Update From Lunchbox

Written by Lunchbox on May 30th, 2017

Hey everyone! Long time no blog. I’d like to blame the humans for not letting me on the laptop anymore, but honestly I’m just too old and tired to be bothered to share my awesome thoughts with the world. Oh, and my toenails are too long. Well, since I recently got a trim and there’s a ton to fill you guys in on, I decided to sneak Mommy’s laptop out of her bag and let you guys know what’s really going on.

A ton has changed since last time I put paw to keyboard, most notably that the annoying babies have turned into even more annoying kids. However, there is one thing that bears mentioning above the rest: the little bitch. The humans scold me when I call her that, but what else do you call a female dog who’s smaller than you? They call her Whiskey, but I’m pretty sure that’s just because they’re alcoholics and now no one can tell if they’re getting drunk or scolding the brown monster. Whatever her name is, a little over two years ago the humans brought home the insane monstrosity known as Whiskey. Sure, she started out cute but that got old about a month later when she chewed on my shoulder so much that I had to go into surgery to get a tiny little tumor removed (fine Dad, it was huge and gross). Anyway, the tumor wasn’t a problem for almost 8 years until she showed up. Since then, it’s been week after week of torture from my new “sister”. She’s always stealing my bed, stealing attention, and getting both of us in trouble. I’m sure I’m supposed to say I love her, so sure. Whatever. If you think she’s cute, you live with her. I could go on for hours about how annoying Whiskey is, but lately there’s more going on I need to fill you in on.

I’m not really sure what’s going on, but there is weird shit going on with the humans. It started a couple of months ago with putting a bunch of stuff in boxes. They were nice enough to avoid any of my stuff, but they did pack up a lot of the small human’s toys that I use when I can’t find my toys fast enough. Then, a weird sign appeared in the front yard. Shortly after, things got REALLY weird. All kinds of new people started coming by the house. You’d think that would annoy me, but it was great! Every time someone new came by, I got to go for a walk (which is awesome, even if the bitch has to go too). Occasionally, we’d even go to parks, restaurants, etc. It was like the old days, before the small humans took over. Lately the visitors have dropped off, but the packing has picked up again. Today, three strangers came over and put everything we own in boxes. They even boxed up almost all of my toys (I’d be annoyed, but brown poop-monster steals them all anyway). 

I’m not sure what’s going on, but the humans keep talking about how we are going to be “Colorado dogs” or “snow dogs”. So, when the humans were at dinner tonight I did a little Googling and figured out that Colorado is a state halfway across the country. Don’t even get me started on this “snow” shit. I watched some videos of dogs playing in snow that look like tons of fun, if you’re three or four. I’m 10! I’m way too old for this shit! I also looked up how long I’m going to have to share the back of the car with the beast. Three days?!? No thanks. Maybe whoever moves into our house wants an awesome, super-smart, well behaved “mature” dog.

That’s what’s going on in the life of Lunchbox lately. Annoying kids, super-annoying sister, and now this whole moving thing. So, basically the humans continue to suck and I continue to pay the consequences.

 

Shit Show

Written by Shae on April 30th, 2017

Holy.  Shit.  You guys, selling and buying a house totally sucks balls!!  I swear, there really needs to be a tv crew following us around filming this comedy/shit show.  So, lets just start at the beginning shall we.  

After our open house we had a great offer on our house that we accepted.  It was taking awhile to get their deposit in so our realtor finally got ahold of them, only to find out that one of them GOT DEPORTED!!  Like, seriously!!  How does that even happen?  I feel absolutely horrible for their family though.  I mean, I know things will work out with our house, but I can’t even imagine what they are going through.  So in the mean time, we had a trip to Colorado planned, since we were under contract and we would be able to find a house for us.  Well, right before the trip I found a house that we liked so we put in an offer, without seeing it.  We had already seen a house with the same floor plan, so we were pretty confident with the house.  We offered 10k over, plus no closing cost or anything like that but because our house fell out of escrow, it was a no go.  

Fast forward to our actual trip to Colorado. We got another offer on our house (Yay!), but they decided to withdraw the offer before we were able to get under contract again (Boo!)  We had put in an offer on another house we went to see, and they countered back basically saying that they need to see a contract for our current house.  Well shit.  Luckily our agent was able to talk to them and they gave us till the weekend to get under contract before they would officially accept our offer.  

We got lucky and ended up getting another offer on our house while we were in Colorado.  It wasn’t as good as the previous one, but at least it came in time for us to get under contract at the Colorado house.  Now we just need to hope that everything works out with both houses!!

The big problem was having with finding a house in Colorado is that there seems to be two types.  You get the really nice newer homes that need very little work done, but are sitting on tiny little lots or you have the older homes that need quite a bit of work done, but are sitting on the amazing lots that have natural yards, rather than manicured yards.  I wish I was able to just combine the two.  New house on an old lot.  The more houses I got see the more I realized that I will never be happy in one of the places with a tiny little lot.  As I have said before, I don’t want to settle.  

The house we ended up choosing has an amazing back yard and is in a really nice area full of trees and wildlife.  The inside needs A LOT of work and there are a few things that we had to compromise on, but in the end, it was the deck and yard that really won us over.  I can just picture myself sitting out there with my morning coffee or tea, or having friends over for a BBQ while our kids play on the play structure.  Even though we didn’t get everything we wanted, in the house, it will be awesome once we get it all fixed up and I plan on writing about all the “fun” projects!

Things are Moving

Written by Shae on April 14th, 2017

Moving is nothing new to me.  During college I lived in 5 different places and then when I moved to San Diego I lived in two different apartments before we bought our house.  I alway had moving down to a pretty good system.  I was able to fit most of my stuff in the back of a truck.  Clothes went in trash bags and got stuffed wherever they would fit.  All my other stuff would go into file boxes.  Pretty simple.  Now that we have been living in our house for 10 years and have two kids, things are a little different!!  I have been slowly packing as much stuff as I can into moving boxes and putting them in the garage.  It’s amazing how much stuff you can amass in 10 years.  Now that a large portion of our stuff is nicely organized in the garage, thanks to me, it doesn’t seem to be as overwhelming.  We still have a lot to do, but every little bit I do gets us closer to Colorado.

Hey, Pat here. I can’t let Shae fill this post with lies. Nothing is “nicely organized in the garage.” There is a massive pile of boxes on one side of the garage, which used to be nicely stacked (by me), and then all kinds of random crap thrown out in the garage. I guess Shae got tired of actually putting things in boxes. Also, it’s a good thing that Shae and I haven’t had to move in the past 10 years or we may not have made it this long. Have you ever tried to pack things up with an ADHD spouse who wants to do anything other than pack? We were in the middle of trying to get the garage packed up when she said she had to take something inside. About 10-15 minutes later I wandered in to find out what was taking so long and she was cleaning out the drain in the sink. She will do pretty much anything to avoid packing. It’s the best! Okay, sorry for the interruption. Back to Shae’s rambling.

Another thing about moving that people don’t really think about is all the things we need to do to the house to get it ready to actually sell.  Painting, patching, carpet shampooing, etc.  There are also things that need to be done like some electrical work and plumbing work.  After spending 2 hours on a GFCI outlet, we finally said fuck it and decided there are just certain things that the new owners will have to do.  Hmmmm, I wonder how many “fuck it” moments the owners of the house we buy will have that we will have to fix?

It was actually more like three hours spent on the damn outlet before we put the old one back in and decided that’s a “next owner problem”. We moved on to replace a different outlet instead just so we could get a win on the books for the day. That outlet went much easier and we got it replaced in about 10 minutes. We were really proud of ourselves until we turned the patio light on at night and tripped the outlet. Yup, we even screwed up the easy one. Fuck it.

I have to say, I think Pat and I have been working really well together so far.  He goes on travel, and I pack shit up.  He comes home and says, “good job, Babe.”  Hopefully we continue working well together when he is actually home for more than a few days at a time.

This is pretty much accurate. In my defense, sometimes I text her while I’m on travel and “remind” her to do things while I’m gone. 

Big Changes and Big Moves

Written by Shae on March 22nd, 2017

Ok, so now that things are official we can finally tell you about our next big adventure: the Lorigans are moving to Colorado!!  This has been in the works for quite some time now and it has been pretty stressful.  Basically, San Diego is just too damn expensive.  Don’t get me wrong, I love where we live and I love our house, but there is no way we could ever move up and we are just outgrowing our house.  The kids are still sharing a room and the guest room is in the attic.  It is a tight fit when we have family staying here and we just don’t have the seating or space to add more.  An opportunity presented itself in Colorado and Pat is able to transfer there.  I’m sure there will be some changes, but for the most part he will be doing the same job and he will be traveling back to San Diego and Lompoc, just as he does now.  

 

In January I tagged along on one of Pat’s work trips and holy fuck!!  Of course we end up being there during a super cold snow storm!!  I was without a car so I had to Uber over to the mall and get some snow boots and long underwear.  It didn’t occur to me until that trip that I have a thing for ripped and distressed jeans.  Who knew those rips let in cold air?!?  At least I had a jacket!!  There was one night we walked over to a restaurant for dinner and it was below 0.  The wind chill was so bad it was actually painful to breath.  The next day it was just as cold, but we didn’t have the wind, so it was actually bearable.  I am used to winter weather being in the 50s and 60s, not the single and negative digits!!  Despite the cold, I absolutely loved it!  The city was beautiful and it had that smaller feeling I was looking for.  That trip really reaffirmed that we are meant to be there.   

 

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While I was there, I rode around town with our realtor so I could get a good idea of the area and the different neighborhoods.  I narrowed it down to two areas and I got a better idea of what kind of house I was looking for.  As much as I love the idea of walking into a brand new home, I really hated the backyards and neighborhoods that came with them.  I really want trees.  We decided that if we were doing this move to improve our lives in the long run, then we were going to get what we want damnit!!  And I want trees!!!  We do have a house in mind and I’ll write about it if we end up getting it, but since we are just starting to list our house I don’t want to rule out any others that might pop up.  I will say that if we end up getting this house, I will have a lot to write about as we work on doing some fun renovation projects.  

 

So, as long as things keep moving forward and all the timing lines up, we will be Colorado residents at the end of May!!  

 

With all the upcoming changes, we’ll be trying to get back into write about our adventures and misadventures a lot more.  

 

Christmas Shopping Sucks

Written by Shae on December 10th, 2014

UGH!!!!  I am so frustrated with toy makers!!  So, there is a Star Wars show that both Jackson and Ella really love.  Two of the main characters are females.  They are strong and fierce, and Ella just adores them.  Here comes the problem; they sell all the action figures of the male characters, but none of the female characters.  I mean, you can go to target and buy a full set of characters from the show, but they still managed to leave out the two females.  What the fuck toymakers?!?  Boys are not the only ones who what to play with this stuff.  Just ask my little girl who left Target in tears because, once again, all the cool toys are male Characters.

The “heros” of the show

No females

No females

Now that it’s time of Christmas shopping I wanted to get Ella a Gamora figure from the new Gaurdians of the Galxey movie.  Well, guess what?  Since she happens to be a female character, I can’t seem to get one.  Sure, they make the smaller size ones that are more for collectors, but nothing in the larger size that a 6 year old could actually play with.  So lame!!

Gamora is even at the front of the movie poster

Gamora is even at the front of the movie poster

 

I went through this when Jackson was really into the Imaginext stuff.  Ella really wanted to play with him, but she wanted to be a girl character.  As I’m sure you can guess, they don’t make any for girls.

For their birthday, we went to Toys R’ Us to check out some toys and gauge what they are interested in now.  Have you been to one of those stores lately?  There are twice as many aisles for the “boy” toys, possibly even more.  Ella walked down all the girl rows and didn’t see a single thing she wanted.

 

So to all you toy companies out there, Girls like playing with castles and dinosaurs too.  Girls like action movies and tv shows that have strong female characters.  Boys are not the only ones who watch these shows and movies and want to play with the merchandise.  Maybe you should keep that in mind when you all are sitting around a table and you decided to leave all the female characters out because boys might not want to play with them.

Thankful

Written by Shae on November 14th, 2014

November marks the month when men try to grow a mustache, and our Facebook feeds fill up with posts about what people are thankful for.  Rather than make a post each day, I figured I would sit down with my cup of coffee while I’m curled up on the couch under my blanket and put my thoughts down here.  I am beyond thankful that I can actually do that.  I get to wake up in the morning, get the kids ready for school, and personally drop them off.  We talk about little things in the car and we review any reading or spelling words they have and then I get to say goodbye to them them.  I do not have to put them on a bus while I get ready for a 9-5 job.  I’m thankful I get to sit in the pick up line, sometimes in 100 degree weather, or when it is pouring rain, because it means I am the one who gets to watch my kids run to the car with smiles on their faces (most of the time), I get to hear all about their day and then I get to help them with their homework.  Sure, sometimes homework totally blows, and sometimes they have bad days at school, but I am always there to comfort them.  The point is, I am thankful it is ME that gets to do these things.  I don’t have to drop my kids off an hour early or rely on after school care to do these things.  I am thankful Pat works so hard and has such a great job, that allows me to be a SAHM and be with my kids and watch them grow up.

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I am thankful for everything we have.  We don’t live in the largest house, or drive the most expensive cars.  We don’t have the latest and greatest toys and gadgets, and our kids don’t get every new toy available.  And you know what, I am absolutely ok with that!  I love my house and my car.  I appreciate the things that we do have and my kids have amazing imaginations and can play for hours without a single toy.  We try to teach our kids that “stuff” isn’t important, but experiences are.  I think they are finally starting see that.  Last weekend I had plans to take the kids up to Palomar Mountain and go exploring with them.  Unfortunately, they both ended up sick and we couldn’t go.  They were more disappointed about that than when they didn’t get everything they wanted for their birthday.  It makes me happy that they value our little adventures I like taking them on.  Hopefully we are all feeling better and the weather cooperates and we can do our little adventure this weekend.

One final thought:  I am extremely thankful for the rain we got last night!!  Hopefully the skies open up and give us more!

Time to try again

Written by Shae on October 22nd, 2014

Ok, let’s try this thing again.  I’m not going to fill you in on the kids and life and stuff like that since anyone reading this is most likely friends with me on Facebook, or one of our parents.  The only thing I will say is that the kids are now 6 and are in Kindergarten.  Lunchbox is still with us, but is having some health issues, but that is a post for another time.  Our house is still standing, our lawn is still dead, and our cars are still running.

We’ll see how long this thing lasts this time!

Mama Got a New Ride

Written by Shae on September 10th, 2013

When I was 16 years old, like all 16 year olds, I was super excited to get my driver’s license.  Also, like most 16 year olds, I needed a car.  Around that same time, my grandpa passed away, leaving my grandma with an extra car.  Boo for death, yay for a car!  That was my first official car.  It was a 1982 babyshit tan volvo sedan.  It was a manual transmission, no a/c, and it didn’t always start.  I drove that thing all through high school and part of collage.  When I moved to Fresno, I really needed an a/c, so my parents got me a 1992 Honda Accord.  My dad and Pat even put a CD player in it for me.  It didn’t always start, but it got me around and got me through college.  When I graduated and moved to San Diego, my grandma passed away and once again there was an extra car.  My mom took that car and she gave me her 2001 Mazda Tribute.  I was excited because I finally had a car that was newer than 10 years old and worked pretty well.  That car took me everywhere.  I took it 4 wheeling in the desert, I took it up to snow in Julian.  It drove me up to Lockwood for my wedding and to all my doctors appointments when the twins were born.  After almost 170,000 miles, it was time to retire her.  The roof was starting to rust pretty bad, the steering wheel made a horrible noise, my breaks made an ear piercing screech that no one was able to fix, and there were times when it was hard to get started.  The other day I was driving home and I noticed that there was another new noise and was probably a U-joint problem.  I guess we just got to the point where we were dropping too much money into it and we were both worried about making the trip to Lockwood in it.

Now, I know the smart thing to do would have been to go look at Carmax or someplace like that to find something that was a couple years old, but this was my chance to FINALLY have a new car.  A car that I got to pick out and test drive.  I ended up with a 2014 Ford Explorer.  It has a third row in it so we can take one car when family is in town and it has 4 wheel drive for the desert and the snow.  One of my favorite things is that is has soooo much room!!  It is perfect for lugging around all my newborn equipment to photo shoots.  I can also use the navi to find the shoots instead of having to use Pat’s car.  I <3 my car!!

 

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Sad Trend

Written by Shae on August 28th, 2013

Those of you who know me personally know that I take extreme pride in the quality of everything I make, whether it’s a dress or one of my welded mosaic tables.  I have very high standards for myself. Because of this, I am saddened by a new trend I have seen pop on Facebook and Etsy, and the other craft and sewing sites I follow.  Basically, people are buying a bunch of merchandise from sites like Alibaba and Dhgate.  These sites have direct access to the “factories” in China so you can by a dress for $6.  The sad part is that I’m seeing a ton of children’s boutiques pop up that have bought from these sites, then put their own tags on, and call them handmade and sell them 1/3 of the price that the rest of us who actually make good quality are selling stuff for.  I hate that people are being sold poor quality items that have been made in sweat shops over seas and they think they are getting a dress that was handmade in the seller’s living room.  Sad how dishonest people are.

Oh, and to add to it, these Chinese site have been stealing patterns and photos from handmade designers and covering up the watermarks.  There is a popular maxi dress pattern made by one of the designers I like and she had hers stolen.  The knock off dresses are now all over Etsy and being sold as substandard products.

Pics on the Bridge

Written by Shae on August 25th, 2013

So, recently I have been doing some pattern testing for a couple designers (sewing).  I just finished testing the Pepper Dress by Brownie Goose.  Part of testing it means I get to go take some new pictures of the kiddos.  Yay!!  I even dragged Pat along with me to help because photographing my own kids can be a major pain in the ass!  Sure they look cute once they are done, but you should see what it takes to get there!!  I had to bribe Pat with lots of beer and fish and chips from Hooly’s because he knows the hell he was about to be put through.  Anyhoo, I adore this dress pattern and this dress will be up in my Etsy shop soonish.