Other Things that Happen + Pictures

May has been super quick, it's hard to believe it's almost June! The weather certainly doesn't feel very summer-y, we have had thunderstorms, hail, and massive amounts of rain this past month. It's frustrating, because all we want to do is enjoy the windows being opened, the sun and warm weather, and not using the heat until the fall. As far as job hunting goes for me, it is still rough. I had some interviews that sounded promising, only to get our dreams crushed a few days later. Some days it's definitely hard to stay positive, but I keep trying and trying. Zak has been great at supporting me and motivating me to keep trying. Hopefully I'll get something soon and life will be a bit easier.

One morning Zak woke up very early, which in turn woke me up. We couldn't go back to bed, so I suggested we go for a walk. We didn't go as far as I would've liked, because it was actually quite chilly. But I took some pictures so you can see the trail we walk on. Also, there were some beautiful tulips and some cute bunnies along the way!

a river

down the hill from our place

Zak thought it was cute that I was ecstatic to see wild baby bunnies! They were so cute!!

pretty tulips

sorry it's blurry; you get the gist of it, though, right?

walking back from Safeway trail

One major complication that happened with me this week involved not only a job, but my nose and its ring. I had an interview at the Best Western last week about a busing/cashier job that sounded decent enough. Their policy is no piercings except for ears, and I figured, ok no problem. I had the second out of a possible three interviews a few days later and Zak suggested that since I knew the policy, I should show up without my nose ring in. I took it without any problems and went about my interview, and the following one I had at a daycare place. Zak talked me into getting a small hoop for my nose, with the idea that it would be easier to take out and put back in if I got the job at the hotel, and plus, he thought it'd be really cute for me. We got a decent one and came back home after all our errands.

Too bad the next several hours were awful. I can't remember exactly what happened, in the correct order, but there was a lot of blood and pain on my end. For starters, the hoop was a little bit thicker than my stud with the screw end. For second, the inside hole in my nose had more or less closed up. I had never taken out my ring just for fun, a few times it's been yanked out (OW), but I don't play with it because I'm nervous about it closing up. And putting in the screw end ring is difficult, because it feels different than it looks in the mirror and after 30 minutes of me getting frustrated and convincing myself to just let my holes close up permanently, Zak stepped in. He sterilized a safety pin so we could 're-pierce' the inside hole in my nose. We let that sit for a few hours and then we tried again. It appeared that I would not be the one to do it, so Zak bravely got the hoop through my nose.

yes, we only had GIANT safety pins...good times...

my poor, sad, little red nose :(

And then to my utter & total frustration, I didn't get the stupid job where I'd have to take out my nose ring. Thanks! So for now I have the hoop in my nose, and I clean it at least twice a day and try to move it around so it won't get super gross. It sure doesn't help to blow my nose with a sore nose, but that's life. I'm still not 100% sold on the hoop, but people tell me it's cute, so go figure.

Oh, I also cut some of our lovely tulips and brought them inside to cheer me up. I had always thought they were red, and they kind of are, when they're really open in the sunlight. But inside and closed up, they are pink, and that makes me even happier! Our pretty blue hyacinths are dead, but what can you do.

Other news includes how much we love the bread machine. It is so easy and I have found a great basic, white bread recipe for it. I need to try a few others to compare for wheat, or specialty breads, so if anyone has some good ones to contribute, please e-mail me! And we continually enjoy our hamsters and how cute they are. They hardly fight anymore, and we catch them doing cute things, like sleeping on top of each other in a random corner in their cage.

Vlad very much enjoyed being in Zak's pocket

hello!

...normal Zak

these guys LOVE the colored pellet pieces, he was chewing on this forever!

hehehehe they are sooo cute :)

Next weekend Zak has shows up in Spokane and Coeur d'Alene. I will most likely go with him, so that will be fun for us. His first round of the custom design shows didn't go well, which was really hard on him. :( No one showed up in Moscow or Lewiston, but at least that's better than people showing up and leaving without purchasing anything. He's trying to stay positive, but this is a test to prove that not only can he do it, but be the best at it. There are 3 computers and 4 people qualified to do this job, and he wants to be one who gets to keep the computer locally. I know he will do great at these next shows because they are bigger volume stores with clients that have more money. Moscow is more or less a college town, with humbler folk around here, and kind of the same story for Lewiston. Spokane and Coeur d'Alene have nicer stores, products and richer customers. Plus, the weekend after this round of shows, Zak will fly out to Oregon to do shows at the top stores in the company, so he will kick butt at that. It has been fun to watch him create and design things, even silly ideas I suggests, he'll make look nice. He has a good eye for design and I just want him to be successful, because he can definitely do this--it's not his fault customers haven't shown up. So it's just hard to prove himself without an opportunity. So think of Zak and wish him luck these next few weeks!

Another Garden Post

I have loved having a garden this year! We were able to take some time and make it look nice, as opposed to last year :-/. One day we were over in Pullman, so we ran into Walmart to get a few things, and ended up with a bunch of new plants. We got alyssum in white, light purple & dark purple; dark blue lobelia, a hot banana pepper and a sweet Walla Walla onion plant. We ran home and quickly planted them all before the clouds let loose their rain (it's been a battle these last few weeks between nice and horrible weather, it's been very frustrating). Zak did a lot more weeding, and now we are quite proud of our little garden! I am also very happy that the seeds I planted a month+ ago are starting to grow, there is all kinds of green in the boxes in the back yard. I forgot to take pictures, but I will once there is some more color and life out there.

front view, look how nice!

the hot banana pepper is in the bottom right quadrant, the onions got cut off, but they are to the right of the peppers; look at all the pretty colors!

some leftovers were planted amongst the tulips to add color, doesn't it look pretty?

view from the window (onions in bottom right)

Harry Ritchie's Jewelers Takes us out to Dinner

May marked Zak's one year anniversary with Harry Ritchie's Jewelers. To our happy surprise, he was told the company would pay for the two of us to go out to dinner to celebrate! He was also told he could choose between a gift certificate to a chain restaurant (which he turned down, since we basically only have fast food chains and...Applebee's, no thanks!) or be reimbursed $50 for dinner. So I got to work on researching some places to go, since there are a few places we haven't been to yet, and we wanted to go somewhere a little nicer than our usual spots. I ended up choosing the golf course club restaurant, and made reservations for us.

It was a beautiful night, the sky was clear and we had a lovely view of the rolling green hills, with the comfort of sitting inside. Our waitress was great and the food was amazing. We both had steaks and boy were they tasty! We also split a yummy flaky pastry dessert with cream and strawberries, mmmm. It was nice to go out and dress up for dinner, and to enjoy HRJ picking up the tab for us! Here are some pictures.

some cool clouds on our way to the restaurant

our view

tasty!

I got the filet mignon...and it was worth it!

the heavenly dessert

Glenda/Liv's Visit + Kyle/Amanda's Wedding [Reader be Warned: Several Pictures Await You]

Last week Zak's mom Glenda & 11 year old sister Liv came out West. Their purpose was Zak's cousin Kyle's wedding last weekend but were able to stay with us for a few days in our humble abode. It was a very nice visit and fun was had by all.

They arrived mid-afternoon on Wednesday, and after fooling around at the mall with me and Zak, came home to briefly rest up from their travels. We had Chinese sundaes and fruit and enjoyed talking for several hours. Glenda brought us some goodies from CT, including (but not limited to) this 'amazing' green monster clown shirt Zak bought years ago and wore during our initial dating period. Needless to say, I was so excited that it is back in his possession. We made an agreement, however: I won't wear sweatpants outside (an intense rule of his) and he won't wear that shirt in public (maybe one day I'll post the picture for you all to see and judge for yourselves).

some of his old pieces of clothing; that ski mask will sure come in handy...for scaring me, I'm sure

The next day we got up, ate some breakfast and made our way down to Lewiston. Glenda had found some points of interest and once we got the GPS loaded up, off we went. Some fun facts about Lewiston: it is the only seaport in Idaho (the Snake River is accessible to some sea-faring crafts), it is the lowest point in ID AND it has a huge, freaking hill. I heard it was a size-able hill, but dang! I was not expecting that! At one point it has a 7% grade or something? There are several run-away truck ramps as well. Zak and I had to quickly run down there the day before and I was super nervous, because it was very rainy and yucky, but it was beautiful when we went down with Glenda and Liv. I got some pictures, at least.

cows just hanging out

looking back at the hill off in the distance...

While in Lewiston, we went to the Lewis-Clark college art gallery, which was pretty neat. It had a high school art show, I think, so that was fun to see. We also wandered around in some fun shops along main street. We went into a few vintage/consignment type shops. For the wedding, we were instructed to dress up in 'old-fashioned' clothes, so we were trying to at least get a hat each for me and Zak. I did end up finding a pretty sweet floral one that was cheap, so why not? Liv also found a cute hat that would match her outfit.

we decided no on this one

The coolest store was this gem store that had a TON of stuff. It was so cute to watch Zak in the store, and talking about this and that and the other thing. Glenda had brought out this Eyewitness book of gems & stones that he had when he was little and it's funny how his interests and work have kind of come full-circle. The guy running the shop was really cool, he talked to us about all kinds of gems and mining. He and the other owner I think, run digs (for a fee), since the area is so plentiful in gems (opal, garnet), so we might end up doing that this summer if we can afford it! We picked out a piece of quartz, an aquamarine piece, some raw, small peridot (one of my favorites) and some lapis lazuli. The price? Under $10, sweet!

peridot, aquamarine, lapis lazuli, quartz, lapis

We had lunch at a very good Thai place, and once we were stuffed from lunch, made our way back home. Along the way we stopped at this barn in Uniontown, WA (about 14 miles SW from us, just off the highway down to Lewiston) with local folk art. It was actually really neat. Each artist had a little room with their work-stuff for sale, or what they were currently working on, and if they were available, would be able to talk to, etc. There were two full levels of different items-watercolors, pottery, quilts, clay models, photography and illustrations. It was cool that it was in this random little town, too. We briefly stopped at the local thrift stores to see if we could get something for Zak for the wedding (Lewiston was not prosperous for him in that department), and sure enough, found suspenders & a hat for him! Glenda also picked up a skirt that would go with her outfit. We just then came home and bummed around for awhile.

Liv playing with the zen garden

The next morning we got up around 6:30 and got all ready for the wedding (let's just say that I am not the best with hair, and throwing a hat into the mix got me quite frustrated really fast, but with Zak & Glenda's help, a major crisis was more or less averted). We left by 7:45, positive that the 3.5 hour drive would be fine and that we would arrive on time; we were requested to arrive by 11:30am for the 12pm wedding. Zak and I took Liv in our car and we met up with Glenda in Spokane to all carpool together with her.

all ready for the wedding!
the back of my rad hat
somewhere along the road

We drove up to Kettle Falls, WA (decently near the Canadian border, about an hour+ out north of Spokane), and it was a very scenic, pretty drive. But 3.5 hours on our butts was starting to disenchant us. We arrived at the tine historical center in Kettle Falls and met up with everyone. I was glad to see that we weren't the only ones who had dressed up! It was nice to see Zak's grandparents and cousins again. And some people we had never met or had no idea who they were started talking to us, just because. It was sure to be an interesting wedding.

entertaining ourselves
the ceremony wasn't held here, but the reception was
what was called a 'mission' (it just had...windows); I haughtily denied any such claims, they don't even know!
Zak is cute

And then the bride's mother arrived....2+ hours later. We tried to keep ourselves occupied, the little museum there had some displays about the frontier settles and Indians, and the woods in the area were nice. But I was in a dress and wasn't up for exploring. And then we got hungry, since we had eaten several hours previous. But once the mother got there, the ceremony followed. It was actually quite a lovely, short little ceremony, out in the woods. The bride, Amanda, had a pretty vintage gown and a wreath of wildflowers, and the groom, Kyle (Zak's cousin) had an old-fashioned three-piece suit and a matching hat. They looked very happy together.

so Zak & his cousin went down to explore while we waited, only to have the ceremony start pretty soon; I called for them, hoping they wouldn't miss it, and the whole time I was worried that they were going to come up the same way they went down (right behind where the bride & groom were), but they had come up a back path and didn't miss a thing
exchanging rings
cutting the cake, mmm
Liv caught the bouquet, and then took a goofy picture...it must run in the family!

The reception following was nice, even with the slight threat of rain that eventually went away. But the real adventure was visiting their property, a few miles away. Kyle bought 20 acres about a year and a half ago and is essentially THE wilderness/frontier man. He lives on the land and does everything by hand. Zak and I drove up the (VERY) bumpy, windy road with a neighbor in a truck (thank heavens for that!), so we got a lot of information about the neighbors, land, etc. It's a very beautiful piece of land, near the Columbia River, and I was simply fascinated by what they've done with it. Well, for starter, Kyle built by hand their more winter residence, the 'mud hut', and it took him about 3 - 4 months. I was very impressed with it; it was very well constructed, the logs were uniform and it was well insulated. It was about 10 degrees cooler inside than it was outside! Their 'summer' residence is in a tent a ways off, and I guess he wants to start working on a more permanent place of residence (a log cabin, perhaps?) soon, so it'll be ready for the fall. They have some gardens, and an orchard and lots and lots of land. It was definitely an experience! And I'll give them full credit for living the way the want, but I was never more happier to sleep in my bed than I was that night!!

driving to their place, I was so glad we were in a truck!
the 'mud hut'
a close-up for all of you curious readers
inside
inside again
you can see their tent + tarp on the right
one of their gardens

little cousin Savannah was very interested in the baby chicks, she was waving and laughing at them
cousin picture [Brianna, Liv, Zak, Kyle & Brian (brothers)]
crossing the Columbia River

After that adventure, we loaded back up in the car (I forgot to mention, we all changed into jeans after the reception, so we weren't all hiking around their property in dresses, etc.) and headed back to Spokane. We said good-bye to Glenda & Liv, who then headed off to her parents' place a few hours away. Zak and I noticed a Cost Plus World Market (our favorite store, for future reference!) and enjoyed wandering about in there. And buying a few treats, too. We arrived back home around 10 and were supremely happy and thankful for our heat, running water, and comfy bed!