Merry Christmas!

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to everyone!

Holiday Photo Card 2011

Just ordered our 2011 Holiday Photo Cards!

Picture Tree Christmas

Shop Shutterfly for beautiful photo Christmas cards.

View the entire collection of cards.

Christmas Lights Extravaganza!

My Christmas lights are up and running. I only had a few dud strands, but had extras on-hand so I made quick work of putting them all up. I even did the indoor decorations including getting the tree up.  We'll be decorating it this weekend.  For me, the holidays have officially begun!The Christmas casa:

If you look closely, you will see a giant elf and his little fluffy Daxy doodle bear:

My little penguin and reindeer:

The entryway ( I need to fix the little saggy part):

I LOVE Christmas!

Relieved and Relaxed

I had a seriously long and stressful weekend.

On Thursday night Dax started vomiting. It continued Friday and he had diarrhea, so I took him to the vet. I worked in a vet clinic for about a year, so I was super worried as these were all signs that he ingested something that was not digesting. They wanted to wait on X-rays because they thought it could still be a bug. So we monitored him all day Saturday. He vomited two more times, but was acting fine. However he wasn't pooping. I was so worried he had an obstruction in his intestines! I have seen quite a few of those surgeries, and the odds are not exactly stellar for success if they have to remove something from the intestines.

Anyway, on Sunday he vomited up a piece of fabric, and I had to take him to the Emergency Vet Clinic.

On the way I had an almost full-on panic attack. I was shaking uncontrollably, started to lose feeling in my hands, and was borderline hyperventilating. I was so scared and worried about my little baby boy!

X-rays revealed an empty stomach, and lots of poop in the colon. He even went out back with a tech and pooped! HE WAS ALRIGHT!!!! They think the fabric was irritating the stomach and that caused the issue.

I was so happy and relieved. I thanked God, St. Francis, and my Dad for looking down on my Daxy Doodle Pie and making sure he was okay.

So this was last night. We were all tired out from the weekend's events:

My little monkies:

The lab is Barkley..we're dogsitting for my in-laws

All watching TV...happy as clams in the sea:

Halloween at the Kirchdoerfer State Correctional Facility

Welcome to the Kirchdoerfer State Correctional Facility.
We house some of the most hardened career criminals the world has ever seen.

Prison Guard M.Kirchdoerfer

Prison Guard Barkley

Inmate #DAX01234
CRIME: Cuteness in the 1st Degree
AND
Flip Flop Murder in the 1st Degree

Inmate #MANGO12345
CRIME: Cuteness in the 1st Degree
AND
Postman Frightening in the 2nd Degree

FINALLY LOCKED UP!

I think if you scroll quickly enough you can achieve a flip book effect to see my efforts in trying to get three costumed puppies to sit still!

And here is where everyone had had enough of Mama's silly picture taking:

Keep Calm and Kick On

On Monday night, after months of preparing, hard work, conditioning and endless hours in the dojo...

I got my Red Brown Belt!

 

I was so nervous for this test.  I had been preparing and practicing countless hours weeks before the testing date, but one week before the test I had the worst run of bad luck!  

I had to miss about a week of class because of our foundation issues, and then I got sick.  I was so worried about my conditioning.  I started feeling better on Sunday, so I spent the whole day just working on my kicks, and my katas.

I lost points due to some of my stances in my katas not being deep enough.  I even felt it during my katas, but it was complete fatique due to me missing a week of workouts before the test.  

Next time I'll be taking my Vitamin C before the test so I can make my stances the lowest they have ever been!

Now I only have Brown and Red Black before my Black Belt!

I'm already nervous for those tests!

I guess I just have to keep telling myself:

Have a Happy Thursday everyone!

Kitchen Project Update

So as many of you might know, I had been working tirelessly on my Kitchen Makeover.

I painted the cabinets white:

I painted the countertops to look like granite:

Then I added Beadboard Wallpaper as the backsplash:

I then began removing the ugliest border in kitchen history.

So where am I in the process?

Why did I stop posting about it?

Why did it come to a screeching halt?

Well, here is the story:

We started having foundation issues that were causing cracks all over the house, and were causing almost all of our first floor doors to not close properly.

I had to put a halt to my border project as I needed to wait for the house to settle to being fixing the cracks, and then painting over the newly clean border area.  They had to put piers in on the other side of our house, then they caused a huge sewer leak, which then led to two giant holes in our hardwood kitchen floor.

The holes are now filled in with cement but we cannot repair the floor in that spot.  Looks like I'll be doing a post on how to craftily cover up giant cement areas of your kitchen floor!

So right now there is a hold on my kitchen. This has been breaking my heart. And I have been feeling so helpless as I don't have control over the house shifting. It is unsettling to say the least. I love our house, but these issues are causing me so much stress!  It has cost us a fortune, and a fortune is something we don't have...and who knows if the house is going to settle now.

Alas, I shall resume hopefully within the next few weeks as long as no new cracks show up.