Welcome again!

It is one of my goals this year to blog much more often-like every week or even multiple times a week. This feels like a tall order, until I look at some of the other blogs I follow/read and these incredible people women/wives/mothers with careers are blogging almost every day. If they can do it, surely I can too.

So here goes-I plan to try and include much more than what we did/where we went (or where we didn't go and what we didn't do). Maybe some crafts? Some decorating? Less pictures of dogs? (yea right).

First off, the changes I keep ever so slyly hinting about...

1. Kevin was done with school/graduated in December (good job babe!) He had already had a few interviews that obviously didn't pan out, so we figured that I would continue to work at Hanover (for the best bosses ever) while he looked for something "up here" in Chico, or elsewhere. Well what do you know, he applied for a position with a local company, Butte Steel Inc., got an interview a little over a week later, and was offered a job on the spot! It was one of those -whoa-  moments and days.

Kev came into my office after his interview, looking all handsome and fancy in his suit, and the ladies I work with put it simply but oh-so-correctly, sometimes things don't work out (the other interviews) for a reason. Here we are, in a terrible economy, both working full-time right out of college. We couldn't ask for much more than that. Are we going to be rich? No. Are we stoked? YES!

Maybe it isn't every Chico State student's dream to stay and work play after graduating, but it was ours and were livin' it. So moving on..

2. We're moving! Two paychecks means a bigger place, thank goodness. Right after Kev started working, I started looking for a place with a yard and two bedrooms. A fenced, big yard. Oh, and a dishwasher would be nice, as would central heat/AC (we haven't had either in years). Closer to work would be great too. Well, there we are a few days later putting a deposit down on a two bedroom/two bathroom place LITERALLY 5 minutes from work.

Oh, did I mention that Kev works LITERALLY 1 minute from my office? I didn't, but it is perfect.

Back to the new place, it has a washer and dryer (that must work better than what we have now, which basically don't), a fireplace!, a huge fenced yard and separate fenced garden, too many closets to count (5 or 6), a carport (a compromise), central heat/AC, dishwasher, etc. It is not the most beautiful or stylish place - but that's what Pinterest is for! We are going to start moving things in next weekend - can't wait!

3. Bodie and Lily (aka B&L, Bo Bo and Wiwy) have a forever home -- Ours. We have seen these puppies go from 5 and 7 pound little 8-week-old nuggets, to very sick/near death with parvo-virus, to thriving parvo-survivors (not all dogs are so lucky), to happy/healthy/crazy almost 10-month old pups. We still have NO idea what they are (mommy probably got around) but we love them anyways. They drive us nuts, they rule the roost, and they insist on chewing their bones on the couch - but that's what owning a dog is all about. So here they are..

b & l at 8 weeks and almost 10 months

Sometimes we joke about how silly they look with those ears, how Lily must have been bred from a squirrel, and how Bodie has the worst doggy-farts known to man-kind. But mostly, they make us melt with their cuteness. Maybe one day they will be as well-behaved as they should be.

Remember, all you need is love...and a dog.

Love, K&M

Lately

Kev and I spent most of Thanksgiving Break here in Chico. The Sunday prior to TG, Kev and I made our first (very own) Turkey! It turned out AMAZINGLY yummy, we we're very proud of ourselves. While he tended to the bird (thanks Grandma Landucci for all the baking tips!), I worked on the side dishes. Yum yum yum.

Not bad lookin' huh? The rest of the week we just hung around the house, ran errands, relaxed, and went for a walks around  the neighborhood and campus (I had to renew and check out some more books from the library for another research paper). Kev got to show me a concrete slab that he helped create for one of his classes, that's it in the pic of him below.

Thursday morning we got up bright and early to head "home" for the real TG. We were nervous to see how Tasha interacted with Kev's parent's dogs Max and Petey. Tasha stayed at their house in Livermore while Kev had TG with his Dad, Stella, his sister and his Nana and Papa. I went to Roseville to spend the day at my Aunt's house. We had a lovely meal, but I couldn't wait to see Gaby, Dominic, Grandpa and Bubba.

Gaby is already writing upper and lower-case letters, spelling names and words, and drawing very well for a 4 year old! I couldn't believe how well she can write and draw, I was a very proud Auntie. And of course, Dominic has so many words. We stayed at a hotel and went back to Bubba's (my Aunt) for a Friday morning brunch (also very yummy). Thanks Bubba for two great meals and a happy TG :)

I met Kev in Modesto on Friday to visit his grandparents. Tasha got to meet the whole gang-Grandma and Grandpa Landucci, dogs Henry and Slinky, but the cats Rocky and Grace evaded her capture, lol. Tasha seems to do very well with male dogs, she was interested but more laid-back than I thought she would be. Slinky seems to be very fond of Tasha, he even sent her a little love e-letter! She was very flattered, but we're not sure that she is looking for "anything serious" at the moment (she is, after all, up for adoption). Hehe. But we are so glad she was able to make a friend! Anyways, I was able to get a few cute pics of the love-birds.

We spent a few hours catching up with Grandma and were glad to see that Grandpa Leo is recuperating well from his hip-replacement surgery. Wishing him quick and less-painfull progress!

It's a very rainy Sunday evening here in Chico. I have been crocheting like crazy since Kev's Grandma gave us a bunch of yarn and needles. I'm having so much fun learning. This lady is a saint. Her blogs, YouTube videos, and instructions are amazing. She has taught me everything I have crocheted so far. I plan on posting a picture here soon of all the items I have made.

We have one more week of school, then Finals Week. Wish us luck!

Livin' for the weekends

Another school week over, another weekend flies by. We live for the weekends. No three-year-olds crying in my ear, calling me "stupid-head", or sneezing all over me. No long hours in physics and construction labs for Kevin. Just whatever plans we make for ourselves, until Sunday afternoon homework at least.

We did some major grocery shopping Saturday, seriously. The fridge was almost completely empty and we were scrounging up ingredients for decent meals. So we got up early, had some coffee and a light breakfast, watched a little TV, and then headed to Safeway and Winco to do some damage. $150+, ouch. But we should be good-for a long while.

We don't really have cable TV because it is too expensive. We get network channels and a few more, mostly Hispanic programming, lol. So we started using Netflix and are working on three shows at once. We are on the third season of Mad Men now. When we have to send the DVD back and wait for the next disc of episodes we watch The Office (Season 6) and Weeds (Season 4) on instant streaming, it's so awesome! We just log onto Netflix from Kev's Ps3 and episode after episode can be played instantly. Definitely worth the 9$ a month. Some days we watch a few episodes of something, some days we don't watch any-it all depends on the homework.

Speaking of school, things are chuggin' right along. Already 7 weeks in, or is it 8? I write a lot of small papers and do a lot of landscape observation. Not many tests for me this semester, but a lot of writing. Kevin usually has homework assignments, and has midterms for every class. He just took his second physics test on Friday and thinks he "nailed it." He has three tests next week-good luck Kev!

Friday afternoon we drove Tasha out to Orland to have her spay suters removed from the humane society's vet. She was very scared and even peed a little on the table, lol. Then we drove her out to the shelter to show Judy, the person who basically runs the place, how well Tasha is doing. Then it was back to the vet to get her rabies tag. We got so many questions about her looks and breeds, she is very unique I guess.

When we got home we gave her a treat for a job well done and decided to take her to campus and back-a long walk for such a little doggy! But she has so much fun smelling all the new smells, barking at strangers, and trying to chase after grey squirrels.

Yes, she has a snaggle-tooth, we love it!

Saturday was Kevin's Grandma's birthday! We wanted to head to Modesto to celebrate but its a pretty long drive from Chico for a day trip and my car isn't running so well, so we thought it might be better just to stay here. But, Happy Birthday Grandma!!! Thanks for all you do and hope you had a nice, relaxing Saturday!

We played with Tasha a little bit more Saturday afternoon in the front yard with her new Tasha-sized tennis ball.

 

Then, we used our second garden grown green pepper to fry up some carne asada fajitas for dinner, YUM! and settled in for some major TV watching and brownie baking.

All in all, a not-so-eventful weekend-but we have gotten a lot of stuff done around the house. Here comes another week!