flower frenzy

RED WHITE AND BLUE! I love my front porch flowers this year, and the flowers seem to love the location.. I'm involved in a little friendly competition with a co-worker (Queen B Jill) this year, to see who has the biggest, most beautiful combination of flowers in a container. Which will be judged by our other co-workers (Kelo and the ardella). We will see when the summer ends who has overcome the cold beginning of summer and dominated the container flower realm this year! Watch out Jill! Your Wave petunias may kick the pants off of my knock off petunias.... but I will never admit defeat... NEVER!!! HAHAHAHA

A work in progress

Its been a long process... and a lot of work, but we're finally making some visible progress on the back yard. This is a photo of the first time the new lawn was mowed by my handsome husband... with a little help from the foster dog. It didnt start out this way though....

In January it was a lot of dirt and crabgrass... not very pretty. Then came the Bulldozer...

... and a whole lot more dirt, needless to say the
dogs were sooo not allowed in the back yard while it was wet.

Daddy and olive to save us from weeks and weeks of sprinkler system hell. And they did it in a little under 3 days. Thanks Papa!

Next step was the decision to seed, hydroseed or sod. Ok well sod was out of the question, we are on a budget here, seed was a possibility, but superbargainhunter robbi was on the job... i found hydroseed for cheap, and it was in by the saturday a week after the sprinkler system was finished... tah dah! Within 2 weeks we had tiny little blades of grass... and a lot of little weeds popping up all over the yard.... and then the first mow.. yay!

Since the grass has grown in we've been SLOWLY working on laying out fabric and getting some of the plants that have been patiently waiting to go into the ground, to their new homes. We plan on slowly filling in bark where it is needed and as we can afford it. I've had a couple of casualties in the process... i might have to buy a new dawn redwood and a new corkscrew willow next year ... but overall that's not to bad.. but i really did love those 2 trees, good thing they were only a couple bucks a piece.

Job Woes

Most of you know that around mid june it was announced to me that i may not have a job past august 1st.... well then it was october... maybe and then maybe not at all.... here's the newspaper story on that one.
http://www.theolympian.com/southsound/story/479106.html
What some of you may not know is that Bryan was told by a co-worker that he may not have his job past 2010... it would take a lot of cutting to get to him... but its a possibility. So, we're on the hunt, and someday maybe that road will lead us back to spokane, which we would both love.

Spring has Sprung.

The things i love most about spring:

New flowers,

i spend a ton of time in the garden,

poking around looking for little bits

of green poking through the dirt.

The smell of freshly cut grass,

and how green and pretty it is.

Finding new ways to make

my house look its best,

i bought these urns to set next

to the front door.. now i cant

figure out what to put in them.

I'm sure it will come to me soon... i hope.

What a mess!

I walked into my scrapbook room today .... and i thought... i cant work in this mess! So .... my task today is to clean clean clean... and hopefully soon add to the cabinet space... scrapbook spring cleaning here i come!

A baby announcement

This is a recent photo session i did of a brand new baby boy, Daylen Crofts. My 2nd job is so great!

Senior portraits

Senior portraits are sooo fun! This is Michelle .. sooo cute, i had a lot of fun editing this photo to color her eyes back to hazel.

Ah to be graduating from high school again, what a great time that was....

THE SICKNESS!!!!

Poor bryan is feeling puny this week! The dreaded flu bug has visited the Kennel. He's spent the last 2 nights sleeping in a mummy bag on the couch, with his hood up and just his nose and mouth peeking out.... it would be cute if he wasn't

so sick. His fever broke last night though so i suppose he'll be back up and about by tomorrow. Am i next??? I hope not! As steph has ordered i have been washing my hands and steering clear of Mr. Houser. Poor poor bryan!

As many of you know i've been seeing a dietition... and man does this woman work miracles! Let me act out my last conversation with her to you... "135...? ... really??.. thats friggen sweet!!!!"

To get down to my goal body fat percentage i still have another 7 L-B's to go but i'm having fun and i feel great.

Portrait

My favorite portrait of the week. A different angle seems to make all the difference.

Private Helicoptor Pilot License???

Stressssssfulll week for Bryan!!! But today... with a little trouble... he recieved his Helicoptor license. Just kidding, he did great and passed with no trouble at all. Next step is his Instrument Rating in the helicoptor... no rest for the weary, he starts that this week. We hope the 2nd 40 hours go as smoothly as the first 40. Congrats Bryan, I am so proud of you!

Happy Birthday to meeeeee!!!!!

I spent the morning of my 29th-ish birthday (Sunday), running my first 5k+ at the Henry Weinhard Saint Patrick's day dash in Seattle. The whole race took me 33 minutes and 58 seconds, which gave me 3911th place out of 8285... I know, here i come Boston Marathon!!! For now i'll take baby steps, in may i'll head to spokane with Bryan and run in Bloomsday.