I ain't dreaming

We didn't wake up to it. But things still turned white. Hurrah! Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas! Happy Holidays! Hope everyone is having a good time with friends and family.

Citizen forestry

I'm not feeling particularly wordy tonight. By which I mean I'm not feeling particularly clever with my words, not that I can't think up any. Onward disjointed, generic sounding ramblishness! Ah:

We headed up to the Mt. Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest this weekend to find a Christmas tree. Usually we pick one up on Bainbridge during the Thanksgiving weekend, but we hosted the Turkey Day in Bellingham, and so had to find a tree...alternatively.

We aren't at all interested in spending $50 on a dead plant, so we headed up to the National Forest, because for $10 you can cut any tree you want under 12 feet. Of course, that depends on finding one. Part of that $50, that's called "convenience."

We wandered for a long while (actually, we drove around for a long while), searching for promising groves. We saw a lot of hemlocks and cedars, but very few firs. If it wasn't for Jill and Paul and their chocolate chip cookies, we may have gotten discouraged.

Eventually we did find and area that had been clear-cut long before, and had many firs for the choosing. So we tromped around for a while until we found the perfect one.

And of course, by "perfect" I mean the least not perfect.

Adam 1, Nature 0

It's a bit Charlie Brownish. Very few branches and hardly any strong ones. Lots of ornaments. Which would be great, except there are almost no branches without ornaments, which I've decided looks not ordinary. It's nice enough, though. It looks like a $10 tree. Or maybe $15. There are probably better trees out there, but we didn't see them. It's hard when the tree farm is 1,724,229 randomly planted acres.

I'm done writing words now. Check out that post below! Yow!

Ba-bum Ba-bum Ba-bum Ba-bum

That is the sound of a heart beat beating 150 times per minute...of a baby inside of me! Yes, I am excited to announce to the cyber-world that I am pregnant! Adam and I are super excited! I am almost 12 weeks along, or 3 months. It will be due around June 24th. Perfect timing for school to be done :-) We will keep you informed with all the exciting growth and changes.

How's today then?

10:46 am

Thanksgiving in Bellingham. My family, plus my Aunt Pam and Erin's Aunt Mary. Good times and good food.

Last weekend, Paul came and helped me mud and tape the sheetrock in the stairwell room. Paul being the expert. Me being the bungler. But it's looking pretty good. Of course, I haven't worked on it since then...

Also built the big door for Gryffin's bathroom. So it's closer to not being not done.

More projects means more things half done

Such as:

I built a frame to fit under the stairs.

And it fit! At least, it fit close enough. There is a 2'x2' door framed in. On the floor on the right you can see Gryffin's cat flap door. The cupboard under the stairs is his new bathroom. It took him a while to figure out how the flap works. He thought it was a window, not a door, and it closed on his tail a few times.

I cut the damn triangle of sheetrock backwards, and I had no more scraps. So it went in backwards. Couple extra coats of primer and it should be fine. Gryffin's door is now cut into the triangle, and the big door is cut out, but not finished. Like I said...half done.

Before Bert and Dani left for Bend, we (well, mostly Bert) put up our arches in the hallway.

And sheetrocked them.

And now they're just waiting for mudding and taping. Actually, all of the sheetrocking is finished except for a small bit on the stairs. I'm waiting for Mike, master tape artist, to help me out. Until then...half done. Or maybe two-thirds.

Let me direct you...

...to the nearest big news. Hooray!

Busy September

Wow. September has been busy! We flew right into school, literally. I flew into Bellingham from Ohio and went straight into meetings for school and it hasn't stopped since. October looks wide open...

We did get a chance to get out and hike on Labor Day weekend. We put Brindzi to work with her cool pack! She loves it and she can carry all our lunch and water.

Dogs on top of the world!

Wow! Our guest book tree from our wedding arrived this summer. And it was worth the wait. Sabe did an amazing job on it! We just got it framed and WOW! Thanks Sabe!!

The End of Summer

Next week at this time I will be tired from my first day of back to school. Kids start next Wed. meetings start on Monday. Today was my last day of summer vacation. Tomorrow we head to Ohio and then back again on Monday going straight into meetings. Wow. Done. Over. Not again until next year. But it has been a pretty good summer. Here are a few things from the last month.

Our annual Red Sox vs. Mariners game at Safeco. We saw the Mariners win one and the Red Sox win one. The Sox took the series. Although it is going to be a tight race. I am afraid of a possible Sox/Mariners play off series. Especially if the Sox win the east and the Mariners get the wild card. So we can route for both now and hope that either the Yankees or the Angles keep loosing.

Adam and Mark "chucking" it.

We have been harvesting LOTS of veggies this summer. We have SUPER amounts of zucchini. Lets say we are getting really tired of trying to come up with ways to use massive amounts of zucchini; grilled, sauted, fried, choc. zucchini cake, zucchini bread with choc. chips, zucchini pie, zucchini in EVERYTHING! We have been enjoying super small corn, although so have the racoons. Beans, tomatoes, artichokes, lettuce, broccoli, and WAY too many fallen apples!

Flowers and (and the WEEDS that go with them)!

Then my parents arrived and have now moved their entire NH house into our house, garage, and attic. Our house has amazingly just absorbed everything.

There 12 feet of moving van is now in our house.

The yard full of stuff.

Now our garage is full.

My dad and Adam have begun the project again. First, finish the hallway sheet rock.

Next outdoor chicken coop!

Apples!

Garden!

Yeah! Summer! How long till next summer?

San Juan mini tour #2

We ventured to the San Juans by bicycle a second time this summer with our Bellingham friends: Kevin and Becky, Jill and Paul, and Julie and Jerry. It was the first bike tour for all but Becky and us, and we should consider it an outstanding success. I think we may have them hooked.

Day One: Bellingham to Lopez Island - 44 miles
Adam's average speed: 11.3 mph

Jill and Paul drove to our house to depart (What? No 10 extra miles from Ferndale?) Brindzi helped them load up and do some last minute bike checks.

Our first real rest stop took place at the Farm to Market Bakery in Bow. We refueled on giant cinnamon rolls and sticky buns.

At Odlin County Park, on Lopez, Jerry hauled some firewood to our campsite. He built that trailer himself. Quite impressive, I think. We saw a few BOB trailers on the trip, and his didn't look any different, really.

Day Two: Around Lopez to Shaw Island - 31 miles (75 total)
Adam's average speed: 10.9 mph

We left our gear at the campground and rode around Lopez a bit before heading to Shaw. We only got a little lost on our way to Agate Beach. Anyway. A good place for snacks.

The campground at Shaw Island County Park was a pretty primitive and mellow spot. Just one road, with campsites on each side. We did some switching and such and got a great couple of sites on the water side, with our own little stair-wall down to the beach.

Day Three: Shaw Island to San Juan Island - 15 miles (90 total)
Adam's average speed: 9.6 mph

We felt lazy and didn't ride around Shaw Island in the morning. We lounged about and then headed to the ferry for Friday Harbor. The ride to San Juan County Park has some nasty hills, but we weathered them. It's Erin's favorite park, and she got to wake up there on her birthday. Our distances and ride times decreased each day on this trip, and we weren't particularly upset about it. It's different when you have a distant final destination that when you're toodling around between campsites.

Day Four: San Juan Island to Anacortes - 15 miles (105 total)
Adam didn't check his average speed!

Waiting for the ferry (and for the dang place to open) outside the Market Chef, which has excellent scones and excellenter chocolate chip cookies. We played some cards and enjoyed the sun.

Driving back from Anacortes to Bellingham, our car decided to stick it to us for taking a trip without it, overheating and doing its little electronic freak-out thing. We limped back to Bellingham and then left it it the shop for a week and a half. Ah, bicycles. No overheating, no electronic freak-outs, no $500+ shop visits.

Waiting for the next trip.