russ, this is for you!

Went out last night to see Kevin's favorite band play, Ween. It was such an incredible show!! I have not been to see them in three years, we figured out. Every year they have come I have every intention of going, but then a buddy of Kev's comes along and I send them off with my ticket in tow...(think Zumo last year, Russ).

Kev was sooooo excited because they played some songs he always says, "they never play this live." Russ, I am sure you will appreciate this, they played Fluffy!!!! I was happy just to hear some live music again. Of course, getting up this morning was not easy, but with enough coffee I will be fine. I see going to bed early tonight.

Russ, I did want to tell you I screamed for Beacon Light, but no luck.

Ah, well. Sorry everyone else who was thinking I was going to give you interesting information...this post is pretty much for Russ (and anyone else who loves Ween).

I will try to think of exciting things to post later tonight, when Kev goes to the second show of a 2 night show.

more photos...

So today we puttered around the house. Went grocery shopping. Did laundry. All kinds of fun things!!!

Wanted to do more yardwork, but it was very hot here again today (90+) and so instead of risking heat stroke we decided to just clean the house. I know we would have been fine and a little hard work in hot weather wouldn't be the end of us, but there is not much we are going to do to the yard until next spring.

Thought you all might want to see a few things.

Here is our new sofa with the photos I finally decided on.

Our fabulous chest from Jill and Mark. I just love the way it is all shaping up.

And finally, our bedroom with the real duvet cover we use...

Kev just announced he was going out back to read. It is a bit toasty in the house. I may go grab a hard lemonade and join him.

Until next we meet (sorry there isn't anything fun and fantastic happening for me to write about, but I did want to write something). Kev tells me I am "going to loose eyes." I assume this means readers. :)

things are looking up

I spoke with my Mom this morning after receiving two rather lengthy emails from her. What a difference two days at home has made!! She sounded so wonderful. She actually got released on Tuesday, a day earlier than they had told her originally. She's been vacuuming, and resting as needed. She is such an inspiration to me. Such a strong woman. I am honored to call her Mom and friend.

As for the house, we have done not much more since the last post. I have redone the pictures on the wall behind the new sofa so that picture is now outdated...

Still waiting to hear from The Depot about our sliding door. I am ready for it to be installed as it has gotten hot here again, what in the 80's?! It's a good ten degrees higher than usual. This makes the house quite warm.

We are going to have to figure something out to keep the one neighbor cat away from the screen though. Simon and the little grey one, we've renamed Earl, have a love affair going on. Simon was actually petting his head the other day when Hammuda was at the house. And just yesterday while the other cream colored cat was out there Ms. Chloe was going ape, screaming and carrying on. As soon as the dog joined Jerry (the cat) Chloe started chirping and meowing at Tommy. We're not sure, but we think she wants a dog. Don't worry, not for a while would we go down that road.

Lunch is calling my name so I bid you all bye for now.

Mom is getting sprung from the joint!!

I got a call earlier today from my parents saying that Mom was getting out of the hospital on Wednesday. I am very excited as this means her cell counts are getting much better and she is on the mend. She did ask me if we were spending money on this blog (because of the pictures) and I assured her no we were not. She is quite cranky I guess, Dad says it's a side effect of being taken off some of her meds. I am just glad that she has the moxy to tell me what she thinks! :)

Okay, so here are a few more tasty treats for you!!

An old view of our bedroom. We now have a different duvet cover and have yet to take a picture of it.

We have a fabulous bookcase. We got it at Ikea for a song!!

Also, remember those fabric doors?

Okay, need to go check on my cheese cake. Made some banana bread and a cheese cake for friends who are coming over tonight.

Okay Dad helped me figure out the pictures!!

So, now if you click on the house link it will actually show you the front view of our abode.

The fun begins now!!

I once told you all of the hideous green kitchen.
We walked in and thought how pretty will this be if we paint it yellow and white. So what do you think? Improvement!!!
We added
knobs and coblat blue accents. I love my new kitchen!!!

This will be all that I post now, I want to keep you all intrigued!!

Ta for now.

And we have pictures?

Kevin showed me how to set up a photo link... Let's try.

this is the front view of the house.

I am going to post this now and see what happens, if it works the rest will be posted either later (after I eat dinner) tonight, or tomorrow.

Love to all...

pictures hung, but for how long

I have hung the family photos up above the new sofa, but I am not sure how long they will stay that way. We also took the French doors off that led into the cave. They opened inward, and just kind of hung in mid air. If we wanted to shut them we would have had to move the tv and the desk. We have talked of having them open towards the living room instead. It makes more sense (as I am sure you would agree if you could see what I am speaking of).

The orders never got written and I doubt I will have time to do them today at work (I will try though). I am sure that I will be as busy as I was yesterda, but I will hope the time will speed by faster.

Kevin was busy and did a little painting yesterday too. He painted the wall behind the new sofa, since it was so dark with the "bark mulch" behind it originally. Just one more wall and some trim to paint in the cave and it will be done (for the time being).

Okay, bus going to be here in minutes and I better get out there to catch it!!!

d'oh! I knew there was something else....

I was going to tell you all.

A good friend of my boss (his name is Hammuda) stopped by the house yesterday. Hammuda is the handy-type man around the shops when he is not living in LA. He once told me he would help us do anything at the house when he was back in Portland, I guess he likes me and since I've done random things for him (shipping, writing of letters...) he felt like he wanted to do something for us.

I looked up yesterday and he was standing outside the shop, looking in and laughing. I called out, "if you have nothing better to do than stand out there and laugh at me I have a house you can go crawl under." He and I had talked about the hump that is under the kitchen and bedroom (some contractor who'd worked on the house told us that two owners ago had raised the house on the beam that runs lengthwise and had raised it too high). Hammuda wanted to see if this was true so he went by yesterday, crawled under the house, checked the attic, looked everywhere and this is what he said.

"You made a very good buy. It is a great house, it is very sound. I didn't see any shims of any kind under the house so I don't think what the guy told you is correct. It may have been some water damage from some time ago, but I see no moister anywhere now." It made me feel so good to know that A. he likes me enough and would go crawl under my house and B. that he thinks we made a sound buy. I value his opinion and to have him say these words to me made my heart sing.

Okay, just finishing up at work and then it's off to catch the bus home. Where pictures wait to be hung and some orders for work need to be written up.

and we have a living room!!

The new sofa/sleeper is beautiful!! It has made the cave feel a bit darker, so we are exploring a different paint on the wall behind it. It is a gorgeous blue fabric, but it just absorbs the light in the room. We have added another lamp, but still want to paint the wall behind it a white.

The living room is now looking like a room we can use, finally! We arranged it when I got home from girls night (I ended up going and having a wonderful time). Now, tonight, all we have to do is hang pictures and finish moving a few things around and it will be perfect. But, knowing I am my mother's daughter, I will always be moving things around in every room.

It could be Christmas time now, I want my family to be here now to see everything!! I know that my Mom is going to love it, just as my Mamasita did.

Well, Ground Force is calling my name (best garden/design show- on BBC America).

stomack/stomach...what's the dif?

Boy, and I thought I was proofreading these posts quite well.

Went to the apartments last night to have a dessert party with our friends who still live there. It was nice. We got to meet Kerry's sister, Steph, who is visiting from the UK. They invited me to girl's night, which I am still on the fence about. On one hand we really need to save money and with the sofa arriving I am antsy to get decorating, on the other it would be nice to get out with the girls (most of whom I've not seen in a while-they are the coffee girls Kerry sees every Thursday). I will wait and see where they want to meet and when and go from there.

Things with Mom are progressing, but aparentally not as quickly as she would like. She has her good days and she has he rough days. Her white cell count is rising though, which is a good thing. I know she really wants to be home for the recoperation part. But, she does need the more sterile environment of the hospital for a little while longer. Everytime I speak with her she sounds a bit stronger. I keep telling her this, but I don't think she believes me. I promise, I am not giving her lip service!!!

Well, it's time to get ready for work. Must pack my lunch.

Ta-ta

sofa sofa sofa

I got a call today from Ethan Allen that our new sleeper/sofa is ready to be delivered. WOW, that was fast!! I had gotten a call from the woman we "worked" with about it being shipped on the 15th from the warehouse. Overnight delivery?!?! I doubt it, probably was scheduled to arrive then and she got mixed up? Anyway it is ready to be in our home. I left them a message, as they were closed for the night, and I left Kev's number as well so if they can't get me they can get him. He's got a bit more flexible schedule than I do right now.

I have heard from our friend Russ that I have taken too long to post...this is a problem, I am sorry. I do wish to say HAPPY BIRTHDAY RUSSELL T (15th) and DAD CLOCK(16th). We will have a toast in honor of you both this evening, with whatever we decide to drink (I'm going to guess Squirt).

Speaking of drinking, I must go and figure out what we will be eating this evening. My stomack is telling me it's been too long since I ate my lunch.

Bye for now.

update time

Okay, let's see if I can remember all that happened this past week:

Wed: Peggy arrived and Kevin and she picked me up at work to go out to dinner downtown. We went to a great Italian place that we have only been to once before, but must remember it in the future for it's GREAT happy hour menu. Every plate is just 2.95 and they are pretty substantial. We shared five plates and had some drinks before coming home to crash. Peg loves the house and was quite impressed with what we have already done.

Thurs: I worked while Kev and Peg went and saw Finding Nemo. Such a sweet movie for Mom to take her son to. :) I took the bus home and we grilled steaks and made my Mom's warm dijon potato salad. It was a nice evening, and the margaritas flowed very freely!!

Fri: We woke up with the wild hair to drive out to the coast and stay the night. First we did some running around town, we ordered the sliding door, got an extra key made for our friends so they could feed the cats, etc. Then we were off to Newport. I found a hotel that was on the beach, every room had an ocean view. The price was right and so we stayed the night (thanks Mamasita!!). It was so relaxing and nice to spend her birthday out there.

Sat: We spent some time in Newport, went to the Historic Bay to do a little souvenier shopping. Got a beautiful bird feeder for 1/2 off!!! It is now hanging outside our kitchen door. After we got back we decided to go get some food and invite some friends over to grill out with us. One of whom is a landscape designer. He isn't working as one now, and misses it. I told him if he would want to do some things for us, (pruning our cherry tree, helping me landscape the front lawn) we could talk payment. He, instead, suggested trade. I offered to feed him. He accepted happily. We will tackle things next spring as the rains are now coming and to do too much now would not work (I will follow things he says as he used to own his own company down in Eugene, OR).

Sun: We got up before the birds (Peggy and I), went downtown and walked in the 12th annual Race for the Cure. It was a fantastic event, just like last year. Although this year there were six of us who walked together (with the thousands of other women). After we walked we went to Jake's Grill-a fabulous eatery here-had our celebratory mimosas and ate some great breakfast. Kevin showed up right when we had finished up and paid and took us home so Peggy could get ready to go to the airport. A teary goodbye, but we are planning on going to TX in the spring so we can enjoy their new pool!!!

Where is Walter in all this, you ask? Well, it rained and rained and rained in Dallas and they canceled his flight. By the time he would have been able to get here he would have only had a day to spend here. By and by it was not worth it. This let Peggy stay the whole time at the house with us, which was quite nice.

Now that my tummy is full (we grilled out yet again) and my body is tired, I think I am done with the update. I will be a bit more on the ball in the future, just with the Mamasita in town I rarely got on the computer!! She's too much fun!

is it tuesday already!?

Time has been flying by!! Mamasita Peggy gets in tomorrow and I couldn't be more excited. Kevin is on cleaning duty today because I have a huge order to get written up when I get home for a shoe show I am attending on Monday the 15th. I love going to the shows, it's wild though because we are seeing spring/summer for next year and it's still summer now.

BUT it feels muuuuuch cooler. Mr. Zafino was right (the weather guy I watch) it is cool and overcast. There are even patches of green in our grass since it started raining yesterday!!! We'll have to mow again before we know it!

I got a call today about our sofa! It is shipping on the 15th from the warehouse and should be here in about two weeks. I still am hoping it will show up in a week, but not counting on it. So we will soon have a house with a living room that is more than just a house for boxes. Of course this means I will have to go through the box marked "filing cabinet crap" sooner than later. Ah well, such is life.

I have not written about my Mom yet, because I have been having a hard time knowing what to say. I've not known if I should write, but I know there are friends of mine who want to know what is happening and how she is doing. Also when I type it it means it's true.

Most of my friends know that my Mom has been battling cancer now for many years. She has had good reactions to the past two treatments, the first being chemo the second being part of a trial group trying out rituxan treatments. The third is now upon us and she is doing a stem cell transplant in the next few days. She has been in the hospital for almost a week now doing a chemo regime to kill all her cells so that she can have her healthy stem cells transplanted back into her. She'd had them harvisted when she was healthy just in case she had to have this procedure done. The results can be quite good, giving the person up to 7 years of remission.

It has been quite a hard, long, boring treatment for her and she has told my Dad how homesick she is. She will have to be in the hospital for about three weeks, in isolation because her immune system will be out of whack and she will be very prone to infection. When she gets out and is home she can not have contact with Hazel, their cat, and all of the plants will have to be removed as they can carry bacteria that could harm her.

This has been a very tough time for my family, but as the troopers we are we have pulled together and have given Mom as much support as humanly possible. If anyone would like her address at the hospital to send her a card, email me and I will tell you what it is. She can't get flowers or fruit, but a nice card of "hang in there" would do wonders for her.

If you could just keep her in your prayers and send all your good vibes her way that would be very appreciated by us.

light at the end of the heat tunnel

The weather man says it is only going to be in the upper 60's by tomorrow. This is a nice thing and boy am I ready for some cool weather. And it is supposed to rain!!! : ) I don't think I am the only person who is longing for it to cool off. I know the midwest folk in my life are ready for a cool down themselves.

We are steadily getting the house ready for Mamasita Peggy and Daddy Walter's visit. Kev is looking forward to spending time with his mom. I can fully understand why.

We are also preparing for a fiesta tomorrow night. The little cookout with Naomi and her husband has turned into a full fledged Mexican Fiesta!!! It should be fun. Still no word on the sofa, but I wanted to have people over and got sick of waiting for the new sofa to arrive!

The sliding door is ready to be ordered, we just have to go pick out the trim. Then it only will be two weeks before the door to come in and we have to make plans for installation. I am quite excited as it sounds like the glass is sealed very well and treated for UV protection. Our current door makes the kitchen so darn hot!! I'm sure I have mentioned this all before.

Boy, the wierdos have come out today. I just had a woman in who mentioned a spot on the wood of one of our shoes (it was glue that would rub out if she would have let me touch the shoe) and then went on to say, "it looks like someone got into the box, someone who was doing narcotics in the store." I simply said it was glue and tried to usher her out asap. She then asked if I was famous and how Jerry was, you know, my husband from Hawaii...I just said I didn't know Jerry and wasn't from Hawaii. A couple of fun girls who came in as she was leaving said I should have told her I'd tell Jerry hi for her. Oy vey!

Well, only an hour and a half left at work and I have things to get finished up before heading home.

Love to you all...

my poor friend naomi

I have met a woman at the shoe shop who has become a friend..awwwww.

She and her husband followed our home buying path (it was actually a perfectly timed first meeting that corresponded with our home buying experience which led her and her husband to buying as well). I have just gotten an email from her and she is wondering when she will have time to sit and relax. (do I insert the evil laugh now?) nah, she reads this. ;) I am hoping to have the two of them over to grill on Sunday. I have the invite out, just need to hear back from her and talk to Kev about it. Maybe we can make it a get together of several of our friends...hmmmm.

I wrote to a friend back in Kansas, Kirby is his name, about how I feel like I am trying to run but I'm up to my knees in sand. There are times I feel like I am helpless and no matter how hard I try I can't get away from that feeling. I think, because I am working an extra day this week AND it is hot here, this feeling will pass on Sunday. Then it's back to work for four days before getting a mini vacation. I am glad that I could swap days off with my co-worker so I wouldn't have to use my newly aquired paid time off. I get a week and didn't want to use it within the first month of getting it.

have to actually go do work now....bye

advertizing

I have recently been able to exercise my design muscles and have created a new ad for a publication here in Portland. Every year (twice a year) we advertize in a booklet called "Discover Portland" and this holiday season I inquired as to what it would take to change the ad we have run for the last I'm not sure how many years. The woman at MediAmerica said it would take me submitting an ad for Clogs-N-More or their designers could come up with something. I readily accepted the challenge of designing one for the store. I have come up with a great ad, the folks at MediAmerica love it, my boss loves it, I adore it. However I have to do the whole thing over in a higher resolution...d'oh!! Oh well. I have emailed myself all the pictures I used and I have a hard copy of the original ad so I can work on that at home over the next few evenings.

I have also come up with a new window display for the Race for the Cure. I've got a pair of clogs walking through pink paint that has "spilled" and they have left the tread marks. I am going to take a picture for my portfolio. It has been nice giving my brain a workout.

I just had a gentleman ask if I sold loafers. As nicely as I could I told him that we really just sell clogs, pointed out two of our most "non" clog styles for men and wished him luck on his quest. I think my favorite question I get is "do you sell shoe laces?" Now, I think to myself, "yeah, we are a CLOG store...what do you think?" But out loud I say, "No, but there are several shoe repair shops in the area that do..." Usually the person will laugh and say something about since we are clog store they aren't surprised. I did have someone earlier who couldn't understand why we don't sell white shoe polish. I simply said that we don't sell too many white clogs and don't have a reason to have the polish in stock.

The winter is definately on it's way. There is a drop in light now, it starts to get dusky earlier and it probably won't be long before the rains come back. I think, this year, I am ready for them. It has been a very hot summer. And sadly I think that is going to be the trend. Every summer since we have moved here has been hotter than the previous. This makes me sad.

OH!! Got love from the "big black dawg" Tommy today!! (our neighbor's dog) Juan was outside listening to a friend's car (he's a mechanic) and while we were chatting Tommy started walking up to me slowly. All it took was me saying his name, letting him smell my hand and he was leaning all over me!!! I am glad that the friendship has begun between us.

Well, that is the excitment of my day. I have an hour left at work and have a large order to finish writing up for the shoe show on the 15th.

cookout at 1635

Last night we went back to the apartments to have a cookout with our former neighbors. It was great seeing everyone and just like old times, although we weren't going into our apartment when we needed things... Luckily Kerry and Scott are such good friends that we never thought twice about going into their place to get water, use the bathroom, etc. Kerry framed one of Manny's little onesies. There is a brand in England whose logo is Freddie Cat. I saw them for the first time before Manny was born and told her that when he outgrew them I wanted one!!! Actually I did tell her that I would send money to her Mum in England so she could get me some. But Kerry decided that she would frame one of Manny's with a picture of Oliver holding Manny and a label saying, Great Friends. Brought tears to my eyes!!!

Kevin went hiking yesterday with his friends Chuck, Marcy and Chuck's sister. They went up to the Mt Hood area and hiked Frog lake. I worked, but the time went by quickly.

Nothing exciting, sorry kids.