Are you kidding me?

Now picture for this one - just form your own vision in your mind.

It's July 31 - Mark and I are walking to dinner in jeans, and long sleeve rain coats while shivering (I swear it was in the 40's but Mark says that's exagerating). It's about the most miserable I've been in Seattle. It's just wrong!!!! I'm already trying to come up with ways to beat the rainy season depression that is just around the corner. I think regular trips to Hawaii - Mark thinks a grow light. Hmmm...I wonder who will win this one.

In Honor of my Aunt Chelle

This one's for you Aunt Chell! I saw the bottle and just had to purchase in your honor.

Who needs new furniture

At least that's what Mark was thinking. No, this is not our permanent seating arrangement, but it did work for a Friday evening margarita at home. I do have to say I made some dang good chicken enchiladas that were better than any Mexican we've found so far. Boy am I craving Abuelos. Mmmmm.....

The First After Pictures

We finally have ONE room for a real after picture. After 5 coats of paint, 3 weeks of work, and 1 patched wall we have our main bathroom back in working order. It's still small, but the red paint makes me happy!



BEFORE ---------------- AFTER

We had a slight construction error when removing the medicine cabinet which resulted in a portion of the wall bowing out and cracking. Our solution, a bigger medicine cabinet with a frame. Voila, problem solved and a bigger mirror with more storage is a bonus!

Here's Our House - Before Pics

View from the front door ---- Another view of the living room


These are all the cabinets we have ---- Dining area off the kitchen


Built-in cabinets in the dining area ---- Glass knobs throughout


The main bathroom ---- More built-ins


Front guest room (now the office) ---- Back guest room


A view down from the stairs---- Master bedroom (entire upper floor)


More master ---- Built-in


Pink walk-in closet

Those are a few before pics and as the house comes together we'll post some after pictures. As of now, the 2 guest rooms, living room, and hall have been painted along with the doors, trim, and ceiling in each room. It's coming together and more furniture arrives this week!!!

Arriving in Seattle

I know this is way out of chronological order, but I'll share anyway since I just shared what I remember of our adventure.

For those of you who have read previous posts you know how much the cats hate their carriers. It's also the reason we had to drug them for the 3 big travel days. I think Crumb may have started to develop an addiction because the last day he was more than pleased to take his happy pill. Even with the drugs we struggled to get them in their carriers (mainly because the drugs typically had not set in).

We had not drugged the cats on the Saturday we arrived in Seattle from Yakima, WA. After a very short 2 hours in the car we pulled up to our new house and I was excited to go inside. Unfortunately my first impression of the house was not a good one because I step out of the car and in to a yard full of bees. Yes, the stinging kind that my entire family knows I HATE. So, I can barely get in to the house I'm so freaked out, but we made it. Only after telling myself the bees don't want to hurt me and running from the car to the front porch only after Mark has unlocked the front door and I can go right in. I'm looking around and oh how different it looks. With no furniture you can see how badly the walls need paint and just how small the kitchen really is. I was not feeling so great about our new investment and it was only confirmed by the cats reaction.

Once we got the cats inside we put them in one of the guest rooms and opened up their carriers. A little hesitant, but they came out and started to take a quick look around. After 2 minutes of venturing in to their new home, they marched right back in to their carriers. Yes, they willingly went back inside their carriers and the look in their eyes said what both of us were thinking. Please take me back HOME.

Luckily the feeling of dread quickly subsided for me and when the movers showed up the next day with our things it started to subside for the cats. Four weeks later we're still settling in, but I think Target and Crumb like their new digs.

A truly Northwest Weekend

Last weekend Mark I and did everything Northwest (alright maybe not everything). We started out Friday and went furniture shopping. After 12 different places with widely varying price tags we did see a $14,000 couch) we decided on a set from Macy's and some chairs from this furniture place up the road. The chairs were delivered today and the couch, loveseat, and chaise will be delievered next week. Here's a sneak peak at our chairs. It is a light blue color which can't be seen in the chair and our other furniture is chocolate brown. So maybe furniture shopping wasn't so NW but the rest of the weekend was.

On Saturday, Mark really wanted to go on a hike. As many of you know, I'm not much of a hiker. So, Mark found the #1 best hike for kids and it was right up my alley. There was quite the elevation change, but definitely not the "plummeting to my death factor" as our Hawaii hike. Afterwards we went to Golden Gardens ( a little beach park) and had an evening with a beach BBQ. Fun times and good people watching.

On Sunday we continued our NW weekend with a visit to the Ballard (that's our neighborhood area) farmer's market and then we went kayaking on Lake Union. We quickly discovered Lake Union kayaking was not relaxing due to all the large boats going into Lake Washington, but we had fun looking at the skyline.

Part 2 - You know your in the city when

You take the bus 1 hour into downtown to get your haircut that lasts 2 hours and its crap. At least I didn't pay an arm and a leg. I went to the Aveda training schoo. She did a fine job, but didn't get the length right. I think we needed better communication which is my fault since I don't speak hair stylist terms. Next time I'm checking out the salon closer to home but I need to be prepared to pay twice as much.

Cross Country in 4 days

Okay, so it was really only 1/2 of the country in 4 days, but it was quite the adventure. I tried to post along the way (you at least got Colorado and Eastern Utah), but here are a few tidbits of fun for you.

Day 1/2: We left Tulsa at 8:30 PM and drove to Wichita. The cats were not drugged and only meowed half the way there. Not to bad and the time went by quickly. We stayed at a dumpy hotel and as Mark's request - 2 queen beds. It's not because he didn't want to be near me, but he knew the cats would also want to be where I was and he didn't want to be anywhere near the cats. So, we got to queeen beds. Mark had one and I shared with Target and Crumb. Granted they were too scared to come out from underneath the bed but once when the jumped on Mark's bed and he quickly pushed them off. What a way to start a cross country journey.

Day 1: Our first full day on the road was from Wichita to Denver. Being that this was a good 8+ hours in the car we decided it was best to drug the cats. This was a two person operation much to Mark's dismay (yes he had to hold the cat as I shoved a pill down their throat). Fifteen minutes into the drive Crumb looked like he was going to die. A quick call to the vet and we found out it was normal. On we went. Thanks to the book on CD "Marley and Me", we had a fairly quick drive to Golden Colorado (see previous post). This is where we discovered the saving grace of the trip - the 2 bedroom suite. This way Mark could sleep in peace in his bedroom and the cats and I shared another room. Yes, married for 8 months and sleeping in different bedrooms - what does this say about us :-)

Day 2: Onward ho to Utah. We crossed beautiful terrain in CO and took many pictures along the way. Because we had the cats in tow we decided not to stop in any of the ski towns (and it was 37 degrees in Vail when we passed - a little cold for our shorts and t-shirts). We drove through Utah and stopped in Utah (Logan I believe). Another 2 room suite and we were happy.

Day 3: Can we make it? As we crossed Idaho and in to Oregon we wondered if we could make it to Seattle. After over 10 hours of driving we decided it was best to stop and arrive fresh the next day. Another day of drugging the cats ( we had it down to a science at this point) and we were off from Utah and stopped in Yakima, WA). Yakima is in Eastern, WA where it is dry and sunny.

Day 4: We made it. We left Yakima around 10:00 AM and made it in to Seattle around 1:00. This is where it gets interesting. Seee next post

4 Weeks of Seattle

Alright, I admit I'm way behind. Blame it on painting. Any of your who have called to check our progress know all I've been doing is paining. Anyway, I need to catch up and start from the beginning.

View the next posts and I'll chronicle, what I remember of our adventures.