How to build an AR....

AR meaning Assault Rifle...... We had our friends Ben and Christina over last night for dinner. Ben used to be in the Marines and went to war and came back and then became a Deputy for the King County Sheriff's Office. Needless to say, he's into guns. When we went over to there house last Monday night for dinner, Devin was excited to be able to see his collection. Ben has a GINORMOUS gun safe at his house and we've seen a picture. The Picture doesn't do it justice. He would sometimes take a little stool and sit it in there and sit in side and play with his "toys". Devin walked away in Awwe and wants to make his collection big, like Bens. Well Ben has a few AR's and actually had one that he hadn't put together yet. Last night when they came over, he brought all the parts in a box and Devin made a Vice/workbench. They worked on the AR after dinner as much as they could, but couldn't finish because one of the parts were too long and they couldn't cut it with anything that we had at the house. oh well, I'm pretty sure that Ben got it finished last night when he got home since he was so gung-ho about getting it done. Anywho, here are a few pics of the "men" working on this thing!!
Boys and there Toys!!!

Huntin' Me

Ok, so we went out 2 nights ago and bought me my CAMO gear. SOOO exciting!!! Got home and tried it all on with the shotgun and the dog. It was fun!!! So we got up early this morning made our coffee got our so un-healthy McDonalds breakfast and hit the roaad. The hunting test was in shelton which is 1hour and 30 minutes away. The class started at 10am which isn't that early but we left the house by 8am. we got there and there was an automatic test when you walk inm the door. It's a 15 question test and if you miss more then 3, you fail the class and that's it. Well let me back up here for a sceond and tell my side of the story.....

So Devin and I decided to take the online hunter safety class/test. The test is $15 and it's 75 questions long. You have to get a 80% correct to get the online hunter certificate. So I took the test "with Devin's help" and we got 97%, so we cheated a little, but don't tell. anyways, so ALL week long I took the practice test 2 times a day everyday just so i made sure that I knew all the material for the class. so I was getting 97-99% every time I took that test BY MY SELF. I was feeling VERY confident in my ability of gun safety and gerneral knowledge of hunting. I was flying high.....

So back to this morning.... We walk in the door ready to take this test, well there were too many people in the class so instead of taking that test right away the instructor decided to talk to us about all the guns and tell his little stories, IN WHICH I listened to very intently because the instructor is never wrong about anything. So after the guns we took the test and I FAIL... the stupid questions on the test were questions that I NEVER saw on the online tests. Weird, plus there were 3 questions that I missed just because i listened to his stories and I thought they were right from what he said, GGGRRRRR. I got 6 wrong out of 15. DANG, I was feeling very discouraged. Kinda hoping that Devin might fail so I wouldn't look so bad and we would go home together. Nope, devin passed and now what? So I told him that I would either wait in the car 6 hours or I would come back for him later on. Well he decided that he didn't want to do that class with out me so we left. Now we have a few options. We can get a deferral license for $20 and we can go hunting with someone that has had there WA hunting license for the last 3 years. Then next March we can take the whole class and get our own licenses. I'm very discouragedd but at least we might be able to still go duck hunting this year. Uncle Gary has already started looking for places to go with us. We might go out to Chelan to met them out there this next weekend to go Quail hunting. Should be fun! anyways, with out further ado my hunting gear......

2 Year Mark...

So Devin rolls over at 12:01 this morning because the alarm on his phone goes off, and says "Happy 2 year anniversary hunny". I said "WHAT?" We had our first date 2 years ago today. I can't beleive that it's only been 2 years. It feels like we have been together for a lifetime, which I think is a good thing! So 2 years ago today, we met for early dinner in Des Moines to my favorite sushi place, Sushi Saki. We had a really great time. We ordered some pieces that were large and the only way to eat them was to shove them into your mouth and cover your mouth with your hand. Well he thought it was pretty funny so he took video of it on his phone. You would think that I would be embarrased about it at the time, but I was laughing and it just felt so right. After that we went to the movies, and he had to talk to me into "James Bond". I'm not a fan of the Bond movies, in fact sometimes I think they are dumb, but I thought I would try something new. So we went and it is the new Bond guy and I actually really liked the movie. So tonight we were going to go do our ritual (go eat sushi and then go to the NEW Bond movie), but I'm going to the church with Annalisa and help the ladies quilt. They are trying to get 10 quilts done tonight to donate to the DI by Thanksgiving. So I'm giving up my date night to go do this, and then tomorrow night we are going to go to our Date night.

I was looking through some photos from when we first started dating and I thought that I would share them:

This is officially the first pitcure that we ever taken of us. Probably about 3 weeks after we started dating. I never realized how much shorter I was then him until I saw this picture. Then I decided that I loved having a tall man. I get to still wear 4inch heals and he's still way taller then me. I think that's my favorite thing about him, is his tallness!This was taken in my room at Valeries house (my brother in law's mommy). He was trying to act so tough for the camera. It looks like "umm, why you taking a picture of me, this is so dumb"

This was taken in the Starbucks in DownTown Bellevue when we first started dating. I got him that sweat shirt for our first christmas, I caught him off guard. (-:

This is a day in January when we bought his bike. We bought it and he had never even been on a bike before. But since I had one he thought he should need one too. I ended up riding it home from RMC to store it in the garage until I could teach him how to ride. It was a cold day and the bike was too big for me.

This was taken at a work event the first time that we had to get all dressed up. We had thought it was a good idea to "frost" Devin's hair, and it looks like it actually came out orange. Yeah... that's all I can say about that picture.

So over the last 2 years life has changed quite a bit. We have not only gotten married, we bought a house, we remodeled our house, we bought a cat together and then lost a cat together, got another kitten, added a puppy to our family, and have lost a parent. Life so far as thrown us curve balls but indeed we can still knock those balls out of the park. Still going Strong after 2 small years!!! I love you Hubby!

The Hunters

So, we have decided that of course we want som new change again. A new hobby to keep us busy again. So we have decided to take up hunting. We have been training our little black lab Maui to retreve ducks. So we bought her 2 ducks and have been training her to bring them back, set them at our feet, and then sit next to us. We have only done this inide, but so far so good (all except the marks of paint and the wood missing off the walls in the hallway). So, we went down to Cabelas for the first time today to look at guns. they had the only guns in stock that we were looking at. we have called around and have gone to differnt stores and they just didn't have the 28'' barrel that devin was looking for. So to Cabelas we went. It was about a 45 min. drive to Lacey without traffic. We walked in the front door and BAM...... we didn't walk any further, why?....... Because there was the clearance CAMO clothes. YEAH, we got Devin a camo outfit for only $50. And it even matches. After looking through those for a while, we then decided to go upstairs to check out the guns. We took a number and waited in line for our turn. We saw our 2 guns, and they didn't have Devin's gun in a wood finish, so we got him a black one. we then bought a camo finish that he put on his gun tonight. so all in all it was a good trip down to Cabelas. 2 Shotguns, some amo, Devin's camo outfit and a duck for Maui.

This is Maui with the new Duck that we got her today. It has more of a soft finish on it so she can grab it in her mouth.
Here is Devin in his new Camo outfit with his new Camo gun, which by the way if you want to know, it's a Remington 12 Gauge 870 Express, 28inch.

Here is Devin with his future hunting dog Maui. As you can see she already likes that duck, we had to take it away from her so she wouldn't learn to chew on it.These are the waders that we want to get Devin. They just look so cute!!! It will probably be another buy on another day.

Ohhhh... so the gun that we got me is a Remington (wood finish) 20 Gauge 870 Express 26inch barrel. Devin already took his online course the other day, and I'm supposed to do mine tonight. then this Saturday we have to go down to Shelton and take the Hunter safety course, then we can hunt anything. This season is duck since everything else is pretty much over. After we get our licenses, we will then get together with our friend jacob and find a place to go. He has a yellow lab puppy named Mojo and he wants to train him to hunt too. So between the 3 of us and the 2 puppies it should be a REALLY good time!!! Anywho, so wish me luck on my test and our testing this weekend, it should be a really good time!!!!

The 4th of the 4th, for the Fun

So I figure that other people are posting it, so I will go along with the fun!!! This is my 4th picture in my 4th picture file folder.
This picture was taken at Banks Lake in Coulee City, WA, right over by the Grand Coulee Dam. We go every year at the end of August for a family camping trip. This is Valerie in the picture which is my brother in laws Mom. This was a shot of when we were setting up Camp for the week!!!

Grown up Puppy Maui

So I've been getting requests that I update pictures of little Maui, who isn't so little anymore. No more talk, just pictures! Sleeping, life is roughPuppy Graduation day. This is the best picture we could get, she didn't want to keep that hat on her head, without some help of course.

This is her spot in the car. She LOVES to ride on her own seat. She just sits so pretty! We started feeding her this new food, and it has made her coat so shinny. She almost looks silver in the sun.She sleeps in some of the weirdest positions sometimes. But we still just LOVE her!All peaceful Sleeping in our room.

This is a new crate that we got her. She outgrew the other little one. Devin decided that we needed the biggest one possible. This crate is made for Grate Danes. But she's spoiled for sure.

Loving on Papa

Here she is cuddling with uncle Dean and Auntie Chelle. She just loved playing with them when they were in town!

Well, there you have it Folks, some updated pics that should make you happy!

R.I.P. Jerry Sheldon (Dad)

ok, so it's been a while since I have blogged, and it's because we have been really busy. My dad passed away on October 24th at 11pm. This is my story;
On Friday late afternoon I got a call from my dad, and once again of course I was rolling my eyes. More drama, more crying from him and it was just another day of trying to calm him down and tell him that everyone would be ok and that I was there for him. I got him calmed down and promised that I would see him in the morning so that we could clean his apartment so we could start looking for a new one on the first floor. Something that would make it a little easier for him to get around. I left a little early on Friday from work because I was upset, my aunt at told him something that made me really upset. She told him that I thought he was a burden, and I NEVER have said that to anyone. that's why he was so upset and crying. More drama...

Reluctantly Devin and I got up on Saturday morning, packed up all the cleaning supplies and put them in the car and drove down to his Apt. We got there, walked up stairs, knocked on the door, nothing, called his cell and we could hear it ringing, nothing, we were there for about 15 minutes of doing this and then decied we were pissed that we wasted a saturday morning getting up and going down there. We were going to try again later that night. So about 6pm we went back down there with the intent of yelling at him because we had a date. Again, no answer (he would always answer his door, maybe not his cell, but always the door). We went down stairs and tried to knock on the Managers door. He's never there so we talked with the assistant manager, he said there was no key to let us into the apt. The manager was the only on with a key and he didn't want to drive all the way down there just so we could check on someone. We were Pissed. We Thought, what were we going to do now? Well we left it alone that night and tried not to think about it and decided that we were going to knock the door down on Sunday morning.

We got up, and did a few things, and went down there at 12:30. Knocked and knocked again, and no answer, talked to a few neighbors and they said that hadn't heard or seen him since Friday night. So Devin had brought his screw drivers so we could try to unscrew the door knob, and no go. He tried to shove the door open with his shoulder, but then if we broke the door, we would have to replace it. So I called his brothers to see if they had a key and they didn't, so I asked my uncle gary what to do. He suggested call 911 and they could get the door open. So we did and about 30 minutes later officer Burger came out. He talked with all the neighbors and tried to get a phone number for the manager to bring a key, all the numbers that everyone had for him were wrong, so the last thing to do was to kick that door in.The Sergeant got there right on time to walk up there stairs and witness it.
IT took a few tries for him to get the door open, but the officer broke the deadbolt off and got it open. They asked up to stay outside while they "cleared" the place. They came back out and said, "Well he is here in the back, but unfortunately he is no longer with us". WOW, didn't expect that, I was actually just going to yell at him for not answering the door and his phone. Once they took there pictures for evidence, they said that we could go in and look if we wanted. Well me being so gung-ho and a visual person I had to see. So we walked into the Apartment and into his bedroom and right there on the bathroom floor was my dad tightly curled in the fetal position. Looking just like a little baby entering into this world. His hands and neck and ears and face were all purple and he looked so peaceful laying there. I just kept thinking that he was going to start breathing and that everything was going to be fine.
We went and sat outside so the officer could take more photos and go through everything just incase there was something there that dad was hiding. The Medical Examiners came by and did there thing, and tried to gather as much info as they could. They said that he looked like he was in no pain when he died and that it looks like he just laid down and fell asleep. They put the time of death at 11-pm on Friday night, so even if we got the door open on Saturday morning, we couldn't have done anything. At this time, they are thinking that it is not Self inflected, and it was natural. I'm pissed, we were just at the hospital the weekend before and they found nothing. Dad and I had talked about his death and memorial service and what he wanted done with his body plenty of times just in case something did happen. I didn't sleep much the fisrt night, all the dreams I had involved his apartment and seeing him like that. I will probably be a wreck for a little while, but just stick with me and I will get through it. I knew that I would have to be the one that would take care of all the financials now since Dad's number 1 fan here has been stuck with this the whole time, taking care of him, running him around..... I'm pretty sure nothing will change with that, but Dean was here to help. We found a cremating home, got that done in time for his memorial that was on Saturday!
We also had till last Friday to get his APT cleaned out since he's only paid up through October. That was a task all in it's self. That man had so many clothes. He worked at Brittania for 18 some years, and got his clothes fron there for almost free.
So the cause of death was a major heart attack that killed him instantly. There was nothing that we could have done to help him even if we were there.
On Sunday, we got to go up to the mountains to a location that was very close to where Grandpa Sheldon's ashes were spread. Grandma's ashes hadn't been done yet so she came up with us too. We went up to Snoqualmie where the river is, and about 2 miles up from Snoqualmie Falls is the place that we picked to spread them. We had all the brothers and sisters that were still left join us along with some of Dad's cousins. First Uncle Pat took Grandma out and did hers and then Dean, Lizzy and I went out. We took our shoes off rolled up our pants and started wading into the river. I was first out and I slipped and caught myslef just as my bum and sleve got wet. Dean started laughing at me, and sure enough not but 2 seconds later he slipped and soaked his pants all the way up to his bum. He even dropped Dad's Urn into the water, luckily it was sealed tightly and it didn't get wet inside. We all stood there and poured it out together and also took turns doing it. I must say that was the BEST feeling I got all week. It was such a hard week planning and moving and taking care of everything, along with dealing with family. It was a great ending to a hard week. After that, we had a family dinner and a slideshow of all the pictures taken over the weekend. So please, keep him in yours prayers that he will walk again with the angels and that he is ok!