Puppy kisses

Underwater dog photos are the best! 

Hurray! We're so close to summer that it seems like it's 80 degrees in Seattle. What? Oh. It is 80 degrees out. Huh. Well good news readers...SUMMER CAME EARLY TO SEATTLE! (Talk about a sentence no one thought they'd read)
So, how have things been with our little family? Well, my husband is working for our family friend (And one of my ex-employers) with her business which is corporate housing. He's really been having a lot of fun and he's got to scope out a lot of apartments in the Seattle area. This week he'll be visiting one of the apartment complexes that we've been looking at moving to once he starts school in the Fall. He's going to tell me his thoughts and let me know if he thinks it will work for our little family.

Keep reading, friends!

My days have been a bit of the same old, same old. We've been training Juno, our new puppy, who is learning so fast. My time on weekdays is spent mainly in Seattle, as that is where my office is. But something exciting did happen recently...our company website is finally up. It needs a lot of tweaks and fixing, all of which is planned for this weekend, but it's finalyl up. You can check it out by clicking here. The page is beautiful, minus the fixes that need to happen, and it is wonderful to see the site connected to the domain. And I really love sharing it with everyone.
Recently, mainly due to my hour bus rides each day, my book consumption has really gone up. So, in response to this, I will start posting book reviews of some of the great and not so great books that have been gobbled up by me.
All in all, life has been a little busy but full of tons of puppy kisses. And I wouldn't have it any other way.

Brittany! Where have you been?!

Again, let me apologize and completely blame my absence on my husband. It's not his fault at all, but it's nice to blame someone. Where in the world have I been? Well, all over Washington state, to be honest. Let's start from the beginning

St. James's Cathedral on a beautiful Seattle day

In my last post I mentioned that my husband had a job. He actually ended up with a contract to do the job for a short time and they decided not to renew his contract. Obviously this was really sad because it meant that we were looking at a longer stay with my in-laws. As hard as it was on me it was even harder on my husband, but I'll refrain from discussing that on here. Due to the hardships we've had and the difficulty my husband has had at finding a job, my husband has decided to go to a local college and get his Associate's in Nursing. He's really excited to be heading back to school in the Fall and, honestly, it's hard to hide my excitement too. It will be really nice to see him happy and fulfilled.

Hurricane Ridge (Alt. 5242 ft)

But to make him feel better about the whole job thing (who wouldn't be bummed out), I planned a weekend trip in one of his favorite places: Olympic National Forest. A cabin, which was right next to the line with the forest, was rented from a very sweet and lovely couple. On Friday we drove out to the cabin, checked-in and relaxed. A full evening of food, reading, talking and relaxing was already starting to completely relax me. Saturday the three of us, Sasha (our puppy), my husband and myself set ouf for the hour or so drive to Port Angeles. My husband really wanted to show me Hurricane Ridge so we went into the forest and drove up the windy mountain road to the top of Hurricane Ridge. And it was gorgeous. Once you got past the huge snow pack around us. It was an amazing place to be, though. Sasha, of course, didn't really care for it. Although she did eat some snow. After that we decided to get back to sea level so we drove from the mountains to the ocean.

Cutest little swimmer ever! 

Port Angeles, if you get a chance to go, is a really cute town. If we'd had the capabilities (aka not have a dog) and the time to explore the city more would be amazing, but we had fun with the places we could go. Which just happened to be the beach with a dog that loves to swim. She. Loved. It. My husband would throw the sticks in the water, she'd go after it and bring it back. She was having the greatest time of her life. Playing in the water, splashing around, enjoying the sunshine. All in all, Port Angeles was wonderful. We had a lot of fun, but Sasha had so much more. After we were done playing, we drove back to the cabin for another evening of sublime relaxation and preparing for the next day's drive back to the Seattle area. The weekend was amazingly relaxing and it was extremely difficult to come back to the house and head to work on Monday. But by Wednesday we'd had a bit of a surprise. Sasha had somehow managed to get a tick. Thankfully it was just one and we got it out, but it scared us a little (pssh. A lot.). Poor Sasha had to have a bath an then get this stuff she didn't really care for on her back. And my amazing husband cleaned the bedroom to make sure that no one was going to get a tick if they were in the room. Thankfully, we haven't seen another tick and the one that she did have was extremely tiny. 

Oh hai there Juno, you little cutie!

So this last weekend, after a full week of work after a relaxing weekend, we did something very not relaxing. We got another dog. We drove almost three hours from Seattle to Wenatchee with Sasha in the car, picked up Juno, our new puppy, and then drove back to Seattle with both dogs. I was so happy to be back at our house on Saturday. Sunday, though, was spent with her meeting our families, getting to know Sasha, building a crate, rearranging our room entirely and settling into having a new member of our family. Last night was the first night of crate training and little Juno was not a fan. She had to get up twice and cried for awhile after she was first put in the crate. She will get better at it, though. I believe in her. 

Last post I mentioned that my husband and I are starting a business. That's still true. We had to hold off, though, because the computer that had everything business related on it nearly died. And right now the hardrive in that computer is barely limping along. My husband and I are picking out a new computer for me once payday comes along. Once we have the new computer I will be able to finish working on the website and get it up (finally). 

It's been a tough month, but I know that anything is possible when you have family that loves you. 

A little fun with questions

Kate from Diary of a Blonde tagged me in this cute little interview thing. So let's give it a whirl!

Rules:
1. You must post these rules.
2. Each per­son must post 11 things about them­selves on their blog.
3. Answer the questions the tag­ger set for you in their post, and cre­ate 11 new ques­tions for the people you tag to answer.
4. You have to choose 11 peo­ple to tag and link them on the post.
5. Go to their page and tell them you have linked him or her.
6. No tag backs.

Facts About Moi:
1. Graduating from college has been my greatest achievement to date. It only took six years which also included countless boyfriends, two engagements and one marriage! 
2. My favorite piece of jewelry is my wedding ring, my next favorite is all of my Peridot jewelry.
3. My love of Mexican food drives my husband bonkers. Whenever he suggests we go out to eat, my list consists of all of my favorite Mexican restaurants. His list generally consists of Thai, Sushi and Chinese. Problems tend to arise. 
4. I have a strong aversion to self-professed "Bitches" and "Bad Boys". I, especially, don't like bad boys. They're rude, caustic, and worthless. Why would I go for a bad boy when a nerd is so much cuter?
5. Toxic friends are one of my biggest pet peeves. Ditto on toxic significant others.
6. Accounting is something I'm doing for the time being, but probably don't want to do for the long term. 
7.  My favorite food is Mac & Cheese with a can of Tuna. Whenever I'm down, my husband will make me a bowl to cheer me up. It generally does the job.
8. I absolutely love the beauty of Seattle. It's gorgeous here. But I could do without the traffic.
9. The Hunger Games Trilogy is one of my top five book series of all time
10. I haven't had a hair cut since June...it's January. 
11. I love the style from eras that have long passed, especially the 40s 50s and 60s.

Q's From Kate:
1. Who is your favorite Disney Princess and why? Ariel. She risked everything for someone she loved and nearly lost it all.
2. If you could change your major, what would you change it to? Either Astrophysics (which was my original major prior to Accounting) or Midwifery
3. What is your best talent? Coding websites, despite my lack of training and probably my ability to sing.
4. Where would you most like to travel to? Aix-en-Provence in France. <3
5. What is your New Years Resolution? To lose weight, to be healthier, to take care of myself and my marriage.
6. Sweet or Savory? Both. At the same time. Yum.
7. What was the last song you listened to? Ellie Goulding's "Your Biggest Mistake"
8. Which celebrity would you have sex with, no questions asked? Ewan McGregor. I hope my husband isn't reading this...
9. What is your favorite TV show and why is it so great? 30 Rock. It can make me double over laughing  every time.
10. Would you rather be at the beach or in the snow? Both are awesome, but there's something that is wonderful about an ocean beach
11. What is your heritage? Irish. From my freckles down to my temper.

Q's From Me:
1. What is one item you can not live without?

2. If you could live anywhere in the world, money not being an object, where would you live?

3. What's something that can move you to tears because of it's beauty?

4. What is your greatest achievement to date?

5. Which celebrity would you have sex with, assuming your significant other was out of the picture?

6. What is your dream job and why would you want to do it?

7. What is something you wish to achieve in the future?

8. What is your comfort food when you're down?
9. What is your favorite kind of chocolate?
10. What is your all time favorite song?
11. What is your favorite thing about the current season?

11 Friends:
1. Colleen
2. Danielle

3. James

4. Hailey

5. Tim
6. Tom
7. Stephanie
8. Jeremy
9. Aly
10. Lacey
11. Courtney

Relax and let live

I'd love to relax here...

This month has been stressful at best, reason for a person to be committed at worse. Thankfully, no one has managed to commit me and my emotional breakdowns have not been large enough to totally take me out of service. In fact, my emotional breakdowns happen to coincide with the two days of the week that are reserved for relazing: the weekend. So, instead of hanging with friends, playing Xbox, going on dates with my husband, my time has been spent mindlessly sifting through pins on Pinterest or sleeping. Thankfully, Pinterest is enough to completely chill me out after five to ten minutes, but the lying in bed and sleeping/sulking/refusing to remove myself from the dent that my body has created in the bed needs to stop. And after a confusing, frustrating and emotional resurgence of my good friend, Depression, on Saturday, I knew something had to be done.
My husband says that I live as if I'm continually running from crisis to crisis, few of them my own. For the most part I'm in agreement, but I think of it as being in almost a constant fight or flight mode. No matter how we define it, this constant stress still makes me a complete wreck more often than not. Well, starting Sunday, which happened to be yesterday, I promised myself that I will try to take everything that happens in stride. Try to relax and live this life. There should be no reason that I need to spend hours on Pinterest just to calm down after a stressful day. To spend more time laughing and being with my husband and puppy. They make me smile the most. Most of all, though, accepting that we can not force our lives to take a certain route. Everything happens for a reason. St. Francis of Assisi said it best, "Lord, grant me the serenity to accept the things I can not change, the courage to change the things I can, and the wisdom to know the difference." Amen.

This makes me smile

So far, my attempts have not been fruitless. Despite running a bit late this morning, I just smiled, took a deep breath and just reminded myself that I would get to work shortly and that things would be okay. In fact, I managed to joke with my husband about the one thing that tends to set me off most, clothing. Or rather, my lack of cute clothing that fits. So far, it feels like I've accomplished so much by not freaking out, or even stressing about, the little things in life.
My husband is probably reading this and either nodding his head encouragingly, hoping that I'll keep it up or rolling his eyes, because I'm a neurotic crazy person. Or, more likely, both.

All I want for Christmas is...

The holidays are a time for family and being home. Unfortunately, home is a rather flexible term right now for our little family. We currently live with my husband's parents, who graciously took us in while we tried to get out feet under us. Six months later, we are still hopeful that my husband will find a job, but having so little space and not being able to start our lives is truly wearing on us. Right now, I'm writing this while my husband plays video games. Let's just say that it's hard to concentrate and write at the same time. But I don't want to ask him to turn it down or try to choose something that is more, well...silent, because this is our spot. The little area where we can be ourselves and pretend is home. For now.

So the one thing I want for Christmas is for my husband to get a job, so we can start making the home we've been dreaming of. I know he is trying his hardest and that the economy sucks so terribly bad, but please, if there is a god, please, let this happen for our family. I would be forever thankful and I know James, who is going stir crazy, would be thankful as well.

Baby steps

So, last Sunday I posted regarding my weight loss plan. Honestly, so far, I've been pretty terrible at it. The first day I tried pretty much surviving on as little as possible and then broke and started scarfing everything I could...including a Caramel Brulle Latte. And that latte was so not a skinny one. So first day, I failed in an epic fashion. Second day, armed with some delicious and nutritious snacks, my day was so much better than the one prior. Wednesday came around, same deal. I ate even less, snacked some, and felt amazing. So, I guess the first step for myself was to eat better. Exercising comes after the eating better part. Now, my desire for refined sugars and starchy foods is super limited. (I actually just want to snack on a handful of almonds and dried cranberries. Yum!) We currently have two bags of Hershey's kisses and I've only had five over the past four days. There just isn't a desire for me to eat them! In addition to losing my sweet tooth, my energy has gone up immensely. Today, my husband and I are going to a local park and walking five miles to our favorite doggy park at Marymoor and then the five miles back. Our puppy is going to be so tired, but I'm trying to find reasons to get us out and about because we both feel like we need to "get rid of" the weight.
On the bright side, my ability to keep up and manage the exercise part this next week may not be as bad as the week prior. After all, I have more energy!

Four Day Weekend!

The world is right with a coffee...

Today I managed to duck out of the office a little early. This was due to my desire to begin my four day weekend as well as the fact that I was running out of things to do...and things that my mind could handle. In the middle of the day a terrible migraine popped up and almost took me out. But after a ton of water, some queso and carrots, and Advil, my migraine was disappearing and I was a functioning member of society. Well. For the most part.
So I ducked out, in my rain boots, that were purchased yesterday due to total soakage while walking around Seattle the past few days, grabbed my signature drink (Grande Skinny Caramel Macchiato) and waited for the 252 to show up. The picture pretty much sums up my wait. Relaxing because the four day weekend I have been dreaming of has arrived.
In college, four day weekends were pretty normal. There was always some holiday the school was close for. In the real world, though, those days are few and far between. So four whole days...is like magic. My weekend is already planned! Aside from Thanksgiving my plans consist of lounging around in pajamas, eating at our local breakfast place, playing video games, and spending quality time with my husband that I see so rarely, or so it seems.
I know that this is also a time to be thankful. And believe me, I am thankful. I'm about as thankful as I can be....for the four day weekend.

Shall we sing together?

"I'm singing in the rain,

just singing in the rail;

What wonderful feeling,

I'm happy again." - Arthur Freed

Who doesn't want a kiss like this?

Living in Seattle, we're blessed, according to my mother the word to use here would be cursed, with about six months of rain. Keep in mind my mother lived most of her childhood in Nebraska while I grew up in the middle of the Tongas rainforest in Juneau and then transplanted to the Seattle area. So, it makes sense that our views are a little different on the vast amount of rain our area receives. My views are that it's a very strong blessing, and recently coming from a small farming community, that just happened to have a college in it, on the Eastern side of the state, I know the importance of the rain. But the importance of the rain to crops and livestock isn't what interests me about the rain.

There is nothing, in the world, more intoxicating than the smell of the air after a fresh rain. The water you breathe in. The dampness of the wood. The smell of wet grass. The fresh, crisp taste of it all. Rain nurtures the earth as it nurtures my soul. And after a great rain, the feeling of being renewed is all over. The rain has washed away all of our troubles, concerns, and questions about life...until Monday at least.

The months that bring the rain are, by far, some of my favorites. It was quite disappointing to move to the Seattle area in June and find that our summer was extremely dry and our Fall quite slow on the uptake. But the current weather is more than making up for the summer now. And thank goodness for that.

My life needs GPS so I can find it

Beautiful Seattle in the Morning

Sometimes a kick in the butt is all you need to realize you need to change yourself. I suppose my kick in the butt came yesterday. My husband has been trying to get a job that was pretty much tailor made for him. He'd been in for two in-person interviews and one phone interview. He was a finalist. And instead of choosing any of the finalists, they contracted out. It's been heartbreaking because I know my husband is angry. Angry at the company for not saying that was an option, at the general health of the world and nation's economy, at himself for not getting the job. And it's heartbreaking. Because none of it is his fault.

Marriage is a confusing thing. We all see our parents and their successes and utter failures. We assume what marriage will be like and once you're in it, you realize it's not at all what you imagined it would be. But you cope. And you try. You give everything of yourself to the marriage and to your significant other. And I know it's cheesy, but the saying "If you bleed, I bleed" couldn't be truer. And with that sentiment and disappointment, I have received a kick in the butt.

Today I woke up at five in the morning, a time that is unheard of, and managed to drag my sorry butt as well as my husband's cute butt out of bed and to the gym. I read somewhere that exercise will improve your mood and outlook on things. I hope it does. For him. For me. Because we're in this together. And if waking up at an ungodly hour is what it takes to help both of us through one of the worst economic disasters since the 1930's, I will do it everyday. 

I love my life. I love our opportunities. I love the family that has so kindly brought us into their homes and taken care of us. But most of all, I love my husband. And always will.

Recovery and Restarting

"Where thou art, that is home" - Emily Dickinson

It has been a busy time for our little family. My friend's baby shower was beautiful. In the next few days I'll upload the pictures that we took and post them on here for all to see the decorations that came out just as beautiful as a field of lavendar swaying in the breeze. Okay, maybe not that gorgeous. But pretty damn close.

Our life, as I mentioned, has been pretty busy. Last weekend we had the family baby shower in Olympia. The drive wasn't too bad to Olympia, the food at Vick's Pizza was scrumptious (I always love pizza), the family members that I met were very sweet, but taking my husband to the city of his Alma Mater is always worth it. He always has this wistful...aura, which is a new age word I'm not fond of using, around him. Though, much like Ellensburg for myself, he has out grown the town and both the town and the man have moved on to bigger things to worry about. But I still love our occassional trips to that city as we do have some family there.

As mentioned earlier the baby shower that I was planning was wonderful. I didn't make cupcakes, thank goodness. I was running out of time on just about everything. Planning a baby shower and working and living a sane life do not go together. It reminded me of that joke diagram for college where you can only choose two options of three with the three options being good grades, social life and getting plenty of sleep. Thankfully, the end has been found and we are past the insanity that was baby shower planning.

This coming weekend has baby birthing classes, which exhaust me just to think about!

Today, though, I have been suffering from a bit of a cold and stomach ache (too much stress!). And have been in recovery mode. This week is also the beginning of what I hope to be a much needed self improvement start. My intention is to work out in the morning, eat healthy and wholesome foods, and overall take care of myself in the long run. Hopefully I'll be able to stick with it. Thankfully this bug is mostly gone it feels like. Now I'm going to take time to relax and hang with my husband.

Words to live by

"The most courageous act is still to think for yourself. Aloud." - Coco Chanel

Words to live by

"I believe in pink. I believe that laughing is the best calorie burner. I believe in kissing, kissing a lot. I believe in being strong when everything seems to be going wrong. I believe that happy girls are the prettiest girls. I believe that tomorrow is another day and I believe in miracles." -Audrey Hepburn