one shot

I know this picture is not great. I had to take it peeking through a window so they wouldn't move. This is Zombie and Roxi's new favorite hobby - cuddling in the sun. I think they are still thawing out from Oregon. They love having a yard and just hanging out all day. These little guys just make my heart so warm!
We received all of our goods, so now we are just getting the house in order. More photos to come!
-chianne.

We're back!

We are finally here in Dunedin, FL which means we have purchased a new computer and are connected to the internet. I can blog again! Devin's new job is working at Airstation Clearwater on C-130's. He hasn't gone back to work yet, so hopefully he loves it. We picked to rent a house site-unseen which was a scary thing. We were relieved when we got here to find we had picked the perfect little house for us. We live steps from the community center which has a nice gym for Devin and yoga classes for myself at a fraction of what we would pay elsewhere. Our neighbors have all been so welcoming and kind to us. Zombie and Roxi are in love with their first ever, fenced-in backyard. All-in-all, life on the Gulf has been good to us so far.
I have a lot to blog about, so I will break it up over a few posts. For starters, enjoy a few shots from Devin's A-school graduation.

I just think this accidental shot is funny.

love,

chianne.

R.I.P. Laptop...

Well, I had every intention of posting about day to day life here at Sam Allen. However, one day, several weeks ago, the laptop would not turn on. We knew this day was coming but did not expect it so soon. As we live in a furnished house, there is a computer here to use, but it is unbelievably slow, so we don't use it too often. Also, I don't have a way to upload the photos I take, unless I showed you my iPhone photos, but then why would I have Instagram? The photos will just have to wait for a future time when we buy a new computer, which will be probably after we move to our new station.
Speaking of which, Devin put in his "dream sheet" last Monday. You put your top 3 places you'd like to go. When the list of available places comes out, you're only allowed to pick one of your top 3. If none of your top 3 are available, then you can pick anything from the list. They also pick in order of their class rank. It's a complicated process and quite frankly, makes me feel like the stars will have to align and hell will have to freeze over for us to go anywhere we want to go. Devin really wants to work on the Dolphin 65 helicopters.

 I did not take this photo, just found it on Google. If he were to get stationed on this particular type of helo, it gives him a lot of options of places to be stationed in the future. We will find out where we are going sometime this next week. We are both so anxious to know. I just want to be able to start planning and get all our ducks in a row. It's hard work moving with only 6 weeks notice! That's all for now. Next time I write will probably be to inform the masses where we will be moving at the end of June. Until then -
love,
chianne

Sam Allen and Aurora

Playing fetch while I relaxed in the sun!

We are all settled in at the waterfront cottage the owners have named "Sam Allen". It's so peaceful and even though it's furnished with the owner's things, we have felt so at home here. We have been able to go canoeing, and Devin is making use of the kayak and fishing equipment. The dogs LOVE it here. They love sitting in the sun room and watching the water and the birds. All the dogs roam free around here, so we regularly have several dogs in the yard playing. Roxi will even run off and visit her friends (her favorites being a little white dog named Jack, and a golden retriever who also is named Roxi), and then return home later. We even took them out in the canoe one day! Roxi thought it was amazing. Zombie was a little more nervous but got used to it. I fell in the water by accident, and to my surprise it wasn't very cold considering it was only 70 degrees out. Roxi has gone for a swim a few times after watching the lab next door jump off the dock and chase down toys in the water. Zombie is not so interested in swimming, but I think that will change when the heat of summer comes. We have to drive a little further to get to town and work, but we have no regrets.

Spectacular sunsets from the back deck - every night.

Devin's doing well in school. He currently has a 95% in class. They take several tests a week, and he is constantly studying or doing homework. In 3 months (to the day!) Devin will be graduating, and we will be moving to wherever the Coast Guard decides to send us next. We won't know until May where that might be. The suspense is killing me! I'm not even going to tell you where we want to go, because we literally change our minds every day based on which aircraft Devin likes most each day. Not every aircraft is at every air station, so whichever one he picks will narrow down the places we are able to go. There are just so many factors to consider!

Aunt Chynee and baby Aurora!

Last week, I was able to take the week off work and visit my sister, brother-in-law, and their new baby, Aurora. It seriously blows my mind that my sister grew that little girl in her belly for 9 months! I haven't been able to spend that much time around that young of a baby before, so it was a learning experience on many levels. It was such a nice trip.

The only downside is that those harborers of all things germy, AKA airplanes, seem to have infected me with a mean cold now. I'm already on my second box of tissues. Ah, well! It seems my obsession with hand sanitizer did not spare me this time...

I think that's all for now!

love,
chianne.

Moving! (again.)

Devin and I were so lucky to have friends offer to house us while he was in a-school. It enabled me to move out here with him and land a great job at a busy salon. Now that we are here, something fell into our laps that was too good to resist. We heard of a couples' vacation home on the Albemarle Sound here that they were looking to rent out. It's a charming remodeled cottage with spectacular water views and a dock you can use. They have a kayak, canoe, and skiff that they have welcomed us to use. We figured, "Carpe Diem!" When would we ever get to live at a waterfront property again??

The backside of the house that faces the water. Look at all those windows!

Our new backyard :)

-Chianne.

Announcing...

Our newest niece, Aurora!
Born Friday
5 lbs. 12 oz. 20 inches

My sister is officially a mom, and my mom is a grandma! It's unreal. I can't wait to meet this little blessing.
Love,
Chianne

We made it!

I know this is almost a month overdue, but we did make it safely to the East Coast. It was a crazy trek involving lots of weather, family, and friends. Poor Devin got food poisoning the day after his birthday, and I came down with a nasty cold, but we pressed on.

two of our nieces

Devin carrying around Gus.

Funny photo time!

Devin's bite from Dillon

our nephew!

How said bite occured

In Vegas with family and friends!

Roxi chasing cranes in Albuquerque

Albuquerque

a crazy amount of birds in Oklahoma...you don't want to know what our car looked like the next morning.

potty break!

Roxi being a parrot in Tennessee

Poor Zombie got his tail caught in the door :(

Roxi preferred to sleep on the cooler.

Our new home for the next 5 months!

The dogs are really enjoying this backyard!

Devin is doing well in school. I was blessed with a job as soon as we got here in a salon. It's very busy, so that is great! I'm going to try to be more diligent in updating this thing!

love,

chianne

Official

Well, I'm officially slacking at uploading pictures as I promised. I'm also slacking as updating as much as I would like. It's amazing what isn't done for us moving in 3 weeks. Yep, it's official. We got the orders yesterday. We knew we were going to go to North Carolina eventually, but I still don't really feel like it was going to happen until we had that piece of paper in our hands. Provo, expect us the 25th-28th of this month. Location TBD. Las Vegas, expect us the 28th-30th of this month. I think we'll be staying at the La Quinta on Tenaya (closest place to the NW area that allowed dogs.), but of course during the day you can find us at my Mom's. Please let us know if you want to spend time with us before we venture to the East Coast!

North Carolina, expect us the 2nd or 3rd of February! :)

-Chianne

Holidays

Well, Christmas has come and gone in the Shepherd household. No really, it's gone. We've already taken down the tree, all the decorations, and the outdoor lights. We usually keep them up until New Years, but since we are moving in less than a month, we figured we better pack them up right away to facilitate the bigger packing process. It's strange - with Christmas done, it's like a light switch has turned on in both of our brains saying, "Start packing!" Devin and I went and picked up some supplies yesterday and started packing a few boxes and listing some of the furniture we won't be taking on Craigslist. Everything is feeling like a dream right now. I feel like we have so much time before we move, but when I look at the calendar, my heart jumps when I see less than 4 weeks. That's all for now. Pictures to come still as promised (especially since Devin got be a beautiful Canon Rebel for Christmas!).

-chianne.

Busy Weekend

We started last weekend with Devin's work holiday party. It was at a lovely resort in Cannon Beach. We opted to stay there because it was stinking cheap since the CG was having their party there, and we split a room with some friends. Our room was on the top floor with the most spectacular view of Haystack Rock and the Pacific. I'll show you one photo I took while there as a teaser, but I will have to show you the rest later.

View from our room!

Saturday morning, after we had checked out of the hotel, we hopped in the car and drove to Salem to pick up Devin's mom and brother. (They had rode out with family that were going to stay in Salem, which is why we picked them up.) We drove back 3 hours to where we live on the Coast, but before we got home made a pit stop at the beach. You see, in all of Devin's mother's fifty-something years - she has never been to the ocean. Devin and Dillon made her close her eyes while we drove directly onto the beach. Then, they got her out of the car and made her face with her back to the ocean. They made her just breath the salty air and listen to the sounds for what seemed like an eternity. Finally, they let her turn around and face the majesty of the powerful Pacific Ocean. It was amazing to see the awe in her eyes. It made me realize how lucky I was to grow up visiting the beach often and that I get to live next to it now. We played in the cold sand for a bit and then went home. We had lots of laugh and delicious meals. Their trip ended too quickly.

Dillon wearing the scarf I made him! I need to find the rest of the pictures....

Now we're gearing up for Christmas which leads into packing up the house to move. It's weird to think in just about one month we'll be traveling cross country to our new home in North Carolina. Boy, do I have a lot to do!

-chianne.

Beard beanie tutorial

I have been busy at work learning to crochet lately...all because Devin wanted a beard beanie, and I sure as heck didn't want to pay $50 for one. The first one I made was alright (see pic of Devin), but now that I got the hang of it, they are turning out nicely. I made a few as Christmas gifts. I could not find a tutorial online to do it, so I'm going to share how I did it.
*I am very new to crocheting, so if any of the steps seem confusing, just let me know*

The first not so great one.

Beard Beanie Tutorial
-Yarn for both the beanie and beard
-I/9 (5.5 mm) crochet hook
-4 buttons
For the beanie: I used this website for the beanie pattern. I did several less rows because I didn't want it to fold up. The beauty of doing it in a round is that you can pretty much stop whenever it's long enough. I will make note that I made one of the beanies using a J hook and it produced the same great beanie but a little larger.

For the beard
1. Row 1-Make a slip knot. Using the I hook chain 45 sc.
2. Turning chain stitch. Skip 1 sc and continue the second row by working 1 sc into each sc in the chain. Make sure you have 45 stitches.
3. Repeat for rows 3-13 (you can adjust this if you want a thinner or thicker beard) *Make sure to do a turning chain at the end of each row or you will drop stitches, and your beard will start to look like a pyramid.
4. Row 14 - work 15 sc stitches just as you had for the other rows.
5. After the 15th stitch you are going to chain for 15 stitches not connecting to the beard.
6. Slip stitch the chain into stitch 30 of row 13.
7. Work sc into each stitch on the beard until the end of the row (stitches 31-45)
8. Row 15-16 - continue sc into the previous row. When you get to the disconnected 15 stitches, continue as normal working sc in each stitch. After the 16th row is complete, tie it off.
9. Finish by attaching a button on each corner of the beard. The beard can now be attached by putting the buttons into any of the holes in the beanie which is great for adjusting to different faces! Please don't copy this tutorial without citing back to my blog. Thank you!

Enjoy.
-chianne

Me with a beard :)

busy

I should be decorating for Christmas.
I should be finishing up crafts I made for family.
I should be boxing up said crafts to send off tomorrow.
I should be packing up my house since I'm moving in less than 2 months.

But what am I doing? I'm sitting laying on the couch watching the Harry Potter marathon on ABC Family. Sigh. I need some motivation today. Or a magic wand so I can accomplish these things while still watching Harry Potter.

accountability

So I did something that I'm wondering if I will regret.
I put this blog URL on my Christmas cards. Yep. I'm hoping it will hold me accountable to write about our day to day life and will help me put more photos on here. So if I haven't been on here in awhile....yell at me...or something. haha

-chianne.

Photos

We recently had some new family photographs taken. A friend of ours did them, Kara, who just started her own photography business. It was so kind of her to snap some pictures for us! You can like her page, Anchor Line Images, on Facebook.

a little nugget on the way!

I'm so thankful that I can finally talk about my little niece to come! My older sister is pregnant and is due in March! :)

My sister gave me this as a birthday gift!

Pretty sure she has the cutest belly ever.

Also, I graduated physical therapy this month. It feels so weird to not go several times a week, but they gave me tons of at home exercises so I'm not totally off the hook.

My super sweet graduation shirt.

There is only 61 days until we move out of Oregon, and that is very strange.

-chianne

Halloween 2011

Our neighbors had a Halloween party last night. There was much fun to be had and lots of great costumes. My favorite was a pregnant woman dressed as an oven with a bun in it, and her husband was dressed as a chef with an apron that said "Bun Maker". So cute!

Devin as "Old Man Herbert"

This is our neighbor James. Him and his wife's house is connected to ours.

I am wearing heeled boots, so I'm not THAT tall really.

-chianne.