wil and kris (and gracie and ava)

i had no idea it was labor day this weekend until about thursday or friday of last week…which means i did not realize i had an extra day off. woot! it was a nice surprise to say the least, but when sunday night rolled around, i had no idea what i was going to do with this free day.

with wil at work, i sipped come coffee after waking up (at a very respectible hour mind you…i can’t seem to sleep in anymore with these two maniac dogs), and i decided i felt crafty. i went out to the garage, found some pieces of board and planned on painting some pictures. i was done priming, and i walked back into the house, and the kitchen screamed at me… “paint me!”

i’ve wanted to paint our kitchen since the day we moved in, but always talked myself out of it since i knew the entire job was just cutting in and trimming. bleh. but this morning, with the whole day ahead of me, i was ready to take on the job! (besides when moving into to new places, i’ve noticed that i seem to paint rooms on random whims…odd) the color is not something i necessarily picked out…the dining room walls have this color under the wainscoting, and then in continues into the adjacent ‘hall’…so it only made sense to keep that color going through the rest of the kitchen…especially since i have greens going on in the den that it’s open to. (*note: it looks quite baby poopish on the screen…i promise it’s better in person, and i bet people who have been here didn’t even notice the color in the existing spaces)

still in my pj’s, i set my coffee down (forgot about it till about an hour ago!) and went straight to it. by one i was pretty much done except for putting some of the hardware back up. it felt like a great accomplishment and so glad i finally convinced myself to do the work and deal with the labor.

i was still in the crafty mode after finishing up so i still painted my painting that started it all…just something fun to hang in the den.

yay for paint! our friends are moving into a fixer upper this week, so let’s hope the affair with painting lasts, since i’ve offered my hand and brush!

another week has swiftly passed since stopping by here to write a post….wil and i joined some friends for a weekend camping trip and had a great time. the weather was great, the campground was perfect on the lakeside, and the company was pleasant! the usual camping routine filled our days (thurs night to sun afternoon)…food, reading, clue, cards, fishing, swimming, firepits, and smores. the dogs snoozed in the dirt and the sun and waded in the water ever so often…but upon coming home they curled up on their sofas and beds and slept like they’ve never slept before. i wasn’t too inspired to take many pictures of us being lazy and dirty, so there’s not much to show. you might see a handful of shots show up in my flickr, but that’s about it.

it was just a nice escape from reality, while only being about 15 minutes from our house! (we had no idea we were so close to such greatness)

hope everyone else had nice weekends!

well, it’s been a crazy week to say the least, and unfortunately due to the circumstances i can’t really talk about it. work has been the most upside down it’s ever been, with all of us throwing all clients aside and working on a single project…luckily it’s the summer and none of our regular clients are in town anyways to notice they’ve been thrown aside.

but since i can’t go into too much detail, there is a new positive change that i can talk about instead…wil and i decided we needed to be more healthy so we got a membership at the ymca…although there are a couple y’s closer to our house, we’ve got one about 5 minutes from my work, next to whole foods and the future trader joes (saw a sign posted at the empty building so that’s a good thing!), and a few friends already frequent that one.

we just got it two weeks ago, and haven’t had a regular week yet, but wil and i usually meet there when i get off work mon, wed and fri…wil’s very excited about the ability to swim again (he’s been watching the olympic swim trials nonstop right now btw), and we are happy about the prospect of working out together and being more active. they offer a health scan thing to show you your overall health based on the fit averages of your gender/age by measuring a few things, so we thought it’d be good to get that first off to see what areas to work on. while both of our flexibility was in the ‘needs work’ category, we were both pleasantly surprised to see we had fairly good overall scores to begin with…i told the tester girl when i saw my results ‘i should not work out more often!’ (ha ha, i know i’m such a clever comedian). i also was excited to brag to wil that my bicep strength was beyond the excellent category. ha! it’s probably from all the antique tables and chests and chairs we are constantly moving around our office and at clients’ homes.

so, it’s a good thing we’ve started and it seems like we’ll keep it up.

oh, and the excitement we got ourselves into this weekend? it ended up we planted a tree on saturday (i hope it lives because i saw this morning that ava thought it was a good idea to dig it last night)…and we saw wall-e on sunday. everyone must see wall-e…it was so great. and like all the reviews i had read prior…it’s not just a great animated film, it’s truly a great film, period.

hey. finally got the rest of our pictures uploaded and such, so here’s the set from our trip.

enjoy.

*i ought to have written a full post on our experiences, but it was mostly just family events, graduation events and wine tasting… here’s a quick summary of the week

graduation, golf, another round of golf, wine tasting, chefs market downtown, dinner & wine at different family members’ houses, check in to hotel, pool, fancy dinner at bouchon, graduation party, goodbyes!

it’s hot, and nothing much has been happening with life. it’s been in the 90’s the last few days…it’s kind of weird to drive to work at 8:30 in the morning when it’s already 80 degrees out. yuck, but nice at the same time. it actually feels good to walk outside after sitting in a cold office for a few hours…everyone runs their ac’s so cold here- i have to wear a sweater inside. seriously, people!

everyone also runs their ac’s so early here, wil and i were proud to say we went all the way to june 1st without turning ours on. leaving our house wide open was fun for a while…kind of warm during the day, but wonderfully pleasant in the evening and at night. and the dogs loved being able to just go in and out at will, although after two seconds outside they come in, dramatically panting and throwing themselves onto the tile floor in heat exhaustion…i think they play it up on purpose just to get more ice cubes*.

we are also excited to have seen the first firefly of the season. there are certain things i will miss if i ever leave this place…lightning bugs is one of them. so nostalgic of summer. i love it.

ok, you can tell i’m really reaching for something interesting to talk about…but there’s really nothing. wil and i go to napa next week for van’s graduation and family visit, so that should be pretty fun and a nice change of pace. i think wil’s ready for a break from work longer than 2 days…come to think of it he hasn’t had one since new years. maybe then we’ll have something entertaining for you to read or look at… 

*i have not had another sighting to confirm it has fully sunk in to her brain, but ava discovered the ice machine and that if she pushes it with her nose, either water or ice will come out! we had no part in this…one evening while cooking i heard the machine go on, and turned around and saw ava sticking her nose in the fridge door! i hope she tries again, and i have a camera in hand.

we added a new room to our house! well, it might be outdoors, and might not have walls, or a roof, but it is a new space for us for us to enjoy this spring and summer.

we attempted last weekend to lay the patio we’ve talked about for a couple months, and it was just not a good day for me and wil…hard, labor intensive shoveling with no light at the end of the tunnel is not good for a marriage. but, with a more positive outlook this weekend (also motivated by the fact that the left side was even more of a mudpit with so much recent rain), we picked up the project again …and knocked it out yesterday.

i think we were both surprised at how well everything worked, without any hitches at all. and to top the evening off, we went back to home depot to get wil the grill he’s always been dreaming about.

the dogs, while they couldn’t hang outside with us while we worked, loved every moment we’d let them out for the bathroom…they were dying at the prospect of getting to experience the new lawn, even when we only had a little sliver of it open to them. the grass was truly greener on the other side for them the last two months. they are overjoyed, to say the least. wil almost shed a tear when he saw them go to the bathroom on it the first time…i’d don’t think we’ll ever have a pristine lawn. : (
anyways- here’s lots of pictures (descriptions when you hover the mouse over the pic, fyi)! (notice the change of seasons in the first three pictures!)

the whole set with more pictures is here.

upon seeing mom in california, she handed me a few goodies…some little trinkets from ikea, a “mothers” day card (my dogs=children? i’m pathetic, i know), and a letter summoning me to jury duty.

jury duty has always been one of the things i wondered if i’d ever be called to do in my whole life. never would i have imagined it to happen to soon! and it’s one of those things that’s probably a HUGE thorn in your side, turning your entire life upside down for a few weeks or however long. but, at the same time, it’s probably a completely unique and interesting experience that could never be equivalent to anything else. even with that said, i was still happy to find out that i don’t actually qualify for this particular jury, since, you kind of have to live in the state that is summoning you.

*psst…oregon….i don’t live in your state anymore*

so, after writing my response email to the jury coordinator explaining that i don’t believe i can do it, i took a pause to think about jury duty itself. how interesting to play the role in some stranger’s life…having ‘control’, persay, of their near (or extended) future. what weird power. but, i am relieved. i know they probably want as random of demographics as possible, but i just don’t feel like i’ve lived enough life, gathered enough information, or established any strong enough opinions about the world to be able to make the decision about one man/woman’s wrongs (or innocence)…

let’s hope i read the fine print correctly and the coordinator doesn’t reply saying i have to do it.

i also had another tidbit of my life to write about when i initially sat down here, but after the heaviness of thoughts about the judicial system, people’s sins, and other people dealing with them, i feel very trivial and materialistic with what i was about to say. but since i’ve built it up, i have to follow through, i guess.

well, i’ll make it snappy to decrease my shallowness.

what not to wear =  one of my favorite tv shows

the outfits on their ‘lesson’ mannequins = almost always stupendously cute

shopping at anthropologie (still working through my gift card leila!) + actually recognizing a shirt that i just saw on one of the wntw mannequins in a recent episode + trying it on + it looks cute! = a personal high for my fashion life

i bought it, of course.