Lesson 47: Happy Halloweener :)

This weekend spending time with Tyler and Max... Max loves kisses

He was pooped from a long walk in the morning

We decided to decorate for Halloween and this being our first Halloween married we didn't have any decorations. Tyler tried on some funny masks while we were shopping. Here he is as... some sort of scary pumpkin man. Nothing is scarier than a half man half gourd.

I take that back... there ARE some things scarier than pumpkin head.

Tyler makes friends everywhere he goes.

We decorated the apartment and lit all the candles

Those two pumpkins are the trick or treat pales I grew up using. When I was little I used the little pumpkin and when I was older I had to get a bigger pumpkin... naturally.

We hung a couple spider webs that look awesome. The other spiderweb is in the main entryway. I can walk under it but Tyler will be spending 3 weeks ducking when he walks around. We also bought a black light bulb which is lame, some skeleton straws and cupcake holder things.

Lesson 46:

Thanks to everyone for the compliments on Max's doggie dinosaur costume :) It is great to have so much support and encouragement!

I am not sure what my next project will be... There is a lot of leftover fabric from my previous creations. I may collaborate them to finally make a cover for my sewing machine. According to the how-to-sew book, my machine should ALWAYS be covered when not in use. This prevents dust and other elements from damaging the valuable piece of equipment. Right now it just has a piece of cloth draped over it.

Tyler has been doing AMAZING in his classes. He has been getting 100% on all his quizzes in physics. The fridge is slowly filling up with his gold star papers. In his English class the teacher posted a paragraph on the class website citing Tyler's assignment as a great example to reference for other students doing the assignment. :)

These achievements are all especially impressive when you note that Max and I constantly interrupt his studies vying for his attention.

Lesson 45: Pictures from our first summer as a married couple...

As the title of this post states these are just some pics my dad gave me from this past summer. This is the day after our wedding spent opening cards and gifts from friends and family.
This is a good picture of Tyler.Those Oreos are loooooong gone.

And there was the HPPV competition in Eastern WA. Tyler is standing next to his teammates and their awesome bike made completely of paper (except the chain).

It was a pretty long weekend for Tyler and Max.

AND we got MAX this summer!!! :) This is the very first day we had him! Tyler's hair is out of control and against my better judgement I was blond.

Awwww! All he does is love On the 4th of July my family hiked up at Mud Mt. Dam. One end of the trail leads to the river. Tyler, against my mom and my warnings and threats scaled down the steep drop off so he could "touch the water".

I am probably overprotective because I did not even let Max walk around near the drop-off.

This photo is recreating a picture we had taken a year earlier before we were even dating when family and friends went for a hike at Mud Mt. Dam. Those who came remember it as the endless hike where we all got completely lost and were out in the middle of nowhere. It was a lot of fun.

Contrary to what these pictures look like, Max DID walk the majority of the hike.

All the dogs were dressed up for the 4th of July. Before we started out one of the park rangers warned us that there had been a bear sighting recently and what attracts bears more than a few flamboyant foo foo dogs?

Lesson 44: How to spend your Saturday

Yesterday (Friday), I had the day off but Tyler had to go into work for a few hours so I drove him up to work and hung out around the shopping center. After about 2 1/2 hours at the mall I decided to head over to JoAnn Fabrics to waste some more time. I was not expecting to buy anything there. Then I saw this pattern for a dinosaur dog costume. Everyone there must have been getting their costumes ready for Halloween because I had to wait in line for half an hour to get my fabric cut. The total cost for all the supplies and the pattern was only $9 which is awesome because that is cheaper than buying a dog costume...

Sewing is a lot of fun. I am glad I bought my Brother sewing machine. At one point though I had to wake up Tyler to get his help. It is great being married to a drafter because his entire job is being able to interpret drawings and instructions and he does it REALLY well at it. He helped me (while half awake) determine the proper direction to sew on the sleeve cuffs since the written instructions were not very clear.
Max makes a great dinosaur RARRRRR!

Also this weekend was the annual Opfar family trip to Maris Farms. Tyler's entire family was there. It was cool that everyone could fit it into their schedules.

We started out our fun day with trying to lasso stationary cattle.

I think Tyler eventually gave up and just lassoed Karleene his sister-in-law.

I wasn't much better, but just look at that focus.

Tyler's dad turned on Reggie and was able to create the comedic highlight of the trip.

Tether ball was next to by dominated by our family... James beat Karleene (his wife), Reggie beat James, Tyler beat Reggie and then Loni beat Tyler. So I guess that would make Loni the tether ball champion.

Loni and Stella getting ready to go down this cool PVC pipe slide.

There is also a random tube to clime through which most of the family took a crack at. Tyler was giving Ellis a little shake to liven up the tube fun.

Ellis at the end of the tube.

Kristy looking great and munchkin Stella on the pony rides.

Everyone had some lunch. Tyler ate an enormous ear of corn. :) He was making so many funny faces while I was trying to take a picture but the camera took forever to load, so I got just a cute pic.

And that was our fun Saturday. :)

Lesson 43: Day 2 of my life as a bicyclist

My husband rocks :) Today is Thursday which means I work late and this translates to my having to ride the bike home after dark. Tyler surprised me by showing up at my work to drop off the car and ride my bike home. This is especially adorable when you note that my bike is baby blue and has a white wire basket, bell, and puffy bulldog sticker on it.

Lesson 42: A trial run.... well trial bike ride actually

Tyler took my car to work today. His car is fine, just a few minor things to get checked out, but just to be safe he let it have a day off. This left me with the bike for my commute. As we live a mere 2 miles from the office, riding my bike is no grueling task, unless there is a down pour.... like there was today. You might say today was a trial run to see how I would hold out if Tyler and I decided to downgrade to a one car family.

First lesson from the trip: Get one of those splash guard fenders for the back tire. Fortunately today I was able to pull my coat down over my lower back sparing me from an entire day looking like a mud skunk.

Second lesson: Figure out a better way to secure my belongings in the white wire basket fixed to the front of my bike. My little basket was stuffed full with a plastic bag for my lunch, one with my purse inside and a third with my high heel work shoes. Each bump and crack in the sidewalk would send the contents soaring into the air leaving me seconds to reach my hand out and slam them back down into place.

My experience was not without its successes. I made it to work on time which was great and also a relief. Listening to the radio as I get ready in the morning is a daily routine for me. This morning the DJs gave a teaser that they would play a German dog food commercial that was supposedly made with high pitched tones to get your dog's attention and excitement.

Be sure to listen and have your dog nearby!

So I had to stay home just a minute longer and listen for this.... Max did not even react to the commercial, which is surprising since he has dachshund in him I thought he would at least appreciate the language of the fatherland. :)

As mentioned before, despite this setback I was still on time for work. Although, I did walk in to work, unload my coat, helmet and bags only to realize I had left one of the plastic bags hanging on the handlebar of my bike outside. I had placed it there during the process of juggling my luggage, wrapping my bike seat in baggies, and locking the bike in place.

Now here I am at work and dry, my poor baby blue bike is outside and exposed to the elements. The next trial will be riding home at lunch to let Max out and ride back to work... and then back home at the end of the day. *Sigh*

Lesson 41: Sewing Pajama Pants

In only a semi-particular order here is my project of making Tyler some pajama pants that took place over the course of about 3 days...

Oh and I cut my hair...
There will of course be the token picture of Max as well :)
I asked Tyler to take some pictures of me since there were no pictures of the actual making of my wrap around skirt.



Here I am pinning the pattern to the flannel. It is navy blue which does not come across well in these photos.

You can see Max's ear in this photo because he was right there beside me the entire time trying to eat the pins.

He has some strange obsession with my tomato pin cushion.

It is a good thing I found my larger tomato. Previously I was using a smaller pin cushion that Max could actually fit into his mouth... and he did. I had to chase him down and yank it from his doggie death grip.

This is me sewing the front of the pant leg to the back.

This weekend was also General Conference which is an opportunity for everyone to hear/watch messages from church leaders. This is Max and me taking a break from sewing to watch conference.

Here is Tyler in between the conference sessions taking a nap. We watched the speakers via the Internet.

After conference was over it was back to work. Throughout sewing projects there is a lot of ironing. If you read the directions it will say things like "press" the fabric, I believe they say press instead of "iron" to make the project sound more fun.

Aw man, I have to IRON.... no way! Oh wait, I just have to "press" that fabric, well I can do that.

Max has been super possessive of his tennis ball today for whatever reason.

Tyler worked on physics while I sewed and Max guarded his tennis ball.

Ta da! The finished product! Looking good Tyler!

Tyler has approved both of these pics to be on the Internet :)
Max has not approved this picture.