Goin' Road Trippin'

Here Comes the Sun

Let me start out by saying, “Trees are Terrific!” I love, love, love trees, but with that being said, they can really cause some issues. We have 3 huge, beautiful, thick maple trees in our front yard.

The trees are so big that Avista (our power company) has to come in and cut a huge L shape out of them every few years because they get too close to the power lines.

The L in the trees from the power company

It’s hard to imagine when you are planting a little bitty tree that it will grow sooo big that it almost covers half the house, and goes halfway into the street.

The side street next to our house and our trees halfway in the middle

Also, the amount of leaves it produces every year is beautiful and back-breaking! I remember one year, Mitch was working the swing shift and I was outside in the dark with a flood light because it was going to snow the next day, I just remember telling myself, “Power through the pain, you can do this, just power through the pain.”

The start of fall with our maple trees last year

We had to put a fence between the front and back yard because the dogs would always have dirty paws.

Honeydew on my car, sprinkled with pollen.

Did you know honeydew is actually aphid poop!

The leaves were so thick getting any sunlight in the house was rare.

Such a cute little house, nestled behind the trees.

Mitch and I were talking about how much work the trees are, all year-long and how when we get older it’s just going to get harder and harder to keep up with the work. Not to mention the little helicopters (seed pods) that stain the vehicles when it rains and as they decay they release a dye known as tannins.

The conversation wasn’t interesting enough for Milo and Zoey, but Charlie pretended to care.

I started thinking…If Avista trims the trees because of their power lines, I wonder if they would just cut them down for us for free!? I googled it, I got their number and made a call. I was just kind of inquiring and the lady said that someone would go by the house and they would get back to us in probably a week. Not even two days later on a Tuesday, they called me back and had an opening to cut them down on Thursday. It was that quick! We decided the pro’s to cut them down really outweighed the con’s and said, “let’s do it.”

One last photo for the photo book before they’re gone

Avista setting up before starting to cut down the trees

They said they only cut them, and we will be responsible for the clean up

Until the house was barely visible from the street!

Zoey had some reservations about the trees being removed, but we told her she’s not the one who has to do all the work.

She said, “Fine my human pets, just get me a snack and bring me my Charlie to cuddle with.”

Avista sprayed something on the stumps so they wouldn’t begin to grow again and we are hoping to use them for flower planters.

The blue circle is now gone and soaked into the stump

We took 15 truck loads of branches over a 5 day period, so needless to say we were pretty sore and had some battle wounds to show for it.

I looked for my long sleeve work shirt but things surprisingly get lost in a such a small house.

Mitch’s gotten good use out of his chain saw.

The front part of the roof was in shock since it’d never had the summer sun shine on it before.

Hello little house, here comes the sun, do-do-do-d0 (me trying to write the tune of that song)

So how did we move all those branches you ask? We used our trusty ol’ girl aka, the truck. She also got a battle wound from the work. Mitch’s sister Annette, the sweetest soul in the world, was helping us load branches and didn’t know her own strength. haha.

One of the pieces of wood went straight into the back windshield, made a hole and next thing you know the whole window starting cracking.

Mitch got so busy cleaning it up, he forgot that I’d want pictures for stories sake.

“Wait Nettie, don’t throw that stick for Milo, it may hit the little yellow house! just kiddin sis! you’re the best.”

So now we have a blank canvas for our front yard, and have learned what type of trees we can plant up front so they don’t interfere with the power lines. I am now in search for the most beautiful dogwood tree, yipppeee.

But for now, all that wood is going to keep us warm this winter, since now the trees are gone we can get a wood stove (a life saver for around here when the power goes out in the winter time.)

The neighborhood has been surprisingly appreciative of the tree removal because it created a large blind spot for traffic.

The best part is that house isn’t any hotter! We thought for sure there would be a huge difference because of all the shade they produced, but that isn’t the case. Extremely grateful to now have sunshine in our home.

Ugh Is An Understatement

Not even two days after pops had passed away; Mitch was sick as a dog, body aches, fever and just miserable. I felt for him and I tried my best to give him attention and care, but honestly I was in a such a daze of my own I wasn’t much help. I was taking care of all the things one must do after a death and was just trying to come to terms with losing pops.

Pops service was super special, just like him

Two days later and I was experiencing first hand the misery of Mitch’s sickness! The aches were awful, the fever and chills, just debilitating! It was horrible and all I wanted to do was sleep, but I figured I’d just take some Tylenol, pull up my boots and go to work. Three days later and I still wasn’t feeling any better. Mitch was on the mend after day three, so I figured I needed to just wait it out. Finally after 5 days of having a fever I gave in and decided I needed to go to the doctor. The reason for having a fever for so long, an ear infection and probably some kind of virus, maybe the flu. They wouldn’t be able to know for sure if it was the flu unless they did a flu test, and asked if I wanted to be tested. I said, “sure why not, I’d like to know if we really did have the flu.” The doctor said, “well, you’re probably not going to like the test though, they need to swab your nose.” I thought to myself, ok, no big deal, I’ve put q-tips in my nose before; and then he came in with it. It was thin, and long… way too long for just going up my nose, and they had to put it waaaaayy up there, like 5 inches up my nose! I asked if he could just do one nostril and that was a big fat no, it had to be both. I decided to take one for the team and just go for it. He had me tip my head back, and ugh, the burning and stinging and instant pain was shocking, and then he was done with one. Phew, ok I can do this… I shake off the feeling and get ready for the other side, it wasn’t as bad, maybe because I knew what was coming, but eeeekkks the burning in the back of my head. Wow, it seriously sucked! Thankfully it was over and we were going to be on our way to get antibiotics and the doctor said they’d call if the results came back as the flu. Suddenly I felt warm, really warm, then super hot, burning up, so I take off my sweater and I think I might get sick, oh wait everything is getting dark and muffled in my ears. Mitch looks at me and says, “are you ok? you look so pale? are you going to pass out?” my whole body leans to the left and I can’t shake the feeling, I …am….about….to…….faint. So I let go and just melt onto Mitch while I try to come back into reality. Finally, things begin returning to focus and I need water, water, I need water. I go over to the sink, put my head under the faucet and drink as if I’d been walking in the desert for days. Phew, now that was crazy. I almost pass out from getting a flu test. ha! I’m such a silly girl.

I got a call the next morning from the doctor and yes, it was the flu.

There’s a name for our experience, it’s called “the let-down effect”, and basically once you make it through a really stressful time in life your body comes down from all the stress and pressure and then you get sick. There are studies about this phenomenon but I think the good Lord knows that during hard times its just too much to get sick, so he helps you wait till you have time and can handle it.

Then I got this weird circle spot on my chin!

I put PRID on it, and it stopped the itching and seemed to help it heal

First I thought it was a spider bite, then someone said maybe it’s from the stress, someone else thought it could be from my ear infection or an allergic reaction….but when someone mentioned it could be the possibility of RING WORM, it was time to go back to the doctor. She said my ear infection was gone and it’s not ring worm, she thinks it was probably a spider bite. So now it’s been three weeks, we both still have a cough, but everyday we are getting a little better, physically and emotionally. Healing takes time, and we aren’t rushing ourselves to be better. We’re just learning to live again, so we go into each day with love and acceptance of life as it is now.

Forever Ago February

I wrote this post almost two months ago but with all that was going on, I just haven’t gotten around to posting it until now. Thank you all for your love and support during this difficult time!

February was a busy month for us, of course there’s Valentines day, my birthday and our 5th year of wedded bliss, so I decided we needed to try something out of our comfort zone. We tried a day of culture and culinary first. First we went to the Northwest Museum of Arts and Culture and saw the exhibition, The Titans of the Ice Age. While we were there we also got a guided tour of the Campbell House.

It was informative and interesting enough, if you like that sort of thing.

Mitch and I having some fun on our cultural date

Now that we’ve been officially cultured, we checked that off the list and went onto our culinary first. I made us reservations at a restaurant on the South Hill called Casper Fry, and luckily it was restaurant week so we got a appetizer, entree and desert for a set price.

The lighting and layout was warm and inviting, it had a good ambiance.

We watch cooking shows and neither of us had ever eaten risotto and this was a perfect opportunity to finally try some. It tasted good, except they topped it with a pickled mushroom! I had to look at the picture an hour later to remind my stomach that I’d eaten. But hey, that’s the world of fancy food right, small portions at high costs. We did it, we changed things up and tried something new. Probably wouldn’t do it again, but glad we did it, none the less. Next year I might schedule our date on the other side of the spectrum and do some dollar store crafting and go eat at the Golden Corral!

Mitch got me a fiberoptic light for my Birthday, I love it and so does Zoey

and Stacey got me a delicious birthday dinner. Waiting for the restaurant to open we decided to make the most of our time and cruised around the mall in style!

The cold weather has kept us in, but hasn’t kept us down. I’m not giving up on my bread making and finally tried it again.

Hello bread maker, I’m sorry it’s been so long

Best one yet…but I can do better. I’ll try again in another year or so

Mitch learned to sew… thank you youtube!

The most delicious artichoke and spinach dip made by my sweetie and almost all of it eaten by me!

Seriously, that dip is AMAZING! If i could, I’d dip into that picture right now and have me a bite!

Until We Meet Again

Papa went to be with the Lord on March 31, 2017 at 6:04 p.m. He was at home with us, just as he would’ve wanted it. Pneumonia had its hold and wouldn’t let go, but a stroke on Wednesday March 29th, helped him get to heaven a little sooner.