PUPPY! June 23, 2009

Introducing Maeberry Blossom!  

We had been looking for a puppy for a little while with no luck.  We were looking for a lab/golden retriever mix specifically.  This mix was the same as my first dog, “Kitty.”  She was the best dog ever and because Jake hadn’t had a good experience with the only family dog he’d ever had, we wanted the same mix.  Labs and Retrievers are such good dogs, very people pleasing and loyal.

I had been on craigslist every day looking for puppies with no luck.  I suddenly got the idea to look at the Seattle Times online classifieds.  And then, there she was, on the first page in the pets section!  “1/2 Golden Retriever 1/2 Lab Pups”  “Wonderful gentle, low-key pups looking for forever homes. 2 Males, 3 Females. 3 are chocolate, 2 are black.”   I called the lady on wednesday and asked to come see the puppies friday.  She said call back friday to see if there are any left because many had called on the puppies.  I knew we had to see them that day, Jake and I decided to go see the pups that same day before community group. 

We met the Kelly (Mae’s foster mom) in the small town of Hobart and drove out into the sticks to see the puppies.  When we got there, Maeberry and her sister ran over to greet us, happy and full of life, ready to play!  Her sister was black and smaller, both were super cute.  Mae was a little less hyper and wanted to hang out with us more than her sister and we were both drawn to her.

Her parents were rescues (along with another female).  When Kelly rescued the dogs from a “lab breeder,” Mae’s mom (the only golden the breeders had) and her dad were incredibly skinny.  Kelly took all three dogs to get fixed but they wouldn’t spay Mae’s mom because she was so skinny.  They told Kelly to nurse her back to health and then they would spay her.  As she started gaining her weight back, she kept gaining and gaining, come to find out, she was already pregnant.  The other female’s foot had been ran over by the breeders with a car and had not been treated.  When we got there she had lost her entire front leg due to infection.

Mae has been such a sweet puppy, she is fun and playful, very smart and has such a loving disposition.  We love her so much 🙂  God has blessed us so much with her!  Thank you Jesus 🙂

Spring Break March 31, 2009

The story:

It was overall amazing, with some points, definitely better than others. 

We came home Thursday night, Jake worked Friday and I hung out with my Mommy.  Saturday was not a fun day, it started out ok when we went to visit Liz and Jason.  Saturday is when the trouble with “Crazy Pat” started.  Jake sold a car to this crazy guy, and there was an issue getting the title to him, Pat got all crazy and controlling and started threatening and yelling at Jake.  Long story short, we filed a police report, and sent the title in the mail to the police in the town he lived in.  Because we had to wait until Monday to mail the title, Jake had to emotionally and mentally be kind of tortured with worry all of Sunday and Monday, until the police told us they had delivered the title on Tuesday afternoon.  Tuesday was the day we left for Newberg, so unfortunately, the majority of our time at home was very stressful, especially for Jake.  It was fun to hang out with the fam though.  I went through a bunch of old children’s books with my mom and was able reminisce about childhood a little bit and also find some good books to give to Madi, my cousins, and Owen, we donated some and also sold a few so I could buy Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingslover (a very good book so far, I highly recommend it).  We got to go to Mars Hill (sooo excited to get back permanently!)  We hung out with the Golubs a bit and got to finger-paint with the most adorable little girl ever 🙂 !  On the way home we stopped off at New Horizons ministries, a ministry for homeless youth in Seattle.  I took pictures for them for my final “Serve Project” in Photography class.  I thought I ruined the film, but by the grace of God some of them turned out!  We stopped by Liz and Jason’s again on the way out to give Madi more books, and then we were on the road again, down to Newberg to stay the night, pack for Cali and be off again in the morning!

We ended up leaving about an hour after we planned, which isn’t that bad considering Jake was feeling kind of sick.  😦  The drive was longer than we had thought, we thought it would only take us 6 hours but it took us 7.  We stopped for lunch on the way down and got to Grandma’s around 3:30 or so.  We hung out that evening, talked, ate a delicious dinner and watched some TV.  The next day we slept in, had some breakfast and chatted with Grandma and Grandpa.    Jake and I headed to the store then when we came back Grandma took us to go visit some other family, Cindy and Curtis.  Later that day, Aunt Donna and Uncle Al came over to visit for a bit, we had some dinner and then Jake and I went on a date. 🙂  We went shopping at the outlets, had some ice cream and then went to a movie.  We say Knowing which I do not recommend.  I thought it would be interesting, at first it was really intense, then it got really scary (Jake and I don’t do scary movies) and then it got really stupid with aliens! Haha, don’t watch it.  The next morning we woke up early to take Grandma and Grandpa’s Kia to the shop to get something fixed.  We went out to breakfast afterward and then to the Sundial Bridge.  That was really fun.  When we got back from the bridge we went garage sale-ing!  I will do a whole separate post for that. 🙂  Then that evening we went to play mini-golf and then to In-n-Out Burger on our last night there.  The next morning Grandma made us biscuits and gravy (my favorite!) and then at 9:30 we headed home.  It was another long drive, but that night I got to see all the girls from Riley House and hang out with Mac and Mikaela when they stayed at our place that night.

It was overall a very good spring break.  Now it’s only one month to trudge through until graduation! Woo!

Wifey Book February 25, 2009

Wade Home Management Notebook

I was reading one of my favorite blogs (Simple Mom) and came across the idea of a home-management notebook.  A home-management notebook is basically a place to keep your brain.  I feel like I have so many ideas and lists and to-do’s, etc, etc, that I probably lose some of them and most definitely lose time to think of other things.  The notebook contains different tabs for different information each with 2 clear page-protecter sheets, lists/current info I want to keep in those sections and blank pages to write on.  In mine there will be:

• In the front pocket I have a mini “daily docket” (another great tool from Simple Mom).  You can read more about it on her page but it is a great way to really organize your to-do’s.  Today is the first day I’m doing it, so we’ll see how it goes, I think it will help. 🙂
• money/finances tab: I will keep a simple form (standard expenses) of our monthly budget, a sheet laying out our financial goals, a debt pay-off tracker, tips and tricks for saving money and reasons why I want to be a “gazelle” to help me stay motivated to save.
• Important Info tab: The address book from our wedding along with room to add new addresses/phone numbers and a sheet that contains online account info and phone numbers of providers (cable, electric, etc.).  And don’t worry, I am aware of identity theft, if I thought having a sheet with this info was a bad plan, I would definitely not be putting it together, we also will not be filling everything on the sheet out.  (I did see a sheet that had SSN #s, bank account #s, passwords, PIN #s…we opted to keep that info in our heads :).)  I might also be putting in flyers or business cards of people we want to get in touch with at a later date.
• Food tab:  Jake and I plan on making a “Top 50” list so that we can really track sales and who has the best price on the items we buy the most, that list will be here.  I also made a page of “food notes, ideas, thoughts” where I will write down things I learn, good brands, ideas for meals, parties, etc.  Today I learned about the “Dirty Dozen of Produce” which are produce that are worth buying organic.  They are Peaches, Apples, Sweet bell peppers, Celery, Nectarines, Strawberries, Cherries, Pears, Grapes (imported), Spinach, Lettuce and Potatoes.  I also learned about Horizon vs. Organic Valley dairy, all of which I put in my notes page.  I will also have plenty of blank paper (maybe even recipe cards!) to write down recipes that I find if I don’t have my recipe book handy.
• Keeping the House tab:  I am always thinking of things to do for my house, ideas for storage or curtains or wall hangings or larger ideas on how to put together a whole room.  I also see things in magazines that give me inspiration for my own home.  In this tab I will have some cleaning check lists and a sheet of paper or two for each room in my home and a sheet of paper or two for the whole house.  I will used these sheets to write projects on, such as: Bedroom – Make curtains, buy curtain rod, find night stand, find lamps; or Living Room – paint TV stand, buy pillow forms and cover them.  I will also be able to cut out those inspirational pictures and place them in here.
• Gifts/Holiday tab: I LOVE giving and Jake and I have gotten pretty good at budgeting for gifts.  We have sinking funds (thanks to Dave Ramsey) for Christmas and also for all the money we’ll need to buy birthday and mothers/fathers day gifts, as well as Christmas and gifts for each other (birthdays, anniversaries and Valentines day).  I have a Christmas budgeting sheet here (which you can find on simple mom’s download page), and a gift log/ideas sheet (which I made, if you’re interested email me and I can send it to you).  I will probably keep any party ideas I find and other things like that in this tab as well.

I haven’t put everything together  yet, so I will probably come up with more tabs or things to add into existing tabs as I go.  To find out more about Home Management Notebooks or the categories you might like to have in yours, click here.  Give me your thoughts, is there anything you would have in your notebook that I haven’t listed?  Many people have a section for babysitter info and kids schedules, since that isn’t a part of my life right now, I don’t have a tab for it.  Also, some have calendars in theirs,  I have a calendar in my day-planner that I keep in my purse that I used because it’s more accessible.  I am considering just adding a small calendar in the gifts/holidays tab to note where birthdays and holidays are, but that’s in my day planner so I’m not sure if it’s really necessary.  

Well here I go, off to class then back home to keep working on my notebook! Yay!

Things that currently make me happy January 21, 2009

Jake and I just paid off our Amex card that we used for the wedding, total payment was $3,103.98 and now it’s gone 🙂 YAY!  Next to go is Sallie Mae, we’re kickin her out of the spare room as Dave Ramsey says.  After that is our loan from my mom for our honeymoon.  Then all we have to do is pay off my student loans which will hopefully take less than a year if I’m making more than minimum wage once I graduate 🙂

I am growing basil in three little pots on my kitchen table.  I had them in the windowsill, which was much cuter, but apparently they didn’t like the cold and started to mold. 😦  I am quite excited to use them for future pesto excitingness 🙂  

We are going home this weekend and I get to see my mommy.  I am very excited to spend saturday with her. 🙂 We are going to the DMV to get our licenses renewed (fun I know), I am FINALLY changing my name on my license!  This isn’t set in stone but then I think we’ll go look at the apartments I want to move into in May and go get some pots for my other herbs and a book on how to actually take care of them.  Poor herbs.  We’re also going to go over a friends budget with them so they know how much they can afford in rent and finally get their own place 🙂 yay them!  It’s very exciting to see what God is doing in their lives.

I got a new car, that’s exciting.  I like it a lot.  I need new seats, the drivers side is ripped and the passenger is getting there.  The outside is really scratched up, but you can only tell up close and I have one odd-ball rim.  haha, it really is funny, 3 of them match, one doesn’t.  But it’s me, and I like quirky, and she’s quirky.  Her name is Ginger and she is very zippy.  She has a vtec, that’s exciting 🙂  All my other cars have been slow.  AND she’s a manual so I am ACTUALLY driving again stead of just pressing the “go button.”

I’m taking pottery and photography this semester.  I am SO excited to make people’s Christmas and birthday presents.  I am nervous about sucking at both and for my first photography project I took a roll of film that ended up not even “rolling.”  So, I took no pictures and have to go back and do it all again.  Taking the roll that didn’t work was fun though, Jake and I had fun walking all over Newberg picking cool things to take pictures of.  If I end up with any cool photos or pots I’ll take pictures/scan them and upload them to the bloggy.

That’s pretty much it for now.  I just needed to focus on happy for a bit because I am SO NOT motivated for this semester and have bad bad bad senioritis.

We have a sickness October 29, 2008

the normal language in the Collier home

example in a recent IM conversation with my brother about our dog, Nini

 

Matthew says: I was at a petting farm and saw neeni’s family (I was at a petting zoo and saw what seemed to be our dog’s family)

Matthew says: a pig a donkey and a cow (Because, as we know, she acts like and we call her a pig, a donkey and a cow, so when I saw them, I thought it would be funny to call them her family)

Mrs. Wade says: CHU DID?! (You did?!)

Matthew says: cha (yes)

Mrs. Wade says: da ish reel pesh (That is really special)

Matthew says: dea wer chubby (They were chubby)

Mrs. Wade says: ooo CHA (oh yes, that is true)

Matthew says: we tuk pichures fer nini (We took pictures for our dog to look at when we got home)

Mrs. Wade says: did i tell u about seeing ALLLL shnini’s bruvers and sisters? (Did I tell you about seeing all of our dog’s brothers and sisters, like with the pig, donkey and cow, they are not her real brothers and sisters, rather, animals that look like her)

Matthew says: cha (yes)

Mrs. Wade says: six of dem (six of them)

Matthew says: wait (wait)

Matthew says: no (no)

Matthew says: chu did not (you did not)

Mrs. Wade says: except, de were not real extra double pesh, cuz de were da black kind of ninis (except, they were not really extra double special because they had black spots)

Mrs. Wade says: and wiver is a better one for ninis (and the liver colored spots look better, like the spots on our dog)

Matthew says: dat is sad (that is sad)