Az house

 well, it's been a while since I made a blog post here. I think the last one was about cookies.  While I still enjoy baking and decorating cookies, I don't want to pursue it as a career!  I thought about it and after just a few orders I realized it was way too stressful for me. 

Since my last post we also bought a house in Az.  We actually had it built.  It took about 10 months from start to finish.  This was my first time building a new home and there were some unexpected challenges for sure.  There are a few things we learned as we went and a few I would likely have done different. That being said I think we will still be happy in the long run. The house is in a development, (first time in an HOA too) we had many options to pick from however the choices were still limited and the option prices were very inflated, so we choose many basic items and are taking our time to upgrade them ourselves. I'm lucky David can do most things as long as he has the time to do them.  We are still in the prosses of making it our own.  We have many ideas but haven't gotten to most of them yet.  He did make the barn door, headboard, shiplap wall with fireplace, put up celling fans, pendent lights blinds and more. We are still living in Washington and going back and forth until David can get a job in Az. 

(for some reason the pictures are in reverse order, sorry)

cookies

Looks like it's been awhile since I did a post!
As most of you knw I have always loved cooking and baking, especially desserts!  I have a few good recipies I like to make but I also like to experiment with new recipes.  I noticed recently decorated sugar cookies are quite the rage so I decided I should try it!  I asked a friend who I saw on social media if she could show me how she did them.  I learned a lot and started making more and more. It really took me a lot of time to make them, but I kept practicing and took a few more classes offer by local cookie artist, and began to get faster and better.

  Now I really enjoy it and spend most of my free time making them.  I often get asked by others to make them some but usually turn them down.  I don't feel I'm quite up to a professional level and still have lots to learn.  I'm excited to take an advanced class next month.  for now its just a hobby but maybe one day I'll be selling my cookies and other baked treats.  Here's some pictures of the sugar cookies I've done this past year. *not in order, I have a few newer ones I'll do in the next post.

where has the time gone?

     I noticed (thanks to Joshua's help) I haven't up-dated my blog for a while.  I wasn't a good blogger before but I tried to stay on top of it while Mom and Dad were on their mission, once they got home not only have  I not blogged I haven't even stayed up on reading yours! I really don't even know where all the time has went! This year we have been busy doing projects around the house as well as quite a bit of camping.  We got a new fence, widened our driveway, we are still working on extending our patio, we have a new shed being built soon and David has been busy turning our old one into a little place for me to do some hair.  Even though most of our projects we hired out, we still had to plan, design, figure out who we were hiring, meet with them, ect so it still took up quite a bit of time.  Back to the hair part.... After 27 years of doing hair I am really getting burned out of it, Both physically and mentally so I am looking for a little change.  I really think I will miss some aspects of it though which is why I will keep doing a few friends and family here at the house, meanwhile I might look for another job.... Just something small and part time.  Although I think about the beginning wages for someone without much experience and realize I would have to work a full 8 hour shift to make what I could in an hour of two of hair....so I hesitate.
       We also managed to fit in a little vacation! Now that Mom and Dad are back they could watch Lucy for us so we just got back from Az were we got to go to the SeaHawk game (even though we have been boycotting the NFL) then visited Grandpa Swift and Grandma Rucker (and family) then went to the NASCAR race!  The weather was great and so was the whole trip.  Now we are heading to Hawaii with some friends!  I don't know what I was thinking planning not 1 but 2 vacations at the holidays!!!  (note to self, don't do that again) It is way to busy of a time to through in extra things... I probably wont blog again until after the holidays! As it is I might be a little late on mailing my cards and gifts out!  I just got the cards today so hopefully I will start of them in the morning.
     Here are some random pictures through out the year. Mostly camping  (I will post Az pics next time, they are not up loaded to my computer yet and its getting late)

Garth Brook concert

Camping Chalen

Ocean camping

David's birthday in Chalen

Santana concert and camping MaryHill 

Picking up new motorhome in Tx

Spring time Mt Rainer train ride 

Oregon tulip festival (it's dog friendly)

2016 the good, bad and ugly

  I'm obviously behind of blogging...Shocking I know but I figure better late then never.  I wanted to recap 2016.  I guess I'll  start out with the ugly since that was how my year started.  As I think you all know I was surprised when diagnosed with thyroid cancer last January.  This was quite shocking and quite challenging.  I guess the bad part of the year was having lots of doctors appointments involving many test and pokes.  I hate needles!  I don't really know anyone who likes them but was hoping to grow out of my phobia by now.  Other then that everything else was pretty good.

David and I took a quick trip to Vegas in January for our anniversary were we went bowling, went to a comedy show, saw the Shelby museum and took a drive to Red Rock and the Hoover Dam.  In April I had my I-131 treatment and had to be on a special diet, go to the doctor almost every day for shots then be in quarantine for a few days. not fun! When I was in quarantine I had a lot of time to surf the web and browse for a new dog.  I looked at a lot of dogs in all ages, mostly daschunds. We saw a few we liked and filled out applications.  We got a call that we could go meet Lucy.  She was at the Oregon Daschunds Rescue.  We liked her even though she wasn't sure about us.  Through the rest of the year she has brought us so much joy even though the she still skittish of most everything. She gives us lots of kisses in exchange for belly rubs.  She also has these little piggy's she plays with all the time.  I think she thinks they are her baby's.  She checks on them every time she wakes up, gets home or comes in from potty.  Its really cute. 

Then in May we took a nice road trip to visit friends and family.  Over the summer we went to several concerts, bbq's, and other camping trips.  I have been trying to cut back on my work load to fit in more time for friends and family.  In October I made a quick trip to San Diego to visit Doranda and family.

 David stayed home to take care of Lucy and work on the house remodel.  We are getting close to done.  I think its looking great.

  We still have some little things to finish then start on the last bathroom.  This year we are hoping to re-do the fence and widen the driveway soon too.  The holidays were pretty mellow this year.  We didn't do a lot but we did see Dallen at his music concert,

go to a Seahawk game

and a  go to a few friends '40'th birthday party's.  I also went to the memorial service for my friend Sara, she to was 40, way to young to pass away! 

Sara and I (2008?)

That pretty much wraps of the year.  I'm sure there was more festivities.  All and all it was a good year!  I'm looking forward to this year though!  So far I had my 1 year check up and everything looked great!  We have a few camping trips and concerts planned already, including a fun family reunion, however I'm most looking forward to my parents returning from the Philippians!

family fun

I haven't had time to blog much lately because I've been to busy hanging out with all my family!
David and I took Andrew to put-put golf for his birthday.  Malachi and I went to a Spanish cooking class.  I made some of the  rice we learned again today.

  I went to California to see Doranda, Bob, and the kids, Tucker, Penelope, Scarlett, and Leon.  We had lots of fun going out to eat, playing at the beach, and going to the Safari Park. Here's a picture Tucker drew of me when I first got there.

After I got home Tianna came and got her hair done.  The next day I went to Ashton's soccer game, where he scored and they won!

Ashton scoring!

We even managed to have time to get a few pictures of Lucy with the pumpkins they are growing right across the street from us.

That pretty much sums up the last month.

I'd better wrap it up so I can watch the SeaHawks game starting soon!