The Truth

I admit, I'm nothing in the blog, Twitter & Facebook category during the Summer. I just can't seem to ever catch up. I develop relationships with people both online and in real life, and once May/June hit? I'm no where to be found. I can barely make time to clean my home, or to take my dog on his 2 mile walk that he oh, so desperately needs. We work during the Summer and Fall and we're "off" work during the Winter and Spring. The truth is, people don't understand our life, they don't understand how we have made inconsistency our norm, because this is what we've known for the last 10 years.

What gets me more emotional then anything is not keeping up with my pregnancy updates.I wanted so badly to have these updates for 20 years down the road. To remember each and every moment and all I have are the memories that are stored in my brain. I know I'll lose thought on those small things and that just eats me alive.

I am so blessed to be able to have 5 solid months off during the year. We get to travel, relax and have down time, whereas other people we know get 2 days off a week and 2 weeks per year. That was never a life for me. Although I'm sure my 60 hour work weeks for 3 months with zero days off might not appeal to others.

All in all, this post is just a reminder that I am blessed with the life I have. I'm busy, and sometimes overwhelmed, but this is what I chose and I'm so glad I did. 4 weeks until my sweet baby comes, and that 4 weeks of maternity leave couldn't come soon enough.

Breathe

The last 2 weeks have been insane I tell ya. I can't even wrap my head around the hours of each day because it was so intense. We worked many 12 hour days preparing for our first fair event to promote our business and then we ran the event unexpectedly because our good friend who was suppose to work the week ended up in a pretty gnarly car accident. ( yes, I just said gnarly) She's okay thank god but we were a total mess complete with BH contractions that nearly made me run to labor and delivery and way less sleep then should be illegal.


Our event went splendid and I was thankful we we're only in the high 70s and 80s weather wise. Being on my feet all day in the heat wasn't on the top of my joy list but we survived!

Please excuse my absence while I get caught up on rest, prepare for our baby shower this Saturday and our annual Vegas vacation on Sunday. I promise, I'll be back, just sit tight!

MISHMASH

* We're busy over here getting bags packed, nails done, dog washed, hair trimmed and a Doctors appointment. To say we're busy is an understatement.


* I've had some pretty bad headaches with a few migraines thrown in for good measure and it's pretty ridiculous. I have to lay down every 2 hours to take the edge off and when you have a bazillion and 5 things going on it's just not any fun. But on the bright side, we leave for Maui tomorrow *gulp*



*We're getting our first real winter storm in Sacramento where we have 2 days of rain. In a way I'm kind of sad we wont get to enjoy the little winter we've been thrown, but we're going to Maui. I think I'll live.


* It took us 6 hours of shopping to buy C a pair of nice dinner pants, a belt, some fancy shoes and a few polo's. Normally I'm not one to complain about shopping but ohmygod! I was SO over it. We we're suppose to have a date night with dinner and a movie, and I told him I wanted to go home for a bit where I promptly laid down and took a nap. Needless to say, date night did not happen. For the record, we had to go back out the next day to finish getting him his Hawaii essentials. ughhhh


* We're leaving our house a mess while we leave. We never EVER do this, but we just don't have the time to devote to cleaning it the way I'd like. I'm sure I wont even think about it come tomorrow.


* I need a bigger suitcase. That is all


* I might blind people with my holy whiteness of skin( great visual, eh?) even though I had a rockin' tan this summer. It is no longer. Hold me now.


* I plan to continue blogging through Maui. If I miss a day or two well, it's because I'm either; passed out due to sun exhaustion or my (soon to be) husband is giving me endless massages ocean side ( one can dream, right?)

* Speaking of massages: We got one on the shopping day of hell fun. Everything was going so great until my masseuse FARTED. I mean I tried so hard not to gag or laugh but how embarrassing!! I still tipped her but couldn't wait to get done and get the hell out of there. I can't even make this shit up.


* If I wasn't getting married on Friday and longing for a cute hair style I would absolutely cut all my hair off tonight at my hair appointment. But alas, I want cute hair and cute pictures so I will refrain.



Next post, coming straight from Maui. :)

NEW BLOG, NEW MEANING.

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.


Krystie

RAIN, RAIN

I had BIG plans this weekend. I was looking forward to C cleaning out our garage so I could find a few things. I was looking forward to painting and reupholstering a chair I bought. I was also looking forward to planting my purple tulips I bought at lowes more then 3 weeks ago.

But did I get to do ANY of those things? nope. And you know why? RAIN.

I live in the land of rain, where it rains 75% of the year. But you think for one single weekend that I have allocated to staying home and getting stuff done it would give me a break? I mean, the weather forecast said it was going to be partly cloudy. But never did they say it was going to rain. I've been jipped I tell you, absolutely jipped.

So instead, I went on a date with my best boy. We had big plans of cheesecake factory, but after being told we had at least an 80 minutes wait ( holy shiznet!!) we were too hungry to deal with that. So we headed out the door, and guess what? I found $20.00 bucks laying on the ground in the parking lot. SCORE!

We decided to head to Sushi. Then we headed to borders and read all my favorite magazines, and decided it was time for a movie.
We saw She's Out Of My League. We both thought it was comical and cute. Certainly following in the steps of Nepolian Dynamite, but a bit better.

On Saturday we went to home depot to have some paint made, so we can start painting my grandma house.
( more on the later!)  We made a few visits to some of our favorite store, before heading to the grocery store to pick up dinner stuff.

On Sunday we cleaned. Just like we do almost every Sunday. now I'm enjoying my fabulous clean house, my freshly bathed dog, and I'm getting ready to deep condition my hair and paint my nails.

So while my weekend didn't go as planned, we still made the most of it, and had some fun :)


I hope everyone had a great weekend!

AND THE WINNER GOES TO..

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.

Have a great weekend!

HOME ALONE!... AHHHHH!

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...

RANDOMS

I value the friendships I have with the people in my life so much. I really feel without these people I would be an empty soul.

That being said, I only have a handful of friends, and they all live in another state, 1 even in another country.

I'm starting to get some-what lonely here in Oregon. I love being close to my family and having C but we haven't met one single group of people we can actually grab a drink with or have fun with.

Unfortunately, because we only live here 7 months out of the year, and we're self employed it doesn't leave a lot of room to meet people.

I'm hoping since we're opening our second location for our business up here this year, that will be a great resource, but until then?

What would you do? How would go about meeting people, other couples, etc?




In other news.

This weekend I got a bunch of spring cleaning done. I only took a day to do the down stairs,but decided I needed 1 more full day to do the upstairs. Once I've completed everything i'll make a detailed list and pass it on to my fellow bloggers.

On Friday while C and I were out running a few errands, Spencer found a bag of goodies. In it, were a brand new box of raisnets, mini  m&ms and some gummy bears. He ate every last bit of it and proceeded to puke for 2 days straight. It was nasty and very frustrating. Thank the lord he is feeling better today.

We're almost finished booking our trip to Disneyland at the end of April. We go every year, and almost decided not to go this year. However, a good friend of ours who worked for the company for 25 years is coming along with us, and will be giving us a behind the scenes tour. It's a chance of a life time for us Disney lovers and we wouldn't pass it up for nothing.

C bought a golf cart over the weekend. And no, we don't golf! Our building for our business is around 60k sq ft which is a bear to walk back and fourth grabbing tools, heavy carts, etc. He decided a golf cart would solve the problem ( which it will) however I was too cheap to invest. He finally convinced me over the weekend, and found a great deal, so alas I gave in. We've been playing in it non stop and found that it's a great dog exerciser, since Spencer will run full force to catch up with it. You know what they say, a tired puppy is a good puppy :)

That about sums up our weekend. We have a small business trip tomorrow through the weekend and C has jury duty on Monday. You may or may not hear from me until then.

I'VE DONE SOME SHOPPING!

I haven't bought much this year, and truth be told I haven't really wanted to buy anything. C and I have been working really hard on saving our money so we can hopefully start the process of purchasing 20 acres next year.

I decided enough was enough, and I got the itch. I've been in some what of a winter funk lately and decided a few spring purchases would cheer me right up and guess what? They did!

My purchases:
A cute yellow, very spring dress





I love it's simplicity and that I can play up with some cute jewelry, but what you don't see is that in the back it has a crisscross strap



I am in dire need of new flats and found these ones to be perfect!



I love the ruffle!


Heading more into summer gear, I bought myself a new swim suit. I'm sort of in between sizes right now, So I have 2 swim suits that are a bit snug and 1 swimsuit that's falling off. While I hope by the summer I can fit into my snug ones, I needed one to get by with for the next few months.




And last but not least, moving in the opposite direction, I caved and bought myself a pair of Ugg boots.



I've never been one to pop down more then $100 for shoes, and especially for boots that I will only wear so often. But this year I absolutely wanted a pair of these in the frigid temperatures but could not bring myself to pay $198.00. Cue Ebay. I've been on the look out for a brand new pair, brown, tall boots for under $100.00
Ridiculous? yes. Impossible, no! I had my eye on this pair for the last 5 days, starting bid .99 I knew they would go up, so I set my max at $100.00 and didn't even think about it until yesterday. I saw another pair ended just hours before at 137.00. Still not bad but more then I wanted to spend. I sort of lost hope until I got the email. I won! $91.99 and $11.00 for shipping.


And so my friends, that concludes my shopping. I can't wait for everything to arrive in the mail!



Now I'm off to fix sparky and I dinner, and play a little wii!

Mish Mash

A few randoms for the day ( or week)

It's raining cats and dogs. With a 2 day break I was spoiled. but now I'm back to stepping over nasty slugs, and getting drenched.

Sparky and I have restored our Friday night date night. Last week was fun! We made dinner at home, and then headed to a new movie theater, that specializes in living room settings. The chairs were big leather recliners, and you couldn't see anybody in front or back of you. We ended up seeing Extraordinary Measures. We really loved the flick, as it was based on a true story, and based right here in Portland. If you get the chance, and have 2 hours to spare, go see it!

We have a business trip planned this coming Monday to head down to California for a few days. While I'm looking forward to seeing a few friends and the in laws, I'm not looking forward to the 12 hour drive.

I'm secretly hoping on the business trip we will take a few days to go snowboarding in Lake Tahoe. It's been 2 years since I've rode and i'm both excited and scared. Wish me luck!

While down in California, ill be stopping by my hair lady and having her work some magic. I'm completely over my hair. I hate the length, the pouf, the color, everything!!While I fully understand she can't do anything about the length, because I am growing out my stacked bob, I need her to take some weight off, figure out something with my bangs and hopefully get me to a color that feels fresh for spring.



Please excuse the crappy cell phone picture.


Speaking of Spring. The ground hog saw his shadow and now we're at 6 more weeks of winter.
FAN. TASTIC.  ( sense my sarcasm?)

I'm working on organizing my bathroom. Ever since we moved into our house, we have had boxes, and things just thrown everywhere. It's finally driving me nuts! Since we aren't home much, and the time when we are home we have better things to do, I've made my Saturday completely clear so I can knock this out.


Other then those few things, not much else happening in our neck of the woods.