One Packed Weekend

Apparently, we forgot to put relaxation on the agenda this last weekend. We were on the go constantly and between family and the kitchen there was little time for just the two of us to kick back. So here is a quick re-cap...

Saturday was Grandma Harris' memorial service. The service was sad but intimate, and the DVD of pictures that I finished up with Jeramy's help on Friday night was a big hit. In fact, there are now some pictures to add, so I'll be revising it some before I send Jeramy off to Arkansas for the burial. Oh, and on the topic of Arkansas, please note that the state postal abbreviation is AR and not AK. I made that mistake with the obituary, and if anybody shows up in Lamar, Alaska for the burial I guess that I'm responsible. However, I just looked on mapquest, and there appears to be no such place so I should be safe.

While funerals are never fun, we did get to see a lot of family that we had not seen in a while. And Brittany's daughter, our niece Julia was the big hit. And as these pictures show it is easy to see why!















Sunday was spent working on the kitchen, and we were feeling pretty accomplished by the end of the day. Apparently there had been a leak many years ago (long before we owned the house) under the washer, and so the MDF board underneath had absorbed all the water. As a result it was warped and not holding together well. So Jeramy had to replace a big chunk with new plywood. Then we worked on sanding and painting cabinets. We managed to finish most of the top cabinets and the ones by the washer and dryer. We're hoping to get all of the cabinets finished before heading off to Westport for halibut fishing on Wednesday night.

Here are a few pictures of our latest progress. And note that we did not draw that man on the ground. Apparently, somebody had a little fun before laying new flooring and we found this when we pulled up the wood parquet tiles. It certainly gave us a laugh!

Rest in Peace Grandma Harris

I haven't added to my blog for the past couple of days, because I've been a bit busy since Jeramy's Grandma Harris died on Tuesday morning. This was expected as they recently stopped radiation treatment for her cancer, but it is never easy to lose a loved one as you all know. Luckily, Jeramy and I were both able to leave work after we found out to be with his mom and family. Jeramy will also be able to travel to Arkansas for the burial in a couple of weeks.

I've taken a couple of days away from the kitchen re-modeling to work on a DVD featuring Grandma Harris' life in pictures to play at the funeral on Saturday. It is coming a long nicely, and I thought I'd share a couple of my favorites with you here.

Whenever we lose a loved one, it reminds me just how precious life is. It is so easy to lose your perspective and forget how important it is to enjoy your family, friends and health while you have it.

This one just cracks me up...I think its circa 1982. Jeramy is in the foreground, and yes, he still makes that face when he cries.



At our wedding in 1998 (yes...it was that long ago)

A Kitchen Re-modeling Extravaganza

Okay, so maybe "extravaganza" is not exactly the word I'd really use to describe the less than usable state of my kitchen right now, but as I want to keep this blog family friendly it will have to suffice. We kicked off the kitchen re-modeling this weekend by painting most of the walls, installing the dishwasher (which included installing an electric outlet and extending the cabinets to better frame the dishwasher) and installing new dry wall between the west countertop and cupboards. I find kitchen re-modeling to be a bit like a trip into history. For example, when removing a section of the flooring to get the dishwasher out we discovered that there are actually a couple of layers of floors down...no wonder it was so thick!

Anyhow, despite the upheaval and a few unexpected trips to the hardware store, things seem to be progressing well. Here are a few pics so that you can see how things are going...



Jeramy installing the new dishwasher


A good way for venting frustration when re-modeling

What are these crazy humans doing anyhow???

An Expensive Trip to the Vet

We took Cujo to the vet last night, because he had some acne that flared up so bad that it looked like it was getting infected (yes...my dog has acne). When we were there, we found out there is this new medication for dog allergies that our vet wants us to try. The catch is that it isn't cheap...$300 for the first month because he has to take a really big dose because of his size. That cost could go down if he responds to it and we can back off on the dose. The vet also wanted to put him on prescription food to see if he also has food allergies, but we decided to wait for that because that would leave us with no food options for convincing Cujo to take his pills.

To give you a glimpse of our canine health care trevails, I thought that I'd share with you the Cujo care kit, shown in the photo above. It includes...

1. Prescription shampoo for allergies

2. Baby wipes, which we use to clean out his paws and skin flaps so that he doesn't get yeast infections there

3. Acne cream

4. Benadryl

5. Atopic...that ridiculously expensive dog allergy medication

6. Prescription ear medication and Q-tips

7. Doggie toothpaste

8. Flashlight. I hold this so Jeramy can see when he cleans out his ears.

9. Cheese. We wrap pills in this in order to con Cujo into taking pills. After he catches on to that, we'll move to wet dog food as he'll eat ever last drop no matter what disgusting powders we mix in.

So $400 later we got home from the vet and I gave Cujo his expensive pills. 30 minute later he went out to the backyard and vomited. Great. Let's hope he can start keeping these pills down or otherwise we're back to square one.

It is a very good thing that this dog is cute!

Welcome to our blog

So I have decided to start a blog for Jeramy and I to share with our family and friends. It seems like our lives are so busy now that it is hard to stay in touch and let everybody know what we've been up to. So a blog seemed like a good solution. Plus you know what thrilling lives we lead. We are bound to win some sort of award for the most entertaining blog. Right?

Anyhow, to kick things off, I'm going to share with you the exciting events in store for our household over the next few months:

1. Allergies for Cujo: We are blessed with a canine with severe allergies to pretty much the entire outdoors. This includes trees, weeds, grass, fleas, and even cats. So around this time of year the itching begins, and it probably won't end until October. This picture shows Cujo in happier times, allergy wise.

2. A Kitchen Re-model: I have decided to re-model the kitchen, and I'm dragging Jeramy along with me. At least (after 6 hours at Home Depot) I have found a way to transform him into a more willing participant in this process. Two words. New tools. No. Make that three words. New power tools.

3. Halibut Fishing: Jeramy and I are going with his mom and Mark Halibut fishing out of Westport in early May. We had such a good time in Alaska last summer that we put a deposit down on a trip for for the 4 of us as a Christmas present.

4. The Ultimate Road Trip: Old Faithful here we come. We are taking truck, camper, motorcycle, and Cujo and heading to Yellowstone for a week in late June along with Jeramy's dad, Vickie, and Uncle Dave.

5. Fixing up our yard: Since Jeramy and I were both in school the last couple of summers, our yard has become a bit of a wasteland. I came to this frightening realization a few weeks ago when searching for my house on GoogleEarth with co-workers. Yes, it was in the company of admired colleagues that I discovered that, from a satellite's point of view, we have the most redneck looking home within a several block radius. Then I went home and realized that it does not look much better standing on the ground either. I've already started with some weeding, new plants, fertilizer and weed killer. But there is so much more to do. And as many of you know, I'm severely lacking in the green thumb department, and Jeramy's outdoor allergies are rather similar to Cujo's if you replace the itching with a stuffy nose and watery eyes. So this will be a challenge.

Anyhow that's all for now. But be sure to check back for more fun-filled and nail-biting updates soon.