Christmas pictures ..... we had a great time at home in CDA!

We had a wonderful Christmas at home in Coeurdalene with Dad and Terri and Bri and Kodi. We ended up staying 8 days because once the snow started it delayed us, pretty big snowstorm. I was happy to stay an extra day, we started a puzzle, watched 2 movies and spent a bunch of time outside playing with Kodi in the snow, plowing snow and taking picture. Movies - don't rent The American, not a good movie. Do rent Salt, pretty entertaining.

John and I are home and have lots of stuff we want to do before going back to work Monday. I'm thankful I have such a great family that I love spending the holidays with, I just wish I could have brought them all back to Seattle with us. I don't like it when we all go home.

As usual I am going to make a promise to blog more often. You don't believe me. But it's true. Stay tuned for 2011 blogs .....

Brian liked this gift .... we had a great time opening presents on Christmas Day. One of my presents was a photo Bri took of some back-country behind McCall, beautiful, he gave John and I big framed print of it - really cool.

Terri likes her pretty gift from John!

Dad's smiling on Christmas Eve :)

Brian took Kodi out for a run - he chases the 4-wheeler and gets a good workout, check out the photo below as they scream down the street in front of Dad and Terri's house .....

Lot of snow this year - it was gorgeous but a few days late!

My cute husband John.

The Wisdom Christmas Party - Aaron & Jeanne hosted this year - Brian has Maddie in a basket and she's enjoying the ride.

Christmas Eve - getting ready for crab legs!

John and I celebrating Christmas before we went to CDA :)

We have John's mom's parent's Christmas ornaments, his grandparents' ornaments, pretty special on the tree :)

This is not a Christmas photo but Kodi is just too cute to not include in a post so here's an old one of the cutest dog in America .....

Almost done with the living room .....

Today marks a big day at our Seattle house, the living room is almost done. Our rug arrived and it's really cushy ... the kind that your toes sink into. We finished painting the fireplace and the bookshelves and our new chandelier arrived. It is waiting for Dad to arrive - he can install anything. And sheetrocks like nobody's business. He can basically build a house. Which is why we need him. He's going to sheetrock the garage. Our garage is the only part of the house that still resembles 1927 when our house was built. It needs some help.

But I digress. Our new couch has been ordered and will be arriving around January 3rd. We have finalists selected for a few other items for the room. So I guess it doesn't sound "done" but really it is now, we just need things to arrive. YEAH!

Next up - the kitchen is losing it's robin egg's blue paint and will be primed before next weekend. When we're done every single wall in this house will have been primed and painted. We're ambitious. Photos tomorrow ........

It rained today. All day. Lots and lots of rain and I didn't mind a bit. We stayed in, watched TV including the last 1/3 of A Few Good Men ("YOU CAN'T HANDLE THE TRUTH"). Cleaned the bathroom and the kitchen. Did 6 loads of laundry. Organized some of the closet. Read a few magazines. John went out into the rain and cleaned up all the tree limbs from the windstorm and put them in our huge yard waste container that all King County residents get - pretty cool. Then we headed out to get a hamburger for dinner and discovered that there WAS a U of W football game today and we had driven into the middle of the people driving away from the game. ERROR. We immediately turned off the main road, drove ourselves away from the University and went to Snappy Dragon, the famous Judy Fu's chinese restaurant where you can get homemade Judy noodles for $2.50 more per order. We like Judy Fu's

John has taken up residence in our leather chair and won't give it up.

We're not done painting which is why the ladder is still behind me.

The bookshelves need 1 more coat of paint and then we're done in the living room! We can unpack our books and decorate for the holidays!

It is Friday night. We are watching Dateline. John is home and it is so nice. Tomorrow we'll post new photos of house progress. Safe travels and lots of love to everyone going to the Homecoming tailgate at U of I - thanks Uncle Dave for inviting us!

Today there are no photos. I have a bad headache that has been hanging on all day. Tylenol won't touch it. Julie advised me to eat, drink water, take Advil and Tylenol (they do different things) and offered to take me to the hospital if need be. That is unnecessary but it's always nice to know Jules is available and ready to take me in if needed. She is the one that poured alcohol on an open wound on my foot a few years ago. That pain was SEARING. Don't tell her if you have an open wound, as a healthcare professional she feels obligated to immediately douse you in disinfectant against your will.

I trained a new employee all day today with a bad headache. The last 2 nights I fell asleep and missed all of my favorite primetime TV. If that doesn't indicate that I have a bug of some sort I don't know what does. Anyways, this is a tiny problem. I will get some sleep and be rid of this flu/cold bug.

Headaches are nothing. I feel really blessed and know how lucky I am so I'll stop whining, say my prayers and go to sleep.

Today we had a "work on the house" day. All day. It was a long, rewarding hard working day. We didn't make it to see The Social Network because we were so hard at work at home but we're glad we stayed home to do all this stuff. We unpacked the entire kitchen and painted 3 rooms. Photos below. By the time we're done we will have painted every single wall in this house. Anyone who knows us knows that until it's right we won't be happy so we'll just keep painting until it's all done. Primer is my new best friend. It just makes everything so shiny and new and clean. In a 1927 home that's a plus. I've been so excited about primer that

John swears he's going to wake up primed one day :)

The hallway which is now "linen" by Restoration Hardware. This photo looks yellow but actually it's a very light tan color, literally like a natural linen fabric. Light, earthy, neutral.

The dining room - it is primed and ready for paint.

We are deciding between linen or one shade lighter.

The upstairs bathroom is almost all white subway tile with black accents. It is primed and ready to be painted and I think we've decide to keep it white because it's such a small, cute

room, with a cool picture on the back wall that draws on the black and white.

Another photo of the upstairs bathroom - small and cute. It used to be toile which is a

orange-red color. It was great at the time. But I've moved on and my husband's

fantastic design taste has influenced me. When in doubt ask John. He knows design.

1 more hunting camp photo

One more picture from hunting camp, super cute. We didn't get any great pictures of Kodi this year unfortunately ..... he was only in camp with us for one day and we had to go back to work. Rest assured he is as adorable as always.

Seattle house pics

Here are a few photos of me painting our bedroom (notice the balance and outstanding agility) and of the outside of our house. We need to clean up the landscaping a bit and put down new bark, remove and add a few plants but all in all it looks pretty good for being ignored for two years.

Here are a few more hunting camp pictures of Jeanne, John and Maddie, Brandon and Holly's little girl. She's really cute.

Yes, I am back again

Trouble getting text before pictures so see and then read :)

Holly Wisdom, Brandon's wife

The Family

Bri

Brandon Wisdom

Uncle Aaron

It's been busy since I last posted in May. We moved to Seattle. I took on a new job at Robert Half. Brian and I did a landscaping project in his backyard. I forgot my blog password and didn't make time to reset it.

But now I'm back. I know you've heard it before. Stay tuned for photo-heavy blog updates often in the future.

Last weekend we were at hunting camp. It was really fun.

My computer is broken, almost

So there is a really good reason why I haven't been posting lately. My computer is broken. Almost. I have had it for 6 years. It's a PC. Not a MAC. I'm also reasonably computer illiterate. I mean after all I do make a living TALKING. Not typing, but talking. I do type very, very fast. (Thank you Ms. Agee, best typing teach in America, Grangeville High was very lucky to have you, even though the timed typing tests gave me so much performance anxiety I felt ill. My competitive and type A nature was in place at an early age. But I digress).

I am reasonably good with Word, "Bing" like a champ. But if my computer flashes up a warning sign about something, such as "upload new super-duper virus protection stuff" I 100% of the time click "close". Yes, that's right, I have never downloaded anything that it suggested. Ever. Not in 6 years. Which is why my computer now refuses to talk to ITunes (serious problem for a runner, I must have new music on my tiny shuffle). It constantly stalls, gets upset and basically can't exist in 2010 successfully. If the house is in the 70's inside the computer fan revs up and sounds like we have a lawnmower in the den. John hates this computer. He assures me that my computer's problems have more to do with the age of my computer (which he finds amazing by the way) than what I have or have not downloaded/updated since the summer of 2004. I bought this computer before I bought my house. Before I bought my first I-pay-the-car-payment car (thank you Dad for my first car, err cars). This computer was basically the first big ticket item I laid down cash for in my short life on this planet. And now it is dang near dead. But there's more to this story of why I've been off-line.

I also joined something called Facebook. Yes, most of you joined many many years ago but again, I was hesitant and busy. I joined. I clicked on a hyperlink the other day that was supposed to be about the local news and a virus warning went off like the house was on fire. So I did what all smart people do. I simply turned the computer off. And left it that way for weeks. Yes, weeks. I assumed that must "kill" the virus, right? But it gets better/worse.

2 days later I went snow-shoeing at a corporate retreat and became completely without modern technology. How? The first 2 hours went great. Yes, 2 hours, my boss likes to make these outings endurance tests. It was uphill, like, "wow, I might be sick" uphill. The last 45 minutes it rained. We were literally dripping wet, the 5 of us corporate-retreaters. My blackberry was in my coat pocket. Some might say I forgot to take it out before we took off up the mountain, but I like to claim that I was determined to not be a slacker while we were corporate re-treating and I was going to keep an eye on my team and their email needs. The blackberry was so wet it never came back to life. It took my company 2 weeks to send a new blackberry. 2 very relaxing weeks I might add. At any rate, I've been basically off-line for a long time. But tonight I got crazy and decided to turn my computer back on and see if the "virus" would jump out of the computer and get me. It hasn't so far. So for those who have emailed and written requesting a new post - thank you for your encouragement. I am back on-line. And getting a new computer soon. Just as soon as I have time to actually go buy it.

I would add a photo here but John is at a business dinner and has the family camera and all the family know-how about how to download and post a photo.

Easter Photos

My husband came home with the family camera. Here are a few favorites from Easter Day at Dori and Fred's - which really should be called Dori and Fred's and Jeff's.

Easter eggs!

Morgan Poxleitner. He's cute and he can really swing a crochet mallet. Watch out, you might get hurt.

Uncle Fred loves to lay in the grass, I remember seeing him do this my whole life.

John, Terri and Dad - so fun to be together, we just miss Bri.

Me with the parents : )


John takes cool photos. Visit his flickr account sometime.

Easter

Easter was wonderful as usual. Aunt Dori and Uncle Fred really host a wonderful Easter - year after year for as long as I can remember. The weather cooperated, people laid on the beautiful green lawn. We missed those who couldn't make it, especially Brian and Kodi. He really likes running around the farm. I meant Kodi but actually Brian does too.

Crochet was played, Steve and Dad cheated a LOT as usual but succombed to John and myself as the winners. If you don't cheat in Easter crochet at Dori and Fred's you really shouldn't bother playing. The hot mustard was delicious as usual, killer salad fantastic and the best of the best, the smoked turkey. That smokehouse is a marvel. I don't know how Fred does it.

There are photos but I need my husband to get home before I can get them out of the "family camera" which is really his camera that we bought for our family. He takes the photographs in this family. It works for us. No matter how hard I try his just end up being 10x better. My brother shares the talent of photography. Me, not so much.

One special moment in the day was when Uncle Fred raced Ellea for an egg during the Easter egg hunt and won. John, being new to the family, was surprised that the adults really did participate and that they really did take the plastic eggs from the kids if they had the chance. Even with a 40 year age difference. There are lottery tickets as prizes and we adults really need the money. Much more than the little rascals we feed and house already.

Photos to follow ... maybe tonight if The Biggest Loser is one hour instead of two. If it's two all bets are off and you'll have to wait until I return from a business trip.

Random things

Thank goodness it's Friday!!!! I am planning on watching New Moon this weekend, yes the 2nd in the Twilight series. No, I'm not 18 and yes I still like it.

I have to recommend a book to everyone - The Happiness Project - it's a #1 NY Times Bestseller and pretty fantastic. Google it. Or as I prefer to do - bing it. If you haven't started using http://www.bing.com/ instead of google I recommend that too.

Finally - I am having Kodi withdrawals. I miss him. Brian says we have to pay rent to get him back. Daily rent. I don't think that's a good deal but my brother has been swindling me for 30+ years. It started with paying him for the free bank balloons he had saved up. At this point I haven't agreed to "rent" Kodi but it's not totally out of the question. Kodi's a snuggler and pretty cute.

Kodi in bed

We are all up now and John has taken several photos of the beloved Kodi to share with you all. He has taken over the bed. Oh well, I was going to wash all the bedding today anyways. Yes, he's IN bed. Please excuse my hair, I have been up for a long time today and have been too busy chasing him around to pull myself together.

Why does a 6-year old lab act like a newborn?

It's Sunday morning and I am up and writing a blog at 7:12 a.m. I've actually been up for a while. Why on a Sunday would I get up so early? Because I am babysitting my beloved nephew Kodi. The 115 pound black lab who likes to lay on the bed, follow you from room to room and assert his wishes about what he'd like to be doing at the moment all day long. Kodi woke up at 4:30 a.m. Saturday morning. When he wakes up you wake up because he is taller than the bed, he can just walk over and put his nose in your face and start whining and/or licking you until you acknowledge that he is awake and wants to play/be let out/play some more/eat, etc. This morning we made it until 6:30 a.m., although he whined all night sporadically. I had locked him in the master bathroom because he wouldn't lay down in our bedroom, he kept pacing around the bed from side to side and his collar was jingling. John managed to sleep through all of this without waking up once. What does that say about our future with potential babies? It doesn't bode well for me. That man could sleep through a dump truck driving through a nitroglycerin plant (extra credit for anyone who can name where I got that). So here I sit with my cup of tea, my husband sleeping peacefully, one very excited Kodi who is waiting to go back outside for more time in the fresh air (I put my foot down and said we had to wait until the sun came up) and a list of things I've been meaning to get done. Brian would say I should thank him for how much more productive I am being this weekend due to the dog. He might be right. Where is my brother? He's steelhead fishing on the Salmon and the Snake, the annual trip with his high school friends, then he's fishing with Dad on Monday.

I would include a picture of the goofy pup but I don't know where our camera is and my husband, as I mentioned, is sound a sleep. Stay tuned, photos in a few hours.

Plans to update lots in 2010

Hello! After a hiatus from posting updates (it was a busy year getting married and all) I am back and excited to share photos and stories in 2010. Today is my cousin Steve Kaufman's wedding which we are very excited to attend in 3.5 hours. The Poxleitner family is on the way and/or has arrived and we're all going to be at the church at 4. I'll post photos from the reception tomorrow.

We spent 7 days in Coeurdalene at Dad and Terri's for Christmas with Brian and Kodi, it was wonderful and very relaxing. The Wisdom Christmas party was great, we had a big white elephant this year with John getting the infamous green jacket that's been passed on to unspecting family members for 6 years now. It is important to note that Aunt Karen is still shifty when playing board games and cannot be trusted but we love her anyways. We also celebrated Channukah and Christmas with Bill and Leslie and Jenn, Eric, Stella and Hunter before we headed north. It was a great evening.

John and I have lots of plans for 2010 including the usual resolutions, getting organized, more time at the gym, taking our vitamins, etc. and are excited to kick-off the year as newlyweds with a family wedding. I'll include as many photos as possible on this blog and for today I am including the link to our wedding photos. http://www.bryanaulick.com/, go to weddings, then client, then the password is gorge. There are a lot of pictures, you view as a slideshow.