Apartment bonus

Not only do I love my apartment and the neighbors, thus far, have been super nice but check out the view! Of course it doesn't usually look like this. It's usually dreary with rain pelting my window but maybe I brought a little tri-city sunset with me. Summer is just around the corner, hopefully there are a few more evenings that look like this in store for me.

Junior Luckman

Junior Luckman

2003-2009

For those of you who have ever been to my home you know that we are a pug crazy family, by we I mean my mother. While I am very much the animal lover, 5 pugs and a chihuahua in one house is a bit much. Don't get me wrong, I still love them all, but Junior was my baby. We were pugsitting him a few years ago and my dad fell in love. It was as if some how my dad's personality had been duplicated and put inside this tiny energetic little squash-faced pup. Luckily for us, the people we were sitting for were a little overwhelmed with Junior and agreed to let us keep him. He became a member of our family instantly.

On the day I graduated beauty school Junior was stolen from our front yard. We were devastated. We placed numerous articles in the Herald as well as the Giant Nickle. We posted signs on countless light posts and called the pound daily. No luck. Months passed and we heard nothing. My mom would get every new Nickle printed and scan the adds in the hopes
of finding him and even found one that sounded like it could be him but when we got to the house it turned out to be a false alarm. 10 months later I got a phone call from my mom, Junior was waiting for us at the pound. My brilliant mother had him chipped (a tiny microchip the size of a grain of rice is placed just beneath the skin of an animal containing all the owners information) and every time an animal is brought in it is automatically scanned. I didn't want to believe it at first, its never a good idea to get your hopes too high, but as soon as we walked in and he saw us that little curly-Q tail started wagging like crazy. Some how he made it home to us. Unfortunately he didn't come home in the same condition he left. Whom ever stole him did not treat him well. He had a broken foot that was never treated, therefore healed improperly. He also had developed an infection in his left eye which led to us later having it removed. Despite all the abuse and neglect he was still the sweetest, most lovable dog in the whole world. We were extremely blessed not only to have had him to begin with but to have had him come back to us for 2 more years. For those of you who have grown up around pets you know what kind of effect they have on a persons life. They aren't just animals they are family. Sadly this member of our family passed away today. Unfortunately all the abuse he and neglect he was subjected to caused psychological issues that we could not fix so my dad had to put him down. All we can do now is pray that he is running through a huge open field with all the bobo toys he can handle.

This is what we call a pug pile. Our happy family.

(From top left clockwise: Annie, Roxy, Tia, Junior, Tika)

Nice neighbors

I have found the one down fall to living on the 6th floor of a building in downtown Portland, getting the groceries from the car to the apartment in one trip. I am a bit lazy in the fact that I do not want to go down to the car, which is usually parked a ways down the street, multiple times to drag up all of my purchases. Usually I wait until the fridge and cupboards are completely bare before I make a trip to the grocery store, therefore I come home quite overloaded. Picture this: me, in my flight attendant uniform including heals, with my suitcase, purse and 5 bags of groceries. I waddle down the street then have to struggle with the door, up 5 or 6 stairs to get to the elevator, then I have to manage to get my key in the door before the plastic bags rip and my food goes tumbling all over the hallway. I finally make it in the house and drop everything. Now, would you remember that you left your keys hanging in the door? Well I don't. 3 times now that I haven't. So far I haven't really met any neighbors, just a smile and a nod in passing but all 3 times that my keys have been left in the door someone has knocked to let me know. How nice is that :)

Home sweet home

Yay for my new apartment! So I finally got an apartment in downtown Portland. It is a whopping 342 square feet but every inch of it is all mine! No more roommates to fight with only my own mess to clean up. I know it looks pretty bare and nothing matches right now. Have no fear, Ikea is right next to the airport so I will be spending lots of time there. If you have any suggestions I'm all ears. The only thing that MUST stay is the red chair. Zach and I recovered it together and I just love it. He is finishing the back pillow which will be white with green stripes and big red flower that matches the rest of the chair (its better then it sounds, I promise). He has also volunteered to make me a bed frame with drawers for a little extra storage...I'm very lucky to have such a handy man.

My Favorite...Movie.

As you know I was laid up on the couch this winter recovering from my surgery. This just happened to be the same time my parents signed up for digital cable. Lucky me, bring on the movies. Well they like to play the same movies over and over on HBO and Starz and P.S. I Love You just happened to be on, like every other day. I love it! It is one of my new favorite movies! (I should warn you to take my opinion with a grain of salt, my other favorite movies are The Wedding Date and Moulin Rouge.) For those of you chick flick fans, you won't be disappointed. You will laugh and cry and go through quite a few emotions in between. Enjoy :)

Recipie.of.the.week

Pork Chops

• eggs
• flour
• Johny's seasoning salt
• McCormick's meat tenderizer (seasoned)
• olive oil
• boneless pork chops

Fill frying pan with oil (deep enough to come at least half way up the pork chops). Heat on high.

Crack 2 eggs in bowl and stir.

Mix flour, seasoning salt, and meat tenderizer in large bowl. Taste mixture and add seasoning to desired taste.

Dip chops in flour mixture then egg then again in flour mixture. Place chops in oil and let cook. Flip and let cook until golden brown.

Tip: After flipping chops sprinkle on flour mixture and flip again.

Suggestion: Serve with apple sauce

Needing to smile

Today is turning out to be a pretty rough day. I had to be up at 3am (as I've said before, I'm so not a morning person) worked one leg to Portland then took 3 flights to get home to tri-cities for my single day off before I have to go back for 6. Its really not fun as a flight attendant to get off work then spend another 5 hours in airports or planes just to get home for the day. All I wanted to do was get home and hug Zach and enjoy the rest of the day. I have a habit of wanting to enjoy my time with him, just being, when I have a few hours to do so...between the being with Zach and the working I don't set a lot of time aside for chores. Such is the story today. When you get up at 3am by the time noon rolls around you just want to put your feet up and maybe get some food but there were things to be taken care of and Zach was a little more motivated then I was today. We had quite the tiff and I shed quite a few tears. He is a very realistic, sometimes a little pessimistic, person. I am much the opposite. Usually if I just smile and tough it out I know it will all be ok.
So the problem, I have no car, and I have had no car since July. Now when I was working before my surgery Zach was in Portland and could take me to work. That is no longer the case. He is in tri-cites for the duration, whatever that may be, and I am in Portland working. When I came back to work a few weeks ago I borrowed my uncle's extra car. Well, that decided to die on the side of the road with me in it. I have put a bid on a little saturn at a bank repo auction house but they haven't told me if I will be getting the car or not. Now, I need a car Sunday to get to work so Zach told me, last resort, I could take the 4runner for a few days but he has changed his mind. It is leaking oil and he is worried about it breaking down with me in it as well.
My ultimate problem, his delivery of this information. Rather then saying 'Babe I don't think the truck is going to make it to Portland and I don't want you stranded again so we need to find a car today. Have you seen anything else that we could call on?' He tells me all of the things I have done wrong thus far. Tells me its my fault I am in the situation I am in (which I am obviously aware of). Overall, just making me feel a hundred times worse then I already did about the situation with out helping me come up with a solution. I know that it isn't his job to come up with a solution for me or even help me for that matter but there is no reason to make it worse.

I don't know if I am being overly sensitive. I don't know who is right. I don't know how to make him understand my point of view. I just don't know.

Mmmm Mmm Good

I'm going to come right out and say that cooking is not one of my strong suits. My mom was never real big on cooking when I was little. I'm pretty sure I lived on mac&cheese with hot dogs and hamburger helper until I was at least 10. Needless to say she never had much to pass down to me in the form of recipes. She did however, teach me how to make pork chops which has become one of Zach's new favorite dishes. Lucky for me, he doesn't hate being in the kitchen and cooking has become one of our favorite things to do together. Tonight I made the pork chops while Zach made the dinner rolls, pasta, and cookies. I have pretty much mastered the chop recipe (Zach says they are even better then my moms!) and a chicken and rice casserole but past that I am pretty lost in the kitchen. I am now in search of some simple yet delicious concoctions to keep my honey happy, any ideas?

Silly mix up

Morning trips have never gone over too well with me. Those early birds can keep their worms and I'll take a few extra hours of sleep. This last week I had a trip with all morning show times...the earliest being 4:10am and the latest being 5:30am so needless to say it was a change in routine. On Thursday I got off around 2:30pm in Kalispell and groomed the plane as usual, grabbed my purse and hopped off the plane into the freezing cold. I threw a wave over my shoulder as I ran inside with my bags to hide from the snow. Off to the hotel we went, checked in, and went to our rooms. I decided to go grab something to eat so I walked over to my suitcase to change my clothes, leaned over to unzip it and realize...that's not my bag!!!!! I took a bag that belonged to the other crew and sent mine back to Seattle! Talk about a bad deal! After calling my other crew member to make sure they didn't have my bag I had to call crew scheduling. Luckily they sent my bag out on the late flight and I got it around 11:30pm that night however I didn't get much sleep since I had to be up just 3 1/2 hours later. 

Time to add a little flare to my suitcase. If I could just get my hands on a bedazzler ;)