Its not that I have been too busy to update, its just that I haven't felt like I've had anything monumental to update. Summer came and went like it always does, and we had a spectacular time hosting the 4th of July party again this year. Tyler completely outdid himself and we may just need to conveniently be "out of town" next year because we cannot possibly top that fireworks display. This fall has been filled with lots of busy days at the barn, I am taking on more responsibilities working with the horses and accumulating some extra work hours to get a better discount on my board. The current plan with Decker is to continue to train diligently with the goals of getting him in the show ring ASAP. My trainers agree that he is a very talented hunter who could should be a successful sale horse if he does well in competition. Right now, our biggest goal is developing smooth lead changes and encouraging him to canter around larger 3' courses very slow and relaxed. The colder the weather gets, though, the more "hot blooded" those Thoroughbreds tend to be, so we are finding new and long lasting spurts of energy that he is learning to cope with. He is a very fun horse to work with and has some really incredible days, and I am incredibly excited to take him to all the shows next year. If he progresses at the current rate he's at, I expect he will be a very safe and competitive children's horse or A/A, with plenty of flair to get fancy ribbons.
My home-situation is pretty stable. Tyler is busy as always with sports and homebrewing, keeping up with his millions of hobbies... It is nice having my parents back after their year + away on their boat trip. I am relieved to have plans for Thanksgiving that involve my dad obsessing over the moisture in the stuffing and my mom setting the table a week in advance for a dinner party of up to 40 people.
My grandpa is having a hard time right now and is struggling through a rough recovery from a few complications with a heart procedure in early October. He elected to have a surgery to lessen the strain on his heart, and following the 2nd of the 2-part multi-day surgery, he did not regain consiousness as expected. He was in a lot of distress and appeared to be agitated and uncomfortable, which was later diagnosed as having sustained a small stroke in his post-op care. He may have had a second stroke, but the grey areas are very broad and I am really only updated by email about his condition every few days. He flew from Florida to the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio to have the procedure, so the challenge of getting him home was a major concern right away. He was stable enough to travel as of the middle of last week, and he handled the airtransport well. My grandma is home with him in Florida where he is living in an acute care facility for now, and gearing up for increased nutrition and therapy to regain his health.
In my day to day at work in a physical therapy setting, I have seen patients bounce back from a wide variety of illnesses and diseases. I have also seen them cause families and spouses major strain and agony. I spoke to my grandpa right before his surgery, mostly by luck, that I happen to call my dad on my way up to my Lasik surgery, thinking about how nervous I was that my vision was at stake... it really helped me put it into perspective that the same morning I was gearing up for Lasik, my dad was helping my grandpa get comfortable in a hospital room for a major heart surgery. It made my very routine procedure seem a lot less scary when I heard my grandpa describe what he was about to undergo. He did not seem at all scared or apprehensive about his decision to have surgery, and was instead fascinated by the technology available to make him better. He was humbly impressed by my dad's ability to be his caregiver during the process, and told me my dad should consider a career in "becoming a butler". I think he may have meant "nurse", but I like that he said butler :) Grandpa Joe is back in sunny Florida, closer to my aunts and uncles, cousins, his dog and cat, and back where my grandma can take better care of herself too. I can't imagine what it was like for her these past few weeks living out of a hotel room and spending time with my grandpa who has not even been able to speak her name. I can't even begin to try to guess how she feels. My dad is taking this stress the hardest, I think. He seems to feel like his dad is gone, and will never be the same. I know that is not necessarily the case, since I have seen stroke patients, heart attack patients, total joint replacements gone wrong, parkinsons, you name it, walk in on their own 2 feet and make major changes in their lives with a short hour of treatment. And I only work in an outpatient orthopedic facility, imagine what can be achieved in an inpatient skilled nursing facility with the proper equipment, trained professionals, and positive attitudes that he will need to heal.
Much love, grandpa joe :)
Monday, November 2, 2009
Monday, June 1, 2009
Projects Galore
My current obsession is cleaning, cleaning and more cleaning for my 4th of July party coming up. I am determined to make this house, yard, and everything in between SPARKLE for the party just in time for everyone to come and mess it up again :)
This includes:
De-gunking the entire bar. The floor, the counters, everything... it never really comes clean for some reason, its like beer has been finely misted on every inch of the basement.
Making Tyler's brewing cabinet. This is 5% done. It will be a lovely improvement to help him keep all his materials organized and close to where all his brewing action happens. I set him up an outdoor brew station that I think is handy and a little more tidy.
Comfort-izing the basement guest rooms. They still feel like hookup rooms no matter how clean the sheets. There has to be a way to make the rooms feel more like guest rooms somehow.
Deep cleaning the basement bathroom. Not sure what happened down there at the last Tbird party.
Make the laundry room look/feel/smell less like the barn. This is 100% my fault because of all the nasty horse laundry I bring home. This will take a lot of cleaning products and a lot of bleaching loads of laundry.
Make room in the guest room!! I seem to have spread my craft hobby out a little too wide. Bj and Aubrey have the rights to the room for the party and it would only be polite to give them a place to actually put a suitcase, let alone walk/sleep/move.
Help Tyler with his man-room. This includes helping rehome all his baseball gear into a new bag, moving all the beer stuff to his new cabinet, and getting all of my unnecessary crap out of there.
DONE --> Potting station under the stairs. I pulled a giant space-consuming table out of the cabana to use as a potting station where I can keep all my hanging basket supplies, compost, soil, pots, trays, wheelbarrow, everything. Best part about it is its behind the house around the corner where no one ever goes.
Potting plants and hanging baskets. I am almost prepped and ready to plant some annuals in time for the party.
DONE --> Water access to the top porch. I have never successfully kept plants on my porch because it is impossible to water them when I have to throw the hose up and over the rail, run up the stairs through the house, and inevitably find the hose has slipped down to the bottom level again... my dad helped me run a watering system up to the top level so I have easy access to water all the time! Looovely!
1/2 DONE --> Pressure wash EVERYTHING. This includes the front walkway/stairs/porch, hallway in front of house, side stairs, side of house/all windows, all the red-top surface, cabana roof, walkway to cabana, waterfront level, bulkhead, and dock. The dock alone took me about 4-5 hours.
2/3 DONE --> Organize the cabana. Finally take all the 20 year old bottles of crap to the dump which may be a full truckload and possibly $50 worth of disposal fees. Jim keeps his boat under the covered dock and really would probably enjoy having some usable space to keep his boat stuff. I am trying make it completely functional and have zero wasted space. So far, so good!
Break down all the wood and BURN IT. This will likely take place at some point over the next few parties, Tyler and Sean make good fires :). The pit is loaded up with nice big dry logs so we can light a big one whenever the mood strikes. I started but only got a little ways into the monster pile of wood.
Completely weed all the gardens and lay more bark before the party for that extra fancy look :) Also everything is greatly in need of pruning.
Not that anyone will be going up there, but I should probably clean our bedroom too.
Sounds like a lot of work, huh? I have exactly 4 weeks, including 8 weekend days to get it all done! As Tyler/Aaron/Dave would say, "CHALLENGE!!"
This includes:
De-gunking the entire bar. The floor, the counters, everything... it never really comes clean for some reason, its like beer has been finely misted on every inch of the basement.
Making Tyler's brewing cabinet. This is 5% done. It will be a lovely improvement to help him keep all his materials organized and close to where all his brewing action happens. I set him up an outdoor brew station that I think is handy and a little more tidy.
Comfort-izing the basement guest rooms. They still feel like hookup rooms no matter how clean the sheets. There has to be a way to make the rooms feel more like guest rooms somehow.
Deep cleaning the basement bathroom. Not sure what happened down there at the last Tbird party.
Make the laundry room look/feel/smell less like the barn. This is 100% my fault because of all the nasty horse laundry I bring home. This will take a lot of cleaning products and a lot of bleaching loads of laundry.
Make room in the guest room!! I seem to have spread my craft hobby out a little too wide. Bj and Aubrey have the rights to the room for the party and it would only be polite to give them a place to actually put a suitcase, let alone walk/sleep/move.
Help Tyler with his man-room. This includes helping rehome all his baseball gear into a new bag, moving all the beer stuff to his new cabinet, and getting all of my unnecessary crap out of there.
DONE --> Potting station under the stairs. I pulled a giant space-consuming table out of the cabana to use as a potting station where I can keep all my hanging basket supplies, compost, soil, pots, trays, wheelbarrow, everything. Best part about it is its behind the house around the corner where no one ever goes.
Potting plants and hanging baskets. I am almost prepped and ready to plant some annuals in time for the party.
DONE --> Water access to the top porch. I have never successfully kept plants on my porch because it is impossible to water them when I have to throw the hose up and over the rail, run up the stairs through the house, and inevitably find the hose has slipped down to the bottom level again... my dad helped me run a watering system up to the top level so I have easy access to water all the time! Looovely!
1/2 DONE --> Pressure wash EVERYTHING. This includes the front walkway/stairs/porch, hallway in front of house, side stairs, side of house/all windows, all the red-top surface, cabana roof, walkway to cabana, waterfront level, bulkhead, and dock. The dock alone took me about 4-5 hours.
2/3 DONE --> Organize the cabana. Finally take all the 20 year old bottles of crap to the dump which may be a full truckload and possibly $50 worth of disposal fees. Jim keeps his boat under the covered dock and really would probably enjoy having some usable space to keep his boat stuff. I am trying make it completely functional and have zero wasted space. So far, so good!
Break down all the wood and BURN IT. This will likely take place at some point over the next few parties, Tyler and Sean make good fires :). The pit is loaded up with nice big dry logs so we can light a big one whenever the mood strikes. I started but only got a little ways into the monster pile of wood.
Completely weed all the gardens and lay more bark before the party for that extra fancy look :) Also everything is greatly in need of pruning.
Not that anyone will be going up there, but I should probably clean our bedroom too.
Sounds like a lot of work, huh? I have exactly 4 weeks, including 8 weekend days to get it all done! As Tyler/Aaron/Dave would say, "CHALLENGE!!"
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Amazing Decker
He may look plain to the untrained eye, but this is one cool horse. He is really coming along well and so fun to ride. Just wanted to share him on a good, quiet, mellow, nothing-super-challenging day where we just loped around and jumped jumps no biggie. He is going to be amazing once we get to the shows. Still struggling a bit with lead changes, but we get a few each week with less and less fuss. He still throws a bit of a buck in from time to time and I have to remember not to get mad at him, we both have a little bit of a temper :)
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Summer plans
So lately, my limiting factor on how often I write blog posts is how many pictures I have taken. I decided that is a bunch of hogwash and will write with or without pictures, so here ya go. Sorry if this is more bland...
This summer I have a lot of goals for making the most of the weather, since this winter seemed particularly brutal and wearing on us poor Northwestern folk. I really really want to...
*Use my kayak on a weekly basis, preferably for early morning paddles when the lake is flat as glass.
*Spend more time reading outside. I have a lot of books on my reading to-do list, might as well do it somewhere with some sunlight. My favorite places to read outside other than in my backyard are: the Japanese Garden by my house, anywhere in Columbia City or Mt. Baker neighborhoods, Coulon Park, around the pipeline in Maple Valley, or floating on my kayak in the middle of the lake (just begging to get hit by a boat). I usually tie up to buoys to do that... no worries :)
*Run more. Everyone says they want to run more, right?
*Make my garden spectacular! Keep it weed free, green, maybe plant some annuals for once, and maintain it the way it is supposed to be.
*Do all the projects around the house I have always wanted to do but didn't make time for...that list is miles long.
*Go to zoos, aquariums, and parks and bring my camera and use it.
*Spend time with Holly and her new baby and take him swimming in a kiddie pool!!
*Take Guster for hikes and let him off leash somewhere at least 1x a week.
*Spend more time fishing with Tyler on his boat and try to outfish him.
*Go to lots of M's games and master the perfect scorecard. I keep score with a pen and get really mad when I make a mistake and I give up and try again the next game. I am determined to keep score from start to finish with every detail included.
*Have more after-work plans to give me a reason not to dread sitting inside all day when the sun is shining. Even just meeting friends for drinks gives me something to look forward to :)
Any other suggestions?
This summer I have a lot of goals for making the most of the weather, since this winter seemed particularly brutal and wearing on us poor Northwestern folk. I really really want to...
*Use my kayak on a weekly basis, preferably for early morning paddles when the lake is flat as glass.
*Spend more time reading outside. I have a lot of books on my reading to-do list, might as well do it somewhere with some sunlight. My favorite places to read outside other than in my backyard are: the Japanese Garden by my house, anywhere in Columbia City or Mt. Baker neighborhoods, Coulon Park, around the pipeline in Maple Valley, or floating on my kayak in the middle of the lake (just begging to get hit by a boat). I usually tie up to buoys to do that... no worries :)
*Run more. Everyone says they want to run more, right?
*Make my garden spectacular! Keep it weed free, green, maybe plant some annuals for once, and maintain it the way it is supposed to be.
*Do all the projects around the house I have always wanted to do but didn't make time for...that list is miles long.
*Go to zoos, aquariums, and parks and bring my camera and use it.
*Spend time with Holly and her new baby and take him swimming in a kiddie pool!!
*Take Guster for hikes and let him off leash somewhere at least 1x a week.
*Spend more time fishing with Tyler on his boat and try to outfish him.
*Go to lots of M's games and master the perfect scorecard. I keep score with a pen and get really mad when I make a mistake and I give up and try again the next game. I am determined to keep score from start to finish with every detail included.
*Have more after-work plans to give me a reason not to dread sitting inside all day when the sun is shining. Even just meeting friends for drinks gives me something to look forward to :)
Any other suggestions?
Thursday, April 9, 2009
MAINE!
Hannah is right. I need to blog about my exciting summer plans. The HIGHLIGHT of my summer by far. I am taking my first real east coast trip to visit Portland, Maine, home of the infamous Hannah and probably the hardest place I will ever have to leave :) Everyone I've ever met who once lived back east told me I would thrive in New England, and I believe it.
I cannot WAIT, I am taking 4 days off work for a long weekend, taking red eye flights to maximize my daylight with Hanny. It will be the 2nd week of July, so undoubtedly gorgeous weather... Can't say I don't have my hopes up because I have big plans in store for us and I expect to come back exhausted and completely abused by the Atlantic Ocean :)
I want to see some real authentic light houses and get dangerously close to a rocky cliff and maybe jump in but only if I know other people have done it and survived. Big risk taker, I know...
I will splurge and have lobster for breakfast, lunch and dinner because for some reason in my mind, Lobster is as cheap as wonderbread in Maine and people eat it like candy without a second thought. I also imagine there are lobster vending machines with preheated drawn butter dispensers on every street corner.
I plan to be escorted to the LL Bean store and to buy some cool stuff, including more of that amazing moose lip stuff Hannah brought me :)
Tyler of course would love for me to visit a local brewery called Allagash, which Hannah knows about and hopefully we can have a few pints while in Portland.
Not sure where this is but it looked cool and gets me really excited for the trip. First time I have flown anywhere alone since before my wedding, so it will be cool to just have a girls weekend! If anyone has any suggestions let me know what else is a must-see or must-do in Maine in July.
I cannot WAIT, I am taking 4 days off work for a long weekend, taking red eye flights to maximize my daylight with Hanny. It will be the 2nd week of July, so undoubtedly gorgeous weather... Can't say I don't have my hopes up because I have big plans in store for us and I expect to come back exhausted and completely abused by the Atlantic Ocean :)
I want to see some real authentic light houses and get dangerously close to a rocky cliff and maybe jump in but only if I know other people have done it and survived. Big risk taker, I know...
I will splurge and have lobster for breakfast, lunch and dinner because for some reason in my mind, Lobster is as cheap as wonderbread in Maine and people eat it like candy without a second thought. I also imagine there are lobster vending machines with preheated drawn butter dispensers on every street corner.
I plan to be escorted to the LL Bean store and to buy some cool stuff, including more of that amazing moose lip stuff Hannah brought me :)
Tyler of course would love for me to visit a local brewery called Allagash, which Hannah knows about and hopefully we can have a few pints while in Portland.
Not sure where this is but it looked cool and gets me really excited for the trip. First time I have flown anywhere alone since before my wedding, so it will be cool to just have a girls weekend! If anyone has any suggestions let me know what else is a must-see or must-do in Maine in July.
Monday, March 16, 2009
St. Patty's Day "Dash"
So, I "ran" in the St. Patty's Day Dash yesterday, which was going to suck a little anyway because I haven't been training enough and was worried I was going to die of exhaustion. The weather was as bad as it could get. It snowed giant 6lb snowflakes and the wind was ridiculous. All that aside, I had a good waterproof coat and enough layers to get by, and I would have been ok if it were just a little crappy weather and sore muscles...
but I decided to tailgate a little too closely to Tyler on a downhill and rolled my ankle into a pothole, took a weird step to catch my balance and tweaked my hip. THEN, I thought oh no biggie I'm almost done I can get to the finish line and be ok. Continued to run on a sprained ankle for probably 3/4 mile. All the volunteers along the way were like "walk it in, don't push it!" and apparently I thought they were talking to other people around me. I hobbled my way across the finish line and by the time I cooled down I wasn't exactly "weightbearing".
Anyway, now I'm RICE-ing it and it looks super minor so I know I will be back to normal in a few days. Just kinda annoyed that a potentially harmless activity could be so crappy. Oh well, happy st. patty's day!!!
but I decided to tailgate a little too closely to Tyler on a downhill and rolled my ankle into a pothole, took a weird step to catch my balance and tweaked my hip. THEN, I thought oh no biggie I'm almost done I can get to the finish line and be ok. Continued to run on a sprained ankle for probably 3/4 mile. All the volunteers along the way were like "walk it in, don't push it!" and apparently I thought they were talking to other people around me. I hobbled my way across the finish line and by the time I cooled down I wasn't exactly "weightbearing".
Anyway, now I'm RICE-ing it and it looks super minor so I know I will be back to normal in a few days. Just kinda annoyed that a potentially harmless activity could be so crappy. Oh well, happy st. patty's day!!!
Wednesday, March 11, 2009
Lake Washington in Winter
I think you have to live on the lake to understand how cool it is year-round.
This was sunrise early at 7am in February.
I am glad I have a cooler camera now that can capture a little more of the amazing detail, the frost on the neighbor's balcony glass for instance. So cool.
You can just barely see the tree line under the sun coming up.
This was sunrise early at 7am in February. 
I am glad I have a cooler camera now that can capture a little more of the amazing detail, the frost on the neighbor's balcony glass for instance. So cool. 
You can just barely see the tree line under the sun coming up.
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