To be a better blogger...

...is my new year's resolution!
The last month and a half of 2008 has flown by and now we are already in 2009! I am utterly exhausted from working long hours, traveling, and getting "ready" for the holidays. The new year brings getting "unready" from the holidays, which will take a while, as I still have Thanksgiving things out! I thought I would post some photos from the last month or so that I never got around to posting!
Happy New Year!

A great Thanksgiving

We made it through our first Thanksgiving in our home. We were joined by Nick's parents, Barb and Mike, from Fresno and Josh and Erin from here in Riverside. The actual meal was really good and we had a really nice time with everyone.
The early part of the week was a bit more trying. The whole preceding weekend, I was baking, cooking and cleaning, which gave the week a slow start. Then, I worked Monday through Wednesday 8-7, though a bit unecessarily. After coming home from work and eating, I proceeded to cook and clean more. Oh yeah-and on top of all of this, Sierra had massive diarhea making us get up numerous time in the night for checks and bathroom breaks, and clean-up, if needed. So, by the time Thursday got here, we both were dead tired. Sierra is doing much better now. We think she picked something up the weekend before at the clinic when she was spayed.
Friday I picked up a new Christmas tree at Lowe's and made a trip to Michael's with Barb. We also went downtown Riverside and walked around the Mission Inn and downtown area. We also had a tour of Nick's work. Saturday we did more of the same and went out to eat at BJs. Today, I have been taking it easy and putting up some Christmas decorations.
I can't believe it's only 3.5 weeks until Christmas! I have done zero gift shopping, so I have a feeling everyone will be getting gift certificates and/or online gifts! I also will be doing some Christmas baking, but not as much as usual, as we are going to be in Fresno.
I hope everyone else had a great Thanksgiving!

New projects, fires, and extra hours

Sorry about the lack of blogging lately, but I have been working a lot of extra hours and haven't been too motivated to do much on the weekends. Nick has done a number of projects including installing a new faucet, putting together a kitchen cart and tiling our master bathroom. Both have turned out very nice (see pictures).
The fires came fairly close to us the past weekend, about 30 minutes away. I didn't even know there was a third fire until I was driving down the hill from our house and looked toward LA and saw a huge orange blaze. We didn't have any smoke because of the Santa Anas, which is one good thing. A few of my patients had to evacuate their homes, but they were able to return last night. Hopefully, things will calm down. We really need some cooler weather and some rain.
We are really getting excited about Thanksgiving. We will be having it at our house with Nick's parents and friends Josh and Erin. I am so excited to eat some turkey!!!

Ending October

Sorry I've been bad at blogging lately, but here is my last post for October.
Two weekends ago, Nick put up our new light fixture in the eating area in the kitchen. I think it turned out really nice. Now, the kitchen project is done until we decide to tackle the flooring.


This past weekend, we decided to take Sierra up to Big Bear Lake in the mountains to see the fall leaves and get out of town. With temperatures still in the 90s, it was nice to get into some cooler weather. Sierra had a good time at the lake, but did have some difficulty with the drive up (she lost her lunch with all the switch backs).





Everything continues to be more of the same here. We're fairly busy at work and we have had some challenges dealing with new employees. Hopefully, the kinks will be worked out as quickly as possible, so we can get things running efficiently once again.
Nick is off this week and is tiling our master bathroom. We are also trying to get Sierra spayed this week and get the rest of her shots. We think we will do early voting this weekend at the registrar's office to avoid super long lines next Tuesday. I will enjoy watching the results coming in at home vs. standing in line!

Two years down...

Today Nick and I celebrated our second anniversary. I took today and yesterday off from work and we've been doing some work around the house and enjoying our new baby girl, Sierra. The largest conquest of the weekend was that we repainted the kitchen (see photos). It went surprisingly well. The colors are really bright, but we are ready for some it. I also bought a new light fixture for the dining area. I saw it at Lowe's for $110, but got it at the Habitat for Humanity Store for a steal. The price said $30, but they were having a 50% off sale, so I got it for $15! Can you believe it?!?!? We will get that up next weekend, and I'll be very happy. Nick took the last week off in October to tile the bathroom in our master. I will then have my to-do list for the year done. We are also going to be tiling the entire downstairs, but we're not setting any time frames on that! We had a nice day today, had lunch at BJs, which was really good. Enjoy the photos!

Sierra photos!

Sierra has really come alive in the last two days. She is feeling much better, but still has a pretty nasty cough. She is getting sick of being sick as well. She loves to run up and down the stairs and the yard, but has to completely stop to get her breath after about 5 seconds. We still are not able to take her on walks, but we're excited to start that and playing more with her. She has had no accidents in the house and is spending her time in the laundry room while we're at work. All in all, we're very pleased with our little puppy. Enjoy the photos...what do you think she is mixed with? (please comment)

We are happy to announce...

a new member of our family! We welcomed Sierra, a one-year-old (we think) golden retriever mix into our home this weekend. She is still a very sick girl from the shelter, but we are giving her medication to treat kennel cough. Hopefully, we will be able to see her true personality a little clearer when she is feeling better. Right now, she is doing a lot of sleeping. She does like her bed! I am sure I will be posting more pictures this week as we get to know each other better!