before, during and afters...

As I have mentioned before, this summer I made a list of things that I wanted to improve and do around the house, some easier than others. We (and by we I mean mostly Jim) have slowly but surely been making progress. Below are a few of the pictures I have for what we are currently working on. As soon as we are finished I will put them all together but for now here is what Jim is doing this week (and probably another week or two after that). We are putting in a little backyard patio and fire pit so the first step is digging up all the grass...

This is all that he dug up the first day.

good work babe, you deserve a beer and some golf today (like you didn't already have that planned)!

The other project currently going on is one we thankfully do not have to do ourselves. A lot of damage was done when the car rolled into the garage so today we are getting a new garage door. Here is the before (and I should have the after by the end of the day).

And here is the finished project of the garage...

ahhh one project down, so many more to go...stay tuned!

3 YEARS...

Yesterday Jim and I celebrated our 3 year anniversary. I cannot believe it has already been 3 years married and 5 together. Sometimes it feels like just yesterday when we were getting all dressed up and walking down that aisle together at St. Als. To celebrate we went out to The Wolf Lodge in CDA. Its one of our favorite places and one we don't get to go to very often so it was nice and definately worth the trip. I had steak and salmon and a loaded baked potato and a salad and Jim got steak and trout with a baked potato and salad oh yeah and we got deep fried mushrooms as an appetizer. I tried to take a picture of all the food on our table but I could not get one to fit everything. Needless to say we did not leave hungry, and we have lots of leftovers for dinner tonight, and probably tomorrow too :)

As I reflect back on these past few years with Jim the one thing I keep thinking to myself is thanks. I am so thankful to have such a loving, supportive, fun and all around amazing husband and I am even more thankful that he chose me to be his wife and continues to choose me every day. Below is a small sampling of all the things I am thankful for when it comes to being married to Jim:

~Thank you for being such a wonderful, caring, and respectful husband.
~Thank you for understanding my moods, emotions, illnesses, and for always taking care of me.
~Thank you for being such a good 'dad' to our dogs and for taking them for walks in the morning when I really don't want to.
~Thank you for being the 'chef' of the family, and not just assuming when we got married I would cook because I am female. You and I both know if I was in charge of food we would have cereal for the majority of our life.
~Thank you for loving my friends like they were your family. It is so nice to not have to worry about whether or not you like them and that you just accepted the fact that the come with the package that is me :)
~Thank you for enjoying my family and for understanding how important they are to me. And not getting upset when I call my mom for the same advice you just gave me :)
~Thank you for constantly being able to make me smile and laugh, even when I don't necessarily want to.Thank you for challenging me everyday and for making me a better person
~Thank you for always accepting and supporting me and my decisions even if they were not the same ones you would have made.
~Thank you for working as hard as you do, and doing all the extra things just so we can live more comfortably.
~Thank you for being my best friend
~Thank you for marrying me!

a few of my favorite things...

***I apologize now for the length of this post***

It should be noted that my Birthday is by far my favorite day of the year, and I know I should stop liking it so much now that I am getting older but I can't. Also, it should be noted that Jim hates his birthday (and pretty much thinks its pointless to celebrate it). My Birthday and our anniversary are only a couple weeks apart and Jim always stresses out about what to get me. I usually try to give him a one month warning and send him my wish list in advance so he has plenty of time to shop or plan, because I want to make it as simple as possible for him. Some of my list included small projects around the house I wanted to do and others included material things like shoes, clothes etc. Well, I am not quite sure what got into him this year but Jim went all out!

A couple days before my actual birthday he organized a surprise BBQ at our house after I got home from work. Or I should say he tried to organize~See my bday is a little tricky because its on July 3rd and usually for the most part all of our friends are out of town, at the lake, spending time with their family, etc. So it gets a little difficult to plan a party on the actual day...hence having it a few days early. Well, we had some people show up and a lot of others who couldn't quite make it but all in all it was a solid effort and I was quite impressed with the thought involved and the sneaky tactics of getting my phone and stealing all my numbers in it. After the BBQ I went with some friends to the movies where we saw Public Enemies with Johnny Depp. I would say it was a good move but not great, but the acting as always was phenomenal.

On my actual birthday I got off early from work (which really threw off Jim's plans for the day) and opened my present: My new Cardi Uggs which I have been wanting for a couple years now. So excited to get to wear them (however, not excited about the winter weather that will force me to wear them)! After opening my present we headed to Tonicx to soak up some sun, and a few beers before meeting up with Justin and Patty at Twigs for dinner. From there we headed to the new Piano Bar downtown. I had been there once before and thought it would be a fun new place to hang out for the evening. We had a great time and ran into quite a few other people we knew. If you have never been I highly recommend this bar: great atmosphere, great entertainment, and great drinks! :) For the 4th of July Jim and I head out to my Aunt's Lake place on Lake CDA, and just relaxed with my family, did some reading, tanning and swimming and all in all had a great weekend.

That covers my birthday but Jim's planning and scheming did not stop there. He still had our anniversary coming up which I must say he really blew me away with how much time, thought and effort he put into it. He called my boss to get me a day off work, called my girlfriends in Seattle, to see if we could stay one night with them, planned everything we were going to do while in town and to top it off surprised me with a super nice hotel room!

So Thursday night we road-tripped it to Seattle, where we met up and stayed with Fuller, Dawn and her brand spanking new fiance, Dave. Friday morning we woke up and Jim had a whole day at the Zoo planned. I cannot even convey how much I LOVE THE ZOO! Again I realize I should grow out of this faze at some point, but its never going to happen. I go to pretty much every zoo in whatever city I happen to be in. I know its pretty much the same animals everywhere but I don't care. I think part of what I love is seeing little kids reactions when they are there for the first time and get to see all the animals up close. I just love it, and Jim could totally do without it so it was sweet of him to take me. Here are a couple of the animals we saw that day

After the zoo, we walked to My brother Sean's house which is close by and hung out with him and his fiance, Teresa. From there Jim surprised me with a super nice hotel room at the Fairmont in downtown Seattle. Probably the nicest place I have ever stayed and it was a great location, however I do not think the concierge was too impressed with my answer when he asked if we had dinner reservations yet and I said "No I think we will probably find a dive bar to eat at on our way out tonight." Lets just say we are not their typical clientele but it was fun to pretend for a night.

After changing and relaxing for a bit in our room we started our walk to the south of downtown for the Mariners game that night. Seriously the guy covered all his bases on this trip. It was a good maybe 2 mile walk to the stadium and we did indeed stop at a bar to eat dinner on the way. The game itself was not so great as the M's lost but really there is not much better than watching a baseball game in the middle of summer at Safeco Field.

After the game we headed back to our fancy schmancy hotel where we tried to find a convenience store so we could get a couple beers and not pay out the ass for them but there was none to be found so we pretty much just went to bed after our very busy day.



Saturday we woke up bright and early and headed back down to the south of downtown, but not for another M's game...this time we were heading to Qwest field for a Sounders soccer game! These games are crazy intense fun! I don't actually remember a better time I have had at a sporting event. Seriously the crowd is so into it. Its only a 90 minute game (with a 30 minute half) so they go by super fast and they really are action packed. This might be a bold statement but I think I would go to one of these games over an M's game if I had to choose. It probably helped that we had amazing seats thanks to Sean, and that the Sounders won, but I am telling you, if you ever get the opportunity to see a game you have to go!

After the game we got back in the car and this time we were headed to Portland. One of Jim's old college roommates, Matt, just moved there and we have not seen him in over a year so we decided to go spend the night with them. We had a great time and lived it up like we did in college, although I remember recovering quicker back in the day than I do now. I did take pictures but I was told they were not allowed to be put up on facebook or the blog so lets just say drunken debauchery ensued on Saturday night, as it always does when these two get together:) Sunday morning we woke up and had some delish breakfast cooked by Matt, we layed around and watched a movie and then headed to Beaches Restaurant in Vancouver that Jim has been craving since we moved from there. It did not live up to his memories so we headed next door to McMennamin's Bar where I drank a few Blackthorn Ciders before I had to catch my flight back to Spokane that evening. This is where Jim capped off the trip.

I absolutely HATE the drive from Portland to Spokane. Its my nemesis. It feels like it should be so much shorter than it is, there is no scenery, and basically it just sucks. Jim knows this so to cap off the weekend he bought me a ticket home so I would not have to drive. He earned major bonus points for this but he does not think I see thru his other reasoning for doing this. He got to have another night in Portland with Matt, without me there so the real drunken debauchery could take place and he could go to the Nike employee store on his own and not have to worry about me buying a bunch of stuff. See after 3 years of marriage I have learned a thing or two :)

All in all it has been an absolutely amazing July but its not quite over yet. This weekend we have Jim's brother Joe's wedding which I am sure will be a lot of fun and will result in another post. Coming up in August we have our 2nd Annual McCollum, LaBelle, Snyder (or McLaSnyd if you will) camping trip up at Priest so I am very much looking forward to the next couple weeks. I hope everyone is enjoying thier summer as much as we are!

Pet Safety...

After a few incidents and lots of money spent on our lovely pups the past year and a half Jim and I finally invested in pet insurance. And of course since that time, we have not had to use it, which is for the best of course, but typical to say the least. I was skeptical of doing the pet insurance thing at first but after lots of research and talking to a few other friends who had it we decided to go for it. I was suprised at how easy it is and relatively inexpensive to cover both dogs (why cant regular people insurance be like this?). I would highly recommend it to anyone with cats or dogs that may not normally be able to afford an unexpected illness or surgery. With that said, I get a newsletter each month from my provider and there were a couple things I learned while reading through it today that I thought I would pass along to any of you pet lovers who read this. I Hope you find it helpful this summer!


All of these tips are brought to you by www.gopetplan.com (if you are interested about more details for pet insurance let me know, I would be happy to tell you my experience with it)

• Though many dogs enjoy a day at the shore, they can be exposed to a serious hazard that can see a day of frolicking in the sand ending up at the ER. The culprit? Sea water. Drinking sea water can lead to a dangerous sodium imbalance in dogs that in some cases can be fatal. So next time you take your dog to the beach, make sure you have plenty of fresh water for him to drink.

• In Case of a Pet Travel Emergency
  1.Making sure that you have your Vet's phone number with you.
  2.Locate an animal hospital at your destination, so you know where to go (just in case).
  3.Pack a pet first-aide kit. You can find these at your local petstore or online.
  4. Bring a photo of your pet, just in case they wonder off.

• Did you know that skin tumors in dogs occur up to 34 times more than in people?! So this summer, when outdoors, keep your dog in the shade and make sure to apply sunscreen. Dogs have more sensitive skin than humans, and thus do better with their own specially formulated pet sunscreen.

Busy Bees...

For those of you who know me, or Jim, you know that we both are very social people who love to be around our friends and family. Because of this we tend to be very busy in our spare time, whether its just going out for dinner and drinks or having BBQ's at Jim's parents house we usually always have something going on. The past couple of weekends have been no different...I have been to two bachelorette parties, one high school graduation party, hosted a bridal shower, gone to two weddings and spent Fathers Day at the McCollum's with both my and Jim's Family. Needless to say our weekends are not so much a time for relaxing, but I would not have it any other way. The coming weekend is no different with Hoopfest on the horizon so I wanted to share a couple things before then so I dont have too much to catch up on in my next post.

This is a pic of 3 of my favorite females on the planet. As if you could not tell they are all sisters, and I love them all like they were MY sisters. From left to right, Megan Kato, Kristen Kato and Kelsey Kato. It was Kelsey's Prom that Jim and I chaperoned about a month ago and I would have pictures up if any of these ladies would send them to me (hint, hint). It was also Kelsey's graduation party I went to a couple sundays ago. Congrats Kels, I love you and know you will do great things in the Future!!!

The following pics are of one of the two bachelorette parties I attended the past couple weeks. (I forgot my camera at the other one) This one is for Kit Lamanna. Kit is Jim's best friend, John Lamanna's little sister, and again like a little sister to Jim. I have gotten to know her and her amazing family over the years and I love them! Here is the Bride-to-be getting a drink before she bowls.

Here is Beth, Kit's sister and maid-of-honor and thier mom, Peggy Lamanna, at the bowling alley. Peggy was such a trooper, she even came to the bar with us for awhile.

This is one of all the Lamanna Ladies: Sara (John's wife), Beth, Peggy and Kit.

Here is the group that went bowling. This was such a good idea before heading to the bar. I am not sure who ended up winning but I do know for sure it was not me, but regardless we all had a great time there!

And this is where things start to go downhill...Lemon drops were our drink of choice that night and what went on after taking them I am not exactly sure...
But apparently it consisted of: Bull Riding

Barrell Racing

Jello Shots

And ended with us on stage singing and even playing the guitar with the band!

All in all we had a great time celebrating. Her wedding was this past weekend and was absolutely beautiful and the reception was just as much fun as the bachelorette party. I dont have all the pictures yet but here is one I stole from Beth's facebook page:

As I said, this weekend is looking to be as busy as the last few but I will try my best to take some photos at hoopfest and update you on how my friends play. It should be another great weekend in Spokane USA :)

I'm such a slackfest...

...when it comes to my blog, i know. Sorry for the delay and the lack of Cannon Beach Pics like I promised. I did get them up on my facebook the same week we got back I just have not put them up on here. But lets be honest if you are reading this you were A) in Cannon Beach with me, B) seen my facebook pictures c) seen pictures from one of the other girls who was with me, or D) your my husband and I am pretty sure I have also shown those to you :) But really if you want to see them you can check out Megan Snyders blog as she is a way better blogger than me and has them here: http://www.charliecoopersnyder.blogspot.com/

So apparently I only blog every couple months and therefore need to update on what has happened since my previous post. To be honest, not much, hence my lack of posts but I will give it a try. April and May were pretty dull around our house. I worked everyday and Jim taught and then coached JV baseball for Shadle Park H.S. Needless to say Jim and I did not see a whole heck of a lot of eachother. He had to be at school by 6:30 every morning to catch up on school work since he left school everyday at 3:15 for practice or games. His team did fairly well and Jim really likes coaching so hopefully they will have him back next year. That pretty much sums up April.

May has been an interesting month for us and I am thankful its almost over. Let me take you back to the first working day in May. This is how it started:
Beasley got super sick, and when i say sick i mean sick, everywhere. We were taking Bledsoe in to get fixed that day anyway so we called the vet and asked if we could bring Beasley in at the same time. Talk about an adventure. I had to get up at 6:30 to get both dogs ready to go by 7. Jim went with us because I do not think I could have gotten them both there in my little (stick shift) car without causing a major accident or having to take 2 trips. Snyder saw us outside the house getting ready to go...I'm sure he laughed at our rolling chaos. So we get to the vet and drop them both off without a lot of issues and they say they will call me when they are ready. Both dogs were ready to be picked up at lunch so I run up there to get them but remember I can only take one at a time (thank the lord we only live like a mile from the vet). So I take Bledsoe first thinking she will be easy and then I can run back and grab Beasley. Yep well Bledsoe decided to puke all over my car on the way home. She was not even the one with the illness, that was Beasley. So I get home try and clean my car of all the vomit and then go back to pick up Beasley. Then I decide I better ask the vet if its normal for dogs to puke after getting spayed so I had to wait another 10 min for the vet to come and answer that. (Just in case you are wondering, its not normal but I just had to watch her for the next day or so and she ended up being fine). So back in the car I go, with Beasley this time, who proceeds to bark and jump all over me as I am trying to navigate my way down Garland ave. We made it home and into thier kennels but my car REEKED like vomit and I was about 15 minutes late getting back to work; thank God I have such an understanding boss in Bobby :)

So that was how my month started and this is how my month ended: Back at the vet again with both dogs. Bledsoe had to get her stitches out and Beasley was sick and throwing up again. There is good news and bad news to this story. The good news is I did not end up with puke in my car, the bad news is that instead I ended up with a dent in my car and a hole in my garage. Its a long story but lets just say that when parking a manual make sure the e-brake is fully on before hopping out of your car to chase your dog :) Lesson learned!

Nice I know. Thank the Lord again that my father-in-law is such a handy man and can help patch up the garage until we decide to move and have to make it look pretty again. The car looks worse than it actually is, all the white is just paint that can be buffed out and the dent is only in the plastic part of my car so eventually that too can just be popped out.

Well, as sad as it is that I just summed up my last two months in the past 4 paragraphs there really is not much else to say. Jim is currently in Washington, D.C chaperoning the 8th grade trip, so the next post should contain some pics from that as well as the Prom we both chaperoned the night before he left. I hope you all are out enjoying the beautiful sun we have been getting, dont forget the sunscreen!!! :)

Catching up...

I know, I know its been a long time since I have posted. I am not very good at writing about the day to day monotony of our lives; to be honest not much has happened but I will try to summarize the last couple months' highlights starting back in February/early January:

The end of January, probably right around the last time I posted anything, I was just about to start my new job. I am now working at Bellevue Healthcare. It is a medical supply company that works mainly with Hospice patients. We supply them with equipment for their homes and my job is to keep track of all the equipment going out and coming back in. There is a lot to learn and I am starting to understand, but it is a slow process; or maybe I am just the slow one. either way I really enjoy it and I really like the people I work with.

Also around that same time I got a call from my recently married sister and she informed me I am going to be an aunt! I could not be more excited, for them, and selfishly for myself. Now I am already an aunt to 4 wonderful kids (Riley, Erin, Lucy and Gabe) on Jim's side of the family but this will be the first time one of my siblings is having a baby and I will actually be blood related. Sheila is due in September and already has a little bump. If she says its ok I will post a picture for you. I really cant wait till she has him or her; partially so I can practice some parenting on them without having to actually do any of the hard work (or labor!). My hope is to become the favorite aunt who spoils them rotten and then sends them home to their parents (I'm of course kidding Sheila-relax). I will keep you updated on the little ones arrival as it gets a closer to her due date.

Until then here is another picture from their wedding day taken by Ryan Lindberg.

So that was the two big things for January...In February Jim and I celebrated Valentines Day like any romantic couple does...we went to Pullman for a basketball game :) Terry made fun of Jim saying he is the luckiest guy in the world because all his wife wanted was to go to their college town drink and watch a game. I would say we are both pretty lucky to have someone to share our cougar passion with. We did squeeze some romance in by going down to Lewiston to the restaurant we went to when we were first dating and we stayed in a hotel while we were there. We also toured the new CUB (which is amazing) and did some shopping at the new bookie (also amazing). All in all it was a great way to celebrate. Below are a few pics from the weekend (can you believe I actually remembered a camera?)

starting the morning off right with beer and trivia at my office :)

The new bar in the CUB! Over 40 beers on tap...I think you know where you can find me on Cougar football Saturdays :)

A pic from outside the Bookie

Let's go COOOOUUUUGGGGSSS!!!

I know what you are thinking the cougs were not that great this year but I'm ok with that. They definitely showed they can hang with the big boys towards the end of the season, and I predict big things next year...perhaps even a big dance.

The end of the month was probably more my real valentines present...Jim took me to go see Brad Paisley at the arena. Its a funny story because back around October I told Jim I really wanted to see Brad live and how bummed I was I missed it a couple years ago. Jim promised if he came we would go. Literally about 5 days later we were driving past the arena and on the marketing board outside it said Brad was coming in February. Of course Jim thought the whole thing was a set up but I swear I had no idea. Needless to say Jim held up his end of the bargain and we went and had a fabulous time, even Jim, who is not the world's biggest country fan, thought Brad put on an awesome show.

Our seats were not as close as these look but apparently my camera has awesome zoom capabilities (I would probably know this if I used it a bit more, huh?)

That brings us to March. Not a whole lot has been going on so far this month. Jim has been extremely busy as he is now the head coach for the JV baseball team at Shadle which kinda leaves me to my own devices. So I have caught up on all my DVR'd shows and I'm trying to keep the house clean and the dogs entertained. Beasley and Bledsoe are doing great and I am happy to say I think our plan has worked. Beasley is much calmer now that she has Bledsoe to wrestle around and release some energy with. I am not saying she is a perfect angel by any means, lets be honest this is Beasley we are talking about, but she is doing much better and loves her little sister, very much :)

Notice there are not two pics of them together. It's absolutely impossible to get them to sit still long enough to take a picture so these will have to do. This one of Bledsoe is from early on when we first got her. She is bigger than this now but not a whole lot.

Beasley with her bone...this is about take 254 because she is a hard one to make sit in one spot for too long...unless she is of course laying on top of you.

This past weekend I got to go visit Shanna, one of the best people I met from college. She lives in the tri-cities and we do not see each other nearly enough. I love her to death and it was so great to catch up. Of course I did not have my camera with me (I am such a slacker) but hopefully this old school pic from college graduation weekend will sum up our friendship for you :)

That pretty much gets us to where we are today, except I left out St. Patrick's Day. I did not have my camera with me (yet again!) but I do have video on my phone that I am going to try and figure out how to upload. Once I do I promise to write about that night as well. If anyone knows how to get video from a phone to here let me know! I am headed off to Cannon Beach for a much needed girls weekend getaway and I promise to bring my camera and actually take pictures with it this time and do a post fairly soon after so I am not writing a novel next time on here. SoI think that's it from me, time for me to wrap it up...just one last thing before I do...

...if you have made it this far you should know i wrote this whole thing while sitting in my freezing basement, but i was not cold...you know why??? Because I had my SNUGGIE on to keep me warm the whole time! ha ha, thanks again Bob :)

SERIOUSLY...I LOVE THIS THING!!! :)