Christmas

Well, Christmas has come and gone, and I have managed to not post since August. I guess I just haven't really felt like I've had that much to talk about. I got laid off from my job in the end of October, and have been feeling a little low since then. Hard to keep your spirits up when you don't feel productive. But, I start a job again tomorrow, only working 2 days a week, but at least it's something. J got me a great present for Christmas that will hopefully keep me posting more often, a very cool camera. It's a digital SLR camera. A Nikon DX5000 with a AF-S nikkor 18-55mm lens...I don't even know what all of those numbers and letters mean. So I've been trying to learn what aperature and shutter speed actually do. Luckily, the camera came with a class, so I will have some sort of tutorial on the thing. I took a cool picture of my christmas tree that actually makes my tree look nicer than it is :)
We also got a woodstove, and it was a beast to move into the house.

It looks great there, but when we went to the fireplace shop to buy pipe to hook it up, the informed us that unless you have the installation manual, and unless it is installed according to manufacturer's instructions, and you get it inspected to meet the specifications, then if your house burns down, your home owner's insurance won't cover it.... Well we did a little bit of research, and timberline, the company that made the wood stove, went out of business about 10 years ago, and we certainly didn't get an installation manual from the guy that sold it to us from craigslist. So it might be a little more work to get it up and running than we anticipated. In the mean time, it's pretty and that tiled area doesn't look as out of place in our living room.

I'm getting more and more excited about going to Belize. I got my passport, I've been watching airfare prices, now all we have to do is buy the plane tickets, set up the rental car to drive to Salt Lake and off we go, tropical vacation with a wedding attached. Now I just need to get my family to figure out when they're coming to Boise so I can get plans around the reception done.

Camping

So I've been camping the past 2 weekends. The first trip was with friends. We went out to Bruneau Sand dunes, which is the largest free standing sand dune in North America. It was a good time, plenty of mosquitoes. I think the highlight was the reservoir they have there. It is only 1 foot deep for about 10 feet out, so it was perfect for the dogs. K had a blast bounding through the water. She wasn't the best at actually swimming, though. Every time her front feet splashed any water, she would try to bite at the water, choke on it, then cough a sputter for a bit.

M swam, but N wasn't too pleased with the water. He's kind of a chicken. He did like playing fetch on the sandy beach, though.


This past weekend I went camping with J's family. We got up there on Thursday around dinner time, and it rained off and on until Friday night. We tried going on a 4 wheeler trip on Friday, and K came along, running at 10-15mph (what an athletic pup!), but after about 6 1/2 miles, the rain wasn't stopping and K was getting tired of running, so we turned around. K found out the joy of digging, and since we were on vacation, I figured I'd let her...
She was a dirty dog by the end of it. I also learned that M loves to ride of 4 wheelers...
He will just sit in your lap as you drive. Funny dog. Saturday the boys went on a dirt bike ride. They covered 50 miles of back country in about 4-5 hours. They came back dirty and tired, but had a good time.
At least they wear all their protective gear. We got to see a huge old dead tree. Not quite as big as the redwoods it California, but still really big and cool looking. They have a sign on it saying that they have left it up as a habitat for animals, and while we there there, there were 3 ospreys up there, hanging out. The mornings and evenings we spent around a campfire, it got really cold, especially with all the rain. Kind of weird for this time of year in Idaho.
And I don't think we spent a moment sitting down without at least one dog in our laps. On Sunday we tried again going 4 wheeling. There's a trail that goes to the top of Iron Mountain, starting at about 4000 feet and ending at about 10,000 feet. Quite a climb! But we saw a lot of beautiful scenery and flowers along the way.
It was a pretty amazing view from that high up. They actually have a watch tower that some poor park ranger used to have to stay in, and it had a bunch of grounding wires to help keep him from getting electrocuted. No thanks.We also spent our fair share of time just lounging around, playing with the dogs, and generally relaxing. J's best friend and his wife came up too, and they have a big mastiff. He actually loves to play fetch, and loves the water. He's a pretty happy, clumsy dog.
All in all, it was a great trip, and I can't wait to go again next year.

Big catch up time

So I realize I haven't posted for a month, so now I'm catching up. First, Fourth of July. J and I drove up to Council, Idaho, because I had heard that they do porcupine races and a parade and such. I thought it might be fun. So we drove the 2 1/2 hours up there, I thought it was a pretty drive, but J is so used to the high desert, he doesn't think it's pretty any more. We get up there and we missed the parade, which I wasn't too upset about, I've never been a parade person. So we find some bleachers, which is where we assume the races are going to be. Little do we know, it is a fundraiser for the town, or something to that effect, and they have an auctioneer that auctions off each porcupine individually, and the person that buys the porcupine that wins the races gets some prize. Well, there were 20 porcupines! So 2 hours of sitting in the hot sun later, the races finally begin. Needless to say, J and I were a little grumpy and hungry. Then the races start. First of all, as a veterinarian, I was ashamed to be watching this spectacle. They literally trap porcupines from the wild, have them in big plastic trash cans, have 2 people to man each porcupine, and when they say go, they dump the trash can, one person lays the trash can on its side as a barrier, the other has a broom, and is poking at the porcupine trying to get it to go the right way. These poor innocent creatures are scared to death, just trying to get to some place they can hide, and being mercilessly tormented.


Afterword the third heat of this, we don't really feel the need to see any more, so we head to town. I'm assuming no one has heard of Council, Idaho, and there's a reason for that. There is one small local grocery store, a couple of bars, and 2 restaurants, one of which is closed for fourth of July. So we go to the only place we see serving food. Luckily because we left early, we at least got seated within 20 minutes, but the wait for food was about 1 1/2 hours. J looking very grumpy as we're waiting for food.

Well, the rest of the Fourth went better. After our mediocre meal, we headed back to Middleton where J's parents live, hung out with his sister and brother, barbecued, played some volleyball in the back yard, and watched the fire works.

Another great piece of fun I've had in the past month is the Great Yucca Massacre. There is, or should I say was, a huge, overgrown pile of yuccas in our front yard that I've hated since we moved in. J and I, mostly J, finally did something about it. Well, I read online that actually irradicating these beasts includes digging a hole 3 feet wide and 4 feet deep around each yucca plant, filling the hole in with dirt, then periodically having to pour bleach water onto the plants that are eventually going to come up, despite all of that digging. Well, that just seemed like too much work. That and we can't really do that without disrupting the sidewalk, and our neighbor's yard. So we just decided to pull them up at the base, and do our best to pull them up as they come.
J doing some digging and pulling.

Half way there...
Just a small fraction of the destruction.
That very small space in the front of this bed, and we managed to fill 7 yard bags full to the brim of dead yucca remains. Now we have petunias and lantana growing peacefully there. So much better. I have J to thank for all the hard work. I mostly brought him ice water and helped hold the brown paper yard bags for him to fill.

Okay, well, it's bed time, so that's the update for now. Soon to come, my two consecutive camping trips, one with friends, one with J's family.

Well, definitely all settled into the house. Now I understand how home owners are never done with fixing up a house, and it will never be perfect. But our house is homey and comfortable, and it's nice to know that I am making a great investment. Our vegetable garden is doing great. Our tomato plants are as tall as the corn... not sure if that's how it supposed to work out or not. The only produce we've gotten so far is our sugar snap peas, but I'm anxiously waiting for tomatoes. We have a few green ones so far, but none have ripened.

Made a trip to Tennessee to visit my family. J met the whole family for the first time and I thought it went very well. We spent one day in Dollywood, yes, a theme park built by Dolly Parton, and no, it was not all Dolly all the time. It was actually a lot more fun than I thought it was going to be. We spent the second day a little split up, cause I didn't want to spend the entire vacation in Dollywood, so Dad, J and I went hiking in the Great Smokey Mountains. On the way up, we saw a bear. Too bad I didn't get a picture of the entire bear. He was non chalantely walking around all the cars.


We hiked up to a waterfall

Saw some pretty flowers
And even saw a salamander
Afterwords we wandered around Gatlinburg, TN. Let me tell you, what a weird little tourist town. It was like some sort of bizzare mix between Las Vegas and a county fair.

The cabin we stayed in was very cute, and the surroundings were beautiful.
We also even had the pleasure of letting the kids hit a pinata, which used to be a tradition at the family reunions we had growing up with my mom's family.

It was the hungry little caterpillar. All and all, it was a very good time.

The new house

Of course my life will revolve around my new house for the next few weeks as I get the whole house painted and get ready to move in. Yesterday the painting began. Spent about an hour at Home Depot waiting for them to mix the 9 gallons of paint that I bought. Three friends from work came over to help, and we managed to pain the entire living room/dining room/kitchen area, and taped off most of the rest of the house. Half of the work out room got painted, and the other half got a coat of primer (above and below the chair rail).

I think we made excellent progress.
Josh was a good helper, but I don't think he wants to help in the actual painting, too nervous he will mess something up, or something.
So he helped tape, and then worked on yard work, pulling weeds, watering the grass. He didn't want his picture taken... So today I will start painting countertops. I'll let you know how that goes. I know it sounds crazy, I'm not 100% sure of it either, but right now my counters are dusty rose, and I just can't live with that. Not even for a short time.

Josh and I took a little time to ourselves and went on a train ride this past saturday. It's called Thunder Mountain Line, and we had dinner and a show, then relaxed and enjoyed the beautiful scenery. We got to see a magic/comedy show, and she had one trick that I had no idea how she did it! It was amazing. It was nice to spend some time doing something nice with just the two of us.

Well, I officially feel pressured to start a blog. My sister, sister-in-law and brother all have their own, and now I'm jealous. So, here we go. I sign on my new house today!

I'm excited. First time home owner. Sounds so cliche, but I'm excited anyway. I've spent hours pouring over paint colors. Bought those little 4 dollar samples from Home Depot on Tuesday. 9 of them. Yes, I am that psycho that I will have 9 different colors painted in my house. Hopefully I don't regret it. But I will try out each sample in its appropriate spot in the house, and decide then if I like it. Hopefully I will have a ton of help to paint the house, because painting is one of my least favorite things to do. I figure I will start with ceiling and trim, that way I'm not forced into any color decisions too quickly. That will be Sunday. Of course, we sign today at 4pm, and there is a doctor's meeting this evening. What a buzz kill. I was thinking it would be a great day and we could go out for a nice dinner afterwords. Oh well. That will have to wait until tomorrow. We don't actually get the keys until tomorrow anyway. I'm excited (have I said that enough times yet?)