A Cake-Worthy Event

And just what is a cake worthy event around the Walker household??

10 Years of service in the (Maine/Washington) Army National Guard! It probably feels pretty good to be halfway to retirement at 27.

My cake skills were a little rusty - so I kept the thing simple... It's a carrot cake with pecan coconut filling and butter cream frosting - yum!

And in the gift bag... a certificate to the Museum of Flight - he's been dying to go since he moved out here.

"This nation will remain the land of the free only so long as it is the home of the brave" Elmer Davis

Thanks for everything Chris! I love my Soldier!

Sigh of Relief...

One of the biggies on our "to-do" list was tile the kitchen backsplash.... Easier said then done. Much easier.

Friday night was planning night. We schemed, plotted and planned this thing to death. Once you start tiling, there is no going back. We purchased the remaining supplies (tile was already in the garage) and headed home to start the next morning.

Before Photos -

 Saturday was absolutely sunny and beautiful so we avoided the elephant in the kitchen and went for a hike with our friends and their puppy. It was good to get some energy out of Bear before starting the project anyways.

We took the "easy" way out for the backsplash tiling. There is this new stuff you can buy, instead of using mortar you put tacky paper up on the wall to hold the tile in place. (Approaching the point of no return) Much more expensive, much, much, MUCH smaller mess. Worth it for the sanity. Once we got the tacky paper up we cut and placed the tiles. (At the point of no return) It was hard to work under the cabinets, keep straight tile lines and NOT hit our heads. Note to self - backsplashes are way harder then showers.

Tacky Paper -

Tile -

Sunday morning was grout time! Both of us kind of got cold feet and a little nervous. Luckily one of the guys in Chris' unit is a professional contractor. We considered it our "phone a friend" option. There was a little tension because at this point we were well beyond the point of no return. No matter what happened, for better or worse, we were going to have a tiled backsplash....

Chris grouted, I sponged and hand cleaned each little glass tile (in retrospect - do not use sanded grout on glass tile - duh). We worked HARD for about 3 1/2 hours, once you start there is no stopping. I didn't get too many photos of this process because it is messy!

Grouting -

Once we finished we stepped back and - SIGH OF RELIEF - it looks amazing!!
(It was hard to get good pictures - the lighting is the best in the kitchen)

A few details remain (caulking, new window sill and water proofing) but... close enough to enjoy the fruits of our labor :) This was by far the hardest project we've done yet. But we took the leap and it looks great. It wiped us both out for the rest of the evening and dinner was served out of the pizza box on the coffee table.

Alright - check this off our home improvement list! Next up... master bath.

Birthday Recap

This post won't be nearly as exciting as Jenna's but here it is...

On Saturday I celebrated my birthday with the family. It started with a DELICIOUS lunch made by the Mother. She knows how much I love Aussie pies (discovered on our honeymoon) so she whipped some up for my birthday lunch. I don't know the entire process, but it looked hard and the results were amazing.

mmm... pies in the oven

Bear dog and Mom curled up for a nap (don't know why it didn't rotate)

After lunch we trooped up to Grama and Grampas to enjoy cake and ice cream (the cake really should've been for Payton - it was her birthday after all).

 Then off to the hockey game! We had great seats (thanks G&G) for an exciting game that went into overtime - THEN a shootout. Unfortunately, the outcome wasn't in our favor. I think all enjoyed themselves anyways.

Chris took the day off on Tuesday to celebrate my real birthday. We kept it relatively low key with a trip to Bellingham (my favorite place). On our way up we got off the freeway in Mount Vernon and took the long way to Bellingham up Chuckanut Drive. If you're ever looking for a road trip I vote this the best highway in Washington. It cuts through farm land to hugs the water and the Chuckanut Mountains (hills?). On the way we noticed a sign for the Chuckanut Alpaca Farm gift shop. Why not stop? When we pulled in they appeared closed, but wife came out of her house and met us at the car. She opened up the shop for us real quick but apologized she had to run into town for an appointment. She said her husband was out in the fields if we wanted to go out and say hi. We went out into the field and met Walt. He talked to us about his 58 alpacas. Told us stories of hand raising one (feeding her exactly every 3 hours for six months),driving across the country to win blue ribbons, how the economy has hit farmers hard and how he got into alpaca farming. This man had some incredible stories. He came to the US from Austria as a profession skier. Taught skiing all over the country and participated in many world cups. He was an alternate for the Olympics (not this year - he's since retired) too! He said one day on a plane ride from Colorado he saw alpacas in a magazine and decided to start a farm. This man had never even owned a dog - talk about starting from the ground up! There's a lot to be learned from people if you take the time to talk.

Our next stop was Larrabee State Park. One of my favorites when I was living up there. A lot of studying was done out on the sunny rocks. The tide was out so we spent some time poking through the tidepools. I had a mission to pet a starfish - didn't find one though. I guess I'll have to save that for next time I go diving.

 
I got caught looking in the tide pools

We went up to Fairhaven and walked through the shops before having a tasty lunch at Boundary Bay Brewery (another Bellingham favorite) No trip to Bellingham is complete without a stop at Mallards for some homemade ice cream! We leisurely made our way down to the ferry and returned home for dinner. What a great 26th birthday!

Green Mountain

This weekend we felt he just HAD to take advantage of the beautiful February weather. We had one of those early spring, 60 degree days. The kind where everyone in Western Washington rushes out to the nearest park to enjoy the sunshine.

We met up with some friends in Poulsbo and drove about 30 minutes towards Seabeck to Green Mountain. A 5 mile hike with a perfect view of the Olympics, Cascades (Baker and Rainier included), Seattle, Everett.... the list goes on. There was a lot of climbing, the the view was worth it.

Seattle on the right.

View of the Olympics on the way down.

Bear Dawg!

Family portrait (Bear's striking a pose).

We used to always bring Bear's little collapsible water bowl. Then we figured out that Bear wouldn't drink from the bowl, instead he'd rather drink from the bottle as it pours into the bowl... so now he just get's his own bottle (no bowl). Notice the tongue, INSIDE the bottle - EW. Note: no more drinking out of the pink bottle for the rest of the hike.

Bear spent most of his time herding Lucy (our friend's 4 month puppy) and us up and down the trail.

Loaded up and heading home, muddy dog in the back. THIS is why we got a SUV.

Big Girl (& Boy) Bedroom!

So I gave a quick sneak peak of the bedroom earlier this week. Yesterday I finished putting the final touches on the paint and Chris helped move the furniture back.

Bear in mind there area few things left to do (Install white doors, new bed pillows, pictures over the bed) Here it is!

 

  

Detail of the molding/wainscotting.

 

Of course - all this happened way to smoothly. So, the LAST wainscotting seam I was painting, Bear sneaks into the room and lays down, leaning up against wainscotting panel... Notice the white strip on his hip. There's also some white on his face...

So there it is. A weeks worth of work and a couple hundred bucks and you have a total room makeover! Aside from the new room over the garage (completely unfinished now) and the bonus room (still no idea what to do with it) the bedroom was one of the last major projects to tackle. Next up - master bathroom (a repeat of the downstairs bathroom, we're not overly excited to get started with that again).
Have a terrific weekend : )

Sneak Peak!

We spent last weekend making over the master bedroom. It's not done yet, but I'll give you a sneak peak.

Before we moved in Chris and Mom painted the bedroom. Just to put the record straight, I loved that they painted it for me, but I have HATED the color since it went on the walls (and yes, I picked it out). Every time I go in that room I have to announce how much I hate the color. SO, last week (with my now abundant free time) I painted the bedroom a nice peaceful tan-sih, grey-ish, green-ish color.

Paint going on the walls after my demolition molding-removing rampage:

Painting the new moldings! We framed the closets in this time -

 

Here's a finished section with the new wainscotting panels up!

  

The rest of the room should be finished in a few days, so stay tuned! And then... on to the master bath to finish the suite.

I broke my own rule this year. I've been a die-hard no valentines celebrator (mom raised me right!). There's really no need to celebrate it now that I'm treated like royalty year-round. BUT, who can resist a heart shaped take and bake pizza. WITH RED DOUGH! It was almost too much to handle. And considering we both had a killer cold there was no way I was actually going to cook a real meal. Our Valentines Day was spent with heart shaped pizza, watching the Olympics, splitting a box of kleenex and fighting over the last of the cold medicine. Not bad for newlyweds : )

 

Stay tuned for finished photos!

Catching Up

Oh man... I'm a little behind....

Last I left off we had just finished the bathroom remodel in anticipation of our guests.

The Walkers spent a wonderful 10 days with us. Maybe I should say action packed 10 days. I had to work most of the time, but Chris gave them the grand Washington State tour. Boeing, wineries, shopping in Seattle, Pike Place, Port Townsend, Long Beach and a duck boat tour of Seattle. Even us locals learned lots of neat trivia.

The gang in Long Beach

 

One side of the duck boat

  

The other side of the duck boat

Duck Tour!

Mom and I should not be left unattended...

The following weekend was Jenna's baby shower. That will be one spoiled baby girl! It was a lot of fun to get together with the family and experience all the excitement.

Sea-star!

Mom's stained glass with Jenna's cake. I couldn't get the stupid photo to rotate.

 

How can someone be so cute when pregnant? I can only hope!

Let's see, that's about all the catching up. Why am I blogging on a week day when I'm suppose to be at work you might ask?? Well... last week my job fell victim to the economy and I was laid off. BUT - truth be told, I've been incredibly unhappy there and have been doing a little job searching myself.. I had an interview the day before I got laid off - talk about emotional roller coaster! (hopefully I should hear either way by the end of the month). Actually, since I've left I've been much happier. Funny how things work. Chris and I did our budget and we are more then fine. I secretly thinks he likes having  full time housewife (and Bear enjoys midday walks!) So, cross your fingers the interview went well but don't worry about us : )