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!

summer time sun

This summer the weather has been weird! It's either been really cold (like 60) or really warm (like 90).  Because I cut back on clients earlier this year I was able to spend more time enjoying the weather.  Instead of a "big" trip this year David and I decided we would mostly go camping.  This would also give us time to bond with Lucy.  We have already went 3 or 4 times this summer and have 2 more trips planned.  Our most recent one we stayed by the Columbia river and went on several water fall hikes.  It was beautiful.

We also stopped by Ape caves, for the first time, on our way home!  We tried to take a picture inside but with no light inside we couldn't get much of one.

  It was over 90 degrees and we had Lucy in parking lot, in the motorhome,  we didn't want her to get too hot, so we just did the "easy" side.  We did look at the "hard" side and thought it would be cool to try it another time. 
  In all my spare time from work I also managed to go to SeaHawks training camp one day

and went to a few concerts including 2 local free in the park ones that were really good and Don Henley (from the Eagle's) and Gwen Stephani.

I wasn't really excited to see her by my friends were going and David was working so I went with them and it turned out to be pretty good.  I like her music more now then I did before.  I still have Dolly Parton coming up in September! I cant wait!  I've also enjoyed getting to know Lucy more.  She is really growing on us.  She really is a good, sweet, cute dog but is still scared of people and other dogs.  

first time swimming

at the beauty supple with me

I had this blanket by the door to take to the good will but she claimed it as her own!

 I enjoyed this summer so much I'm already planning on working even less next summer.