Lesson 50: Necessity is the Mother of Home Made Dog Toys

Poor Maxi is too tough for his own good. He destroys his toys within days and as he gets older he becomes more efficient with his destruction. We are down to a few tennis balls (which require a friend to play with), a rawhide bone (which we are weaning him off of for a bit) and his rubber Kongs (which are only entertaining until the treats inside are all gone). His true love it stuffed animals. Not wanting to leave our loney pup home with nothing to entertain him I came up with this little beauty. It is an empty water bottle inside a little fleece package... with ears :) I will be honest that the concept is not my idea. Tyler and I saw water bottle toys at the store and I figured I could just make something like that instead of paying $15. We had left over fleece from a blanket Tyler made.

Max was whining the entire time I was sewing. He knew this was a special treat for him.

The cracking noise in the video is the water bottle.

Lesson 49: It is flippin cold today brrrrrrrrrrrrrr

It feels like there is a lot going on... or possibly I am just not managing my time well enough.

Tyler got a new job! He starts there next week and it is so exciting! He... and I guess since we are married I should say "we" had a hard time making a decision about this job but everything came together and in the end we even get to stay in our apartment for at least the time being.

Monday was Halloween. I dressed Max in his dinosaur costume and we passed candy out at my parent's house. Quinn and Cooper my niece and nephew were a dog and cat. I wore my birthday dog ears the entire day.

Yesterday we went on a double date with another couple we know through church. We went and saw this awesome movie called "In Time". It is the kind of Twilight Zoney movie I would love. After the movie we went to a local small cemetery to see it all lit up for All Saints Say. I was freaking out. I have never been to a cemetery after dark and all I could think of was "They're coming to get you Barbara!" Tyler lost all feeling in his right arm from my death grip which I suppose he brought on himself.

Lesson 48: Hippo Birdie To MEEEEEE

Yesterday was my birthday!!! It was a long birthday weekend!!!! Tyler surprised my by not only arranging to have Jenae fly up from Utah to visit but also throwing a puppy themed party at Red Robin for me. :) No one actually took pictures at the restaurant so I set up all the decorations at home afterward.

For the puppy theme there were napkins, balloons, a sign, gift bag, stickers, candle, hats and I got to wear dog ears and yes I wore those during dinner at Red Robin.

I could not convince Jenae to put her hat back on for the photo.

On my actual birthday Jenae and I went out to breakfast in town. I tried to take a few pictures of us and since none of them turned out I just took a pic while we were walking. Action shot!

Easily the highlight of Jenae's weekend visit here: I have been getting my free scoop of Baskin Robbins ice cream for a few years now. Yesterday I had my coupon and suggested to Jenae that we stop by the BR on our walk to get my free scoop. I showed the man at the counter my coupon and he said he needed to see some ID. The coupon has Whitney "Mann" as the name so I showed him my licence with my old name on it. Since that ID had a hole punch in it the man said it was no good. I showed him my new ID and mentioned how I got married recently and that is why the name change...

He replied: the pictures are different...

I know, I just got married so I got a new ID

The first name is different....

No it's not

One says Whitney and one says Frances

No, they both say WHITNEY FRANCES as I mentioned I just got married

Well since this ID is incorrect I can't take it because I am not in charge and the manager is not here so you will have to come back when they are here.....

We left and Jenae burst out laughing, the very idea that I had to show two forms of ID to get a free mini scoop or ice cream was too much for her. You would think I was trying to get alcohol or something. Jenae laughed for about 2 hrs. I was more in the mindset of YOU RUINED MY BIRTHDAY!

Upon returning home we found Tyler and he joined us to the next town over where I was able to get my free scoop no questions asked AND no ID necessary.

This BR even received the patronage of Tyler and Jenae.

On the way up to drop Jenae off at the airport we stopped at Coulon Beach to walk around.

Jenae was in love with the trees here and all the pretty colors.

Let's take a picture imitating the trees with our arms out....

Wait that one was no good take one as a tree flowing in the wind.... yes I think we got it.

Before walking around the water we three stopped by Kidd Valley to get some hot chocolates. There was a random statue so we all took pictures next to it in the same pose.

I don't think Jenae got the idea...

A beautiful fall day :)

A beautiful fall day.... from another angle.

An open interpretation of LIFERING

Tyler and me imitating Jenae scrunching her neck in photos.

Jenae and the modern art

Sculptors must at some point while making art realize that their work is just going to be used as a means of creating funny pictures for tourists.

The result of running out of poses.

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?