200 days until the wedding!!!!!

We can hardly wait. We are having a great time planning the wedding and are checking things off the list left and right. Right now I am working on a wedding website! Hopefully that will be ready to view in the next week or so!

08.08.09

Can you believe is has been eight years since.....I have been able to wear earrings!!!! Yes one day, I picked out my earrings like usual, headed to Olympia High School where I was student teaching and then it began; the itching, burning, the swelling of my earlobes! From that day on, I have only been left to wear necklaces, bracelets, one brand of watch that I am not allergic to, and thank goodness my beautiful ring!! I tried every type of earring, nail polish, neosporen and to no avail, immediate reactions, until this Saturday!

My parents and I were headed to Bellevue to go to a nice dinner and an opera to celebrate my dad's birthday (It is actually today, so Happy Birthday Dad! You are the best!!!!) We got up there early, and went to the Bellevue square mall. I have had my eye on some amazing jewelry for the wedding from the Swarovski store and since they have one there we decided to check it out. The jewelry is amazing! I had pretty much came to the conclusion that I would be wearing clip-ons for the wedding but then the sales lady said that their earrings are made with surgical steel. So I gave it a shot! One minute passed.....nothing, five minutes...still nothing, day three wearing them ....still no signs of an allergic reaction!!! Yea. I LOVE these earrings, however, in retrospect I probably should have purchased something a bit more universal while my ears get used to earrings again, I will look pretty silly sporting these with my Tumwater High School sweatshirt this Friday:) Now I am going to scour the Internet for other earring manufactures that may use surgical steel too!!!!

The most expensive chocolate I have ever had!

Reagan for the past several months has been home alone during the day. I put up a baby gate blocking the stairs and she then has the entire downstairs to sleep, play and to go outside when she wants through the dog door. Usually when I walk in the house she is sitting on the couch curled up in the blanket and then she gets up and runs to me. Wednesday though was an entirely different story.......

So I got home around 7:30 and as usual came in the through the garage to spot Reagan not in her usual spot but across the house in the living room playing with something. As I got closer I realized is was a bunch of wrappers completly empty and shredded. Lindt truffle wrappers that is, both dark and milk chocolate! Along with the wrapper confetti were patches of melted chocolate in my extremely light carpet! As I shared my disbelief with Reagan at the mess she made it starts to hit me......she ate CHOCOLATE!!!!

Now in a slight panic considering chocolate is poisoness to dogs, I realize how many delectable, soft centered truffles she has devoured and immediately called her vet. Being late in the evening she told me to take her to the emergency vet close to our house. So I hurriedly packed up Reagan and we headed out.
Upon our arrival we were quickly ushered into an exam room where I relayed my dogs fine taste in chocolate. They rushed her to the back and injected her with something to induce vomiting. Shortly thereafter pieces of fine chocolate start to come up, then I hear the nurse say "there's some wrapper in here too", followed by " just got and entire truffle, wrapper and all!" I couldn't believe it!!!!

The vet came into the room and told me Reagan was doing well considering how much she ate, however her heart rate was was 190 and should be around 130. Chocolate contains theobromine. A naturally occurring stimulant found in the cocoa bean, theobromine increases urination and affects the central nervous system as well as heart muscle. While amounts vary by type of chocolate, it's the theobromine that is poisonous to dogs.

At this point she tells me that Reagan will have to stay overnight to be monitored. She might need oxygen, EKG and IV fluids depending on how the night goes. They were really great telling me that they would call if there was any change throughout the night.

So I finally left and of course fell apart thinking about Reagan. Patrick was in Bellevue working so I was on the phone as much as I could be with him and keeping him informed as well as my parents who were at the Governors Ball. It was a hard night for me.

Luckily since I get up so early, I called at 4:30 and they said Reagan was doing great and I could pick her up! We are so lucky that she is ok! However that choloate ended up costing me $458.00 ($8.00 for the truffles) but well worth it.

New Mindset

Yesterday I started a new fitness routine!!! It has been really tough with Patrick working in Bellevue to get a workout in (he was my workout partner and most importantly my motivator) and the class schedule at our gym was just not fitting into my schedule. So I started P90X. So far so good, it is a hard workout and utilizes a lot of the things Patrick and I did at the gym. I love the intenet componenet of it too, it hopefully will keep me accountable. I actually log on and say when I am going to work out that day or the whole week and then I log in at that time, do my workout and mark when I am finished. It links you up with other people who are working out at the same time as you and actually shows who is there and those that missed their workout!!! So think of me at 5:00 for day #2.

Christmas in Leavenworth Patrick has been wanting to have a family Christmas in Leavenworth for the last couple of years. This year we made it happen. Patrick's mom, dad, grandma and grandpa were up from California so it seemed like a perfect opportunity! On Christmas day we had my parents come over and we opened stockings and some gifts, had a little breakfast and then loaded up the vehicles for a beautiful drive to Leavenworth. It was a little surreal to have snow all the way there.

This is Patrick's Dad, Grandmother and Mother enjoying some Bavarian delights!

Here is Patrick and I doing the same! Like our hats? There is a very small but completely stuffed store filled to the brim with hats! Patricks is a true Bavarian hat and very warm I might add. By the way all of our last names Osgood, Yancey and my mothers maiden name Connah were all in the German book of last names!
We also did some with tasting with my Parents!

Leavenworth is absolutely beautiful at Christmas!