What We've Been Up To

It's been too long since we've posted. This is because there has been a lack of happenin' activities with us and also partly due to laziness (alright, I admit it, it falls heavily on the latter). So let me try to catch you up to speed on what's new in the Timko household:

1. We are the Timkos! I officially changed my last name this month. When we married I wasn't ready. I know... we dated for 7 years and were engaged for over 2... a decade should have been enough time to get used to the thought of me with a different name. We've now been married for 2 1/2 years and I was wanting to make the change. I was still a little anxious about it so Andrew volunteered to go to the Social Security office and DMV with me. It feels nice to be joined with one name. It's also really nice that I no longer have to point out that we're married but have different last names (people just assume that if you don't have the same last name, you're not married). It's fun calling each other Mr. Timko and Mrs. Timko. Andrew also likes to joke and say that since he's the original Timko, and Hazel had his last name before me, that he is Tim1, Hazel is Tim2, and I'm Tim3. Of course this is a little irritating to think that the dog has a higher rank than me, so we jokingly go back and forth on this issue.

The first Timko family photo

2. Andy's been on several trips. Andrew has had two "guy trips" in the last couple months. The first was when he met his friend, Donald, in Lake Tahoe. They skied for a day then came and picked me up for a day in San Francisco. We went to Pier 39 and the Golden Gate Bridge. The next day the guys headed off again. They drove down the coast and stopped in Monterrey and Santa Cruz. They climbed the Santa Cruz Mountains at Castle Rock State Park. They had reservations to skydive in Hollister but the clouds were too low so they drove on to China Peak Ski Resort in Lakeshore, CA and skied some more.

A couple weeks later Andy went on a trip to Southern California (SoCal, as the locals call it. I don't feel local enough or cool enough to use slang like that) with his buddy, Greg. He flew into LA (just an hour flight) and tried out hang gliding, surfing, and longboarding. All of these were firsts for him. Then he and Greg drove to San Diego where they took a sailing lesson. They spent Day 3 in Temecula golfing and at Harrah's Casino.

Andrew also just got back from a work trip to North Carolina. I'm glad to have him back until next month when he'll be travel back to NC for work.

3. I've been trying to stay busy. I'm not working but still manage to fill most days. I've made a friend who likes cooking and crafting along with me. Megan blogs, too, and she's much better at keeping hers up than I am. Our friendship is a blessing but its one drawback has certainly been the scale. Andrew doesn't like baked goods or sushi, so it's wonderful to have someone to share my food loves with! Here are a few things that have been made recently: 

1. Paper Mache Egg Wreath (tutorial for eggs found here)

2. Coasters (tutorial found here)

3. Bible Cover (Megan's design and sewn with her help)

4. Silhouettes of the fam (black fabric paint on fabric paper)

5. Scones (not pictured was the awesome lemon curd we made.

Read more about our afternoon tea and scone photo credit here)

6. Bread dough rising fail! This was my first bread making attempt. Although

it looks terrible, it tasted great! English Muffin bread recipe found here)

3. I cashed in on a Christmas gift. Andy gave me tickets to see my first San Jose Sharks game at Christmas. The Sharks are an NHL team here that play at the HP Pavilion (the Shark Tank). They didn't win but it was a lot of funny, anyway!

 4. We took another trip to Lake Tahoe. We have had an unusually dry winter which means very little snow has fallen in Lake Tahoe. But they did get hit for a week straight last month and we decided to take advantage of it. We left at 4:00 am to a resort south of the lake and I was hopeful that I would be able to expand my skills from my first skiing adventure. Unfortunately, not only did I fail to do that, but I actually did way worse this time around. Somehow I forgot how to turn and stop and never recovered those skills. I also managed to fall on the magic carpet. Yep. Pretty embarrassing. I couldn't even stay upright on a machine belt that only requires you to just stand there and not move.

 5. Hazel's been busy, too. Alright, that's not really true. But she did go to the vet for a checkup last month. Hazel has had wonderful doctors (one in North Carolina and one in Florida) and I was confident this one would be just as good by his glowing Yelp reviews. Yikes. Andy and I were so nervous for her as the vet kept calling our girl "little guy" and "little fella" and saying "he" over and over. He did do a physical examination, and I'm still not sure if he knows that my dog is female. There were other issues, as well, that make us comfortable dropping this guy and trying someone else next time around (things like, "We're supposed to call you with the results but you may have to call us because we forget"). We did find that Hazel is a tad overweight and needs more teeth brushing. So now we are working on getting her less anxious around her toothbrush and also cutting back her food a bit to help her lose a pound, which sounds funny to say but on a dog that should only weigh 10 lbs, an extra one is a big deal.

 So that's what we've been doing! I'm hoping the better weather ahead will mean more adventures again. We'll keep you posted!