2 posts in one day.. AMAZING

The planter box is (pretty much) finished!!

Lots of dirt...
Seriously.. so much freaking dirt...
YAY!





This flower is a big deal.. because we tend to kill things.. so I was ecstatic to discover that this day lily had bloomed since we bought it (usually they already have blooms when we buy them.. and then they don't after a few days in our possession).. and I just think it's a really pretty flower.

Trees and sunsets (we've had a lot of great sunsets lately).. well either that or we've actually been awake for them lately.. :-)

6 Steps to Plant Sod

Step #1 - Tear up the sod that you planted LAST year (which your "adorable" puppies peed on and killed) ... this isn't actually a picture of our yard, it's a picture of the vacant backyard next door to us, but it gets the point across.

Step #2 - Call Lower Valley Turf to place your order, then leave early in the morning to make it to Terrebonne before they close... While on the way, make sure you drive a REALLY old pickup truck so that the transmission will go out somewhere just short of Sisters..
This will give your sod-laying a much needed element of "adventure" (and marital bliss)
After the truck breaks down call your parents (who lent you the God-forsaken automobile) and have your mom drive the 45 minute trip to pick you and take you to the Turf company to pick up your sod (after they've closed.. so they're happy happy people). Have the old truck towed home and travel in exhausted silence. (there are a lot of very good reasons why there are no pictures of this step...)

Step #3 - Start unloading the heavy sod from the (new) pickup.. this job sucks, so I recommend having a husband for it.

Step #4 - Make sure when you're digging that you hit an irrigation pipe from the sprinkler system (this leads into Step #5)

Step #5 - Pull up a chair and enjoy the view of your husband laying the rest of the sod.. because clearly you can't be trusted to do any more work after breaking the sprinkler system ;-)
Step #6 - (this one is my favorite...) ENJOY your new grass!! Ok, so it's not that enjoyable to watch the dogs like a paranoid freak because you're afraid they're going to pee on it or dig a little hole in it.. But it's better if I catch them before Luke sees it.. He's not as compassionate when it comes to the grass... :-/

That's all for the steps.. but the sunset was really pretty while we were laying the sod, so I thought I'd include some of the pictures of that.

Landscaping..

Well.. we're still in the process of landscaping our backyard (and relandscaping our backyard in some places)
Most recently, we tore up the crappy benderboard that we used last year to outline our gravel path.. and put in paver stones instead (which match the new cinderblock raised planter box that we put in) - you can see along the right side of the 2nd photo.



We are also a little bit closer to getting some water moving in our water feature.. ok.. still a ways away.. but we're making strides.. we did find the column rocks that we are going to use in the top pond (the biggest of the 3 ponds.. ) They're obviously not in a pond in this picture.. so you have to use your imagination..
And we planted a whole booty-load of Burning bushes:

(this is what they look like in the Fall - they're green right now)

Luke's New Job

Well for those of you who don't know yet, Luke got a new job. He starts tomorrow (Thursday) in Sisters at Rescue Response Gear.
There really is no other explanation for this career change than Jesus.
Luke leads worship out in Sisters once a month, one of the guys that is on his team owns Rescue Response Gear. He came up to Luke after service last month and basically said, "My wife and I were praying about who to hire for this opening we have in the company and your name kept coming up, what exactly is your work experience, and what are your goals/dreams?"
After Luke explained to him what he has been doing in Outside Sales for CED, and told him where he wanted to go with it, etc. Lance got a smile on his face and said "apparently God does know what he's doing because that's exactly what we need at RRG"
So Luke went out to meet with him at the company (all the while, not looking for a new job) just to see what exactly he was offering.
He gets there and finds 6 employees (6 employees for a company that is the 4th largest of it's kind in the world) who all love Jesus and are filled with the Holy Spirit.
He fell in love with the work atmosphere (not hard to do after working for CED for over 5 years..)
The job that Lance offered him is a significantly higher salary than CEDs, and he will eventually be traveling internationally (and I will be going with him) which is something that we have really wanted to do, but it just doesn't work into the plan when you both work full-time... but having someone else pay for the trip AND getting paid to be there definitely helps out that situation!

So he starts on Thursday, and he's really excited.

Basically he will be doing Research & Development, Sales & Marketing and customer service. He'll be going to the occasional trade show to market their products, and he'll be going out to the "mountain" to try out new product and write up articles/reviews on the products he tries.

This job ties in really well with his Firefighter experience too, since he used a lot of this gear back in the day..

oh.. a bit on the company (or you can click on the picture at the top that will take you to their website) Rescue Response Gear specializes in technical rescue and rope access equipment; they work with Fire Departments and Training Facilities, Federal, State and County Agencies (needing rescue and rope access equipment and training), Public Utility Companies, Tower Erector Companies, Public and Private Industry (needing rescue and rope access equipment and training), as well as Search and Rescue Organizations. (the company that cleans Mount Rushmore is one of their clients.. because they have to repel down the side of the mountain and set up scaffolding to be able to clean it)

so all in all.. Luke's excited, and I'm excited to have a husband that is actually excited to go to work in the mornings (but not excited that he will be all the way in sisters, and not be able to stop by my office all the time)

Kayaks, Injuries, Drugs & Houses...

.... so... our life...

Kayaks

As promised, here are pictures from an actual camera (thanks Elisa) of the boys (I mean "men") afternoon kayaking..

Getting back in the kayaks after a brief Red Robin "refuel" break... I thought I had more than 2 pictures.. but.. nope, that's all.

This really doesn't fit in the post, but it got imported with the rest of the pictures. I mostly think it's funny to see a whole herd (and yes I am aware that geese don't travel in "herds") of geese outside your office window. There are very few places (Bend being one of them) where you can look out your office window and see geese. And there are even fewer places where you can pull up to work and have to "shoo" geese away from the doorway before you can ENTER your office. Which is especially funny when you work in a busy commercial area of town. (I did get a picture of those geese, but I don't know where that photo went, so you just have to imagine it)

Injuries

Bailey basically ripped out one of her dew claws (the claw that is like their thumb, farther up their leg).. It was a traumatic experience, because the vet that we took her to (it was a Saturday and our vet was closed) has big windows that allow you to see back into what they're doing, and they had her muzzled and basically just held her down while they ripped the rest of it out. It was terrible to watch, but I couldn't look away, I felt so terrible for her. My mom pointed out how much more difficult it will be when we have to take our baby in to the doctor... so I decided that we just won't ever take our baby to the doctor, because it's just too hard to watch.
She was really drugged up after...

Drugged up and a bit of a wuss.. bad combination.. but Luke loved on her.

Drugs

And he took some of the drugs himself.. just for fun.. as you can see..

Bentley did not like this day.. he lost his play buddy.. and we were focusing most of our attention on Bailey.. 2 things that don't go over well for Golden Retrievers..

This was the little kennel we set up so Bailey could sleep without Bentley harassing her.

But.. she didn't want to be in there alone.. so.... I slept with her.

And Luke thought it was funny.. and took a picture..

Houses

lastly, this is the dog house that we had made to match our house. I think I posted about our backyard earlier, but if not.. here's the nutshell version. We turned the side of our house into a dog run, so that we could start relandscaping, and have it NOT be destroyed by dogs this time..
since they don't have access to the garage for shelter anymore, we had this dog house made.. and it's really big..

Luke and I actually got in it (it's brand new, so it's clean) and hung out for awhile talking about how if we ever became homeless we had shelter from the elements, it's actually pretty cozy in there.

So Seth.. we've decided to drive down to Mexico and live in the dog house for awhile so we can be closer to you.