Wait...we're doing what?

There are many days throughout the week where my news hungry, podcast listening, somewhat nerdy (though undeniably adorably so) sweet, sweet husband leaves up an article or two on my computer that he thinks I will find interesting. Interesting usually meaning passion evoking. When things just strike the right (or wrong, for that matter) chord, I can't help but promulgate my opinion.

This is was what happened to my poor, unsuspecting brain this morning.

This whole housing bill thing just gives me the shivers. And not the good kind. Rob and I want nothing more right now than to be able to buy a house. It is our number one goal at the moment and we are budgeting and cutting and sacrificing and researching and saving, saving, saving so we will be able to do so. We know we will not take a house loan with a morgage over 1/3 of our monthly income. We know it will be tempting; and we know it would be ridiculously stupid to do so. 

I can agree, to some very small extent, that part of the blame for this entire 'morgage crisis' lays in the hands of the banks, who greedily gave loans far and above the means of many people and familes. But I can also say without a shadow of a doubt that nearly every single bit of the blame, if not all of it, falls in the hands of the people who stupidly decided to bite off more than they can chew. 

It all comes down to personal responsibilty, folks. Just because we are the land of the free doesn't mean we are a massive plot of land filled with idiots who do whatever the heck they want just because they can. It also doesn't mean that said idiots preforming said actions will not have to face any consequences because our knight-in-shining armor of a government will bail us out. Or does it?

In the article Rob left up for me this morning I read this quote. Then I stopped, and reread it. Then I copied and pasted it into a blog because it was so good/true/viable/pertinant to everything thats been going on lately- "This legislation punishes the successful, it taxes the responsible, and it holds no one accountable." (said by Rep. Lamar Smith of Texas, the senior Republican on the Judiciary Committee.) I just wanted to throw up my hands, and shout EXACTLY. This is EXACTLY my issue with our government. This is EXACTLY why I believe America is  heading in a very wrong direction. This is EXACTLY what I mean when I say personal responsibility is practically non existant anymore. Thank you, Mr. Smith of Texas. Thank you for saying EXACTLY what I wanted to in words far better than I could have chosen.

So, way to go government. You are in the process of successfuly showing the people of America that it is okay to be irrisponsible. That, "you know what? We'll just remove the rock and hardplace you've wedged yourself between." Nicely done. Touche'.

And a very big congratulations goes out to all the irrisponsible people. I mean, way to swing getting a house way above your means for practically free now. You can thank me, and the rest of the responsible tax payers later. 

For now, I'll just continue paying my taxes and sitting comfortably in my cheap little rental house. :)

"Everything is Amazing and No One is Happy."

I've never been a fan of my generation. Quite frankly, I'm disgusted with it. We are seriously a massive group of over-privileged, under-appreciative, spoiled rotten, "The World Owe's Me Everything", woe is me, whiners. I don't know what could have possibly gone wrong to cause this colossal group of 20ish and younger brats to throw self responsibility out the window and sit back while the rest of the world hands them everything they "deserve". 

If I've learned one thing in my life it is that no one owes me anything. In fact, I am the debtor WAY more than the creditor. I owe way more than I will ever be able to give (we're not talking money here, folks) and I'll be damned if I don't live like it. I am not the top dog, the bee's knees, the cat's meow, and I am most definitely not going to pretend that I am. 

Dear My Generation,

Get over yourself.

Love, Kristin.

I saw this clip whilst perusing the Internet and it made me laugh my guts out. It isn't quite pinpointing my lame generation, rather how spoiled and 'holier than thou' people are these days. You should watch it. It is totally worth the 4 minutes. 

(On cell phones)..."Give it a second! Its going to space! Can you give it a second to get back from space?" Hahaha. I love it.

Alright, folks. Thats my random tangent for the time being. Take care.

Appreciate life. And remember, no one owes you anything. :)

We're Alive!

So I am minding my own business, folding laundry, forgetting to shower and obsessing over Photoshop when a little birdie came by and informed me I have this thing called a blog that I unofficially vowed to keep up. Slightly paranoid about a talking bird, I obliged to look into it and realized its been oh so very long since our last post in which we apologized for it being oh so very long since our last post. Does that make sense? Good.

So here I am, yet again, needing to catch up on our life's story, post much past-due pictures, and even older events. I have decided, however, to pretend I'm caught up and start anew. Eventually I will get this thing down pat and throw up one or two of the million of pictures I snap each week, write a couple words, a nice parting sentence and maintain my unwritten promise to the blogging world to do my part. Eventually.

What a nice word. Eventually. No deadlines, no promises. Eventually I will have thousands of extra dollars in the bank just waiting for that rainy day. Eventually Rob won't have to remind me that we are t-minus -3 days in need of clean socks. Eventually I will know every setting on my camera and use them, perfectly, without thought. Eventually I will finish those two online classes that I am kindly attemtping to will out of existence. Eventually I will play the guitar like a pro. Eventually we will get Rob's car cleaned up, the credit cards payed off, and the dryer won't make that awful chunk-chink-chunk sound for the entire duration of the cycle. But now? Now I will continue obsessing with Photoshop, reading The Pioneer Woman a little too frequently and pretending that the sock drawer is full.

Oh. And now I'll post some sweet Valentine's pictures of me and my sweet lover from -gasp- Valentine's Day!

We should begin by saying our Valentine's was really spread out due to our being spoiled by family. My parents brought us over a really sweet basket with our wedding wine, a cozy heart blanket, and all of the tasty ingredients for a yummy Italian dinner, and cash for a movie. Then my grandparents sent us nice Valentine's wishes and a gift card for Red Robin which we thoroughly enjoyed Friday night. And one of my grandma's sent over some cash in a sweet card in which we used to purchase some of our Valentine's ingredients. Aren't we ridiculously spoiled? Thanks for all the love, everyone!



We had a royally fun weekend. It would have been an amazingly great weekend Valentine's or not simply because Rob had a short day Friday, then the weekend, and Monday was a holiday! A nearly four day weekend?!?! What is that that you speak of? We were so excited to not shower, dress, brush our hair, answer our phones or do anything but sit on our butts and enjoy the presence of each other and the lack of anything to do.

Oh. And he woke me up to breakfast. Wasn't quite breakfast in bed but it was darn close. What a sweet, sweet man I have.



This weekend was the longest amount of time he had off since our wedding. Er, well, would have had off if he hadn't had to answer Boyd's beckoning call on Saturday. On Valentine's. Three times.

Luckily my man is about the most patient, flexible man out there and kept his calm, talked the Ellensburg customer (You know the one in Ellensburg? You know that city 150 miles away? From me? On my first Valentine's day with my husband? On a Saturday? Yeah...that one) into waiting until Tuesday, quickly fixed the issue out in Leavenworth (still 25 miles away) and on the way back stopped and dropped off coffee at the third needy place.

My Momma would be proud that I am able to look at the bright side and say it turned out alright. Even though he was gone for almost two hours, it was in the middle of the day in which I took the time to wrap his present, set the table, and try my hardest to control my excitement knowing I got to see him come in the door, our door, to me. (There is just something about watching him come home to me...)



Once my knight in shining armor returned home to me, we began the rest of our Valentine's fun. We started off with Lemon Drops which was a whole new world to me. And oh what a fun and tasty world it is. Seriously, folks. You have got to give Lemon Drops a fair chance to please your taste buds. They deserve it just as much as your favored margarita or cosmopolitan or whatever it is people drink these days.


Note: Technically, a Lemon Drop is where you take a shot of really cold Vodka, and follow it by sucking on a slice of lemon that has been dipped in sugar (see right). I tried to make my own Lemon Drop Martini (seen left) and while it was tasty, it just wasn't quite the same.

We continued our glorious nothingness whilst playing a game, doing Lemon Drops and staring at each other wondering how in the heck it had already been six months since we said "I do" all the while wondering how in the heck it had only been six months since we said "I do."

Its a rough, confusing life we lead. :)

For dinner we brought out the full meal deal (literally) and began with a delicious, mouth watering, seriously I could only eat it for the rest of my life, Baked Pecan and Honey Crusted Brei served with none other than raspberry jam and whole grain crackers. Mmm...

(Warning: No peoples lost weight in the making of this Valentine's Day.)



We entirely bypassed our planned salad. I guess we figured we were going so far overboard, why taint it with lettuce and other healthy articles? We then had T-Bone steaks covered in homemade roasted garlic, bacon, and various spices, Homemade Roasted Garlic Mashed Potatoes, and pan fried asparagus. Can you say yum? Its a good thing we were only kissing each other that night because we most assuredly had garlic on our breath.






We meant to finish off the night with our good friends recipe for "Better Than Anything* Cake" (*censored name) but a few Lemon Drops in and two extremely full bellies later, we waited to make the cake until the next day. Which is why I don't have a picture of it. Which is probably a good thing. You see, this cake is a German chocolate cake, which is taken freshly baked out of the oven, holes are punched all over, sweetened condensed milk is poured on top, then covered in caramel, whipped cream and heath bar chunks. Simply said, it is known to cause Diabetic shock merely by looking at it. (We cheated and used Oreos instead of heath bar and oh my goodness was it delicious.)

Eating in was so much more fun for us than getting all gussied up and going out to a crowded restaurant, dishing out a hundred bucks and calling it a night. Oh how I love our hermit crab lifestyle.

The thing about Valentine's Day is this; it is not the only day to pour love out on each other. It isn't the only day to buy your love gifts, to go all out on a fancy four course meal at home, to clean the house, or surprise your one and only with breakfast. It isn't the only day to kiss every three minutes, or write a sweet card. It is a wonderful, much needed reminder, however, to spoil your love. To tell them they still mean the world to you, that you still get the excited jitters when they come home, and to take time from your busy lives to focus just on each other.

And that, my friends, is exactly what we did.

Wedding Video

Oh why hello!

We will soon post some much long over due pictures, but for now here is a little something from our wedding.

We took some home videos from our wedding that a friend filmed for us and put it together in a nice, easy to watch 4.5 minute clip. Of course, I spent hours trying to figure out how to make it the best quality and when it was finally where I was happy with it, I uploaded it to Youtube, which proceeded to make it look absolutely awful. But as for now, I will smile and deal with it because the last thing I want to do right now is research video quality AGAIN.

So just don't put it into fullscreen and you may be able to get a nice glimpse of our wedding. We had such a blast and are still amazed by our wonderful support group that all came out to celebrate with us. Albeit a bit fuzzy, we are so glad to have this 4 minute piece of one of the best days of our lives.

If any one wants a copy, the DVD version looks much, much better and we can definitely get you one. Parents and grandparents need not inquire- you will have one on the way shortly.

Enjoy.

Welcome the newest member of our family!

Hello Folks, this is Rob posting for a change!

Kristin and I celebrated our own private little Christmas on Christmas day, which was wonderful (I love my wife more then anything!), but then her family came over for the weekend to have a Christmas with them, and boy was it fun! We got to spend some good ole quality time together, and we even went and saw the movie "Marley and Me", which I can tell you is just as moving as the book, and very well done.

In any case Kristin's parents had brought over a bunch of presents for us all to open, along with the disclaimer that this year was strangely over-abundant because they sold their house. After we had opened all the wonderful things they had brought us, they looked askance at each other with quotes like "I think we forgot one..." and "Isn't there one missing?" upon which they made us close our eyes and went out to their car to get something. When they came in this was sitting in front of us.So welcome the newest member of our family, 32LG30, we will make sure he is well cared for!

I know I shouldn't, but...

I really cannot help myself. Baylee is too darn cute (and getting very good at her 'stay' command...) and much too willing for me to stop. She just sits there and looks so happy that- I mean, is it really that much of a crime to plop a hat on her head and make a cute picture out of it? I think not.

See for yourself.

First, she started out very happy with her new Santa hat (that she tried to eat about 30 seconds prior.)

She struck a few poses, looking all purdy for the camera. Still pretty content with the hat, though it was tough to get a picture without her trying to eat the ball she realized was firmly attached to the end.

It isn't long before she begins to tire of the hat.

"...Oh what joy does she get from such torment?"

Then she pulls the, "Fine, I'll just sit here and look sad so your pictures aren't as cute anymore" look and she wins. I tell her to go.

Relieved, she tastes freedom and shakes free of that awful hat.

Man, I love that dog. I can't even imagine how much I'm going to love my own kid if I can feel this much for a furry, four legged lick monster. And, to show that I also humiliate myself, and to give Bella (who hates it immesely) a little bit of shutter time, I shall throw in this one for good measure. Merry Christmas, everyone!

Christmas Time!

I suppose it is time for an update! Winter is in full swing! So far, Rob and I have been having a blast. We have gotten quite a bit of snow (not nearly as much as our friends in Spokane who are pretty much stuck inside) but it is a good amount to where everything is nice and white but not too much to where it hinders our ability to do anything. Although, and I think Rob would agree, it is getting a little tiresome to have to shovel the sidewalks 2,3,4 times a day.

With just a few days to go, we are ready and rearing for Christmas! Sadly enough, we will not be able to go to Lakewood and take part in my family's Christmas traditions. Rob's family is pretty much all in California, and while it is slightly sad that we will not be in the middle of family gatherings, there is plenty to be said about getting to spend our very first Christmas together, alone with our pups, in our own little house. My family is driving over on the day after Christmas and will spend the weekend with us so we will still get some fun family time. Needless to say, we are very looking forward to all of it.

We set off December with a bang and on the first (my birthday) we went out and got a tree, (real, of course) put lights up on the house, and got out the (few) Christmas decorations and made our house feel a little more like Christmas!

(These stockings were so easy to make it was almost like cheating. I borrowed an idea from Martha Stewart of all people, and went to Goodwill, found cool, old sweaters, and made them into stockings. We are really excited with how they turned out.)

Quite a few years ago, I got this dancing/singing snowman from my Grandma. Over the years, he has become a family favorite. This year, however, Baylee decided she absolutely HATES- and I mean loathes- Mr. Dancing Snowman. I don't know if she is jealous of his moves or what, but she wants nothing more than to take him down.

I spent much of last week baking all sorts of cookies that we really aren't too sure what to do with. I will post one of my favorite recipes sometime this week; it is definitely one to use.

The dogs aren't too sure of the snow. For awhile, they would run outside to use the bathroom and hide under the deck until I bribed them out with treats. They still aren't too fond of tromping around in it, but Baylee has taken it upon herself to make sure she eats each and every last flake until it is gone. There is enough snow outside now, that if they don't jump through it, they sink and just their heads show. They don't think that is nearly as funny as we do.

Today while we were out shoveling the sidewalks for the third time, I (in my picture obsession) decided it would be a great time to get some good family photos. I set up the camera on the hood of the Jeep on top of a cardboard box, pressed the self timer, and ran as quickly as I could without slipping in the snow and ice and falling flat on my face. Due to the harsh weather conditions, I only took two (compared to my typical 2-3 hundred) and considered myself lucky to even get that. This was the best of the two, (considering our heads were entirely cut off in the other) but still not all that great. (Note to Santa: I would really appreciate the remote and tripod for my Nikon that's on my list...)

Luckily our neighbor was pained in watching our failed attempts at self portraits, and offered to snap a picture for us. She works at the humane society and photographs the dogs for adoption, so using some very interesting noises, she actually got both the dogs to look at the camera and it turned out to be a pretty darn good shot. Thanks neighbor!

That has been our December thus far. Hopefully we won't get too much more snow than what we have been getting because I feel sick to my stomach to think of Rob driving all over the place in it. The man drives right around 1100 miles a week and that is about 1099 miles too many in this weather for my liking.

(Bella was extremely sad about taking a Christmas portrait. Baylee was, well, Baylee...she doesn't really care what you do to her.)

We hope you all have as merry of a Christmas as we are having and a really happy new year. We sent out Christmas cards last week, so hopefully you all enjoyed our little poem. :) We sure had fun writing it.