YAY BIRTHDAY!!

Today is Rylan's birthday! Well... at least it is in the US and since that's where I am I say today HAPPY BIRTHDAY TO RYLAN! In honor of my brother I decided not to post pictures of him but of his passion and love

CATS! So without further ado, here are my kitties celebrating Rylan's birthday (when it actually was his birthday in Korea, I took all of these yesterday) in their regular fashion... which is running around, climbing on things, fighting each other and generally being cute.


Ruckus is ADORABLE isn't he?




















I don't know what was so fascinating to Peanut Butter (right) but it freaked Polar Bear out.






Ninja's eyes never do the red eye thing, just blue. Isn't it pretty?


Polar Bear on the attack!

Assessing the morning

Being woken up at 5:30, not so good.

Being woken up by noisy yet adorable kittens, not so bad.

Discovering a bug bite on the palm of my hand, really annoying.

Camp

This week I have been blessed to be able to go out to Solid Rock Camp in Tenino, WA with my church. I've been hanging out with the day campers and havin a blast. Not being in charge of anything and most of the time not even really knowing what's going on I almost feel like an extra wheel but my heart is really just to be there and available to help with whatever so it's been good. It's been a major blessing in my life right now, being able to get some exercise and hang out with cool people and just being part of a camp is super fun. I took a couple pictures of where my map ended up so you guys could see the final product.













Unfortunately I didn't get my camera out until right before I left today and the pavilion was inbetween things so there are tables up and also at some point yesterday I think the light sheer fabric that you see hanging down between the map and the screen was stapled above the screen. I don't know if it was in the way or if the wind knocked it off, it may have even been the older kids, oh well. Check it out.

woah

I just noticed guys... less than 100 days until Rowan's due date.

Infuriating

Hokay, so... I'm working on some artwork for a camp that my church is doing next week. This is just a piece of art that will hang in the meeting area where the kids will hear the lessons I'm guessing. Anyway the theme of the camp is treasure quest and the theme verse is Matthew 6:21 "For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also." So I was asked to draw some sort of map. I wanted to incorporate as much of the actual lessons as possible so I asked about what they were talking about and I found out that there will be five points taught over the week so I named little places on my island map and so far it's turned out pretty good.

EXCEPT my glaring mistake :P well... it maybe it's not that bad but it certainly glares at me.


Observe, if you will, the top right corner where in a moment of prideful arrogance I did not practice how big to make the letters with a pencil (which is almost invisible) and I ran the e of purpose into the outline of the island. The infuriating part is that I had SO much room in that corner to write! And this is all permanent marker so there's no going back. *sigh* I am disappointed in myself...

Of course I know it's not a big deal and it's supposed to look almost like a kid drew it so it's ok that it's not "perfect". Also we're planning to "age" it anyway so it's going to get paint all over it to make it look dirty and old. Tell me honestly though, are the crowded up letters above a huge space of nothingness distracting? I'm distracted, the composition is off! The balance is in shambles! I'm also a hungry and pregnant perfectionist....

Boys and Girls

Hokay so, we've got three boys and two girls. As of right now, if you include Rowan the boys are one up on the girls in numbers. Current totals are five girls (four cats and me) and six boys (three cats, Max, Terrance the turtle and Rowan) but Chaos has yet to reveal her hand so who knows, we just may pull ahead on this one.




Alrighty, this is Polar Bear he's a boy.

and a cutie :)

Here are Norman (left), Peanut Butter (right) and of course Max (far right).

Norman is a boy and Peanut's a girl.

This cutie baby is Ruckus, he's a boy and was sitting there staring at me as I took pictures of everyone else. The most adorable thing was since they're still just a bit unsteady on their feet he was rocking back and forth just a little, soooo cute!



Then there's ninja, the other girl baby kitty, she is the most active little bugger of them all.
As I was taking pictures sitting in the hall she was all over checkin out my belly, wandering a bit and puffing herself up at Max which was cute and hilarious at the same time because Max is pretty much scared of the kittens.


















I don't think he knows what they are or what to do with them, if they start coming near him he starts looking around nervously and eventually runs away. Mostly the kittens just stare at him, Ninja was trying to hiss last night but she's not very loud or intimidating... or at least I didn't think so, Max was petrified.

Cute and fun

Here they is! Five little kitties.

We don't know yet which are boys and which are girls but we named them anyway because they're just so darn cute how could we not? The one sitting up the tallest is Norman (after Norman Schwarzkopf, because its splotches of tan reminded Logan of desert cammo), Little Ninja is the black one looking sleepily at the camera, the other black one is actually black and white and looks a lot like Havoc and Chaos so we call it Ruckus. The other two look so much alike that I can't tell in this picture which is which, Polar Bear is one of them and has a little black spot on its nose and we call the other one Peanut Butter. Those two look like they'll be either mostly white or mostly tan, we'll just have to wait and see.



Here is Max with our new neighbor, we don't know his or her name yet but it looks like a young golden retriever. It didn't take too long for Max to start to try and teach the run-up-and-down-the-fence game he so enjoyed with his little white buddy who moved away. I have to say this bigger dog isn't as good at it though, instead of racing endlessly up and down it'll follow Max for a bit and then lope back into its own yard. It's pretty amusing to watch Max's little legs pounding away while is new loftier friend bounds along the other side.

'Twas grand

Here are some pictures of the adventure Logan and I had last weekend. We headed south "behind" (to the east of) Mount St. Helens to the Columbia gorge, it was a beautiful day.
This first shot is somewhere between Rainier and Helens, I don't recall where exactly.















We stopped for lunch at a boat launch on the northwest corner of Riffe lake.


















And here's St Helens from the west, it was so so pretty.

Logan took this flowery shot :) isn't it awesome?

When we got to the gorge we realized that is was Saturday and the great weather meant the old road with all the waterfalls was CRAZY busy so we only stopped at one (Bridal veil). That was special to me because it was one of the places we went on our honeymoon. And, of course, it was majestic and beautiful :D









Then we slept at Dad and Mom's house and headed home Sunday to see our kitties! Their eyes are opening up a bit more but I haven't taken a lot of pictures because I feel mean making flashes at them while they are just starting to see. Perhaps in a few more days (after Havoc stops moving them around) I'll take some so you can see how cute they are.

Say hello to Rowan!

Here he is, our little boy :)

I never did get around to scanning anything so they're just pictures of the pictures but they look alright.


If you can't quite make that one out it says "right foot" and his toes are to the left. He was squirming around so it looks like he's got about nine toes. Silly baby.

And here's his face shot, we had one other one that looked like he was pouting, I think it was because the ultrasound lady was shaking him around (he wasn't the most cooperative lad at times)

It was pretty cool to feel him moving and see him moving at the same time :) I think he's ADORABLE.

Tune in next time for the kitten adventures! Havoc gave birth to five little ones between Friday afternoon and Saturday evening I think they're pretty cute but not up to much yet. I'll update with pictures and everything once Chaos has hers. That's right they both got pregnant at the same time, I guess it's just a sister thing, eh Joylynn? The vet said we should have our second litter sometime this week or next. Max is so funny, I'm not sure he knows what to make of Havoc's babies he gets really concerned when they all start mewing at Havoc for milk and when he gets a chance to see them he stares but won't come very close. At least he isn't having kittens... I think that'd be one too many litters for me... not to mention creepy...

Yay hooray!

We had our ultrasound today and although at times our little one was a bit reluctant to cooperate we saw what we wanted to see :) arms, legs, hands, feet, face and all those other important bits. I haven't scanned anything yet so no pictures yet but I will. And since I know you're all wondering (if I didn't already tell you)

It's a boy!! :D

Ticker!

Thanks Linds! I went out and got myself a shiny new ticker! I'm trying to get it on here... If you don't see it hopefully sometime soon it will be over there on the right side of the screen with a cute little blue elephant in some grass. It wasn't exactly what I wanted to do but I don't know how to do HTML so I went with my second really cute choice. I'm glad I got the tip on where to find one of those because I wanted one but had only seen one website that had them and I didn't like any of them.

Anyway I hope you can see my new elephant countdown to our due date (Oct. 27th) and that my blog isn't stark white when you look at it, I tried also to add pretty colors. I guess we'll see if blogger is my friend or not...

good word

Besmirched has got to be one of the funniest words ever right now, I can't say it without at least smiling, it just sounds funny.

You'd be amused too if you could see me, sitting on my couch with the laptop muttering "besmirched" over and over and laughing to myself. I should probably be doing something productive...

Mice can't talk and they aren't my friends

My cats are great, they hunt and catch mice and moles... unfortunately my cats also think we'll be very impressed if they bring them inside and leave them laying around. We got home Sunday evening after running around a bit and settled in to watch our rented movie that's when we found two dead mice looking things (maybe moles?) under the coffee table! Fortunately Logan is big and brave and he threw them out and didn't even tease me for being really girly about it. Isn't he great?

The next morning we woke up to scratching noises in the corner of the bedroom which turned out to be Chaos. She had a live mouse in our room and she was playing with it! Logan threw it out the window. It wasn't moving much so he put on a glove and took care of it... and by that I mean he threw it against a tree. Later in the yard we found another dead small critter and also one in the bottom of the trash can (Gross eh? I think maybe it was just hiding from the cats.)

The WORST though was last night when I was walking to the bedroom and I saw Chaos calmly walking across the hall with a small animal in her mouth! I guessed a squirrel but when Logan went to check it out it turned out to be a little rabbit. It was pretty messed up and I wanted to just shoot it to put it out of its misery but we aren't really supposed to be shooting things in the city (even if it makes sense and isn't cruel) so Logan just put it back in the woods to die. I felt bad but I can understand not wanting to try and kill it with a shovel or something.

If my cats want to kill mice and moles I am all for it and we praise them for it... unless they bring them in the house. But catching a bunny just seems a little intense for a little cat to pull off... maybe she thinks she's a cougar or something.

The annoying thing to me is that I feel like I used to be a lot braver before I was pregnant. The cats at my parents' house used to kill things and I'd just grab a shovel and fling them off into the corner of the yard or whatever but now I don't even want to look at them. It's weird... maybe some psychological safeguard against any diseases I can get from handling dead things?

Oh! And we found out there are bats hiding behind our gutter and they don't like the heat from a grill. At least that solves the mystery of the weird droppings on the lid of the barbecue.

SOMETHING GOOD!!!

It's my Dad's birthday!!! Happy Birthday to my Dad!

Boo Cherise's impatience with my frequency of posting... Hooray Dad!

Something good?

Um... last night I watched Sabrina with my dad and my sister Cherise? Mom and Dad caught the basement squirrel? Logan built our bench? I just ate a cucumber?

Come on yourself Cherise... what do you want?

Mom... Courtney put real strawberries in my life!

The quote of the day! Cameron whined it this morning when without his consent, Courtney unceremoniously plopped slices and pieces of actual (not dried or candy) strawberries into his life cereal. Listening to the complaint from the other room before knowing what had happened was quite amusing.

I've been visiting my parents for a bit while Logan has been away at mountain warfare school. It's been a fun trip. I went out with Courtney today to practice driving which turned out to be less stressful than it may seem. We drove 'round and 'round the parking lots out at Jantzen Beach and only frustrated one motorist (who was driving like an idiot anyway) by driving a bit slow. All in all a good lesson we decided.

Yesterday I had an OB appointment which my mom accompanied me to. We drove my car from Portland up to Ft. Lewis and back, I was glad to have some company on the trip and she got to hear the baby's heartbeat! It was moving around a bit this time but we manage to catch up with it :) the growth of the baby and all that is just right but apparently I need to gain more weight. It's weird for me to get used to pregnant eating habits, I think I've been stuck in a pre-pregnancy mindset. Which is not the best when there is a small person inside of you who pretty much gets dibs on all the nutrients. The doctor was a good one and I think that her advice will really help me get on track with getting my body where it needs to be.

I'm super excited also because I just scheduled my ultrasound :D June 19th we should be able to find out if we'll be having a girl or a boy. Cross your fingers that the baby cooperates for us ;) I'm off to eat (good and healthy food of course) because that's what the doctor ordered!

a few more pictures

New car! yay!

Gas tank on the right ;)


roundy and cute, simple radio and a red button that I like to think would transform my car into a battle robot if the situation called for it. Though a small, cute battle robot won't be very intimidating... oh well, that'll be the enemy's downfall.

Fancy shifter eh? I only almost turned on the windshield wipers instead of shifting a couple times.

More roundy, manual locks, windows and a crazy little handle (the black circle).

There you go! All the pictures I told you I'd post

finally

PICTURES!!!

Here is our tree, it looks a little squirrelly but it's fun. The flowers are great anyway :)



Logan and one of his buddies worked for a few hours on the new laminate floor yesterday. I love it! Once we get the last bit in, in the closet and in the doorway, and the trim back on it's going to be amazing :D




car pictures after I get back from picking Logan up, gotta run.

Update

*see original post below*

I found the cord, now the camera is MIA. Maybe tonight, after I can ask Logan if he knows where it is, I'll be able to put some pictures on here. Right now I've got errands. I'm out.

Happy high five day!

According to the Northwest Cable News channel today is "high five day"

The best part of today, so far, is that I got to high five the news guy. He put his hand up towards the camera and I put mine up too :) Long distance high fives are great!

So make sure you high five someone today, of course if you come across this news too late I'm sure belated high fives are always welcome.


... I also tried to high five my baby but seeing as I can't feel him/her yet I may have just smacked them in the head. Sorry baby...

hooray baby

Logan got to come with me to my first appointment today. It was all good news, the massive amounts of blood they took from me last time determined that I am healthy and that I am blood type AB positive, a rare type I'm told. Everything is the right size and looking good

AAAND

we got to hear the baby's heartbeat! :D That was exciting for us. It was really quick (160) but the midwife said that is just the way it's supposed to be with teeny babies. She said it was like a little bird, which I thought was pretty cute :) but I am pregnant and prone to sappy. No ultrasound this early, we're only about 12 weeks along, that will come in June :D yay.

I must have taken a wrong turn in Albuquerque...

I feel like I've been lost when it comes to blogging for that last long while. Our wireless internet went down, quite literally, I think one or both of our cats knocked the router from its perch atop the computer box. Logan smartly pointed out they were probably just trying to get warm, this revelation surely saved the kittens from a sound verbal lashing from me, how can you be mad at a little kitty for curling up somewhere warm?

This is the only conclusion I have drawn for our wireless router box has ceased its faithful functioning. Haha, I'm using fancy writing tonight. I think it's because I am subconsciously inspired to write better when I read good writing and tonight I read a short story written by Logan's mum which was wonderful :) If any of you can get your hands on a copy of a book called Chick Ink, a collection of short stories about women and their tattoos, be sure to read the one called Brothers in Arms. It's really neat :)

And now an important announcement:
For those who are finding out by reading this or heard through the grapevine, I am sorry, I wish I were able to travel all around and tell everyone in person. Of course, with regards to modern communication, I wish I were more inclined to use the telephone, cursed contraptions.... I'd say I am pretty good at chatting with my Mom and with Logan if we are apart but able to phone and perhaps my older sisters, but that's about it. It's a real stretch for me to call people up and talk, even with news as life changing as I have now. (So if I have ever chatted away with you on the phone for any length of time you're either so good at phone talking that you made me good or you should count yourself blessed because I really am horrible at phoning.) Anyone who hasn't heard has probably guessed by now that my big news, well... OUR big news (Logan's and mine) is that we are pregnant. :D :D :D :D :D Huzzah!

I haven't had any appointment with a doctor yet but I am off to the Army hospital on post to meet with a nurse to get all my paperwork and necessary blood work out of the way this Wednesday. We're about ten weeks along right now. So far I've been tired quite a bit, eating many small meals throughout the day, I've felt nauseous from time to time but haven't thrown up and I only almost fainted once. Apart from that I've been a bit moodier and my blood sugar levels seem to drop quicker. I would be most grateful, as would Logan I'm sure, for a healthy dose of prayer for patience and grace over the Godsiff home ;)

Again, I apologize for not being the messenger I feel I should be, hopefully this post reaches all those I didn't get to.
To all our friends and family I hope that you know you're in our hearts and thoughts and I hope that we will get to visit with all of you before our baby goes off to college ;) I'll try, now that the big news is out, to update this blog-thing more often, I'll also try to find our camera (which is MIA at the moment). Perhaps Cherise will post a couple pictures of the landscaping, eh? Cherise? She was here a couple weeks ago and took some nice shots of the yard. I guess we'll have to see if she can get a moment to do that between papers...

Until next time; stay clean, stay green and stray often. Goodnight.

Hooray landscapers!

Guess what! my yard doesn't look ignored!

We had a full house this weekend, Logan's parents and grandparents came to visit as well as Logan's older brother and his wife and our friends from Idaho :D It was all great fun. The guys landscaped our front yard, chopped down trees and put in lights to shine on the apple tree. Meanwhile the girls were busy helping me figure out how best to transform my apartment-like house into more of a home. I love houses with character, especially older ones. Unfortunately mine was built the 80s and to me it looks really boring and blank, the white walls and greyish carpets make me wish we had a lot of money so I could remodel the entire place. Luckily my family and friends are really good at helping me think of colors and game plans that don't envolve winning the lottery. Now I have a gallon of paint and a great starting place for our own extreme home makeover. :D

Sorry there aren't any pictures on this post. Logan took our camera to work so we didn't have it this weekend. Hopefully we'll remember to get it back soon so you all can see the wonderful work everyone did :D it's really great.

Lucky me

I have been reminded that I get to pick up Clyde today.

For those of you enticed to read on by my leading title and opening sentence I hope you're not too grossed out. Clyde was once some sort of wild ram, I'm not sure which but he has curly horns and rectangle irises. Now he hangs on the wall in the barracks where Logan works, or at least his head does, that is until around last Friday when someone rushed by a little too close with an enormous armload and he fell down. Luckily Clyde is well loved and we got him into Roger the taxidermist to be fixed.

Now I get to go pick him up since he's all better. Some of you would probably be a bit squeamish if you had to even look at let alone hold Clyde the ram head. To be honest that part doesn't bug me. The part that kinda creeps me out is having to go into the taxidermist's little shack of a business. It looks small and crowded inside and apparently the smell of the glue is a bit overpowering. When Logan came out after only being inside long enough to drop Clyde off he said he felt just a little bit dizzy and that Roger must be high as a kite. Anyway, small places that make you dizzy are definitely not on my list of fun destinations. However as I said Clyde is well loved and I will go, quickly as I can, this afternoon to rescue him from the dizzying confines of Roger's Taxidermy.

You guys are weird.... I love you :D

As I scrolled through the seemingly endless comments on my last few posts I thought of just how nuts my older siblings are

(Now I know Joylynn didn't comment but I know that if she had there would have been more than a couple of eyebrows raised in utter confusion.)

and I smiled.

I am proud to call you family, you three.
You guys have taught me many things. From the taste of trees to the cheat codes on doom, karate moves and a love of Tenchi Muyo to how to lip sync in ridiculous costumes to great songs and not make the CD player skip when you dance like a fool *sigh* good times. We've spent many an hour confusing the crap out of everyone around us and laughing hysterically at their bewildered faces. And so, in honor of floral fresh fish and Mom's face when she saw the snowman throw hung over the mantel held up by her Finnish glass candle holders as we happily sang Frosty the Snowman here you are...

literally.

what? huh? ... sorry, I wasn't listening

Ya know how when you're really tired you can be talking with someone but suddenly you realize you're staring off into space and you don't know what the crap they just said or when it was exactly that you stopped listening?

I feel like that.

Sorry I didn't answer your comment questions guys. Yes I have fast internet zoom zoom, we just got earthlink installed last week. It's pretty great so far :) I guess we'll see how it works out.

didja ever notice?

You never worry that you'll drop the sweater you're turning right-side out to wear until you turn it right-side out over a bucket of paint water.

holy cow, it's been a while

sorry guys, dial up has become my nemesis as it won't stay connected for longer than an hour (which is about how long it takes to visit two or three sites). So my blog has been more or less abandoned. Don't worry too much though, we're planning to get faster internet in not too long. Right now Logan and I are hanging out at his grandparents house up in Anacortes. They have fast internet :) i'm tired and my mind is bllllaaaaaaagh.......i'll write more later.

More to imagine

I have more decorations up now! (No more than the last time I talked to you Mom, but I haven't talked to everyone since I put them up) Realistic looking garlands around the top of my front door and my kitchen door on the inside with lights, snowflakes and red and green Christmas balls.

I looped another garland along my ceiling between my dining and living rooms that also has lights, snowflakes and a few small Christmas balls. It isn't realistic looking but it does have sparkley bits and I put wonderful green jingle balls on it. Jingle balls are like jingle bells of course, just bigger.

I also found my angel and my little skating penguin. All the decorations I've gotten to far, except the lights around the inside of my front door, are from my parents. Hooray for Mom and Dad! Now I have a jolly holiday house :D Hopefully I'll find the cord that lets me put pictures on my computer soon so that all you guys can see it too.

On a less Christmassy note, I decided yesterday that if I was a vandal then I would paint on a sign by the Shopko down the road. It was a pedestrian crossing sign that said "Watch for" with a picture of that little walking guy and a bicycle. Which I understood to say "watch for bicycles chasing people" (*smirk* obviously, right?). So I figured, should I become a hoodlum, I would paint devil horns and a tail on the bike and scared lines by the man's head. That way the intended warning would be more straightforward. It would also be more obvious that enchanted, unmanned bicycles are dangerous creatures and should be feared.

I would also paint on the arrow tree near the 512 on-ramp right by Denny's in Parkland. The silly thing is on a two lane, two-way road and points left, right and forward which just cracks me up. I guess the guys who paint on the streets were bored or had a bit of extra paint they needed to use up. I would paint another triangle on the bottom to make an arrow pointing backwards and then write the word "ONLY"


hehehe, only...

it's been a month... only two more weeks

I miss Logan tonight, I hate when I can't remember vividly what it feels like to kiss Logan. That's one of the worst things about him being gone so long. That and I miss talking to him, I got to chat with my father in law yesterday and as much as I love our all too infrequent phone chats I felt sad because Logan and his dad sound so much alike. It made me think about how much I miss Logan's voice *sigh*. Ha ha, I'm so melodramatic. I can get pretty ridiculous when Logan is gone. I really have to keep my head and my sense of humor or these times suck more than usual, which is pretty bad.

Ah well, a deep breath, a few fruit snacks, and a glass apple juice and I'll be right as rain *gasp* I may even have a string cheese in the fridge! Thank you, my friends and family, for being so great, supportive and available to lend wisdom and insight (even if it's just about Christmas lights and carpet pads) Logan and I wouldn't be able to survive the army if we didn't have you. We love you all :)

Christmas is coming...

I put my outside lights up yesterday, I'll have to try and get a good picture to put up here. Until then just imagine the most beautiful string of white lights, a few blinking, many shining brightly for all to see and four burnt out but moved around so that they don't look weird that you've ever seen on my new house. Just be sure to imagine them strung along the gutter and half the fence on the left side of the house when you're standing in the street looking towards the house... oh, be sure to imagine that you're watching for cars too.

My pets are so cute. They hopped up onto the couch with me and curled into little fuzzy sleeping balls of cuteness. I'm feeling a bit sleepy myself but I'm too busy playing with my new and fancy dial up internet :D it's not the fastest thing ever in my life but it's internet and it's 10 bucks a month (yay) so it's pretty great.

Now I just need to get a garbage can and figure out how to make Chaos stop trying to attack the cursor because she keeps stepping on the keyboard.

But first!! Spuuumoniiii!! mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm

futile effort

hokay so... I was going to do a post but I'm just too tired so y'all will have to wait until tomorrow.

Hey, I can be southern if I want :P shoot me if it makes you mad ...... but not in a vital organ ok? Maybe the foot... or a toenail... I mean if you HAVE to shoot me, those would be acceptable places.... I guess. Of course if you do you'll have to be prepared for the wrath of Logan which I don't even want to think about because it would be swift and terrible. So maybe if you're mad you should not shoot me... the more I think about that the more I realize how stupid it is, just get over it.



oh, Joylynn just so you know I mean swift as in deadly fast, not cool.


I guess it wasn't such a futile effort, at least this is a post... not informative in the least but this isn't a bulletin board it's a blog. How could anything called "blog" be that serious, really....

I am adventurous

Adventures on which I am to embark soon:

• vacationing in Portland awaiting house vacancy
• turning 21
• moving into our first house
• having kittens and a puppy
• job hunting

Adventures on which I am embarked:

• having Logan at school in Georgia
• moving out of my first living place away from home

More adventures to which I look forward with great excitement and anticipation:

• making my house mine with paint and decorating and all that fun stuff!
• Logan coming home for Christmas!!!!!

Hi guys

I bet you're all wondering what wonderful adventures I've been up to and why I haven't posted... or maybe you just assume that I am busy, that I have a life... hehehe, a life...

Well I'm not all that busy, unless you count preparing to move as busy. I guess I don't really because it's just one thing with a bunch of parts. I'm sure I'll feel crazy busy tomorrow and Sunday when we're actually physically moving everything out of the apartment. Then not busy because I'll be in Portland (yay!) then busy again in a week and a half or perhaps two weeks when we (being myself and whoever of my family and friends is free and willing to help) move everything into the house.

As for now I'm just sitting at home, about to maybe heat up left over Safeway soup from the fridge, and being really frustrated with this U Haul business. It's actually a great deal it's just that when someone from "my local" uhaul place called me this afternoon I forgot to ask which one they were and they didn't say :P so we know we have a trailer rented at a uhaul somewhere in or around Tacoma we just don't know where to go. On top of that we don't even know if we can get a hold of anyone this late. I found a number to call... I'm on hold... I've decided that voices that sound like an attempt to soothe any frustrated customers most likely only antagonize them to hang up or else be very angry once they do connect with a human being. They say things about how they're doing everything they can to get to your call as fast as they can, and that you'll be helped in no time and amazing flying ninja cats and turtles are racing through the streets of Tokyo helping everyone who called before you to make sure you can talk to someone soon!!! well maybe not the last bit exactly....

Hokay! I talked to someone! I talked to a national person (I guess) and they told me which uhaul I was supposed to get my trailer from. So I called Logan, who was about 25 minutes away (in good traffic) and he said he and his buddies would leave right away. I called the place just to make sure they'd be good to head over there and the faithful employee (who, by the way, didn't sound all too sure of himself but I'd like to think that he is a faithful and dutiful employee) said, "that isn't 'till tomorrow" :P but when I talked to the lady this afternoon SHE said I could pick it up today and she'd give me an extra day free! Alas, the proud U-haul employee informed me that they shut down outside operations at quarter 'till. So I guess we'll get it tomorrow...

In the mean time adventures shall ensue!! A couple of Logan's buddies are hanging out at our apartment tonight (fun!) and at midnight Logan and I are going to drive to the airport to pick up yet ANOTHER buddy! Why are we gallivanting around so late the night before we embark on a weekend of moving? You may ask... this may just be the flying ninja cats and turtles talking but it's be good times.

And that's just the way things go! In Taaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaacoma!

oh, one more thing. An update on Max, the poor little guy is hiding underneath the couch, he got neutered today (we have impeccable timing eh?) He'll probably just chill under a table or chair somewhere while everything is going on tomorrow. I'm not quite sure...

Adventures

Okay Mom, here's the whole grand tale.

On Sunday Logan and I were heading home from our weekend trip to Portland, everything seemed to be in order but something went wrong. Clearly, the title wouldn't be "adventures" if we just went home and drank juice. The first bit of irrationally dumb obstacles we encountered was the fact that I-5 was closed from SR 500 to the onramp from I-205. What compounded the madness was that when we were kicked off of I-5 (which I actually didn't believe would happen, I was sure that it was a mistake and that they certainly wouldn't close I-5 on a Sunday... but they certainly would) we didn't know where to go to keep going north! So we called my dad and he told us where to go. Of course just before we got onto 205 we saw a sign that told us people who were trying to go north on I-5 could get there on I-205... why there weren't ANY signs like that on or near I-5 we couldn't guess.

We finally got going where we wanted to be going all along, north. We stopped at a rest area for coffee and the obvious. But when we started out the truck made terrible noises. It was kind of like a clunk, but not a normal clunk, it was like a clunk on steroids, with super powers trying to rip off our front axel... but only when we turned the wheel. Nothing was obviously wrong, which was extremely frustrating. So we called parents for advise and Logan looked under and around the truck but we couldn't figure out what the crap was wrong so we called for a tow.

The rest area was just about exit 54, nearly halfway home. Unfortunately, the closest tow company Logan's insurance found for us was in Longview. So after waiting for an hour or so the tow guy got there and took us back to around exit 36. Grrr... at least the tow guy was cool, Max went from barking at him when he first picked us up to standing on his lap trying to look out his window, it was funny. When we got to the Midas that we'd be told about by the insurance company it was closed, luckily they had a early drop off thing with envelopes to put your keys in so we put our key in and shoved it under the door (we couldn't find a mail slot). Then we called around to try and figure out how we were going to get home. After messing with the truck some more and just kind of sitting around in Longview we got a hold of my Mom. She came up and after some debate we finally decided to head north, she drove us to Centralia I think we got off around exit 82 (after getting stuck in heavy traffic due to an accident :P) and were met by one of Logan's buddies. We went to Fort Lewis and borrowed another buddy's car to drive home (relishing the heated seats :D ) On a good day it takes a bit more than 2 hours to get to Tacoma from Portland, on Sunday it took 9.

The next day Midas called and told us our transfer case was stuck in 4-wheel drive and we needed a new one. A new t case from the factory would run about $1,200 and labor would be about $200 on top of that. Fortunately the Midas guys (who were GREAT by the way) called around and found us one in Chehalis (just south of Centralia) for $450 and said if we could get it to them by around 3 they'd put it in for us same day! So Logan rented a car on post for cheap and we drove to the wreckers where the part was. We were running a bit late but were hoping we could pick the part up quick and get south by around 3:30. But no :P the wreckers said they would have it out by 5 (the Midas in Longview closed at 5:30) so we left grumbling and got ice cream. We finally did get it at 4:45 and got to Midas just before closing. On the way down I had a grand idea, I would stay the night in Portland if we could meet my parents somewhere and then perhaps have my Mom drive me up the next morning, which was when the best Midas employees ever said they'd put it in for us. The other option was Logan and I driving home to Tacoma and then back to Longview in the morning just so we could drive home again in two vehicles. So we called my folks and they said that'd be good.

So I slept over at my parents' house and in the morning we went to Midas and I got my truck all fixed and good and headed home. I only had one stop to make but it turned out to be a messy one. After getting lost and having to turn around at the next exit I dropped our old t-case off at the wreckers to get a deposit back. What I didn't realize when I got there was that they would take it out of the bed for me if I had only backed up to their gate. Instead I heaved it out of the truck and into the shop, the employees there had a chuckle and I just about covered myself in motor oil and dirt :P After leaving I decided I would stop by the Home Depot near our new house to get an application, I got all turned around again and THEN they told me they do all their hiring online. Fine, I'll apply online stupidheads.... Anyway, I was all flustered and annoyed because I'd gotten lost and I was covered in muck so I didn't write all this yesterday.

So there you go... more or less anyway... pretty long...

His name is Demetri Martin and he amuses me

This is my new favorite quote from a comic:

"To me swimming is a confusing sport because sometimes you do it for fun, but then other times you do it to not die... and when I'm swimming sometimes I don't know which one it is... I gotta go by the outfit *looks down* pants.. uh oh"

My dog is scared of the foot-locker lock

Logan bought me an airbrush kit a bit ago with paints and everything so I decided to paint his helmet. I've never used an airbrush before except to try it out when we first opened it and all that consisted of was red splotches on some scrap paper. Anyway, I was just playing around with it for a couple hours and this is what came out.


On this side I painted a side view of Pointe Du Hoc, it's where the 2nd Ranger Battalion scaled cliffs on D-Day to take out enemy artillery.






Here's a little detail of the spiderwebbing or whatever you want to call it. It was probably an accident that I thought looked cool, I'm not quite sure.






I didn't get a good picture of this side, if you guys really want to see it I guess I can get another shot and post it. It's supposed to be New Zealand but the angle is off because the islands were seperate stencils and Stewart island is too big. Logan said it's ok though and that he can tell it's New Zealand.



So there, my first attempt at airbrushing. Not all that amazing but I think it looks cool and the design incorporates two big aspects of Logan :)

I like art.

Good news!!

I didn't kill the keyboard! I just forgot to put part of it back in when I put it back together :) and I found pictures of Logan!!






here he is walking with little Max,




















and here he's playing with a slightly bigger Max, :)














no Max here, just Logan. My slow camera skills that day failed to capture him "boarding" down the rocks. Unfortunately rock boarding is fun for the briefest moment then your board stops and you don't. Nonetheless I've heard it's a good time.






So there you go! Turns out I didn't need ninja skills at all :D

oops.. my bad

ok... sooo.... I would put a picture of Logan on here but... I'm on the laptop and there are only old pictures of him on here. There isn't anything wrong with the regular computer itself I just kind of... sort of.... killed the keyboard. I tried to clean it and now it won't work... we may have to get a new one.

I guess I'll have to just take a new picture and put it onto this here lappy, hey! :) Good plan! No worries 'Rise :D I'll get you a picture of your brother in law, and it'll be a GOOD one, rest assured, even if I have to whip out my mad ninj4 sk1llz :D

Logan is gone, my only company for the past few days has been the dog... so I took pictures

This is my dog,
Mad Max,
he's a cutie.

and here he is licking the futon... I can't assure you whether it is a delicious futon or not. Perhaps if I were a bit more tired or if Logan were here (just to weird him out and get a laugh at his confused face) I may do more extensive research but alas I am no where near 3-in-the-morning tired and Logan is somewhere being fantasically maggotish, probably in the woods, and probably marching*. So, without further ado or knowledge of the tastiness of my couch, I leave you to gaze upon Mad Max licking the futon.













*I put the little starry next to marching because sometimes it's not really marching. It's just walking long distances with a lot of pounds of ruck sack on his back and a gun in his hands... sometimes.

Hungry hungry Alyssa... breakfast shall be soon :)

Update time!

The party was fun, we missed everyone that didn't get to be there. I'm sad that we couldn't be more accommodating by giving people a bigger heads up but life is crazy, especially when you're in the army. I just hope that we can hang out with everybody who didn't get to come soon. I will post a picture or two when I get them, we didn't take any on our camera but there are a few on my Mom's.

What are we doing now? Not much; vacation is over, Logan is working while I chill out with the dog whilst deciding where I should work when we move. Making many plans of painting, building things and decorating at the new house :) plans are fun but I'm a little bummed that we can't move until November :P stupid lease. Oh well, all in God's timing which is perfect and right and good and all that. Praise God that we get a house and can move at all :D Yay God!!!

Now it's time to eat! Hooray breakfast!

sorry for the delay

TA DAAA!!!







































































There you go, pictures of the front, the living room, dining room, kitchen, hallway and the back. I like the trees, the little window in the kitchen above the sink and Logan, cause he's hot :) the yard is fully fenced and is about 1/3 acre :D yay.

house house house

This morning Logan and I met up with Tony the inspector and took a good look at what will be our new place, hopefully, in about a month and a week. As long as nothing crazy happens... like rampant moosen...

That particular instance not seeming to be immanent we're in high spirits. Unfortunately blogger is being a butt and I can't get the pictures to load :( sorry guys. I'll try later and if that doesn't work I'll try tomorrow again... and if THAT doesn't work I'll print some out, stand on my balcony and hold them up reeeeally high. I'm sure if you have a good pair of binoculars you could make them up... I mean out, make them out... yeah.

hi guys

yeah Cherstuieseybug (that's a conglomeration of nickname, there, for ya) I'm in Portland. Logan and I drove his brother down here yesterday so we're hanging out for a couple days then we'll head back because Logan has to work. So... yeah, that's about it. Oh, and Mike Birbiglia is funny stuff.

Yay fourth

:) Hey guys, sorry about that silly pity party, (see: south and sad) it happens sometimes. But I'm better, thanks largely due to getting to be here in Sisters for some days hanging out with my Godsiff family (including a soon to be). Just so you know guys, they're best :D I love hanging out with them, especially when Caroline and I get to eat our best friends and get directions from nice landscapers.





I'll have to get a picture of the rest of these cool people at some stage but for now just the girls. Here's Caroline and I riding horses (superfun) you'll probably guess immediately who the photogenic one is eh. *cough* Caroline! *cough* *cough* I was riding Jesse and she was on Misty and all except for Misty being a bit shy we all look sensational!!! Yay us




I'm not sure what we're all doing down here today. Maybe finding a rodeo, maybe seeing fireworks.... if it doesn't storm on us... we'll see.

south and sad

I'm in Sisters now. I love Sisters, it's a great town. All except for the fact that I'm here without Logan. :P I don't know why but I'm being pouty about Logan being gone, it'll be at least 55 days (8 weeks) until I get to see him. I haven't figured out which description sounds like less but they both make me feel like I want to cry. Stupid school.... in stupid Georgia.... where I can't stupid see my husband....

I think I'm going to go curl up in a ball and be sad....