How To RSS Subscribe

Warning!!! This is the most BORING blog post ever! Please just skip if you aren't interested.
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Although I can't imagine someone needing instant news feeds of our blog, someone was asking me about this, so I thought I'd post some instructions.

You might know that you can subscribe to a blog using RSS (Really Simple Syndication). What this means is that you might have a news reader somewhere where you can get instant updates to the blog content automatically. (without having to go out to the blog) Kind of like getting your newspaper delivered to your door instead of having to go pick it up at the store. (lame analogy, I know)

Here are some instructions on how to do this with Google's iGoogle personalized home. (Similar instructions apply if you're using yahoo)

First you want to add a RSS reader to your IGoogle.
1. Click on the "Add Stuff" link in the upper right hand corner.
2. In the search box at the top, enter RSS and click Search Homepage Content.
3. Find a reader you like and click 'Add it Now'.
4. Click on the 'Back to Homepage' link.
5. Next, find your reader and configure it. You can usually do this by clicking 'Add Subscription' or 'Edit Settings'. Click around and see if you can find it.
6. You'll want to add this url to the text box when prompted: http://www.sweigarts.com/feeds/posts/default
7. Next, click Add, or submit.


So after all this work, what has this gotten you? Well now, you can see blog headlines right on your google homepage! Which is not really that useful and takes a lot of the fun out of blog reading...but it is a great way to be notified when there are new posts :) I like doing RSS feeds for news websites. I also have one for one of my favorite website that constantly posts really great deals throughout the day.

Anyway...that's it! I warned you that it was going to be boring!

Queen of Procrastinating

Ok ok! I've been saying for weeks now that my weekend plans were going to include cleaning the beast of a garage out. And each and every time I go to do it, it is either too hot, or we have something else to do, or I just want to watch TV. I've found every excuse possible for letting this garage look like we 'just moved in'. Its been 2 months since we've moved into our new house and there is really no excuse for this...

In our last house, the inside was always super tidy but the garage was the huge giant heap of crap that we didn't know what to do with. When we cleaned the garage out, we were so excited about how spic and span it looked. I promised to myself that I'd never let my junkiness take over a garage again...but here we go again.

So cross your fingers and Cheer me on. With any luck this garage will be halfway organized by the end of the weekend and I can feel like we are FINALLY completely moved in.

Unless there is something good on TV...

Froggy's Still Alive!

Ok, I have to admit...when CJ pulled out all of his pet equipment the very day we were moving into the house and set up a terrarium for the little green tree frog he found outside, I was mildly irritated. I thought for sure this little guy was most definitely going to be a gonner by the morning and I was much more focused on trying to get OUR home setup, much less a home for a new little pet. But everyday CJ mists the terrarium with water, and captures little bugs for the frog to devour and the frog has lived happily ever after...at least thus far :)

Road Trip Part 2

Ok, here are the pictures I promised of our weekend at the family reunion in Hermiston, Oregon. You'll notice that there are no pictures at all of family. This is because we really didn't do much 'reuniting' while there. We didn't find a lot of people to talk to and really just spent some time sitting around talking to Craig & Nona. I think it is because we were only there a short time and most of the time we were there, the family wasn't seeming very social. We're a little shy too...so that might have played a role in our lack of 'reuniting'. But on a brighter note, we had a great road trip, and Bachelor amazed the family. Here are the highlights:

Here is CJ driving. He was so excited to get started because he had secretly recorded "The adventures of Huckleberry Finn" for us to listen to. It was great to listen to this book on tape and it helped pass the time on the 4 hour trip.

Meanwhile, Bachelor slept in the back seat of our car. We layed out a giant red blanket (our favorite one) out for him and he just took it easy the whole ride.

Ok, this is a weird building that we always comment on during trips to Oregon. It is out in the middle of nowhere and looks to have a giant bowling pin on it's roof. If anyone knows what this building is or does, please let us know. Until we hear otherwise, this is the world's coolest and smallest bowling alley, which is out in the middle of nowhere.


This was our hotel. Pretty nice, clean place...and cheapest in town :) We had tons of great cable channels, which made it a great vacation for us. We don't have cable at home, so we were overwhelmed by the wonderful tv selection....maybe this is why we didn't spend much time at the reunion...
Although this hotel was a 'pet friendly' hotel, the fine print said that small dogs were welcome, but larger dogs were 'negotiable'. Since we weren't in the mood to negotiate, and every once and a while we are excited to break the rules, we wrapped our dog up in the blankie and snuck him in.

And here is the best part of the reunion. There were two giant gates which were used in some sort of tossing game the at the reunion. CJ put them together and coaxed Bachelor to try to jump them. He did an awesome job and jumped these over and over again. Of course the entire family was very amazed and the kids were chearing for more.


Here he is just barely clearing the second jump. It is hard to tell from the picture, but these jumps are roughly 4 + feet tall! What an amazing dog! Look at him, with no training whatsoever, jumping that high. It is incredible what this dog will do for some treats :)


And finally, this is the aftermath of our roadtrip. Bachelor rarely lays like this, but when he is 'dog tired', he rolls over on his back. He was exhausted and so were we.

Road Trip!

We've got a Hernandez (CJ's Mom's side of the family) family reunion this weekend, so our weekend plans are to take a 4 hour road trip to Hermiston, Oregon. We're excited about the chance to take a trip together. Whenever the two of us get in a car on a road trip, we talk about lots of great things and discuss how to solve all of the world problems. It is great. What is especially fun about this trip is that we're going to load up Bachelor in the VW beetle and take him along with us. He enjoys car rides and I think he's going to have a great time.

When we get there, we're going to do some city exploration. Usually this includes checking out their versions of the stores we have here. We'll most definitely go to their "Big Lots" and their "Dollar Tree" to see what wonderful merchandise we are missing out on here in Boise. :) Really, we'll just do a little window shopping and walking around town. Then of course, we'll head on over to the reunion and hear lots of great stories about the family.

I'll be sure to document our little mini-trip and our experiences along the way when we return. Happy Weekend everyone!

What happens in our house...doesn't stay in our house

Ok, ok! We've been going back and forth on whether or not it was proper to post these pictures. After all, we're not only humiliating our best friend Kendra, Bachelor is embarrassed too. But after much deliberation, we've decided that what happens in the Sweigart's house....doesn't stay in the Sweigart's house. Especially when we're in a blog slump and desperately needing something entertaining to write about.

This is the story:

In May, Sean and Kendra came over to our house for some cards & fun. When they got there, we decided to break out the "Bachelor tricks"...which is something that we do from time to time when they come over. (CJ says "This is all we ever do, we're horrible hosts") Candace disagrees....we play cards and have lots of fun and then usually break out the Bachelor tricks...but we digress...

Anyway, they were over seeing some tricks and CJ decides to cut a meat mask out of our lunch meat and place it on Bachelor's eyes. Of course Bachelor is trained to always just sit there with food on him when you instruct him to. So Bachelor hung out for about five minutes with the meat mask while the four of us laughed hysterically at the look on his face and his drool that was pouring out of his jowls. Then Kendra tried on a meat mask on herself. Again, we laughed hysterically. It was awesome to see Kendra capture the look on Bachelor's face perfectly. These pictures are DEFINITELY going in the scrapbook and will DEFINITELY be a favorite of mine for years to come.

Oh, and I have the Bachelor meat face picture up at work. Usually people just ask in total disgust "Is that Bologna on your dog's face"? With pride, I say yes :)

Zoo Gong Wild

Here are some pictures from a very fun evening we had Friday night at the "Zoo Gong Wild". The weather was gorgeous and it was a great evening for some fun zoo exibits, and great music. We really enjoyed chatting with some coworkers and enjoyed the sounds from our very talented Wirestone house band. It was a great night.

Coolest Place To Work Ever!

If I had a picture, I'd love to show you....but I don't so I'll have to describe to you why we work at the coolest place ever. Earlier this week the managing director (head boss) of the Boise office announced that he would be having an 'open house' in his office Friday. So I went on over to his office this afternoon to check it out. As I pass by some coworkers desks, I see a huge projection on the wall of a live golf game being played in their office space. (amazing) Then, when I reach the office, there are tons of people standing around enjoying themselves, drinking cocktails, a guitar playing, and lots of chips/dips/snacks. Our boss was actually having a party during work hours and discouraged me from leaving to go check my email and get some work done. The atmosphere here is fantastic and I just love this job! I've never worked anywhere where the energy is so up-beat. And believe it or not...we actually get TONS of work done in this party we call work.

Weekend Plans

Tonight we're going to "Rock Gong Wild", a concert benefiting the "Out of Africa, Into Zoo Boise" campaign. The concert will feature Wirestone's (our employer) very own house band "Soft Gong". They are so awesome and we can't wait. I'll try to remember to take some fun pictures to share our experience in a future blog.

Saturday & Sunday we're hoping to get a massive amount of progress made on the "Checkabiz" project CJ has been working on for the past months. We think we're in the homestretch now.

Other things we'll accomplish this weekend:

1. Taking Craig Sr. to the airport on Saturday.

2. Wishing Dads a Happy Father's Day.

3. I hope to get some weeding done in the garden.

4. We'll most definitely take a break from the work on Saturday evening and watch our favorite Saturday evening show...Cops.

Hope you have a great weekend!

Absence makes the heart...

CJ is away at a business trip in Houston and it is KILLING me! And its killing little Bachelor as well. Bachelor is having to endure double the attention, double the cuddles, and double the smothering now that CJ isn't there to filter some of it. You can just see the exhaustion in his eyes as we took this picture 20 times trying to get it just so. I can't believe how much I miss CJ after not having him by my side. Bachelor and I are counting down the hours until he returns.

Drizzly & Loving it

After a few super hot days in Boise, we woke up this morning to rainy Seattle-like weather. And although I would start to complain if we had this weather for 30+ days in a row, I so love this weather today. I've got my winter soft sweater on this morning, I'm feeling cuddly. I've got a ice-cold diet coke, my headphones are playing "Coldplay", my workload is slower today...its just an amazing morning. Also, I was able to get into work an hour early today because Craig had a conference call. This is great because it gives me a chance to write a blog and stare outside at the awesome drizzly weather. Oh, did I mention that my desk situation at work was just recently upgraded? I've got the coolest window view. I'll have to take a picture from my desk so that you can see just what I mean. I'm currently looking at some really gorgeous green trees and the beautiful Boise city buildings. Wow...I keep asking how can my life get any better? Somebody, please pinch me! I'm really so happy and content and it is amazing! I've got the greatest husband and I can't get enough of him even though I am with him 24x7. Our new house is so homey and feels so comfortable. We've almost completely eliminated the need to sit in traffic. My job is amazing and I love my work. It is very challenging and fulfilling. What could possibly be better? Happy Wednesday all!

Backyard Campout

This weekend, Joseph & Theresa came over to our house to stay before their trip to Seattle. We had them overnight on Friday and until noon on Saturday. We had so much fun hanging out with them. We first took them to see "Bridge to Terabithia", which was a great family movie, and made me cry my eyes out :) Then we came home and they played video games while I secretly setup the tent out in the backyard and went to the store to get some treats. When they came up for bed, we all went out to the tent and played "Seattle in a Box". (The Seattle version of Monopoly) Instead of using the fake money, we used little gummy bears and peanut m&m's for cash. Bachelor LOVED that! He sat down beside the game board and watched as we exchanged the little candies for properties & rent. Unfortunately, I lost by a landslide between feeding my money to Bachelor and eating it myself.

Here are some pictures of our adventure...

Nothin to Blog About

Ok, so since the inception of the SweigartSpot, I've had yet to have absolutely nothing to blog about. When I created the blog, I worried that the day would come when we'd have nothing to say. :) It isn't that we haven't been doing anything, it is just that we haven't done anything remarkable or bloggable. Here is a recap of the week's events...

**Memorial Day Weekend: We had a great time. Instead of rushing off camping like we usually do, I had some work to do, so we stayed home. Friday night, I had a great time with Andrea. We got to have some cool girl time, and even though we didn't get any scrapbooking done, it was great to spend some time with her. We spent a few days working on getting our office put together and getting more things unpacked. The weather was gorgeous and we had a great time just hanging out together and getting things accomplished around the house.
Also, we had tentatively planned on a BBQ at the house on Monday. We ended up planning on not having it, but Sean and Kendra and the fam dropped in and we had a spontaneous BBQ after all.

**Tuesday - Thursday: Wow, this work week has been hectic. Really, I can't remember much from these past couple days except for yesterday I was sick with the flu, so it was one of the first times in months that CJ & I have spent away from each other. Its crazy, but I missed him so much as I was staying home trying to get some rest. I've really gotten used to spending so much time with him...it has been great :)

**Today - Friday! It is a nice, calm day at the office and I'm loving that I am feeling better. A couple friends and I are going out to eat at a sushi place for lunch, so I am looking forward to that. Also, tonight Joseph & Theresa are coming over to spend the night. Tomorrow they are boarding a flight to head out to Seattle, so they are staying with us. (Nona & Craig are out of town) We plan on spending some good quality time with the kids and perhaps taking them to the 8th street market tomorrow...which will give me something to finally blog about :)

*Oh, and some of you might have noticed... www.sweigarts.com was not working this week. You had to go to http://sweigartspot.blogspot.com to get here. This is now fixed.

We love you all and wish you a great weekend. Perhaps we need to live a little more so that I have fun things to tell you about again :)