Julie’s blog

A few weeks ago, Bruce and I decided it was time to replace the old patio. I haven’t been happy with it since the day it was poured, and that was more than 18 years ago! Next year we have the reunion here, so we decided to just do it.

We had a problem with our basement flooding last year and Bruce had put in a sump pump, which has been working beautifully. The only problem was, it was pumping through a hose that was right outside the basement, probably draining nearby and soaking back inside.  So Bruce rented a trench digger and a jack hammer. Bruce broke up some necessary parts of the old patio (we poured right over it for the most part) and Bruce also dug a trench and put some PVC pipe in the ground that drains far away from the house when the sump pump kicks on.

My contribution was swinging a pick-axe to rip out sod, hauling it up the hill, then later, sorting through that sod so that we kept the dirt, but recycled the sod. It was two yard waste cans full.  After our work, we were both very sore. We’re thinking we’re getting too old for this heavy-type work, so we’re doubly glad we did it now!

After two pours, the contractor had the plastic off Sunday when we came home from our weekend away. Here it is:

We’ll have to raise the level of the lawn so there is only a small step up, but one nice thing is that there is no more step up to the apartment door, which we like. The lawn has had some ankle-twisting holes, so next spring, we’ll work on that. Other than readying our yard for winter, I think we’re “done” for now. Time for a nap.

Okay, so I’m married to the greatest man alive. We had made plans this past weekend to rake more leaves-A big thank you to Beth for raking FOUR yard waste bins full already. We were also going to clean up our back yard from the latest project.

So, we’re lying in bed Saturday morning and asked Bruce what he wanted to start with-we had quite a list. And he seemed to ignore my question and asked instead, “So, how long will it take you to pack a bag?”  It seems he’d planned a weekend away for us-and surprised me with a “Twilight” tour. We went to Forks, WA, where the story takes place and saw the the various places in the book.

Bella's Truck

 We drove to La Push-out on the coast and were going to walk the beach, but it was very stormy and cold. It was amazingly beautiful though.

We enjoyed dinner at Bella’s restaraunt in Port Angeles…yes, I had Bella’s mushroom ravioli. It was delicious.

We stayed at a bed and breakfast in Port Townsend. The Old Consulate Inn. We’ve stayed there before. It’s really nice and a lot of fun.

Old Consulate Inn

We enjoyed the beauty of seeing fall leaves near Port Ludlow:

And came back home to the wonderful surprise of seeing our latest project “unveiled”. I’ll post about that next.

To my wonderful husband: Thank you so much. I love you more than you’ll ever know.

Halloween was fun. Since Halloween was on a Friday this year, I didn’t have to tutor, so I was able to go walk the town with Beth’s kids to trick-or-treat the businesses. That was fun and I saw a lot of really cute costumes. I think my favorite costumes were two older siblings dressed as ketchup and mustard. They were holding hands with a little sibling, dressed as a hot dog. Too cute!

Beth had her annual “donut night”. She makes homemade donuts and frostings. She also provides powdered sugar for dipping and this year, some cinnamon sugar.  I overheard this comment, “Mmmm. Love the cinnamon sugar! These taste like those things you get at the fair!”  All in all a big success for her. She serves hot cider as well, which is the ONLY thing I had.

I came home to find the bowl of candy I’d left on the front porch, not just empty like last year, but gone-bowl and all. A neighbor two doors down said she only had one trick-or-treater. Since we’ve started going over to Beth’s every year, I guess I won’t waste the $25 on candy anymore. I’m sure it was a teenager-it’s too bad they can’t let the little ones have their fun.

Okay, I know it’s been a while.  And it’s a “good news”; “bad news” situation.

Good news: I got my scale back. Bad news: I don’t like what it’s telling me!  I am up, but I honestly don’t know how much, as it can go up or down 5 pounds in a day. It needs to settle down.

Good news: I’m going to an “accountability” group every Tuesday at 8:30pm.  It’s at my personal trainer’s home and conducted by her. It’s free!  We discuss healthy choices, get a lot of tips on healthy lifestyle, discuss our week and support each other with our goal. There are a few bets going on between gals. It’s only 30 minutes, but we’re assigned an email buddy for food accountability. Bad news: I’m not very good about the latter part. I keep my own journal, but having to email it every night is time consuming. The ladies are all much younger than me too. I’ve tried to get Beth to go with me, but she’s busy with getting kids to bed at that time and says she doesn’t want to be “accountable” to somebody for how many “Ho-Ho’s” she’s had that day. :) A tip I did learn from a gal who has lost a lot of weight on the 20-20 program through the Pro Club: 75% of the people who keep food journals-writing down everything they eat are more successful in losing and keeping their weight off than those who don’t journal. I thought that was pretty powerful.

The weather has turned…it’s cold! I’ve had some stressful situations at school with parents who are actually “bullies”.  Anyway, I’ve turned to “comfort food”. Warm, tasty, and made with love by my brother Brent. Homemade gumbo. Brent, I gotta tell ya, it’s fantastic and has sure warmed my heart. I don’t think the scales are liking it though. Oh well.

It’s not like I can’t fit into my jeans anymore, but I don’t “feel” good if that makes sense. I feel kind of “blah”. I’m sure it’s because I’m not exercising as much and counting calories. How many calories in that fantastic gumbo????  WHO CARES?!!!!

But, I’m going to start with a new resolve and begin “project Julie” again. My sweet husband has said he’ll clean up the dinner dishes and kitchen so I can workout at nights. My longer commute has made it tough to work out in the mornings. I’d have to get up between 4 and 4:30am and right now, I’m just not feeling like doing that.

I’m almost finished reading a book series I’ve gotten totally hooked on. Total fluff, but fun. And it takes place in the Pacific Northwest. The series is the Twilight saga. There’s a movie coming out soon. The targeted audience is young adults, but it’s well written and a lot of fun. The fact that it takes place up here is a pull for me as well. The series is an escape from reality. I mean, I know who I’m voting for and if I get anymore taped messages on my phone or much more junk mail about the election, I’m going to go nuts! And let’s face it, the news is depressing, so what better way to escape?

So, please stay tuned for more updates. I sure could use some tips as well. Or dialogue about Bella-the protagonist in Twilight.

Just so y’all know, I also surprised my sweetheart on our anniversary. I had told him I had dinner “covered”. On our way there (because we’re pretty close to this place) he guessed our dinner destination: The Salish Lodge. What he didn’t know was that I had a room for us for the night as well.

Originally, I planned to hand him the key in the card as I paid the tab. But, since I’d been there already to check in and get the key, the valet said, “Welcome back” quite loudly when I pulled up for dinner. Shoot! We were early for dinner, so I gave Bruce the card before dinner and we went and saw our room. He was very surprised.  I love doing stuff like that.

When I had checked in, I should have taken my camera. I put another card on the bed, but when we went before dinner, the bed had been turned down and the card was on the nightstand. So here are some pics I did get. Oh, and we had room service for breakfast too.  The pictures are of the view out of the french doors (we were just above the first drop of the falls), the bathtub, the fireplace, and the food for breakfast.

The top of the falls...

More of our view

Upstream

A great place. I highly recommend it.

http://www.salishlodge.com/?source=adwords&gclid=CMzIqu23m5YCFQkiagodu3KK7Q

I want to wish my wonderful husband a Happy 27th Anniversary. I’m the luckiest woman in the world and am still crazy-in-love.

Bruce sent me the most beautiful roses at work and also surprised me with this set for our patio. The center turns into a fire pit. How cool is that???! Thank you Sweetheart. Remember, I still love you most!

No, I’m not writing about my weight loss this time and I would NEVER do what the title implies.  Two weeks ago my wonderful kids came over and purged the basement storage of “stuff”. And I went through my closets and pulled old blankets, games, puzzles, craft stuff, etc.

Jill wins the prize for the biggest pack rat. Boy, has she changed! But we got rid of so much stuff-one load to the dump-and the rest we had a garage sale last week.

Bruce wins the prize for the most comments on things at the garage sale….everything from reel-to-reel tapes and player to 8-tracks, cassettes and old 45’s…vinyl records for all of you too young to know.

Beth wins the prize for being the funniest-At the garage sale, she found an old NKOTB cassette and was playing it and many other old songs, and teaching Alyssa the Electric Slide dance.

After the sale: a couple of trips to the thrift store, and some recycling centers. There are still a couple of items we’re trying to find homes for, but the bottom line….I have some empty shelves in my closets! Many years of collecting, storing, etc. is finally over. We have lived in this house for 18 years now, and raised three kids. Stuff accumulates. Bruce’s mom was my “inspiration”, as she is 85 years old and struggling to do just as we have just done. I don’t want to be doing this then. It’s a lot of work.

This Friday, I’m cleaning the house from top to bottom-even vacuuming the empty shelves.  I’m going to hire someone to wash our windows-inside and out. Three stories on the back of the house makes it a scary proposition for us. And we’re tired.

So, thanks Beth for kicking me in the tush and reminding me to schedule the date with everyone as well as putting in two days at the garage sale. Thank you Bruce for helping with the clean up and hauling. David, thanks for driving all the way up here to help. Jill, thanks for being the biggest contributor at the garage sale  :)  .

Live simply.

It’s been a busy weekend-but a productive one! In that big windstorm a couple of Decembers ago, the cheap arbor that was holding up the wisteria plant broke. In the meantime the wisteria plant  has continued to grow and grow. I literally had to hacksaw the trellis out of the twisted vines! This weekend, Bruce built a new arbor-a much nicer one-that matches the one that he built in the front yard. Then we gave the wisteria a “haircut”, and trimmed up many of the plants around it. There are more to trim, but it’s a start. We’re tired. But here are a couple of pictures at the top. Isn’t my husband talented?!

Tomorrow is the first day of school around here. I have yet to get a job at Microsoft, which is what I’ve been hoping for this summer. I had another interview on Friday. I think those Microsoft recruiters are the nicest people to talk to! This was my second one with a recruiter and he was so personable!  Anyway, I’m heading down to a different school this year. The funding has been cut at Cherry Valley for the reading program, so I’ll be at Carnation Elementary this year. I may have mentioned this before, but honestly, I’m too tired to go back and look. Sorry about that. So, Jeff and Alyssa: Happy First Day of School tomorrow! Have fun! I’ll sure miss seeing you two everyday.

Now, Beth can support me on this: I can’t check my weight because she has my scale. She has needed it for Jeff’s football weight checks. That is a long, annoying story that I hope she’ll discuss on her blog and get some input about.  It’s probably a good thing she has my scale though. I have been working out, but I haven’t been 100% good with my food intake. A nibble of this here, a nibble there. I had a crown on my tooth fall out Saturday night, so I’ve been eating soft stuff. Ice cream is soft.  :)  I do have a dieting tip for you though: If you’re going to go to Cold Stone and you haven’t had ice cream in a really long time, it’s a good idea to check the calorie counts BEFORE you go. Then there can be no regrets. I didn’t. ‘Nuff said.  I’ll post at the end of the month. Hopefully good news.

It’s a new month, schedules are back. My trainer is back after having her baby, so let the weight loss continue! Have a great month!

Sadly, Colleen had to cancel because her dog was hurt pretty badly during the week and needed treatment. We’ll be rescheduling as soon as she can. While I was very disappointed that we couldn’t meet Saturday, my heartfelt best wishes go to her for her “baby’s” speedy recovery.

Bruce and I decided to take the boat to Riffe Lake. It’s a lake that comes highly recommended to me by my friend Sandy. Bruce took the wrong turnoff getting there, but thanks to GPS, we discovered parts of WA we haven’t seen before and did eventually put in on Riffe Lake. I’m not sure I’m a “fan” of the launch. There are tall piers that you have to get the ropes around on the very edge. And one side is short and when Bruce launched, I was trying to hold onto the boat and almost went in the lake as I ran out of dock, the boat kept going and one rope did too. We’ll pick a different side next time. Live and learn, right? I’m sure we looked like total dorks, and hopefully someone got a good laugh. Now that my hand isn’t throbbing from the rope burn, it must have looked pretty funny.

 Riffe Lake is a beautiful lake-larger than we expected-and it’s surrounded by the beauty of WA state. It is peaceful-not a lot of people out there. My header is of a tree reaching it’s roots right down into the lake. It was on the edge of a pretty cove from which you could hear a creek emptying into the lake. I half expected to see a bear or something as it seemed so “untouched”.  We like to explore lakes like this. There were two islands in this lake as well. And we caught a glimpse of Mt. Rainier. But I think we liked the cove the best. It was so quiet. We had a lovely day. Thanks for the recommendation Sandy. Remind me to talk to you about Mayfield Lake.

I have to say when I started looking for my high-school friend (again), I’d just read this article http://www.informationweek.com/news/internet/social_network/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=209902760 and figured she HAD to be out there somewhere. Friday, I checked my email “junk box” and found a response to my note. It was entitled, “You found me!”  She gave me her phone number, maiden name…it was her alright. So I called her. After an absolutely delightful chat, we found out we only live three hours apart AND her husband has a cousin that lives very near us. AND it just so happens that my friend and her husband are going to visit that cousin next Saturday. So, after 30 years, she and I will be seeing each other next weekend. I’m so excited. She and I were actually maids-of-honors in each others’ first weddings, when we were quite young. We’ve just exchanged photos too. I have to say, “I love the Internet”.