Watashi Wa: Yoshi (My name is Yoshi)

This^^^^ is Yoshi! He is our 2.5 year old Shiba Inu. Shiba Inu is a Japanese breed, meaning "Little Dog". Since the breed is Japanese, I decided to keep with the theme and name him
"Yoshi" which means "Good Luck" and sometimes "Good Boy" in Japanese. He will also answer to: Yo, YoMo, Yokimoto, Yoshimonster, Yokamotion and even Tokyo Bob.


The day has finally come! For the last 9 months that Nick and I have lived together, we haven't been able to have our little Yoshi man live with us. My parents were nice enough to keep him at their house, and my dad brought him to work everyday, so I could at least see him then. Still, it wasn't the same.

BUT!

We can have Yoshi in our new house! He has been there a week, and is loving it! It took a couple days for him to settle in, but he has been a total angel the whole time. Being an angel isn't exactly Yoshi's mojo. He is usually a complete rascal who has the energy of 5 people. My parents always complained about him waking them up WAY too early, and being a pest. This has not happened at all! (It's because he knows who's boss- me. lol) He goes to bed when he is told, he stops begging when told (almost always) and he is calm except for when we come home from work.

It's been so nice. One thing Yoshi does, however, is think he rules the house- and he does. He is like a kid- seriously. He likes to snuggle on the couch, or on the bed, and he has figured out that if he lays on the foot of our bed, he can see out the window. Window watching is his newest and most favorite activity. He has such a personality, it kills me. He usually HATES it when I photograph him, and will look away until I put the camera down. He is so loyal, though. He loves to just sit and snuggle with you, which isn't typical of his breed. He's so sweet.



While he is a self made lap dog, he will often disappear upstairs to lounge on his new bed. (An actual dog bed)

He has gotten in trouble lately for barking. He thinks that every car door that he hears is either someone invading his space or that Nick is coming home.

That's another story! Yoshi LOVES Nick. OH MY GOSH! He can't get enough of him. I may as well be chopped liver when Nick is home! It's pretty funny. Lately, we've all been getting up at the crack of dawn since Nick is on the dayshift. About an hour after he leaves, Yoshi lays by the door, ready for him to come back. Its' so sweet! Yoshi loves laying on Nick and being petted by him the most. I think I've been replaced. :)


We plan on getting him a friend at some point. Yo loves other dogs, and I think he's missing my parent's dog, and his life (up until this point) companion, Ollie. So, until the day comes that we have more space money and time, Yoshi will have to make playdates with other puppies. That's ok though, for now, we are super happy with the little YO MO.


Yoshi is a spoiled little guy. He has a huge bucket of toys in our living room, as well as his very own cookie jar for treats! Lately his favorite toy has been the pig we got him for Christmas. Each time he gets a new one, it must go through the initiation of being massacred. Most of his toys have no stuffing left. The pig is no exception: see below:

Not only do the toys shed, but Yoshi does too! All I can say, is thank heavens for the Dyson vacuum!

We are very proud to introduce you to Yoshi. He loves people and would love to have more friends; dogs and humans alike!

A New House!

Well, We did it! We're all moved in to our new place! We have been looking to move because our old house didn't allow dogs, and that is a big no bueno! I have had Yoshi for 2 years, and for the past 8 months, he's had to say at my parent's house. (But that's another story)

We have been really excited for this move! Our old place just didn't quite feel like....home. Not that I didn't like it there, but what we have now is so much better! We were lucky enough to have friends who needed renters at the right time! The place is bigger, way cuter, and Yoshi can finally live with us! How exciting!

I've been pretty neurotic about this whole process. Poor Nick! Fortunately for me, he is a total stud and puts up with my neuroticism! I got a planner for the new year, and have been obsessed with planning everything lately. So anyway, I planned EVERYTHING. What we were packing this night and that night, and where the boxes should go- because of course there was a moving schedule..... I actually started to scare myself- and seeing this in writing only proves my point!

So, we got all packed (mostly on schedule), and our awesome landlord, Randy gave us a week to move in! (Thanks again!) He's done a lot for us, and I am so grateful! It's nice to have great people all around you!

We started moving in last Monday, with a goal to be completely unpacked and organized when all the big furniture was to be moved (saturday) It was NOT easy! Holy moly, we have soooooo much crap! But, we did get done, and I felt like the coolest overachiever ever.

So now that we're all moved in, I will become obsessive about decorating (I can feel it) I want our house to feel like a home, and be put together. I'm planning on documenting my decorating adventures for all to see, and I'm excited! So far, we're doing well, but there's a lot more I want to do!

So now on to the pictures!

Here is the Living room:
I love our new lamps and rugs! I'm planning on doing pillows and some wall art: to come!

Here's the Kitchen- which I LOVE!!!

I'm planning on growing bamboo in the window sill and we need a rug in front of the door still :)


This is the half bath downstairs. I love it. it's super stylish!

The guest bedroom (which needs a lot of work because its really boring right now.
and the office AKA the "man cave"



And the upstairs bathroom, which has a jetted tub!

And finally- the Master Bedroom! Na-Na!
We love our new room! It is so big! we finally have room for stuff-who knew? My favorite part is the new tv we splurged on- it's just about the best idea we've ever had! Haha!

This is the room I'm going to start decorating! I've picked a color palette, and will document all my progress here, if you'd like to see the transformation!

A Christmas Tree, Legos, and a Christmas Goose....well sort of.

This Christmas was so great! No really, it was!

First of all, it was our first Christmas in our house together, so of course, we needed a tree! Since we are poor, my mama helped us out and bought everything for us- a tree and tons of ornaments! I seriously couldn't ask for a better mama. We forgot to get a star though, so Nick and I went out and found the PERFECT star!

We got totally spoiled. On Christmas Eve, we went out to lunch with our good friends, Oliver and Jen Cummings, Eric and Heather Sanders and Jere Cummings. It was great to catch up finally over some awesome sushi!

Then we went to my family's party, which is always interesting. Luckily however, no one fought this year!

But the important stuff came later.

We went to my parent's house to do Christmas (as we would be spending Christmas day with Nick's family), and we got SPOILED! Our loot consisted of 2 movies, 1300pcs of legos, a puzzle, an awesome compass for Nick (the legos were for him too), toys for me, a necklace, money, gift cards for groceries (which i never realized would be so important) and the big prize....

drum roll please......

A KITCHENAID MIXER!!!!!! My parents are WAAAAY too generous!

Then it was time to give them their gift- considerably smaller, but I was still proud of it.

I made them some really cool wall art to hang in their living room! It is silhouettes of trees with layers of texture over them, so they no longer look like photos. It's a set of three tall skinny ones to be framed. They LOVED it, which made me quite happy!

We got home around 11 and abandoned the idea of making cookies for the following day. Shortly after midnight, Nick said we should open gifts! So we did!

We did a smaller christmas this year to save money. Earlier in the month, we spent a wonderful night in Park City in a fabulous hotel suite! So for Christmas day, we just decided to do stockings.

I packed Nick's with stuff to keep him occupado while on the graveyard shift- silly putty, card games, an etch-a-sketch, candy, and a super cool RUSH dvd that we have yet to watch.

Nick got me stuff that was too big for my stocking, so he improvised and got me this BEAUTIFUL gift bag I'd seen and been mesmerized with at Pier 1 a few days before. It is crimson with super glittery crowns on it. Inside were two super cute sweaters (which I think by the way is amazing- he can pick out clothes for me better than my mom!) and Despicable Me (which I highly recommend)! How fun!

We spent the majority of Christmas day with Nick's family- oh so fun! We did presents as soon as we got there- we got a really cool candle holder from his parents that is made from sandstone- really unique, and Nick got a mountain climbing book from his brother Jon, and I got season two of Dexter from his brother, Karl! Oh exciting! I LOVE Dexter! (I'm glad a little birdy told Karl what to get me :) ).

After breakfast and a nap, I helped Nick's niece, Katie make necklaces and bracelets with the jewelry kit she got. (That little one is so adorable, I just can't get over her) We played games, and Nick's mom taught me how to make a tin foil star! It was a really good little bonding session for her and I, and I am so excited to know how to make them now!

Cool, Huh?

Anyway, I had a big meal planned so we left and went home to cook!

Back in October, my dad went pheasant hunting with friends, and I asked him to bring me back some. I decided that pheasant was close enough to a Christmas Goose!

I looked up recipes everywhere, and finally settled on one from Emeril. Roasted Pheasant with whiskey cumberland sauce.

I was so excited! You start with a bed of sliced oranges and fresh thyme, add the birds (who have been rubbed down with whiskey) and wrap them in bacon. Bake for 45 mins, and make the sauce which had cherry jelly, orange juice and more whiskey. I also made stuffing and butternut squash risotto!

The dinner came out AWESOME! I was so excited to serve it to Nick! It tasted amazing (even though we are dumb and got grapefruit instead of oranges :P )

Before it went in the oven

Yay for Christmas dinner!

After dinner and a bit of cleanup, we decided it was time to break out the new legos! I haven't played with legos since I was a kid, and it was so fun to sit down and build stuff! We put a movie on in the background, and went to town with our awesome legos! I built a castle complete with a moat, a yard with a tree and a wall, and Nick built a stellar tower with different levels and "architectural elements" :) It was a blast! Who says you have to be a kid to play with legos?

You wish your Legos were as cool as ours :)

Christmas was soooooo good! I didn't want to go back to work on Monday! Time goes by so fast!

Next up is New Years Resolutions!

The Rundown

Well, here I am; after having this blogger account for almost two years, I've FINALLY decided to use it. One of my new year's resolutions for 2011 is to become an avid blogger. Why? Because I finally have a life that I want people to know about. So here's the rundown.

The past year of my life has been the most amazing yet. I met and fell in love with my Nicholas, we moved in together, and we have such an amazing life! I really never thought it was possible to be as happy as I am, and the best part is, I know it will only get better! He has put up with all my crazy idiosyncrasies, and might have finally gotten it to sink into my head that I am a mere human, and that that is okay. He is my rock, my best friend, and most importantly, my love. He inspires me to be a better person, and over the past year, I think I have accomplished at least some of that.

This past year, we took an amazing trip to Lake Tahoe, San Francisco, and then drove up the Oregon coast- stopping along the way to camp, sightsee and explore. It was SO much fun, and we learned stuff too....Like how we need to plan money better, haha!

Since then, we try to be active (LOVE to hike, camp, and have talked many times about how we need to be more active) but usually, after work it's time for dinner and a movie. Somehow, it never gets old. We recently had the brilliant idea to move the spare tv into our bedroom. It was a fabulous idea and makes for many the late night Dexter or Friends marathon. :)

Needless to say, I love my life- I love how its going, and I love knowing that it will get better from here. I love finally being able to be proud of who I am, and knowing that I have a set of loving arms to come home to.

So, that's the rundown, as cheesy as I may have written it, I wouldn't have it any other way!