puppies, 10 hour drives and 4th of July!

As most of you know, Brad and I adopted a pitbull puppy from the shelter about two weeks ago. Her name is Dakota and she is so incredibly sweet. She is 8 months old and has already brought so many laughs to our bellies! :-)

As for 10 hour drives, my sister in law Kaley is having a baby boy with Brad's brother Tim!! They are due September 13th, so Kaley's sister Cassidy threw her a shower in Grand Forks. Ferol, Brad's mother, and I drove to Grand Forks from Billings in one day on Friday, the shower was Saturday late morning and we left Grand Forks Saturday evening to make it to Dickinson, ND to stay the night. We continued our way home sunday morning and made it back in time to have lunch with Brad and then I was off to work Sunday night. It was wonderful to see how big Kaley is. She thinks she is huge, but she still has another 3 months to go and is only going to get bigger. I think she is absolutely beautiful and will only get more radiant as she goes. Cassidy threw a fabulous party for Kaley and I mentioned to Cassidy that when Brad and I get pregnant, she is more than welcome to throw my party for me. :-)

As for the 4th of July, I lucked out and I don't have to work and neither does Brad. He however has to work the next morning, so we can't go camping, but we can still spend it together.
I'm addicted to the website pintrest and found this cute idea for a 4th of July wreath so I made it yesterday. I am very impressed with myself and how it turned out!

Montana currently has 8 wildfires burning at this moment and one happens to be about 50 miles north of Billings. There is no chance of it moving into billings because it would have to destroy the 'city' of the heights first before it came into billings. But I guess never say never. We can see the smoke from our front door and some friends of ours said that they had ash on their cars the other morning.

There is another big fire in Colorado Springs that my uncle is helping to fight. I hope that everyone that the fire in influencing is alright and that my favorite fire fighter comes home safe and sound to his family! I love you Uncle John!

May is an amazing month

Brad and I were out running errands this afternoon, on my day off from work, and something dawned on me. Tomorrow, May 18th will mark 13 years of having a strong and healthy heart! Traditionally I eat green grapes, saltines and drink 7-up all day because after my surgery, that's all I could keep down. I do it every year and I try to be thankful every day of what I can do with a fixed heart. People tend to get confused when they see a scar on my chest. A lot of them ask if I still have my own heart, if I had a stroke (really, at such a young age?) or some just a scared to ask. I think it's a beautiful line down my chest that tells a great story of why I am still here . . . alive and healthy! Honestly, I haven't noticed my scar for years but I used to be very self conscious about it.

Anyway, my mom wrote this email to a teacher many years ago to help explain to the class what was wrong with my heart. I'm not going to change but a few words that she wrote so that those of you who DO read this, will understand what went on with my heart!

HAPPY HEART DAY TO ME!! :-)


Here’s the scoop on Megan’s heart.

Last Thursday Megan had an appointment with a Pediatric Cardiologist (children’s heart specialist) at Children’s Hospital in Seattle. She had been having pains in her chest and heart and her regular doctor wanted her to be checked out more thoroughly. We already knew that she had a heart murmur - lots of people have them and it is usually no big deal.

The Cardiologist listened to Megan’s heart for a long time and decided she would have an Echo-cardiogram. Also known as an ultra sound. It was really cool to watch the technician do the test. Megan can explain what they did. When the Doctor came back into the exam room he said the results were a TOTAL surprise to him.
First of all, he said the pains she described were normal pains that young people between about 4 and 14 years old have. They are connected to growing and hormones. Not something to be worried about.

Next he said that Megan has a passage (a fistula) from the Left Coronary Artery to the Pulmonary Artery ...... where there shouldn’t be one! The condition is not life-threatening right now but will be when she is much older (like 50 years old). To fix this, Megan will have to have a procedure called a heart catheterization, where they will insert a hollow tube into a vein in her groin and then into her heart to look around and see what’s going on. This can also be called an angiogram. If the surgeon sees that everything in her heart is OK and can fix the hole while doing the catheterization he will. If, for some reason, he can’t then she will have to have open heart surgery during the summer to fix the condition.

After Spring Break 1999:
The results of the heart catheterization were a bigger surprise than the echo-cardiogram. The cardiologist talked with us before Megan came out of the recovery room and told us that she had a major, rare heart defect that had been present from birth. The ONLY way to fix it was with open heart surgery. Almost immediately. Of the 300 heart surgeries they do at Children’s each year, they fix maybe 2 like this one. The defect is officially known as Anomalous Origin of the Left Coronary Artery from the Pulmonary Artery. In other words, it wasn’t attached where it should’a been! The LCA kinda leaks into the pulmonary artery - what they initially thought was the hole - instead of attaching to the Aorta. The right coronary artery was enlarged because for 12 years it had been doing all of the work of both arteries. We are lucky to have Megan with us. Usually this is a defect they find and fix in infants because they are sickly and have lots of health/heart problems. Those were never words that described Megan.
What needed to be done was to detach the left coronary artery (LCA) from the pulmonary artery (PA) and reinsert it into the Aorta. In the realm of heart surgery this was a “low risk” “easy fix” - only if you are talking about someone else’s child!

The following is from an email to an adult friend of Megan’s from California, describing most of the experience. You can use all of it, some of it, or none of it for a topic of discussion in your health class. Megan talks pretty freely about this whole amazing part of her life. I know she doesn’t remember some of what happened after the surgery (they plan it that way!).

She amazes me. We call her Megan the Brave. She went into all of this with such good spirit. The surgery lasted about 4 hours with a nurse reporting to us at the "high" points - when it started, when she was on
the heart/lung by-pass machine, when the actual fix was finished, when she was off the by-pass and when they were completely finished with the surgery. The actual reinsertion of the artery only took 20-30 minutes and it was a piece of cake because of her adult size vessels. We got to see her in the ICU about an hour after they finished . The surgeon came and talked to us about how it all went and he was very pleased with her vital signs. He said that sometimes the heart needs to be "primed" with blood, saline or an electrical charge when it comes off the by-pass. He said that Megan's heart just jumped right in and took over with no help what so ever. (Well, maybe just from her flock of guardian angels )

It was hard to see her in ICU with ALL those tubes and wires. She had an IV in both hands, one ankle and the side of her neck, a urinary catheter, a chest drain tube, pacer wires on either side of the drain, EKG
electrodes all over, and the ventilator tube in her mouth. When she opened her eyes, she smiled and gave a "thumbs up" when I asked how she was. What a kid. ICU was a wonderful, friendly place. We stayed there for a day and a half before they moved her to a room. I was able to stay at the hospital the whole time. They really cater to kids and families at Children's Hosp.! Megan felt better as each tube was
removed. Every medical person was amazed with the speed of her recovery. I guess that comes from being healthy and fit. The biggest problem she had in the hospital was with throwing up. The anesthetic
and morphine shut her stomach and bowels down pretty completely.
Eventually she could keep down saltines and 7-UP and she said they never
tasted so good!

The surgery was Tuesday morning and we were home by 6:00 pm on Friday. She is moving slowly but improves daily. She's had no pain meds since last Tuesday (and that was just Motrin)....... one week post-op. At that post-op appointment, she had a little fluid between her heart and lung on one side and the heart was still slightly enlarged. They put her on Lasix and an anti-inflamatory. By Friday at the echo cardiogram appointment, the fluid was gone and her heart was still enlarged but noticeably less than before. She goes back to school on Tuesday (! ) Amazing.

The scar. Its beautiful! A long, thin line. The Doc. used a plastic surgery closure not staples, so there is no Frankenstein scar. With proper care and no sun exposure it should fade to barely noticeable!

And that's the whole story. :)

25 will be great!

I had a pretty good day yesterday, lots of wishes and great experiences.

My uncle Denis who lives in Laramie, Wy sent us a birthday card with 50 dollars in it and said to go and have dinner and a glass of wine on him! So instead of a birthday dinner, we had a birthday lunch downtown at Jakes! I enjoyed every moment of it!

I was kind of hesitant to spend my birthday at my new job, all by myself but it was great. There is a new resident in the house that I am at and her birthday is today. So since I am not working today, I brought us both a cupcake and we enjoyed it together! It was nice to be able to put a smile on her face for just a few minutes! It warmed my heart that I was given this opportunity to spend my birthday with her. :-)

I get off work around 12:30am and the drive home takes about a half hour. I walked in the front door and I see my favorite bottle of wine, beautiful flowers and a thank you card from Brad. I was kind of surprised that it was a thank you card (ones ordered from shutterfly ) but he explained it inside. It's moments like that, that I need to hold on to. Brad wrote some pretty loving and sincere words in that card that brought me to tears! I'm a pretty lucky lady to have him in my life!

I've been into reflecting on what the next year will bring Brad and I. I wrote in my new years post about the hopes of what 2012 will bring us, and so I feel like I should talk about what 25 will bring Brad and I. Hopefully it brings us our first home, stable jobs and more friends. We are eager to welcome Tim and Kaley's new little Ireland in September and see where life takes us. I see lots of trips down to Cheyenne Wyoming to visit one of the best women I know. In August and September my mom will be out in Billings for a little bit as she retires from her job as a speech therapist. She FINALLY gets to be a stay at home mom!I think that the year of 25 will bring great things for all of us!

Happy 25th to us!

In our 5 years of dating and 2 years of marriage, Brad and I have celebrated 7 birthdays together and each of them have been pretty unique. As most of you know, my birthday is May 1st and Brad’s is May 5th. So I thought that in celebration of us spending 7 birthdays together and turning a quarter of a century old, I would go back in time and reminisce about what we’ve done and experienced together.

I spent my 18th birthday at home with a few friends . . . most of whom I don’t talk to anymore. Actually, I’m pretty sure I don’t talk to any of them anymore. From the pictures my mom sent me, I had a furry pink tiara and I got a big blingy butterfly ring. It was an all girls party, but my boyfriend at the time(Kevin Nutt) was over for a little bit. I guess a few of us also ended up getting in the hot tub at the end of the night. Honestly, I had a hard time remembering any of this till the pictures reminded me.

Brad’s 18th was spent in Mexico with his best friend Croyle and his parents. It was a trip that celebrated his 18th birthday AND graduating highschool. That’s pretty darn special. Brad had told me that he and croyle sat pool side and just enjoyed the sights. I’ve heard stories about Senor Frogs . . . not really sure. Brad wanted me to include our 18th birthday’s in this blog because it’s the year we met.

Time for a side story . . .real quick.

We met after graduation, in September on 2005. Brad had moved up to Tukwila and was working at the airport. He worked with two guys, Mitchell Gould and Ryan Zimmer, both of who I went to high school with, they were just a year older. So I somehow met Ryan and we started dating, but Ryan and Mitch were good buddies. I was with Ryan one day and we went over to Mitch’s place . . . guess who Mitch’s room mate was? If you had told me 7 years ago that the young man who I met that day would one day be my husband I would have told you that you were nuts! I never looked back! ☺

Our 19th birthday Brad was living in Spokane and was going to spend his birthday weekend all by himself, but I wasn’t going to have it that way. I picked up his best friend, Croyle and we drove the 6 hours from Seattle to Spokane to spend Brad’s birthday with him. It was quite the surprise to Brad when I walked in to his apartment and then Croyle walked in soon after.

Our 20th Birthday I arranged a dinner so that my parents could meet Brad’s parents! My dad wasn’t feeling good that night, so it was just my mom that went and had dinner with us at a Seattle restaurant called Buca Da Beppo. From what I remember it was a strange dinner and I was pretty uncomfortable for the entire thing. Lol.

Now is the big Two One!! It’s a smith family tradition to go out to dinner on the night of the birthday to wherever the birthday person wants to go. I have a very favorite restaurant downtown Seattle called Cutters, so we went there. I got off of work from the Montessori, changed and we were on our way.

After dinner, I met up with my friend Jamesy and her then room mate and we went to Cowgirls Inc, downtown Seattle. Brad was our designated driver for the night. The poor guy couldn’t be involved in any of the fun, but we left early anyway. Ended up dropping off Jamesy and her friend and went bowling with Croyle and his girlfriend Jenny. Brad’s birthday was spent with his parents down in Olympia and they went to a Mexican restaurant where his sister Kate worked. All of our friends had waited till myself, Brad and croyle all turned 21(croyle’s birthday is may 10th ) so we could celebrate together, so that weekend, we went to downtown Bellevue and bar hopped. Oh the joys of being young!

Our 22nd birthday we weren’t able to spend together, but I had a good time for the both of us. Brad had joined the Army by this time and spent his 22nd birthday in the gas chamber at bootcamp. Lucky guy! I was the good girlfriend back home who sent his cards and made sure that no one forgot that it was his birthday too. I spent this weekend down with our good friends Ashley and Raul Diaz. I got one of those recordable cards for Brad and I sent him a sweet message. Everyone else had a somewhat generic card to sign for him and it was in the mail!!

Our 23rd birthday, we were married and in Billings. This would be my first birthday away from my parents and in a new home with my husband! Holy smokes, we grew up! Christine, Esther and then little baby Jadon came out and spent our birthday with us. Christine took us to Old Chicago for dinner and spent a nice weekend with us. We didn’t really do anything more special than that because we didn’t know a whole lot of people out here in billings, so we couldn’t throw a big party or anything.

I hope that we always remember our 24th birthday! Brad and I were in Ireland last year to celebrate a few different things. First and foremost, Brad was on his two weeks of leave while being in Afghanistan for a year. We hadn’t seen each other in 8 months, so these two weeks were pretty much heaven. We also never got a honeymoon, so this Ireland trip was celebrating that along with our 24th birthdays! The one part that I will always remember was the Irish bar that we went to some how found out it was my birthday and the entire bar, along with the accordion player, sang happy birthday to me! ☺ A girl couldn’t ask for more! Brad’s parents stopped by in Ireland on their way to Israel so we got to see them for a day or two and they were in Ireland on Brad’s birthday.

I’m having some trouble with this year’s birthday because I’m not really where I thought Brad and I would be. Not to say that I’m not excited about where we are in life, I just thought we’d be further along. We aren’t doing anything special this year for a few reasons. We couldn’t get anybody together at one time because all of our friends are so busy and Brad’s birthday happens to be land on drill weekend! Haha! So since I have to work till midnight tonight, Brad is taking me out to a birthday lunch at a nice restaurant on the west end of town. I got a nice package in the mail from an amazing friend Nicole, thank you for the kitchen stuff! I love it!

I guess since I have no other choice but to turn 25, I should embrace it. Its not really THAT old. I’m excited to see where the next 7 years of birthday takes Brad and I and what we experience.
Happy 25th Birthday to us!

Guess who's employed??

This girl!! :-) I have been trying for a few months now to get my foot in the medical field door and it happened yesterday! Looking around, I found a place in Billings called Tender Nest which is a family owned and operated nursing home. The home that I worked in yesterday has 12 female residents who were super sweet to work with. I worked 4:30-9 and felt great about this opportunity!! I just wanted to share my excitement! :-) YAY!!!

Maui trip

I left for my long trip with my mom on April 2nd, which is my dads birthday. I got to spend his birthday with him and a few days with some old friends before our adventure started on Thursday night. My mom had worked all day and then was preparing herself for sitting on a stuffy plane for 6 hours. Probably not the best thought out plan! Regardless, we made it to Honolulu and took a taxi to our old military hotel. It was a room to sleep in for the night and discovered it was the hang out for pigeons in the morning. These pigeons sounded like they weighed two tons and just sat out our back window calling out to the world. Lol. Talk about a wake up call. That morning, we traveled back to the airport where we caught our inter island flight to Maui. I wish all flights could be that quick. Twenty minutes from take off to landing. Fabulous. We got our convertible, directions to our resort and we were on our way.
We didn’t really do anything on our second day but go to the grocery store and sit out on our back patio and enjoy the weather and some wine! The one downside to our resort was that it didn’t have a restaurant OR a bar. So everywhere we went, we had to drive. I don’t mind driving, but I would loved to be able to walk to and from dinner . . . or even the bar. ☺

Day 3 is when the fun started. We had our massages at the Grand Wilea resort just a few miles up from where we were staying. This was a little slice of what it’s like to have a boat load of money! We got pampered in their hot tubs a massage later. After all of that was done, we had a nice water front lunch at the hotel bistro.




We drove back and later that night went to a luau. I started having some sort of reaction to the sea shell necklace they gave me and then it spread to my shoulders and back. Some people think it was the sun, or lotions, or allergic reaction. We aren’t really sure. Come to find out, it’s what is called Howly skin. My good friend Gretta used to live in Hawaii and I described this to her and she said it’s a reaction to the sun. It’s a moist, hot environment and my skin did NOT like it. ☹

Day 4 we had a helicopter ride.

It was a cool experience, but I’m not sure I would do it again any time soon. I felt too vulnerable feeling like a bug. Mom really liked it and had a great time, while I was sort of freaked out the entire time. We got some pretty spectacular shots and views and a dvd of it afterwards.

Day 5 was Tuesday, our relaxing day. We sat on the beach because all of the vacationers (who had kids and were loud ) were gone from our resort so we spent quality time down on our little private beach. We found some sand crabs and they entertained us. My father-in-law had flown into Maui that night and we met him for dinner at a local place called Café o’lei. It was a hoppin place, but it was too loud to really have any kind of conversation for the three of us. Regardless, it was a fun to see him and have a nice dinner with him.

Day 6 was our road trip to Hana. We were first thinking that we would drive it, but then we got talked out of it. Instead, we took a tour bus( that only sat 12 people ) up there. And we are so glad that we did it that way. We were told that the driver doesn’t get to see any of the beauty because they are so concerned with the road and how tight and narrow it is. This way, we got to sit and watch beauty go by. It started at 7 am and we got back in time for dinner at 5. The road to hana isn’t about the actual trip TO hana, it was more of the journey around the island to see the different places. I think my favorite part was what I called the Dr.Suess tree’s. They are actually called rainbow eucalyptus. It looked like someone threw paint all over the trees.

We saw some pretty waterfalls, but I think once you’ve seen one, you’ve probably seen them all. It was nice to be able to sit back and listen to the driver tell us all about what we were passing. At lunch time, we stopped at a local nursery, where I got bit by mosquito’s, but only on my right foot. My big toe, my 2nd toe, my ‘ring finger’ toe and then my pinky. I was pretty miserable for the next hour or so, but I am so thankful I brought my cortisone cream with me that day. The day ended with a nice dinner and packing our bags to leave paradise and go to Honolulu. I didn’t really pack because I knew that I could repack when we go to Honolulu.

Day 7 we traveled to Honolulu. Got to our hotel at 10:30 and spent the rest of the day walking around downtown. I really wanted to go to the Pearl Harbor Memorial, but we don’t have the time. I guess if you go, you are supposed to get there bright and early at 7am so you are guaranteed a ticket to get in. It was too late for us and we don’t have the time or place to store our luggage tomorrow. ☹ I’m sad about that. However, we did find an apple store among the other very high end stores in downtown Waikiki. There was a Prada, Louis Vutton, Gucci, Tiffany’s . . .the list goes on and on. So anyway, we found an apple store and I was so excited because a month or so ago, I dropped my iphone and it cracked on the back. Looking around Billings, they’d have to send it out and I would be phoneless for two weeks. I wasn’t about to have that. So 33 dollars later, the apple store in Waikiki fixed my broken back to my iphone and I am one very happy customer.
When we had dinner with Don on Tuesday, he had also suggested we go and see a Banyan tree that is a few hundred years old and is absolutely amazing. We found it walking along the beach and those words don’t even describe it. Our bartender at the bar we stopped off at before our walk down the beach had said that the hotel that the tree sits in the back of, brought in a “tree whisperer” to talk to it because it was losing it’s leaves. The tree told the whisperer that people weren’t talking about her anymore because they had moved the bar away from the tree. The tree also told this whisperer that there was a something blocking her roots! By goly, there was a huge cement block that no one knew of. It was pretty amazing. So now, they have a restaurant, a bar and a pool by this big banyan tree and she is growing again! What a sweet story! ☺

Our flight home to Seattle was on Friday, the 13th and it didn’t seem nearly as long as getting there. I had charged my computer to watch quite a few episodes of Felicity and before we knew it, we were landing in Seattle. I had a quick sleep then left around 11 am on Saturday morning to drive to Billings with Nicole. It was a quick drive, but I’ve made that drive so many times now that it goes by quick. Peter, Nicole and Malachi stayed the night with Brad and I on Sunday night and left early on Monday to make it to their new home in Wyoming.

I had a great time with my mom but was so happy to come home to Brad. ☺

Catching up

For Christmas, Greg and Christine ( Brads oldest brother and his wife ) gave us all tickets to go to Spring Training down in Arizona for the weekend of St. Patty’s day. It was a great time spent with family, however quite the headache to make it down there.
Brad and I woke up early on Friday morning to make the attempt to get to Seattle from Billings. Honestly, we didn’t think we would make it, but we did. However, making it from Seattle to Phoenix would prove to be the harder flight to make. We spent the morning trying to get on flights and it wasn’t working. Once Greg and Chris and the kiddo’s made it to the airport, we brainstormed on what to do. We all tried to get on a flight to Tucson together, but only I could make it on and Brad would try to get on the phoenix flight later. Greg and Chris and I made it to Tucson and rented a car and made the 3 hour drive to Phoenix, found the house that Don and Ferol bought and got settled all while waiting to see if Brad made it on a flight to us. Chances weren’t looking very good and my folks were ready to put Brad up in a hotel for the night so he wouldn’t have to sleep in the airport. Instead, he made it on the last flight to Phoenix and got in around 1am.
The next morning, we were woken up by Esther and Jadon running down the hall at 7 am wanting someone to play with. Esther politely knocked on our door and asked if we would get out of bed to play with her and Jadon. Lol. It’s hard to resist that little girl. We eventually got up and started our day. We walked down to the park to play with the kids for a little bit and then started our way out the door to the baseball game.

The game itself was good. As always the Mariners lost, but it was a wonderful experience and fun times had by all the Irelands. After the game, we drove to Grandma Ireland’s house to celebrate her 89th birthday and Kaley’s 28th birthday. Two St.Patty’s day girls. I think it’s quite fitting that Kaley married and Ireland boy when her birthday is on an “Irish” holiday. ☺ We had pizza and cake and celebrated and had great family time then it was time to make our way back to Apache Junction to sleep.Greg, Don, Brad and I all woke up at 3am to venture BACK to the airport to try and fly back to Seattle. We got on to Seattle but once again, it was going to be difficult to find a flight that wasn’t full anywhere to Montana. Brad and I brainstormed before and thought about maybe getting on a flight to Bozeman and renting a car or taking the bus to Billings, but THOSE flights were booked full and it was going to cost an arm and a leg to rent a car. Next option was to just have Brad try and get on a flight and I stay back with my parents till I could get home. We couldn’t even do that. So we gave up, called my mom and she came to pick us up.
We stayed at a hotel near the airport and hung out with Nicole the next day. It was so nice to see Nicole and her son Malachi. It’s so fun to see Nicole and spend time with her. She is one of those friends that you never run out of things to talk about and she is always willing go out of her way for you. I don’t know what I’d do without her in my life. Needless to say, I’m stoked that she is moving to Wyoming and will be THAT much closer to me. Instead of a 16 hour drive, it’s only a 7 hour drive, with Denver close for shopping. ☺
Brad and I made the choice to take the train home since the next day was going to be our 2 year anniversary , we may as well spend it together and NOT in an airport. It was quite nice actually. We splurged and got a sleeper car with all of our meals included. Once we started moving, our train car supervisor guy came through and gave us two small bottles of champagne and told us there was orange juice as well. So to start our trip home, we enjoyed some Mimosa’s. The first few hours we went along the water front up to Everett and went through the mountains during dinner time. This was a much better way to spend our anniversary than with my parents OR in an airport being frustrated. We spent our evening hanging out, talking about our trip and just enjoying each other for our FIRST anniversary together.

It was quite the task to sleep on the train. We had a fold away bed that was nice, however it was a little bit bigger than a full size bed . . . with two full size adults sleeping on it. Hard. We woke up in Montana and the actual day of our anniversary and had breakfast with a nice elderly couple. After breakfast, Brad made the attempt to shower, over our toilet while the train was moving. Lol. Not something you get to try every day. After lunch, I tried and boy is that hard.

We made it to Malta, Montana at about 3pm where one of Brads army buddies was there with our car to pick us up. Malta is far up north, close to the Canadian border and a 4 hour drive from Billings. It was very nice to Eddy to come and get us, as that was going to be the hardest part of getting home. Malta is also a one stop light kind of town, so a rental car was out of the question as was a bus ride. Thank goodness for friends.

Overall, it was a nice quick visit but it went from a 2 day visit, to a 5 day long trip. I guess that’s the life of an Ireland.

My next adventure is only a few short weeks away. I’ll be flying to Seattle to stay a few days with my parents and then my mom and I are off to Hawaii for a greatly over due mother daughter vacation. I love that I have such a wonderful relationship with my mom. No one can replace her, nor would I want her to be.

Brad’s parents came out for a quick visit on the 28th of March and stayed for a day and a half. Don hadn’t seen our apartment yet and wanted to see where we lived and called home. We showed him around, filled up our beer jugs down the street at our local “beer store” as brad likes to call it. Played a few games and hung out. Ferol and I went to a fabric store to get some fabric so I could make a wall hanging. I am a new sewer and my mom bought me a pattern that was difficult for a self taught beginner sewer. SOOO, I am bringing my new fabric and easy pattern to seattle so my mom can teach me there. Thanks Ferol for the fabric. I’ll share the pictures when I have a completed project.

So my next post will be about my awesome trip to Seattle and Hawaii.