happy travelers

Burrrr, fall is in the air; so long warm flower filled days of summer.

I’ve been wrapped up in the folds of family, love and furry friends and I’m excited to share our adventures, oh and I’ve adpoted an exciting new hobby (ummm ok, exciting for me, maybe not so much for my sweetie)!

Bentley:

Ater adopting Captain Odin Underfoot and Mister; Mister adopted Nettie

and Odin just isn’t a cuddler, I knew I had to go get me the cuddle dog of my dreams.

We went to Spokanimal and there in the back was this little pudgy adorable 8 year old Apple Head Chihuhua that I knew was meant to be a part of our family.

He had some real teeth issues so one of our first appointements was to get his teeth better. They said he’s in excellent health and now after 8 teeth removed and the rest cleaned, he’s happy as can be and so are we.

Of course we’ve had some training issues, he’s had an insatiable appitite so we’ve modify our way of feeding the dogs to curb his food intake, but he also has a sweet tooth for eating beetles. He has a short alert system when he has to go number two, he doesn’t know until about 10 seconds before it starts to escape his bottom and if I’m not fast enough it’ll start plopping out as I’m carrying him out the door. now we have his intake and output routine down 💩👍🏻 so accidents have become a rarity. He snorts when he walks and snores while sleeping, it’s the best.

Everyone gets along great except…. Zoey. So we let her keep her own space and it’s worked out fine

The Girls:

Mitch’s sister needed a new start and an escape from an unhealthy marriage of 3 years and thankfully we were in a position to help her achieve that. After raising 4 boys on her own, and now in the middle of raising her granddaughter we are so happy to have them up here with us. Plus they brought with them the sweetest girl named Chloe, their Cocker Spaniel. She called, we booked the flights to California

and flew out the next day, with help from family we loaded them up in a uhaul and drove back up to washington the next day.

It’s amazing how when things are meant to be they just seem to fall into place and when you go on faith there is no fear.

Having them with us is like having the sprinkles ontop of our life, full of love, laughter and joy.

The Crazy Lamp Lady:

One day while on Youtube after watching my hillbilly neighbor I saw a suggested clip called The Crazy Lamp Lady. I was hooked! She’s the one who sparked the flame to venture down this path and I say a million times over, thank you Jocelyn! Mixing my love of getting awesome stuff at super affordable prices and the possibility of making a profit from treasure hunting is the perfect combination.

Odin loves to watch Sue too

I feel like I’m searching for treasures for other people and then bringing them together. I tell Mitch all the time.. I’m a hunter, I must hunt, and now that I’ll be selling stuff, I can continue the cycle of searching for all types of treasures. I’ve never been one to have a hunger for knowledge, I’m good with just getting through life with just the jist of something; until now. I want to learn, I want to know, I have a desire to become knowledgeable about tons of things, big and small! It’s a crazy and exciting feeling to have that kind of drive and hunger about something in life that may help me earn a little extra money! What is it you ask? Well, its best said by Joycelynn herself, “It’s finding things of value that others may overlook and hopefully, just maybe, making a profit.” The best part is that I feel like my dad is with me in spirit on this new adventure, especailly with how much he loved to get a good deal. No matter if we were at a yard sale, pawn shop or retail store, he’d try and talk people down on prices haha, oh typical Papa. Pops loved to metal detect, but I was always too impatient to dig much, but this, this treasure hunting among the vastly discarded and donated items of life is AWESOME!

My first eBay sell, the buyer sent me this photo of her therapy rabbit Earl Grey who will be using the blanket during his travels to nursing homes and such! I still feel such joy and love each time I see this photo and know that I’m on the right path in life

I’ve sold 3 items and have hundreds more just waiting to find a new home, I just need more room! With my back as bad as it is, along with other health issues, this is something I’m able to do at whatever pace my body will allow and I am just so gratful for that! Also, I’ve learned a lot from the youtube stars Sue, Real Nifty vintage and Lavender Clothes Line. To all of you I say THANK YOU! I love that people share their knowledge, their experiences, their lives to inspire and teach others!

The Big House:

The plan is to move into the big house next April, rent the little house we live in now that’s right across the street to the sister and grand niece. We’d decided that we were going to move back into the big house before bringing the girls up from California and having them here to rent our place across from us is just an amazing bonus in our lives. After deciding that we’d probably spend the rest of our days in our big beautiful house we chose to remove all the maple trees.

They were so huge and old old, they made so much shade that grass wouldn’t grow, they grew hundreds of baby maples and we just don’t physically have the backs to keep ontop of them anymore. After removal we found that they all had heart rot and would’ve needed removal soon anyway, so that made me feel better about it, but it was still hard to decide to make such a change.

We plan to plant different types of trees and make some beautful flower beds over there. it’ll be amazing! Also, Mitch is going to get his dream garage built, big enough to organize things and store things and park a car in and stuff not overflowing out of every drawer and cupboard. Also, my new maybe someday profitable hobby is taking over the shed, I’ve got boxes and boxes of treasures to the ceiling and then some in the house and it’s starting to become a little bit of a big problem in our little home,

so I gotta stop getting stuff till I start selling stuff (so I say, but will I? nah, it’s too fun! ok but I will really curtail the aquiring, no really, I’ll try!) When we get across the street I’ll be able to have room to have all the things I need to ship bigger stuff, until then I’ll just continue to slowly list little things. If you ever want to see what I have for sale, go to ebay search for sellers and my seller ID is pickan25 and i’ve named my venture Pickaniche. Everywhere I saw things saying Pick A Niche… since I really didn’t have a clue of my niche I picked the saying!

Filmed my First How To:

I just replaced the flush handle on our toilet, it’s a water saving flapperless Glacier Bay toilet and I couldn’t find a video on how to do it, so I made my own. It’s not as cut and dry as you’d think, it’s a bit tricky so I’m glad I did it and I hope it helps someone!

Check out my “how to” replacement of flush handle flapperless water saver Glacier Bay toilet video here

Sorry it’s been so long between my posts… I’ve just been distracted by life, counting my blessing, loving my loved ones and thanking the Good Lord for all of it.

I gotta go now, hoping to squeeze myself into the middle of this cuddle fest happening!

I love the ebb and flow of life, it’s fluid, never permanent, and it saddens me that life is always changing. It’s all so oxymoronic! The human condition, the ever transforming contradictions of all things possible, good and bad. I’ve learned to be more accepting of my flawed self and let my heart guide my choices more than my ego. No more putting myself into a self created box. There’s always room for renegotiation and I now permit myself to change my mind. It’s allowed for a fuller more true existence. What’s this all about you ask. well, I’ve become a cat person!

Zoey has adapted amazingly well! She’s even started laying by my feet again. We followed all the rules about cat introductions and it worked really well.

I’ve always been one to love dogs and here I am going to rescue a cat and end up adopting two! We adopted them from Pawsitive Outreach spay Neuter advocates

meet El Capitan Odin Underfoot , he love snacks, belly rubs and watching the birds.

Also… he’s always right under foot, when he’s not spilling over the cat perch.

This is Mister, Mr. man he is so smart, a super cuddler, loves going for car rides and has the greatest personality and my favorite is he gives the forehead tap love 💗

Going for a ride

That makes three cats we now have! Am I betraying that person I once was? So proud to love dogs and never understanding the draw of a cat and look at me now. I’ve Stereotyped cats based on a few childhood interactions. I’d been focused on only the negative and now I see all the positive things they bring into one’s life.

Milo loves everyone and shows it with lots of kisses

I get it now, the good Lord gives us these drastically different types of love companions because we are not always who we once were and sometimes we need different types of love and need to give our love differently.

I’ve made room in my heart to love both cats and dogs! Yay! Life is just so much fuller.

Getting to be bird watching buddies

Now throughout the house pictures are tilted, random items are on the floor, missing or sometimes even broken and I love it. That’s life; messy, imperfect, forever flawed and never the same. If you allow yourself to change and grow, your cup will overflow!