Catching Up - Finally!

I needed to start up this blog again, and I was paralyzed by Perfectionist Procrastination Syndrome. I knew I couldn't catch up perfectly, so I wasn't catching up at all.

The only way to cure PPS is to just do it. So without further ado, in reverse order, a list of what I've been up to since way back when -- without any editing whatsoever. Eek!

Financial Peace University

Joe and I are big Dave Ramsey fans; his books and radio show give us the tools to accomplish the goals we had for ourselves. We’ve read his books and listened to his show, and we're following his steps to financial peace. This year, Grace Church in SLO is hosting his “Financial Peace University.” We decided to sign up because a friend had recently gone through the course and said it was “life changing.” So far, it's all in line with what we've learned via the books, but it's inspirational to get even more "gazelle-intense" than we had been.

If you have a course near you, strongly consider attending if your financial status is anything other than completely debt free and independently wealthy.

Ken Ramirez Seminar

On Valentine's Weekend, I had the opportunity to attend a seminar with Ken Ramirez, the VP of Animal Collections and Animal Training at Chicago’s Shedd Aquarium. He was in Arroyo Grande at Gentle Pets Training. Teah always manages to get some amazing trainers in for her workshops, and I was lucky to get to attend. Sixteen hours was simply not enough time. We learned all kinds of advanced training skills.

I was fascinated by concept training, which is teaching the animal concepts like "right and left" or "up and down" or "big and small," so that you could attach this concept cue to any behavior. For example, Roscoe spins left and right, but he has two cues for the two behaviors. If I had taught him the concept of left or right, I could have just taught him "spin" and then added "left" or "right" to the spin cue without having to teach two separate behaviors. We also learned about mimicry -- teach the animal the concept of mimicking and then you can have him copy any behavior without going through the steps of shaping the behavior over time -- and about secondary reinforcers -- training the animal to like something besides food as a reward - clapping, saying "yay!," a butt skritch, etc.

This video shows some of Ken's ideas at work: Shark Training

Auntie Barbara's Funeral

Sadly, in January, Auntie Barbara passed away at the age of 90. We had just been to her 90th and Uncle Frank's 89th birthday party in September. They have an amazing 120+ direct descendants (children, grandchildren, and great-grandchildren), and many of them spoke about the legacy of love and generosity their mother had given them and paid tribute to their father/step-father.

Uncle Frank is my dad's father's brother, and we always joke that if we want to know what Dad will look like in 30 years, we just have to look at Uncle Frank. This is Uncle Frank & Auntie Barbara in recent months and just below is them in their younger years.

Some of "the cousins" who attended the funeral.
Auntie Barbara will be deeply missed by many.

Crafternoon

In January, on a happier note, Ruth hosted “Crafternoon!” at her apartment. She taught knitting and sewing to her enthusiastic but less-skilled friends. Carrie and Shelley learned to knit. I don’t know how well they’ve done since then, but the toddler sundress I began was not fit to be called clothing. She hosts these once a month, and I’m hoping to get some more tips from her next time.

The Purple Room

Also in January, we made major progress in the transformation of the “Master Bedroom” to “Craft Room/Study” aka “The Purple Room.” Joe and I decided to move our bedroom from the master room in the front to one of the guest bedrooms. It’s quieter in the back of the house than in the front, and not having to listen to the college kids walk home from the bars at 2 a.m. means I’m nicer to them at 2 p.m.

I had become fond of a particular combo of purple and green in a ceramic frame that Carolee gave us, so I went to Home Depot and had the machine match the frame to paint samples. Purple Balloon and Limeade. The walls became purple balloon, and the recessed window and closet doors are limeade. The trim is white. It’s festive. It's fun. It's unique. It's very, very purple.

My Birthday

Joe and I went to Big Bubba’s Bad BBQ for my actual birthday. BBBB is offering free meals on your birthday, so of course, we had to take them up on it. Since my actual birthday is New Year’s Day we almost had the place to ourselves. The only other diners were a couple with a daughter also celebrating a birthday.

Because we celebrated Christmas in Canby, we also celebrated my birthday early with Mom & Dad and Billy & family (at Red Robin, complete with my coupon for a free burger the week of your birthday). In late November and December, Kiana had had 4 present-opening celebrations in which she was the main event (3 birthday parties and Christmas), so she was a little confused why all of a sudden I was opening the presents. However, she graciously helped me open them, since she had so much practice.

Before.

After - Yum.
Christmas in Canby

As I said, we celebrated Christmas in Canby with my family, and it was an adventure. We happened to travel during a snowstorm on a day when ODOT decided that the proper way to deal with icy, snowy roads would be to block ALL lanes of traffic on 5 with snow plows and just let us follow them north. This meant that we spent 7 hours driving to Redding from SLO on Sunday and fourteen hours from Redding to Canby on Monday. Five of those hours were from Salem to Canby, which is a 30-mile trip.

Once we arrived, though, a good time was had by all. The dogs loved the snow. We loved seeing my family and getting to hang out with everyone. Gram & Pop went with us to the dog park; we saw movies with Billy & Bernadette; I shopped with Mom & Bernadette; and we spent a good portion of our time wiping paws off after yet another wet and muddy dog walk.

The dogs woke us up at 6 a.m. the morning after arriving at 11 p.m. after 21 hours of driving. We were delirious with exhaustion. They were delirious with excitement.


























Christmas in February - a little out of order, but Christmas-related, so it fits

You'd think it would be easier to get 3 childless couples together on a weekend to have a family Christmas celebration, but for a variety of reasons, Christmas with the W's didn't happen until February 7. Joe's parents drove down from Carmel, and his brother and sister-in-law, Luke & Cathy, popped over the Grade. L&C live half an hour away from us these days, and we see them about as much as we did when they lived in Fremont. How does life get this busy?!

Anyway, it turned out to be a great day to celebrate, as it was also Des's birthday, even if it did turn into "The Weekend With All That Food." On Friday night, we went with Joe's parents to a local Mexican place - Pepe Delgado's. Pepe's has good, simple food and lots of it. None of us went home hungry. The next day, Luke & Cathy came over for lunch, and the general consensus was Tahoe Joe's for lunch. We had a fun lunch together and then came back to our house for opening a few presents and eating birthday cake.

You'd think we were finished with eating, wouldn't you? But no, since it was also Des's birthday, we felt the need to take Big Bubba's up on their birthday offer once again. I also had a BOGO coupon that expired that week. How could we NOT go to BBBB again? Feed four adults good BBQ and wine and dessert for about $35? That's a deal we could not pass up.

So hot on the heels of a giant Mexican dinner and a steak lunch, we managed to enjoy some chicken and ribs. (And the next day, Joe and I ended up at Firestone for tri-tip lunch with friends hanging out with another friend in town for a few days. I felt like I would never need to eat again.)




Tagged!

Many many many weeks ago, my friend Laura tagged me in her blog, and I totally and completely missed it! She tagged me around the time I had just been released from computer captivity and Christmas break was beginning, so I missed seeing the post. By the time I caught up with her blog, it was long past. But I still want to play, so thanks for tagging me, Laura! These are the sixth pictures, in the sixth folder of My Pictures if you sort by date and if you sort by name.

Los Prietos with Greg & Carrie, Tim & Jill, and Jeremy & Lisa - some of our favorite people at the end of an awesome weekend.


Roscoe & Bella sharing a crate in freezing temperatures while waiting for Joe to pick up new wiper blades at Fred Meyer in Medford. We had been walking around the parking lot, but as soon as they saw the open crate, they both jumped in to get out of the cold. Hard to believe Roscoe survived Missouri winters before we turned him into a weather wimp like the rest of us in SLO.


Graduation!

Just before we left for Canby, Oregon, I officially graduated from the credential program! It’s amazing how much free time I have now. Sometimes I arrive home and have nothing pressing to do, and we can go to Farmer’s Market or take the dogs for a walk. The other night we ended up at IHOP for free pancakes on the spur of the moment. It was wonderful. It is also the first time in our marriage that we actually have some breathing room to just relax with each other, and it has been too long a wait.

Thanksgiving

We hosted Thanksgiving again, and this year all the W's were able to make it. My parents also joined us on their way home from Disneyland with Kiana and family. Our house, and more specifically, our dining room is not meant to accommodate eight people, and I was maybe a little too upset about the fact that we were having to push together two non-matching tables. One rectangular. One round. And people were going to be able to tell it wasn’t one big table! And I would have to use two tablecloths! And it was going to be terrible, horrible, no-good, awful, very bad and we might as well have Thanksgiving in Australia!

Have I mentioned I tend to get a little hysterical about completely trivial things when I’m stressed? You should have seen me at my wedding. We planned the whole thing ourselves and did a lot of the work (with the help of family). Joe and I were up at 7 a.m. for a 3 p.m. wedding, pulling everything together. Around noon, I misplaced a small portrait of my grandparents. A portrait I had planned to put on the bar. And I completely fell apart. Fell. A. Part. I was hysterical. I went from not being able to find a photograph to predicting the entire reception would be a flop and the ceremony would be a disaster in 3.2 seconds flat. I’m sure if Joe ever had second thoughts about marrying me, it was at that point.

Really, it was just a big taste of what was to come. Maybe I didn’t get quite so hysterical over Thanksgiving, but I did whine enough for him to do this. . .


He went out to his Garage of Wonders (as in “I wonder how this all fits”) and found a piece of wood with which to fashion a connecting piece that made our two dining tables into one that could be neatly covered with one big tablecloth. He is the best.

ACSI Convention & Disneyland

ACSI Convention happened to fall on the same days as the ones the Sablans had planned to take Kiana to Disneyland for the first time. ACSI Convention also happens to be at the Anaheim Convention Center, so I got permission to travel to Convention and was able to join everyone at Disneyland after. I love Convention – I spend the night before going over the catalog, not trying to find a few sessions I want to attend, but prioritizing the several dozen that appeal to me but can’t possibly all be fit in.

But Disneyland with Kiana was definitely the highlight of this year’s convention.

Me and Kiana on the carousel while the others ride California Screamin' a second time. My head can only take one time, so the carousel was my kind of ride. And my riding partner was adorable.

L to R: Billy, Bernie, Joseph, Dad, Kiana, Mom, Me, Catherine (Bernie's sister)
It was cold and rainy the second day, but that didn't mean we didn't want to ride the Grizzly water rafts. We just grabbed these rain slickers that had been left on the railing near the entrance. We passed them on to another group on our way out.

Kiana was pointing out that she had the same dress as Snow White. There were many little princesses and quite a few Snow White's running around Disneyland, but Kiana was clearly the cutest one.

The Great Grocery Challenge

We also completed the Great Grocery Challenge and ended up with the answer to the question, “How long can we go on a $25/week consumables budget?” Our answer? Five months. Ultimately, as we left spring and summer, it got harder to buy fresh fruits and vegetables on a $25/week spending plan. It accomplished its goal, though, and we’re much more aware of what is a need and what is a want when it comes to consumable spending. We bumped up the budget to $140 a month, which allows some flexibility while still being well under the USDA $450/month "Low Cost Plan" for a 2-adult food budget. And thanks to CVS, I haven’t purchased a toiletry type product with real cash in 6-7 months.

THE END


Bonus points if you read it all. :)