Kitchen Remodel

When we bought our house in 2006 I dont know if we realized all the little things that we would have to fix along the way. The people before us didnt take very good care of this house, and we are getting to pay for that. Literally. haha. Well, it is also part of making it into the home we want/need for our family. The housing market is so bad right now and we are so upside down in our house, we either short sale or ride it out. So, we are riding it out(with our stupid high interest and high house payment! grr haha). So far, we have fixed the carpet, added the spare room, done some painting, but the most important thing I need to get to, is the kitchen. I spend so much time here, I might as well put money into making it work the way a kitchen should!
First, my dishwasher is in the most horrible place. I have to unload everything onto the counter, close my dishwasher and then put everything away. Now, I dont want this post to come off as me being ungrateful for what I have, because I am thankful I have a house of my own, a kitchen of my own, food, a dishwasher among other things.
Anyway, so we made a game plan. We are going to re-arrange our kitchen by moving our dishwasher where our fridge is, which is out of the way, but next to the sink, move our fridge next to our stove, and put new cabinets in. You can get cabinets at Lowes that are unfinished, all you have to do is stain them for actually pretty cheap. We did that in our Pantry. So, we are going to take that approach, stain them in a rich "Kona" color, and call it good. The picture below is not my kitchen, but is the closest to the color we are picking. And I will not be getting any new applainces, maybe when my kids are alot older..but right now the ones I have are just fine! :)

My brother tried to help me paint my current cabinets to a dark brown and ended up painting all over my wall. Grr..I was thankful for the help, but frustrated at the same time. haha. But, Im just leaving it for the time being. No point in changing/painting the whole kitchen since we are going to be ripping them all out anyway! Right?! Right. I cant wait, its going to be work, the kids will be sent to Papa and Grama's house and Sean and I will have to hammer it out. Im already dreaming of when its done!! :D

Im so glad its Friday AND its a three day weekend. My kids have been pretty fussy this week and Im stuck at home with decaf coffee!!
We will just leave it at that ;-) Enjoy the holiday weekend!

New Website and my big boy Thor

It's official, I have my own domain name! AH!
www.stacymayphotography.com

I've been slowly buying things that I need to make my 'business' (I still dont think of it that way, I enjoy taking pictures too much! But, Sean says 'Time is Money' so he says I have to be compensated something for my time, no matter how much I enjoy it)
I've bought a new camera(similar to my old one, just the newest model(2012) out and more pixels) a new mount flash, made a website, continuing with my facebook page, business cards, and lastly, Sean bought me a nice new computer! :) A beautiful HD 17' screen that came loaded with Adobe Photoshop on it! Now, I just need Photoshop Lightroom, because that is my favorite. I dont do a lot of heavy editing on photographs(Not that I dont know how, I just really think the whole purpose of photographs is capturing that moment in time to remember, and when you look back in 10 years and see a completely airbrushed photo with neon bright eye's..well, that wasnt you. If someone wants to have a fun session and do that, Im all for it though!) and Lightroom is very simple and allows me to create an easier system for editing pictures.
I have a wedding at the end of September that Im super excited about. I am enlisting my best friend to come help me take pictures, because simply, you cannot have too many pictures at a wedding. She is going to help capture all those moments from the ceremony and reception that might have slipped away from me if it was just myself. I think, actually, I know we will make a great team, and hopefully for future sessions as well! :) We will be like the Dynamic Duo! :D

Now, onto my baby Thor.
46.7lbs of 5 month old big baby Bernese Mountain Dog.

When we first got Thor, he was very, very shy. Fearful of strangers, and simply protective of us and our home. Not that he would charge at anyone with teeth snarling growls, he would just bark at you from the otherside of the room like, 'Hey..watch it..''After a few moments and treats, he would be ok. Usually faster with females than males. Anyway, the first time I took him to the vet for his booster shots and rabies shot, he gave the vet tech a little growl/nip (he didnt bite her, or try to but the movement sort of looked like it, the Vet tech said he made no contact with her, but the actions need to be corrected..obviously!) So we signed Thor up for the Beginner class at Petsmart. Simply because I love the girl who teaches the class. He has made such a huge improvement, which is so great. Anyway, I was nervous that would happen again so I got him a muzzle to wear at the vet this trip. I explained to them that he gets nervous, and all that and they took him back. Well, he did great! Yay! The only thing he did was pee..haha. Told you he was a baby. They even took the muzzle off of him and brought it back out to me. This made me feel great.
So now, all day yesterday he slept. And slept. He keeps trying to lick his incision so we do have to keep the cone on him. But he woke up today HUNGRY. We gave him a half a cup more than we usually do at breakfast, and he was thankful :)

By the way, just a slight side note, Amazon Prime is deadly. I found Giant Furminators for $27. They are usually atleast $70 at the store. I had to order one, and another for Thor's brother, who will need it just as badly. haha. So, thats great savings, but makes it hard to pass up! So, I better not look, or I might find another great deal I cant let get by! :)

Two Early Birds

My dog, thankful he is so cute, wakes me up at 5:30-5:45 every day to go outside. Yes, I am thankful he wakes me up instead of just using our carpet as a toilet, but still..its early! :) Sometimes Sean wakes up with him if he feels like he got enough sleep, but most of the time, Thor will prop his paws up on my side of the bed and give me a little lick..if I wait, I get attacked, as if he is saying, Get out of bed woman!!! So, he goes out, Sean feeds him when he gets ready to leave for work, and I lay in bed, kicking myself for staying up so late, when I know that this will happen every day. But its hard when Sean gets home from work so late, I need that time to wind down and watch some TV, read, read stuff on the internet, so I end up staying up late. :(
And then my dear son, he has been on a 'up early' schedule as well. I wish I had a treadmill, elliptical or bicycle so I could wake up with Thor, do some exercise and then by the time I was done, Silas would be waking up. Would be the perfect spot for that.

This weekend was spent at home mostly. Saturday we had my Aunt, Grandparents from Idaho and my Dad over for a super yummy dinner. Sean BBQ'd some wonderful steaks, I roasted a variety of veggies and made baked potatoes. That was a great visit, too short, but always seems to be when family is visiting. We will see them at the first part of October when my Dad and I drive to Vegas, we will make a pit stop in Boise :)
Sunday was Church, where they brought forth me and 3 other people to take part in our new leadership positions. Im a little nervous, since not many people were at Church, but Pastor says it happens every year, and he is ok with it(sort of). This is the only time of year us Washington-ians can get out and go camping, spend time with our families(while others are out of school as well) and travel, and he understands the importance of that. He says usually every September once everyone is back into their 'School' routine, the attendance picks back up. If not, I wont have any babies in my Shine class :( I guess people need to start having more babies!
We ended the night watching the second part of the Hatfield and McCoys..pretty good!

Now, today I wait for the FedEx guy to come with my new computer Sean bought me, and then we head into Auburn. I have a very early appointment for Thor to get neutered on Tuesday and would rather stay at my parents then get up and get my kids moving before 7. :) Especially since my little girl loves her sleep!

14.5 Hours

Since Sean left for work this morning. He is just now, at 8:50pm on his way home. Give him 1 hour to commute and he will be home, eat his dinner and go straight to bed. Tomorrow we start all over. There are sooooo many days I wish Sean had a set schedule. I could count on him being home at the same time everyday, or at least within an hour or so. I don't know if people really understand how hard UPS drivers work. They have to put up with a lot from their management as well, Time is money, and you better be going as fast as you can. While being safe of course...sure. Many times I think they wouldn't mind sacrificing the safety to get the box there on time. But enough complaining.

The kids and I kept somewhat busy today. We actually had sort of a lazy day. After being so busy camping and them spending the weekend with Papa and Grama, we had to re-coup. I spent most of my morning doing laundry, but then ran out of soap. Oh darn ;-) The kids napped from 1-4 and I, myself took a little snooze in there as well. Then we made Chicken teryaki for dinner with rice and roasted carrots, zuccini and broccoli. Kids loved it, and to kill some more time we made Oatmeal chocolate chip cookies. Now, the kids are watching some cartoons while we wait for Sean to get home, and Im going to spend a few mindless minutes on the computer. :)
I ordered some Thank you cards from Vistaprint for the girls that serve on my ministry team at Church. I take over the infant class next month, and wanted to give them a little 'Thank you for Serving' card and tell them I appreciate their help. Im actually really nervous about this, but I have faith God will lead me where I need to go with it. :)

God is using you

for His special purpose,

to shine His light,

to share His love,

to shape His people.

Ear Infections and Puppy School

Well, we have been busy around here!

Monday: My neighbor and I took a road trip into the Gifford Pinchot National Forest outside of Packwood to find a campin' spot for our trip next weekend. I had seen a place I thought would be perfect back in November during Hunting Season..so I took her there first. And, it was perfect. The river has two amazing swimming holes, is very slow moving for the kids with very shallow water that only goes to their ankles. Which is perfect, because it is cold :) Im so excited, because next weekend is also mine and Sean's 5th wedding anniversary :) And then 2013 will mark 10 years together! Holy Moly has Time flown by!! We will be spending it camping with our friends, relaxing in the river and checkin' out from reality! :) No cell phone service up in 'dem dare hills!'

Swimmin' Hole #1

 View up the River

Swimmin' Hole #2

Tuesday: We had a playdate with my cousins and their kids. It was so fun and we plan to do them on a weekly basis..hopefully we can do that! We all live pretty close, Im the furthest but only 15 minutes away :)

Wednesday: My kids have been batteling the cough, running nose, whining and just generally not feeling good for over a week. I took them into the Dr and found out they both have ear infections in their left ears. Glad I took them in. Neither of them complained about their ears until yesterday when Siara was in tears saying her ear was hurting. I felt so bad, but I had no idea :(

That night we took Thor to his first Puppy class. Not because he isnt obedient, because he is. Infact, the most obedient and sweet and loyal dog I've ever had. He is going becauase he is SO shy..sooooooooo shy. He tucks his tail and hides. If he gets scared he lays down and wont move any further. We have to lure him into new situations with treats and lots of Good boys. He seems more scared of males than females, so we are sad to think something may have happened to him when he was just a little baby. The trainer said it could have been as simple as an accidental kick at 3 weeks old, and at his little size then, anything bigger than him terrifies him. He is getting better already though, my friend Shayna came over and after a treat or two she was able to cut his toe nails. BIG for us. :) They have his brother Stryker and I love watching the two of them play. They are going to be fun as we get to watch them grow up together.

And I do have to mention, he LOVES the mountains, on Monday we let him off the leash, he was in heaven..never left my sight, stayed near, would lay on the bank while we were in the river..he is so sweet and perfect for us :) Our little Mountain Dog.

Today: I have to do laundry, pack and get ready for our camping trip to Iron Creek with family this weekend. Tomorrow I am meeting an old friend from Elementary/Jr High/High School to discuss taking pictures at his wedding... EEEK. This makes me a bit nervous! Only because I know this is such a special event, and to be honest, sometimes I just dont have the self confidence. I know I can do it, and Im glad I have made people happy with my pictures, that makes me feel wonderful..but the during process, I always get a little nervous :) Im hoping to get some more sessions in this Summer and start of September. Anyway, after Sean gets off work tomorrow we will hit the road and head to the campground. So, I better wrap this up so I can get to everything I need to today. It's gonna be busy :)