And that's all my phone has to say about that...

 

planted some grass seed in our back yard. it is amazing for the amount it rains out here how dry stuff can get. and how moss can choke out the existence of all things. also, how bird would rather peck at my grass seeds than eat from their feeder.

 

flash back to JoJo circa 2009. I think this was his favorite shirt.

the back says "chain saw brutality, tornado strength"

 Back in the day of hardcore bands, size small, skin tight shirts, long hair and skinny pants.

(good lord...) (and no, those weren't not his sunglasses, thank you Jesus.)

now its my shirt. strangely, it seems to fit pretty well.

 this both fascinates and disturbs me. so I wear it because it is laughable.

 

there isn't much that the kitty boy loves more than popcorn. it is second only to milk.

every night we munch some while we watch TV and Trink begs until we throw him some little kernelless pieces.if we aren't quick enough he tries to steal from us.

We throw it, and he catches them between his front paws.

 It is adorable. So we keep allowing it.

(we don't feed him people food...save for milk, popcorn and pretzels...)

 

what is this weird thing, you ask?

 a washing machine drum. purchased on craigslist for $25. Why? Because my cool welding husband is going to transform it into a super backyard fire pit. quite excited about that project! (note: its upside down in the picture)

 

there are few things more curious and suspicious than feet under the covers. cats are so silly.

 

you know those people on facebook who seem to constantly be getting free samples in the mail? I'm one of them now.

 

my mother in law just had kittens!!! 4 little itty bitty black ones! 

 well, her cat did...obviously. next time we are home visiting we are taking one (or two or all of them, according to JoJo) back home with us. Trink needs a baby sister. Just think, then you can all endure constant pictures of ALL our cats! Yup. We're crazy cat people. Deal with it.

 

Giant garlic clove. Next to an average sized mushroom. This intrigued me for unknown reasons.

 

this weekend we are attending a birthday party for our friend's fabulous baby girl. she is turning one. and i wanted to buy here every outfit in the store, but settled on this one as she like to play in dirt and garden.

 

my cat has an eyebrow nibbling fetish. it is weird. as you can tell, we own Mr. Kitty Personality, over here.

 

Pearls! Real ones!

 Anniversary gift from my love for me to be fancy and fabulous in Hawaii.

According to the anniversary chart thing, your 1st anniversary is paper and your 30th is pearls. I don't understand any of that stuff one bit, but lets just pretend JoJo is prophesying into our marriage with these. Besides...who wants paper?

Unless its plane tickets to Hawaii. Those were good too :P

 

most importantly, this week I finished school and began packing (and forming detailed lists of attractions, activities, stores and restaurants) for OAHU!!! We leave Tuesday. We never had an actual honeymoon, as he deployed shortly after our wedding, so this is our honeymoon and one year anniversary and first vacation all rolled into one. We are excited out of our minds over here. Don't worry, thousands of (quality, not phone) pictures to come!

Hiking Point Defiance

My husband had the day off on Friday so we took a nice long hike/walk in the beautiful Washingtonian woods. We had visited Point Defiance Zoon and Aquarium Park in the past, but on Friday we got to finally explore the gorgeous Point Defiance Park. 700 acres of water, wildlife and old growth forests (including huge sequoias!). They also have several beautiful gardens, as well as recreational fields and boat rentals in the marina (excited to go back and try those!). It was absolutely lovely. And I hauled my camera the entire way.

We started with a nice picnic lunch and then headed onto a trek through the woods...

 Apparently if you follow a specific trail you can hike the park in about 5 miles/2 hours. However, we only sort of followed the trail and made lots of our own, so overall we had something like a 7 mile hike which took us 4 hours. And it was glorious! I'm so very glad to have someone to explore miles of woods with me!

 

And that's all my phone has to say about that...

flash back to last Friday- make chocolate covered yumminess.

pretzels and peanut butter balls. high in both calories and deliciousness.

they were so yummy people who had said they weren't coming showed up upon being texted about the chocolate goodness.

 

the week started out terribly sunny.

Washington was actually like the warmest state in the USA at one point over the weekend. It was miraculous. 0% chance of rain- that just doesn't happen out here!

flowers picked on the hike mentioned in the previous post.

 

at first i thought I acquired poison ivy on the hike when I woke up with a rash on my arm the next day.

when within hours I was a completely rashy mess we began to think a food reaction was the culprit.
that and my husband suspected I was turning into a goose (...looked like I had goose bumps everywhere...). Yup.

 

 Next was a 101  fever.

long story short, I spent about 5 hours on Monday between the doctors, a blood lab and the army base pharmacy. i know I have a monosodium glutamate (MSG- a common food additive which acts as an excitotoxin and messes with my endocrine system) allergy and i accidentally ate some (its in the majority of packaged food). the dr. also did a panel of food allergy tests on me. waiting on results. i am now armed with epipens and after a bunch of steroids and Benadryl I'm doing much better. fun times.

 

we've started feeding birds in hopes of giving our indoor kitty something to entertain himself (and cause we like birds).so far, a couple of brave chickadees and a squirrel picking up what drops to the ground have been our only visitors.

 

trink thinks the squirrel is good fun. we call the squirrel Caliban

(also, like Trinkilo, a character from the Tempest).

Funny part is he didn't notice him at first and the squirrel stood frozen for a couple minutes before the cat whipped around and gave him full attention.

 

another really great cat hobby is running around underneath a shoe box. the goal being to keep it on top of you so you may stealth attack people's ankles.

 

gearing up for Hawaii in 10 days!!! so excited!

we will be staying at a military personnel resort right on Waikiki beach. Celebrating our one year anniversary during the trip. Unbelievable! Until then, we are watching every movie set in Hawaii- most importantly Lilo and Stitch. JoJo has 3 day weekend so let the amping up for the trip begin!



Weekend Walk on the Tacoma Nature Trail

This past weekend was gorgeous. Mid seventies up to eighties. 0% chance of rain (which is rare out here!). Finally, as the weather warms up we are getting a chance to enjoy Washington's beautiful outdoors. We have so much on our to do list of outdoor activities, but this week we started small.

Saturday we took a hike. Well...it was more of a walk. We had planned on a 5 mile hike deep in the woods, but it was my husband's turn to carry his shop's emergency duty phone which meant if he got a call he had an hour to get to it and being 5 miles in the woods wouldn't work. So, instead of our initially planned hiking location (coming soon!) we went to the Tacoma Nature Center.

It was nice to be out in the woods, even if it was only for an hour (about 2 miles). We looped around Snake Lake. I had read about it in a hiking book and was led to believe that it is a "moderate" trail on the ranking of difficulty...but...apparently we are a lot more hard core woodsy than we realized. Some parts of the trail were very pretty, but unfortunately the trail runs along the highway. It is hard to feel like you are enjoying the wilderness with car-noise in the back ground. Very little incline and overall un-treacherous trail. I guess it would be a fantastic place to go with little kids, but for two outdoorsy adults it was a little disappointing.

We did enjoy the weather. The sound of birds is always nice. We looked at the pond and admired the very tall trees. I picked a huge bunch of wild flowers. JoJo patiently stopped and waiting every time I made a stop to pluck some sort of fern. We talked. We saw a nasty giant ant mound (they are everywhere in Washington. It's scary). We followed a trail of ants. And on the way home, we stopped and had half-off Frappuccinos from Starbucks.

Overall, it was a lovely little Saturday date.

And that's all my phone has to say about that...

 Typical morning view:

"Good. I have woken you. Now feed me or I'll start purring incessantly and biting your eyebrows."

 

 some good stuff right there ^^

 

 First ever attempt at making scones. Strawberry with a strawberry and lemon glaze. They tasted like freckled lemonade from Red Robin!!

 

 We bought this cat bed when we first moved here in December. He refused to have anything to do with it until about March. Now he would rather sleep in this than anywhere else. Sometimes he picks it over sleeping with us!

 

 large rock by our front door.

 

 I've become an addict.

 

 Made a trip to the library on base yesterday; it made me happy.

 



 Being unemployed is pretty disheartening. However, reading books in your back yard and laying in the sun all afternoon is pretty darn fabulous.

 

 Everything a cat could want, all in one spot: a cozy bed, a sliding door to look out of, a shoe box full of mousies and jingly things, and a box fort.

 

 this made me laugh. JoJo and I attempted to feed some ducks stale crackers a few weeks ago down at the lake near our house. this sign appeared shortly there after. It is funny because the birds had never been offered crackers and had no idea what to do with them. out of probably 40 ducks we got 2 interested. And a squirrel.

 

 The weather has been weird. Monday it was barely 50. By Thursday it hit near 70.  I've been determined to enjoy the sun (cloudlessness) regardless. Coats and sunglasses combined.

 

 Little signs of life along my walks.

 

LOTS of signs of life in my garden!! I've got foot tall sugar peas, sprouting green beans and little baby spinaches, lettuces, cilantros, and basils. Parsley and Lavender hopefully making an appearance soon. Tomatoes next month! I'M A REAL FARMER!!!!