Wednesday, March 24, 2010

New Blog

I started a new blog - mostly for myself - called

I am going to be posting about the things in my life that make me happy.  I want to be able to look back and remember them whenever I get in a bad mood. 

Maybe some of the things that make me happy, will make you happy too!

We're So Cool That We're Boring

Life is being pretty much the same – besides fostering Dash, that is about as exciting as our lives get. We have been getting out and enjoying the weather as much as we can!


*Ready for Church with pretty hair!*



*Sleeping with her bear that Aunt Kim got her in Ireland.*


*Went to the park to thow balls for Dash and Z discovered dirt.  I never let her play in it before because it thoroughly grosses me out.*

*She ate it and liked it so much that she wouldn't spit it out!  Little grossy-face!*


*Me and Z in the morning before we are ready to be social.*


*Aslynn Jean the Blueberry Queen!*



*Walking with mom! Three minutes after these pictures were taken, she decided that she didn't need anyone to hold her hand; we weren't allowed to even try for the rest of the walk because the Princess deemed it so.*


Last Days with Dash

We had Dash – whose real name is apparently Tsunami – for a little over two weeks before his owner came forward to claim him. We miss him a lot. He was perfect for our family. We love him.

These are some pictures from our last couple of days with Dash.



*Aslynn felt it was her responsibility to walk Dash. If we went to the park, she was the only one who was to do the walking or else there was much tears and screaming.*


*They spent a lot of time out on the balcony together.*

*Ignore my double chin and look at Dash. He loved us; he would have been very happy as a Mecham.*

*He was such a snuggle-bug.  He had to be in your lap, as close to you as possible so that you could give him the best loves and scratches.*

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Happy Birthday Luke!

Luke's birthday was March 8th.  I tried to make his day special. 

For breakfast we went to Voodoo Doughnuts; going there is like a Portland right of passage.  I didin't tell Luke where we were going because I wanted it to be a suprise.  Luke drove while I gave him directions.  He liked this suprise (or at least that is what he told me...).  We brought all the doughnuts home and ate them - we still have the oreo covered one left. We will eat it tonight for dessert.


*We got all different kinds!*



*Aslynn enjoyed this one; she picked off all the Cap'n Crunch.*

I was looking into getting Luke a Shiba Inu for his birthday, but they are really expensive and there aren't a whole lot of rescue opportunities in this area.

I told Luke what I was trying to do and he got excited.  On a whim he decided to look on Craigslist and found an ad that someone put up about finding a Shiba.  Luke sent the lady an email saying he would take the dog if no one claimed him.  She called us and asked us to take him until someone claimed him; she has cats and the cats were freaking out that a dog was around. Now we have a dog until his owners come and get him.  There are LOTS of ads up online and in the papers, so I think that it is only a matter of time.


We don't know his name so we decided to call him Dash (from the Incredibles and because he is redish).


The vet said that Dash is about a year old and healthy.  He has no microchip and when he was found, he had no collar.


So far, Dash has been great with Z.  He wants to be loved on a lot! The only complaints we have about him so far is that he is sheeding his winter coat (they shed twice a year), and that he is very stubborn.  He is like a cat, in the fact that if you call him, he pretends he can't hear you and ignores you; he has to want to come to you.  We are working on training him out of that, but the stubborness is a breed trait.

We like him lots!  Still, we hope that his owners find him.  If we lost a dog like Dash, we would be very sad.  We are very glad for this chance to see if we really want this breed of dog and how it will do in our family and the situation we are in right now.

For Luke's birthday dinner we went to a small restaurant near our house and shared an interesting pizza and a unique grilled cheese sandwich and tomato basil soup.  It was tasty!

We will be doing different things over the next couple of weeks to continue to celebrate Luke's birthday.


Since he is twenty-six years old, I am going to write twenty-six things that I love about him!

1. He snuggles me.
2. He is a great dad.
3. If it is on sale, he thinks he HAS to buy it.
4. He eats whatever I cook for him.
5. He likes to read with me.
6. He is kind.
7. He is patient.
8. Most of the time, he is the one changing Aslynn's diapers.
9. He makes me smile.
10. He is handome.
11. He has great taste in clothes (I will let him shop for me any day!).
12. He likes stuffed crust pizza enough to let me get it at least twice a month (If you haven't jumped on Pizza Hut's $10 any size, any toppings pizzas plus an extra $1 for the stuffed crust, you need to get on that!  It's a great deal!)
13. He's a great kisser.
14. He loves Shiba Inus.
15. If he is on the internet he is looking for jobs.
16. He watches movies with me.
17. He lets me go do things by myself.
18. He is willing to live anywhere.
19. He thinks my favorite TV shows are dumb, but he watches them with me anyway.
20. He has a cute butt.
21. He loves to buy things for his daughter.
22. His loves to do service for others.
23. He likes to brush Z's hair.
24. Most of the time, he is the one out in the foyer with Z when she is being difficult at church.
25. He loves Costco hot dogs. 
26. He is my husband, for time and all eternity!  I am such a lucky girl!


HAPPY BIRTHDAY HANDSOME!

Geekin' Out

My brother, Austin, had a robotics competition here in Portland.  We went to see the battle of the geeks (I mean that in the most loving way!).  It was really interesting!  We were impressed with all the cool robots that the high school students were able to build!  Austin's team took 3rd - GREAT JOB High Desert Droids!

*Their mascot.  They were team 753.*

*Everyone had to wear goggles in the pit.  The pit is where all the teams took their robots when they weren't competing.*

*Fixin' the robot.*

*Spiffy cool electric car.*

Japanese Garden Adventure

A couple of weekends ago we went to the Japanese Gardens (it was free admission day) with our friends the Lopers. Spring was a-springin' up all over the place! Everything was so green!
















We had to park quite a ways away; on the walk to the car there was plenty of time to take pictures of all of the other things growing in the area!





Thursday, March 4, 2010

Heart Melter

We could watch her play all day.  She's too cute!

After this video was taken, she sat on the zebra with the bear on her lap and scooted around the living room.

Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Tut-Tut! Looks Like Rain!

On rainy-ish days we go to the Children's Museum (we have a membership). We have fun there!



*Aslynn was hesitant about this tube at first, but then she loved it and wanted to go through it all the time.*


The water room was Luke's, I mean, Aslynn's favorite. Wink!




They played there for a long time. Aslynn's friend, Cooper, arrived just in time to join the fun.

*That's Cooper's head. Isn't he handsome?*

 


We had lots of fun! We will be going back soon!


After we finished at the Children's Museum we decided that since it wasn't raining, we would go to the zoo (we have a membership there too). We went twenty minutes before the gates closed and an hour and twenty minutes before the zoo closed. We had the BEST time EVER! All the cool animals were out and about - the ones we never get to see during the afternoon because those animals hide from all the people. It was a lot of fun!



We didn't take very many pictures of our awesome animal sighting because we don't want to share them...just kidding, we were just too excited to waste time with the camera!


Luke was really satisfied with the trip because the cheetah ran really fast at the exhibit's glass and swiped at him. It was super neato! Luke loves the cheetah now.


We would love more friends in Portland! If you don't live here, you should move here! Look at all the fun stuff you are missing!