I'm not sure what my opening line should really be at this point so let's start with; HI! Long time no see? welcome back? All say the same thing, really.
I took a much needed break from both writing a blog and reading some blogs. For many different reasons I felt ashamed. That's not easy for me to admit, nor can I really justify the exact reasons, I just knew my life wasn't what I needed or wanted and I became in denial that women who I read blogs of every day had become perfect. They had perfect homes, perfect husbands, perfect babies, perfect bodies, perfect everything. I think we can all relate and say some people really do portray themselves as "perfect" I'm just not one of them. I tell my real truth. It isn't always pretty, or glamorous. It isn't always conventional or "right" for lack of a better word, but it's MY REAL TRUTH.
I'm moving forward. I have BIG things to document that mean something to me. I want to remember these things, and let my friends and family see a glimpse into our everyday. I hope along the way I can help someone like myself that maybe didn't have it all together. Maybe they were stuck in a rut of screaming on the inside and longing for what was on the outside.
So this is our starting point. A few changes to be made; I plan to document as much as time permits me. We own a very time intensive business and that brings home the rent money and bills come before blogging.
Carlos plans to document a bit as well. I think seeing a blog of a day to day life should be seen from 2 different sides. We're both very different people, who happen to love a lot of the same things. I'm really excited to see what he posts about! ( I reserve the right to say he has a very, sarcastic sense of humor, and he will probably not allow me to see his posts before hand. Don't say i didn't warn ya ;) )
A few facts as of our right now;
* We still live in Oregon however we live in California for the moment ( make sense?). Let me explain further; in August we had no location for our business. It's always up in the air year to year, so we knew we'd be down in California for at least 3 months while building, operating then tearing down said business. In September we came across the best location we could have asked for. A year round one for the next 3 years ( or more!). The only problem was: It needs a TON of work. So now we're here for the year developing. Which is both a good thing and a sad thing. I miss my home.
* We had both talked about eloping in Hawaii last year since a traditional wedding just wasn't for us. I think with the stress of our business, the cancelled wedding and the miscarriage it was still too soon. In December we both sat down and talked about our future plans, and he threw out the Hawaii elopement idea. I love this man for the rest of my life, so of course I absolutely jumped on it. The timing is right, and we couldn't be more excited. February 17th 2012 at sunset on a secluded beach we'll be married. Talk about bliss. ( more posts on the topic to come soon.)
* I lost 25 lbs on weight watchers from August to October. I was so proud of myself and just came easy for those 2 months. Then life got in the way and while I haven't gained any weight back, I still have 35ish pounds to go.
* Living in a 1 bedroom apartment isn't cute or fun or practical. Especially coming from a 2000 sq ft home with 4 bedrooms. I don't recommend down sizing.It was suppose to be for 3 months and now we'll be here a year. The joys of business ownership.
Welcome to our life. I hope you enjoy our journey as much as I love living it.
Here's a secret. Both Sparky and I never watch sports. Maybe, we'll watch a baseball game here of there but that's about it. We're just not the sporty type. Growing up, my family always watched football, ( Packers and cowboys!) and hosted ( as well as went) to lots of super bowl parties. I didn't care about the game but loved having new friends over to play, but even more so? I loved all the delicious food! ( real shocker there, right? ;) )
This year I told C a few days in advance that I wanted to actually watch the entire game and make lots of delicious food. Just the two of us. He obliged, and off I went on the hunt for the perfect super bowl recipes.
We started off with some bbq/buffalo wings. I cheated on these as I bought them from our deli counter. After pricing what it would have cost to buy all the ingredients, plus cook them, we decided the deli counter was the best bet. They were running a deal for a bucket of wings for $8.00 Can't beat that!
Moving on, I decided fajitas sounded really good and would be good on the calorie front. I went to Chevys to pick up some fresh made tortillas and we grilled some chicken, steak ( for him) and veggies.
Everything turned our delicious! And I was pretty excited that I stayed within my calorie limit even though I indulged in 2 mikes hard strawberry lemonades.
I was also pretty into the game this year. I didn't get all the scoring stuff, but enjoyed watching, and rooting on an old family favorite team ( Packers!)
1) To pay more attention to my writing and blog..
I love looking back a year ago and seeing what we were doing in our lives, what was in my head, and how far I've come along. Truthfully, I've given up on this blog many, many times. I've questioned my sanity when it comes to writing, because deep down, I'm not sure I want to share my life with everyone. I have good days and bad days. I'm self conscious. I fight with my fiance. I'm not that close to my family. I've miscarried. I'm opinionated. I think to myself? who wants to read my reality? It seems all the blogs I read are sugar coated. Girls I felt connected with, I no longer do, because they have become "mommy" bloggers, who seem to have perfect lives. ( or at least that's how they portray themselves). But the truth is, "I" want to read my blog. And therefore, I will write for me. I wont sugar coat things. I'll put my life out there for those to read, and you can either accept it, or turn away. It's ME. It's who I am.
2) Work on my health and fitness.
I've been working on this over the last year, and again I have good days and bad days.
My worst fear came true November16th. My grandmother passed away. Out of my entire family she was the only one I connected with. She understood me, and guided me. She died at 64 years old. let me say that again. She died at 64 years old! That's TOO young! She had a whole life to live. But she chose to smoke. For years. And ultimately, her lungs gave up.
It made me realize life is too short, and the choices we make right now affect our future. I want to be there for my kids, and for their kids, and their kids and so on. I want to be healthy, and active.
( for reference, my grams did stop smoking 2 years ago. but the damage was already done)
And so: I've thrown out my entire pantry and started over. We're doing lots of organic produce & lean meats. I've hired a personal trainer, and bought a body media fit band. I should be close to my goal weight by July if I keep up the pace that I'm at, and I'm happy with that. It's not a fast weight loss, but it's a life changing one.
3) Get married & have a baby
Both are works in progress. We have some news on the marriage front but aren't willing to share just yet. We made a decision that works best for us, but might not sit well with our family. That's all the details I can say on the marriage term, but I do promise to jump into more detail as soon as we tell our families.
As far as having a baby. Let's just say we're not stopping it. I'm pretty sure I have some fertility issues, and now that we just got a new health care plan, We're going to start testing at the end of March. Ideally we'll be pregnant before summer. I'm really hoping for a winter baby, since that will allow us enough time home before our Halloween season begins, but at this point...I'll take what I can get.
So there you have it. I'm back on the blog bandwagon, I'm working on ME and working on becoming a family with C.
Happy 34th birthday Sparky. I love you so much, and wish you only happiness for the following years to come.
Unfortunately we don't get to celebrate birthdays the way I'd like to, but I always try and do a little something to make it known that today is his day.
( Don't be fooled by the man in drag, that is in fact, Mr. Wonderful....lol)
Every year we have 3 major things come up during our Halloween season. C's birthday, my birthday and our anniversary. We always push the celebration back to November, when we can finally relax, and really enjoy our time. I think this year, we're finally taking leave from our business to head down to Southern California for a weekend, and see another haunted house and have a fancy dinner. We're going to sort of wing it, on a slow week for us, but once our plans are in motion i'll be sure to post about it!
This always happens. As soon as I get busy, the sun starts shinning, I can't sit down in my chair long enough to get one single blog post written, let alone the 10 I have planned. This is going to be a loooong fall season of trying to plan blogging world with real life world.
Truth be told, I sort of loose interest. I generally take lots of photos of stuff we're doing but sometimes it feels forced because I have to get the perfect picture for my blog, and that in and of itself can be frustrating. I obviously have a big ol' professional camera, that takes really good photos; and those are the ones I like to post. But lately, it's been A) Way too hot to have that thing around my neck and B) Subject-able conditions ie; wet, dust, dirt etc. So to make a long story short. I have only been using my cell phone and my crappy small digital camera which doesn't take the best photos. I'm going to through my picture Nazi self to the side and post the darn photos anyway! ;)
I know I have quite a few posts to recap about California, and I will; but first more up to date stuff.
This weekend we topped out at 96 on Friday, 103 on Saturday and 98 on Sunday. To say it's been hot, would be a pure understatement. I think Oregon finally got on the summer band wagon and came in at full force.
Sparky and I knew it was going to be hot this weekend, so we made plans to spend our days on a new lake we found.
After quite a bit of research and trying to find the best pet friendly swimming spots, I came up with our local lake located just 20 minutes away.
C and I decided we needed a cool raft, so we trekked to 4 different stores looking for one, and finally purchased one we thought would be big enough for us and the dog.
After getting the thing air filled, we realized with the 2 of us, the dog and a cooler there was NO way we would all fit. So much for what the box said. 4 person raft and up to 900lbs.
Spencer had to stay home, boo :(
Once we finally got to the lake, all was well in my world again. I just couldn't wait to jump in and get cooled off!
The water, was surprisingly pretty warm. Oregon hasn't had that many hot days this summer, so I thought for sure I'd be screaming bloody murder my first dunk in..
Once we got everything off the truck, we were making our way down to the water front. There was quite a few people, so I thought nothing of what seemed to be dry mud. I was so, so wrong. I took 3 steps in and was completely stuck. I'm pretty sure I said a few swear words, and i'm also pretty sure I gave C the snottiest look I could come up with all the while yelling at him to get me out. poor guy.
Not a good start, that's for sure...
We finally made in the water, muddy feet and all. I took off my water shoes, got everything situated in the raft and sat down, only to realize we had no room. Even without the dog, having a bag with our towels, a very small cooler and the two of us, it was really cramped. I didn't want to keep on bitching and complaining, so I shut my mouth and let C push us out.
Once we got a little ways, we got adjusted and made the most of it. I knew we wouldn't last long, but at least we could try out our raft.
I could only sit in the raft one way...and it was with my legs out and my head on C's chest.
( certainly not a flattering picture, but it was the best we could do! )
I laid like that for about 5 minutes before I started getting extremely nauseous. With the heat, my head down and the waves it wasn't a good mixture for this motion sickness dizzy girl. I hopped out and spent the next 3 hours guiding the raft, since that was a lot faster then rowing the non rowable boat anyway. (Crappy Oars)
Around 4:30 all the boats starting coming towards us to dock, and we got bombarded by boat fuel. That was the last of it for me. I knew if I didn't get out of the water I was going to puke. So home we went.
All in all it was a fabulous weekend. Unfortunatly, the raft had a short life span with us, as we'll be returning it tomorrow since it was completey misrepresented.
C is on the look out for a bigger one, so we can give it a try again next weekend!
EXCLAIMER: This posts lacks pictures, because, well....We were too lazy, too hungry and too wet to take any!
On Thursday night I had a big night at the gym. I finally was able to complete 60 minutes on the ellipitical with a pretty decent incline. I burned over 500 calories, and boy was I pooped in the end.
On Friday afternoon I started getting a headache..I've been getting pinching headaches throughout the week, almost making it mini migraines. I took some Tylenol and decided a nap would do me good. I guess I needed it because I slept for 3 hours. By the time I was up, and alert it was 6:30 and I was starving. C and I decided to head over to a new sushi joint that is voted number one in the northwest supposedly. They don't have a website, which was sorta of disappointing to me. I like to figure out what I'm going to have before I get there. part of this is because I'm picky and the other part is because I hate being asked 3 or 4 times by the server if I'm ready to order yet. Anyway we decided to chance it and head over. We had to wait nearly 30 minutes for a table, but the food was good! I got the basic California roll and tempura roll since I don't do raw fish.
We then decided to head home, change clothes ( into something comfy) grab some candy and head to the movies. We ended up seeing Letters To Juliet which was pretty cute! C and I both liked the story line and while yes, it is chick flicky, he didn't mind. I recommend seeing it if you get the chance, or just renting it would be fine, too.
Overall it was a fun night and very much needed. We've both been stuck in the house together, and we sort of needed a break from it all!
Okay, so I know I've been slacking. But almost a month of no blogs? Seriously? My time is going by SO fast. It's nearing towards the end of May which means starting in June my busy season starts. It means we'll actually have money coming in instead of going out. It means we can afford to live without having to watch every single penny ( although we always have a budget). You get the idea... We only make money 6 months out of the year, so it's always nice when that time of year rolls around again.
So what have I been up to?
Well I know I need to do a big recap of our vacation, but truth be told I haven't even gotten the pictures off my camera yet!
As soon as we got home we had to deal with Spencer. He somehow cut his paw open right before we left C's parents house. the poor guy wasn't happy and kept trying to lick it which resulted in loss of fur on his paw. It was a horrible situation. All is well now, and it's healing great!
Then we had various appointments with a new business opportunity we came into ( I can't disclose info on it right now, but soon enough!)
Of course there was mothers day. Again, I need to do a recap on this and get those darn pictures of out my camera!
Leading us to a very hot weekend in Oregon. I'm talking 90 degrees hot so C and I decided to go on a fast little boat ride!
We rode on Willamette jet boats. It was a spur of the moment decision to go last Saturday but we just wanted to get out of the house. We actually ran into a little problem as we arrived. Apparently in order to reserve a seat you should call a few days in advance, which we didn't (obviously) so we had to wait until everybody who had reserved their space was seated to see if there was enough room for us. Luckily they had 2 seats left.
Once on the river, they took no time to get that boat going at speeds over 40. The breeze was nice, but within the first 5 minutes the boat slammed on it's brakes drenching every single person on the boat. It was really fun although the first taste of river water wasn't pleasant.
( and just a side note, I was more worried about my hair, as I had just took the time to dry and straighten it mere minutes before! ugh!)
The trip lasted a little over 2 hours. There were lots of e-brake stops and quite a few spin outs. it seemed like just when you were starting to dry off and get warm the guy would get us all wet again. Toward the end I was really starting to freeze and actually began getting pissy that he needed to stop doing that since the sun was going down and the weather was changing.
The scenery was amazing and only viewable by boat. We passed some huge mansions on the water that i didnt even know Oregon had! What's even more amazing was that in 1996 Oregon experienced the worst flood of it's life time and most of the homes
Can you imagine your 15 millon dollar home under water? Or how about your grocery store?
It was amazing hearing about it, and still being able to see some of the damage that was never fixed. What was even more amazing is the addition to the river are river houses.
I don't know about you, but I don't think living in a state where water falling from the sky seems to be endless, all the while sleeping on a river that is known to flood. And these houses aren't cheap! I can only imagine their home insurance is through the roof!
Anyhow, the experience was awesome, and we'll absolutely be taking some out of town guests on it again this summer.
I'll try to be a better blogger here the next few days as I have a small break from work.
In my last post, I mentioned I never watch sports. I've never been to a professional game, ever. Neither had C, so when I logged onto groupon.com one day and found 2 Baseball game tickets for sale I jumped on it!
We apparently have one of the nicest baseball parks and what a perfect day to go on! It has been raining non stop the last several weeks and Friday night just happened to be clear. it was chilly, (45 degrees!) don't get me wrong but it was nice to just be outside, enjoying something I never thought we'd enjoy.
The Beavers ( our home team) happened to be playing Sacramento ( our second home team!) We of course rooted for the Beavers, since we didn't want to get kicked out of the state! And can I just say, I've never been so much into something, where every single move they made I was on the edge of my seat. every time they messed up, I loudly, let them know what I thought about it. HA! I'm pretty sure C was wondering where this girl came from, because never in his life has he seen me get that competitive.
We actually got fairly good seats, which buying discounted online tickets I thought for sure they'd stick us in the nose bleeds. There weren't a ton of people, since it's opening weekend, so we really had our choice of where ever we wanted.
(cell phone picture!)
We left the game about 30 minutes early as we started to freeze, and the Beavers were loosing. They lost 10-5
It was a good game, and we'll definitely be buying more tickets to see a few more games!
ME!! for being the worst blogger the last 2 weeks. But I've had good reason right? Right, okay moving on...
C and I have been busy doing a whole lot of nothing!
This week we finally splurged and bought our selves a new gas grill for the patio. At our last house, our grill was built in, and next to the pool, so we never actually owned one. When we moved into our town house, we figured we would be traveling most of the summer anyway, so it was useless.After going an entire spring and summer season with no BBQ, was horrible. So we splurged. And we've already grilled fillet mignon which was freaking amazing!.
Remember the golf cart we bought? We got it home and had used it for a few days but it kept dying. We tried everything to get it to work, but alas we found out the batteries which were only 2 years old hadn't been taken care of so we had to buy new ones. At $750.00 for all 6 I wasn't looking forward to it. I'm pretty sure C got some evil looks in there. But the smart guy he is, sold our used batteries on craigslist for $200 bucks. Which meant these batteries were $200 cheaper. While still expensive, at least they weren't as expensive.
Have you ever heard of Groupon.com? It's my new love. I seriously have scored some awesome deals. There is a Chicago style hot dog shop in downtown Portland I've been wanting to try. I logged onto to groupon and what do ya know? Hot dog shop offering $8 worth of food for $4 bucks. I bought two of those!
My second purchase was for a hair salon. I've been lucky enough to be in California every 6-8 weeks so I could stick with my lady. Since my hair is getting longer, it needs to be maintained a bit more, so I knew I needed to find someone here. I really love the bumble and bumble product, although expensive, I can totally justify the price after I blow dry my hair and feel how soft and healthy it is. Anyhow, a bumble and bumble salon offered $110 worth of service for $55. You can't beat that!
If you haven't been to the site check it out. I know they offer it in quite a few cities.
Yesterday this family had an off day. :( Spencer woke up with a swollen, puffy, red eye with gunk coming out of it. I had a mini heart attack as my pirate dog looked at me and it just made me sad. We made him a vet appointment, and then proceeded to look on google. We found that if we cleaned out his eye with distilled water, and wiped down the goopies every few hours with a warm towel we could possible fix the problem. So we gave it a ago. And watched it over night. This morning he is doing much better! The swelling is gone, the redness is gone, and just a little bit of wetness.
In the meantime, C woke up with a horrible migraine that kept him in bed all day. I felt so bad that I couldnt do anything for him, so I just made sure the room was cool and dark and that there was little noise. He finally felt better around 8pm.
I on the other hand woke up with the worst stomach pain. About 6 months ago I've starting taking out dairy. I was getting stomach aches after drinking milk and associated it with dairy. After switching to soy, limiting cheese, sour cream, etc I've been much better. Less bloat, less gas, all around happy. But the night before we decided to get some pizza. I hadn't had any in a few months and was craving it. I paid the price though. I couldnt even button my pants or put pressure on my stomach because it hurt so bad. :( i'm sad to see the pizza go.
I'm going to try making it at home next week and try it with less cheese and see how that does. I can still eat some cheese just not as much as I would like.
That's pretty much what's going on around here. No big plans for the weekend. I have a chair I'm going to paint and reupholster. I'll try and get some pictures taken in the next day or two.
Okay, so I know I've been MIA the last week but it was to your benefit that I was. You see, The night C left was the night my hormones decided to act out and I became the moodiest, unpleasant, and flat out bitchiest person around.
It's not as if I wanted to be that person, but I was stuck in our house, alone (well, with the pup) for 7 days. I couldnt sleep, I couldn't eat, I was crying, I was mad, I was just not good with life. There is an explanation for all of this, but really, I can't go into details right now.
Moving on, C is home and all is well in my world. I lost 11 lbs in 7 days (go me?!) and I'm finally sleeping again.
Today was amazing. The weather topped out at 75 degrees, and we got up early and spent every minute we could outside.
In Portland they are pretty well known for a "Saturday Market". They have it every single Saturday and I guess they added Sundays too. Basically, it's crafts, food, games and live music. Much like a festival. We had never been so decided to check it out. Can I just say; I've never seen so many hippies in my life. Portland is pretty know for their weird folk ( not kidding!) and certainly have a huge hippy following. But when it's the norm to just casually ask if I have a joint, or feel out of place because I don't have dreads or birkenstocks on, I'm immediately questioning our decision to go.
None the less, we had fun people watching, and enjoying the sunshine. Will we go again? Probably not unless we decide to smoke the green stuff or buy into blown glass.( which kind of go hand in hand, LOL!)
You see the brick building that says VooDoo Doughnuts? This is Portland's claim to fame. This place seriously has a line of 25 people (if not more) at all times. They have the famous bacon maple donut. We tried it last yearwhen we first moved here and found it to be too sweet and not our style but apparently all the stoner's locals love them.
There was seriously SO many people there. It was hard to walk side by side and most of time I was holding on to C's back pocket for life so we wouldn't loose one another.
And just because I think he's cute....
And notice his black jacket? I seriously have NO idea why he had that on. He is the one that likes to sleep with the window open and the fan on in 30 plus degree weather, but yet he was sporting a jacket in 75 degrees. I digress....
So overall we had a great Saturday. Tomorrow we'll be spending some time at home, cleaning, doing some laundry, hanging out and hoping the rain stays away ( although word is, we'll be back to showers. booo!)
Remember in my last post I said we had a little business trip and you probably wouldn't hear from me until Monday? Yeah. Turns out my business trip was to stay home and C's business trip was to head to California to close a few deals and attend jury duty.
Unfortunately it was very last minute, and we have packages coming in the mail, we were right in the middle of spring cleaning, and a million other projects going on at home. So I decided to stay home. Which really is for the best. But I miss him. A LOT. We're very close, and in the last 6 years of living with one another we've spent very little time apart.
So I'm finding things to distract myself, and to distract the dog who has been moping around here for the last 3 days. We're pathetic!
I did venture out to ikea today to pick up a new duvet. Since the dog has taken Cs place on the bed, it also means he's left all his fur all over my blue down comforter. I hate to keep washing that thin since I know it ruins it, so I caved and bought one! It's in the wash right now, but once I get it all set up I'll take pictures.
Another perk to C being gone? ( although I would rather have him here!) I lost 4 lbs. Seriously. I've had zero appetite, and cooking dinner for 1 just isn't appealing, so dinners have been pretty darn simple.
I'm hoping to book C and I a weekend getaway for when he returns, because lord knows I need it. But hmmm...where to go...
Welcome
Hi there!
Just a few simple things 'round these parts. I'm Krystie, The boy is Carlos, The pup is Spencer and we live our lives to make us happy.
Each day is fabulous, although sometimes challenging and I wouldn't have it any other way.
Follow us on our journey of business ownership, traveling, starting our family
and our new life in Oregon.
I'm just a simple girl with a lot of dreams and creativity for life. This blog is meant to chronicle my everyday adventures as a business owner, a DIY craft queen, a wanna be betty crocker, and a fur mama to the best pup I know. Somewhere in between, you'll explore the many places we travel, and the many obstacles I go through to get there!
The husband is Carlos and when not working on our Halloween business he is learning to draw like a pro and make delicious deserts. He enjoys traveling, playing with our pup and is very excited to be a first time dad.
The pup is Spencer. He is the love of our life and always needs to be the center of attention. He has a strong dislike for cats and postal men but will play nice if it means he gets to run to the park.
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