Our grass...

Sorry, not talking about the marijuana kind of grass... just talking about my, well, grass. At the beginning of the warm season, month of May, my grass was a disaster. I felt like that white trash neighbor that has all the weeds and dead grass in the yard. Rillz and I were determined to do something about it. The only problem, we knew NOTHING about recovering a sad looking lawn. Rillz's suggestion was to take it all out and lay down new lawn... um no, too spendy. So, from talking to several people, we decided to first kill the weeds with weed be gone and then sign up for the zamzows lawn program. Wow! Our lawn is much thicker and healthier. Still far from perfect but a big difference.

Our front yard in May 2010.
Another front yard pic.

Back yard picture in May 2010. Our dogs did some nice pee spots don't you think.

Gross.

Poor lawn.

Our lawn at the end of September 2010. Those "yellow" looking spots are from the sun coming through the trees. Not yellow doggie pee burn spots. Those are ALL gone!
Another backyard picture. I wish the sun wasn't so bright so the picture would show no yellow. Oh well. I love mowing my lawn and then just looking at it. Looks so pretty after being mowed. I can't believe our grass stays so nice with 2 dogs running all over it all day.
Our front yard September 2010. It isn't as thick and beautiful as the back but it looks much better. And now from our main water line having that leak, we have a funny grass/dirt spot in our lawn.

I am so glad our lawn is small. This much grass is enough work for me.

Happy Anniversary Tracy's

To thank Ren for all his help with our house Rillz wanted to do a really special anniversary dinner for Ren and Heidi. Rillz and I were both pretty excited to do this dinner for them too. Rillz loves being able to be creative on his food. He got all his special gourmet books out for asian themed dish ideas. Through-out the week I picked things up to decorate with. Rillz and I were both happy and pleased with the way it turned out. We definitely didn't put the blood, sweat, and tears into it like Ren did for our kitchen. Ren wasn't even expecting anything in return when he volunteered to help with our kitchen. What great brother-in-laws I have! That said here is Heidi and Ren's thoughts about the whole experience:




Ren helped out Mindy and Rillz a lot the last few months with remodeling their kitchen and some plumbing issues and Rillz wanted to make a special anniversary dinner for us as a thank you. We weren't about to pass up a chance to be fed by the best chef out there!
When Ren first mentioned it I thought we were just going over to their house to have dinner with them. Then Mindy calls and says they are coming to our house, that we need to be out of the house for about 3 hrs and asks if there is anything in my living room that is off limits to move around. Turns out they had bigger plans for our evening!
They came over at 3PM and told us not to return until 6:30PM. It was nice to just go out and get some errands done and be anticipating the deliciousness that awaited us. We returned to a fancy table set for two in our living room, candle light and nice music playing. The whole night was Asian themed.
Pictures don't do it justice. All of the lanterns had lights in them and then they had set up a screen in between the living room and kitchen area so that we couldn't see the chef at work. I seriously felt like I was in a fancy restaurant in my own house, it was great.

Then came the food, oh my was it over the top. We had 5 courses.

Appetizer Sampler: Chicken saute with Thai peanut sauce, Shrimp saute with citrus chili and King crab salad on shrimp boat chip

Palate Cleanser:Ginger infused mango sherbet

Salad: Crisp mixed greens with Asian vinaigrette topped with a bacon wrapped scallop and papaya glazed cucumbers

Entree: Miso sockeye salmon with furikake and lemon rice with garlic hoisin sauce accompanied with kimchee green beans

Dessert: Apple banana lumpia with vanilla ice cream topped with toasted macadamia caramel sauce

Beverage: Fuji apple cranberry cider

Once again, pictures do not do it justice. Each place was like it's own little work of art and it tasted so D.I.V.I.N.E!!! There wasn't one part that we didn't like or even kind of didn't like. It totally ruined our ability to go out to eat and actually pay to eat any other food :) All we talk about now is how delicious that dinner was. It was truly the fanciest thing I have ever eaten in my life...and it was in my own house, so cool.

I know a ton of work and prepping went into our special night. Thanks Mindy and Rillz!

Rillz and I are happy to know they really enjoyed it. Our goal was to make them feel special and have an experience that typically doesn't happen. Since doing this dinner, we have had more than one offer to come help us with the next house project... lucky for them, my house is older and will always need a little TLC here and there.

P.S. Watch out Jeff and Kristi, your next!

damaged goods

So today Rillz and I were talking to my dad on the phone. We started talking about Europe because that is where Rillz and I plan to go on our honeymoon. Then my dad and Rillz had this conversation that had me laughing
dad: what are you waiting for... when are you getting married
Rillz: well I need to ask for you and Robins blessing and get all my ducks in a row
dad: you don't need to ask. She has already been married and now she is just damaged goods. In fact, she is a blue light special.

I thought I was going to pee my pants. It sounded so funny! I needed a good laugh. Don't worry, after that my dad had nice things to say like "of course you have my blessing, I wouldn't give her to a loser again."

Haha. Just had to write all this for memories.

What a pleasure!

Disclosure- this was typed up yesterday but for some reason didn't post.
The last 2 days I have had to work 12 hour days. The little boy I nanny is usually in full day preschool but yesterday and today there was parent teacher conferences so I have been with him ALL day from 8-8. Before you start thinking "Oh my thats a long hard day" let me just tell you how FUN and fast work has been. The little boy I nanny has just been absolutely WONDERFUL! Lots of laughing and playing together. We made waffles together, ate Ben and Jerry's ice cream downtown, had a picnic in the park, built an awesome train track and read lots of library books. Sometimes a 3 1/2 year old makes you want to rip your hair out and tie them to a chair and other times you just can't get enough hugs and kisses and time together in a day. Either way, days like today make me REALLY excited for when I have my own little ones. I feel grateful in this economy to have a job and it's even better to love my job and be good at what I do.
The weekend will be just as exciting. Heidi's baby shower is tomorrow and Sunday we are having my Aunt Nancy's thanksgiving day dinner. A little early I know but her grandson will be in town and he wants her thanksgiving dinner. I am in charge of pumpkin pie and banana cream pie. Yum!
Oh yeah, and the weather today is BEAUTIFUL! And the fall tree colors make me smile all over!
I hope everyone is enjoying their Fridays and have a great weekend!

Florida Vacation

Last month (September) Rillz and I went on vacation to Florida. Rillz's sister was having a baby. The first niece/nephew on his side of the family. We were SO excited to meet the new baby and see all the family! Girlie (Rillz's sister) didn't want to find out what the baby was. I had guessed it's a girl the whole time. A lot of others thought boy. She was born Wednesday September 15, 2010 at 11: something p.m. We left Thursday morning September 16. So the night before we left Rillz and I found out Girlie had a GIRL! Baby Gracey was born and we just love her and miss her.

We just adore her. Look at that hair!

This is Gracey and David (David is Girlies husband, Graceys dad)

Girlie and Gracey

Davids mom and Girlies mom with Gracey

Girlie and Rillz's parents

Gracey's first day home

Sleepy girl

Our last day in Florida. Sleeping with uncle Rillz

While in Florida Rillz and I went Disney World for 2 days. We were able to go to all 4 parks. We also went to Ripleys Believe it or not and M&M world. We had a blast!





At Disney World they had Magic Kingdom all decorated for Halloween
Me on some little park ride.



Getting warm by the fire place at Minnies house

Even on vacation Rillz is working in the shop... Mickeys shop!

The castle!

At Hollywood studios park they had a playground area with the Honey I Shrunk the Kids theme. It was so fun! Rillz by a Tinker toy block!
What a BIG ant and ice cream cookie!




I thought this sign was really cute!

Everything in those parks were SO expensive. (Of course I knew it would be). So we took food and water into the parks for the day. We decided to spoil ourselves for one meal. We chose this 50's diner that was super cute. Yummy (expensive) homecooking type meal. They had tvs at the booths playing Leave it to Beaver and other old shows.

Oh man this coke crate is HEAVY. Almost like it's cemented down!

Rillz's mom and dad came with us to the Epcot center the first day. After about 4 hours of being there they got worn out (it's a TON of walking) and so Rillz and I took them back to Girlies house. (She only lives about 20 min. away from Disney World). It was fun walking around with them for a while!



Rillz and I at Epcot






The famous Epcot ball/ dome thingy

Just his size!

The Animal kingdom park. Here is the tree of life.
3D glasses. I think they look good on me.

These are bats and there was no glass between us. Gross






We took a safari jeep ride. There are no barriers between us and some of the animals. Lots of the animals had babies. They were adorable.

Rillz looks like a natural!

The night before Disney World Rillz and I took a drive around the touristy area (disney world, sea world, you know that stuff). We randomly drove by Ripleys and decided to go. Rillz had never been to one.
This chair is too big! Those ones are too small.... where is the one thats just right??

The tallest man. He is just a little taller than Rillz


A section of the actual Berlin wall

Rillz and I went to IKEA (which is AMAZING!!!) and as we were driving back home I saw M&M world. I just had to go! It was fun looking at a lot of spendy M&M's!

Green is the new love color... Right!?!
Florida was amazing! We are very grateful for everyone who helped us out. We spent a lot of time with family and ate Fantastic food prepared by the family!

Like the saying goes "When it rains... it pours"

I feel like since we got back from vacation last Saturday we have been flooded with unexpected problems. Really, it has only been 2 problems but still it's been a long and stressful week.



Rillz and I got back into town on Saturday and went to pick up our dogs from Kristis. Kristi and Jeff were kind enough to doggie sit while we were gone. We knew Kristi and Jeff were going out of town Thursday afternoon until Sunday. We were totally fine with our dogs being there with Diesel and no humans. They all get along really well. And Ren was going Friday to check on them anyways and give them food/water. Rillz got a text Friday saying Malu had lost 5 lbs. and looked really depressed. Not a huge shock to us because Malu is a very sensitive dog and always gets depressed so maybe she wasn't eating. Kristi said she was eating fine and hadn't noticed her losing any weight. Anyways, we go and check on them Saturday afternoon. Rillz and I walk in their backyard and are greeted to the excitement of Diesel and Simon. No Malu. We called for her and then thought she must have escaped some how. Soon after Malu came slowely out of the bushes and looked like just skin and bones.

She barely had any emotions and something was definitely wrong. Rillz and I took her to my parents and tried to feed her. She would not eat. We sat around for a couple hours to see if she would spring up a little. Eventually she started vomiting water and Rillz and I realized she needed to go to the vet. We took her right away and was told she has Parvo. She had lost 16 lbs. in 1 1/2 days. She was taken back into the hospital area and we were sent home. Malu stayed in there for 4 days. The whole time she barely ate one meatball. The Dr.s were worried to let her come home but thought she may do better at home because she is so sensitive. Plus, our bill was really starting to get expensive already. Rillz and I picked her up on Wednesday afternoon. She was feeling much better because her personality was back. She has eatin everything I have given her which has to be VERY bland foods. I have to give her pills every 8 hours and we even had to inject water into her... that part freaked me out a bit. Still looks like we haven't fed her in weeks but oh-well. I learned my lesson the expensive way. DOGGIE VACCINES ARE VERY IMPORTANT!!! This parvo virus is found EVERYWHERE! It can be tracked in your yard from anything and stay for years. So if you don't want to spend thousands on your dog make sure they are up to date on shots and get their boosters too.

Next thing, something is flooding parts of our front yard. It has been a slow flood though. On Monday I thought we had just over watered our lawn. Rillz turned the sprinkler system off on Tuesday and our lawn still had major puddles. Oh great. At our request our water is completely shut off. We think the sprinkler valve is broken. But, really we don't know. Ren has generously offered his time to come look at it today. In the mean time I have to use the bathroom but have to hold it until I go back to work in 1 1/2 hours. We really didn't need this issue after Malu's issues this week. At least I will work out tonight because we are planning on taking showers at the gym. Great idea huh!

This picture doesn't look that bad. Some water has been pumped out from the top and the sun has dryed it up too.

Luckely, Rillz and I are in good health and have food and a roof over our heads. I hope everyone else's week has gone better than ours :)

Thank goodness it's Friday!!