One Room Down!

I know, I know.  I promised a post about Colin's awesome anniversary present.  Well, it's not going to be it's own fancy post like I had hoped, but it does get a post that shows it's full awesomeness potential.  This year, Colin got a table saw for our anniversary!  It's pretty high tech and does all sorts of cool stuff.  He absolutely loves it.

Colin getting to work on cutting the first boards!

In it's first true table saw test, we got to work on the floors today!  We're a little late in starting this project, but we ended up heading to Portland this weekend for Shannon's quarter of a century surprise birthday party (SURPRISE!).  It's been planned for a while, but of course I had to pretend like we had all of these housework plans this weekend to keep her in the dark.  Now that we're home and thoroughly rested from the ultimate fiesta (complete with unicorn pinatas), the work has begun!

I can't take a house picture anymore that doesn't have a cat somewhere in it.  Lao loves the new floor!

We finished laying the floor in the dining room and part of the hallway and it looks wonderful!  While Colin does a great job cutting the boards, I put them all into place.  We had a little bit of a shaky start at first, but once we figured out what we were doing we got into a pretty speedy rhythm.  Our new goal is to have the whole upstairs finished by next Wednesday (since we started a little late).  Wish us luck! 

What do you think so far?!?

Renovation is more fun with friends!

This weekend our dear friend George drove up for a visit, and we put him straight to work!  I can't express enough what a huge help it was to have some more manpower to get us through the end of the demolition.  After the "hey, hi, how are you" moments had passed, we busted out the mini sledge hammer and got to work on the rest of the tile in the entryway and in front of the fireplace.  This is one of my absolute favorite things, but since the boys were so much more efficient, I decided to finish scraping the back room instead.

The finished fireplace demo.

The boys working on the entryway

Since we're replacing 13 doors in the house, and hardware can get expensive, we decided to try and spray paint what we already had to match our bronze fixtures.  I only took a picture after I applied the final coat, so I'll be updating this section later today after I finish with the sealant.  It worked great and saved us a ton of money!

The last thing we did for the day was finishing priming all of the door frames (we're also saving those since they're in pretty good shape and it'll save lots of $$).

George working hard!

Since the boys worked really hard all day, we headed to the Bremerton Brewfest for the rest of the evening!  I volunteered to be the DD (of course), since these two have long awaited a beer drinking reunion (and I don't like beer).  Ultimately, it was a little bit of a letdown.  The "commemorative beer cups"  were small, plastic, and paled in comparison to other cups we've gotten at brewfests before.  The lines were long and there were no food vendors, so the restaurants along the streets were selling hamburgers and hot dogs over the fence.  It seems super silly unsafe to me to have a beer festival without food, but it is Bremerton I guess!  The highlights were definitely getting more information on local breweries (including some from Poulsbo!), and catching a glimpse of Colin's future ship, the USS Stennis, after taking a wrong turn and ending up at the base! :)

The first beer -

The last beer.

After only being there a short time, 10 vendors had run out of beer, and the lines were getting longer and longer, so we decided to head back to a local bar in Poulsbo to get food and end the night.  After our stint at Tisley's Europub, these boys got back to what they do best - eating tots, drinking beer, and playing video games!  What a successful weekend long reunion!

Obviously, after the previous days excitement and hard work, we took Sunday morning nice and slow.  Once we had gotten George on his way back to Portland, Colin tried his hand at cutting the tiles for the fireplace with our new tile saw.  I think it came out perfectly, and I can't wait to lay them today!

We had initially chosen these pretty expensive accent pieces (almost $3 a piece!) for this area, but after a great suggestion from a friend, we looked into buying a sheet of smaller tiles used for back splashes and bathrooms, and cutting it up to make our own.  It worked out great and saved us a bundle!  Not to mention we love these accent pieces better than the ones we had originally chosen, and because they were netted together, we only had to use scissors to get those cuts perfect :)

Our floors should be getting here today (yay!!!!!!) and thus begins a long week of getting tile and laminate done.  My goal is to be done with all of this and on to painting doors and moulding by the time Colin's mom comes to visit the first weekend in August!  Wish us luck!

It doesn't matter to Lao Tzu if it's covered in cling wrap, a couch is still for napping!

Sad Headache Sunday and Continued Improvements

 Today was sort of a sad headache kind of Sunday.  After getting some things done around the house, I got a killer headache and spent the rest of the night in my hipster shades hiding from light and sound :( 

But before the devastating pounding started, we got some really great things accomplished and the living room area is nearly done!  Yay!  Not only did we replace every outlet and light switch in the living room and entry way, but we also installed the new chandelier in the entry way, unpacked our bathroom stuff (finally) and organized the master bath, and installed a new doorbell!  It was definitely a slower day around here, but as the smaller projects that we're able to do get fewer and fewer, it's nice to be able to just sit back, watch some Adventure Time, and relax with our cats for a while. 

Here's the photographic evidence of all of our hard work:

The old entryway light fixture that seamlessly combined painted gold and silver plastic, wood paneling, and spray painted black aluminum.  It was definitely one of a kind.  It also hung really low into the entry way for some strange reason.

Our new beautiful light fixture that was actually (and surprisingly) much easier to install (lets face it, Colin really did all the work on this one).  It turns out we learned from the disaster yesterday in the dining room!

Our old yellowed, mysteriously sticky, cracked doorbell.

Our new sleek white doorbell that plays a fancy little tune!

Of course he spent most of the day doing extremely manly things like drinking protein shakes, lifting double his body weight on the bowflex, and hunting giant elk.

Extreme kitten relaxation.

We're more actively researching tiling the entry way and in front of the fireplace (aka watching a million videos on youtube), and hopefully will start on ripping up floors this week.  It's sort of a daunting task, but just knowing that we're almost done with the big stuff for a while is motivation enough!

Day Seven: Coeur d'Alene, ID

Since Colin was born and raised in Idaho, it seemed fitting that he would write the post about today's journey to Idaho.  Good luck.

Finally!  The pinnacle to our adventure! (with the exception of getting to our house)  The whole reason for driving across the country! (again, with the exception of getting to our house) We finally made it.  We've come home.  Today, day seven, we arrived in Idaho.

God's country, the holy land, the most beautiful place in the world, true America, mecca: As a homegrown spud, I can confirm all of these things are true.  Idaho, is all of these things. 

Today's route took us through Coeur d'Alene, ID.  In the panhandle of a state graced by the rocky mountains, this small town is a vacation spot for people world wide.  Renowned for it's beautiful scenery, it's gorgeous, pure lake, it's outdoor activities, and my brethren Idahoans, how can you help but spend your precious summer vacations in this beautiful northern oasis.  No pictures could possibly do this land justice, but we've taken a few so that you could experience some of the awe inspiring scenery which we were blessed to view today.  Dim the lights, light some candles, and enjoy.  

(Oh yeah, and we found a dutch brothers.  Kristin was really excited.)

Ming Bob, overwhelmed by the excitement.

Tomorrow: Home.

Day Three: Madison, WI

All and all, today was a pretty exciting driving day as far as middle America goes.

Top five best things about day three -

1.  The cats seem pretty happy now that they've settled in to life on the road.  In fact, Julius spent over three hours just like this today:

2.  We actually drove through a big city that we've never seen before - Chicago!  The traffic was more than worth the change of pace from farm land to city.

 3.  We ended up waking up early to get a delicious breakfast (the first one in weeks that didn't come prepackaged) and got on the road an hour early!  This, coupled with a time change that worked in our favor, put us in Madison, WI super early.

Our best attempt at getting the 'Welcome to Wisconsin' sign in the rain.

4.  Not only did our hotel let us check in an hour early, but they also upgraded us to a king suit at no extra cost!  How awesome is that?  Since we haven't seen a couch in over a month, this was a huge deal for us :)

Our giant room.  Ming obv. feeling at home already.

I'm pretty sure this bathroom is bigger than our whole room was in CT.

5.  Thanks to getting in early, we got to drive around and explore Madison a little!  Not only did we see the capital building, but we also found a Qdoba for dinner!

It's the comfort food that counts after a long day on the road! (did i mention there's a no makeup[me]/no shaving[Colin] policy while on this road trip?)

 That's about it folks!  Stay tuned for tomorrows recap once we make it to Sioux Falls, SD!  Only four days left!

Day Two: Todelo, OH

Hello from Ohio!  Ok, so we've finally reached somewhere where I have decent enough internet to update you all on the craziness of the last couple days.  I think it's best to separate it into parts:

Part 1: Leaving Connecticut

For the last week or so the navy has been promising guessing that we would leave each day, and each day we packed up and got ready to go and then something stopped us from actually getting on the road (that "something" was usually navy medical).  Then, on a sunny Tuesday morning in June, I got the text that Colin had his medical records in hand and we were set to hit the road.  As soon as he got home we packed up, thanked the beyond wonderful staff at the Rodeway Inn, and booked it before they could change their minds. 

As far as the actual logistics of Colin's medical hold, he's going to continue waiting around, we just get to do it in the comfort of our own home.  Although nothing is official, word on the street is that his waiver has been denied, and he will be redesignating in the fall(ish).  A lot still needs to be figured out, but he will for sure be staying in the Navy.

Part 2: Frackville, PA

Now, to say we left in a hurry would be an understatement.  We were just so excited to be given the ok to get out of town, that everything else more or less fell to the wayside.  Now, if you know me, you know that I don't do so well when things aren't planned out.  I'd say this quadruples for things like cross country trips.  Never the less, we haphazardly mapped out a route and picked some affordable pet friendly hotels along the way, without really checking too many reviews on each one (I usually go a little user review crazy). 

What's nice to someone, may be a complete snake pit to someone else.  I'm pretty sure that's what happened when it comes to Frackville, PA.  Stopping in Pennsylvania was hard enough considering there's not a whole lot between Philadelphia and Pittsburgh, but finding a pet friendly hotel is even harder.  Since we'd been living in a Rodeway Inn all this time, we figured we knew it wouldn't be great, but it would be livable.  We. Were. Dead. Wrong.

This hotel will without a doubt go down in history as the worst hotel we've ever had the pleasure of staying the night in.  As soon as we pulled up we knew it was less than ideal, but just as Colin was saying "if you want to go somewhere else we can..." Lao Tzu was throwing up in his carrier.  He made it through the whole four hours and waited until we were literally pulling in to this gross hotel to throw up everywhere.  At that point we were pretty much exhausted and figured one night wouldn't kill us and decided to stay.

As soon as we parked and got something to eat I made a trip to the local walmart to get some things for the trip.  While there I saw: 2 grown men in camo pajamas (at 7pm), 1 man drink out of a juice carton and put it back, and 1 Walmart that doesn't sell bottled water (what the what?).  Discouraged, I headed back towards the hotel only to pass by a maximum security state penitentiary.  Upon further phone googling I quickly found that not only is Frackville home to this prison I had driven by (that was .2 miles from our hotel), but that there were 3 more within a 6 mile radius from where I was.  Awesome. That definitely explained why the staff didn't ask me for any information (including an ID) when I checked in.  After that I couldn't drive back and unload the car fast enough.  As I did, the guy who lived next to us mentally inventoried everything I was taking out of the car (presumably to decide if we had anything worth breaking in for, which it seems we didn't). 

I will never stay in a random town without a thorough google search again.

Part 3: Toledo, OH

After a pretty successful (and windy) 7 hour drive we finally made it to Toledo, OH!  The La Quinta we're staying in has the most comfortable bed we've slept in in weeks, and the room couldn't be nicer (what a relief!).  The cats are happy, we're happy, and now we're just biding our time until we can get back on the road to head to Madison, WI tomorrow.  We should make it to Poulsbo by next Tuesday, and we can't wait to see our house!  It's been almost 7 months since poor Colin has even see what we've been paying mortgage for all this time.

Cross your fingers that our trip continues to go well, and I'll do my best to update whenever we have internet!!

Nap time.

Day trip to Massachusetts take two!

On our second day of Massachusetts adventuring, we headed out to Springfield - the city of firsts.  Just for fun you should look up Springfield, MA's wikipedia page.  The number of things invented in this town is just ridiculous.  What first drew us to Springfield was a conversation we had with a bartender in Glens Falls.  She had shared with us that it was her grandson's birthday, so she was taking him to the MA city for the weekend to visit the Dr. Seuss Memorial Gardens.  Upon hearing this I was instantly devastated that I hadn't heard of it earlier, and beyond sad that we'd run out of time to go ourselves.  "Luckily," the navy must have been listening, and granted us the opportunity to visit! (Silver lining, anyone?)

After some research we found out that they have what they call a museum "quadrangle," where you pay one flat fee ($12.50 a person, or $10.75 with military discount) to visit five museums in one day.  Of course we couldn't pass up a deal like this, and it made driving an hour just to see statues of Dr. Seuss characters more reasonable.  

Being a Green Eggs and Ham enthusiast, a picture with Sam-I-am was the highlight of the trip for me, but it was all pretty amazing.  The statues are excellent, and watching the excited kids run around the main characters of their favorite books is a great way to spend the afternoon.  As for the museums themselves, we only actually visited two - because of time, and because one was closed for repairs.  The Science/Natural history combo museum was by far our favorite.  It started out a little shaky with some rough exhibits of taxidermied animals, but by the end we more than enjoyed our time there. 

Life size T-Rex in the dinosaur exhibit!

The second museum we visited was the art museum.  It was definitely less than stellar.  Our biggest complaints were the lack of original art (nearly everything in their main room was a replica of the original piece), the lack of definition between Japanese and Chinese exhibits (they were mixed in all together, without information cards to let us know what was what), and that the majority of the museum was under construction until 2014!  The highlight was actually the architecture and detailed woodwork of the building itself.  Since one museum was closed all together (the Connecticut Valley History museum that houses the actual Dr. Seuss Exhibit :( ), and the art museum was pretty torn apart, we probably would have been upset had the tickets cost any more. 

Since we were starving and the regular art museum had major shortcomings, we decided to skip the modern art museum and find somewhere to eat.  Unfortunately, Springfield was majorly a little rougher around the edges than we had expected, and nearly everything in town was either closed or boarded up, so we went out on a limb and decided to stop in Hartford to eat on our way home instead!

Colin throwing up his "spud" gang sign :)

The only thing we really knew about Hartford is what we had heard on the news, which was gangs, gangs, gangs, and more gangs.  Nearly every time we turn it on (both in CT and NY) there is something about gang violence in Hartford, but we figured there had to be some good parts somewhere.  After a quick check of my foursquare app on my brand new iphone (woo!), we decided to eat at a hamburger restaurant called Plan B.  We figured it was fitting considering this was our literal "plan B" for the day.  Not to mention the reviews were nothing short of "this is the best burger I've ever had" etc. etc. 

After sitting down to order our plan b burgers, we found that those reviews were more than accurate.  These burgers are so good they could turn even the strictest vegetarians back to meat (I'm looking at you, Ms. Ross!).  Not only do they make their own ground beef in house, but they also use all natural free range meat (see picture below), and it definitely pays off.  We were more than pleasantly surprised.  It was definitely a risk we were glad we had taken. 

That pretty much concludes our memorial day weekend!  We took today to catch up on some reading and relax before closing out the evening with Kung Fu Panda 2 (Colin loves him some Kung Fu Panda).  It's getting so warm here that we actually had to use the AC in our room today, which is something we definitely didn't pack for, and the cat's surely weren't ready for (as seen in the picture below :D), but we're still loving the sunshine.  Here's to hoping this week yields some answers about our future!! Keep your fingers crossed!

Click in to see more pictures of us frolicking around the Dr. Seuss gardens!

Sometimes things just don't go as planned

As some of you may already know, our move across the country has taken a little detour.  We are currently living in a no-tell motel in Waterford, CT until some administrative issues get worked out. 

This whole mess started last Monday.  I had woken up early to get ready for the movers on Wednesday, and I got a devastating text from Colin saying “stop packing, we’re not moving.”  Of course I had a panic attack, and called right away.  He couldn’t talk so I had to wait a few hours for him to get back to me.  It turns out that Navy med found a typo in one of his medical wavers, and sent it up for review (yes, as in a spelling error).  It then found it’s way to someone who disagreed with the waver, and felt that his testing was never completed for a heart condition he’s had since birth, but doesn’t affect his work and was corrected through surgery when he was only months old.  This all lead to him being placed on immediate medical hold.

We went back and forth for days about what to do, because it was obviously too late to stop the move all together.  Every day was a different scenario.  I would get a call saying, “You’re moving, but I have to stay” “I can take 10 days of leave to drive you out and then I have to come back.” And finally, “They’re transferring me to Washington to figure this all out.” 

It wasn’t until all of our stuff was packed up and gone that I got the final call letting me know that as of 8am they had changed their minds, and neither of us would be leaving. So with less than a day before we were supposed to be headed out, I quickly canceled all of our hotels, called friends and family, spoke to our move coordinator, ppo rep, and moving truck driver, and frantically began calling hotels around New London to find one that would take us and our three cats for an extended stay.  After getting rejected by a handful of people, this stellar establishment said yes!  And at a great rate no less. 

So here we are.  Living in a hotel where every surface is mysteriously sticky, but we’re together and the cats are moderately happy exhausted.  Colin is working in the admin office while he waits for appointments with navy med (which is sort of like waiting for pigs to fly), and we have no idea what our timeline is.  They told us we could be here 10 days, or we could be here 3 months (their original estimation).  Lets just hope for the former!  

Julius sleeping with Ming passed out in the top left corner

The black exhausted blob that is Lao Tzu

Of course as I have endless amounts of time with nothing to do and spotty at best internet (the guy at the front desk thinks it mysteriously stopped working because it’s humid outside), a million things are running through my head.  We have a mortgage to pay starting in June, I have a job lined up in Washington that’s supposed to start in June, our stuff arrives at our new house on the 31^st, and if we’re not there it’ll be put in storage where we have to schedule delivery two weeks out.  Can I survive 3 months in this crappy motel?  Does this Lt. Commander have the power to completely derail Colin’s career and everything he’s been working for since joining the Navy?  These may all be valid concerns, but the bottom line is that we have no answers, and no options.  We’re here, so we may as well make the best of it!  Keeping with that mindset, I made a top 5 list (a la John Cusack) of all the reason why being in Connecticut isn’t so bad:

1. Great lobster bisk at Smarty’s Restaurant
2. Sarge’s Comics (a giant comic store with awesome Joss Whedon section)
3. NYC is just a mere 2 hours away and I still have $16 on a subway metro card
4. They have Dairy Queen here!
5. I’m not in WA while Colin’s in CT, we’re together.*

(*Of course, the disclaimer is that these are in no particular order, and yes, I’m aware that some of them are a stretch)

Like I said, the internet here pretty much sucks and so does my cell reception, but I’ll do my best to update as we move along in this process and someone does start giving us answers.  Hopefully we’ll be back on course in no time!

Cute cat moments

As much of a pain as they can be sometimes, they can also be ridiculously cute.  I've heard time and time again that because we have three cats (and two biological brothers), their bonds with each other will always be stronger than their bonds with us.  This can be hard to believe considering how I hardly have a moment when someone isn't meowing at me or trying to claw their way up on my lap no matter what I'm in the middle of.  But then, I get a moment like this that reminds me how much these brothers really love each other.

Julius and Lao Tzu

Even though Lao is fast asleep, he still wants at least a little contact with his brother.  This is rare because Julius usually begs Lao to cuddle and groom him and he usually does, but then quickly gets annoyed with him and pushes him away.  It's unusual for Lao to look to Julius for comfort.  Being the alpha male that he is, Lao is much more apt to come to us if he needs attention.  That's why this moment quickly caught on film is just too precious not to share.

Have you had any cute pet moments lately?  It sure makes all those tough times worth it doesn't it?

Guest Blogger Tuesday

Introducing Mrs. Shannon Schlotz and the adorable little Sophie!  Shannon is the first Tuesday guest blogger, so read more to find out about her and her pup.

Puppy Love

Plant. Pet. Baby. Despite being told a hundred times that caring for an animal does not prepare you for being in charge of a human life, I can’t seem to shake this pattern of progression from my mind. My stomach drops with guilt every time I stare at the remains of another browned houseplant. Overwater, underwater, too hot, too cold—how am I supposed to raise a child if I can’t keep a $1.99 fern from Kmart alive? For a long time I couldn’t shake the feeling that I would never be ready for kids.

So of course I hesitated when my husband suggested we add a puppy to our brand new family. And by “suggested” I mean he begged, pleaded, and bombarded me with Craigslist postings of homeless puppies until I agreed to consider it. But even as I tentatively agreed to look, I still had this nagging feeling. I still haven’t raised the plant! How can I care for the puppy?

And then we met Sophie. The moment I laid eyes on her furry, wiggly, four-legged body, the nagging thoughts in the back of my mind disappeared. Her brown puppy eyes stared into mine and the only thing I could think about was how much fun it would be to spend twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week with her.

Fast forward to now, twelve weeks after my first encounter with that canine bundle of joy. Has every moment with Sophie been as precious and cuddle-worthy as the first? Absolutely not. Puppies are hard work! I could never have planned for this amount of stress, frustration, and responsibility. Waking up two times a night every night straight for the first month to take her out to the bathroom was enough to make me reconsider the whole “having kids” thing all together. And yet, we’ve made it work. My husband and I have adjusted our schedules, reassessed our budget, and committed ourselves to raising this puppy the best way we know how. Which makes me think, maybe I never will be ready for a baby. The more I plan it out, the more impossible it seems to prepare for such a life-changing decision. And yet this whole experience with Sophie has made me confident that we can and we will make it work. It might be a few more years before that time comes, but the nagging thoughts of failure in the back of my mind are gone. No matter how many pieces of furniture Sophie chews up, I love her. And I will make sacrifices to see her happy. And now I’ve got to go save my leather purse from her ferocious puppy teeth.

Now that you know a little more about Sophie and me, stay tuned for future blogs about her crazy antics!

So what do you think, is "plant, pet, baby" the only way to go, or is it ok to shake it up a little bit?  If you fail one step, does it mean you can't move on to the next?  And most importantly, wouldn't you say they're ready for that third step? :) Leave your feedback in the comments!