Sunday, August 24, 2008

Good Neighbors...

So here is the Boob-Cake! I made this for my brother... I hear there are pics of him with his face up to it, not sure I want to see those, kinda weird thinkin about a sister making a cake that her bro is gonna put his face into.... lol

We spent Saturday working on fencing. We paid my dad's workers cash to install the posts for our fenceline. The neighbors decided they didnt like that we had trimmed up the branches as they lost their privacy. We cut a bunch of dead branches to be out of the way of our new fence and it was a shocker! We cleared out a lot. So the neighbors approached us numerous times about the fenceline to find out why we cleared it, how we knew where the line was, what type of fence are we doing, blah blah... nothing too serious, but they seemed annoyed at the privacy issue. But I needed a cleared line, so I was not too concerned. Then she approached us earlier this week and wants to put in a 6' wood privacy fence along that line instead of the 4' wire we were going to do. She said they would pay the difference from the wire to the wood. Not sure she realized at the time just how spendy that was going to be for her! Of course we agreed. R U Kidding! we get a 6' wood privacy fence for the same cost as the wire... And a privacy fence is really what we wanted, just couldnt afford to do it... it was a no-brainer! So we had all the posts set and we put in the top and bottom rail on the fence, all they have to do is buy the wood slats to nail to the fence now. But that is probably gonna be about $800 for them.. but I am way happy about the deal. Now if we can find a way to get them to install it sooner than later! Here are some pics..



A view from my deck looking out into my pasture. There will be a wire fence under the top rail. It will look really nice when finished.


Dad & Derek, taking a moment to pause for a picture, with a serious look on their faces!! :)


That is the fenceline that will be wood/privacy fence. The neighbors house is just through those trees. We trimmed up that line of trees you are looking at, cut all the dead branches away and it exposed our place so she can see our deck from her bedroom apparently. Oh dont mind the mess in the pic. Just some crap we need to burn whenever the burn ban gets lifted.


Another view of the privacy fenceline. Doesnt even seem like my property, it looks soooo different on this side now. I cant wait to have this fence in, we can have the fire pit over there and have get-togethers in the backyard and not feel like we are disturbing the neighbors!


This is the fenceline that will be wire. My pasture is on the right, yard on the left. Well it will look like a yard someday..

So we are having an open-house BBQ type thing on Labor Day! Working hard to get things done around here so it's not a disaster. Have gotten lots of decorating done, repacked all the xmas boxes into plastic tubs today so we can store in the shop in the rafters, mowed the lawn on Saturday, what a project it is to mow that thing! I bagged it this time and it was super long, so I did like 10-12 dumps of the bag and it took about an hour. I was gettin my work out that is for sure. I came in the house, just huffin and puffin! Took a COLD shower and felt much better. Its been raining/pouring all day today, so really glad I did the lawn yesterday.

I've been in a funk lately about my horses. I am starting to HATE that my horses are not home with me and am really starting to miss having them around. I dont like going to their pasture to see them, its just a pain in the behind. I want to get this pasture done and move them home!!! I am feeling/wondering if I am loosing some of my passion for them lately as I have NOT been motivated to ride at all. Maybe it is just a funk and not having any free time lately. I have to help for a prize ride our club is doing in a few weeks and I have not ridden in months. I need to find some time and break away to ride, but I have to haul my horse to go ride, grrrrrrrrrrr. I dont think I'm loosing my passion, I think it is just on vacation right now and it sucks because I have no motivation to ride at all. This is new territory and I cant tell if its just a timing issue with this house and all or if it is something else.

Oh and we are renting a bulldozer this weekend! Having it delivered on Friday and we'll use it for 2 days. So we are one step closer to bringing the animals home! :)

Oh... and the goats are at the fair! I want to go see them on Tuesday and be sure they are ok. I'm sure they are, I havent heard anything. It has been kinda shitty weather for them though, I hope they are ok. It just rained/poured ALL day today and the pen at the fairgrounds for them to roam around in is not under cover so that sucks! Their nighttime and breaktime pen is under cover though.

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Busy Life..

Whew... so much going on! The goats are goin to the fairground tonight, very exciting. They actually will be back in the far East end of the fairgrounds where the cows and goats are.

We have been working hard on getting our yard fencing done. Well we are not physically working too hard on it, we are paying my dads employees to do that part, but trying to work out all the logistics of it all is hard work! lol We bought all the material, the lumber company made a $450 error in my favor! sssshhhhhh... After we bought all the material for a 4' horse wire fence, the neighbor came over and wants us to put up a 6' wood privacy fence instead! So we are working with them and they are paying the "over and above" cost of the wire, to put in wood. Which is GREAT!! We really had wanted a wood fence along that entire line all along, but did not want to spend the money, so this works out well for us and for them apparently.

So because of this change though, I had to order up another $200 worth of wood, our part of the deal. Dad's guys should be finishing up with the posts and hopefully stretching the wire today for the part that will be wire. I can't wait for Russell to have a secured yard, I am tired of yelling at him every day to get his butt in the house when all he wants to do is explore and we just cant let him do that yet.

My mom and Debbie decided we were having a BBQ Labor Day Weekend. So I've been working to get the house put together and things hung up. I'm going to call Eric & Andrea and find out if Sun or Mon works better for them. I'm hoping Monday is OK, I'd rather do it that day. Our friends George & Rachel are going to come up for that weekend and spend it with us. It is Rachel's bday and she wanted to go camping, but it worked out better to just stay with us. We are going to get a bulldozer that weekend and Derek and George I'm sure will have a blast doing the manly thing and pushin dirt! lol I'm hoping Rachel and I can maybe get away to a movie or something, leave the guys and Samantha behind for a little girl time :) Or not, whatever she wants.

Samantha (their 7yr daughter) has Derek around her finger. We all laugh about it, he just loves that kid! So do I of course... She saw that I had a marble with my name on it and apparently she collects marbles, she was saying in my car how she sooo wished SHE had a marble with HER name on it! It was quite cute how she was saying it. So I'm going to the fair this year to buy her a marble with her name, hopefully the guy is still there this year. I'll have a tough time holding onto that gift til xmas!

I cant wait for the fence and the bulldozing to be done.. once the dozing is done, we'll have to refence our pasture. Once that is done, all the major expenses should be done finally! Oh and we are putting a roof over our deck. That will cost us about another $400 on top of the $200 in wood we already purchased... aggghhh I'm tired of spending money like we have it to spend!

The horses are still neglected. I'm hoping to maybe get some rides in soon. Many months ago, I volunteered to help with our club prize ride next month, so I really need to get Edgar into some kind of shape so he can handle 2 days of 4+ hours each day riding! :)

Well thats about it for now... I also noticed from my house pics on here that I really need to update pics now that I have started to decorate. It looks more lived in now than the other pics show.
Ta Ta for now!

Sunday, August 10, 2008

Wedding & Softball & Bachelorette Party...

First want to start off with my Brother's Wedding! OMG, it was the best event and I had such a great time. I am sooo very happy for Eric & Andrea. The pic is one taken prior to them getting married, they are such a beautiful couple. The past few weeks have been stressful in preperation for this wedding. I was asked to speak during the Ceremony! What a great honor to be a part of the ceremony.

I do not think ANYONE had any complaints. It was truly a great party/reception! I really enjoyed getting to know some of their friends a little better and watching everyone dance was just a blast. It was the happiest day I have had since Carrie's wedding. I was emotional all day of course, watching them dance for the first time... How can you not cry. Some of the family and friends had a tough time as well off/on throughout the day/evening, but that was more about Carrie than the wedding. We all felt the void of not having her there for sure.

I am learning every day how to keep moving forward and talking about it certainly helps. I had a fantastic chat with Andrea's mom Debbie on Friday morning. Her & I had about 30 minutes of alone time before the rest of the girls showed up that day, that was really nice. A bunch of Andrea's friends came over Friday morning to Debbie's place and we spent 5 hours putting together flowers! Oh My, what a mess we made.. lol We made 6 bridesmaids bouqets, 1 bride bouquet, 2 tossing bouquets, maybe 1 other bouquet. Then we made 22 boutaneers! Then we filled 25 vases with flowers. Then we made up another 30 misc large bouquets to be tied to the isle seats, and there were STILL some flowers leftover that were put into a bucket for decoration. After the flowers, we all went and had pedicures done and some of us had manicures, I was one of them. I did not get my left hand Thumbnail done, I cut myself pretty badly Friday morning decorating a "BOOB" cake for my brother's gettogether later that night. I'll post a pic of that later! It was cute..

Anyways, the wedding was Fantastic if I have not made that clear already!

Last weekend, we had a softball touranment in Puyallup. It was the State Tournament on Friday night and Saturday. We spent the night in Kent with our Friends George & Rachel. It was nice staying down there and not having to drive all the way home Friday night. We played a game Fri night, Lost! Won our next 2 games on Saturday, then lost the 4th game. I believe we came in 6th, I think there were like 17 teams. Not too shabby. I did not complain, I actually kinda wanted the guys to loose that last game because I was supposed to be in Seattle meeting up with Andrea and her friends and my cousins for the bachelorette party.

It all worked out, we lost the game and left the field immediately. Derek dropped me off at aunt Dena's place and me, Shana and Jen hitched a ride to Buca D Beppo in Seattle for dinner. We were late, but just in time to eat. We then went back to the hotel the girls had rented rooms at, had some drinks, listened to music, hung out. It was fun, laughing and such. A couple guys showed up very briefly to give Andrea a couple impromptu lap dances, they were friends of one of the girls. We then left and taxi'd over to Capital Hill in Downtown to go to the Drag Show! It was a BLAST! The show started at 10pm and was really really fun. I drank and drank, drank too much is what I did. After the show, we walked a ways to a club. I was pretty toasted and close to passing out. I, along with a few others sat in a back corner booth and just hung out waiting. The club was packed, it was crazy. Not my scene really, but everyone else had a great time there. The lights turned on at 2am. Shana, Jen and I hitched a cab back to Dena's while the rest of the girls went back to the hotel. They stayed up and partied more apparently, I was way too tired to make it any later. I had spent all day at the softball fields, had been up since about 6am, so I was done. I almost puked on the cab ride home, fell asleep/passed out in Dena's luxury bed and woke up the next morning with a bombshell headache! Derek drove down and picked me up and we spent the day doing errands non-stop all day. Went to bed that night around midnight I think it was, it was a crazy long weekend...

Off to bed I go.. what the hell. It is 11:55pm on Sunday night. I need sleep.....

Wedding Speech

Here is the Speech I gave at Eric & Andrea's Wedding. It was very tough for me to get through parts of this. Immediately before my speech was a "Moment of Silence" to recognize those that could not be with us for the Wedding and Carrie's name was specifically mentioned. I was on the verge of loosing control of my emotions, when the silence was broken announcing me to give the speech. A tough thing to follow which made for a VERY emotional beginning, but I did it! I am very proud of myself, I dont mean to boast, but for all you that know me and know how hard it has been without Carrie, will understand that. I wanted to post my speech because it is a great thing about Eric & Andrea and I hope you enjoy..

Hi, my name is Piper. I am Eric's sister. Several months ago, I was thinking ahead to this day, telling my husband how worried I was that I would probably be asked to give a toast at the wedding. Not because I didn't want to do it, but worried because I cry at strangers weddings! And we're talking about my only brothers wedding, how was I going to do it without crying. After months of wondering if I would be asked, I was asked to speak during the ceremony! Wow, a bigger fear ran through me and I was having some serious anxiety about this. But, now that I have had time to process, I want to say to Eric & Andrea, Thank You. Thank you for asking me and wanting me to be a part of your day. I feel so honored that you wanted me to be a part of the ceremony and no amount of fear would have kept me from doing this. I may blink a lot and do my special thing to keep from crying and I may not succeed, but I will do my best.

Some of you may not know the story of how Eric & Andrea came to be a couple. While in High School, they were involved with the FFA program and met while decorating for a school dance. Some time later, Eric decided to show goats at the year 2000 State Fair and since he did not own any, he had to borrow them and they happened to belong to Andrea. Over the course of about 2 weeks while at the fair, they spent a lot of time together which developed into a friendship and also a high school crush. Towards the end of the fair, after a night at the races and watching the fireworks show, Eric asked Andrea to be his girlfriend. 5 years later in August of 2005, they took a vacation to the ocean. As the sun was setting and they were walking hand in hand on the beach, Andrea noticed a really nice shell, still intact, on the ground. She picked it up and realized there was something inside. After prying it open and finding a beautiful ring inside, Eric got down on his knee and asked her to Marry Him!

I have always felt they were destined to make it. Our family has loved Andrea and her family from the beginning. I just recently learned that Snohomish High had their own version of The Love Match. Andrea and Eric both participated, not knowing each other at the time. Andrea was open to any grade student in the high school and out of all the students, the results gave her 3 possible choices as a good match for her, and Eric was one of the guys on her list! At the time she did not know who Eric Johnson was, he was just a student 1 year younger than her. So here we are today, celebrating the marriage of two people, who are a perfect fit.

When Andrea asked me to speak today, she left if pretty open as far as what I wanted to talk about. I contemplated for a few weeks, searching the internet trying to find something about brothers and new sister in laws, a poem maybe. I could not find anything special enough, so I decided to make this more personal and share with them what I have learned about Marriage, what it means to me and what I can pass along to them.

Marriage starts with love and you definitely need love, but over the 12 years I have been married, there is a lot more to it than that.

Marriage is one of the best things that will happen to you, it is the start of a new chapter. It is the foundation to the rest of your lives. With marriage eventually will come more pets, then later the real children, buying your first home, moving up in your careers, vacations, struggles and accomplishments, anniversaries, retirement. So many ways in which you will grow together. You will accomplish things you never dreamed of or thought possible. And when you do, you will look back in amazement at just how far you have really come, whether it is a year from now or 20 years down the road.

When you’re married, you will learn that it can be one of the easiest things to be in and no matter what happens in your life that tries to bring you down, you will always have each other to fall back on because your spouse is your rock, your best friend and your support. It is very important to always communicate as often as possible, no matter what the topic is. Be sure to relay your hopes and dreams, your goals and aspirations to one another because the other person will always be there to help you accomplish these things and help pick you up when you fall short.

Your patience will be tested with your spouse, your pets and your future children. You need to give each other the benefit of the doubt, listen to what the other is saying and trust in yourself, in each other and in your relationship. Acceptance and understanding go a long ways in a marriage and realize now that you both over time will change who you are today, and there are parts of you that will not change. Know that you cannot pick the qualities in your spouse you wished were different, you can only accept who they are and love them unconditionally for that.

Show appreciation when deserved and also on a whim. Everyone, no matter who they are, feels better with a pat on the back, especially from their spouse. Appreciate all the great things you have in your life. Respect each other and understand that no matter how badly you want to always have things your way, it just is not reality! Marriage is about compromise, because although you share many of the same goals and dreams, there will be areas you just don’t agree on and will need to find a way to compromise on your differences. And there will come a time when you will need to forgive as well because we all screw up every now and then and if you can find it in your hearts to be open to forgiveness, you'll find a much easier path to travel.

Marriage is about 2 people, but don’t forget to surround yourselves with friends that you care about and that care about you in return. Family is the support system that never goes away, no matter how hard you try to get away from us! If you ever have questions about marriage or relationships, just look to your parents. Between both sets, there are 70 years of solid love, commitment and family to fall on for guidance.

And finally, you can never say I Love You too many times in one day! You can never give each other too many hugs and too many kisses. It's the little things like this that you will look back on years from now and cherish that you still are holding hands and hugging and kissing, just because you are still in love. Don’t take life and each other for granted and don't waste energy on the things you cannot change, instead focus on the positive things that surround you and if you both strive to maintain a positive attitude and try to live your life by it, you will build a solid foundation to a lifetime marriage. The saying goes, Love Conquers All and in a marriage it is so true, because as long as you have love for each other, you can get through anything together.

You both are young, mature, focused, driven, hard working and loving people and you will succeed at whatever you put your minds to, that is just who you both are. I feel so very lucky to be in your lives as everyone here does as well. We all are here to celebrate the happiness of two of the best people we know. I don't have to wish you luck, because you already have found it. True love, marriage and spending the rest of your lives together is the perfect combination for a truly happy life.

I love you both

Friday, August 1, 2008

Evergreen State Fair 2008

So our new baby kids (goats) are going to the fair! I am coordinating with a girl that wants a couple younger baby goats to have at the petting farm from Aug 20 - Sept 3rd. :) So Briggs and Stratton are gonna be looked at by hundreds daily and gets lots of lovin and hugs/pets from kids all day long. We are pretty excited about it, how fun to have them there.

So if you go to the fair this year, BE SURE to go find our guys at the Petting Farm! I think they will be inside the main gates between the gates and grandstand, grass section. :)