Dog Days of Summer

This summer has definitely NOT been the most comfortable one we've had in El Paso due mainly to the fact that we're living with a crappy evaporator air conditioning (i.e. swamp cooler). To keep our minds off the heat, we have been enjoying our time with our first baby, Athena.

She's grown quite a bit since we got her in January and now tips the scales at 65 pounds. She has learned the names of all of her toys and even a few tricks, including "Shake" and "Roll Over", though she's reluctant to perform them unless there is some kind of treat available. She is eager to make new friends (unless it's the "uber-scary" UPS man) and is usually loved by everyone she meets! She's always ready for a game of tug-of-war and loves to be under foot, no matter what you're doing.

Latest Hiding Spot = Under the Computer Desk

We recently trekked to a park across town to try out their Doggie Park. Unfortunately, she was the only doggie around and wasn't too keen on performing the agility course beyond what it took to get her treat. We think she had WAY more fun running and sniffing the grass while on her leash in the rest of the park!

Cam Placing Treat

Athena Retrieving Treat

Athena Preparing to Jump Off Side of Ramp Once Treat is Retrieved

Lately, we've been researching different techniques to introduce her to the baby, when the time comes. We've tried playing crying baby noises, which don't seem to faze her. We're not too worried about her; she does GREAT with the little boys next door!

White Sands National Monument

On our way home from Ruidoso, NM, we decided to stop off at the White Sands National Monument - just to say we'd finally been to see the white sand. The White Sands National Monument is the world's largest gypsum dune field. It is a 275-square-mile area of great wave-like dunes of pure-white gypsum in the middle desert and can be seen from the highway about 60 miles away. The gypsum comes from the western portion of the monument where a lake with a very high mineral content, evaporates and leaves behind gypsum deposits that are then wind-transported to form the white dunes. Some of the dunes move at a rate of up to 30 feet per year!

Driving through the fields to get to the big dunes reminded us a lot of driving through a snowy Washington mountain pass - especially seeing the 6 foot high piles of sand on either side of the road and following the guy plowing the access road (be it on a road grader as opposed to a snow plow).

We hiked up a dune or two, only to discover the sand was cool to the touch (even to our bare feet!) and nothing like beach sand that's sat in the sun all day in 90+ degree temperatures. Also reminding us of snow were the kids sledding down the dunes on sleds you could rent from the gift shop.

Athena had a blast digging in the sand and had us covered from head to toe before it was time to get back into the truck.

It was a wonderful side-trip on our way home and we can't wait to bring our next visitors up to see the sights!

***P.S. If you click on the photos, you can see bigger images. Just remember to hit the "Back" button to come back to our blog.***

Road Trip to Ruidoso, NM

Instead of spending the entire two weeks of Cam's Block Leave doing Home Improvement activities (see later post) and hanging around sweltering El Paso, we decided to escape town for a few days. We headed north to the southern/central New Mexico town of Ruidoso. We had been promised, by several of our local friends, that the Ruidoso area would be the cure for all our tree-withdrawal symptoms. So, we packed up the truck, grabbed the dog and made the two and a half hour drive north.

Ruidoso did not disappoint. Its rolling mountains and hills were covered with Ponderosa Pines, various deciduous trees and green grass! There were streams and lakes, cute little "yuppie" and ski shops to peruse, and many, many, many cabins to stay in. (Too bad we chose one over the internet that turned out to be so "quaint" that it had newspaper taped to cracks in the windows...)

During our three days in town, we went for a nice, leisurely hike in the Lincoln Forest. It was glorious to be in the woods again and hear the stream babbling away as we walked. We also found out that despite her lack of enthusiasm for sprinklers, kiddie-pools and baths, Athena IS a true water dog. She happily went splashing through the creek we had to cross over/through several times, stopping only to bite at the rushing water. She also loved being able to find all kinds of new plants to sniff and even found a little garter snake to chase.

While out in the Lincoln National Forest, we stopped at the Monjeau Lookout, an active Forest Service fire lookout tower. It was completed in 1940, sits at 9640 feet in elevation and provides a gorgeous 360 degree view of 160 square miles of forest land.

We spent the rest of our "vacation" window shopping, trying new restaurants in town and just relaxing. We also took a walk in a local park where Athena found her first official stick ... from a tree!

It was a lovely short getaway and reintroduced a little green into our rather dull, brown desert lives!

Home Improvements, Stage 3

As promised, here's an update on what has been keeping us (well ... mostly Cam) busy for the last few weeks.

The downstairs is now completely painted! First, we used up the dark brown paint from the kitchen and family room in our half bath and found that it matches some framed IKEA art we've had perfectly!

Half-Bath Paint and Art

Second, we selected a light gray to paint the hallways and stairway. As Cam was up on our 22-foot ladder, painting away, he kept commenting on how I better like the color because he wasn't going to repaint it. The next morning we discovered that the color we selected had a purple-ish tint to it. While I was ok with it, Uber-Coug Cam could just not stand it. He selected a darker shade of gray and repainted the entire area again.

2nd Attempt at Gray

New Stairway Paint

New Downstairs Hallway Paint

After painting was complete, we dropped a chunk of change at Lowes (Thank goodness for the military discount) on new light fixtures for the WHOLE house. When we moved in, everything was super cool 80s-style and brass-colored ... down to the toilet paper roll holders! We've been replacing the bathroom accessories as we paint bathrooms, but now all the lights are now switched out with brushed nickel ones.

New Upstairs Hallway Paint and Sconces

Funky Kitchen Lights

New Dining Room Chandelier

The Easy Ceiling Fan in Family Room

The Not-So-Easy Ceiling Fan and Entry Light in Living Room
(Photo taken from half-way up the stairs)

All we have left to paint are the master bed and bath and the office/craft room/guest room ... since the green guest room is now becoming the nursery!

Home Improvements, Stage 2, Part B

As promised earlier, here are a few "AFTER" shots of our latest painting projects and the new furniture in our Living and Family Rooms. (Note to self: Work on taking straight panoramic pictures!!!)

Cam really wanted a "Patriotic" room in our house and since he was being so nice and letting me pick everything else, I figured I could give in just this once. So, we painted a GIANT wall in the Living Room dark blue! We framed copies of the Declaration of Independence, Constitution and the famous painting of Washington crossing the Delaware. We will soon be adding an ADA-commissioned print, photos of the military men (past and present) in our families and other red/white/blue accessories as we find them. We also need to find a coffee table, end tables and bookshelves to fully complete this room. Until then, here is our partially decorated Living Room:

Panorama view of 1/2 of the Living Room
(No, the beam is not crooked, the panorama is ...)

Walkway into the Kitchen/Dining Room from Living Room

We decided to stay more neutral with the Family Room, Dining Room and Kitchen. Since these 3 rooms all flow into one another, we chose to use a dark gray-brown accent color in the Kitchen and fireplace wall of the Family Room. We also liked the light brown color we used in the Living Room so much we continued it in the other 3 rooms of the downstairs. We busted butt on Saturday to complete the Family Room, Dining Room and Kitchen.

Family Room with new comfy couch

Dining Room
(Please excuse the mess on the table. The Kitchen still needs a few touch-ups done!)

*Almost* Finished Kitchen!

Now we just need to finish the 1/2 bath and hallways for downstairs to be complete!

Easter Adventures

To celebrate Easter 2010, we invited our very good friends, Jason and Charla Welch, over for a little egg-dying fun. Charla and I had found a Camo dye kit and decided that our Army boys needed to try it out!

Unfortunately, the kit was a big disappointment. The colors were not very colorful, the stickers that were supposed to be used did not stick very well, and to achieve a desired look almost all the camo stickers were required. Oh well! I think we all had fun ... and had some yummy hard-boiled eggs to enjoy afterward.

The egg dying gang

Concentration required!!!

Cam's one camo egg

Jason's camo egg progression
(R to L: The Good, the Bad & the Ugly)

The Smiths' contributions

As for actual Easter, Cam and I attended a local Lutheran church that we found a few weeks ago. (While it's not perfect, it might just have to do until we decide we want to keep looking at other local churches.) We were dressed in our Sunday best ... including Cam looking very handsome in his Army Dress Blues. Unfortunately, we were in such a rush to get changed so that Athena couldn't: 1) get Cam's uniform dirty and 2) snag my nylons that we forgot that we were going to take pictures of us all snazzed up ... so please enjoy this artist rendering!

Artist Rendering:
Sunday Best

We were invited to join Susan, our realtor, and her husband and friends for Easter dinner. The food was delicious and we got to meet a few more new Army people that have moved to the El Paso area. It was a great way to cap off the day.

We hope that you enjoyed your Easter and were able to get together with friends, family and loved ones to celebrate this joyful time. Christ is risen! He is risen indeed!!!

Home Improvements, Stage 2

So much for our original plan of tackling the small home improvement and beautification projects first...

We finally received our tax return (with our $8,000 first-time home buyer credit!!!) and immediately headed to the furniture stores! After traipsing through at least fifteen different stores one Sunday afternoon, we determined that the first store had the two couches we wanted most. (Murphy's Law, of course!) We then decided to focus our painting energies on finishing the downstairs Living and Family Rooms before the new couches arrived and tackle the remainder of the upstairs at a later time.

Prior to our shopping spree, however, we did manage to finish painting the upstairs guest bedroom. We chose to do one wall a slightly darker color so as to have an "accent" wall. Both colors are in the same family of sage greens as our guest bathroom.

Painting the Accent Wall

We (really, Cam) took on the Living Room first. He patched holes, removed baseboard trim (and ALL the caulk from the trim), scraped popcorn texture from the underside of beams, taped, prepped etc. I just showed up for the fun painting part! :)

Taping off

The Living Room proved to be a little tricky as it has two two-story walls that required the purchase of TWO new extension ladders and thankfully Cam has no aversion to heights!!!

2-story walls are a PAIN!
(And yes, he's standing on the support beam ... halfway up the wall)

Safe and sound on the ground!

Once our furniture has arrived and everything is decorated, we'll post the "After" photos. Until then, hope you enjoyed the "During" photos!

P.S.
Athena helped in all of this process too ... by staying out of the way in "Puppy Jail". She was blocked from entering the living room as we painted, so she watched from between the stair railings.

Home Improvements, Stage 1

We decided to start our Home Improvement plan on our new house by tackling the small projects first. The first order of business was changing all the outside locks and door handles and replacing the outdoor light fixtures with sensor lights. Cam was able to accomplish all this in two Saturdays.

We then moved on to painting. It's been 10+ years of renting WHITE, WHITE, WHITE apartments/houses and we were more than ready to add a little color to our lives! We decided to start on the smallest room and selected a sage green paint for our upstairs "guest" bath. It turned out a really nice shade (even though the pictures look "minty" it is really a light sage tone!) and matches our IKEA art perfectly!

Cam painting test spots

Kristy priming over the test spots

Finished!

Finished!

Finished!
(Note the curved hotel shower rod, Mom L!)

P.S. On a slightly mushy tangent, note the t-shirt that Cam is wearing. When I questioned his fashion choice for the evening, he stated that this is his "painting" shirt. The last time I saw this shirt was when he helped me paint my bedroom at home in Vancouver ... when we were Juniors in High School! All those years ago, I helped him get his painting shirt a little dirty by adding the smiley face!

New Addition

EXTRA! EXTRA! Read all about it! The Smiths have a New Addition!!!

OK, much to the chagrin of our mothers, it is not the bouncing baby variety, but a brand new puppy! Her name is Athena and she's settling in nicely to her big back yard and snug little crate.

Yesterday we visited the Animal Rescue League of El Paso and were almost immediately approved for adoption. We picked out a cute little black lab mix and got to bring her home today. After a rough ride home (She puked 3 times, but at least it was all on the tarp we had laid down!), she spent an hour in her new backyard learning to play fetch with Kristy and "Auntie" Charla!


We compromised on the name Athena. Cam wanted to pick something tough and/or Air Defense-related (i.e. Trigger, SCUD, etc.). Kristy wanted something cute and feminine. We had narrowed the field to Nike (Greek Goddess of Victory and also the name of an early ADA missile) or Athena (Greek Goddess of War and Wisdom). We decided on Athena so as not to lead strangers into believing we were the type of blathering idiots to name their dog after a shoe.

Sitting Pretty (w/ some help)

All tuckered out

Cam installing mesh over the gates to the backyard