't reject it too bad as I have obviously taught her some bad habits with the leash, oops.

Another Fun thing I did is start some seeds in a fish tank to eventually put in my garden. I am not going to pretend like I know what I am doing when it comes to gardening or any kind of planting, but I sure love to try. Here is what they look like now. I'll post as they grow.

In which I show my craft

Good morning! Well it is kind of still morning, I love sleeping in.
Well, one of the reasons I wanted to start this Blog is so I could post and keep track of my craft projects. Last night I did this embroidery project with a pattern I got from this persons amazing art... check it out http://zuill.us/andreablog/. It isn't perfect, but the goal here is to be really good at a few things instead of kind of good at a lot of things. More to come.

In which I pay tribute to our glorious sun

Friday. It sounds so sweet. Spring has been peeking through the cold and kissing us with some of it's delicious sun. I couldn't be happier about it. Being able to spend some time in the garden has really been enjoyable and taking the pup out is so much more fulfilling when the sun is out and I am not miserably cold. Got to spend some time out in the sun with Yuffi and take some pictures of not only her but some of the farm birds in the area. I know most people don't get excited about farm animals, but they really make my day.
I am also hoping that the summer will allow my husband and I to do more together outside. I feel like I am more sane in warmer months.

In which I discover what makes me really happy

Feeling better is awesome. In case you didn't know.

I feel a little happier but I am not sure what changed to elicit such feelings, kinda wish I knew, then I could repeat these behaviors. I like when I get reminded what it feels like to not be anxious. I am feeling particularly productive as well. I like working even more part time....hehe.

I am back to job hunting. holy blarg that sucks! I am trying really hard to only apply for things that I think I will really enjoy, i.e. florists, nursery's, and an antique gallery. Oh and just to bitch....my massage liability insurance is going to be about $260.00! Thats crap! I hate paying to work :(

OH! The weather has been "spring-like"!!!! Amazing! maybe that is why I am so enthusiastic! I can't wait for all the "sprouting"! I need to live somewhere warmer.