Friday, May 28, 2010

Yay, Friday!


In just a little while, these attractive folks will be here! (Minus Andrew and Melissa, but we'll be with them in less then a month for their wedding!) My parents, sister, godparents and godbrother will be coming for the Memorial Day weekend and they'll be hanging out with us in Los Alamos and Santa Fe.


Becca will be the only one who actually stays with Russ, me and the dogs, the rest of the gang will be staying in a house they've rented (our little home only has one bathroom and if they'd all stayed here it would have taken FOREVER for all eight of us to get ready). 

I promise to take a bazillion pictures and to give all the details next week. :)


Also, this Sunday is Russ' 24th birthday (and our friends' Brock and Alisha's wedding anniversary).  I'm going to attempt to make the Pioneer Woman's Best Chocolate Sheet Cake Ever. It looks delicious and, hopefully, Russ will love it.

Happy Memorial Day weekend! Stay safe and have fun!

Thursday, May 27, 2010

A Doggie Tribute: Pirate


Pirate is such a sweet little guy.  With his fluffy tail and missing tooth, he has stolen my heart. :) Of course, many times when he goes into the back yard his fluffy tail causes him trouble.


Pirate loves to lay out in the yard underneath these evergreen trees, baking his belly in the sun and barking at the three neighbor dogs. Unfortunately, these trees have little seed pods that get stuck all over his fur.


And when he comes inside, I become the bad guy that brushes all the little prickly pods off his tail and tummy. He would prefer to gnaw them off himself but I like my more efficient brushing plan better.

He says: "Leave me alone!"
I say: "I love you!"

A Doggie Tribute: Roxy


She wants you to think she's the cutest dog ever.... In reality, she's quirky, awkward, funny and very gassy!

Her favorite chair. She steals it from Russ every morning.

She has a very flexible neck and  watches  everything that's going on at all times. :)

Baby girl, you don't look comfortable at all!

There you go! So cute!!!

Wednesday, May 26, 2010

Beautiful Bike Course

Next month Russ is doing the Tour de Los Alamos and he practiced the course this last weekend. (I think he's getting used to the elevation because he had no problem riding one loop of the course, which was 25+ miles.)

When he got back from his bike ride, he wanted to take me for a drive of the course because it was so pretty.

My camera cannot capture the awesomeness of the mountains looming in the distance.

I did my best to edit out the windshield bug guts that were originally in this picture since it was taken as we were driving. :)

Look at the blueness of the sky! Wow!

Tuesday, May 25, 2010

Food Network Addiction

The bad thing about staying home all day is I watch WAY too much Food Network. It's totally addictive! And because of this I really want the cookbook "Giada at Home."


Of course, if I cooked everything in her cookbook, I would double my size in less than a month. :) Yum, I love Italian food!

Monday, May 24, 2010

Concert in the Park

We went to a concert in the park at Ashley Pond last Friday. 


Russ learned at work that Ashley Pond should actually be called Ashley Pond Pond because it's named after Ashley Pond. He was a Detroit gentleman who founded a school for privileged boys in Los Alamos in 1917. I, personally, think that Ashley Pond Pond would we way too complicated to say if you were speaking quickly (which, I'm told I commonly do :).


Friday night at the park was a great time to people watch, more specifically, kid watch.  Kids kept running down this hill and barely stopping themselves from launching into the water.  There were even a few of them riding their bikes or roller blading down the hill. I was impressed that I didn't see anyone get wet all night.


The Nomads, a local band, played an awesome blend of classic rock and, if my husband were one to dance, I would have pulled him onto his feet and made him dance with me. Instead, I did some awesome shoulder dancing and foot tapping. :) 

This is a concert series that lasts all summer long and I can definitely see us attending many more shows.

Fresh off the Scanner

Ten months after we returned from our honeymoon, I have finally scanned in the pictures from our swim with the dolphins at Discovery Cove. :)

His name is Hutch.

 Russ, the boy who learned to swim before he could walk, was required to wear a PFD because he couldn't wear a swim vest since it was made of neoprene, which he is very allergic to... haha.

I can wear a swim vest. :)

MWAH!

Despite the pleasant looks on our faces, we were both very anxious to get these birds and their long, scary talons off of our arms.

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Seven Days Away from OKC

A week ago, we were driving away from OKC to New Mexico. We had stayed up late the night before packing because, like I said in my last post, we had A LOT more stuff then we realized.

We had originally thought that we could pack everything we needed into a U-Haul trailer attached to the back of Russ' truck. Boy, were we naive!  Fortunately, we were blessed to have Russ' dad volunteer to drive with us so that Russ could drive the U-Haul truck. Thank you!


It took us twelve hours with all the potty breaks, stops for gas and for food. Pirate rode with me in my little car and Roxy rode with Russ in the U-Haul truck. They both did great; napping most of the time and getting to be in the U-Haul truck together when we made stops, AND, Pirate only tried to crawl into my lap a few times during the trip. :) 

Recap: Leaving Our First Home

It was hard to leave our first home. A little one bedroom, one bathroom apartment that we'd filled with all of our stuff and, until we were packing it all up, I had no idea just how much stuff we really had. 
 
 
 
 
 
Thank you to everyone who helped - Mom, Dad, Nancy, Big Russ, Sabrina, Thomas, James, Stephen and Brock. We couldn't have done it without you and if we'd tried, I would had pulled all my hair out and become a very sad looking bald person.

Wednesday, May 19, 2010

Our First Nature Hike

As Russ is watching cycling on Verses, I want to share some picture from our hike today.


We thought there was a different path and, with Roxy leading the way, wandered around the neighborhood for a few minutes before walking back to the car to drive to a path we knew existed.


It was breathtaking! We took the easy path today because it was almost dinner and I was hungry.... We'll go back another day to hike the more intense zig-zagging path.

 
The dogs had a great time; they sniffed every rock, pine cone, stick and flower. Russ and I had to yank on their harnesses constantly to keep them moving. 

We're wanting to go on a lot more hikes, so, hopefully they'll get used to all the smells and won't keep to pull our arms out of socket.

 
Pirate's favorite way to enjoy nature. :)

Tuesday, May 18, 2010

Recap: Graduation/Going Away Party

Russ' mom hosted an incredibly fun party for us the day after graduation! There were great friends, yummy food and lots of Nerf gun darts flying through the air.

Brock, Russ and Stephen. Friends that go way back.

 Here they show their true colors. :)

 Alisha and Brock are expecting a baby in December!

My friends, Marge and Amy. Aren't they pretty?

We had so much fun and we're really going to miss our friends. Fortunately, we have Skype (check us out: EmileyandRuss), e-mail, Facebook and we live close to several vacation spots so everyone should come visit!

Monday, May 17, 2010

Recap: OSU Graduation

Russ worked on this fire engine to bring it back to life.

Russ graduated May 8th from Oklahoma State University with a degree in fire protection and safety technology.

I had to fix Russ' name in the program because they had his dad graduating.

Gallagher-Iba Arena.

 Becca and I got a little bit bored.... :)

 
Look at my handsome graduate! I'm so proud of him!

Off He Goes!

AND he's off for his first day of work!

Look at that face - it's saying, "Hurry up/I hate having my picture taken/UGH!"

Russ left for his orientation this morning a little before 8:30. This is the first time in our marriage when I've been the one staying home and he's been going to work.... It's kinda nice and very weird, haha.

Have a good day, honey!

Sunday, May 16, 2010

Recap: Finding a Place to Live

Last week, we came to visit Los Alamos for the first time. We flew into Albuquerque, rented a car and drove the hour and forty-five minutes to the Los Alamos-area.

Our first stop was to see the house we had put a deposit down on for the summer... My first thought was, "it smells like camp," and not the fresh, clean, outdoorsy smell of camp, instead, it was a musty, dirty, stale smell. It was a one-room, tiny guesthouse that didn't even have the bathroom completely blocked off from everything else (which = no privacy ever). Yuck.

Fortunately, through some divine intervention, we were exploring the Los Alamos town square and found a rental property company that had a duplex that allowed dogs. Hallelujah! We looked at it, it was clean and we signed a lease right away. **Cue the heavenly choir of angels.

Our new home even has a doggie door!

A New Adventure

We've moved! We packed up all of our belongings, drove for 12 hours and finally arrived in Los Alamos, NM.

The park in Los Alamos.

Until a year ago, I never would have dream of moving away from Oklahoma City. OKC is all I've ever known. It's where my family is, my church, my dentist (if you know anything about me, dental care is very important) and everything familiar. But Russ has been offered an amazing opportunity and I could never deny him that.

This is going to be an adventure of a lifetime!