Shit show: party of 2

Day:2

First things first, we have made it safely to Varenna, Italy and our B&B, Casa Stacy is UNREAL. We adore the girl who runs in, Diana and we have decided to adopt her. We are her only guests while we are here for the two days so she has taken us all over this amazing little lake town and tomorrow she is taking us an hour north for a wine cheese tour and tasting!

Ok, on to the shit show: Party of two

So,  we land in Frankfurt, enjoy a fab cup of coffee and an amazing pretzel and enjoy an hour of down time while we wait for our flight from Frankfurt to Milan.

We are breathing easy as we actually have confirmed tickets on this quick one hour flight that is due in to Milan at 9:50am. We board the flight and immediately the attendant laughs at Alexis, and says her suitcase, which was normal carry on size is too big and must be checked. Don't worry he says, it will be on the jetway for you when you deplane. HA!!!

We arrive in in Milan, no bag. We assume it was checked in the cargo area so will will then be in baggage claim. HA!! We were also told my bag that went without me to Newark would be waiting for me in Milan as well. HA!! So if you are following along, neither of us have luggage at this point. Mine is still in Newark....
Hers in in Germany...
Yes I am still wearing the clothes I left Seattle in on Saturday.
Yes I just washed my clothes in a sink and snuck them in the house keepers dryer.

The saga continues...

The adventure begins!

Eurotrip day 1!

So for those who don't know, Alexis and I are spending her spring break in Italy! Our plan was to fly in to Milan, then take the train north to Lake Como for two nights, then rent a car and drive down to Tuscany for three nights and then drive down to Rome for another 3 nights  with our flight home from Rome. However, Go with the flow is the new motto for this trip! So far nothing has actually happened that was planned, but since we set out for an adventure, an adventure is what we are really having!

It all began on Saturday night 3/21. We headed down to the airport to try and get on a flight to Newark that left at 10:00pm, we would have then had a day in NYC. As luck or lack there of would have it, we didn't' get on that flight or... Or the four others that followed. Sitting there staring at the standbys screen praying they would call our names was so nerve wracking! We finally gave up as the last flight left for the night and we decided to spend $60 and get a hotel for 3 hours so we could have a bed and shower rather shower rather than a hard airport floor.

At 4am our alarm went off, a mere 3 hours after check in and we headed back to the airport. We assumed since it was so early on a Sunday morning and hour would be enough time.... Apparently half of Washington state had the same plan. As luck would have it, Lex lead the way to a different security line and not only did we literally walk up to the scanners with no line, but we somehow go t to avoid unpack all of our liquids and electronics and he let us leave our shoes on! We then power walked our way to the terminal, but.... Didn't get on. The next flight wasn't for 3.5 more hours, so we randomly thought, hey why not try and fly to Chicago, we seriously were the last two people on the plane and I may have hugged the gate agent.

This is where shit started to hit the fan...So, we were the last on, which meant that the overhead bins were full. The flight attendant forced Lex to check the suitcase she happened to be carrying... Whichever was mine. No big deal you say, sure if you actually get on the connecting flight! Which we didn't once we got to Chicago. We needed to get to Newark to catch the flight to Milan. We couldn't get on! But my suitcase did. So many phone calls! And begging of gate attendants later, I am currently typing this en route to Frankfurt, Germany with my make up and a clean tee shirt... I somehow doubt that there are Targets in Italy. Praying that my bag will be greeting me at the Milan airport. Throw a prayer up for me too would ya?

I just enjoyed a whole can of ginger ale, (Did you know if you ask they will give you the whole thing!) and a strange meal of chicken, rice, and a butterscotch brownie (x2 -- traveling with a health it has it's perks, she always hands me the chocolate and the carbs, and I hand her the tomatoes) now gig am going to gate the most of this $12.99 inflight wifi and then hopefully my melatonin will kick in enough that I can sleep. We hope to catch others. Train or another flight into Milan once we land... Stay tuned and if you see my Love and my Little, give them a hug! Big Cor is holding down the fort this week while I play globetrotter.

All is not lost

Pen to paper. Words to the cursor. Pressing send, and clicking publish. Why is that so hard? Too much work? Too much effort? It shouldn't be, but it is. Publishing a post without a photo, isn't the end of the world. Yet, I still use that as an excuse. "Oh shoot, I have no photo's of what I was going to write about, better not post anything then". That ends. Now.

So here I sit, adding words to my cursor.

This weekend was a whirlwind. While it was a "normal" weekend that began on a Friday evening, and ended on a Sunday evening. It feels like it was soooo looooonng. A lot of activity was packed in to 48 hours. Friday night started with a barrel race in Monroe that went late (for this old lady, 11:00pm). Saturday morning was up and at em' as my friend Alexis' sweet springer spaniel Annie went missing from the back of her truck somewhere between the barrel race at the Evergreen State Fairgrounds and our house in 7 Lakes. #heartbroken.

We spent the day trying with no luck to find her... Social media posts, calling area vet offices, the Snohomish County Sherriff, WSP, Animal Control, Everett Animal Shelter. Nothing. As Alexis said, Annie is Gone With The Wind. Saturday night was the second late night of barrel racing, followed by a late night of Mcdonalds drive thru's and $30 worth of cheese burgers for our carload of people.

Today was spent hanging up Missing Posters (#comehomeannie) between home and Monroe. Squirrel moment: While in Office Depot this morning gathering poster supplies, the Michael Jackson Song "Smooth Criminal" was playing. For those that live under a rock --  the chorus is "Annie are you ok?" A sign? I think so. Moving on...Then we hauled horses home from the barrel race in Monroe, picked up fence panels and balanced them on a tractor bucket so they could be strapped to the roofs of a horse trailer and hauled home to my house. Oh ya, we now have a horse at our house to join our 2.5 dogs, 2 cats and 4 chickens. Does that mean I now have a farm?

It's 5:10pm and I am exhausted. I am always exhausted when Alexis comes home. She never. stops. moving. So I feel like I have to try and keep up with her crazy. I am too old for this. #justwaituntilItaly My house is now a wreck, and I have frozen steaks on the counter to try and appear like I had a plan for dinner, when really I am typing this instead of picking up my house (so I can sit down for a bit) and randomly opened the freezer and threw the first thing my eye landed on, on the counter.

Another squirrel moment: My FitBit should count my hefting fence panels as activity minutes... alas, it did not.

I am signing off to go make something of the frozen steaks on my counter and to rotate a load of laundry thru. #productive

I really should avoid hashtags in a blog post, but honestly I find them highly entertaining...

Remember me?

Alas fair readers I have returned to the world of blogging. I missed sharing my thoughts with everyone or no one, I guess I just missed getting them out of my brain and into complete sentences really. Things are crazy around Millerville, little Miss keeps us on our toes for sure. If she's not spreading pots and pans all over the kitchens she is tearing her freshly folded cloths out her drawers! Little Turkey! She is so dang cute though, I just want to squeeze her and cover her with kisses 99% of the time.

I recently changed shifts at work, so I get home around 4:00pm now and everyday Corey and I have the same conversation: Me- "what do you want for dinner" Him- " I don't care" UGGGGGGHH I hate that conversation! I hate not being prepared with something for dinner and I hate how my mind goes completely void of everything I have ever cooked in my life. Then we end up eating frozen pizza or macaroni and cheese... Very healthy And yes very grown up!

So I decided to give meal planning another go, I enlisted some help from a website I stumbled upon while cruising iheartorganizing.blogspot.com. Jenn over at iheart had a sponsor one month who runs a website called 5meals1hour.com . She provides with you a meal plan, shopping list and assembly list which you are supposed to be able to put together in an hour.

Would believe it, and hour to the minute!! That's even with a mid prep stop to check on a napping baby! Score one for me!! Now here's to hoping they all taste good! Ha!! I am so happy though to have something for dinner every night this week! I will check back in later this week and with a taste update!

Millerville

I have been a terrible blogger. While I am not really sure who reads my humble mess of words, I like to imagine that many are waited with baited breath for me to type something entertaining. I wouldn't quite call my life an entertaining one. It could be deemed mediocre at best. However, I am amazed by it every day. I am baffled, I am thrilled, I am humbled and most of all I am blessed. I am truly and blissfully blessed every time these sweet little arms reach up to me (Em learning how to reach for me has taken my heart to a whole new flutter by the way)

photo courtesy of my sweet friend Ashley Scott with Photography by Ashley Mae

For those of you who didn't know, I was a major klutz about five weeks ago and proceeded to break my elbow. While I sat on the ground in the garage and felt sorry for myself thoughts began to flow through my brain like, " seriously, why does this stuff always happen to you/us" and "are you freaking kidding me" and the best yet "now what the heck are you going to do with Emery". I sat there and truly had a pity party.

 I knew it was broken. I could tell. Once you break a bone, you always know what it feels like. I knew I was going to have pick my uncoordinated self up and slink down the hallway to inform my sleeping husband that a midnight trip to the ER was in order. Thankfully my mom was home and she was able to chauffeur her clumsy daughter to the hospital... After a week of casts, slings, sleepless night, gnarly pain, and two separate pain med prescriptions that promptly made me heave my stomach into oblivion I was still having a major pity party. I was angry, and I was so very frustrated. Things have started healing thankfully, and my friends and family once again rallied around me and helped us get through yet another trying time in the Miller house. I am humbled so very much by how many wonderful people we surround ourselves with.

This would be the typical place where if I was a good blogger I would insert a picture of me and my broken wing, but I don't want to scare you all with a photo of my disgusting self. Truly, I was a sight to be seen the third day in. Cast, sling, bile in my hair. Really classy...

The one good thing that came out of breaking my wing (elbow, but wing really does sound waaaay cooler) was that I was had to take some time off to heal, thus getting to spend three weeks with my Wee. She is growing so much that it was almost like this working Mama had to get used to her again, and her to me. She has blown me away with how much she has changed, and all the things she learns so quickly. I never thought that watching a baby learn how to do Patty Cake would thrill me like it does.

She still is working on growing some hair, and her eyes are becoming the most fabulous shade of green. No teeth yet either, but oh well, who needs em'. She is what makes my world go round. I drive by fancier cars every day, and my mind still goes back to paying off the one I have so I can be home with her. I want a bigger house every time something falls out of a packed closet, and once again my mind goes back to living in the one we have, so I can someday stay home at least part time with her.
She gives me a run for my money everyday, but she makes me melt everyday too.

photo courtesy of my sweet friend Ashley Scott with Photography by Ashley Mae

Throwin' it out there

I am one of those people who feels like most things in life need to come with a disclaimer. When I introduce people to my mom, I give one. When I cook dinner for new people, I give one. AND when I make something, and give it as a gift, or gasp... sell it, I give one. Why I do it, I don't know. I usually end up drawing attention to something with the disclaimer that no one would have noticed anyway, and if I had just left my disclaimer off, no one would be none the wiser... Which is why I have hesitated for so long to post anything about my relationship with my new sewing machine.

I have always had a sewing machine... The first one I started using was my mom's, and she got it as a wedding gift... in 1979... I bought my first one 7 years ago (thankfully at Costco) and I muttled my way through it's quirky habits of eating fabric, breaking needles, and having to be sweet talked into threading correctly. This Christmas however, Mama wanted a new sewing machine. One that worked. And didn't eat fabric... I had since returned my previous one, which Costco graciously accepted and refunded, and was using a borrowed one from a friend. Then this puppy arrived.

Disregard the blurry phone picture... and my pajama's, hey man, I was excited.
(there I go with disclaimers again)



It is amazing. It seriously is the best gift I have every talked Corey in to buying. I am no longer afraid to winde bobbins, or heaven forbid, change thread color. And because I am no longer afraid of my sewing machine, I have finally started to make use of the fabric I have been hoarding... So I started sewing, and sewing... and ya, sewing. Since I was no longer afraid, I decided I would be a little bold, and try and sell something I sewed. Low and be hold, I did.  I am not going to get rich off of my sales thus far, but hey a girl can dream. I just am excited knowing someone purchased something of mine, and I don't even know them! I get a little braver everyday. Since I titled my post today, "Throwin' it out there" Here it goes...


$7 for 1 or 2 for $12. All burpee's are made with super soft cotton flannel, and are sewn to a new cloth diaper. They are the best, truly, and not just because I made them, :-)



$7 for 1 or 2 for $12. All burpee's are made with super soft cotton flannel, and are sewn to a new cloth diaper. They are the best, truly, and not just because I made them, :-)

$7 for 1 or 2 for $12. All burpee's are made with super soft cotton flannel, and are sewn to a new cloth diaper. They are the best, truly, and not just because I made them, :-)

$7 for 1 or 2 for $12. All burpee's are made with super soft cotton flannel, and are sewn to a new cloth diaper. They are the best, truly, and not just because I made them, :-)

Ok, Ok, another disclaimer - Sorry for the sideways photo's,  my computer and I are not getting along real well at the moment.

So there it is. My latest venture. I sew better than I photograph, so should you like to see some burpee's in person, feel free to stop by Vintage Bliss in Conway, WA or my house of course. I always have a few hand :-)

I am also working on some pretty awesome car seat blankets. (thanks Pinterest) I gave my first one away. Par for the course, you know. AND... didn't photograph it. Oh well, live and learn.

My kind of perfection

I think of things, witty things to say, or to type. I saw a friends Facebook status the other day and she asked if it was strange that she thinks in movie quotes. Someone posted below that it was ok, because she thinks in Facebook status updates. I think in blog posts.

I have a few blogs that I follow, one that I followed for a few years now and through the years I have gotten to a point where I almost feel like I know her personally. She writes so candidly that you really almost feel like she is talking to you. Many of her posts are just about the walks she took that day with her girls, and how they made a pie when they got home but somehow the posts are always interesting, and you leave them feeling like you glimpsed a tiny part of her fabulous day. I hope I create that. I strive to give that. On to my post.

I sat in a safety training class today, a somewhere between safety goal setting and the kid from transportation trying to explain the safety chair process I went to LaLa Land. You know that place where what you are supposed to be listening to, or watching fades out into the background and your eyes glaze over. I was there. I could almost smell Emery. She smelled like Noodle & Boo lotion. I could feel her sweet skin on the tip of my nose, and I actually wiggled my head as if I was nuzzling her sweet neck. Then the whiteboard came back into focus, and the class was teasing me, as I was in charge of rewarding people with chocolate for their participation and I was so far out in LaLa Land that I had missed someones reward. The minutes ticked by, it was now 4:03pm and the class was supposed to be over at 4:00. I could hardly keep my rear end in the seat, when we were finally dismissed, I seriously almost ran to my car only to be rewarded with traffic the WHOLE way home.  I stumbled my way in the door, to be rewarded with this.

She is blissful. She is my definition of perfection. I crave her weight in my arms. It takes everything I have to pry myself away from her sleeping body every morning. Things like foreclosure of my home or repossession of my car seem not so bad if it meant that I could quit my job, and stay home with her. I pray that she will understand why I leave her warm body alone in my bed and I pray that the gracious family members I leave her with will love her as much as I do.

There is a sleeping cherub curved against my hip as I type, so fair readers I leave you, to go to her. Good Night!