Kansas City, baby!

We made the trip home to Kansas City from July 30-August 4th. It was a great time and I even got some of it captured in pictures! It helps now that I have a phone that I can actually use since we traded in our old phones for iphones. I did have a blackberry and I'm not sure how many people out there have used those but it's like trying to learn foreign language. I had it for 5 months or so and hated it. Anyway, that's a different post entirely. The point is that I had a phone in which I could actually take pictures on. So when I didn't have my camera, I had my phone and I snapped many more pictures than I normally would (the phone pictures are the smaller photos...camera pictures are the larger photos- and we only really got out the actual camera once, thanks to my mom!)

We had a great time seeing family, friends, etc. I was able to catch up with a friend that I was best friends with in high school and have known since 7th grade. I probably haven't seen her since our freshman year in college. It was great to spend the day with her having some girls time, getting pedicures, etc. We met up for dinner later that night with our husbands on the plaza. I'm noting this now because I did not snap any pictures that day. I also didn't snap any pictures of the day where we had about 35 good family friends over to my parents house for a lunch get together. That was a great time too. So nice to be able to catch up with people that have known me for so long.

Below are the pictures that I did capture of our trip:

Playing cards... lots and lots of cards. Love it.

And another card shot. Like my dad always says, our family plays cards and plays golf. This is a true story.

My parents just totally remodeled their deck a couple of months ago and for the get together with all of the family friends, my mom thought it would be a good idea to have an umbrella for the table so everyone would stay cool. So here is everyone putting the umbrella up.

A view of the little fountain on their deck. Their new deck is so nice. And of course, we had Seattle weather back in Kansas City when it was 100 degrees still in Seattle so we got lots of quality time just sitting outside and enjoying cooler weather.

More pictures of putting the umbrella/table together.

AND...golf! There are always many trips to the driving range with Dad to get the ole swing perfected.

And again... Trying to tweak it just a bit more. And yes, I golf just fine in jeans and flip flops, thanks. It's a driving range in Missouri. I don't have to wear "golf attire."

Tim working on cranking his ball out there. He got lots of lessons while we were there.

A picture of us in front of a bison out in Kansas. We went shopping all day and then to eat at this restaurant called Teds which is actually one of the only organic-y restaurants I've seen in the midwest (I'm sure there are more- I just am not there enough and have to go to restaurants-aka: steakhouses- to appeal to my midwest Dad's palate). They even had all natural straws. I was definitely impressed. They are known for their bison though, thus the huge bison.

My dad enjoying his cheeseburger. Beef. Not bison. Shocker, I know!

Mouth full of organic, all natural chicken sandwich... yum!

A couple of days later (on our last day there), the weather in Kansas City reverted back to Missouri summer weather as I remember it. Meaning: HOT. Also meaning: weather Seattle had experienced for the prior week. It was humid and 100 degrees. And what do we go do? In the heat of the day at 3pm we decide to go golfing. Yes! Here is Tim trying to find some shade right before we teed off.

And on the first teebox warming up...

My mom and brother hanging out waiting to tee off.

Dad and Jon in the cart probably watching one of us tee off...

Teeing off. We had the course to ourselves because it was so freaking hot. And because it was so hot, I am again not in golf attire. I decided I did not care, it was way too hot. So I rocked the flip flops and tank top again. No one said anything so I guess it was ok!

Tim taking the first sand shot he's ever hit. He actually did really well and got close to the pin! I wish I had that skill. I'm still not consistent with sand shots... best case scenario would be to avoid the traps but in golf when you try to do anything, you usually get the opposite result (meaning I always end up in the stupid traps).

And my brother, chipping it on. I'm telling you, this family loves golf.

Timmy chipping it on. He has a real talent for this silly game! It's quite impressive actually given he has never really played before joining my family. Although he said that he has always really wanted to learn. I can see why now- he's got some skill!

And my mom whacking away at the ball. It still amazes me that she can never practice and just go out and play and hit the ball as well as she does.

Since we had the course to ourselves, we got a little silly on about the 8th hole. Must have been the heat....

Hitting the ball off my dad's mouth.... He is trusting...

Putting on one of the last holes.

I love golfing with my family. It's so fun! It's just fun to be out there with them and to realize how cool it is to have such a good family (and friends) who are always there for you regardless of how far away you live. I was really sad to leave. But, we already have our plane tickets back for the holidays in December! I will be there for longer time then so I'm hoping that I can see more of my old college friends then...

HEAT WAVE.

It is SO FREAKING HOT HERE. We are actually only 5 degrees from Phoenix and it's SEATTLE. A city which has never broken 100 degrees. Well welcome to 80 days without rain + a hundred degree temps. That's Phoenix. WHY is the pacific northwest trying to be Phoenix minus the air conditioning?

Today Winston told me that it was 108 degrees out. I don't think it was actually that hot. I think we actually topped out at 104. THIS IS INSANE. Mostly because no one has air conditioning because Hello!? We live in the pacific northwest and it doesn't GET HOT.

It is miserable!! I can't wait to go to Kansas City in a couple of days where they are having Seattle-like weather at 75 degrees, no humidity. And if they were having 100 degree days, at least they have air conditioning.

I actually took Bella to my friends house today because she has air conditioning. I've been hosing her off about 5 times a day to keep her cool (since I'm such the animal abuser) but since I had to work today, I couldn't leave her at home. It's way too hot, even if you have a million fans. So she hung out with Gina and Dallas in the air conditioning. She was a fan. And she has the whole next week with them while we are in KC so she'll do great in this heat.

I guess at least now I know how it feels to live in Phoenix without air conditioning. People who do that or used to do that are crazy.

Sunday morning hike.

Tim and I decided to go hiking this morning. It was crazy because a) we haven't been able to hike much all summer due to his crazy work schedule and b) it was supposed to be 95 degrees today, one of the hottest days in Washington. Not ideal for hiking. But, we made it! And it was gorgeous. We just hiked Rattlesnake Ridge which has great views. It's about 6 miles. I love it!

A rant on bitches. Crazy washington bitches.

I might as well keep ranting about stupid people. Seems to be the story of my life lately.

So the other day I had a quick errand to run. I had to get ice cream at Whole Foods and then make a quick stop at AT&T since we decided to cave and switch phone services/get iphones. It's 78 degrees out and sunny (this is relevant). I decide to take Bella with me since it's a short trip.

I go to Whole Foods, run in, grab ice cream, am out in less than five minutes. Of course Bella stays in the car with the windows down. I get back and she is sitting there calmly, not panting (also relevant). She licks me when I get back in the car.

I stop at AT&T. Park directly in front of the door. I'm the only customer in there so I walk right up to the counter. Bella is in the car, with the windows down. I can see my car from the counter. I tell the guy what I want and I pay for the iphones. I notice a lady is standing by my car and who walked over to it right when I pulled up. I don't really think anything of this.

Then she walks into AT&T and here's what went down:
Crazy bitch: "Is that your mini cooper out there, Ma'am?"
Me: "Um, yeah."(as I am signing the receipt)
Crazy bitch (yelling): "well, if you don't get out there right now, I'm calling animal services on you. You should NEVER leave your dog in a car and that dog is not happy with you for leaving her in there. She is PANTING. AND NOT DOING WELL. I am calling animal services RIGHT NOW IF YOU DON'T GET OUT THERE!!!!!!!"
ME: "I'm pretty sure she's fine. I know you saw me when I pulled up and I've been here for 5 minutes."
Crazy bitch: "GET OUT THERE!! It's people like you who should never have animals and should be banned from having kids!!!!!!!!!!!!"

I am stunned. I'm done at AT&T but I was just standing there with the guy staring at here like WTF?! At this point there is a line behind me so to make it more interesting, she has created a scene in front of the entire store.

I go out to my car. Shocker, Bella is fine and is just licking me all over, barely panting. BUT, this lady is not done. She parks her piece of shit car behind mine and continues to yell at me. Wow.

I have never been treated like this before.

I can respect people who look out for animals, I really can. Because I do. But I don't think I was "abusing" Bella by leaving her in the car. I really don't. She had the windows down, it wasn't super hot, she was happy to be out of the house. I just think that this lady was completely out of line. I know I'm not "perfect" but I do think I'm a pretty good mom to Bella. I take good care of her.

And by the way, when I got home, the ice cream was still a solid block of ice. And it takes 15 minutes to get home from AT&T. Uh huh.

Seems like there are a lot of stupid people lately...

I'm pretty sure that we got raped by our landlord. We had to meet with him to do a final walkthrough. Did I talk about the sun spot before? I don't remember and I'm too lazy to look. Anyway, on the (cheap, disgusting, 10 year old) linoleum floor (which by the way is WHITE), we put a rug down. In front of the sink. Well, come to find out when the sun beats in on it every day for a year, it dyes this disgusting linoleum a faint yellow color.

I might add that a) you can't see the discoloration in a photo b) you can hardly tell when you're standing over it c) we had to buy rugs to cover burns in the floor/stains on the carpet from prior tenants.

Our landlord told us he had to replace the ENTIRE kitchen floor due to the discoloration (and also, note that the rug was NOT that big). Come to find out the other burns and stains were caused by him when he lived there which is why the floors haven't been replaced before. So, since he has already tried to take advantage of us by raising the rent, we feel like he is just trying to take advantage of us more by trying to replace the whole kitchen floor when it doesn't need to be (or when he could just cover the spots with rugs, like we had to). He tries to tell us that we owe $1200 then realizes we are not paying for it (and knows that we are right in refusing to). So the only thing we lost was our $600 deposit which I really don't care about. For me, it's not about the money, it's just the principle. I feel like he was taking advantage of us and that's what was making me the most mad. Ugh. I'm just glad to be out of there and done with him.

Wedding!

Yesterday was our second wedding of the summer and it was absolutely gorgeous. It was Rich and Stacie's wedding up in Snohomish at Lord Hill Farms. Naturally, I forgot my camera and am still trying to round up pictures from friends who I know had theirs. In the meantime, Rich and Stacie have a couple of pictures here. They looked amazing and so did the venue. I am not even kidding you, I have never seen so many flowers in my life. Even the silverware was wrapped in fresh flowers. I love all of the little details so I was in awe the whole night at how many details these two covered from the ceremony to the reception and everything in between.

As a little history, I met Rich and Stacie when I first started my job up in Washington. I came in as a senior auditor and they were also two seniors at the time. Within my first month, I had worked with Stacie once. I learned that she and Rich met at our job several years before and were both leaving to take private jobs elsewhere. So by the end of the summer I was the sole senior! But, over the past few years we've stayed friends and have had much fun hanging out and partying outside of work and when we were home in KC last Christmas Stacie was our cats' godmother. Rich and Stacie are one of the best and strongest couples I know. It was so great to be a part of their day and to see so many friends at the same time! We had a blast.

A day in the park.

As mentioned previously we have a small park right by our house and a larger park about 5 minutes walk away, 1 minute drive. We take Bella there on hot days to throw her tennis ball for about 20 minutes, 3 times a day or so. It is enough exercise for her and it's short enough that she doesn't get too hot. And once she is hot, she stops playing anyway so there is about a 20 minute cap on these excursions. This park is great though because it's just flat and open and we can chuck the ball and she'll run forever. And usually there is no one there.

Throwing the ball for her. Notice the brown grass. Usually this park would be completely green... but since Seattle has not had any rain in about 3 months and is trying to be Southern Cali, well, we've got brown and dried out going on.

She fetches! Yep, our boxer fetches. The breeder told us that Bella's parents do not fetch at all, want nothing to do with it and to not expect that from Bella. Turns out fetch is one of her favorite games.

And throwing again......

Bringing the ball back...getting more tired.

Yep, now she's tired. She hides in the shade once she's had enough.

And another shade shot. I still can't believe how much our little pup has grown.

And seriously, is this not the cutest thing ever? She saw someone drink from the fountain and decided she wanted to. So she stood up and did it. She licks the stream of water and I think it's pretty adorable.

And we're in...

Well, we're in! Thanks to the cable guy. I had to take off work today to wait for the cable guy to show up to hook up our cable and internet. So obnoxious that they give you FOUR hour blocks in which they "might" be here. So I had a decent chunk of the day in which I got everything set up.

Here's a picture of Miss Thang (Bella) enjoying the new place. She LOVES it. She especially loves that we are 30 seconds away from a park and tennis courts. She also loves her little yard and all of the wildlife that is around here (versus our old place that was on a main road and was much more noisy). We are also about 5 minutes away from multiple trails and from another huge park and we are about a 10 minute walk from the water. It's perfect. She's laying in the sun from the two skylights that are in our upstairs. There is another skylight in the master bath. It's really nice to have that additional natural light.

And again. Hasn't she gotten huge??

Yesterday yours truly was posting about our moving adventures and I did NOT want my picture taken. This is in our office area that is not set up. So I have a makeshift floor seating until it gets put together.

And the kitchen... all set up. Much improved from the before picture from yesterday, eh?

Family room put together. Again, much better than before pictures.

And dining room all set up.

A picture of the hall way from the front door. The guest bathroom the first door on the left and the guest bedroom is the last door on the left. The laundry room is the door on the right. I will take pictures of these rooms and our bedroom/office and post them eventually.


It feels nice to be slightly (understatement) organized and in now. The only things remaining are hanging up pictures and putting together the office. I am not a person that likes to live out of boxes, obviously.

MOVING DAY

So yesterday we embarked upon the day of moving. I said I always get excited about this until it's over and that is accurate again. Yesterday was fairly exhausting. A good workout, yes. But still exhausting. We got up around 6:30 and started taking what remained in our house down (which truthfully wasn't much). We rented a Uhaul to move the big stuff like the couch, beds, etc. I think we did a total of 3 trips with the Uhaul and at that point had everything out of the old place and into the new. The Uhaul was returned at 5pm, which I thought was pretty impressive given that it was just the two of us. We got some of the big stuff put away/set up and crashed into bed at around 11pm. It was a long day but we did it!


Early on in the day- one of the first loads getting stuff out of the old place into the Uhaul to take to the new place.

A picture of the lovely truck.

This was our third and last load and consisted mostly of garage stuff. The most awkward thing of the day to move was probably Tim's tool chest (the silver thing in the picture). It was SO heavy. And somehow Tim got it into the truck himself though I still don't know how and I don't think he really does either. At this point in the day we were both operating under some sort of supernatural powers. The couch was also quite awkward as well but we did that first to get it out of the way. And the table weighs a million pounds of solid wood so that was an exciting thing to move too. I know I probably could have and should have hired movers but it seemed silly for not moving too far away. And I always think it will be fun, like I have said repeatedly... until it's all said and done and we can't move. At least we were lucky in that it was a party cloudy/sunny and cool day.

To get Bella acclimated to the new place, we took her with us on every trip. We had her crate over there on the first trip so she went with us every time. I think she was confused but she did great all day.

A view looking down on the dining room with everything sort of piled in.

And a view of the same of the family room.

Hauling literally the last box in. Tim was thrilled that I pulled out the camera at this point. We were exhausted.

And a view of the kitchen with junk thrown in. I actually got the kitchen totally organized last night. Yes! I can't wait until everything is completely done and we are settled in.

The new little eco car

As promised, here are the pictures of the new eco car...aka the prius. I still don't think I've gotten a really good shot of it but oh well. I've never purported to be an awesome picture taker and half of that is remembering to get out the camera...which, for me, always happens to be at the wrong times, wrong lighting. Oh well. This will suffice.

This picture was right after we got the prius and ran an errand to Whole Foods. Tim thought he saw something between his seat and the console and he was right. He thought it was a leaf, but nope it was a little friend that must have jumped in on the boat ride over.

Gross. He might have jumped in on the boat but he did not make it.

A view of the inside of the car.

And a view of the outside...sorry about the glare.

Driving home from the dealer.

And a view looking down on it.

These pictures don't really do the car justice. It's actually a pretty cool little car and this is coming from someone who was completely skeptical about prius' initially.

Reminiscing about arizona.

Today one of the partners at my firm and I headed down south to Tacoma to meet a client that we work with. Tacoma is about 30-45 minutes south of Seattle without traffic. I'm not really sure who decided that it was a great idea to meet at 4:30 in Tacoma on a week day. This is likely one of the worst decisions that person has ever made (and no, it actually wasn't me). Additionally, it doesn't make much sense since Jenn (the partner) and I were each coming from the Seattle area and the client works 20 minutes north of Tacoma. But regardless, the decision was made.

TRAFFIC WAS HORRIBLE. It took us 1.5 hours to get to Tacoma. I texted Jenn at one point when I was going 70mph (I was slightly ahead of her) and 2 minutes later we were dead stopped. So the text I got from her 10 minutes later was, "...and stopped." Yup.

I was immediately transported back to 2005 when I made the 1-1.5 hour commute every day to work in Phoenix when it should have taken 30 minutes without traffic max. One day it was 2 hours because old faithful decided to blow on one of the side streets (also known as a water main break). Granted, it was my decision to live where I did and to accept my job where I did and I dealt with it. And at the time I would have told you that I enjoyed being able to listen to music on the way to/from work and to enjoy tea in the mornings, make phone calls in the afternoons.

IT WAS ALL A LIE.

I was totally lying to myself and everyone else. How in the HELL could I have ever enjoyed traffic like that? I was hit by a huge baseball in the nose kind of reminder that driving for an hour and a half when it should only take 30-45 minutes is just pure torture.

We finally made it to Tacoma, however, and met up with our client. She (sadly) is my favorite client. She moved up to Seattle several years ago for a guy (does everyone do this? I swear, I have met so many people who have done this) but she came here from Scottsdale. Crazy! She has been my absolute favorite client up here for the past 3 years not only because she totally has her company running completely seamlessly but also because we do have quite a bit in common and can just talk forever- about our pasts in Arizona and whatever else we might be involved with in the present. The reason we were meeting her today is because she's moving back to Arizona at the end of the summer. So we talked all about her move back, where she's going, where she'll be working and I was totally, totally back there with her in thought. We talked about all of the places she should hit up once she's back, what to do about the 120 degree days, how awesome it will be in December to not have snow/rain/freezing issues. I guess that the plus side is that she will be back in Seattle every summer (can you blame her? Summers here are awesome!) and it's just another friend to have in Phoenix.

I was also reminded of Phoenix due to the place that we met for happy hour (other than the fact that it looked out over the Puget sound). This place was CRAWLING with people that you would see in North Scottsdale. Older ladies trying to look 25 (read: fake everything), younger ladies trying to snag an older guy with money, and money bags old men all over just trying to decide who to pursue (mostly it involved the younger ladies- including us at one point, although we obviously weren't there to snag a man- but the younger ladies getting attention elicited dirty looks from all of the older generation). It was totally cracking me up. It reminded me of many north Scottsdale experiences that I had.

Needless to say, I left happy hour feeling rather nostalgic for that hot, dry city that I loved so much for several years. I miss it. I miss the people, I miss the sun, I miss the places I went, things I did, I even miss the dryness. I don't know that I'd trade it for what I have now up here in the beautiful pacific northwest but, there will always be a very special place in my heart for that desert city...even the traffic, though the memories of that are memories that I am glad I don't have to visit often.

Miracle? Maybe... maybe??

So I wrote here about how the vet wanted to run additional tests for Bella's tummy issue. And I also ranted about how ridiculous these millions of tests were, where do we draw the line, how much do we do, and why aren't we treating?

Well, after this call from the vet we had the weekend to decide what to do. We happened to run out of Bella's special hypoallergenic food on a Sunday, a sunday that we met our friends at the dog park to play. I told my friend Gina that I had run out of food and was just giving her the stuff we used to feed her because at this point, nothing was really helping anyway and I needed to get some calories into her. Gina mentioned that she would bring the food she feeds her boxer as it is a high protein, high calorie food and if nothing else would get a considerable amount of calories into Bella. Perfect.

So we leave the dog park and I just give her the new food from Gina. No point in trying to switch gradually, she's already shitting her brains out every day.

A half hour later, I take her to poop and she has the most perfect poop I have seen in MONTHS.

W.T.F. I'm stunned.

She doesn't poop again that night (when usually it would be spray fountains of poop 3-5 more times in a night. Sorry if that's TMI). Again, I'm dumbfounded.

I think she's just having a good day but the next morning, I give her the same food again. PERFECT POOPS ALL DAY.

I have been hesitant to post about this because I don't want to jinx it somehow but it looks like we have found the solution. She has been on this new food for a couple of weeks now and I kid you not, she has put on 5-10 pounds. Easily. She is not emaciated anymore, you can see no ribs. She is scarfing up her food like she's been starving (which, pooping that much, she probably has been).

The only difference in this food? There is 0% grain. None. Nada. Our poor little puppy has had a grain allergy all along.

Oh, and the vet "specialist" (ha) was treating her with a hypoallergenic food that is 100% GRAIN BASED because "most animals have protein allergies." Initially I had asked her about the grain allergy because I thought, like people, animals would only have the grain allergy. The vet said, "No, it's very rare. Most animals are allergic to protein sources." APPARENTLY NOT and enjoy that $2K that we paid you for ABSOLUTELY NOTHING. Guess it makes sense that on the hypoallergenic GRAIN food, there was no improvement in the slightest.

Did I mention how freaking glad I am that we followed our gut in not going through with those additional tests?

We finally have a healthy, happy, growing puppy. I can't even tell you how excited and happy I am that she is so healthy. It is such a relief.