They like me, they really like me!

To our other friends who read this blog-THANK YOU! I love that you care. :) AND that you let me know I was mistaken in thinking I only have 2 faithful readers. Lets face it- I AM pretty witty and interesting. HA!

~KC

Killing time

So I am currently sitting here in the Burlington, VT airport waiting for a colleague to arrive whose flight is late and I have nothing I particularly want to do on my computer, so I figured I'd update the blog. You know, for those two faithful readers out there (Hi Dad, Hi Kristin).

This past week Charlie has started a new rotation (job) at the 5 sided building in our area (think, think- what building does she MEAN!?!), much against his wishes. He is still employed by the government but his "leadership" at his original agency thought this rotation (it lasts for a year) would be good for his career development. To but it mildly, he does not feel it is helpful to his career at all. The duties of the rotation are not very mentally stimulating and are nothing like what he has been doing for the past 4 years, which he had loved.

In my opinion, the thing that stinks the most about the whole shebang is the schedule. We are three days into it and I can say that I'm not a huge fan. The schedule changes weekly, on a 5 week cycle. The first week (this week) Charlie works "days". Days is apparently code for "incredibly early in the morning". He has to be there at 5am but gets off at 1pm. So this week he's been getting up at 3am. Ugh. It is nice to have him home when I come home but I feel like I have a kindergartner as I say goodnight to him at 7pm. :)

Oh well, next week the schedule will be "swings" which means 1pm till 9pm. Hopefully not as bad- no waking up at an ungodly hour. After that are overnights or "mids". (I have now been indoctrinated with the shift work lingo). This entails a 9pm to 5am deal for the work week and then (wait there's more!) working overnight for 12 hours on Saturday and Sunday. The next week, Charlie has "admin" hours which means he can do in whenever so he reaches his 40 hours a week. Next up, another weekend to work this time during the day for 12 hours. Another admin week and then the whole thing starts all over again. I know, I can't follow it either. I still have to consult my "cheat sheet" that Charlie gave me with his schedule on it for the next year. We are trusting that God has plan in sending Charlie on this rotation and the he will be blessed somehow through the experience.

There are a few blessings hidden in this experience...Charlie is compensated with a shift differential pay when he is scheduled to work hours outside the normal 7am-6pm realm. so there will be a little more in his paycheck most weeks. Paisley does seem to mind this deal either as she is not home alone as long now.

Well, that's all for now, my colleague's flight is about to arrive. Signing off from Vermont! And just cause she's so awesome- ( and I have no other relevant pictures to post) here are a couple shots of Paisley playing in the snow last month.

~KC

(Almost) Spring Day

This past weekend was absolutely gorgeous and spring-like in the DC area. So we decided to "celebrate" and enjoy it outside. The day began with Paisley's first "sunning" of the season. She loves the outside and when the weather is nice she will lay out on the deck and sun herself as long as we let her. She even does it in the middle of the summer when its absolutely sweltering.

After breakfast we decided to try and find a swimming spot for Paisley that one of our neighbors told us about at a local park. Many of the parks in the area have rangers that will issue tickets to dog owners who are found with their dogs off their leads. (grr...). But our neighbors told us about this spot and said they have never had a problem. So we found it and Paisley had a blast. She loves to swim and got nice and tired.

Also over the weekend, some bulbs I had planted in the fall began to sprout and my crocuses bloomed! This gives me great satisfaction as Charlie has deemed me as having a "black" thumb. This is not true, I am just busy and don't always have time to water potted plants. So they die. However, plants in the ground are a little more my speed as they seem to require less maintenance. I choose the flowers I planted mainly because of my Mom as most of what I planted are what she planted in our garden when I was a child and they remind me of spring and home. I planted daffodils, tulips, crocuses and something else I thought looked pretty on the packet but can't remember what it was. Silly me.

And just because we love our dog this much, here is a video of Paisley swimming:

~KC

In the "Twilight" Zone....

The beginning of this week I was in La Push and Forks, Washington. Now if you’ve read the Twilight books you might be freaking out right now. If you haven’t read the books you’re probably thinking “who cares Katie? Just show me some pictures”. Sorry non-readers, I have some describing to do. So, I was in Washington for work, to visit the Quileute Tribe in La Push to work with them on policies and procedures for transporting TANF clients. The Quileute tribe is the tribe featured in the books and Forks is where the majority of the books take place (its about 15 minutes from La Push and it’s the closest town).

La Push is a reservation right on the water. The beaches and surrounding islands are beautiful. The reservation is very small (one mile square) and many of the people who live on it don’t have tons of money. I stayed in the “resort” on the reservation which was really nice (a pleasant surprise) aside from the fact that there was no phone, tv or cell reception.

Forks is a small town that has about a 1.5 mile strip of businesses along the main road. It rains ALL the time. I think I saw the sun for about 1 hour (as it set one day- see pictures) in the 48 hours I was there. The town has Twilight stuff everywhere. The hotels advertise things like “Twilight Room specials” and “Edward Cullen didn’t sleep here”. Every restaurant has some kind of special such as “Ed Bread” (garlic bread) “Bella Berry Pie” and “Swan Salad”. I’m not making this stuff up. It was a little creepy how much the town played up the books. Although I do understand why as there isn’t much else there that people would come to see. Someone asked me if I was on vacation while I was there. Umm, sorry no. No offense to Forks but it would be at the bottom of my list of places to visit on vacation regardless of how much I enjoyed the books.

As much as I disliked the rain and “creepy” feel to all the Twilight stuff- I readily took many pictures of things that were mentioned in the book and found myself thinking “oh this is where Bella does….”. I hate looking like a tourist, even when I am one so I was trying to be all discreet about it. Most pictures were taken from the anonymity of my rental car although I was asked by my supervisor to bring back some Twilight souvenirs for her. I agreed but it took me the whole trip to work through my embarrassment and go into the “Dazzled by Twilight” store (one of many stores advertising Twilight merchandise). They had a section at the grocery store but that was too “out in the open” for me. I don’t know why I’m so embarrassed- none of these people know me or will ever see me again. Oh well.

I did solidify my status as an “out of towner” the first morning in Forks. Throughout the area there are these Espresso barns for lack of a better term. They are basically like individually owned Starbucks and they look like the type of sheds someone would put in their backyard but with a window and usually located in an empty parking lot. So I decide I need some good coffee and drive to one, park, walk up to the window. The girl in it smiles real big at me and I think “I love small towns, everyone is so nice”. I get my coffee, go back to the car and drive away. Later that day, we come to town for lunch with our contact at the tribe, who after lunch asks if we’d like to stop for coffee. You know me, I was all for some coffee. So she heads to an Espresso. And drives right up to the window. I say “what are you doing? Oh, these are Drive THRUS?!” She tells me that yes they are. To which I relay my experience that morning and my thought about the girl smiling at me. Duh. Well, we don’t have drive thru espresso barns in the East. So there’s your tip of the day- if you’re in the Pacific Northwest and see a barn with the word “Espresso” on it, drive up to it.

After leaving Forks, I drove back to Seattle on Tuesday and on the way the GPS took me to a ferry. After a couple phone calls to Charlie and debating about how to take a ferry, I took it. Best idea ever. I got there so early for the ferry that I was the first car on and got a GOREGOUS view of the Seattle skyline at night from the seat of my rental car.

It was so cool, if I’m ever driving around Seattle again, I’m totally doing it! That night I stayed in a hotel recommended to me by a colleague. It was awesome! The room was so chic and they were “pet friendly” so an adorable “Lily the lobby dog” greeted me when I arrived. The hotel was called the Alexis and its part of the Kimpton chain of hotels. I highly recommend this chain- if you ever have a chance to stay in one-they’re wonderful! The trip was interesting and I had a bunch of great experiences (for free-thank you work!) but I was sooo ready to come home on Wednesday night. Charlie met me at the airport with flowers and Cold Stone ice cream. Sigh- I have the best husband! And an awesome pups who gave me lots of licks when I got to the car. More pictures of the trip below:

A shot of the beach in La Push

"Bella's" truck at the Forks Chamber of Commerce

The welcome sign to Forks. See the ramp on the left? They built that just for Twilight visitors to take their pictures by the sign.

This is James Island in La Push. Quileute history says that the tribe originally lived on this island before settling on the mainland.

Another shot of James Island at sunset.

Paisley sporting her new bandana from Seattle which says "Best freaking dog in the whole world". We think its true.

Paisley's other gift from Seattle- a peanut butter treat from 3 dogs Bakery

Charlie and Paisley with their treats. Charlie's gift was Dark Chocolate Chipotle Covered Cherries from Pike Place Market.

~KC

Family Trip to North Carolina

The weekend of February 7th and 8th we took a trip down to Boone, NC to see Charlie's side of the family. It also happened to be our nephew, Tyler's 12th birthday so we got to celebrate with everyone! We left on Saturday morning and arrived in the early evening. Our Aunt Honey and Uncle Jack let us stay with Paisley in a trailor they usually rent but was currently vacant on their land. It was so great to be able to bring Paisley and introduce her to everyone. She had a BLAST- I don't think we used a leash all weekend. She's definitely a country girl at heart-like her Mom.

We visited with Honey's family on Saturday night then on Sunday we stopped in to see Grandma. Grandma was very impressed with Paisley and even let her in the house! After visiting with Grandma we headed over to Tyler's birthday party and had some awesome cake made by Barry and Sharon (Aunt Julia's icing recipe- brought back memories of our wedding cake!). After the party we went over to Barry and Sharons and ran around outside, the weather was beautiful...a little taste of spring. Then the 6 of us went to Bandana's BBQ in Boone for Tyler's birthday. Man, was that food good! The highilght of the meal for me was the fried pickles- great suggestion Barry! Our neice Sabrina loved Paisley (I think the feeling was mutual) and rode around with us all day so she could sit in the back of the truck and love on Pais. :)

We had to leave on Monday and after having breakfast at Grandma's with Sharon, we were off. But not after Paisley got a very muddy run in Grandma's back creek. That was one smelly wet dog! We had a great time and wish we lived a bit closer!

Pais and I in the truck on drive down...it was a long drive- we got bored!

Tyler's Birthday cake

The birthday boy...hard to get a "serious" picture with this jokester!
Barry and his best friend...the kids have very close birthdays (not the same year- obviously!)Charlie over at Barry and Sharon's

Sabrina and Paisley enjoying each other's company

Muddy dog after running around at Grandma's

More muddy dog

Civilized dog eats with a spoon. :)
We stopped at Sonic on the way home and they gave dogs "free ice cream". See the small cup on the table- that was full of vanilla ice cream. Needless to say we helped Paisley with her treat.

~KC