Introducing Harvey Dent, the Beta!

Yesterday while Craig and I were garage saling we stumbled upon a treasure. Craig found a vase with clear, glass marbles in it for fifty cents. He instantly thought "FISH!"

So, being the calm, calculated adults that we are, we rushed to Petsmart and bough a beta. And then got 2 footlongs at subway for free cookie Friday. Because that's how we roll.

This is the first pet Craig and I have gotten together. We were engaged when we got Bruce but he was mine and although Craig did all the driving it didn't feel quite as "married" as buying Harvey today did. It was like "this is it, no going back, we're married and now we have a kid together!" whereas Bruce was just adopted by Craig once we were married. I've never owned a fish before and it is EXCITING. I'm so in love with his already. I feel happy every time I look at him and terrified that I'm going to over feed him or under feed him or kill him by loving him just too darn much. Every five minutes I feel like shouting out "WE HAVE A FISH!" Because I promise you, he's the best fish in the world.

We named him Harvey Dent so that he's fit right in. You should all get the reference or you aren't our friends. I just love our little family. Bruce Wayne the hedgehog, Harvey Dent the beta, my husband with his batman tattoos, and me who they tolerate because sometimes I'm good for laughs.

Isn't that a stunning little fish tank set up? Craig has a good eye for design.

P.s. Today Craig and I went garage saling again which was fun but not as exciting as the part where I let Craig buy a gun, which he loves beyond my understanding. It also means that he now loves me ten times more. That's the secrets, ladies.

Garage Saling

So, I have this husband who wants me to have dreams. And I have this dream of having my own tiny business from home when I have kids where I can make and sell sweet little things to my hearts content. I'm trying to get established in the whole blogging and social networking world and gradually ease my way into being one of those artsy moms with talents, ideas and stories to share with all the other amazing people out there doing the same thing. Yep, that's the goal.

SO, I have this husband who gets so excited about my dreams that he makes them happen. This weekend he took me garage saling. And it was AWESOME.

I want to get so good at this. I want to do it all the time. There are so many treasures to be found, things to share and sell, and beauties to make. I'm really starting to feel like it can happen.

I got all these gorgeous fabrics for six dollars. There are birds and monsters coming alive in my head.

Gun virgins: The story of how I shamed my family, now and forever

This is the second installment of our Easter weekend adventures. Warning: no pictures, just a boring story about guns. And DEATH.

Here's the thing. My family lives on a mountain. And they love weapons. The end.

Not nearly.

Fencing swords, ninja swords, throwing stars, machetes, bowie knives, hunting knives, sling shots, bow and arrows, shields, ahhhhhhh I don't even KNOW what all, between my dad and my siblings they have everything, every weapon ever forged by man, dwarf or orc. And between my dad and my grandpa they own every gun on the face of the planet. They aren't violent or angry people or anything, it's just in their genetics or something. Somehow it's everybody's fetish and everyone's hobby. Except for mine. Back when I wanted to grow up to be a woodland elf warrior [that dream lasted for years too many] I did archery a lot and I, by law, was forced to own on knife to remain in the family. But I never got into the whole gun thing. Frankly, they scare me. I'm not against them, I just know so much can accidentally go wrong. I also know I'm a terrible klutz and way too soft hearted to try to shoot an animal to keep from starving or a person to keep from dying. So I saw no need to learn to shoot one and a serious need to NOT learn to shoot one, being that I could kill something. So unlike the rest of my family, I didn't learn to shoot before I learned to walk. And I think I may have purposely married a man who had never touched a gun in his life. I liked it that way, it gave me a break from being pressured to love guns every day of my life. My husband was happy being a gun virgin with  my, and we were going to live happily ever after.

Before Craig and I had been married a MONTH, my father ruined that. And now my husband is dead. No, I mean the man I married is dead to me, the one who didn't get a red glazed look in his eyes at the sight of a long barrel and start drooling over gun magazines. Yeah, that ones dead. Now I'm married to a gun crazed fiend.

My dad taught Craig and our best friends Miguel and Brittney how to shoot last September. I was next, but I somehow magically escaped in the knick of time. I knew I wasn't going to stay so lucky. And Craig has been itching to go shooting with my dad again, like a dog with fleas. When Craig and I got off work on Thursday at 11:30 pm and he drove me 9 hours all night so I could go home to see my family I had a feeling that I wasn't going to be able to escape it this time, not after owing him like that. Don't get me wrong, I was still going to try to escape. Falling and breaking my leg sounded legit but you don't use your legs to shoot so then I considered fingers. Until Craig told me it would make him so happy if I went shooting with him.

So when dad came in the house on Saturday evening, guns blazing, and yelled "who's ready to shoot some rounds!" or something dangerous like that, I was in. I just didn't want to go first.

"Ladies first." I was so clumsy I couldn't even figure out how to squeeze the laser grip on my mom's handgun and hold the gun still at the same time. My dad was probably exasserated that he had such a child who would be so helpless in a gunfight. I could tell he was getting a little in patient, and of course I wasn't having a party, but there I was, in my tights, skirt, flats and carigan, and giant ear muffs, just trying to make my father and my husband happy. It's just a couple bulletts, right?

I pulled the trigger slowly, and the shot was very, very, very loud. My dad yells "why did you jump?" And I blubber "be-gasp-cause-gasps-it's-gasp-SCARY!" And burst out into tears. Aw yeah. I'm a warrior.

I shot the next 20+ rounds through a steady stream of tears and schmears of mascara. I couldn't stop crying, and here I was, shooting a gun in the wilderness, knowing that the whole universe was thinking how ridiculous I am. My dad thought it was super funny eventually, and gave me lots of encouraging hugs. Craig switched with my every five rounds and of course was a much better shot and got all his manly, gun wielding blood pumping. We both hit the target every time and as my dad says, we "got the bad guy." So, maybe, job well done Shilah, besides the part where you bawled like a baby the whole darn time.

Don't think I wasn't ashamed. Ashamed I shot a gun, ashamed I had never shot a gun, ashamed to cry every moment of it, ashamed to jump with every BANG, ashamed to shame my husband with my girly gun skills. But then later he smiled at me so BIG and told me that I was so beautiful all dressed up holding a gun that he wanted to take a picture and keep it forever. And he was SO happy I came shooting with them.

So it was worth it.

Since there was no real picture evidence documenting my bravery, Craig drew this for me today. He got the color of my tights perfect and everything. I think it can be said that I'd do anything for this boy, and now my dad is pretty happy with me too. And we can all rest in peace knowing there's one less deadly bullseye target on the loose, I made sure of it.

Easter Weekend

I love this whole blogging experience so far, it really helps me stay focused, inspired and enjoy the happy moments more often. I love looking at my day going, "okay, what's worth sharing?" and realizing I'm so happy and blessed to have an overwhelming amount of exciting things I can document, share and remember. That being said, I've dropped the ball the last couple weeks. I've been missing in action and it's NOT because I didn't have anything worth blogging about, and that's the problem. I have tons of things to share. Now I have to play catch up. Because I've been having a party. And I forgot to invite you.

Let's start with Easter weekend. Craig and I had Good Friday off from work and our natural weekend starts on Sunday. That left us with an awkward hanging Saturday to come into work. Not a fan. So we asked for PTO, took it off, and took an epic road trip. Back to my place. Wink. Well, my parent's place. Less wink.

You're going to have to bear with me. There's was a lot of story for this weekend, and practically no pictures. I had so much fun living the past few days that I forgot to document it all minute by minute. Which I think is okay sometimes. You gotta find a balance between living just to remember and then remembering to just live.

I've missed my family sooo much, I've been dieing to see them. It's only an 8-ish hour drive but it's not one we can make very often. This trip was sorta planned around seeing my sister Crista, she's been in Germany for two years and now they're on their way to Texas and I wanted to see her and her daughter I never met before they left for another 2 years. That alone made my trip home so wonderful, if I had a favorite big sister [coughIdocough] it'd totally be her. She's so much fun and we relate really well and it made me so happy to have her and Craig finally meet. Her four year old daughter Braden grew up SO much in the last two years, it made me feel old! And the little one, Alexis, melted our hearts. I love family so much. I wish we all lived in one huge castle together.

And of course, it was Easter weekend! I love Easter. It took a long time before we had real Easter traditions at my house but ever since they started they really took off and stuck. Now it's jsut my two little brothers and nieces hunting eggs while us adults sit around and eat candy we "hunted down" from a bowl on the counter. I've finally reached my golden years.

I feel like I have to do this in installments, and this is installment one. I got to see my family, talk to my mom for hours, cut my little sister's hair, bring home some treasures, see my other favorite older sister and my nephews, visit close friends, eat delicious food and stop missing my family for a couple days. And I got to be with my sweet husband, who drove me 400 miles there and 400 miles back because he likes driving he's the very best.

Here are a few picture worthy things over the weekend I managed to not let escape:

This is what it looked like 20 minutes away from my parents house. It got worse as we got closer. A winter wonderland wasteland. In April. I love my family to death, but THIS...this is why I moved. It may just seem like it was because I fell in love and got married, but that was just a clever ruse. You'd fake it too if you'd gone through 17 of these 9 month long winters. Just kidding though. But really.

I'll tell you what, I miss chickens. And goats, I miss goats so much! I love them the way most girls love horses. But my sister's peacock, now he's really something worth missing. He was so elegant and fancy! His lady peahen wasn't bad either, but she ignored him mostly, for kicks. Playing hard to get is something I also know how to do well [not].

My little brother in his fancy white gloves and of course Craig in his Easter Sunday best. He's the best part of all my adventures.

This is what I really look like...

Yep. I'll admit it. This is the true blue, all natural me. This is what a look like on a regular, second to second basis.

Isn't it amazing what make up and photoshop can do for a girl? Without them you'd know I look like this all the time and I'd never have a successful blog.

Ha.

You ARE my Boba!!

This was a great weekend. We found the most perfect bubble tea. I tried Taro and Craig got a honey green for his still sore =[ throat and we were so in love. They gave us a THOUSAND tapioca bubbles! And taro is sooooooooooooooo my new favorite. I was beyond excited about it. Seee?

Even better is that we went to this new bubble tea place so we could do more than buy bubble tea, we bought all the stuff to make our own bubble tea. Totally cheap. We're totally psyched.

I got some neeeew make up today. I want to do a post about products I use and love. Sometimes I write things because I think people may like to read them but a lot of times I want to put things on my blog so that I can keep organized or inspired, you know? So maybe sometime soon. I do really love my make up system at this point. Oh it is lovely not being an awkward teenager anymore. Wait. I'm still awkward. And I'm still definitely a teen. Hmm.

Craig worked a half day at work today. I spent the time organizing, cleaning, doing dishes and laundry, and of course watching Moulin Rouge for the sixthish time. Craig made fun of me for it. Someone out there must understand me though. This guy does a pretty goof job of it most of the time.

Baaaah. What a cutie.

We ended the weekend with a trip to our favorite sushi place with a couple of our favorite friends, Josh and Charlotte. I so love sushi. And friends. And weekends. And husbands. And pretty new things. And most of all, Moulin Rouge.

Just jokes.

[i think bubble tea makes me look prettier. thank you, drink.] 

What's ON my bag??

I love seeing cute "what's in my bag" blog posts, I've seen some fun ones lately. I don't have many cool and interesting things "in" my bag but I still wanted to take part. So here's a what's on my bag post, so I can show off my awesome purse and cute pins!

First, here's my purse. It's the best purse ever. I use to switch purses every few days but since Craig got this for me for Christmas I've been in love. I haven't stop using it, it is so cute and has just the right amount of space and pockets. I love the pattern and it never gets dirty.

We got this for free on our last trip to the Sea Lion Caves in Florence, Oregon. It's my third favorite place in the world. We went for Christmas and our honeymoon, I love having a reminder on me all the time!

Lady and Monster. Craig bought these for me at Portland Saturday Market last summer. I love the big fuzzy monster, you can't see his face very well, but he's a doll.

This is one of my favorites. My good friend Marlee Nelson gave me this pin to me. As you can see, I like birds but it's purely for artistic purposes. I'm like every other kid in Portland.

I bought these for Craig in Spokane before he moved back to Oregon without me for a few months. Then when I moved, I STOLE them back. Muahaha.

Craig had this from a show for years and then gave it to me because, duh, bird lady. I like pictures of them and purses and shirts and everything except for real birds. The only live birds I dig are like finches and chickadees. Again, I fit right in here.

Bonus! This is the one I keep on my red cardigan. I loves pins so much and I finally have SO many of them that I can keep ones on specific cardigans and jackets and never take them off. It makes me feel wealthy?

That's what's on my bag. Maybe when I have the need to cary around cooler things with me wherever I go besides keys and chapstick I'll do a real what's in my bag post. I'm sure you are just dying for that day.

I can do outfit posts too?

I promise I dress cute sometimes. I try reeeeeally hard, I do. I always want new clothes, for whatever reason girls always want new clothes, but I have this serious opposition to spending money on them. I'm not the best at math, but I'm pretty sure that always equals no new clothes. So I try to be pretty with my current ones. I hate to say "old" ones but that's probably more accurate. I own and wear clothes I've had since I was nine, and for sure 70% percent of my closet is still [probably?] made up of second hand items. And it shows.

Anyway, I'm rambling. All I really need to say is today I wore something cute and my husband took a couple pictures of it for me and now you get to see them, right? Sounds good to me =]

These shoes are a triumph. Payless for so cheap, 12 dollars I think [which was more than my shoe cap at the time] but the plaid pattern is even better than the price. And that black rose pattern? It's fuzzy to the touch. Yep. You're jealous.

Shoes: Payless for $12
Pants: Ross for $13
Dress: Plato's Closet for $9
Sweater: Thrifted from Volunteers of America for cheeeeap
Jacket: Macy's, no idea
Necklace: Made by sister, stolen from mother
Clean car in the background: Priceless? Nah man, cars are expensive.

Hey! If I put enough clothes on, it's like I'm wearing an expensive outfit! Thanks math!!

Coldstone

So, here's the thing. I've never been to Coldstone before. I heard once when I was a young tot that it was expensive so, naturally, being the cheap cheap person I am, I stayed far away from it. But I've had this giftcard for Coldstone for several years now, my boss gave it to me for Thanksgiving when I was...16. So really, what was I thinking? I've been missing out!

Craig just finished his first quarter at Kaplan and he got all high A's! I'm super proud, but not surprised. I decided that we NEED to start an end-of-quarter tradition where I treat him for doing something so brave so well. We picked ice cream. Coldstone ice cream. Goodbye 3 year old gift card. Hello new favorite thing.

So, that awesome ice block thing? The cold stone?? It's incredible. I had no idea why it was called Coldstone until now. It was so tasty. I understand the price now. It's almost worth it. The tiny little thrifty old man inside me screams out his disapproval, but I drowned him with strawberry/blueberry cheesecake ice cream. It tasted better than real cheesecake.

Are you my Boba?

 It was stunning outside today. Love love love the sunshine.

The bad part of loving foreign foods and drinks is the possibility that you don't always know exactly what's in those foods or drinks. I dislike being ignorant normally but it really frustrates me when it comes to what I'm consuming, I know there are a lot of things that I consider bad for my body that the rest of the world doesn't usually acknowledge as unhealthy. I enjoy having an extended awareness but it comes with extended fear of the unknown.

Of course I'm referring to something specific at the moment. Craig and I very recently developed a love, and now a craving, for "bubble tea." It's hard to figure out or describe exactly what "bubble tea" usually consists of. But we've done our research and we've started to get a pretty good grip on what it means and what the ingredients are and what types we can have...or so we thought. What we want is supposed to be a smoothy type thing or something milk based, like a steamer, but cold. And that's what we thought we were buying today. But this. This tasted like black tea. Which I've never had. But I can't think of any other reason why it would taste so much like dead, rotten leaves. Something was definitely wrong. The boba bubbles were good, but the "tea" left us feeling sick. Oh, and my straw wasn't pointy enough to break the plastic lid. I blame that on black tea too.

Well, there was a possibility of good bubble tea close to our apartment, and it looked like a bright and beautiful friendship, but we won't be doing that again. Now we're looking at a bubble tea supplier where we can buy 6 pounds of our own boba bubbles for seven dollars, along with some fat straws, and put them in whatever drinks we want. The future looks bright again.

[It looks like Spring!] 

[Craig singing to Taking Back Sunday] 

[I look happier than I feel about that bubble tea] 

[The devil plastic lid my not pointy straw couldn't break] 

[Cute boy]