Driftwood House Numbers

Skott found an amazing piece of driftwood on the beach and being the creative person he is, decided "Hey, this would make a great thing for house numbers!" (How he visualizes these things, I will never know, but I love it.)

Here is the finished product:

Yes, yes, I know the fence desperately needs a fresh coat of paint :)
and I think the sign will stand out even better when I get some flowering vines growing along the fence behind it.

Skott spent a lot of time burning the numbers into the wood.  Here is a closer view of the details:

swirls on the swirls

lined texturing on the numbers

I love it!  And I'm very proud of him!

My Mothers Day

I had a bit of a "rant" status on Facebook on Mothers Day.  It is a difficult day for me to have patience with people.  Miraculously, I survived the night and only had to really bite my tongue once :)  Thanks to all for your nice words and comments on my status, it means a lot.

The day was gorgeous so Skott loaded up the dogs in their "stroller", made a thermos of coffee, and we headed down to the beach.  Luckily, we are about a 10 minute walk from the beach so it is nice and convenient.  It was a little windy, but we found some comfy logs in a somewhat sheltered cove-ish area.

Unfortunately, Izzy was't feeling well AT ALL.  Still trying to regulate her meds so she was running waaayyy low on cortisol that day.  Poor little girl just napped the entire time.

We sat and drank coffee and watched the waves roll in.  It was a wonderful morning!

I love this guy!  Thanks for making my day special!

And also, a shout out "Happy Mothes Day" to my wonderful Mom who is the most kind, loving person I know.  Sooo happy I got to see you and hang out with you.  Love you Mommy

Rachel & Bobby's wedding

Thanks to my wonderful husband for his sacrifice!  He stayed home and held the fort down while I went to Idaho for my sister's wedding.
I enjoyed my time with my family so much! Lots and lots of laughter, relaxing, and more laughter.
I spent a couple days with Josie.

Josie with her giant cat, Gus

I tagged along while Josie and Rach got pedicures:

Josie cooked me dinner

We had a small party for Rachel.  I'm afraid to post too many pictures here, but it was a good time!

Mantle decor

Heidi decorating the snack table

and you can just use your imagination for the cake, the straws, the confetti, and the wonderful costumes we all wore :)

The day before the wedding was busy with last minute errands and spending lots of time in the salon.  I had also forgotten how long it takes to drive anywhere in Boise :(   uggggh!  I don't miss the big city life at all

a very calm and beautiful bride to be

Mom's suprise manicure

Poor Seth.  The youngest brother to 7 sisters doesn't really stand a chance.  Here he is after dashing out to the car during a torrential rain storm to fetch someones purse.  What a good sport! (not that he had a choice in the matter... haha)

"Sllllaaaaavvvee!"

I got to ride to the wedding with Heidi and Ayla.  That Ayla is such a hambone! Thankfully, she rides really well in the car.

She caught me taking a picture.  This is her reaching for my phone
saying "See pictwure? See pictwure?"

It was incredibly windy at the wedding site!  We got there plenty early so we let Ayla stretch her legs and run around.

It was a beautiful ceremony!  It was wonderful to see so many family and friends that I haven't seen in far too long!

The reception was held in downtown Twin Falls.  I loved the music Alyssa had playing!  The food was good and of course, the cake was amazing :)
I didn't get too many pictures of the reception. I was too busy making drinks and visiting and rounding people up for pictures....

Josie, Ayla, and Seth

It was very hard to say good bye!  I'm so grateful for my wonderful family and happy that I had the chance to attend the wedding.

Holy agate!

I apologize, the blog has been on the back burner since nice weather hit... I hope to get caught up tomorrow.

I wanted to share the agate Skott found a couple days ago.
The tide was insanely low and we explored an area we had never been to before.  I heard him make this really funny noise and when I looked up, he was headed toward me with something very yellowy-orange in his hand.  I thought it was some piece of a sea sponge or something until he got closer:

For comparison sake, here is a photo where the agate on the left was the biggest we had found, so you understand our excitement:

Ready for Spring

I dare hope that spring is finally here!?
The tree in our backyard is telling me "maybe"...

Ready for sunshine and walks on the beach wearing nothing but a t-shirt, shorts, and my trusty Keens.

Easter breakfast

Skott suprised me with an Easter breakfast:

Fresh, homemade english muffins (egg-shaped) with homemade whipped cream in various flavors such as grape, raspberry, almond, and orange.

Love Affair: Where there's a will, there's a way

About a month ago, we stumbled upon this at the bay:

It is a gigantic piece of burl driftwood which, as you can see, someone had already done some sawing on.

We fell in love

but alas, there was no way to haul such a giant piece of wood home (we couldn't even budge it) and we didn't own a chainsaw.

We visited our lovely piece of wood a couple times after that, each time, dreaming of what we could make with it...

Where there's a will, there's a way.

After about three weeks, we tried to move the big chunk again.  It had dried out enough that we were able to lift it together.  WooHoo! (and by "lift", I mean like getting it two inches off the ground).



But we still didn't know how to get it home :(

Flash forward a couple weeks:  We had a plan!

There is a small trail that runs along the edge of the bay.  We thought that if we could get the wood up onto a dolly, that we could drag it through the sand and to the car via the trail.  We told ourselves that if the chunk was still there on Friday, that we were going to give it a shot!  (I am really suprised no one had snatched it up in the meantime).

We were low-riding all the way home :)

But we made it!

The chunk is safely drying in our garage now.  Check back in a year or so to see what becomes of it!

Oh, and we also tried getting some more slices off the main trunk.  Mom, remember that big saw you gave me from Hat Creek?  -it came in handy that day!

Overall, it was a pretty eventful week!
Besides getting the wood, we got the garage organized from the move.  It feels good to have everything in its place.
We were also finally able to pick up my car after it being in the shop for the last 3 weeks.  Of course, there was body damage so we ended up paying the full deductible (instead of the glass only).  Good bye tax returns.
We finally found out what is wrong with Isabella.  -she has canine Cushings disease.  I'll admit, I am very irritated that it has taken this long to diagnose and it is still another two weeks (and another $400) until we can start treatment, as we have to wait for all the drugs to clear her system.  I will save this for another post, as I would like to share our experience over that last two months in hopes that we can help spare someone all the time and money, not to mention the frustration at seeing your dog completely deteriorate in such a short period of time and have no answers or solutions.