Wednesday, December 29, 2010

I have goat in my throat..

That's what I said after eating a piece of cheese! I knew I should have listened to my better judgement when I was talked into trying a piece of this Feta Goat Cheese. I was at my parents for our day-after Christmas family gathering to exchange gifts with Eric/Andrea and my parents. They had this cheese from the lady that they bought their goats from and it didnt look funky, so my curiosity got to me, I caved and tried it. The initial flavor was not terrible, I was chewing along and it was okay, but I certainly wouldnt call it great, but then... I swallowed! That's when the overwhelming flavor of GOAT hit my throat and I honestly felt like I'd just licked a goats ass because the flavor in my throat was exactly the flavor of a stinky goat and I quickly chugged down some of Derek's soda then popped a cordial cherry in my mouth, meanwhile gasping that I had goat in my throat!!

My parents & Derek of course thought I was insane, they'd never heard such nonsense before and were probably plotting behind my back to have me institutionalized and we all had a great laugh! Well... 45 minutes later Eric & Andrea show up and I'm explaining this nasty experience to them and Andrea says "OMG I can taste the EXACT same thing when I eat goat cheese" HELLO>>> proof that I am not crazy! We all laughed, but I was very relieved to know I was not crazy.

Christmas was great this year. I made a few sewing projects and hope to do more gifts that way in the future. The table runner I made turned out really well, atleast I think it did. In the Schwartzenberger family gift exchange, Derek and I were victorious in getting the one gift above them all that I wanted which was one of gramma's paintings of a snow covered tree, matted & framed. It looks perfect on my wall and I'm really happy to have been successful in getting it because I just love it.

Derek had been bugging me for a week straight about my gift from him. He wanted to give it to me early and I was having none of that! He finally convinced me to open our gifts Christmas Eve.. he brings out this long skinny box and I said "What, did you get me a gun?" I was only teasing, but yep, it was a gun! An over-under actually, very nice and heavy. I have not shot this type of shotgun before and although it was not on my "list", I am happy to have my very own gun. :) The plan for the future was that I would hopefully eventually start grouse/pheasant hunting with Derek.. you dont have to sit miserably in the cold and wet like you do for duck/goose hunting. And we want to start going to the trap range on Friday nights to get Cooper accustomed to gunfire, no sense going unless we plan to shoot, right? :) So now I have my own shotgun for trap and maybe bird hunting in the future. Oh and I got some pink ear protection as well.

I think things might finally be headed in our direction atleast a tiny bit! We got a letter from the bank and we are FINALLY in the loan modification process.. It only took us 1 year exactly to get to this point, but it couldnt have happened at a better time. I had already had to skip my Dec mortgage pmt because we were falling behind and then just yesterday we get the letter stating our trial period payments start Feb 1st and if we make those 3 payments on time, then we should get moved into a permanent new loan. I am SOO relieved, although not 100% out of the woods yet on this loan, but many promising steps closer now. Things needed to move this direction in order for us to stay in our home, it was just getting too hard to make the payments every month.

It has been hard to get motivated to get out and ride the horses this fall/winter. Not sure if it's the weather, the money stress or simply no time. I think a combination of it all.. I am still not overly motivated but I have now made plans to ride on New Years Day with others, so there is no backing out now! It is going to be cold, high in the 30's for the day, but no rain!! I heard that Dec has only had 3 days without rain, it's been a bit depressing. I am actually relieved Christmas is over and it's time to move on. I took the tree down 2 days after Christmas, that is not normal for me but I was feeling so overwhelmed with clutter and stress, it had to go.

2011 will be our year to get organized!! We have talked lots about it and plan to clear out all the crap we dont need or that does not belong to us, get the shop set up, the garage organized, the shed finished.... We want to focus on so many things next year that in order to do so, we have to get things squared away at home first. We have no great plans to celebrate bringing in the new year, other than probably falling asleep before the ball drops! lol Who knows, we have 2 days before that happens, so maybe some last minute plans will come about.

Happy New Year

Monday, December 20, 2010

I'm no longer the ditsy blonde..

now I'm the ditsy auburn chick! lol Yep, you read it.. I went WAY outside my comfort box and died the blonde hair brown, ended up with auburn color.. Derek has stated over the years that he very highly (hates) my overly blonde hair.. I've not been a huge fan either when its soooo blonde, but after a few weeks, its get to the right color. My natural is just not very pretty, a dishwater (confirmed by hairdresser) color.. yuck! Derek asked me long ago, why not try brown.. so I've thought about it off/on, but never had big enough cahoonah's to try it.. well this time around Derek was with me when I bought the dye and he said "go brown!" Well OKAY! :) Should I have left the color in a little longer? Probably.. But oh well. I now have a very deep redish brown color and it's growing on me. I kinda like it darker, but I NEVER EVER imagined I would EVER have a red type color on my head.. that part still shocks me as I'm sure this change will shock many family members on Christmas Eve this year!


Derek thinks I should do some highlights, but that is a bit fancier than I can imagine with the do-it-yourself package and I cant see spending $50 to have a professional do it, I already spend $35 every six weeks keeping it short. So please dont laugh at me when you see me, I'm a bit self conscious about it, but I am starting to get used to it and kinda like it. I have found that I can get away (atleast I think so) with more colors of eye shadow etc with the darker look! So I may be doing more experimenting with my makeup now that I am not just bleached blonde..


Ellie and I finished our basic obedience Monday night and scored 100%! Yippy!! She is awesome. The other 3 dogs had taken their final test the week before and I could have as well, but Ellie was not 100% cooperative that night, so I wanted one more week to practice with her to ensure a perfect score... plus I knew none of the other dogs would be coming the following week and she would have less distractions, therefore allowing her to focus on me and she did exactly that, with zero faults! I was really excited and proud of her and myself. It was funny, the trainer said "okay now you can stop working with her 30 minutes a day, but definately still work her". Shit, I havent worked her 30 minutes a day in... well practically ever! She gets too bored, so in the beginning I did (2) 5-10 minute sessions per day and the last few weeks I've only worked her a couple times a week because she picks it up so quickly and once she got over her "testing me" phase, it was just cake walk to her.

I'm pretty much ready for Christmas, finished up wrapping presents today and finished my sewing projects. I made Derek & I new stockings! I already hung them up, so its no longer a suprise to Derek. His is hunting themed and mine is Christmas themed. They are pretty cute if you ask me! I think Derek really likes them and I cant wait for him to see the rest of the presents I got him, I did a good job this year on finding great gifts. :) I am completely perplexed though at what he has gotten me.. this is what I know:

1) he left the house on Saturday to go shopping at "stores" with $200 in his pocket.
2) many many hours later he called me telling me he needed another $160.
3) he spent $300 on my main gift which was via a private individual.
4) the item is over 30 years old, cost $350 new appx 30 years ago, today used would cost $800 and new would cost up to $2000.
5) he then had to drive to Bellingham on Monday to get something else he needed for this gift
6) he's been in the shop "working" on my gift.
7) he is completely jealous that I am getting one before him.
8) he found 2 rolls of pennies in my gift dating back to 1959.
9) he wanted to spoil my Christmas and give it to me this past weekend, but I refuse to let that happen.
10) I have N.F.I. what the hell this gift is!!!

I dont want to know, I hate ruining suprises, I am just so curious.... Cant wait to find out what it is! :)

Oh, so Derek had an emergency visit on Monday! He is JUST FINE now... He woke up to some sharp pain in his chest, like a muscle cramp under his ribs and at times felt like it was his lungs. It did not go away and at 8:30am he decided he was not sure if it was just a muscle issue and started to have some anxiety and near panic attack, worried he was having a heart attack or blood clot in his lungs. So I met him at Monroe Valley General and he was checked in. Over the next 3 hours with most of that "waiting", they ran a chest x-ray, tested his blood to ensure no clotting and ran a few other tests on him, they all came back just fine. Before they determined it was just a muscular issue, they shot him up with Morphine! never asking if he wanted drugs, just injected him. He was on fire, he was so pissed off about it. I dont blame him, there was absolutely NO reason for the Morphine!!! The pain was not so great that it required heavy drugs and if they had just waited an hour longer for the testing to come back to realize it was muscle spasms/pain, they could have given him a muscle relaxer instead.. But no, they sent us out the door with a Vicatin perscription (that they refused to let us refuse!) and instructions on heating/cooling the area. I'm glad he got checked out and all was okay, with the history of family and friends over the last few years dying, he was really worried something was seriously wrong and he still struggles with deep breathes, sneezing or coughing and its been 3 days now.

As we were checking into the hospital, the old hag taking his information without skipping a beat says to me "Are you his mother??" WTF old Bitch! I wanted to jump across and slap her.. wake up and take your nose off the computer screen to see that I CLEARLY am not old enough to be his mother.. dumb broad. She chapped my ass and had me in a tizzy the rest of the day. Maybe it's the new hairdo color.

Well Happy Winter everyone, welcome to longer days!!!

Monday, December 13, 2010

I know.. it's been a while!

:( sorry for the delay in getting a post out there... It's been a little hectic non-stop these days.

Where to start.. We flew Derek's parents into town for Thankgiving, we had wanted to get away but couldnt leave the animals. They came to town during the coldest Thanksgiving week Western WA has seen in over 40 years I think it was! We had a small Thankgiving gathering with some of Derek's family at our house, it was cozy and HOT! With the heat cranked up to 75+ while Bob & Nouna were in town, we all were sweating as we ate down our dinner. Dawn had to borrow a pair of Derek's shorts, she was so warm. We normally keep the heat at 62, so 75 was a pretty big adjustment for us.. BUT, it was worth it to have them with us for a week.

I got these great pics of Bob with all 3 kids!
Speaking of kids, Cooper is growing... rapidly!!! he has outgrown his small crate and has to curl up to sleep in it now, until we can get a larger one for him to sleep in. He's getting a tiny bit better at slowing down, but I do mean tiny! :) He sits on command, thats about it for now.. He has far too much energy and too short attention span to work on much else. We could force him to start listening but I think it's okay for him to be a puppy for a little while longer because in just over 3 months, he'll be sent off for some real hardcore training. We keep him on leash in the house now, a training technique we learned at my obedience siminar we went to. He still has the occassional poddy mistake (pee only) but he's now up to about 20 minutes between poddy breaks.. He also is now treated like a little man and gets to spend his days with Ellie and Russell in the front yard! He learned the doggy door in about 2 minutes and so far after 2 days of him having access to our entry way and the yard, he has not poddied in the entryway. :)

This method is also helping to mellow him out because now he has Ellie to play with and run around the yard, all-day-long.... So at the end of the day when we get home, he no longer has this built up energy. We are finally getting into a rhythm and schedule with him, makes it a bit easier to handle it all.

The horses still sit untouched for the most part.. drowning rats is all they are with the record rain we've been getting! We have our christmas tree up, although it's not 100% straight, we just cant seem to get it to not be crooked.. oh well, makes it more unique I guess. lol and its a big damn tree, it has quirkly lights with 2 colored light sections and 2 white sections... segregated tree apparently! And a small section of lights went out.. but ya know what, I dont care. I am not going to get worked up becase my lights are not perfect, I think I finally have realized little things like that are not so big a deal... there was a time when I would have been fanatic about having perfect lights on a perfect tree!

Ellie is really doing great too.. we are almost done with obedience, I think just 2 classes left, or maybe just 1.. hmm tonight might be graduation :( She did really well with her pre-test and scored 100%! Yeah!!

I am very excited for christmas, I got Derek some really cool gifts, I love to give presents, and always wish I could do more for my family and friends. I'm fairly certain my December mortgage is going to be late this month, well crap its the 13th and I havent paid it yet, so I guess it's late.. :(

My cousin Jesse just got engaged this past weekend as did his sister Jennifer 2 weeks before that! Very exciting and happy for them all, not to mention their mom, my aunt Dena has been engaged for over a year now.. sounds kinda funny when you type it out.. maybe they should plan a triple wedding.... haha

I know for having gone 3 weeks, it should be a more exciting post but other than taking care of Cooper and having the folks in town, its just been hustle and bustle to prepare for christmas.

We got a new camera so I've got some random pics of the kids..

This is Russell just hangin out in Derek's chair.. no he's not being grumpy, he just lays that way sometimes with a snarl.

Here are a couple of Ellie

Cooper running (his face looks kinda animated in this pic, like a cartoon puppy!)

Oh and then Derek and the kids all hangin out together.. Cooper is probably about 2 seconds from attempting to squirm his way out of being held.. :)