A day in the life of Welder Girl

Back

2006-02-11T17:28:00.000-08:00

I can't believe I've already been home from Florida for a couple weeks now. I have no idea where the time went, but that's how life goes I guess.

Florida was fricken awesome. I met Ivan's grand parents there. Ivan looks a lot like his grandpa. Hey, I know what Ivan will look like when he turns 75! His grandparents were awesome people. I really liked sitting down and playing cards with them.

We went to Kennedy Space Center. The nerd in me couldn't resist. I think it was my favorite place to visit there. That same day we also went over to Cocoa Beach. I couldn't be that close to the Atlantic Ocean and not see it. I collected shells while I was there to bring home to my nephews as souvenirs.

We also went to Sea World. I got drunk and almost puked on the Arctic ride that they have there. It is a bad idea to chug a beer then go on this ride that shakes you up. We saw the dolphin show, Shamu's show and the sea lion and otter show there. Plus we drank a lot of beer. I like Sea World.

Disney World was the third place we checked out. We opted to go to the magic Kingdom for the day. We used up two rolls of film there. It wasn't peak season so we were able to go on all the rides we wanted to. Space Mountain freaked me out a little bit. By the end of the day my feet were killing me. We got to see the fire works from the other side of the water. They are awesome. Next time we'll stay at the park until the fire works go off.

We got home from Florida at 2:30 in the morning. UGHH. But we went to work anyway. I think that must be why the first week flew by so fast. It was spent in a half awake stupor, just going through the motions to make it through the day.

The weekend after Florida was the crab feed. Something that our union's sheet metal contractors put on. For 35 bucks a ticket, it was all you can eat crab and all you can drink beer and wine. Plus there was the opportunity to schmooze with the bosses. After the feed, we all went downstairs to the bar where there was a live band and more booze. My boss bought me and my man all our liquor for the night. It was such a good time. I can't wait till next year's event.

The next morning, since we were so close to the ocean, we decided to take a drive out there. Well there just happened to be a storm that day. 75 mph winds. Waves hitting 20 feet tall. Sand blowing up in our faces. It was incredible.

This weekend I'm finally to relax and unwind. Well relax is not the right word. I've been scrubbing and sanitizing my house. It does feel good to have a clean house though. Soon all my laundry will be done too.

Next weekend my sister, her husband and me and my man are going to take a Ferry to Port Angeles for the weekend. No kids! Woo hoo. I have a kick ass surprise for my sis and her husband. I'll have to put that here later though.

All right now that everyone is updated, I've got to get back to my chores. That and I'm starting to get hungry. I'll post pics here from my vacation as soon as they get developed.

2006-01-24T04:31:00.000-08:00

Orlando, here I come!!!

Nuff said. I'll let you all know how it went.

Down to two

2006-01-12T20:40:00.000-08:00

Life has been crazy fun having these puppies around. This week they have all found good homes. Two of them are left at my house now. One of them goes home Saturday and the other is going to live with us for a few more weeks. Her master has a week vacation early February, so we're holding onto her until then.

Mama dog seems very relieved to have only two of them trying to climb over her. I think she is finally getting some sleep.

In other news tomorrow is "Hockey Friday!" I love going to hockey games (minor league). Its good cheap fun. Plus my family gets to go too. Should be good fun.

Puppies

2006-01-08T11:05:00.000-08:00

This weekend has been slightly traumatic for me. We've had a couple of people come over and look at the puppies. Two have actually been taken home. I keep telling everyone that I'm going to be fine when they go, but a part of me is still a little sad.

I've got an ad in the Herald (local paper) for the puppies. I've gotten some response. I just hope that they go quick. I have no desire to drag out the pain of watching them go.

I sound horrible don't I?

The puppies can actually be a pain in the butt to take care of. Do you know how hard it is to chase 7 puppies around the house and try to make them all stay in the kitchen where there is linoleum to pee on, when they all seem to insist on peeing on the carpet?

Well, I'm down to five puppies at the house now. Two of the five are spoken for. One goes home next weekend, and the other we are holding on to for a friend until February.

So...... Anyone want a puppy? I've got two males and one female left..... Good looking dogs too.

GONE!

2006-01-02T18:13:00.000-08:00

I haven't posted in quite a while for many reasons. One being that I've been incredibly busy the other because of the drama.

Living with "Girl Roommate" had become next to impossible. The lack of respect she showed me, my man, my house, and Boy Roommate drove me crazy. I've already learned (from past experiences) that I shouldn't put all my negative feelings here. They are too easily found and too easily misunderstood.

However, Girl Roommate has moved out! I would be lying if I said I wasn't happy, because I'm ecstatic. I feel I can move forward again from here.

In other news, my dog had puppies! That's one of them up above. There were 8 of them. 6 girls and 2 boys. They are all going to be old enough to go to their new homes next week. I can't believe that time went by so fast.

Christmas was great. Spent Christmas eve with my man's family over in Spokane. Got up really early Christmas morning and headed for my parents house. Only a four and a half hour drive! Then after dinner at my parent's house we did another Christmas at my house with some of my friends from Colorado and my sister and brother and their families.

CRAZY!

The day after Christmas my bridesmaids and I went and picked out some dresses. My wedding dress is absolutely gorgeous. It was so much fun going and trying on dresses with the girls. By the time we were done at the bridal store, there was so much silk in every color strewn about it looked like crayola barfed on the floor.

We were over at Ivan's parent's house for the new year. Celebrated in Spokane. Saw fire works. Kissed at midnight. The whole deal.

If I hadn't waited so long to write anything it would be easier to go into detail, but once again, I'm short on time. I'll write more later. I promise.

Wowiee~ Drunken turkey fest and family reunions

2005-11-25T20:51:00.000-08:00

Well the title pretty much says it all. We did Thanksgiving at my new house this year. Had lots of people over: my mom, my dad, Uncle Wado, Sister, brother in law, 4 nephews, 2 nieces, brother, boy roommate, good friend Cowboy and his wife. A whole bunch of the future in laws too: Future father in law, mother in law, sister in law, brother in law, niece in law (is there such a thing?) brother in law's wife (whom I've made great friends with). I know I've got to be missing someone, so I apologize now for the lack of recognition.

Anyway we had a stocked liquor cupboard. After a good breakfast, we set out the snacks that start the feast off. Started mixing drinks, and went on from there. The festivities went well on into the night, with tons of love, laughter and spilled drinks (oh well).

The bond my family and the in law family is already a strong one. I have no "monster in law" to fear. And for that I am thankful for.

Today was also an awesome day.

Since all the in laws are in from out of town, we wanted to show them Seattle. We went down to the Pike Street Market where they throw fish around. We went to the West Lake Center for the lighting of the tree. Rode the monorail over to the Space Needle and wandered through the EMP.

Why is it that even though I live here I don't do all these fun things until I'm showing someone around?

I just finished cooking up all the seafood we got from the Market (I did a kick butt job by the way) and I am thoroughly exhausted. Time for a bubble bath, some candles, and some solitude.

Tomorrow we go to the wedding place so I can show the family where we're getting married. Then I wish them all safe passage as they drive back home over the mountains. I'll be left with one day with an empty house to smile back at a wonderful weekend.

Somebody's Grumpy

2005-11-22T17:00:00.000-08:00

So I've been after my roommates to clean up after themselves. Well one roommate in particular. Girl roommate. Boy roommate some sure, but when I get after him, he will actually clean up what I ask him to.

Very unlike Girl roommate. Ask her to clean something she gets pouty and hides in her room.

Very frustrating for me. Especially with how hard I had to work to get this beautiful house. So I have one question to throw out there for every one.

Is it bad that I've started throwing away other peoples stuff? I'm tired of gathering up everyone's random junk and carting it upstairs for them. Then distributing them out to their proper places. So instead I just throw them away.

Don't get me wrong. I wouldn't throw away anything too expensive. I'm not like that. But if someone made spaghetti, didn't put away the left over uncooked noodles and made a huge mess of the kitchen in the process. Am I a bad person because I threw away the uncooked noodles.

Or that hair ties, bags of candy, markers, books of matches and other small insignificant items like that went in the trash.

Good to be home

2005-11-14T17:37:00.000-08:00

Wow! What a hectic, but crazy cool month October was. It's hard to believe that November is halfway over already. I've finally taken a moment for myself to write.

And I had better enjoy this moment because it won't last long.

Last weekend Ivan and I spent the weekend with his family. We went over there specifically to see his little sister. She was in a very bad car accident a week ago and is very lucky to be alive. We couldn't make it over the weekend of her accident, (believe me, Ivan felt like a jerk) so we rushed over there Friday.

I can't believe how strong that girl is. First she gets mono. Well not mono exactly something one step worse. She ended up missing a lot of school from that. She still got a 4.0 GPA.

Then there was this car accident. I guess what happened was it was really icy out and she slid into a gravel ditch. She tried to turn the car back onto the road and when one tire suddenly hit asphalt it grabbed so quickly that it rolled the car over. The windshield busted, both front door windows shattered and the roof of the car on the driver's side caved in. Thank god she was wearing her seat belt.

With how screwed up her car was, and how much blood there was every where, I can't believe she got away with only getting the injuries she got. Plus she was cheerful, bright, strong and supportive the whole time in the hospital.

The poor girl got scalped. Not completely. Just this huge chunk from the center of her forehead to about the top of her head. I got to see the wound in between bandage changing. When I was looking at it all I wanted to do was hug her. I felt like crying. Also felt the need to be strong for my man who was unquestionably feeling the same emotions. So I ended up standing there awkwardly not knowing exactly what to do.

All I have to say is Jenn-ay I am so glad you are here. I hope you know how much your brother and I love you. I've always wanted a little sister and I'm glad your it. You are an inspiration to everyone.

I love you!

Asleep behind the keyboard

2005-11-02T16:02:00.000-08:00

Golly gosh darn, yesterday was a loooooooooong day. Here's how it went:

3:45 am: Alarm goes off. I jump up three feet in the air trying to find out where that god awful noise is coming from. Realize it's time to get up and get ready for work, I do just that.

4:30 am: Out the door (late) car pooling with my honey to get to our jobs. I drop him off then head off to my own job.

2:30 pm: I'm off work. He doesn't get off work for two more hours. I sit in the truck, read a book and freeze my ass off waiting for him.

4:15 pm: I doze off for a quick nap. Only to be rudely awakened with a kiss a mere fifteen minutes later. (sorry honey, your kisses really aren't rude)

5:15 pm: I rush into the union hall, fix myself a burger (they do a bbq dinner before union meetings) then rush to a committee meeting that I was late for.

6:00 pm: Union meeting starts

7:00 pm: Still going

8:00 pm: Still at union meeting

9:00 pm: Union meeting finally adjourns

9:05 pm: Honey has his committee meeting

9:30 pm: I find out honey wanted to have a beer with one of his buddies and promised to meet him at the bar. Seeing as how we car pooled, I got to go too!

10:15 pm: Leave the bar after paying for his friends beer too.

11:00 pm: Home at last. Quick set up the coffee pot. Let the dog out. Feed her dinner. I'm still all dirty and yucky from work. Clean up best I can.

11:40 pm: In bed. Wound up. Can't sleep.

3:45 am: I'm rudely awakened by that stupid alarm clock.

UGH I can see me going to bed early tonight though. Gunna make a simple dinner. Feed my man. Go to sleep.

How precious is this

2005-10-31T21:04:00.000-08:00

This is the wedding cake topper I just picked up today. Isn't it cute? The men are all going to be wearing black cowboy hats for the wedding so I thought this was appropriate.

Note to my sister, yeah, I think I'm getting hooked on E-Bay. HELP ME!!!!!!!!!

The morning after

2005-10-29T11:51:00.000-07:00

Ohhhh.... How my head hurts.

It's my own fault. I know that much. But I'm still looking for something or some one else to blame.

This weekend both roommates and my man went over to Spokane for the weekend. Leaving me and this huge house to my self. So I call up my sister, her husband and a really good friend of ours and told them to come over.

With all the kids playing upstairs, us adults got to "relax" downstairs. By relaxing I'm talking about the consumption of an entire bottle of voldka by my sister and I. The boys drank off of a different bottle and had some beers.

Oh my goodness.... My sister and I were DRUNK. We weren't just drunk, we were drunk drunk.

We don't get the opportunity to cut loose like this very often so we took advantage of it to the fullest.

Comcast on demand has a section in their music file with Kareokee songs. All of us were jumping around singing random songs (off key of course). I remember sliding down the stairs on my butt. Even though I've told the kids countless times not to do that very thing. I now have rug burns on my calves.

Oh yes, and then there is the drunk dialing. I'm apologizing now to my favorite auntie whom we called just as she was getting into bed. Good thing she's cool and has a sense of humor. Not everyone is cool about getting drunken phone calls at night.

I don't remember exactly what else we did last night. Running around like a dork, laughing at nothing in particular, all in all having a good time.

Not so good a time now though. Waiting for the coffee to run through my system more better.

Ug

2005-10-26T22:29:00.000-07:00

The town I moved to is a very small town. Part of the reason why I chose to live there. Wanting to far enough away from the city to be away, yet close enough to do my shopping "in town."

Well for the first time since I moved in, I did my grocery shopping at the small family grocery store here. I have no idea why it took me this long, but I'm glad I stopped in.

I saw several customers run into each other there and greet each other with friendly hugs and huge smiles. They all stopped for a few minutes to catch up on what was happening.

This store is pretty small, but it had everything you could need. Just not twelve brands of everything. The producer was incredibly fresh. There are so many farms around town that there is a good chance it came from one of those farms. The employees wore their regular clothing, not a uniform.

I got winked at by an old lady who caught me smiling at everyone. It felt so good to be a part in such a small close nit community. I can't wait till I start meeting people. Until some one runs up to me in the store wanting to chat and catch up on stuff.

Just being there today left me with this good happy feeling the rest of the day. Knowing I made the right decision moving into this house.

2005-10-16T10:32:00.000-07:00

This my friends is my good looking fiance and our sweet little puppy. I feel very blessed to have such a good man in my life. I look forward to being his wife and sharing our lives together.

Been meaning to post

2005-10-15T13:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, here it is! My lovely 4 bedroom, 2.5 bath dark blue house. This is a picture the insurance agents get to look at to help them figure out how much home owner's insurance will be. It was taken before the driveway and the yard were finished. It's huge and I love it. Well worth all the extra effort and saving up it took to get in.

An announcement to make

2005-10-02T16:24:00.000-07:00

Ok I know I haven't written in quite some time, but I've been in the process of unpacking and organizing my house. Then, when I got to a point where I could take a break and do some typing, my computer died. Or so I thought it did. Turns out comcast had a problem changing over my account from one house to the next.

Any way... On to the announcement.

I am now an engaged woman!

Ivan proposed to me last weekend. I am absolutely reeling. Floating on clouds. So incredibly excited.

He was really romantic about it too. We were at this concert. The guy we were seeing sings one of "our songs." Well, "our song" starts up and we slow dance to it in the crowd. After the song got over, he pulls this ring out of his pocket, got down on one knee and asked me to marry him.

I cried. He cried. My sister cried. Girl roommate cried. Boy roommate had something in his eye. There were even a few people standing around us that were a little teary eyed.

I've been floating since then. Getting ready to plan a wedding now that we're in this house together.

Life is good.

New names, new places, new beginnings

2005-09-13T21:37:00.000-07:00

Oooo eeee oooo aaa aaa ting tang walla walla bing bang!

Ok, well I can't help but be excited. We signed our papers on the house tonight. All one hundred and two million of them. Now as soon as the lender and the escrow company and the county people all talk to each other we'll get our keys. That's when the fun begins.

I am really really ready to move into our new house. We did our walk through with the builder's rep and I can't believe how beautiful the house is. I've been putting things away in cupboards in my mind for a month now.

We're going to rent a big truck for Saturday. A couple guys from Spokane are in town and are going to help us move stuff in. The in-laws are coming to town too so they can check out the place. Excited to show it off, but I'll be all worked up with moving stress.

I'll just have to have a couple extra beers on the side while no one's looking. It shouldn't take me too long to get situated. Only about a month or so.

I'm planning our house warming party now. Don't know when it'll be but I know it will be soon.

Also, just a shout out to a very good friend of mine, congradulating him on his recent engagement. I love you guys and I wish you the best!

2005-09-11T21:43:00.000-07:00

My house (what's left of it) is a disaster area. We spent more money than we intended to this weekend. We haven't gotten to sign the papers on our house yet. But I just got done eating a huge piece of cheesecake. I am a very happy woman.

Life's strange like that sometimes isn't it.

2005-09-11T12:03:00.000-07:00

I know it's been some time since I've last written anything, but I've been crazy busy. Trying to pack up the house and get ready to move has taken up most of my time. On top of that we've had a few extra roommates in the house. I've also had a few things to take care of after work. Open houses and stuff.

arroyos. Cant wait for life to start slowing down.

We were supposed to sign papers on our house last Friday. The mortgage company dropped the ball on getting all the papers to the escrow company on time. Causing us to not be able to move in this weekend.

I cried.

Ivan had the day off to sign papers and can't take another one off until next Friday. So we get to do battle with mortgage company to make sure that's when we do sign. The seller of the house is going to charge the lender $50 a day after our original closing date until we do sign. It may end up costing our mortgage company more money now since we are going to make them wait.

Let me tell you. This is very frustrating living in a packed up house, anxiously waiting to move in.

Good times and good news

2005-09-01T17:38:00.000-07:00

I just got a call today. Our house is done! We get to do our final walk through Wednesday with the builder's rep. Then we Sign our papers and get the keys Friday. It's getting so close. I've been packing, but I'm not nearly done. No where near done. I still have time though.

I'm all girled up tonight. Going to the fair to catch the Sara Evans and Phil Vassar concert. We've had these tickets for months now. Can't believe time's gone by that fast.

Heading over to Ellensburg for the weekend. Ellensburg Rodeo is going on. Had tickets for that for quite some time too. Couldn't believe my luck when I actually got a motel room in the next town over for Labor Day weekend. Seeing as how I didn't make any calls until last Monday. Good grief, I can be a queen procrastinator sometimes.

Anyway, just wanted to write a quick post before we head out the door. I'll let you all know if anything exciting happens tonight, tomorrow or this weekend.

Very long trip down memory lane

2005-08-28T19:49:00.000-07:00

Man am I getting excited about moving into my big beautiful house. I spent some time packing up boxes this weekend. Getting everything all organized and ready to go. It made me think of the last time I moved out of some where. I was in such a hurry to get out of that house, everything was thrown into what ever box they hit. I couldn't find anything for quite a while. It didn't help that I stayed with my boyfriend at his apartment for 6 weeks before we got to move into our rental house. Kind of like a very long lay over or something.

The reason I had to move out of that house so quick was because things had gotten really bad between my then roommate and I. *Makes me glad that current girl roommate and I made amends.

It all started because I started up a separate blog. One just for myself. It was not public and no one else had the address to it. Well that particular blog was one for venting. Kind of like how I do here when I'm frustrated with things. When ex-roommate and I didn't see eye to eye on things, instead of making a big deal out of it, I wrote. I let all my frustrations out through the keyboard, and got on with my life.

One day, she went digging through the computer's history and found that blog, read it, and freaked out. She claimed that I made fun of her most inner thoughts. Her dreams and her feelings. I can understand that she would be upset. If I found a blog where some one vented about me, I would be upset too.

Problem was I didn't make fun of her inner thoughts and feelings. All I did was vented about normal every day shit. And who the hell was she reading it any way? Oops sorry, starting to feel the emotions from it again.

Well we both said we were sorry and tried to move on with our lives. Tried to get over things. The guy I was seeing at the time and I were having some issues. I decided to move on and away from him. I'm not proud of the route I took to get away from him, but that route did put me here where I am now.

In the process of leaving the ex boyfriend and getting to know my current boyfriend better I went through some rocky times emotionally. Thinking I had a friend there to lean on and to confide in was my mistake. I confided in her how I was feeling. The pain, the hurt from the ex and all the thrill of the new.

Little did I now she would take everything I told her and use it against me. She started her own blog. Found it one day. It kind of vented about me. It had some stuff in there that was justifiable. But a lot of what she said wasn't true. Not true stuff at all. Horrible mean nasty vicious lies.

Then I find out that she spent a few hours with new/current boyfriends best friend and talked all kinds of shit about me. About what a horrible person I was and why I should be dumped. I almost lost my sweet boyfriend over that incident. I mean I had finally got something good going on in my life and she tried taking it away from me.

It was then that I decided it was time to move out. (Believe me when I say that there is much much more to this story. These are just the basic hilights) There was no saving that friendship as long as I lived in the same house as her. So it was time to pack up my stuff and move on with my life. I remember leaving as fast as I could.

What a great week

2005-08-27T10:57:00.000-07:00

Girl roommate and I have been hanging out quite a bit lately. Her man got put on the swing shift, so he leaves the house at about noon and doesn't get home till really late. My man was on graveyard for a week. He left at about 7 and didn't get home till way after I went off to work. So it was just us girls for a while.

It makes me feel more relaxed these days since I decided to "get over" some of my negative feelings. I can't change people. I can however demand some respect.

Yesterday was so much fun. I called in "sick" to work so I could hang out with my man and spend some quality time with him. I was really missing him since he was on the night shift. We spent the day doing some shopping. Bought our refrigerator. We pick it up the day after we get possession of the house. We got a hell of a deal on it too. We spent weeks shopping around and comparing. Believe me. We did good.

Then we got home and got ready to go out to this country bar for some dancing. It's about 45 minutes from our house. We pull up to this bar and the parking lot was empty. Huh. Now what. So we go to some random bar and they are doing kareokee. FUN! Girl roommate has an awesome voice. She is just extremely shy about it. Boy roommate is a hell of a singer too. I sang, but I suck. Had fun though. The kicker was when boyfriend got up to sing. He sang a song he hasn't sang before. Gary Allan "Her Man." Watching him up there made me all teary eyed. I love him so much.

Ahh.... Good times.

Putting the past behind us

2005-08-21T09:30:00.000-07:00

Last night Boyfriend and boy roommate went out shooting in the woods. Being all manley and talking about boy things. So girl roommate and I decided to go out and do some girl things. It was actually quite fun.

During the course of dinner we got to talk about a lot of things. Get them all "aired out." It was really good for us. She seems to really understand that this house she is moving into is MY house. I will be the female in charge of decorating and furnishing. I will be the queen bee here. She is a tenant renting a room from us. That is all. She has no say on anything.

I must have been especially clear on such things these past few weeks. She would suggest something or ask something about the house and I would either correct her suggestion with how things are going to be or I'll inform her of what I've decided.

Boyfriend doesn't care too much about how the place is decorated. He doesn't care too much about the whole moving process other than the fact that we get to move into our own house. That gives me free reign.

Our house has 4, yes that's right, 4 bedrooms. The master bedroom is huge. We are renting out two to the roommates. That leaves one more room. I thought that turning it into a guest room would be the most logical thing. Boyfriend told me that I get to turn it into my art room. That way I'll have some space to work on my scrapbooking, and practice using my sewing machine. A place to put all my hobby stuff.

I guess that when we have guests over we can move the futon into it (so yes Jenn-ay, you will have a private place to stay). But in the mean time, that little chunk of space is mine. *Picture me jumping up and down, spinning in circles in the middle of an empty room*

Three weeks from yesterday we sign the paperwork and get possession of the house!

John Hancock

2005-08-17T22:30:00.000-07:00

The other day boyfriend and I signed some more papers on our house. By some I mean a million.

Seriously.

There were four stacks of papers we had to sign and return to our mortgage company. By the end of the signing expedition I realized I was leaving out letters from my name trying to hurry and finish scratching out my John Hancock.

We also had to gather up an additional million pieces of paper work to prove that we have bank accounts, 401 k's and are not alien life forms from another planet. I spent hours copying papers. Used up almost all of our printer ink.

BUT WE GOT IT DONE!

We'll probably have one more set of papers to sign until September 9th when we close with the escrow company. Then we are home free.... Literally.

Boyfriend and I have decided for at least the first two weeks, we are staying at the house by ourselves. That will give us some time to unpack our stuff, decide where things are going to go and DO IT IN EVERY ROOM IN THE HOUSE before our roommates even get a second chance at trying to ruin it for me. I've already had one roommate ruin the christening of something important. I don't want it to happen again.

Other than that, I saw a lot of really good friends today that I haven't seen in quite a while. I saw a lot of the crew from the jail job I worked at. We all went out and had beers together today. After beer and conversation, we went over to a different friend's house for dinner. We had a blast. Their little girl was the sweetest little thing in the world. Made me want to have one of my own someday.

On that not, before I get all carried away, I should probably sign out. I can sense some weird emotions inside me right now.

Princess Tammy

2005-08-14T11:19:00.000-07:00

Yesterday, boyfriend and I went to this renaissance fair to go watch my favorite Auntie get married. Everyone was even dressed up in renaissance costume. I had a somewhat princess type dress on.

It truly was a beautiful ceremony. It wasn't your traditional wedding where the bride and groom get all fussied up and march down an isle. It was held outside by this little creek in the shade. (shade being important because it was HOT outside.) There was a group of people that were part of this inner circle. We all had our auras cleansed of negative energy with sage. Once we were purified, we formed our circle.

Part of the ceremony included calling upon the elements of the North, South, East and West. They symbolism earth, water, fire, and wind. (I think, I'm close on that any way) deities each took turns calling them into our circle for the ceremony. Everyone who was part of the circle held hands to complete the circle.

Then the lady who married them tied the not (seriously) around their hands. It was really cool and touching at the same time. I got teary eyed during the wedding which doesn't surprise me.

After the wedding, we all went to the ale house for a couple beers. After that we watched some jousting and some sword fights. The fair was so much fun. Exhausting because of the heat, but fun. The costumes were outstanding. I could have happily sat in the shade and just watched people for hours.

I'm really glad my Auntie had this type of a wedding. I had no clue how much fun these types of fairs are. Plus her wedding was extremely unique and suited to them specifically.

2005-08-09T20:59:00.000-07:00

La da da da da da, la la la la la.

I'm so excited about getting into my house. We close in exactly one month from today. I found out through our realtor and through our mortgage gal that Monday the interest rates went up a little and that the houses in the development went up $5000. We got in just in time. FIVE GRAND instant equity. Woo-hoo.

Well there is peace in the house these days. Girl roommate offered no apology. I don't think I'll get one, so I won't expect one. I'll let it go, seeing as how my tantrum expressed my feelings perfectly. I will, however, remember this little episode.

Instead of concentrating on having hurt feelings, I have so many more wonderful things to focus my energies on. I catch myself daydreaming about our house. How to decorate. Which cupboards everything is going to go in. How soon is too soon to start packing up the house? If I had my way, everything would already be in boxes.

I know, I know on and on about the new house. I might be boring some of you, but this is huge for me. I can't help but share my excitement.

New house blues?

2005-08-07T08:41:00.000-07:00

Well no, not really blues. Just being a little pissed off at the moment.

We went out to the house Friday after rushing home from work. We wanted to show the roommates and the boyfriends little sister the house before they took off for the weekend. Little sis was really excited about seeing the place, roommates kind of protested a little and drug their feet.

We finally get everyone out to the house so we can show it off and share how happy we are. Boyfriend and I were standing at the window checking out the view when he looks at me and says "They're doing it."

Confused, I stare at him for a minute when it all sinks in. Boy roommate went into the bathroom to change out of his work clothes so he didn't have to drive in them for 6 hours. I thought girl roommate was checking out the house.

Guess I thought wrong.

Now this house is brand spanking new. We will be the first owners of this house. The night we get the keys, we were planning on bringing an air mattress, some candles, a bottle of wine and some fruit. We were going to "break in" the house that night.

Seeing these plans go up in smoke, I pound on the bathroom door and start hollering at them. Stomp around the house and slam the doors for a few minutes being all pissed off.

Boy roommate finds me stewing on the back porch. He talks to me to find out why I'm pissed. He tells me that they were fooling around and hadn't gotten to the doing it part. Apparently me screaming at them through the bathroom door killed the mood. He says he's sorry and didn't even think about that. He understands where I'm coming from.

I laugh a teary eyed laugh and say that I know it sounds funny that I wanted to be the first one to do it in my brand new house. He reassures me that it's not funny and he is totally sorry. That they didn't even get to the good part.

I sigh. He really is a good guy. At least he came over and talked to me. He apologized and understood me. No point in being pissed off for too long. I forgive him, we hug, we move on.

I join the rest of the group on the front porch. We start talking about the house some more. I realize girl roommate isn't any where to be seen. She was hiding. No apology, no asking me why I was stomping through the house, nothing.

Still mad at her for her total lack of disrespect.

And I'm back

2005-08-03T20:32:00.000-07:00

Ok, ok I know it's been forever since I last wrote. I've just been so busy. Time has just flown so fast. I haven't even had much time to sit down and read the writings of others out there. I've missed reading and writing so much.

Lets see.... what have I been up to. Well for starters my boyfriends little sister is in town. She's been here for almost two weeks. We went out to the ocean and went camping. Brought some friends and my dog with us. Had a blast... except for when I accidentally dropped the whole watermelon on the ground and it broke into pieces.

Last weekend Ivan and I treated each of our parents to a weekend at the Enchanted River Inn. This wonderful bed and breakfast out in Leavenworth. It was an awesome weekend. It made my heart feel really good seeing our parents together. Knowing that forever won't be so hard since our family gets along so well together.

Then... On the way home from Leavenworth, on impulse, we stopped by a housing development. Just seeing what kind of houses they were building out there. We came across an agent just as we were getting ready to go and she let us in to look at some places. Well... we found one we liked!!!

Well, we made some phone calls, signed some papers and got the ball rolling.

We will be home owners in 6 weeks!

I'm so excited. This house is HUGE! I'll be a resident of Sultan. I can't wait. I want to move in right now.

Anyway though, I should have more time to do some writing. I can't wait to get back to my reading.

I wish everyone a good night. I hope all of yours is as good as mine.

Let the hunting begin

2005-07-17T10:19:00.000-07:00

Woo-hoo!!!

Boyfriend and I got pre qualified to buy a house. All our hard work, budgeting and sacrificing has finally paid off!

Last night I scanned some of the last of the final paper work and sent them off to the lending company. They have the number to our rental agency to verify rent. I'll probably hear back from the lenders Tuesday or so. Calling up a realtor Monday. Been searching on line for awhile now.

I'm thinking about a place with a couple acres. There are a lot of houses out there that spoil the "master" of the house. Huge master bedrooms with bathrooms attached. Bathrooms that have giant bathtubs in them.

My advice out there to everyone is to never stop dreaming. Never lose sight of your goals. If we can do it so can you.

Also buy the book "The young, fabulous and Broke." It teaches you about finances in a language you can understand.

Welder Girl In Action

2005-07-13T18:59:00.000-07:00

I've been gathering pictues of these stainless steel letters being made for awhile. There are still some left to collect, but I couldn't wait any longer. I had to show off my work. I'm very proud of this job. I did about 90% of the work on it myself.

This project made it into my company's quarterly news letter complete with pictures of me welding.

The people who bought the sign absolutely loved it.

A job well done. Something I am proud of.

P.S. Check out the letter "g" Could they have picked a harder font for me?

2005-07-13T18:57:00.000-07:00

Welder Girl in action!!!

2005-07-13T18:55:00.001-07:00

More of me welding

2005-07-13T18:55:00.000-07:00

And today's letter is "Y"

2005-07-13T18:54:00.000-07:00

Putting the letters in their place

2005-07-13T18:53:00.001-07:00

McMurray

2005-07-13T18:53:00.000-07:00

medical

2005-07-13T18:52:00.000-07:00

Building

2005-07-13T18:51:00.000-07:00

The big guy on the left is Scott. He helped bend up the metal for the sides of the letters. The guy in the white is a forman. He had nothing to do with this project. The guy on the far right is the boss who was in charge of this job.

For inquiring minds

2005-07-11T22:04:00.000-07:00

No!!!! I am not pregnant. Started my period at work... Today..... Unprepared.... Of course.... In a shop full of men.

Now get those crazy ideas out of your head.

Wow, you wouldn't believe the change in the way my family works these days. Roommates cooked dinner. Sweetie pie mowed the lawn. Roommate #1 and sweetie pie are doing dinner dishes right now.

Something worked out well for me.

Found out why I was so grumpy too. Friday I took a nap for a couple hours. Got up, ate something for dinner, then slept for 12 hours straight. Could have possibly been a little pre menstrual too.

Any way, none of all that matters now. It's all back to sunshine and happiness again.

Just bought tickets to go see two different concerts today. I love summer.

Sweetie wants to go get hitched in Vegas. Weirdo.

Doing much better now

2005-07-08T16:14:00.000-07:00

The boyfriend and I got together after my "grumpy" post. We talked about how I was feeling and he helped me realize a few things. Just like it was pointed out in the comments, the two roommates do have something new going on. The honeymoon stage will last for a while longer even.

Plus roommate #2 just moved in. Her stuff is still in the process of being organized. She has no idea where to put the dishes away even if she did do them. If she wanted to pick up around the house a little bit she, yet again, wouldn't know where to put stuff.

Plus after the babysitting episode, the house was a mess. It's not hard to make a mess when there is already a mess going on.

I've decided that I just need to relax a little. I love a certain amount of organization, and I think I'm going to have to have it in my own bedroom.

Also the roommates are out of town for the weekend. I'm going to get rid of some clutter, clean and organize things. Start off with a clean slate. Maybe it will be easier to keep it clean once it is already clean.

Thank you all for reading a boring post.

Adventures in Babysitting

2005-07-01T20:04:00.000-07:00

Ok so my brother, the electrican's apprentice, had a "job emergency" and he needed someone to watch his three kids for him for the night. Tonight's work would all be overtime pay and he really couldn't afford to turn it down.

So it's big sister to the rescue. I hardly ever get to see my two nephews and my niece, so I really don't mind watching them. Problem is, although I have experience with kids, I'm a little out of practice.

I know I need to feed them so I send Ivan (who got home at 4 this morning) to the store for something for dinner. We also needed some diapers for the little one too. After about 45 minutes I started getting worried.

Ivan comes home with 5 bags of various cookies. Yes that's right guys 5. Also a box of crackers and kool-aid. Paper plates and bowls. Plastic cups. A huge package of toilet paper. A huge pack of paper towels. And a giant pack of diapers and some wipes to go with them.

For dinner he went off to KFC. The kids meals were perfect for them. Managed to borrow a sippy-cup from the neighbor for the little one. Now the kids are full and all sugared up.

Young one needed her diaper changed. As soon as I got off her pants I realized that this was a number two emergency and I needed wipes "STAT"

Ivan rushes over to get the wipes and opens the package while I am attempting to use the diaper to wipe her up. As I let go of the diaper and make a grab for the wipes, the turd actually rolled out of the diaper and onto the floor. She was laying on the couch by the way. So I'm laughing trying to hurry up and get the diaper on her and clean up the turd on the floor mess.

We finish getting her all dressed and look around for the two boys. During the time it took to change their sister, both boys managed to get them selves naked. So I grab some small t-shirts of mine and put one on each kid.

I can hear all of them running around chasing the dog right now. They are actually barking at her.

It's only been two hours. Lord help me for I'm doing this tomorrow night too.

Missing my man

2005-06-29T20:35:00.000-07:00

Ok so Ivan is working over in Bremerton right now. Working the night shift. He leaves for work before I get home, and I leave for work before he gets home. Sucky... sucky... sucky...

He's decided just to camp over there since we don't get to see each other anyway. I have to make do with mushy phone calls until Friday.

Work's been good though. Still making stainless steel letters for a sign. They say McMurry Medical Building. Very hard to make those letters out of metal. Turning out cool though. They are 3-D and are going to be welded to a piece of Iron that is curved. I guess they are supposed to look like they are floating or something when they're done.

Some of the office girls have been in taking pictures of me welding. Hopefully I'll get a copy of them so I can post them for all to see.

2005-06-29T20:34:00.000-07:00

Another one at the Furry 5K.

2005-06-29T20:33:00.001-07:00

Us driving our new roommate to the airport.

2005-06-29T20:33:00.000-07:00

Here is me Ivan and Daisy at the Furry 5K.

Relaxation at last

2005-06-27T19:35:00.000-07:00

After moving in the new roomate (garrett's girlfriend) and getting her all settled in, it's finally time to relax. Both Garrett and Denae are in Spokane and my man is working nights this week.

Sounds like a wonderful time for a bubble bath and some Tammy time!

Welder Girl Is Back!!!

2005-06-23T20:58:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't written for a few days, but lately I've been exhausted when I get home from work.

Yes that's right, I wrote "home from work!"

Monday morning the company I used to work for called me up asking me if I wanted to go back to work for them. Seems they had a special job up their sleeve just for me.

I got a late start on work Monday, seeing as how they called me 40 minutes after work started and it takes me about an hour to get there. But by Tuesday I was all over that sheet metal stuff.

I actually got to do some welding Tuesday. It felt so good to truly be welder girl again. Even better, I got a cool job to do. First it was to build snowboard racks for Zumies. Then I'm welding up some stainless steel letters for this medical company. The letter job is the one they brought me back for. It's not only challenging but fun at the same time. Plus this job is so different from the other jobs my company does, all eyes are on me. It's my time to impress and show off.

I also heard a rumor that they are starting to pick up more work. Possibly meaning they can keep me busy for a while. What a financial blessing.

Censorship in Blogging

2005-06-20T05:37:00.000-07:00

As I read other people's blogs, I sometimes get a case of blog-envy. You see, a good deal of family and friends have the address to this blog. Which is ok, don't get me wrong. I gave the address out myself. However, this leads me to censor myself some. There have been times when I spilled out my deepest feelings here only to have them thrown back in my face.

Isn't this a place for me? To write to my hearts content. To spill out anger and frustration. To shout out the love that is bursting from inside me.

Why is it then that I have to hide my feelings? Is this really for me. Or is it to present the best image of myself for others to see?

Am I allowed to have bad days? Should they all be good? If I bitch about my boyfriend does that make him a bad guy? If I'm pissed off at a friend does that mean we aren't friends any more? Or am I just living life the way it is. With all it's ups and downs. With all the triumphs and trials.

Take me for what I am. Don't make me be someone I'm not. Be prepared for a more emotional me. Don't get hurt feelings. Don't get all defensive for me. Just let me be me.

Adult entertainment

2005-06-18T12:32:00.000-07:00

A lot of my friends have kids these days. Some of these kids can be monsters. Running around screaming, hitting each other and constantly in our faces. Last night we went over to some friends house. We've never done a dinner with this particular family before and it was simply amazing.

They have 3 kids. The most well behaved little kids I've ever seen in my life. They wanted some attention and were excited about having visitors of course, but they weren't all in your face about it. The kids said please and thank you when it was appropriate. They, for the most part, got along and played well together. The parents treated their children with respect. They said please and thank you to their kids. They worked as a team when one got fussy. Not abandoning the other and leaving their spouse to take care of the dirty work alone. Not screaming at the kids and telling them to go play and leave us alone.

Because of the amazing job these two are doing while raising their kids, we were able to hang out as adults and play a simple board game. Most of my friends kids wouldn't allow us to have that much peace and quiet.

It was an awesome display of teamwork. It was inspiring and will hopefully affect how me and my guy raise our kids.

I know who to go for advice any way.

Girls Rock!

2005-06-15T07:04:00.000-07:00

Ok so one day my truck starts spewing oil all over the place. As I was driving down the road it was literally spraying down the whole drivers side of my truck. I would have to stop every now and then and add some more oil just to make it home safely.

Then I park it in the driveway and that's where it sat for quite some time. I had been bugging boyfriend and my guy friends for quite some time about getting it fixed. I don't believe in paying someone $90 an hour to do what my friends can do out of the goodness of their own hearts.

Well every time someone made plans to work on my truck for me, they bailed on me. My beautiful truck was sitting there, wasting away while weeds grew around it.

Well enough was enough. I knew which hose it was that was gushing oil out. So, feeling very empowered, I arm myself with a set of tools and got to work. I took apart pieces of my truck to make room for me to get to the broken hose. Took the broken hose off with only one small mishap. I forgot that there would be oil coming out of the hose when I took it off. Got the stuff every where.

After cleaning up a little, I took the broken hose, marched into NAPA and said "I need one of these."

Got my new part. Took it home. Put it in. Put the pieces I took apart back together. Added oil. Done!

I can't believe I fixed my truck while not knowing what the heck was going on. The only thing I had was faith in myself.

It was awesome watching the guys check out my handy work when they got home. They kept looking for oil leaks or loose bolts. Checked my oil level to make sure I got it right. I just stood there with a smug look on my face. I was secretly glad they double checked me, I don't want to be stranded any where or anything, but it felt so good when I got told I did a good job.

YAY!

2005-06-14T10:25:00.001-07:00

Ivan's dad Buzz and his mom Lynn.

2005-06-14T10:25:00.000-07:00

This is Ivan's Mom and Dad.

2005-06-14T10:24:00.000-07:00

Happy is the guy on the left. Aren't me and Ivan cute?

2005-06-14T10:23:00.000-07:00

Our "Gang"

2005-06-14T10:22:00.000-07:00

This is me and Ivan on our bike trip to Montana!

Furry 5K

2005-06-14T09:57:00.000-07:00

Sunday was the Furry 5K.

It's this walk/run that's held at Steward Park in Seattle that benefits the animal shelters. There are booths set up to give dogs doggie treats, and people people treats. When you register, you get a t-shirt for participating and your dog gets this cute green bandana and these doggie treats that are shaped like gingerbread men.

Let me tell you people, this is one of the most awesome events I have ever been to. There were dogs every where. There had to be hundreds of them. All shapes and sizes. All of them super cute. They were all friendly dogs and all super sweet. I fell in love with half of them. Half of the walkers fell in love with my yellow lab, Daisy. I don't know who was more excited me or the dog.

We just walked the 3 miles. Very easy to do with all the excitement and energy in the air. I'll be posting pictures as soon as they're out.

Cooking while rollerblading

2005-06-11T18:45:00.000-07:00

I have discovered that cooking while rollerblading (yes in the house) is fun. So is doing the laundry. So is doing the dishes. In fact, I'm blogging with rollerblades on!

Today I saw a wiener

2005-06-11T16:50:00.000-07:00

Today was the big day for Ivan. His first triathlon in four years. It was about two hours south of where we live. We got lost on the way and almost didn't make it to the registration thingy on time.

So we finally get there, with four minutes to spare, and I have to pee sooooooo bad. The line for the port-o-potties was probably half a mile long since the race was about to start. I decide to go on a little "nature walk" so that I might find a hidden place to relieve myself. Apparently I wasn't the only one who had the same bright idea. I came across several others on the trail. Understanding what that they needed to pee too, I averted my eyes, they (being men) turned away from me so I wouldn't see.... well.... them.

I decided that since I'm a girl, I would have to go a little further or I was going to get caught too, only I couldn't hide myself as easily. So I walk further and further into the woods looking for the perfect spot to pee. I think I found one when something catches my eye up ahead in the trail.

I saw a wiener.

It was some guy who was peeing, only he didn't turn and hide himself from me. He just stood there facing me with it hanging out. He didn't move, hell he wasn't even holding onto it. It was just sort of hanging there.

Now come on people. I was wearing a bright red raincoat. I know he saw me. When I realize this, I get kind of spooked. I am all alone in the woods, far away from all the activity and there is a guy with his weenie hanging out. This is when I run back toward the line for the port-o-potties. Breathing a sigh of relief when Ivan finds me.

More celebrations

2005-06-08T05:58:00.000-07:00

Ok so my six day birthday was over yesterday, but I've decided to extend it for a few more days. Why not? I really love my birthday and I think it is a shame it only comes around once a year. So I've decided that it is a good time to visit a good friend of mine and hang out for a day. He lives down in Olympia, so I'm getting ready for a long drive right now.

Last night I went to my union meeting. Saw some really good friends there. Some I haven't seen in quite a while. Got some leads on some jobs. That means *sigh* I'm going to have to go back to work.

Me and Ivan went out to Olive Garden. Had ourselves an interesting discussion about our future. He has been thinking more and more about having kids. Tell you the truth so have I. It's kind of scary and all, but this is something that we both want.

I know we also both want to be married and have our house before kids comes along. That's going to give us an extra push to get out of this tiny assed house and get things done. That gives me the drive to get a job so I can help with down payment stuff. That is going to give Ivan a kick in the butt to ask me to marry him. For real this time (drunken proposals don't count.)

I can't begin to tell you all how that makes me feel. I love Ivan so much. I keep wondering what it was that I did to deserve such a fantastic, amazing, wonderful, romantic, loving, caring hard working man. Knowing that in the not so far off future I'm going to be not only a wife but a mother makes me feel happy and scared at the same time. But he completes me. We compliment each other like no other.

Ok time for me to stop. I'm getting seriously emotional and teary eyed.

6 Day Birthday

2005-06-06T11:34:00.000-07:00

I told Ivan that it was going to be my birthday for 6 days this year. I don't know why I picked six days, but who cares if he took me seriously.

We had a ton of people at the house for the past few days. We went and did all kinds of things for my birthday. Went and had a girls day of drinking. We started at 2:30 and continued on until well past midnight. We went ice skating one day and roller skating the next. There was a day of beauty, where I got my nails done and my eyebrows waxed.

On the day of my birthday it was also my graduation party from Sheet Metal school. We had this barbecue right next to the field. There was all you can drink beer and all you can eat burgers and hot dogs. We also had tickets to the game. The girls that were staying at my house "girlified" me. Did my make up and hair and made sure I was really really cute. It was kind of a shock for the guys I went to school with to see me look like a girl. My buddy Mike kept hitting on me, looking over his shoulder the whole time making sure Ivan didn't hear.

Ivan and our roommate Garrett got me the best birthday present ever. A GREAT BIG TRAMPOLINE!!! I've wanted one of those for ever! They set it up for me last night. I jumped on that thing until it was raining so hard I couldn't stand up on it anymore.

Tonight Ivan gets to make me a birthday cake. I just have to pick out the flavors.

I love birthdays.

I was plenty drunk when the game was over, so there was no going out.

Knowledge is Power

2005-06-01T12:13:00.000-07:00

This was my first long trip on a motorcycle. Needless to say I learned some very important things along the way.

No amount of bug repellent will prevent bugs from smacking you in the face at 70 mph.
You can never use too much sunscreen.
My ass does not have enough natural padding to remain comfortable for long periods of sitting on the back of the bike.
You know all that grime that ends up on your car after a long trip, well on a bike, it ends up all over you.
Bugs, no matter what their nutritional value, don't taste good.
I do not have a cool "biker name." I met Ham, Veggie, Happy, Tumble Weed and Rocket Girl. Every one else used regular names.

This weekend was was awesome! Grueling, but awesome. You can see so much more and smell so much more on a bike. You can feel the temperature drop when you ride past a river. You feel it heat back up again when you ride into the sun. You get an incredible adrenalin rush every time you take off and go.

There were 11 bikes with 14 people on our trip. It made me feel all bad ass being part of the group. We got so many looks from people it was crazy. I guess it is better to ride in a group than ride alone. You are more easily seen and less likely to get run over.

There was this girl there who had the coolest red motorcycle. She caught me drooling over it at one of our rest stops and offered to let me sit on it. She thought that bike would be the perfect size for me. Sure enough, I climbed on and it felt good sitting on it. Ivan is all excited about that and wants me to get a bike. I just keep telling him, first things first. We want to buy a house. We can't go buying a motorcycle if we want a house. Otherwise we might as well plan on renting for another year.

But we can still dream.

Montana, here I come

2005-05-26T20:52:00.000-07:00

So tomorrow sweetie and I take off for our trip to Montana. This will be the longest bike trip I've been on. By far seeing as how I haven't even gone east of the mountains with him on it yet.

The trip we are going on is with his Dad's motorcycle group. To be part of this group you have to be 45 years old or older. We will be the youngest on this ride by at least 20 years! It'll be so much fun though. I won't be back till sometime Sunday. I'll get presents for everyone! As long as I can fit them on the motorcycle any way.

Such an IDIOT

2005-05-26T09:34:00.000-07:00

Yesterday was a good friend of mine's birthday. She called and we talked for about half an hour. For some screwed up reason I thought her birthday was today, not yesterday. I even told her that if I didn't talk to her later to have a happy birthday.

Not once did she mention my mistake.

Smacking my hand against forehead, saying "stupid, stupid, stupid" over and over again I whole heartedly apologize to said friend.

I also offer a belated happy birthday.

Happy Birthday!

Goooooood Morning

2005-05-25T06:46:00.000-07:00

Well this morning is going much better than yesterday morning. I'm feeling a lot better about myself. Maybe it's because I cut loose a little bit yesterday. Maybe it's because my sweet Ivan fed me aspirin and water before I went to bed/passed out. Probably a combination of the two. Spending yesterday in the sun, drinking beer, catching up with good friends was good for me. Today will be a little different, yet a little the same.

I woke up early with my man, and same thing as yesterday and the day before, made breakfast, coffee and lunch for the guys. Sent them off to work. Then I got started on the chores that I neglected yesterday. It's not even 7 am yet and I've got the dishes done and the first load of laundry ready to fold. I've got some good country music on the radio. I think I'm starting to freak my dog out by singing and dancing around the house. She gets this worried look on her face while she's watching me. Pretty cute if you ask me.

I've talked Ivan into going to the Hal Moe Pool (town public pool) today. Yay!! Something I want to do for a change.

It should be about 75 degrees today. What a wonderful day to be at home. What a wonderful morning. I hope everyone has as good a day as I am.

Ha ha

2005-05-24T19:39:00.000-07:00

So, I was watching the clock today. Coffee cup in hand, waiting for the clock to strike noon. Then I would change out of my pj's. I wanted to go for a bike ride today. But Jack and Joey (next door neighbors) weren't home. I got drunk instead.

I didn't mean to. It kind of snuck up on me. I think it is funny. Everything is funny when you are drunk. Every thing is funny right now. HA ha ha ha ha ha.

Wait, what was I laughing again?

Boredom

2005-05-24T11:26:00.000-07:00

Ok so I was so bored yesterday I actually put one of those blogthings on my blog. I even spent an hour going from random quiz to random quiz trying to pass the time. Believe me... Some of them are really weird.

Today I refuse to do any chores. As a matter of fact, it is almost noon, and I'm still drinking coffee in my PJ's. Don't be shocked everyone, I did get up at 4 this morning to see the men off to work. Made them both breakfast, coffee and lunch. However, I've decided to appreciate my time off. Especially since it is supposed to hit 80 degrees this week. I'll be hanging out in the sun while my man and the roommate are both busting ass at work.

I have plans with my good friend Casey to go hang out for a couple days mid week in June. Something to help pull me out of the rut I've been in lately. After that week, I think I'll start making calls to random shops and try to get myself hired on. Being a girl has it's advantages and dis-advantages. Some shops want nothing to do with me at all. There have been shops in the past where I don't make it past the secretary to even talk to the shop foreman. I don't want to work in shops like that any way.

Other shops will bring me on just because I'm a girl. I was working out in the field helping build this new jail close by where I lived. I was hired there because of my welding skills. Well at this company's Christmas party, I was dressed up like a girl, and I met the shop foreman. Shop foreman took one look at me in a skirt and immediately decides I should work in the shop. I was eventually pulled away from my job at the jail, having to leave behind a foreman who respected me and my work. I didn't really feel like I "fit in" at that shop. Nothing really to do with my gender, I think it was more my attitude and my desire to do things "my way." I wasn't too sad about getting laid off from that shop. I was sad about leaving the respected foreman behind. But in our trade there are plenty of opportunities to work together again.

I think my girl anxiety is what has kept me from finding a job on my own. Instead I sit and wait patiently for the Union Hall to call me up. I just know that while I'm not working, I feel bad. Then overcompensate by making my life boring.

NOT ANY MORE!!! Ha ha ha ha ha. I'm going to get a tan. One that doesn't need to be paid for!

2005-05-23T14:36:00.000-07:00

The Keys to Your Heart

You are attracted to those who are unbridled, untrammeled, and free.

In love, you feel the most alive when your lover is creative and never lets you feel bored.

You'd like to your lover to think you are optimistic and happy.

You would be forced to break up with someone who was ruthless, cold-blooded, and sarcastic.

Your ideal relationship is lasting. You want a relationship that looks to the future... one you can grow with.

Your risk of cheating is zero. You care about society and morality. You would never break a commitment.

You think of marriage as something precious. You'll treasure marriage and treat it as sacred.

In this moment, you think of love as something you thirst for. You'll do anything for love, but you won't fall for it easily.

What Are The Keys To Your Heart?

Its Monday again

2005-05-23T06:30:00.000-07:00

Ok, so after a wonderful weekend with Ivan, here it is Monday again. I'm still not working, although I did update my "skills evaluation" form down at the Union Hall. Out of 400 people on the out of work list I'm #250 something. Adding all my stainless steel experience and my welding certification to my list of skills can get me called off the list earlier.

None the less, here I am. Sitting at the computer, drinking coffee. I got up with Ivan, made him coffee, breakfast and lunch, then sent him off to work with a hug and a kiss. Woke Garrett up, made him coffee, breakfast and lunch then sent him off to work. No hug and kiss though. (come on, laugh with me.)

What do I have to look forward to today? Let's see:

Dishes
Cleaning our bedroom
Laundry
vacuuming
Clean up random messes made from this weekend
Mopping
Cook dinner

I know, I know. Life is so fun and exciting for me. I don't even have a car to go places. Ivan needed it. Saves on gas compared to his truck. I can drive his truck, but I'm not that great at driving a stick yet. Better not chance it without him here.

I hope I get called back to work soon. That list of things to do depresses me. If it wasn't rainy and dreary here it wouldn't be so bad I guess. It would make me feel a lot less BLAH.

I'm thinking I might work some more on my scrap book. I spent one day putting pictures from last summer's road trip into the scrap book, cleaned up my mess, then I haven't touched it since. Doing this little project will hopefully make me feel better. Plus if I time it right, I can go for a run in-between rain showers.

Well time to get started I guess.

Orange you glad I didn't say banana again

2005-05-22T11:01:00.000-07:00

Well, I've been pretty busy these past couple of days. I haven't really had that much time to sit and think about how I've been feeling. I did get some good advice from my sister. She thinks I need to call all sisters for a girls night. That way at least I can center myself and find a good starting point. So:

CALLING ALL SISTERS. CLEAR YOUR CALENDAR. WE NEED A GIRLS NIGHT!!!
Keep me posted and we will all set something up.

It's been a couple of really good nights with Ivan. Garrett went out of town this weekend so we had the house to ourselves. We babysat my niece Brianna Friday night. That was a lot of fun. Ivan is going to make a very good dad someday. He helped put her to sleep by rocking her and singing to her. I was sitting in the living room, hearing him sing to her in the bedroom, and my heart melted. He told me Friday that he is looking forward to having kids someday. Someday being sooner than later. Two years or so.

We went out to dinner last night. We've been trying to hit all the restaurants in Snohomish. There are some horrible restaurants in town. Last night it was some sort of English restaurant. Kind of spendy, kind of not. The restaurant was in the back of a store that sells trinkets, and what not. It was one single room. The room was awesome. It had a big dome ceiling, painted to look like the sky. The walls were painted up to look like the country side. A very nice atmosphere.

We order our food and this is where the orange from the title comes in. I order this citrus chicken. BAD IDEA. My original thought is how bad can it be. It has to be better than kidney pie.

WRONG!!!

My food comes and there is this huge pile of rice and four tiny cubes of chicken. Great. Now I'm going to starve. I dig in with relish trying to make my pile of rice smaller. As the food hits my tongue, it freezes there. My eyes start to water. I look around desperately for a place to spit my rice out.

Who ever heard of orange flavored rice? It had a weird spice to it too so I couldn't eat it fast and get it over with. The chicken was equally orange flavored. The peas and carrots on the side were tainted with the same orange flavoring. Thank god I only had four measly chunks of chicken. I ate those up real quick, pushed the rice and carrots around to make it look like I ate some and prayed the waitress would come and take my plate away soon.

To make matters worse, the chef decides he wants dinner and sits down at the table next to us. So all the funny faces me and Ivan are making to each other had to quit. The waitress comes, takes our plates away and we order dessert. I stick to my favorite: Cheesecake. Ivan gets something the waitress suggests to him. Bad move on his part. His tasted like it was made with hard alcohol. Really cheap hard alcohol. My cheese cake looked store bought and was absolutely wonderful.

So $50 later, I'm a little sick to my stomach from all the citric acid, both of us are still hungry, we head out to go find a burger joint.

For me

2005-05-19T12:38:00.000-07:00

Ok so the first post today talked about running and stuff. Now I need to write one for me.

While sitting in the hot tub with Ivan we were talking about the gym and stuff. He would really like me to get into going more. He wants to spend an hour at the gym every day taking Sunday and Monday off from the schedule. I'm not too interested in going. So I try a compromise.

I really like the public pool here in Snohomish. I've been going to it since I was a little kid. How about going to the pool a couple times a week, then to the gym the other days? Sounds like a reasonable compromise. Right?

He didn't buy into it for some reason. Something about not enjoying swimming in lakes and rivers but not in public pools. This being said while we were hanging out in a somewhat public pool.

Then I get to thinking. Hockey is something he brought into our relationship. Running, gym, trips to Spokane. The people that are hanging out with us for our birthday are his friends. What things do we do that run along the lines of my hobbies and interests? Absolutely nothing.

I have only myself to blame for this. I started looking back. The friends I hung out with the past year all worked out at the jail. We all lost contact once the job finished up. I spent a lot of my time at the bar or at home drinking. I spent more time hanging out on the couch, eating candy and smoking pot. I didn't really have any fun hobbies.

Now that my drinking has slowed, and I've quit smoking pot (3 and a half months clean!!!) all my old "hobbies" are gone.

I'm feeling a little lost right now. Not working, not having friends around, not having anything that is... Well "ME". I have this need to do some soul searching. I need to do something for me. Everything I do lately seems to be for "us". I don't want to take a break from me and Ivan, I just need to work on my own self image. Everything I do can't be for him. I just don't know where to start.

So here it is friends and family. Please, please, please post a comment or send an email. I need some advice.

Love you all,
Tammy

24 hour fitness

2005-05-19T12:29:00.000-07:00

So I haven't set up another thing about tracking our running habits. It turns out Ivan isn't interested at all. Oh well. Looks like it gets put here.

Went the two miles again yesterday. I think that's what I'll be doing for a while. I felt better yesterday than I did the other day. Made it farther before I had to slow to a walk. It's starting to get easier.

Then Ivan took me and Garrett to 24 hour fitness. Had some guest passes so we could check out the gym. I was so uncomfortable there. Having all these sweaty creepy guys staring at me.
EEWWWWW

I had changed into my workout clothes before the guys did, so I hopped on the treadmill to pass the time while I was waiting for the guys. Some creepy guy decides to hop on the one next to me, even though there were like 8 empty ones. Thank god Ivan showed up before creepy guy tried to start up a conversation with me.

We settled for the swimming pool, the steam room and the hot tub. At least I could hide under water there. The hot tub was awesome. It was fun swimming. The steam room felt good.

Still I'm not sure I would buy a membership. I could go swimming here in town if I wanted to.

I thought I hurt before

2005-05-17T14:15:00.000-07:00

Two miles later (I seriously don't know what I was thinking) I think I am more sore than I was before. Plus I'm roasting now.

Daisy and I went on a quick jog. Down to the Centennial Trail. There are markers on the trail so you can see how far you have gone. We jogged to the one mile mark, doubled back. I went just beyond the half mile mark before I had to start walking. Did pretty good. About 1.75 miles without having to walk.

I should start a journal. Something to keep track of my jogging and what not. That way I don't bore everyone with the details on how far I'm running. I'll have Ivan write in that one too. If it interests anyone, all you have to do is go to my profile to find the link to our running journal.

Just give me a few days to set it up.

MY BUTT HURTS!

2005-05-17T12:41:00.000-07:00

Ok well the muscles in my butt and thighs hurt. I went running yesterday.... TWICE!

I don't know exactly what drove me to such measures of insanity, it cold be the idea of my man thinking we are going to run a marathon sometime in October.

I'm trying to be supportive and positive about this. I even went out in the pouring rain to run around town with my dog. I came home with my leg muscles burning yet my legs soaking wet and freezing. I was sweating under my raincoat yet I couldn't feel my toes with my soaking wet shoes. My body was so confused.

Then after being all warm and dry for a few hours, my man comes home from work. I'm in the middle of cooking dinner and he wants to go for a quick run with me.

"Come on... Only for 10 minutes?"

He also had a bouquet of flowers hiding behind his back to sweeten the deal.

I sigh, turn all the burners on low. Make sure that nothing will burn or catch fire. Put my wet sneakers back on. And off we go.

Now I did enjoy myself on this run. Spending time with my guy always makes me feel good. I even got some good stretches in after the run. But I am seriously paying for it today.

Desperately seeking sympathy

Well Hello there

2005-05-15T07:50:00.000-07:00

I really really love Sundays. I'm sitting here enjoying a fresh cup of coffee, my cute puppy is gnawing on a bone from last nights dinner and my good lookin boyfriend is sleeping peacefully in the next room. I have the Rugrats (my all time favorite cartoon) on in the background for some noise and some sausage defrosting for breakfast. Our roommate is out of town for the weekend so we have the house to ourselves.

We have no major plans for today. Maybe grocery shopping. There is also a fair in town. We could go get some cotton candy and an elephant ear if we felt like it too.

I don't know, I just feel REALLY good today. All light hearted and stuff. I have to resist the urge to go pester my sleeping boyfriend, seeing as how he really deserves the rest. I just want to share my happiness with someone.

Maybe that's why I'm blogging right now. Using this as a means to vent my emotions. All happy emotions.

I hope everyone else is having as wonderful as a morning as I am.

Love Tammy

PS. Blogger spell check thinks I spell my name wrong. It suggests I use the words "Timmy" or "Tommy" instead. Weird.

Weekend In Spokane

2005-05-10T05:34:00.000-07:00

Wow was it some weekend. Had tickets to a Trace Adkins concert. Went with my sweetie pie, Garrett and Danae. Awsome, awsome concert. I can't believe the voice on that guy.

After the concert, the four of us head over to the hotel that we booked and attempted to check in. Note the word attempted. We booked our room through expedia and those bastards booked us in a hotel that was full. No room for us.

So we leave the hotel pissed off and crying (Ivan pissed, me crying) and went to go find a place to stay somewhere in Spokane. There was so much going on with the concert, graduations, prom and some lilac parade we couldn't hardly find anything. We ended up in some run down motel. Cigarett burns in the blankets, pee on the wall in the bathroom, a train ran directly behind the motel about every 15 minutes waking me up. There was some sort of a church across the block from us that had one of those clocks that gonged every hour on the hour, waking me up if I happened to just fall asleep again.

Yeah I call up those bastards from expedia today, get our money back... we had to pay in advance... and try to get some sort of free goodie from them. I could use a free room somewhere. I'm sure I can.

Saturday was fun though. We all went to the mall and went shopping. I'm not much of a mall person, neither is Ivan, so we didn't stay long. But the time we spent there was well spent. Dragging the guys to Victoria's Secret was probably the hilight of the shopping expedition. I was worried Garrett was going to have a nervous breakdown while in the pink store.

Sunday was mother's day. We went to go see Ivan's mommy since we were in the area and all. I was a little sad I didn't get to go see my mom, but I guess that's part of being in a relationsip. Not every holiday, celebration... what ever.... get's to be spent with my family. I suppose his family traditions mean something to him too. Go figure.

Then we were homeward bound. We didn't get home until almost 1am. Didn't get to sleep till just shortly after1am. Not a good thing to do when I'm taking the most boring class in History.

Speaking of that class. It's time to go soak up useless information. Oh yeah one good thing though. My old class still has kids that are getting ready to turn out. They are in school this week. It was awsome timing being able to hang out with them too.

Pay cut my ass!!!

2005-05-04T14:04:00.000-07:00

In previous posts I wrote about this class I'm taking next week. I was really excited because I even had a potential new boss. Someone who was willing to take me in with what little experience I have and make me a new testing and air balancing crew member.

Well we have been kind of sort of talking through a middle person. I saw this middle person at the union meeting last night and let him know I was done with my resume and was just working on the cover letter to go with it. He let me know that "potential boss" was under the assumption that I was willing to go back to apprentice wages while I was learning.

Now that's crap if you ask me. I didn't spend five years in school busting my ass to only be knocked back down because I'm trying to better myself as a worker by learning something new. I don't know exactly how low he wanted to bump me but I won't take it.

I did ask the Business Agent for that division of sheet metal, the guy who put on the class, what he thought of this situation. He told me to under no circumstances accept a pay cut. I am a journey man sheet metal worker and that is what I get paid.

You can only imagine the relief I felt when my feelings were backed up by someone with clout. I also got to find out a little more about this class. This class has horrible hours (8am to 5pm) and is going to be very intense. They are trying to teach us enough in one week to take a test that some guys are spending a lot of time in school to take the same test. I have to take a Saturday test. If I pass the Saturday test, then I qualify to take the same test school guys are taking come June or July. Kind of a little ways off in the future.

So I'm back to square one. Back to finding work. Have a few ideas though. I want to go work with Garrett and his company. He's been offering to drop my name for quite some time now. I've always had another plan I was working on at the moment. So, changing directions, I'm going to try architectural sheet metal. We'll see how it goes.

L-A-Z-Y

2005-05-03T13:13:00.000-07:00

There are so many things I should be doing today. For some reason I have a serious case of the lazies. I spent the better part of the morning napping and playing video games. I have this urge to go play more video games right now. I shouldn't though *dissapointed sigh. I should be cleaning the bathroom. Or working on my resume for the Mac Miller guy who wants it.

I could be going over next weeks buget.... yeah right.... or I could be doing dishes.... even bigger yeah right. I guess the least I can do is brush my hair.

I know.... COFFEE!!!!!!!!!!! That is the answer to all my problems. As soon as I drink a pot and a half I should have the required energy to all the chores on my list today.

12K ~ Bloomsday 2005

2005-05-02T09:31:00.000-07:00

Yes that's right, I did a 12 K run.

Ivan talked me into doing the Bloomsday run with him. I've been dreading it, while he's been looking forward to it for months. So we packed up some running gear and headed toward Spokane this last weekend.

We stayed with Garrett's girl Deane Friday night. Wasn't too exciting seeing as how we got there at around midnight. Woke up somewhat early Saturday. After an awesome breakfast, we headed out to Ivan's parent's house.

*** I drove by the way. Ivan taught me how to drive his truck. I was never really taught how to drive a stick. It was very funny and exciting having me drive.

We picked up Jenny and went to Spokane to pick up our packets and our race numbers. There was also a spaghetti feed going on along with all the cotton candy, elephant ears and deep fried twinkies you can eat. Yes that's right deep fried twinkies. And for the small price of $2 you too can sample such a delightful experience. I think they tasted like pancakes after they were fried.

After having a blast down town, it was time to head back to the in-laws place. Needed to rest up for the big race. We got up pretty early Sunday morning and headed back to Spokane. I think it is about an hour drive from his parent's house to Spokane. We got ourselves a cheap and quick breakfast on the way there. Once there, we found our places and got ready to run.

The big race

It took us 4 minutes 15 seconds just to get to the starting line from where we were. We ran the first two miles strait through. Then it was jogging and walking the rest of the way. They have bands and radio stations throughout the rout about every quarter mile or so. It helped keep your energy up. I almost died at about mile 6. I was ready to have Ivan carry me the rest of the way. But I somehow got a second wind and kept going. We all ran the last half mile together. I think Jenny was with me when I say I don't know where the energy came to actually run that last half mile. Walking would have been perfectly fine, but you want your picture taken while running.

It's cool you get this t-shirt that says you are a Bloomsday finisher. I also got a sunburn on my arms and face. That contrasts dramatically with the paleness of the rest of my body. I actually felt great after running for 7.46 miles. You wouldn't think so today though. I can barely hobble around the house. My legs are killing me.

I think I need another nap.

Yes, I am alive

2005-04-28T16:00:00.000-07:00

I know I haven't written in quite some time, but when you haven't written in a while, you almost feel guilty about it and avoid the whole blogger thing. Thus making it so it is even longer till you write again.

But, have no fear, I am back. I will probably be back more now that I have broken the whole not writing streak.

It was a good day today. Work went well. I got all kinds of stuff done. I did find out however, that I get laid off on Friday. I'm fine with that because when I was hired on I was told I would only be there for a week. I got two weeks out of them. I also have this class I'm going to take in two weeks. If I took time off work to do this class, I wouldn't get unemployment. Since I got laid off, I get to get paid to go to school.

I started politicking today. Made my first call for my new move in sheetmetal. At our next Union meeting, I'm going for more phone numbers. If everything goes my way, I'll have a job by the time my next class is over.

This new line of work is going to be a lot easier on my body. I'll still do sheetmetal, but I'll just be making the air do what it's supposed to do. Make sense? This way I won't be breaking my back while installing duct work. Also the companies that do testing and air balancing are REALLY busy right now. The four major companies are all working overtime like crazy. That's why the hall is holding the class. To get more qualified people out there.

Wouldn't that be nice, go from being laid off to working overtime. Talk about a shock to my system. I'll have to continue doing more classes (night classes) but in the long run it will be worth it. And I'll still get paid what I've been getting paid. Wages are the same.

Woo-Hoo!!!

I'd like to put out a HAPPY BIRTHDAY to my sister. It was yesterday. But when I talked to her she, she was slightly intoxicated. She might not have remembered I called.

SO.....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

What to write

2005-04-14T10:59:00.000-07:00

what does some one write about when they have nothing to write about? I can brag about getting to see my beautiful niece yesterday. I got drunk later with my roommate. Made fried chicken while I was drunk. (Turned out awesome)

I think I need to get out of the house. Take the dog for a walk. Wait impatiently for the phone to ring. Bellevue Mechanical is supposed to be giving me a call. They think they might have work for me next week. Said if I don't hear from them by 10:00 tomorrow to go ahead an give him a call.

Waiting is so hard for me. I am very impatient sometimes. Well ok a lot of times.

Ok time to go find the dog.

Do I really have to go back to work?

2005-04-12T11:15:00.000-07:00

I am really starting to enjoy my time off of work. I know that I have to go back sooner or later, but now I'm leaning towards later than sooner.

I am so relaxed these days. My house is starting to look wonderful. If the sun would shine, my yard would look wonderful.

I'm just going to have to enjoy what time I have left not being hasseled by work and such.

Today is going to be a good day

2005-04-10T10:25:00.000-07:00

If I keep telling myself that, I just might believe it.

It's raining here, (go figure, I live in the Seattle area) and I'm already starting to fee the rainy day Sunday blues. My man is still in bed sleeping which means he slept way too long and is going to be grumpy today. I have so many domestic chores to do that I don't want to even start. I could save them for Monday, but who wants to do chores on Monday?

I just feel kind of blah.... That's all. One good thing is that the coffee is starting to surge through my system. I'm starting to get a little more bounce to my step. Plus my hurt knee is really feeling better these days. I can even start going after a job. I don't need to worry about being hurt at work. I could use the paycheck too.

So here's to lazy rainy day Sundays.

2005-04-07T13:23:00.000-07:00

So I'm still not working. I've got a few leads on some upcoming jobs, but it's all about waiting for something to break free. I've decided to take another week of classes. There is a Testing and Air Balancing class. It opens up a whole new world of sheet metal for me. Something that is way easier on the body. Something that can keep me working overtime for a while. That'll be nice since I've been off for a while.

I got sworn in the other night. Ofically a journeyman. Go figure. I don't even get the pay for it.

I WANNA GO BACK TO WORK!!

I'm getting bored. Tired of laundry, dinner and dishes. I'm going to go visit my sister tomorrow though. Get to see her and the pretty baby.

Feel kind of blah today. Rain does that to me sometimes.

Most wonderful weekend EVER!

2005-04-04T09:09:00.000-07:00

I'm back from Leavenworth. It was heavenly. The Bed and Breakfast we stayed at was run by two wonderful people. Bill and Kathy. They were a retired older couple with a love for mother nature and each other.

We get to their house and the first place they show us is the kitchen. Wow! What a view from their kitchen window. The river and the mountains were absolutely breathtaking. We got to know them a little bit and then they showed us... gasp... our room.

Our room was stunning. The windows gave us the same view of the river as the kitchen, the bed was HUGE! It was as tall as my belly button, and the wide as I am tall. I could sleep on it comfortably the wrong way! In the corner of the bedroom was a whirl pool tub. Had ten jets in it. Very deep. I'm going to put some pics of it online soon. There was a gas fireplace in the room... Very romantic. The bathroom had a bedet in it. Now that was weird to use. Tip for all the ladies, always check the water temperature before you rinse. Trust me here.

The shower was my favorite. There was a CD player on the outside. We picked one of our favorites and got in. There are two shower heads. Push the button one goes on, push is twice the other goes on, three times, both go on. There were eight sprayers on each side of the shower to spray your body. My favorite was the waterfall. This little seat (one on each side of the shower) and water falls down on you kind of like a waterfall. Then you can push the steam button. Fills up the shower with hot steam. Cool off by letting the cold water run down on you. It was amazing.

Between the bath tub and the shower, this is the cleanest me and Ivan have ever been.

Then there was breakfast. I'm telling you those two can cook. Fresh fruit sorbet, home made cinnamon rolls and some sort of Bavarian main dish. Coffee, fresh squeezed juice, the whole deal. Great way to start the day. You need all that fuel if you are going to go wander around all the shops. We waited till Sunday to buy anything. Didn't want to spend all our money before we saw it all.

All in all, it was a wonderful weekend. An anniversary Ivan and I are sure not to forget. I highly recommend going to the bed and breakfast we went to.

Guess who's gunna be a journeyman?

2005-03-31T16:59:00.000-08:00

I just got the paperwork in the mail today. It's going to be official April 3rd. I will be 100% a journeyman. That's $32.35 an hour baby!!! So cool.

Last weekend was so fun. Did tons of stuff. Went to a wedding, went to a cowboy bar, went to a jiggy-boo bar, went to "Claim Jumper," went to a concert (Taste of Chaos), went to Anthony's for appetizer and then to the Cheesecake factory for dessert. All from Friday to Sunday. Needless to say I was exhausted come Monday morning.

I'm in school this week. My last week! No more. Done with! Woo-hoo! Don't get me wrong, I like going to school. But it's school. Not something I count down the days till. It is good seeing my old friends though. They are all doing good. Even Mike. I think of him like a little brother. He reminds me of my brother too. We have been going out to lunch every day this week and have plans on going out to breakfast early tomorrow. Stupid boy though, got back together with an ex-girl friend that ripped his heart out years ago.

I also got to see my buddy Thom today. He was in a really bad accident at work about three weeks ago. He stopped by to talk about insurance stuff with the Union Hall. He is doing good. His jaws are still wired shut, so it was hard to understand him, but he is alive and well.

I've been working on my 5th year project all week and it is coming out wonderfully. I am my own worst critic when it comes to my work and the fact that I think it is coming out good says something. I have received so many compliments on the project and for once I'm able to accept them with pride. I will be finished with it by tomorrow morning. Then I'll take a pic and put it on my blog.

TOMORROW WE LEAVE FOR LEAVENWORTH!!!

This is for the fancy-schmancy room that we rented for our anniversary. It's going to be cold out there, but that's ok, we don't need to leave the room for anything. All we need is each other. I love Ivan so much. I can't wait to have him all to myself for a whole weekend!

Ok I'll have to let everyone know how it goes, (omitting some details). So I will write more later.

Weekend at the Ocean

2005-03-23T18:15:00.000-08:00

Last weekend me and Ivan met up with Casey and Laura at this really neat old hotel in Tokeland. I've been to this hotel twice before and I absolutely love it. All the rooms are upstairs. Not one room is the same. They are decorated with antique furniture and floral wall paper. Kind of a country feel to the rooms. You would have to see them to understand. I put some pictures in. It only gives you a feel for how the rooms look. I think they picked the most "girly" ones to put on their website though.

Downstairs they have this huge lobby/sitting room. It is a great place to hang out and drink coffee or visit with friends. There is also a restaurant that serves some wonderful food. The next room over is the fire place room. There was a great fire going Saturday night. The heat from the fire contrasted dramatically with the storm that was raging outside.

It was such an awesome weekend. The traffic sucked on the way down there, but I amused myself, Ivan and Daisy by playing with the animal calls in Ivan's truck. I rolled down the window and would make all kinds of weird noises at other commuters stuck in traffic. I got some very strange looks.

There wasn't much to do Friday night, seeing as how we got there kind of late, but I did get to snuggle with my honey and read a book. Casey and Laura showed up later that night. They brought sticky buns! YUMMY. Made plans with them to get up in the morning and have breakfast.

Rise and shine early Saturday morning. Went to take a shower with Ivan. VERY COLD. The bath tub in that shower has this goofy wrap around shower curtain. It's one of those old claw bathtubs. Well with the wrap around thing there is an opening in the curtain at both ends of the tub, letting in freezing cold air. Plus when ever anyone touched the shower curtain it's self, we were instantly frozen. It was very cold and wanted to stick to us.

But we got all pretty and cleaned and met up with the others for breakfast downstairs. After some very good hashbrowns and eggs and COFFEE... it was off to the ocean. The weather wasn't that great, but I love storms so it was all right. Daisy loves the ocean. She gets all goofy and runs around and acts all silly. We collected some shells, but soon it got too cold to stay on the beach.

Off to the Drift Wood Festival. We went more because of natural curiosity. What exactly is a professional drift wood collector? I guess it is someone who makes money from it. The drift wood show was this really cute town swapmeet kind of thing. Only everything they sold was new. Mostly hand made crafts like jelly, aprons and quilts. It was fun.

The rest of the day was spend at the hotel. Naps, reading and good fun. Saturday night's dinner was my favorite. All four of us hanging out, talking about our futures, drinking good wine. We were the last people to leave the dining room. From there it was back to our game of life. After that off to bed.

One more breakfast with Casey and Laura and it was time to go home. Completely relaxed and totally content, I look back at the weekend and can't wait to do it again.

2005-03-23T18:00:00.000-08:00

This is where Tokeland is.

2005-03-23T17:58:00.000-08:00

The hallway that leads to the rooms.

2005-03-23T17:57:00.000-08:00

The lobby. Obviously the picture was taken during christmas time. We hung out here after dinner one night.

2005-03-23T17:56:00.000-08:00

These are a few of the rooms. Each one different from the next.

2005-03-23T17:55:00.000-08:00

This is the fireplace room. They had an awesome fire going Saturday night. We played the Simpson's version of the game of life in front of the fire.

2005-03-23T17:53:00.000-08:00

Here is the resturant.

2005-03-17T21:04:00.000-08:00

My booth at the trade fair

The Road Less Graveled

2005-03-17T18:35:00.000-08:00

Today I represented our apprenticeship in this trades fair that was geared towards women. This trades fair was held up in Bellingham (about an hour and a half away). This is the second trades fair I've gone to to help our our program. Last year was the Women in the Trades that was held in Seattle Center. This one was a smaller scale of that one, but this is the first one I did all by my self.

Last night I was all kinds of scared and nervous. I had no idea what I was getting myself into. It turned out awesome.

I showed up at Bellingham Technical College at about 7:30 this morning. Got my booth all set up.

* NOTE: Last night Garrett helped me figure out how to set up the back drop thingy. I didn't want to look like a retard trying to figure out the thing in public. Good thing too, in my living room, I had the thing upside down and backwards. So glad I figured it out earlier.

My booth was right next to the Iron Worker's booth. (lucky me) The guy and gal running that booth were cool people. I remember the guy from the Women in the Trades Fair last April. He is also the president of their local. He sent me an Iron Worker's T-Shirt last year for my birthday. (well it just happened to show up on my birthday.) It was nice to have a familiar face there.

It took a whole hour to set up the back drop and set out informational packets, stickers, and other neat goodies to put on display. I had a lot of the other trades come over and talk to me, wondering where the heck my partner Eric was. Eric is one of the head guys at school. I go to him when ever I have any kind of problem that needs fixing... schoolwise, that is. Today Eric was in Idaho with the Regionals Competition, that's why I was flying solo today.

By 8:30 I was extremely nervous. Trying to talk to the other tradesmen/tradeswomen made me more nervous. They had all done this type of thing many many times. They all knew exactly what to say to these young minds that were coming up to our tables trying to learn about our particular craft. Me, I was trying to remember how to talk.

There was this table that had coffee, and bagels and tea set out. I opted for the tea hoping that having something in my hands would help, but with out the jitters that coffee gives me. Good choice. At 10:15 the "resource table" portion of the event started. This little cafeteria was PACKED with men and women. Young and old. I started talking to people about sheetmetal. How I got started, the work I've done, the places I've been. How I stand out, how I make a difference. This odd adrenaline rush kicked in.

I was standing (not sitting like the other people) behind my table. I kind of hop around, and talk with my hands as I tell my stories. There is constantly a huge crowd at my table. My confidence is through the roof. All nervousness and shyness forgotten. I did awesome! There were so many young minds out there I was able to reach. I could see it in their eyes as they watched me talk about sheetmetal. I hope that some of them find the courage within themselves to make the call and get started.

By 11:30, my throat and feet were both killing me. The crowd thinned dramatically. I was able to sit and talk to people on a more one on one level.

1:30 was time to go. I was ready to leave when this young lady came up to me. She wanted to ask some more questions on how our schooling works. How to get signed up. I really wanted to leave, but I went with instinct and spent another half hour there. Just me and her talked. I really really hope she signs up. I think she might.

A job well done. I made some notes to myself on how we can improve our booth by the time this year's Women in the Trades Fair comes to town. Can't wait to report to Eric on Monday!

Day two

2005-03-16T09:03:00.000-08:00

Day two was almost as boring as day one of this "Stand By" thing.

I ran out of mine and Ivan's laundry to do, so I started doing Garrett's. Cleaned up the computer room and mowed the lawn. Woo-Hoo.

I did get this marinade for some venison steaks started early in the morning. I didn't much care for it, but I got it done none the less.

Thank god I have some thing to do today and tomorrow. I'd lose it if I didn't. Off to the union hall.

Back by popular demand

2005-03-15T08:18:00.000-08:00

Due to the large amount of people asking me about my niece and sister, I've posted more pictures. Both ladies are doing wonderful, although sis isn't getting much sleep yet.

2005-03-15T08:17:00.000-08:00

Isn't she sweet?

2005-03-15T08:16:00.000-08:00

Sleeping beauty

2005-03-15T08:15:00.000-08:00

Beautiful Briana

Day One

2005-03-14T22:19:00.000-08:00

Day one of being on "Stand By" went fairly well. I'm not much on just sitting around watching TV, so I've been trying to accomplish things around the house. I managed to do a mountain of laundry. I almost have it all completely done. Washed, dried, folded and put away. (I have a hard time getting laundry put away for some reason. It just sits in piles of folded laundry...hmmm). I made some protein bars. They turned out gross. I'm not quite sure if any of those nutritional bars actually taste good, so I don't feel too bad.

I rode my bike around town for a while today. That part was fun. I had Daisy with me. She did pretty good running while I was riding.... Until she decided to take a crap on the sidewalk. Oh well. After the bike ride, I did more boring stuff like dishes and meatloaf. At least I got some grocery shopping in tonight. That means I can cook an awesome dinner tomorrow.

So for now, that is my super exciting life. I'll let you in on all the fun and exciting things about tomorrow, tomorrow.

Home on Monday?

2005-03-14T09:13:00.000-08:00

Yes that's right, I'm at home on a very beautiful, sunny Monday morning.

On Friday before the work day was over, the HVAC crew in our shop got put on "Stand by." Stand by means that we get to sit at home on unemployment and wait for our shop to get busier than it is. I guess what the journey men do is go out and look for work without putting their names on the books at the Union Hall. If they find a job, great. If not, they wait for the shop to pick up again. My shop foreman came up to me on Friday and asked me specifically to not look for a job. If I do have to go get a job, he wants me to call him first. He might be able to bring me in and have me sweep the parking lot or something like that.

I will give PSF three weeks to find some work for me. I would go crazy being at home any longer. Besides I turn out in April. I become a journeyman, not an apprentice. I want to make the good money. Not that getting paid $455 a week to sit at home isn't bad... Just getting $32.15 an hour every day is a little better.

The last union meeting I went to I was offered a job with a company that I worked for just before PSF. Also there is a company that is really busy doing stainless work, (my specialty) and is headed by a group of people that I've worked for before. There is an excellent chance I could get in to that shop. The second shop is WAY closer to home too.

But in the mean time, I'm going to enjoy my time off. A wonderful time to get the house back in order.