Harley

Meet Harley, our house guest this week.

He's staying with us while his family is off on a skiing vacation.  He's adapted well to his temporary home.  The IGs immediately showed him that the chair is the place to be.

He's certainly a people dog.  He always wants to be around us (just like Sadie and Gunnar) and loves a good bellyrub or playing with his rope toy.  Of course, like most dogs, he loves a good bellyrub or head scratch.  Plus, he gives you that I'm-really-cute-and-friendly-so-pat-me look, which is irresistible. 

 A couple of nights ago, Harley wormed his way onto the bed at night (granted our dogs already sleep IN the bed, but still, I don't think this is his normal routine with his family).  We're okay with it....even if he does snore. 

Every morning he lets me know that there are gigantic crows in the backyard with his barking.  Thankfully, that usually scares them off and they fly off to consume the neighbor's yard (and yes, that's a little bit of snow outside!).

Our dogs seem curious by this new boy and have tried to initiate play with him.  He doesn't seem interested in their interpretation of WWF in our living room.  He's more content chasing after his rope or going on a walk.  One thing he does like is sleeping by the fire.  All the dogs love this.  We joke that there must be a carbon monoxide leak or something in our house because our living room often looks like this:

Oh, Harley.  You're a good boy and you can stay with us whenever you want!

Christmas Wishes

Merry Christmas to you from Team Juloa!

Christmas Cards

I love getting the mail in December.  Well, I love getting mail anytime, but especially Christmas cards (hint, hint).  Every day I eagerly await a mailbox full of cards.  I love to see how each one is different, unique, and oftentimes adorned with family photos.  Seeing friends and family all gathered together (represented through the cards, that is) makes me realize how blessed we are to have such wonderful people in our lives.  Seeing those cards everyday makes me feel so happy.  

Since we just moved in to our new place, I didn't expect many cards this year and hadn't really planned on displaying them anywhere.  I was just sticking them in a bowl, but I realized that the bowl was starting to fill up.  Besides, having them in a pile doesn't really lend itself to daily, happy card-viewing.  Hmmm...what to do?  In the past I've hung them around the mirror.  No, not this year, too typical and boring.  I could hang them vertically down a door with ribbon.  Nah, our house doesn't really have a good door to do this that would allow me to view them daily. 

 Ah ha... I remembered an idea I saw online and gathered my materials:

sticks (I bought these for $2, but you could easily grab some from outside)

string (again, you could use ribbon, yarn, whatever)

hole punch

vase

pen (I like to write the year on the back of the cards)

It's quite simple, really.  All you do is arrange your sticks in a vase.  Then punch a hole in each of the cards.  Put some string through the hole and tie them to the sticks.  You can add other decorative elements, like berries (my sticks came with prewired berries) or glitter or whatever.  And, voila, you've got a fun Christmas card display:

I love it, especially since it's next to my computer.  Now, I can look at these beautiful cards every day! 

The only problem is that I might not want to take it down after the holidays!

Dolphin Pics

As predicted, our disposable camera took lousy photos of our dolphin experience.  Here are just a few I deemed somewhat adequate for the blog.  We all know that for me, "it's all about the blog" (that's my saying when I have to lug my camera around everywhere and document our lives) and that might mean posting sub-par quality pictures every once in a while.

Here's our sweet dolphin Melincha.  The trainer is showing us her teeth, tongue, eyes, and ears.  I loved getting to touch her skin - it's so smooth!

Doesn't Melincha look happy?  Speaking of happy, look how happy I was when I got to hold/hug Melicha in the water.  Seriously, I couldn't stop smiling.

Getting a dophin kiss is even better!  I loved it!

And proof that Noa also got to swim with Melincha.  She swam up onto his outstretched hands.  Awwww....

Cruising

Note: Technical difficulties have prevented me from getting this post up sooner.  Sorry for the delay!

It was worth traveling through the night.  Noa's mom, Carol, has a December birthday and all her kids (and her grandson) would be gathering for a birthday surprise!  When she entered the restaurant, we could all tell she was shocked to see all her kids (and their families) there for her birthday dinner.  Surprise!

Left to right, top to bottom: Noa, Jack (Noa's dad), Megan (sister), JB (brother-in-law), me, Amy (sister), Hailey (Megan's friend), Anya (sister), Carol (Noa's mom), and Matthew (nephew)

But, that wasn't even the biggest part of the surprise.  The whole family would be leaving on a 5-day cruise the following day!  Double surprise!

The next day was COLD for Florida (in the 30s-40s and windy), but nothing could quell our excitement when this showed up at our place.  We'd be riding in style to the port!

Matthew, our nephew, kept saying, "I can't believe I'm not dreaming!"  Check out the interior:

Our cruise was on Royal Caribbean's "Navigator of the Seas."  Random fact: we (Noa and myself) had cruised on this vessel once before, back when we lived in Florida, with Mike and Jess.

Still, it was a new trip with the family and the ship had since gone through some cosmetic changes inside.  All the kids stayed in neighboring interior rooms.  We didn't spend much time here, considering their small size and lack of a window (if you look carefully, you can see Noa waving in the mirror).

We spent most of our hanging out time in the large suite that was for Noa's parents.  It was a happening place, let me tell you.  Not only did it have a large balcony, but it also had a spacious separate bedroom....

....and a living room, dining area, bar....

And yes, you saw right....a grand piano!

Nice, right?  As the Navigator left port, we all stood on the balcony and waved farewell to Fort Lauderdale.  Although chilly, it was still scenic...it reminded me of a postcard.

Once the cruise got going, the weather warmed up and it didn't take long for us to take advantage of all the ship had to offer.  After being in "cold" Florida, we were all ready for a little sun.  Matthew couldn't wait to take advantage of the pool with his uncle and aunts.

Jump, Matthew, jump!

The ship was beautiful both inside and out.  Here's the pool area and a random lady standing in the picture.  Thanks, lady.

And, I don't remember this from my last visit, but I liked this "artsy" sculpture they had in the stairwell.

On formal night, we had our pictures taken in front of it.  I think we look like a pretty classy bunch, don't you?  I proposed that we need to have an excuse to get dressed up more often.

Team Juloa looking classy!

Our one and only stop was to Cozumel, Mexico.  The family split up to do different activities on the island: Megan and dad went shopping, mom, Amy, JB, and Matthew went to see some Mayan ruins, and Anya, Noa, and I went to swim with dolphins!

On the way in, I couldn't resist having a turn holding a parrot and iguana.  The iguana kinda creeped me out because he kept climbing up my shoulder.  The guy that handled them didn't seem concerned, but I thought I saw him eying that parrot in a I-want-to-eat-you-for-lunch kind of way.

Unfortunately, I couldn't take my big ol'camera with me while we swam (we did get a cheap waterproof camera and are currently awaiting to see if any of those pics came out), so no pictures yet.  But, here's the view before we got in the water.  That dock area is where you enter the water (you can see some people getting in).  In the distance, you can also see the docked cruise ships.

Afterwards, we tried to get some sun on the beach.  No luck...I'm still super white.  Oh well, it was beautiful and relaxing, at least.

Later we met up with the rest of the family and explored the shops.  One guy said to us, "come to my shop.  Come, let me show you some Mexican junk.  Better prices than Wal-Mart."  Nice sales pitch, dude.

I love how Matthew is trying to break out the peace sign with Anya.

You may be wondering what's in Noa's large black bag?  We purchased two tacky Christmas themed sombreros for our small group Christmas gift exchange.  They were a hit!

On the way home, we enjoyed more of the ship.  A bunch of us went to check out the front of the ship, and yes, you can imagine there were plenty of "Titanic" references tossed about.

Like Noa's touristy Cozumel shirt?  Noa's dad picked up one for each of us.  See?

The food on the ship was tasty.  Noa and his dad ordered the escargot twice.  Apparently it was very good, but just not my taste.  I prefer not to chew on lemon-garlic flavored rubber bands.  But, to each his own.

Genevieve and "Charlie" (his nickname since his Thai name was difficult to pronounce), our nightly dinner servers, were excellent.  They always gave Matthew his food a little earlier than us and asked him how he wanted his ice cream after dinner.  It was nice to see their friendly faces each night.

Each night, we also looked forward to seeing what kind of towel animals awaited us after they prepped our rooms for the evening.  We think this one is a dog wearing my sunglasses.

And an elephant, we think, who again is sporting the sunglasses.

What a wonderful way to celebrate someone so loved in our family!  Noa's dad, Jack, is a superstar who spearheaded the whole trip and surprise.  We are so blessed to be part of a great family.  I hope there are more family trips in the future.

And hopefully, these technical issues will be resolved an blogging will continue smoothly!

"Working"

You may or may not know that I am not currently working.  I explained some of that here, but basically it boils down to me needing to get a Washington teaching certificate.  I'm in the process of doing so, but in the meantime, I've found some things to keep me very busy.  A few days a week I work in a kindergarten classroom in one of the local schools as a classroom volunteer.  The other days I work as a volunteer at the local Humane Society.  I walk dogs and work in the receiving area where we check in strays and surrendered animals.  Here I am in my volunteer clothes (back at the hometel):

Neither job is glamourous (or paid), but I enjoy them and it keeps me busy.  Something else that keeps me busy is this:

I've been buying buying old furniture from Craigslist and from thrift stores and I plan on fixing it up and using it in our new place.  I'm pretty excited to take on this project, in addition to a few other creative endeavors.

Of course, the house itself gives me plenty of opportunities to work.  I have many plans for each room, including painting, adding furniture, and changing things a bit to make it more "us."  

Eventually I hope to take on a "real" job, but for now, I've got plenty to keep me busy and working.

Deck the Halls: Outside

Again, we're keeping it simple this year, especially when it comes to the outside Christmas decorations.  Originally I wanted to have two potted trees on each side of the front door with white lights.  I picked up a pair for a steal of a deal at JC Penny on Black Friday, only to find out that they were too small for the space.  Bummer.  

So, I returned them and for now, we are using lighted garland to brighten up the space.

Please ignore the power cord.  I haven't yet learned how to hide it.  Here's the up-close shot of the wreath I made.

The wreath is actually a fake wreath that I had on hand, but I plumped it up with tree trimmings I found around the neighborhood.  I then added the sparkly picks (from Walmart) and the bow (ribbon from Michaels).  Not my best work, but fun and cheerful nonetheless.

Lastly, added some candles in the windows (candles from Target in oil rubbed bronze).

Here's the big picture, taken just before the sun went down: