Lowell passed his test!

This post is for Lowell who deserves some major kudos!

After over a year of working full time and studying like crazy for his Certified Financial Planner (CFP) certification, Lowell received a letter on Monday letting him know he passed! It has been a long road for him with studying every night after work and having to miss out on so many fun things in order to study weekends. Mostly it was hard on me (Becca) because I was forced to play incessantly with the animals without the company of Lowell on evenings and weekends. Fortunately, we all made it through!

I am so proud of Lowell for all his hard work and admirable diligence. It truly was not easy and every small test passed along the way was a triumph in itself. Here's to you, Babe! I love you! 

P.S. This pictures was taken years ago and makes no sense for this post- but what is a post without a picture, ya know?!

Cavalier King Charles Spaniels

When I started my search for a dog, I knew the right thing to do was to get a rescue dog from a shelter. I've heard rescue dogs can turn out to be really amazing pets, but I also know that rescue dogs are also sometimes given up due to behavior or health problems. What if the rescue dog was part terrier and tried to kill our cat? Or ended up needing vigorous exercise at least twice a day? The thing about a rescue dog is that you are getting a mixed bag that may include some traits that would not fit with your lifestyle, your cat, or your small yard. With a pure bred you know what you are getting on a general level. Yes, all dogs have different personalities, but you know for instance that a lab will need exercise and that beagle will bark. So I decided to fork over the big bucks, risk hereditary health problems, be a spoiled brat, and get a pure bred dog. Before I post a blog about about our dog Lulu, I must say a little bit about the best breed of dog in the world: the cavalier king charles spaniel! 

I have to start by saying that I love spaniels in general having grown up with cocker spaniels. I love their silky hair, droopy ears, big eyes and loving personalities. There are actually over 20 different popular breeds of spaniels around today. According to Wikipedia, spaniels most likely originated from Spain (hence the name) and were bread to hunt birds and fowl. (This birding instinct is still strong in Lulu.)

The cavalier king charles spaniel was bred down over time to become the perfect lap dog. The breed was actually popularized in the 16th century by the royal family and was given the name "King Charles" because the kids in the household of Charles I were said to have a dog that resembled a Blenheim, or a white and reddish-brown coloring. King Charles II was said to be so  completely obsessed with these dogs that he ignored his kingly duties... he even declared an edict that all toy spaniels were allowed to enter every public building including the Parliament. Hope they had someone around cleaning up all that dooky! 

There are four different colorings of the cavalier king charles spaniel:

The ruby (solid red)

The Blenheim (red with white markings- most popular coloring)

The black and tan (black with tan eyebrows, muzzle and belly)

The tricolor (a black and tan coloring with white markings)

Lulu is a black and tan. I originally really wanted a female tricolor, but found little Lu (originally named Princess- haha) on the internet for a cheaper price than what I had been seeing! Apparently the black and tan is the least popular coloring of all the cavaliers so no wonder she was priced a little less... I happen to think black and tan is a beautiful coloring so people don't know what they are missing (yes, I also happen to be biased.) 

Stay tuned for Lulu's blog expose! 

Powpow

Our cat, Powpow is a 2.5 year old crazy crazy man. Lowell received a cat for his birthday (one of those presents that I got "for him" that was really for me) that we thought would be a sweet low-maintenance kitty that would hide under the bed and sleep all day. We rescued him from an adoption center and he was the last little guy from his litter. He was SO scared of us and we thought we hated us. The cat-lady working there told us it was very unusual to see a kitten as timid as him, and that he was very small for his age. She was sure he would be a small cat. She of course would know, as she had at least 5 cats herself...

Well, he proved everyone wrong! I just realized that he's kind of like Clifford the Big Red Dog, because he is now a huge beast. He went from being scared of everything to intensely interested in anything. Please note that Powpow was not set up for any of the following pictures and got into each and every predicament on his own accord:

crazed

box head

Okay, fine. I admit to putting him in the this backpack myself...

Getting into Mom's speech and language standardized testing materials

Sleeping in underwear

Ready to go camping (yes, he really did crawl into this sleeping bag holder himself)

But, all-in-all we would not trade our Mr. Powpow Kittles Pinkerton for anything in the world. He may always be getting into trouble (like walking in to our neighbors' houses on sunny days to say "Hello") but he's been there for us. For instance, he's always ready to help Lowell brew a batch of beer:

He is really just a chip off the old block!

The Favors

More about the wedding...

For our favors, we are doing the coolest thing! Lowell has been homebrewing beer for about a year now and is pretty good at it if I might add! We have all the gear: stainless steal pots, a large propane burner, 2 kegs, a CO2 tank, and even bought an extra fridge to put in the garage to house the kegs. We have bottle cappers, sterilization solutions, pumps of all kinds and even our own hop plant growing in our yard. We are SO Washingtonians! 

We've slowly been collecting beer bottles people have graciously saved for us that we wash, sterilize, fill with delicious beer, and cap. We are saving them in boxes to be used to give away at our wedding as favors. 

Now here is the best part: the labels! I ordered 200 of these awesome labels in our colors with our names and date printed on them from http://www.myownlabels.com/ 

I had them leave the bottom text box blank where I write in the specific variety of beer as we have many different kinds such as "lager", "red ale", "alt" et. 

It's a lot of fun because Lowell has an excuse to try all these new brewing recipes and our guests get to take something that really is a reflection of us! 

Wedding colors

So of course, on to more import things: wedding colors! (BTW, This post is dedicated to Kelsey and Abby from our walk at Greenlake.) 

My favorite color has always been yellow and it also happens to be Lowell's favorite as well! My vision started with a harvest yellow, accompanied by two other fall colors. I still haven't decided between burnt orange, brown, and olive green. I like burnt orange, but finding things in this color has already been a little tricky. Brown and olive green are also nice and neutral. But what is a fall wedding without a pumpkiny-orange? Your thoughts are more than welcome. 

I found many bridesmaid dresses in yellow, but all of them more appropriate shades for spring. My sister Ashley finally found our bridesmaid dresses on sale at Banana Republic. They are a vibrant yellow and should be a fun pop of color! Not to mention on sale (good find, Ash)!

Our Venue

So the first and probably most stressful wedding detail thus far has been choosing a venue. Finding a reasonably-priced venue in Seattle was no easy task! I wanted to keep the wedding in Seattle because I wanted everyone to be able to drink a few glasses of wine and have fun without worrying about a long drive back to their hotel or home. I also felt that getting married in Seattle was a tribute to us- Lowell and I met in Seattle, dated in Seattle, and now own our town-house in Seattle. Seattle it had to be! 

After looking at some disappointing places, we finally found our place at the Hall at Fauntleroy in West Seattle. It is an old school house turned community hall where a local catering company operates out of. They have GREAT food and a cute little room and garden to have a ceremony and reception. Best of all, they had dates in October to offer us! I thought for sure we would have to go with a gray day in January at the rate we were going... So, we choose October 3rd, 2009 for our day. It also happens to be Lowell's oldest brother's birthday so we will have two things to celebrate that day! (Thanks, Adam!) 

Originally we wanted a smaller wedding for two reasons: to maintain an intimate feeling at the wedding, and also to save on costs. Our cap is at about 160 so the guest list has been a challenge! We finally had to decide we could not include children under age 21 with the exception of Caleb (Lowell's nephew) and Noah (Lowell's youngest brother who is almost 21 anyways). Even with kids out of the count, we are still over! Stay tuned for how this one pans out... 

This is the garden area where we will be having the ceremony if all goes according to Farmer's Almanac and its weather prediction for October 3rd, 2009! The sun will be setting right behind the alter so it should be very romantic. If it does end up raining, we can easily move the ceremony indoors. Hopefully guests can hang out outside though- look how cute the garden area is!