February 2015

Wow, what a month. February has come and gone and we've headed into March already. I know it's a short month, but it really did fly by. The biggest thing was the loss of my sweet, smart, silly Baylee Girl. It seems that most everything this month centered around her health, her passing and our grief. But there were a couple other things that happened this month, joyful things, like Valentine's Day, and Mom's Birthday.  So here is our Auchmoody February 2015 (Days 32 through 59), in a nutshell:

1.  Super Bowl Sunday...Seahawks vs Patriots in Super Bowl 49. Unfortunately the Seahawks lost the game 28-24. But we had a good time over at mom's watching the game and stuffing our faces!
2. Leftovers from Super Bowl. Back over to Mom's for dinner tonight...Rob's beautifully stacked plate of nachos.
3.  Tonight's full moon captured on my way to Mom's to pick up the girls.
4.  A Baylee 'selfie' on our ride home, with her 'feets up' on the console in the car.
5.  Picked up each of the girls a Valentine's cookie tonight at the vet.
6.  Tom's badging ceremony was held today. He had Emily and Alyssa remove his BC's badge, while Trina pinned his new chief badge on him.
7.  Rob hogging the bed and the covers...and sleeping on his face...when I got home tonight.
8.  Finally decorated the house for Valentine's Day yesterday. Put out these three girls (all with heart themes or accessories) on a shelf...still love my Precious Moments.
9.  Baylee started throwing up today, she won't eat and can't keep water down.  She finally settled in and got comfy on her little bed for the night.
10. Our last night together, me and my girl. We slept together in the living room, me on the couch and her in her bed from Grammy's house.
11. One of the saddest days I've know...putting my sweet girl to rest today. Just like that, she's gone. After work I pulled up in Mom's driveway to find her flying her 'Baylee' flag...it's so heartbreaking.
12. Waking up this morning to an empty bed...poor Lucy...poor us.
13. With Rob working tomorrow we were going to celebrate Valentine's Day tonight. With the week we had, we 'agreed' (or so I thought) we would just order a pizza and have a cuddle and call it good. But when I got home, there were flowers, chocolates and a beautiful card waiting for me. He's a good Valentine!
14. Even though we celebrated last night, after church Rob said we needed to at least go out for a Valentine dinner. Thinking there wouldn't be a restaurant in town we could actually get into, he suggested our favorite Thai place.  It was great, we did get right in and had a lovely date night.
15. Today was Lu and my first day home together, just the two of us...and we were both pretty sad without our Baylee. She snuggled up next to me on the couch, chin on my knee.  Thank goodness for little Lu.
16. President's Day...a day off for me. I headed out pretty late to the grocery store to do our weekly shopping, and came home with a rare treat...Henry Weinhard's soda...Orange Cream...Yum!
17. We received a mug bouquet of little roses today from Dr. Chuck and his staff in sympathy for our loss of Baylee. We also got a card from Craig and Wendy...people are so thoughtful.
18. Ash Wednesday today. On Busted Halo they have a 'picture a day' prompt for Lent, and today's was #showusyourash. So I took a pick of my ashy smudge...although I did not post mine anywhere!!
19. I picked up dinner for us tonight at Graze - a Latronka for Rob and a Bahn Mi for, well...Me! This is really one of my favorite places, and I miss our office being close to it.
20. I was having a little cuddle with Lu tonight and she fell asleep on my shoulder. Sweet snoring girl.
21. Today was Mom's birthday, and also Ladies Who Lunch. We all gathered at Frost Me Sweet and Billie gave each of us one of these little jars of honey. She had purchased a bunch, and ended up making it into a craft project to give to each of us.
22. We finished celebrating Mom's birthday today. I made up some cherry chip cupcakes with cherry almond cream cheese frosting.  Then I headed over to her house and made a big pot of potato soup and some cheesy bread for dinner. She opened a couple more presents...and Lucy helped!
23. It's that delicious Auchmoody dinner again. Steak, baked potatoes and spinach. It was so yummy, the only thing that could have made it better was if the steaks had been grilled on a BBQ.
24. Silly Lu, back in her clothes pile again...where she starts almost every night.
25.  We were notified last night that we had a fraudulent charge on our checking account, so they immediately canceled my debit card. Here I am on my second trip into Gesa today, trying to straighten things out.
26. Rob picked up Baylee's ashes today. I was surprised to also see her blankie. I thought we would never see it again...now I just want to wrap myself in it. They also did a little clay imprint of her paw.
27. Another meatless Friday. This time I picked up Casa Mia. I've been craving their Pizza Sole for awhile now. I added a shrimp salad for each of us, and boy, did it really hit the spot!
28. I baked off the clay imprint of Baylee's paw today. I was surprised when I took it out of the packaging that they had stamped her name in it already.  More tears...really missing my girl.

January 2015

I'm doing things a little different this year. I was quite neglectful in keeping up on blogging and scrapbooking in 2014 (But I plan to keep plugging away at it...keep an eye out for 2014 backlog updates as we move through 2015!!).  But just like always, a new year brings a new start.  With the purchase of my new iPhone last fall, I am now able to take (tons of) pictures with it, edit right from my phone, and use apps like this Project 365 to help track them.

I decided I don't really need to do both, blog everyday, and then scrapbook the photos, and also post scrapbook layouts...that's doubling my work.  So instead, I will just track each pic during the month in an app with a brief description.  Then at the beginning of the following month I will print the photos for scrapbooking, and use the features of one of the apps to do something like this one...a recap calendar.

I know the pictures are rather small, but I think you can get the gist of what they represent, and along with the quick, down and dirty recap below, here is our Auchmoody January 2015 (Day 1 through 31) in a nutshell:

1 - Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God.
2 - Date night with the hubby to see Interstellar with Matthew McConaughey.
3 - The pups having cuddle time on the bed.
4 - Woke up to a little dusting of snow! Didn't last long though...warmed up and the wind blew it away.
5 - Jody brought in a beautiful rosary straight from the Vatican, that she picked up for me on her travels with Morgan to Italy and France.
6 - Home sick all day with the flu. Captured this sunset...beautiful end to a yucky day.
7 - A picture snapped from a video the girls sent to Grammy. Home sick with Mom again today, they were missing their Grammy and wanted to tell her so.
8 - The Origami Owl Valentine flyers arrived today.
9 - The girls were laying just outside the bathroom door as I was getting ready this morning...as if to say, 'We are not staying home one more day, take us to Grammy's house!'
10 - Christmas finally came down today, all that remains are a few gifts to find space for.
11 - The Feast of the Baptism of the Lord...and the last day of the Christmas Season. All will be put away until next year.
12 - Uh oh...our dishwasher is on the fritz. Up early this morning to hand wash dishes...yuck!
13 - Our new batch of coffee pods arrived for our Nespresso machine at work...a Christmas-slash-parting gift from Grant to the office staff. My new favorite is the caramel.
14 - Organizing and prep work on Project Life 2014 to take on my scrapbooking weekend.
15 - A silly text between Mom and I that makes little sense.
16 - The Jeep packed up and bulging at the seems for Trina and I's scrapbooking adventure...do the two of us girls know how to pack a car!
17 - The scenery outside our windows as we scrap...with huge, fluffy snowflakes coming down.
18 - The six of us ladies who scrapped this weekend. It was a small group this time, just two sets of sisters and Trina and I.
19 - Our first Papa Murphy's pizza experience, and I'd say we liked it! This is all that remains of two pizzas and a dessert pizza!
20 - Dinner at Bangkok with the hubby...such pretty appetizer plates of butterflies and salad rolls.
21 - Valentine's Day is coming. Bought this dish the other day at Hobby Lobby, and filled it today with conversation hearts for my office.
22 - Going old school...a quick winter meal of grilled cheese, tomato soup and milk!
23 - Baylee has started feeling under the weather again. She loves having a cuddle on the bed though, especially in the backs of daddy's knees, as close as she can get.
24 - Because she's not feeling well, it seems kind of difficult for Baylee to curl up in her bed, so I made her this makeshift bed out of an old comforter with a sheet over it. Now she looks so comfortable all stretched out.
25 - Hung our Christmas gift from Craig and Wendy today in our prayer area. It's a cross made from repurposed wine barrels.
26 - Yay! My first Studio Calico Project Life kit arrived. They had a $10 intro offer I couldn't pass up, so I'll be getting one of these at the start of each month.
27 - Oooops...Rob was being silly and mooned me while putting on his pj's. Unfortunately it was the only picture I took this day, so with a little editing of a heart of his moon...we're good.
28 - We have had grey skies for weeks! Today I was wishing for some freshly squeezed sunshine! This is one of the new decorations purchased at Hobby Lobby last week for my newly updated grey and yellow guest room.
29 - Ah, today. A bad day. Baylee had more blood work and x-rays, and we have been told she has a tumor on her liver. It's hard to believe this sweet girl is so sick.
30 - My girl so cute, giving me one of her looks. We're having as many cuddles as we can now.
31 - Another cuddling night with the girls, this time with a look from Lu...or is that the stink eye??

Day 188

I can't believe my mom left town for the 4th of July weekend. And to think she traveled to Uncle Larry and Aunt Sue's...all by herself! I'm torn between being proud of her, and feeling abandoned on a holiday weekend. Well, at least she came home today. She texted to say she was on the road just before 9:00, and then that she was home at 1:00...no stopping! I'm glad she's back, I missed her!

Day 187

It's 100 degrees outside, and there is a rip-roaring fire up on Badger Mountain! Yikes.  God Bless the firefighters who get out there to put out fires, espeically on scorching days like today. Trina, Alyssa and I met for lunch at Shakey's, and as we were eating, I started seeing texts on my phone about call-in crews. Then, when we left the restaurant, we could see the smoke for miles...when we got to the house, I went out on the back steps and snapped a few pics.

Day 186

I'm so excited, I picked a day to have my very first Jewelry Bar! It's going to be next Saturday, I'm going to have it at home, and just invite my girls over. That way, I can 'practice' on them, and use it as a time to get to know the how and what of all things Origami Owl! I found the perfect colored plates, cups and napkins at Walmart today, along with a dish towel for who-knows-what. And don't forget that candle...you know the one that will scar me for life...literally!!

Day 185

Happy 4th of July! We celebrated with a BBQ over at Billie and Keith, with the Paden's, the Deines', and the Huminsky's. It was pretty low key, and a nice afternoon and evening.  As you can see, Kennedy got some much needed pool time...I think she's part fish!  KG and Minnie were pretty much the hit of the get together...two of our favorite girls!

Day 184

Alright, I know that picture of my bloody foot is less than desirable, but I just had to do it to tell the story. First of all, I'm so excited because today, I joined Origami Owl as a designer!!  Oh my gosh, I'm not sure what I've gotten myself into, but I'm super excited. Since going over to Trina's the other night, I've been tossing the idea around, and with Rob's full support, I jumped in today and signed up.

After work, I swung into Target for some stuff for tomorrow's 4th celebration and saw this darling, yummy, retro looking, Origami Owl colored Cotton Candy candle. So I purchased it along a cake mix.

Just after paying, I proceeded to drop my sack right at the check stand, onto the floor, where I heard the candle shatter. Unbeknownst to me, however, was the fact that it had landed half on the floor, half on my foot...not until I was walking to the back of the store to fetch another candle and the pain, and the wetness clued my numb brain into looking down to see blood oozing from my foot. OUCH!

What a klutz...and as Melanie would say...how embarrassing!!

Day 183

These are just too funny...I've seen them here and there over the last couple weeks, not really sure what the gist of it was.  So, when I saw the huge display at the store the other day, I brought a couple home, including one for Rob with his name on it...he had not seen these around, so it really took him by surprise to open the fridge and find a coke with his name on it. I, of course, couldn't find one with my name...so Matt it is!

Day 182

Got my second Origami Owl locket today! I'm so excited to have choices. Trina gave me my first locket, with the flower window plate, and the 'love' charm. Tonight she had a Jewelry Bar at her house, and I was able to pick up another locket with a white face, and a couple more charms! So excited I just love this stuff.

Day 181

Developing a Perpetually Positive Attitude. Doesn't that sound like something I need? It was 'suggested' that I take this online class by National Seminars, and I have to admit, it was a pretty good little class...well worth the one hour I spent listening to it today!

Day 180

Mmmm...lasagna roll ups! I saw the Pioneer Woman a couple weeks back, and it looked really good, and pretty easy...you can find her recipe here.  I decided to follow her concept, only using Mom's tried and true manicotti recipe.  These were delicious, but really, it probably would have been just as easy, or easier to just make lasagna and layer the noodles, instead of rolling each one up.

Day 179

We've been trying to get Lucy to warm up to her food, sprinkled with the new DinoVite, and she could just kind of give or take it. She's not much of an eater anyway. But we found the secret...wet the food and stir in the DinoVite, and tonight she's going to town like a little piggy!! I'm not sure how, since the smell and look of it is pretty nasty...but then again, I'm not a pooch.

Day 178

It's Fish Fry Friday...this time at Mom's house. She made fish, french fries and homemade Red Lobster Cheddar Bay Biscuits...yum! Thanks Mom!

Day 177

Just a couple of cutie patooties, begging for their new treats that came with their DinoVite! They love those beefy nuggets!

Day 176

We're home from McMenamin's and we brought home some loot. We had two different packages added to our room, the Romance Package, which gave us a bottle of champagne (along with two flutes, some chocolate truffles and some massage oil), and the Brewmaster's Package which gave us a growler full of beer.  We also brought home 4 more bottles of beer and a few bottles of wine for us and our nearest and dearest :).