And the Christmas tree is up!! Actually we put it up last weekend but it has just been super crazy around here..We were going to do it the weekend after Thanskgiving but we got snow! Yep, about 4 inches.. and more snow the next day. I was so excited but it all melted before Monday..hope more snow to comet his year.. We've also been trying to to wrap up last minute gifts..thought we were ahead and had no idea where the time went.. so today we finally got our last gift.. I hope.. and also put together theChristmas cards.. the list gets longer every year..and what I thought was an easy card ended up to be very time consuming but thats alright.. its worth it.. This Friday we went to my company's yearly holiday party - Pacific Science Center...very kid friendly and its been 10+ years since I've been to the Science Center and they had all the exhibits open for us to play with.. my favorite were Estrella and Estella the snakes:-). very cool.. oh and the naked mole rats..hmm..they were "interesting".. Today, we met up with John and Jessica for breakfast at the Brown Bag Cafe ..HUGE portions.. I ordered a short stack of blueberry pancakes and they came out to be about an inch thick each and exactly the size of my plate..ugh, I had about 1/4 of it..insane.. then we went shopping for furniture at the Costco home.. they close on their new home in about 2 weeks...how exciting.. got home, had some leftover chicken and sliders and then wrapped some more gifts..Ah, can't wait. I work 4 days this week then I'm off for an 11 day stretch! I need it and I need to use up my 4 plus weeks of vacation I've now accumulated..

Not the prettiest tree we've picked but it'll do:-).. and no tree topper..still can't find one I love...oh well.

snow! I still can't figure out my camera after all these years so didn't really capture it but there were some humungous flakes!

and the cards

Its cold out and started to feel a little icky so what better to make then chicken noodles but not chicken and noodle soup..this is called chicken and sliders.. its a very thick soup with shredded chicken, homemade broth and handmade noodles.. lots of work but so worth it. Not something I'd do often but it was yummy.. and of course cookies! Brian's famous chocolate chips:-). We ended up giving most of it away ..thank goodness or I think Brian would have eaten them all for breakfast the next day

Bubbling in the pot a good 3 hours later:-)

Ready to eat! Yummy gravy made of homemade chicken broth with handmade noodles

Cookies!

Thanksgiving came and went:-(.. and our 4 days off is almost over..how sad. Back to work but 4 weeks and we get to do it all over again so something to look forward to. As usual we had dimsum in the morning then an amazing dinner with family at my GooGoos.. we had 2 turkeys (so I can have leftovers:-)), prime rib, fried oysters, fried mushrooms, egg rolls, stickey rice, 2 salads, chicken wings, spareribs, potatoes..Chinese style thanksgiving:-).. oh and noodles..can't forget the noodles.. I made a strawberry cheesecake.. it went over well I think.. but our stupid oven wouldnt work on thanksgiving day and Brian was going to bake cookies for Jordan to take to Jenny in Boston.. he and Kit took off at midnight after dinner to go see Jenny ..so we took them over to GooGoos and made them there..worked out okay.. and today it decided it will work so go figure..stupid Kitchenaid - sure looks nice but living up to its name.. Anyhow, got done with dinner, got home around 10:30pm.. Jessica, Jaime, and Kelley did the midnight shopping thing.. We decided to stay home and not deal with it after spending 2 hours in traffic last year. Instead we set our alarm for 5am so we can go to Home Depot and get Brian the Rigid Tablesaw he's been wanting to get..well he really wanted the Bosch but Rigid is good too not to mention they had the black Friday special on it for about 200bucks off retail.. woohoo.. so alarm goes off, he decided, nah, too tired to get up.. so Stanley gets up at 6am (our usual time) and he wakes us both up so we decide to jump in the car.. we get in, see a big empty hole where the Rigids were and a guy carrying 2 out and 2 more on someone's cart..darn we missed it.. Brian kicks the empty cubby..but wait! there are 4 more says the salesman..woohoo! we loaded it, got some coffee..home before 7am so we decide to go out and shop! First time in a long time I actually shopped on Black Friday and it wasn't too bad..we got some gifts and some stuff for ourselves too:-).. The rest of the holiday weekend, I chilled and Brian did a bunch of housework.. cleaned out his garage for his new saw:-), put up more insulation under the crawl - house is so much warmer now..especially the kitchen, amazing difference.. and hung lights.. I'll have to take a picture of that some day..just sad that this whole holiday went way too fast

Oh Markane, I was going to take photos of the food for you but oops, got there, hungry, ate and forgot..haha..so heres a picture of what I did with the leftovers instead..turkey pot pie...mmmm..not bad for my first pot pie.. Enjoy!

new Rigid tablesaw.. not sure what it does but Brian promises me very nice bookcases, a coffee table, maybe an entertainment armour..hmm..we'll see:-)

Very late but here are some photos of the progress on the siding from a month ago:-)

conduit and junction box before.. ick:-(

voila, all gone.. we filled that space in with more siding..just like it was never there.. also got rid of row of conduit on the other side by doing this:-).. happy happy

tada! done.. just needs paint.. a plant to hide the junction box...done

A picture from our after Halloween bash at the Red Rock.. Evil HR Fairy:-)

some pictures of the awesome suite at Red Rock.. didn't get very good photos so these are the only 2 that came out.. the big window has amazing views of the I guess the Red rocks? who knows.

Wow, has it been almost 2 months? So as expected we didn't finish the siding..the cold, wet season came on us sooner then we thought so its next spring. We are missing just 1 side! so close but it'll be great when its done next year. We need to finish the one side, paint and redo the trim. At least I chose a paint color.. bought the paint too but never got around to it.. oh well. Electrical got done..went the cheaper route. I may regret it again one day but it was too much money to shell out and plus now the back looks good which was my main concern. The other stuff.. well like JOhnny said, nothing a couple of plants wont hide:-). Actually main reason we didn't do it is because we couldn't get the electricians to agree on what was code.. yes we can move the meter by the gas meter or no we can't.. and if we did it and the city says no, we're out of luck..given that, we decided not to. Got some of my uncle's electrician friends to come out and m ove the junction box in the back under the crawl and got rid of a bunch of conduit which helped quite a bit..still an ugly meter and breaker box outside with an elbow sticking up but I'll get over it..think big tall trees..yes, next year. 100 bucks for trees or 2K for electrical work.. I like the trees..hehe..
What else has been going on.. lets see..lots of travel. BC, then went to Vegas, did the regional mtg thing.. so hectic but it was great. I had a suite at the Red Rock.. oh my goodness was it gorgeous. Brian came down and while I was working he got to enjoy the suite and the pool and the gorgeous weather..80s durign the day. Then my folks plus my 2 aunties came down and we moved to the strip. Shopped, ate and did the Mandalay Bay spa.. it was awesome. They've never done the spa and I think they enjoyed it.. we had a great time. Got me a new purse which I have yet to decide if I'll keep.. then came home, 1 day off, then back off to San Diego for 3 days. This time we stayed at the W Hotel.. awesome! most comfortable beds I've ever slept in in a hotel.. so spoiled.. thats 3 awesome hotels in a roll now that I've stayed in and loved.. no more Marriots..haha.. and Thanksgiving is next week. I am making my usual cheesecake and some salad..can't wait. Can't believe the year is flying by. I love the holidays and I'm going to try to slow down and enjoy it:-)

Well the siding is going and going and going.. Its taking a little.. okay alot longer then we anticipated and the weather is threatening to slow us down even further so a little stressful right now.. We also ran into some problems with the electrical work on a side of the home.. We currnetly have a meter box and a breaker panel sitting on the outside of our home plus a million miles of ugly conduit.. thats what you get when you pay a discount for electrical work.. so I was calling around hoping someone can just unscrew those 2 boxes so we can get electrical under there..well that turned into how about just redoing the service altogether?! Yikes.. there goes the money we were originally saving for not doing the windows:-(..but in the long run I think its the right thing to do.. so many decisions I tell ya.. the fun of home ownership.. great to have a home and a headache at the same time.. good news is the siding looks really good and Brian and John are getting better each time they do this. Yesterday we were able to tar paper the big side of the home, put up some styrofoam plus some hardi, and cut out the vent.. all in 1 day when the last side took us 2 if not 3 days to get that far so thats the good news. Today we did one side of the front and was able to get that about 99% complete..just missing some trim and its finito!.. so this week I have to make a decision on an electrician., shell out the cash..sigh, goodbye annual bonus... but once thats done they can focus on that side again.. The weather was very nice to us this weekend despite being chilly there was no rain and some sun in fact otherwise it would have been another wasted weekend and no progress so thats the positive side of things.. just hope we can wrap this up before the yucky fall weather really starts to hit us..

The siding has begun! all and all it looks AMAZING! although I'm not so sure Brian's as excited anymore..hehe. this his a tough job and we'll be spending every weekend we have for the next month at least to wrap this up...haha.. We started with the far side of our house and what we thought would take 2 days has now taken 5..but Brian finished that up yesterday and today they got most of the backside done.. so just depends I guess. The back is apparently alot easier because its low and no big crazy ladders to deal with.. John and Brian have done such a good job..I have to say it looks even more professional then some of the professional jobs I've seen. So clean and nice.. we've also been lucky thus far.. no major damage that we could see.. a few rotten places and Brian took care of us immediately so we know its being done right:-) Dad was over to help last week and Kevoon has been swinging by on Sundays to help out. More pictures to come but here is the progress thus far:-).. I couldn't be happier.. now if I can just pick out a paint color we'd be set! hey I think I like your tool belt better then mine... can we trade??
Demolition! the fun part.. down comes the vinyl
Down comes the old tar paper and cedar
Seattle Cedar LBR MFG Co.. dont' think they're around anymore:-)
and whats under all that cedar but something called "ship lap".. who knows
Up goes new tar paper then 1/2inch shiny foil foam insulation "stuff".. those poor walls were never properly insulated..
and voila! our siding, hardi plank goes up! this is the pre primed color
Fancy nail gun .. best buy yet out of this whole project.. that and the new ladder.. more tools to add to the collection
Brian admiring his work last piece of the puzzle on the first side we started
work on back of the house begins..more demo!
couldn't run faster away from this mess!
Ugh.. water damage starting.. what we found under the vinyl.. luckily shiplap under that was fine..phew!

Voila- new tar paper and more shiny foil insulation stuff
First strip of hardi plank goes on
more hardi...

now paint color.. hmm..decided against the 2 greens.. too many trees around here to do greens.. red is trim.. so its the brown/tan I think..safe and neutral .. plus it looks good with the red:-)

Brian took a really cool hiking/climbing trip recently to Mount Baring and here are some photos... A little scary to me but he likes it:-). Why people do this I have no idea.. work really hard, get really dirty, sweaty..hmm..doesn't sound like fun to me:-)

Well after a small hiatus, the home improvement has begun again.. woohoo! or not so much woohoo if you ask Brian:-). The last2 months has once again been super busy. I spent 3 weeks doing a "roadshow" with my company.. I've learned not to ever fly United Airlines again..ugh, 4 delayed flights, an almost cancellation with no apology.. yeah I dont' think so. I also realized that SeaTac is probablyy one of the better airports in the west coast.. Anyhow, got back, kicked off reviews..took a quick trip to Vegas with Brian..we unfortunately didn't win..again.. so I had to go back to work..sigh.. went camping too and brought Stanley. I think he had a great time. John, Jessica, Jaime, Kelley, Kevin, Jordan, Brian and I went out to the Enumclaw area and spent 2 days at the Silver Springs camp grounds.. we ate lots of food..lots and lots of marshmallows.. had a good time. Jenny is off to Smith in a week ..sniff snifff..she's all grown up.. oh and Markane is in town.. theres always lots of dinners and poker when Markane is in town.. We also spent a weekend at Uncle Tom's cabin..always a good time.. along with a wedding in Port Townsend...Anyhow back to the housework...we have taken on the major task of redoing our siding..yep, .. I can't believe it..one minute we're talking about it, the next minute John and Brian are tearing a piece of siding off.. What we found under it was the original cedar in a baby blue.. it looked okay and there was hope by Brian of salvaging it but I think thats all gone after opening up the rest of the far side of the house today.. yeah its there.. not so sure its salavageable..makes sense now why they wrapped it in vinyl. There appears to be water damage too..yikes.. So what this means is taking the cedar off as well, looking at the board under that to see what shape its in..do repairs, cover it in a vapor barrier and putting up hardi plank siding..lots of work but it'll be so worth it I think when its done. Personally we are just not big fans of vinyl.. It looks great in some homes but jsut doens't suit this one all that much..not to mention what we found today is that whoever put it up did not do a very good job.. in fact I'll go as far as saying its a pretty "shoddy" job.. I am so nervous aobut this whole project..its HUGE.. probably bigger then the kitchen remodel..so we'll see.. the interior got a lot of love these last 2 years and now its time for the exterior.. the siding is probably about 30+ years old and starting to crack, buckle, us due to all the repair work outside, there are holes, gaps.. so it was time but nevertheless, its just nervewracking to see Brian going up a 24 feet ladder.. we're going to rent scaffolding so hopefully that'll make it safer.. at least it'll make me a little less nervous:-)

Pictures of course to come! hmm.. maybe now is the time for a camera..

My little brother is now a married man! Dang that makes me old..hehe.. still seems a little weird to me for some reason to think that my brother is now married:-)... wedding was on Saturday and it was absolutely beautiful..forcast was 74 and sunny... started the day off at 5:30am..thats right, 5:30am! got up, changed, coffee..got to have coffeee...then down to my mom's house in Seattle to meet up with the rest of the entourage.. 15 of us in 5 cars I think.. oh plus the whole pig and 8 red boxes of jewelry, abalone, mushrooms, candles and a bunch of stuff I can't remember.. headed off to Mill Creek..got there, they wouldn't let us in....the "boys" couldn't get the job done so the "adults" decided to just pick up the pig and 8 boxes and look really pathetic.. the parents "HAVE" to let us in now.. they wouldn't want their future family standing outside holding this heavy pig and boxes now would they;-)..haha.. it worked... got in, did the tea ceremony, ate a bunch of food, got in our cars and headed back to my moms in Seattle.. more tea ceremony - yep I got to drink tea.., more food and we were off to the church.. got there, changed again, tons of photos for the bridal party then the family arrives and even more photos..3pm in the church.. no ifs and or buts says the church lady.. 3:30 wedding.. Stitch ran down the aisle, it was great.. then off to the reception at St. Demetrios.. I cannot believe the transformation of that place.. it was a little bare the night before but when we got there it was breathtaking.. white linens, white chair covers with a lavendar sash..lavendar flowers, candles everywhere.. it was amazing.. but no time to admire..must hit the bar now that the hard part was over:-)..the bridal party thought the same thing:-).. did I already say it was beautiful?? it was... and Jessica and John dedicated a song for Brian and I.. "crazy by aaron neville"..yep our wedding song..seemed like so long ago but this night brought back many memories.. that was about the 10th time I cried that day, hehe.. You guys did a great job and thanks so much for allowing us to be a part of it:-)..
Pictures to come.. there are tons and tons.. can't wait to see Art's photos..he took even more tons then we did.. haha

The happy couple..

Been a busy summer so far.. John and Jessica's wedding is about 3 weeks away and we are all busy bees trying to get ready for this thing.. We had a bridal shower for Jessica at the house and today Jessica threw John a suprise BDay party at our house .. we grilled out, had lots of food and a cold stone creamery ice cream cake.. mmmm...Brian spent the last 2 weeks building a bench seat around our wisteria with Johnny.. they did an awesome job. Just needs some stain and thats it.. I'm on a "roadshow" .. visiting 5 cities in 3 weeks. We hit Phoenix last week and it was great. This week we are in Denver, then SF, then LA. and Seattle is next week as well.. then done! some pictures of the bench seat.. and one of Stanley.. he's all grown up:-) Oh and my first veggies!! Yep, my veggie garden has produced my first batch of chinese "yow choy".. yummy..