My Sister is Making me an Aunt

A month from today my little nephew is scheduled to make his highly anticipated debut.  November 22nd, 2011 is a day I have been waiting for since Haley got married.  My sister, my best friend and future mother of my nephew is having a baby! This act along with my marriage, my home, Master's Degree and my new job round out 2011 as one of the best years I've ever had.  I'll never forget the day she told me besides my wedding day and I'm sure the day Isaac Archer Swift enters the world, the day she told me she was becoming a mother was one of the best days ever.

The spring was so busy with my new job, internship and preparation for the wedding I didn't really want to do anything special for my birthday.  So the Friday of my birthday week I met mom, Haley and Greg for lunch.  We went to Yardhouse at LaCantera and had a big booth in a mostly open dining room.  Mama ordered appetizers and a bloody mary, I couldn't have one cause I had to go back to work.  When Haley and Greg got there we ordered and then they told me I should open presents even though I had previously said I didn't want any.  Mama gave me vodka :) thanks mom it was delicious.  And Haley's gift was in a bag with a box that said Coach a card and a folded piece of paper.  I went straight for the Coach box but Haley scolded me saying there was a card in there first.  When I open the card and the folded piece a paper there's a sonogram in there.  I screamed.  I screamed like in the movies and the other 5 diners in the restaurant turned to look at me, mom asked what's wrong and I announced to the room "sorry, my sister just told me she's having a baby".  Like in the movies people clapped and then I started to cry buckets.  I hugged my beautiful sister and greg and stared and stared at my future nephew.  

Since that moment at lunch I've been so excited.  I still get misty eyed when I think of Haley telling me and I think about her becoming a mother.  Throughout her pregnancy I've done research with her on numerous baby products, read customer reviews, mommy blogs and shopped in the baby sections.  I've talked to her after all her doctors appointments and asked about the baby every time we speak.  I've worried with her if she thought something was wrong and screamed for joy when everything goes as it's supposed to.  I can't wait for November and the joys it'll bring.

Haley is my best friend and my sister and that's the best combination because it's a relationship that cannot be broken.  While we may fight and argue ALL THE TIME, we never stop loving each other.  Once Mr. Isaac gets here our worlds will change forever, our relationship will change forever but it'll all be for the love of a child which makes it okay.  I love Haley and Greg and Isaac more and more everyday.  I'm so excited to be an Aunt and so excited to be the sister and best friend of the woman having this baby.

Puppies and Ringworms

Bruce and I are now the very happy owners of two beautiful puppy goddess.

Hera the Goddess of Women

Hera is our beautiful German Shepherd Dog.  She's almost 5 months old and feisty as hell.  She's got her puppy teeth and isn't afraid to use them. She is my puppy.  If we're home alone together and she can't see me she'll come find me, she likes to keep me in her sight.  If Bruce is home that's another matter- then she's usually attacking his feet.  She knows her name and comes running when you call her. She's a beautiful beautiful dog and I can't wait to see her grow up.

Helia is a Sun Goddess (previously Akai)

 Helia is our mutt...kinda.  The Vet said she's a Red Heeler, but it's very obvious there is something else in her too.  When she walks she totally looks part boxer so we'll see when she gets older.  She is a total sweetheart.  Her puppy teeth are still kinda dull so it takes her a little while to eat her treats and if she doesn't eat them fast enough Hera lets her know by stealing them.  Helia had a rough start to life, she was tied up with wire and left in an ant pile- so when GaDaH-SA got her she had tons of cuts and a rash.  Most are all healed up but her tail is still super sensitive and if Hera gets a hold of it she cries and then runs away.

We were originally supposed to just have the one pup but Bruce's heart melted for Helia so we had to take her too.  Helia and Hera love to play all the time, especially when Bruce is around.  With me they're cool to just chill and nap in the living room.  They do know the tricks though and sometimes wont come back in the house unless enticed by a treat.  They love the big backyard and can run around in it all day if we'd let them.  They've found weaknesses in our fence a few times and escaped- luckily only going as far as the neighbors front flower bed.

We have them still sectioned off in the front of the house and Sookie the Viking Kitty has the whole back to herself.  Every once in a while while the puppies are out in the living room she'll come to the baby gate and torment them, then I can't get them to leave this spot till she goes back away.

We don't plan to keep them separated forever, just temporarily.  While they get over...

RINGWORMS!

ICK! My poor babies came down with ringworms.  One day I notices a spot missing hair on Hera's nose and then it started to get bigger.  Then I noticed she had more on the tummy.  On Helia it was harder to tell since she had already had some spots on her from her previous life as an abandoned pup.  It was so sad I felt terrible for the puppies.  I took them to the vet and met up with GaDaH-SA Jenny and the vet told us what I already new, that they were in fact ring worms and that both of them had it pretty bad.  The vet gave us some antibiotics and an anti-fungal pill to give them daily.

Hera's look to be healing quite nicely but poor Helia got them bad on her tail.  And she wont leave it alone! Yesterday before I went to work I noticed some dried blood on the floor in the kitchen and soon realized it was coming from Helia's tail.  She has been biting the thing raw.  I called the vet for advice and she told us to give the meds a little more time to work but in the meantime to wash it and try to put some of the ringworm ointment on it.  So last night Bruce and I cleaned it off with hydrogen peroxide and then slathered it up with ointment.  She screamed and cried throughout the whole thing and hid in Bruce's lap.  Luckily this morning things looked so much better.  Her tail was pink again and looked less irritated.  We'll probably keep washing it daily for a little bit now.  But I think she'll be okay.

For now both pups seem to be taking the medicine pretty well.  But their puppy-mama cannot stand to see them sad or in pain.  So every little wince and wimper breaks my heart.  After puppies with ringworms hopefully it'll only get better.  They have already filled our house with such love, I know it will only grow.

Puppies! Puppies! Puppies!

A little more than a year ago Bruce and I adopted our cat Sookie.  She's a beautiful 20 lb Maine Coon and we're totally in love with her.  She's everything a cat should be, lovable when she wants to be, weird most of the time and a total bitch when it suits her best.  I have an entire album on Facebook dedicated to the furry mess so I may be a little more in love with her than Bruce. 

Sookie the Viking Kitty

We've always talked about getting a dog when we were finally in a house, cause its just not fair for a pup not to have a yard.  When we've talked about dogs German Shepherds always came up over and over.  So after we got in the house I started looking online.  Most of the summer I found nothing, but since we had rescued Sookie we wanted to try and rescue again, there are just sooo many good dogs out there that need homes.  In early August however I got lucky and found a rescued German Shepherd PUPPY! I was amazed! You never find German Shepherd Puppies that are rescued- I think it's cause they're too damn cute! 

This is Hera.

Hera was rescued by Give a Dog a Home- San Antonio in May with her sister Athena.  Unfortunately Athena died from Parvo and then Hera got pneumonia.  Hera has been off her antibiotics for a week now and seems to be doing great.  She goes back to the Vet today for her final check up and if she's all cleared we could be getting her very very soon.  Adopting Hera is a very interesting process theres a 6 page application, 2 reference letters from non-family members and a reference letter from your vet.  After that there's an in-home visit and a two week trail period.  If all goes well with the Vet today then we should have the home visit this weekend and start our trail period next week- I'm super excited.

The lady who runs the dog rescue is really awesome and has invited us into her home to spend time with Hera while she's been sick.  The first time we visited about 2 1/2 weeks ago Hera didn't have a lot of energy and we mostly played with the other dogs.  She has 4 full grown German Shepherds of her own PLUS 1 she's fostering and 3 puppies.  It's dog-city there.  The second visit was just me and Hera had just finished her antibiotics and had become very playful.  She played all around with this cute Red Heeler pup and then kept coming back to me to make sure I was watching.

Hera and Akia playing together

I'll figure out how to rotate the video later and edit it...If you have suggestions let me know :)

Last night Bruce was able to come again and got to see Miss Hera in all her puppy glory, but Bruce of course fell IN LOVE with another dog!  The nerve of him! Little Miss Akia both times has come over to him and fallen asleep on his lap and licked him and just shown a more all around interest in him than Hera.  Hera likes me better and will definitely stick by my side if things get too rough in the dog house for her.  So now we are discussing the two dogs and its horrible.  I still have my heart set on Hera because she's more protective and you can already tell that she'd be a good loyal Shepherd, but Akia is also very very sweet and adorable but we don't know all that in her, we see some Red Heeler but there could also be pit bull and so we just don't know what to expect.  Either way we've told Sookie about the incoming dog and she is not happy...it's okay Sookie don't cry mama still loves you.

Is it fall yet?

I love summer. I love love love summer. I do. I love to wear sundresses, go swimming in the river, go swimming period and I love getting at tan and toasty.  BUT this summer has been hellacious.  I know we don't have it as bad as some people and I know we are truly truly blessed to have what we do have, but has anyone besides me been keeping a record of all the horrible things that have happened this summer?  It seems like everyday in the news this summer someone has died, killed themselves, been raped, been on trial for being a horrible person, shot up a summer camp- I mean it's been an icky icky no good summer all around.  So when compared to all of that my summer stuff doesn't seem nearly as bad, but it sure as hell is enough to make me wish it was fall already.

Top Five Reasons Why Tyler's Summer Was Crappy
5- Summer started out with my mother in a coma for 6 days and in a hospital for a month
4- Bruce and I had to cancel our honeymoon and may not get the money back for the cruise
3- The day after my mom got out of the hospital my Grandma fell and broke her hip
2- The week after Bruce stopped being able to see out of one eye one day and had to get eye surgery to fix that 1- In July my Grandfather (mom's dad) died

While the first four have all been taken care of.  My mom is doing amazingly (even though the doctors don't know what the hell happened).  My grandma recovered like a pro and was in the hospital and therapy less than a week.  Bruce's eye healed up and he can see as well as he could before.  We rescheduled our honeymoon for next week, it's no cruise, but it is Vegas and we love the place.

The only one that isn't really fixed or taken care of is my Grandfather dying.  There really never is any fixing it when someone dies, but all you can do is take comfort in the fact that if they were in pain or suffering then they aren't anymore.

Maybe it would be more appropriate to say that I have had an emotional summer or a emotionally crappy summer, because all of this on it's own would normally of course not be okay, but it wouldn't constantly feel like the hits keep coming.  Small things have gone wrong, small things that seem so inconsequential to anyone else but when piled together with the frustration the rest of the summer has been are enough to make me constantly tired and drained.  Small things missing my graduation cause my mom was in the hospital.  I still graduated so I can be happy about that, but it feels like it just passed and was very unnoticed because we were all doing something else vastly more important.  Another think like the pretty flowers my cousin and I planted dying- even though I watered them everyday and they sure got plenty of sunlight.  My art exhibit not getting the supplies needed till the day before the exhibit opened.  My washing machine deciding to stop spin drying clothes forcing me to hand wring them before throwing them in the dryer.

Small very petty things I know, but it's been a long, hot, emotional summer and I'm just ready for it to be over with.  We go to Vegas next week and when we get back it'll be a sprint for school to start and hopefully then things will get back to normal and less stressful and way less emotional.

On the opposite side some very good things have happened this summer to counteract all the bad.
#2 Haley found out she's having a boy! Which is the best news ever
and
#1 Mama woke up even when the stupid doctors told us to pull the plug- and as long as I keep thinking of that number one thing then everything else totally seems doable.

The Problem With My Kitchen

OMG I love my kitchen.  I really really do, it's open and has a huge window (currently concealed behind Bruce's tapestry thing) and it's just big enough for two people.  But...once I got all my stuff in there I realized it's definitely too small to have what I would normally like to have out on the counters out on the counters, if I ever want to do any serious cooking.  Which as of today I have still yet to cook anything on my stove top...I know, I'm a bad wife.

Here's the problem...

Here's a better view of the problem...

I have very little counter space to begin with.  Currently the microwave has to live on the counter because there is no where else to put it.  In a perfect world I'd be able to mount it above the range but the headroom above the range is already too shallow.  The kitchen aide can really only go on top of the counter- and it's way too pretty to hide away anyways.  The blender usually lives on top of the counter as well because I use it like everyday.  All my cookbooks currently live on the counter because I don't have my super awesome wall spice racks turned into bookshelves yet.  The waffle iron shouldn't be on the counter I don't know why it's there but I'll move it immediately when I get home.  The dish drying rack I guess can move into the left sink but really what else am I supposed to use the counters space above the dishwasher for.

BUT even if I move all those things and organize a little better- I still have very little cabinet room.  The bottom cabinets are TINY.  I only have two drawers.  The cabinet to the right of the sink is really narrow.  And my pantry well I'll deal with the pantry later, I really really dislike the pantry but I'll make it work.  But like I said I still love my kitchen.  More than two people can stand in it- which is a vast improvement from the narrow, narrow, narrow kitchen we had at the apartment.  I like to be able to turn around in my kitchen and take a step back and all those little things.

This I do not see as a problem, except for the rug thing hung over the window.

This area doesn't bother me.  It's the perfect size for the table and it'll work fine.  Once we pull the table out a little bit you'll even be able to walk behind it and I'll have plenty of room on the wall for my plates. The tapestry is concealing the sliding doors and a 1 1/2' space between the sliding door and the other wall.  It's a lot narrower than I thought.  So I'm either gonna have to get smaller spice racks, or just figure something else out, but I do still want my cookbooks there. And drapes, drapes, drapes, gonna have to figure out how to have them but not hide that little space on the wall otherwise my whole plan will fall apart and I'll cry.

Sookie likes it when I pull the tapestry up cause then she can see outside and sit in the sunbeams.  Not relevant to the post but Sookie's cute.

Anyways so yesterday I did work a little more on the decorating stuff and went to Hobby Lobby. I love Hobby Lobby, they always always have sales and coupons online.  Coupons + Sales = lots of savings.  Guess what I found?

PLATES! On sale for $2 down from $7 I only bought one but if I go back later this summer and they are marked down more I'll buy 'em. I got the Asparagus one cause it's yellow.

Then since wall hangars were already cheap $1.99 no matter the side I snatched up one of each size so I could test them with my plates to see which'll work.  And then because frames were 50% off I bought a couple large sized clip frames, cause I can't pick out real frames to save my life and everything looks nice in a clip frame.  All in all I spent very little at Hobby Lobby and will go back next week to check out what new sales they're having.  

Current plate collection is kinda sad- that big wedding plate though is HUGE 17" diameter luckily my plate hanger works up to 18", the blue one looks way cooler in person and the IHOP one looks loved.

Garden Ridge aka This Place is Huge

Day One of my "getting serious about decorating" plan and we went to Garden Ridge.  This first trip really should have been all about looking cause there is just so much there!  My awesome decorating friend Jenn said to tackle one room at a time and give yourself a budget.  I'm really bad at following directions.  I chose three rooms to complete before the Housewarming party- one in which I have absolutely no control of how it turns out- cause I'm crazy.  So my big goals are the kitchen and the living room, and I'm starting with the kitchen first because it only has two walls and one of those walls is tiny! Which means in my head there's less to decorate in there- yay!  But while I was at Garden Ridge I forgot that I was starting with my kitchen first and got lost in the football field of frames and mirrors.

Anyways- I've made a mental note to take before and after pictures of my kitchen and promise to eventually post them, but basically my kitchen is a rectangle with 2 and 3/4 of the walls taken up by counters, pantry, fridge and walkway.  So I have one full wall behind the kitchen table and to the right of the sliding glass doors that lead to the patio.  All the appliances in the kitchen are white, the cabinets are a very pale, pale weird wood color (pictures to come I promise), my dining table is not a pale wood color but a medium-light wood color with chairs that have Christmas trees on them and green seats.  I have two black and white checkerdy mats on the floor and under the table- cause they looked cool and I had yet to pick a theme for the kitchen.  Above the cabinets there is space and one day that space will have plants (fake ones) and pitchers- because someone told me that's what I should do and I turn down no free decorating advice.

In my head I see my kitchen as a warm cozy place that I'll be cooking in very frequently.  Cooking things like Chicken Sinegalese, Chicken Piccatta, Greek Gyros with homemade tzatziki sauce, Carrot Cake and hundreds of thousands of Green Smoothies (just because they're cold doesn't mean it doesn't involve cooking).  Currently most of my counter space is taken up by my microwave, 12 cookbooks, my kitchen aide stand mixer, dish rack and my Black & Decker blender/food processor that I'm in love with.  To solve the counter space problem the little sliver of a wall that's left between the sliding door and the other wall would be perfect for some spice rack book shelves.  Then the only piece of decorating that I'll actually be creating myself will be the plate wall! I love plate walls! They remind me of this next door neighbor we had growing up who had a wall that was covered in coffee mugs, none of them matched but it still always looked homey and fabulous- Right now my plate collection consists of 4 plates I've deemed wall worthy- one is the plate Haley gave me for the wedding that everyone signed it's HUGE and will be the center piece, another is this plate my ex-best friend Robynne stole for me from IHOP a hundred years ago when we worked there in high school, the 3rd plate is a plate that has a shoe on it- a cute dessert plate, and the 4th is an awesome blue eye shaped plate with sparkles that I found for $4 at Garden Ridge.  My rule for the plate wall is that all plates have to be under $5 and I'll just buy them as I find them- I'm gonna hit up thrift stores and goodwill to find more.  Other than that the kitchen will need curtains over the sliding door- right now Bruce has an old tapestry thing hung up over it and while nice it does not match my vision or allow for easy access- also it blocks out too much natural light- it's gotta go.  Then the pitchers and vines must be located for above the cabinets.  Hey I found vines at Garden Ridge-

Too many vines if you ask me.  In the first house I lived in my mom had REAL ivy that grew all over the tops of the cabinets and it was really nice, but I kill plants so I don't want to have dead plants on top of my cabinets.  But there are soooo many types of fake Ivy out there too and I don't wanna spend $15 on fake plants for on top of my cabinets- I'll wait for Hobby Lobby to have a sale.

Back to Garden Ridge- so wandering through the HUGE Garden Ridge Pottery we found frames, mirrors and wall art.  Bruce got lost in the wall art for a while and I looked at mirrors.  The theme for my living room is kinda early my couches are moss green and I'm gonna have this beautiful picture of the trees at my mom's house from the wedding.  So with that minimal idea my living room needs a mirror-

   

Like this one!

Partially obstructed mirros are cool

Or this one- mind my legs

This one was neat too the metal was different hues of natural colors

I kinda liked this one too- the leaves might be too much though

The plain-est three different size mirrors might be nice.

We're getting a hutch from Bruce's mom the weekend of the housewarming party, so unfortunately I wont have it early enough to really play around with everything before the party, so I'm making due with a picture and my minds-eye (which is a horrible thing to trust).  I image the hutch to the left of the back wall of the living room and to the right of the hutch a mirror or mirrors.  Then on the wall opposite of the mirror the picture of the trees at my mom's house.  Another room with only two walls to decorate- it makes me happy.  Then I start thinking about curtains and want to hang myself... there are two windows in my living room...sigh

So at Garden Ridge we were really overcome by home much stuff they had- furniture, clothing, luggage, kitchen stuff and cheap suits of armor (Bruce wants one).  I ended up getting a big beverage dispenser for the party for my Sangria I'm making, a big bowl for ice and that cool eye shaped blue plate for the plate wall.  Not a very good first shopping trip, I'm hoping tonight's excursion to Hobby Lobby goes better.  But I still feel like there's lots of time so no worries yet.

I don't have the decorating gene...

I bought a house!  Well back in April I bought a house, before the wedding, before mama went to the hospital, before my lease was up and before I graduated.  The house was a part of the wedding deal we made with the 'rents.  Instead of having a big big wedding both my parents generously donated towards the down payment of the house.  So with their contributions, my own, help from my grandma and my not too horrible then credit I was able to get a nice little house on the North East side of town.

In May 2010 Bruce and I officially moved in together in a new apartment in the same complex I was already living in, we moved into a 2 bedroom, 2 bath pretty good sized apartment.  7 things went on the walls of that apartment in the year we lived there.  2 posters Bruce wanted, 2 pictures I've had since High School, 2 cork/message boards and one big kissing poster Haley gave me for my old apartment.  That was it!  Nothing else.  To say we never really decorated is a huge understatement, we did nothing to that apartment except live there for a year and make a mess of the living room.  So when we bought the house I knew I was in trouble cause if you're living somewhere for more than a year you really should decorate.  Crap.

We officially moved in on May 21st, we were delayed because mama decided to take a three week vacation in the hospital- she's doing fine now and we were happy to delay our move  for her...really we were happy to cause we hadn't packed a thing as of May 3rd anyway. We took another month to finally get every out of the apartment and on June 19th I turned in our apartment keys!

My step-mom helped us find and get the house and she kept asking me about a housewarming party- I said we'd do it eventually once things settled down.    On June 24th I realized we hadn't unpacked a thing in our house (except our 300 DVDs and part of the kitchen) yet and it was starting to annoy me.  So I made Bruce and I pick a date for our housewarming party.  Since July is also his birthday month (the big 30) and I graduated during mom's vacay in the hospital, I made the executive decision to combine the three in hopes of getting more people to come celebrate.  We picked July 30th because it was still in his b-day month and cause Haley said we had to do it that weekend- she's pregnant and scary and if you don't do what she says she may sit on you.

So with a deadline in mind I started trying to get serious about unpacking.  Then I realized that I'd have to decorate this house as well BEFORE that deadline- or at least start.  I can't have a bunch of people coming over for a party and have absolutely nothing on the walls- cause right now even today with 17ish days to go there is still NOTHING on those walls.  My good friend Jenn has a nack for decorating (apparently she has the decorating gene- B) and has volunteered to help me figure out what the hell I'm doing.  She told me to pick just a couple of rooms to try to get done before the party.  I chose the kitchen, living room and guest bathroom because they're the main rooms that will be seen during the house warming party.

Will I reach my goal? Will my house be unpacked and decorated by the 30th?  I sure hope so, we have more furniture coming in the 24th and then the weekend of the housewarming so hopefully it'll all fit!!!