April 2011

April 2011 started with the first of nine weddings this year.  That's right...I said nine.  Don't worry, we'll cover them all.  Thankfully this one was local and didn't require plane tickets, rental cars, dog sitters or hotels...none of which we mind, it was just nice to start off easy!
So we got dolled up and drove south to Tacoma for the wedding of friend who I've known for over 20 years (am I old enough for that!!)? It was wonderful to see him, his beautiful bride and his family.  I love any chance I get to catch up with old friends...especially these two beauties!

Then, we did what we do best and visited the dog park...

Remember when we did THIS to our yard?  Well...one very damp fall, one snowy Thanksgiving and two doodles later, it looked like this...again.

 

We decided to scrap the grass and extend our patio with paver stones.  So, we invited my parents to spend Easter weekend with us, where we made pizzas and put them to work!  We are just the best hosts!  You too can come over sometime and help us with home improvement projects!

...and now for a ridiculously cute picture of my doodles pre-construction.

Stayed tuned for the May-2011 update to hear about the second weekend we spent putting in a paver patio...and no, we don't have two patios!

March 2011

March was a quiet month for us.  Robots, robots, dog park and more robots...

And these pretty shots from my new desk at work.  This certainly makes it easier to sit at a desk all day...

February 2011

February was a blur of robots, work and weekend trips!

Schatze turned TWO and we added Puppy, Alligator and Professor Tiddlywinks (the orange one) to her army of toys...and yes, I name my dogs' toys and I'm only a little bit embarrassed.

Hennie begged us to take her camping...

Justin came into town for a quick visit...

Dave went to Vegas for a bachelor party...

(no photos of that!)

I went to California for some family time...

Sayonara February...

January 2011

Hello Friends.

It's been a long time...about 10 months to be exact, but who's counting?  Life is starting to shift back to "normal" whatever that means, so I am going to make an attempt to get caught up on life and blogging.  To accomplish that, I've been searching through my cell phone pictures and outlook calendar trying to remember what happened in the whirlwind that was Y-2011. 
Over the next few days I will be doing a brief monthly update before I start blogging about our recent adventures and doodles...there will be lots, and lots of doodle news.  I can tell you're excited.

So...what happened in January?

Shortly after the New Year, we lost Abby, the Rykels family dog. She was a good girl, had a good life and a great last few weeks with all her family around her.

 My very important Certificate of Achievement arrived!

And then we made pizza....lots and lots of pizza.

Growing up in the Rykels house, my dad led us on his quest of mastering the pizza crust. In college my brother worked at a hip pizza joint where he learned to toss dough and now Dave and I have taken their tips/tricks and joined the family fracas of pizza competitions. And since this is MY blog...I'll go ahead and say that we win. Ha!
Anyway...in January of this year, we found the perfect pizza flour (Tipo OO Floura), cracked three different pizza stones before finding the perfect temperature for the oven (turns out, it's at 500-degrees using a cracked stone) and our favorite store bought sauce (Cucina Fresca). 

Come over sometime and have a slice!

and now legally responsible!

"Professional engineer" means a person who, by reason of his or her special knowledge of the mathematical and physical sciences and the principles and methods of engineering analysis and design, acquired by professional education and practical experience, is qualified to practice engineering as defined in this section, as attested by his or her legal registration as a professional engineer. 

Before I fell off the social networking earth in October, I mentioned once or twice that I was prepping for my Professional Engineering exam, held on October 29th. 

Here's a little background...after college most engineers (nearly all civil engineers) take a national exam called the Fundamentals of Engineering (FE).  So, after earning an engineering degree, passing the FE exam and working in the engineering field for 4-years, one becomes eligible to take the Professional Engineering exam (PE). There is an application process where 5 registered engineers have to verify you’ve actually been working as an engineer, then an 8 hour exam and 8-10 torturous weeks of waiting for the results.  After passing a person becomes a Registered Professional Engineer in the State of Washington (as defined above), and gets a jazzy wall certificate and official stamp to put on engineering drawings.  Passing the exam is a pretty big deal.

I’ll just kill all the suspense right now and say that I passed. I freaking PASSED!  I will never ever have to take another exam...EVER.  Unless I decided to delve into a master's program...but at this point, my plan is to become ridiculously rich and famous and have an honorary degree from some prestigious university bestowed to me at a lavish ceremony in my honor.  Aim high, right?

So, I should probably tell you that I am not a good tester. Never have been...never will  never have to take another one again.  Ha.  TAKE THAT WORLD!  Anyway...I went into this with the mindset, if there is just one test I pass on the first try, it will be this one (I've had to retake A LOT of things).  As the end of August approached, I started my studies.  I took two review courses (one online, one at the UW in Seattle) and studied a little bit every day.  Every.Single.Day...until the end of October.  Some days it was for 8-10 hours, other days it was just for 1 hour.  As long as I kept my stress level low and was able to convince myself that I was doing everything possible to be prepared, I thought I could keep my anxiety in check throughout the exam.

However, the morning before the exam, I fell down the stairs and landed on my back, bum and arms...and threw the coffee I was carrying all over myself, the carpet and the walls.  I gave myself an 8.5 (I probably could have scored a 9 or 10 if I didn't start hysterically crying).  This new injury, combined with stress and sitting hunched over for 8-hours while taking the exam, left me in a sad physical state after the exam on Friday night.  Neverfear friends!  I eased my pain and anxiety with a couple bottles of wine. When I woke on Saturday afternoon (first time I slept in since August!), my body was still sore, but the weight of the world was  gone...for now.

It returned mid December when I foolishly began to expect an early release of the results...unfortunately for me, they didn’t arrive online until after Christmas.  But it was the best gift, EVER.

Jessie...Wins...Party.

(only one of you will get that joke, but it was still worth it.)

...and go!

I haven’t updated in three months.  Why?  Eh...who knows.  Exams, holidays, work, life...it all gets in the way of reflecting (or ranting, as I do) sometimes.  But it’s a new year and along with eating more fruits and veggies, using my gym membership...not just paying for it, reading more books, spending less money and enjoying life more, I’ve added: update Ye-Olde-Blog to the list of resolutions for 2011. 

You're welcome :-)

As it is already the middle of January, it’s time for an accountability check. 

I’ve been doing great on eating the fresh stuff on my plate first (local and organic, naturally. Ha.Ha...get it?  Natural-ly...oh never mind). 

I’ve been a regular at hot yoga and have even found myself on a treadmill a few times (last night I was watching Tosh.0 and nearly fell off because I was laughing so hard.  The gent next to me thought I was bonkers). 

I started reading The Hunger Games on Friday afternoon...and finished it Friday night (you were right Linds...SO fun to read!)  But at the end of the book, I was surprised to find it was a trilogy, so now I'm trying to slow the second book down and savor it (I'm 72% finished...thank you Kindle App). 

Thus far, my wallet has stayed securely in my purse...being old and responsible is zero fun.  ZERO, I tell you.

So...I guess I've put it off long enough and now I have to update the blog.

So look out world wide web......we’re baaack.

editors note:

My parents generously gifted us an iPad at Christmas, along with the not-so-subtle-hint: "now you can update your blog..."

But since then, we've been too busying fighting over it...playing Scrabble, Angry Birds, Tetris, some car game I don't understand and reading on the Kindle app (love it!) to bother with blogging.  However, as I said above...time to be accountable. 

I guess if resolutions were easy, no one would have them...happy happy new year everyone!!

The Juice.

Friends, meet "THE JUICE"...

She is the newest addition in our lives and two of us are pumped (the humans) and the other two give it a resounding 8 paws DOWN (they don't like change---especially when that change doesn't have a window to stick their heads out of).  But they'll learn to love it.  

After the Pooper died a fantastic death (details below), Dave took the insurance check and went-a-shopping!  Unfortunately the trooper was not gold plated, so the car-hunt was restricted to craigslist.  Wasn't that fun!  If you've never had the pleasure of craigslist shopping, it involves frantically searching the new ads and rushing around to look at cars, trying to be the first one to present cash (not the first phone call, but first to arrive with CASH).  It is very stressful...although everything that I am involved in is stressful.  Hmmm, maybe it's me?  Nahh...it must be everything else.  Anyway, I'm trying not to make this the.longest.story.ever. So....we are both so happy to have this ordeal be over!  We picked up the sweet ride last night from a fellow Boeing guy, hence...The Sticker.  Where is my damn goo-gone?

Cruising home in style...

The death of the trooper...

No one was seriously injured, except the beloved Trooper.

Details: Dave and the doodles were cruising along when the driver of the explorer turned left (on a green circle, read: YIELD) in front of the Trooper and got hit at about 40mph.  The only one who had to go to the hospital (for minor injuries) was a passenger in the back, who wasn't buckled up...WEAR YOUR DAMN SEAT BEATS! IT'S ISN'T 1950 ANYMORE PEOPLE!!  The doodles were just fine and even had a fun play date out of the ordeal.

the sad, sad boy and his sad, sad car...I think they both need a hug.