Meet Minion

First I would like to say thank you for all your kind words on my post yesterday. It really does mean a lot to me and I appreciate it.

Meet the newest member of our family! Minion (Saade or Fisher, depending on who you ask) is a pure breed Rottie just shy of a year old. She is the sweetest puppy, and her and Kyzer were instant best friends. So far having two dogs has been easier than just having one, except when we take them for walks. They want to jump on each other and play while we are walking. Not so easy for the humans holding the leashes.

Kyzer Soze and Minion

And the Beat Goes On...

Te amo

Every day has been a struggle, but I'm feeling more like myself as time goes on. I'm eating again, and I have laughed and meant it. I feel almost guilty continuing on with my day to day, but I know I have to, and I know it is what my grandpa would want.

Despite the physical distance between us, I have always felt very close to my grandpa. Wrapping my head around him being gone is not easy, and even talking about it has proven to be almost impossible. Other than my blog (which has a whopping 11 followers) I've only mentioned it to Brady and two of my friends. I feel like telling people will cheapen his memory somehow, by making it about me and my pain rather than him and his life. Maybe I'm just not ready. I'm so grateful to Brady for being here for me. I've never let anyone see me so stripped down and vulnerable, I've always kept others away until I was more in control of my emotions. This time I let him see me at my worst, and in turn he showed me his best.

My thoughts of the future are what bring me down the most. I've always hoped that when I had a family of my own they would know my relatives on my dad's side. I want my kids to know the people who I love, and for the people who I love to see how my life unfolds. It's frustrating and upsetting to think that my grandpa will not be here to share in that. My heart feels so raw.

I'm lucky that I know I took every opportunity to see my grandparents, regardless of lack of money, class and work schedules, or the little parts of life that seem to get in the way. I flew down to see them every time they were in the States, and made an effort to visit them in El Salvador every time I could. Because of this I have spent many weeks at a time with my grandpa. I have so many memories of dancing in the kitchen, drinking wine and telling stories, stuffing ourselves with crawfish, playing poker, and the hugs, kisses, and love that we shared. He was a wonderful man and I miss him a lot. I hope my experiences with him will inspire you to spend time with your family as often as possible. No excuses.

And the beat goes on

Just like my love everlasting

And the beat goes on

Moving strong on and on

7-23-2011

 

RIP Papa Juan.

It's a Girl!

Break out the cigars, our little family in Renton is expanding. We got another dog! It's something Brady and I have been talking about for a while now, but had been going back and forth on the pros and cons. We've been told that Ky howls every morning when we leave for work, which is pretty sad. Not to mention very annoying for our neighbors... We were still pretty hesitant about the added responsibility, but after seeing how happy Ky was with another dog last weekend we decided to make it work. She's a 10 month old Rottweiler that we have named Minion. I was nervous about adopting a Rottie, even though they are a sweet breed you never really know how they're raised. But she could care less about our cat and came from a family with 3 kids, all under the age of 6. She is the sweetest thing, full of energy and a BIG bark. I feel like I just built a moat around our house, between Kyzer and Minion only an idiot would attempt to break in! Best of all, Kyzer loooooves her (in a platonic way, they're both fixed), but he gets really jealous if we give her any attention. Hopefully that will go away soon.

I tried to take a picture of her, but so far all I've gotten is a black blur.

Please

Please pray for my grandpa. He has been in the hospital for a while now. Please also pray for my grandma. I've never seen a more devoted and loving couple and I know she is having a very hard time.

Thank you.

Sometimes There's Airplanes I Can't Jump Out...

Sometimes there's bullshit that don't work now
We are God of stories, but please tell me
What there is to complain about?

I love that song, and it's very fitting for the past weekend.

Friday night I had some much needed catch up/girl time with my good friend Lindsi.I'm embarrassed to tell you how long it has been since we got together, just the two of us, but I plan on keeping that from being a trend. Hear that Lins?

Saturday wound up being a very busy day. Some friends of ours are moving to Philly and they had their going away party at Golden Gardens, one of my all time favorite Seattle spots. Despite the morning rain it wound up being a beautiful day to bbq and drink liquids out of plastic cups. Our friends have a gorgeous purebred Husky that my puppy got to play with... although as you can see from the picture Kyzer is a bit monstrous in comparison.

Lacoda and Kyzer. He's got about 65lbs on her.

After the bbq Brady and I jetted off to our friend Katie's birthday in Freemont. About 90% of the bar was there for her celebration, and we were having awesome time hanging out with friends; but Brady and I were scheduled to go skydiving at 9:00 the next morning so we called it an early night. Unfortunately our jump was canceled due to weather conditions. Boo! So we decided to catch the 9:45 showing of Harry Potter instead. Two words: Ah Mazing! I was sad to see the series come to a close, but they I think they did an excellent job bringing the books to life. Of course now I want to watch them all over again, beginning to end. Anyone up for a HP marathon?

After the movie I sat around in sweats without even attempting to get pretty. Ugh, so not like me. Has anyone else notice the weather starting to suck them dry like a dementor?

Susie Homemaker

I don't know what's gotten in to me lately. I'm in full on Leave it to Beaver style cooking mode. I've made homemade spaghetti sauce (found here), banana cream pie, and a bunch of other foods found here. Lately I've been craving summery pastas so I decided to make one that suits my tastes. It was delicious and super easy (easier than it looks). I don't measure when I cook, but below is what I came up with as you can see there's lot of room to add or decrease ingredients depending on your personal preference:

Basil/Gorgonzola/Walnut/Chicken/Tomato/Garlic Pasta

Cut 10ish grape cherries in half and set aside
Slice a handful of basil and set aside
Roughly cut 4-5 cloves of garlic, you want them to be larger than you think Don't worry it won't have that "WOW GARLIC" flavor.
Cube chicken breast, salt and pepper to taste.
Throw chicken in a frying pan and cook on medium until juices run clear or you wind up cutting it in half to make sure there's no pink. I'm paranoid like that.
While the chicken is cooking boil water and cook your choice of pasta according to package instructions. I used penne, and about half the box.
The chicken will be ready before the pasta.
In a small pan saute garlic chunks in olive oil (I used about 2 shot glasses worth) until garlic turns light brown edges. Remove from heat immediately and set aside. (This gives the olive oil a garlic taste and removes the strong bite from the actual cloves)
Drain cooked pasta and mix with the chicken, basil, tomatoes, and garlic-olive oil creation. Then because I was feeling crazy I added a generous handful of gorgonzola and walnuts. Mix up and dive in.

Seriously Amazing

For dessert Brady helped me make these adorable babies:

Apple Cup Pies

Yummy :)

You can find the recipe here

The problem with all this cooking is now I have more leftovers than I can keep up with!

Just a Number

Monday was Brady's 28th birthday!

We typically go out for special occasions and save presents for Christmas,  mostly because in the past we were both stretching pennies. Don't get me wrong, I'm more than ok with that; even though we aren't married we've always been in it "for richer or poorer". This year I was afraid that with his work and hectic summer social events his birthday might just slip by without something really memorable. So I did what any girlfriend would do, surprised him with a trip SKYDIVING! We are going Sunday morning, and the weather should be perfect :)

Since Brady's work schedule is still pretty busy we decided to have a quiet dinner at home on his actual birthday, and to try and properly celebrate it later. Of course me being who I am, I turned "small simple dinner" into grilled ribeyes, a pound of grilled scallops, kale salad, and banana pudding pie (from scratch, none of that pudding from a box crap). Delicious! I was going to take a picture, but we scarfed it down before I remembered. Then we drank a bunch of beers and watched the A Team. We have a pretty good time when it's just the two of us.

Brady is exactly one month older than I am, and I had a moment of "holy crap, we're getting old!" (love you honey). It also made me think back to when we started dating at 23, and when we met at 10. There's definitely something to be said about someone you've known for 18 years, and been in love with for 5. All my life I've heard that over time passion dims and people grow apart, but so far they've been proven wrong. For me it's only gotten better. It probably has a lot to do with Brady being so damn awesome. Love you BAF.

Here's us through the years, also known as an excuse to dig up old pictures:

2006 Pumpkins

2007

2008

2009

2010 - Mixing it up by being on the left

2011 - We did not age well...

Any given day.

Crap I got off topic again. What I really want to say is: Happy birthday BAF, thanks for being born! and putting up with me all these years :)

Zombies. The Most American Way to Celebrate!

Whew. This weekend really wore me out.

Friday night B and I met a few friends for drinks and karaoke at the divest of dive bars in North Seattle. Between the one armed man, the cowboy, the couple getting frisky in the bathroom, and the lady of the night, we had an amazing people watching opportunity. I absolutely love a good dive bar, and we kept it classy all night with PBR and jello shots. If you happen to be in the North Seattle/Aurora area, I highly recommend Head or Tails.

Saturday we met up with friends for the 2011 Red, White and Dead Zombie Walk in Freemont.

Thirsty Zombs.

Follow the Brain on the Stick.

Brains...

Protesters

My favorite

There were some amazing costumes, they put our hard work to shame.We were pretty inspired by some of the zombies, and will definitely be stepping up our Z game for next year.

Sunday we jetted off to a friends birthday where they made a game of blind tasting stouts and porters. My favorite of the night wound up being Dicks Cream Stout. And not just for the name. Unfortunately we left before the tasting was over (or maybe fortunately since I had to drive). 

There is only one thing that can pull me away from free beer, and that is more zombies. My favorite theater (Central Cinema) was playing one of my favorite movies, Shaun of the Dead. That is just too much awesome to pass up. Central Cinema plays older movies for $5-8, and serve beer, wine, and food for pretty reasonable prices. The next amazing show is the Goonies. Again, I highly recommend it. 

The 4th we spent with my family. I stuffed my face and chased my niece around. Let's be honest, she's the reason we all show up these days :)

Brennan and Aunt Carly

Definitely related

After the family bbq Brady and I decided to scrap the fireworks and headed home for some last minute relaxation before starting the week. Just recapping that makes me want to take a nap!

What did you do this weekend?