Dog VS. Plant, What the dog thinks is an epic battle

Hello There,

This week I wanted to talk about our three postage stamp sized yard. There were several plants in the yard when we moved in. There was also a small gravel area, though I have no idea why it is there. We were thinking about what to do with this gravel area and came to the conclusion that it would be a good place to place some pots and grow some of our own veggies.

We were excited about this idea because it meant saving money of veggies, win. As well as less waste, since green onions, lettuce and a smattering of other veggies come in large packs that the two of us don't always use all of.

So we bought cute barrel pots, potting soil, fertilizer, special ozmocote, We have starters of lettuce, walla walla onions (The best onions there are in my humble opinion), green onions, chives, lemon mint, a green pepper plant, cabbage, and Kale. (I also got a couple flowers. I couldn't help it, they were pretty.

Anyway, we got everything planted and later that night under the cover of darkness our not so little Rotti dug up some of the Kale, all but one lettuce plant and almost half the onions. These are just the plants that are missing. Several others were tossed or knocked over and soil was all over. I was not too thrilled.

I am not quite plant savvy enough to know how to best help them. She still sniffs around the but I think we have told her no enough times that she stays away for the time being.

She seems to have moved on though. One of the plants growing quite tall in our back yard has small white flowers. For whatever reason our Rotti has decided this plant is her nemesis. It started by biting off the flowers, then the smaller branches. Now she is digging up the roots. The hubster told me he found the hole, i haven't had the chance to cover it back up. Apparently one of her tennis balls is helping her in this endeavor because it keeps making to outside and into the trench like hole. *sigh* I am guessing this is just life with a Rotti.

The plan it to either put the pots on benches or circle them in chicken wire as a way of dog proofing. But I am at a loss for the white flowers. Any ideas on how to help the plant in this epic battle are much appreciated.

That's all for now.

Happy Reading,

Gretchen

Getting a Dog

Greetings,

This is the last week of my catch up posts. I know Finally!

I am going to write about our Dog, Kahlua. For reference I will insert an image of little ms cuteness...now...

While not the cutest dog in the world she still has such a sweet face. 

Anyway, we adopted her a month and a half ago from a county shelter. She has a sad story. She was in the shelter about a week before we adopted her and had a litter of puppies. The owner paid to have her and the puppies back, then three days later Kahlua had been abandoned again. 

That has given her a strong separation anxiety, and a fear of riding in cars, and of overpasses. It has been a little heartbreaking because she is a very sweet and obedient dog. She isn't even a year and a half yet so she is full of spunky energy and chews things up when we are not home to watch her. She doesn't eat furniture, thank goodness, but it is still annoying to come home and have something in shreds. 

I have confidence that eventually we were figure out how to get the destruction to stop. After all she doesn't destroy her stuffed animals, just carries them around in her mouth. 

This sweet little pup is really growing on us. But that is really all I have for now,

Happy Reading,

Gretchen

Getting Hitched

Much like the post about buying a house, having one post to discuss the whole process of getting married seems to be not enough. But I will give it a try.

The Hubster and I got engaged the first week of June. He was nervous (It was so cute) I started cursing from shock when the ring came out (not so cute). But it was where we had our first date. *sigh* Okay, that is the end of the mushy stuff. Mainly because I don't want to disgust myself.

We gave ourselves 8 months, which seemed reasonable to us but people kept telling us that was fast. Not sure why. I am going to interject here that when you add the word wedding, it is amazing how prices skyrocket. Our wedding budget was $4k. Because apparently I felt I needed to make life more stressful.

As out guest list grew (we toped at 150) our budget became an increasing problem. We ended up going through multiple vendors for things because stuff just fell through. We didn't have our final venue until about 6 weeks before the ceremony. In case you were wondering, yes I was a bit out of my mind.

I will stop griping now, because remembering it all still makes me cringe. The day of was nice and not as stressful as I thought it would be. We got hitched without a hitch ;) and that was the important part.

I am glad it is behind us, though I noticed some new gray hairs. Both the Hubster and loved our honeymoon. We went to Disneyworld. Yes, we were adults in Disneyworld...without children. It was a wonderful vacation from all the stress that we had from all the months before it.

Then we came home feeling refreshed and in love and found mushrooms growing out of one of our walls and a bunch of black mold inside the wall. *sigh* Maybe it is time for anther vacation....

Happy Reading,

Gretchen

Buying a House

Hey There,

There is no real way to do the five months we spent trying to buy a house justice in one blog post. I am going to try but I am sure to forget something.

Our journey started with us living in a problem ridden apartment. I won't go in to all the problems because there were many in the year plus we were there and I try not to concentrate on it since we don't live there anymore. We took a first time home buyers class and figured out our monthly budget. I will say this about our budget. While in most the country it would have bought us a fine home, in Washington it was a squeeze with our criteria.

What the Hubster (aka He who shall not be tagged) and I were looking for in a home:

• He wanted a yard, with grass, not a postage stamp cement block (That right there sliced a huge chuck of available homes)
• Three bedrooms, because we wanted an office and a guest room
• 1.75 or more bath, we wanted a master bath.
• More than 1000 square feet

Our original search area didn't help any. We work 30 miles apart, so we were trying to find somewhere in between. Preferably somewhere I could bus to work, but that wasn't necessary. We looked at quite a few homes (in the end 20+) in the south of Seattle. We saw homes where people remolded half the house before running out of funds. Homes where people where creating rooms out of garages and closets and basements. One of these had a ceiling so low the Hubster (who is 5'9'') couldn't stand in the room, with a ball cap on, and place a flat palm on his head. It was darn claustrophobic! We were getting very discouraged.

Then our amazing real estate agent convinced us to expand our search East and to townhome style condos. I am so glad she did! It made all the difference in the world. As we moved farther from Seattle the houses we could afford became nicer (yes, I know that shouldn't have surprised me but it did) We finally looked at several homes in the neighborhood me bought in. There is a park, people were out walking their dogs, and it was five minutes from a park and ride with a bus right to the university! In short the neighborhood was perfect! We put in several offers before we got our rambler style condo. With two bedrooms and a den, 1.75 bath, and a yard the size of three postage stamps.

So know we own a house and it is great. we live in a great development full of polite, nice, quiet people. We couldn't have asked for a better outcome to the ordeal of months of house hunting.

That is all for now.

Happy Reading,

Gretchen

Hollownton Homicide

Well Hello,

My my, it looks like Life ran away with me again. I am going to try to make up for it by doing double duty and posting twice today. This post with be Hollownton Homicide, which came out in August of 2014.

We will start with the cover:

Then the Back cover blurb:

Homicide detective Anthony Hollownton thought he had seen it all until he and his partner, Rick Nelson, are called to a murder scene unlike any Tony has come across. There are no witnesses and none of the neighbors heard a thing.

Once Tony starts to investigate the facts of the case become stranger and stranger. As the body count rises Tony is drawn into a world he did not know existed. Starting with a visit from a dead woman from his past. He must decide whether the paranormal truly exists or if these killing are some kind of delusional gang war.

And now the link for the sneak peek on Amazon: LINK!

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Seeing this book published makes me all warm and fuzzy inside. Why you make ask. Well it is because I worked on it on and off for 10 years. It started as a joke about what if a friend of mine was a cop. Then it became a book and a world in it's own right. The plot and story changed as well. It was the first story I did where I got 2/3 the way through and decided I just did not like the direction it was headed in. SO I went back and revamped the story.

That is all I have for this post.

Happy Reading,

Gretchen