The Fair (Take Two)

So the first time we went to the fair for the second time this week. When we headed there on Monday we ran a bit late and didn't really have a chance to see any of the displays or the animals. So I promised Miss Gracie that I would take her again later during the week. Of course we had to wait for the hottest day of the year to go...what's up with that?

Anyway, we headed out around 2:30 in the afternoon since I had to have my leg massaged in the morning. I had the stitches removed on Thursday but have been dealing with a lot of muscle pain in the calf. I went in again to see the Doctor on Monday as the pain was so bad I had trouble sleeping. She said it was just tension and to take a painkiller and stretch. Well, the pain medication helped to a point but it was getting ridiculous. So I am still in a bit of pain, but have been icing and applying heat, that with the pain meds seems to get me through the day. Not sure when I'll be able to get back to the gym though...

Anyway, the fair... On the way to the fair Grace fell asleep in the car. So when we got there I got lucky enough to find a coveted spot in the shade. I had packed her stroller, which we really don't use anymore, but thought it may make things easier on my leg. Good thing, cause I loaded her in it and headed straight to Woods Coffee. They had wonderful A/C and of course I had to have a refreshing Avalanche while Grace slept. After about 30 minutes I decided to head into the fair grounds to see if she would wake up. Well, I think I made it through most of the indoor and outdoor commercial exhibits until she was awoken by a band playing on the small stage. We then set off to find the animals. Of course all Grace wanted to do by that time was hit the carnival rides. To our dismay we found that hey had taken out the dog/cat display barn and we had missed the dogs completely as they were there only till Wednesday. What a bummer. Anyway we saw the animals including the calf that had just been born on Monday night. Grace got to pet a few goats and cows, not so much luck at the horses. And I just couldn't convince her to pose with the llama for a photo for Grandma.

We ate some more junk food, (I am proud to say that I did not give in to the looming temptation of having a 2nd Funnel Cake!). Although I really wanted to. LOL


Grace got to choose three rides to go on, and the merry go round with the horses was her favorite. We got home very exhausted and tired that night and hit the hay pretty early.

Heading out on the Roe Boat...

see you in about a week. Wish us good weather and cheap gas prices. LOL

Another new (old) post...

I actually went back to May and finished a post I had started then. Aren't you proud of me?

We Survived...

the by now "infamous" wedding reception. Our friends Stephanie & Jim got married on April 13th in Costa Rica. We offered them our house to host their Washington reception, (they also had one in Texas). So we've been prepping, cleaning, waxing and moving stuff around in preparation for yesterday's big event. My husband was happy to finally have the motivation he (we) needed to get our garage cleaned out, some stuff moved around and everything clean and sparkling.

We had tiki torches set up, tables with beautiful seashell centerpieces and much more...

About 80 people showed up, give or take, of which quite a few were kids. Stephanie has connections through the Indian tribes and had a guy named Alex cater the event. The food he whipped up was phenomenal. Didn't know they ate that good in Costa Rica. We had some wonderful chicken on a vegetable mix rice, a black bean fried rice (I can't recall the Costa Rican name), coleslaw, green salad ,watermelon and pineapple, and of course the mandatory wedding cake (thank you Costco!). The piece de resistance was his phenomenal pork, which was slow baked in a banana glaze and finished off with a sweet and sour mango salsa. Yummy! We had leftovers today and they are almost better the second time around.

So today, after feeding the people that stayed over breakfast, and cleaning up the party remnants, was a lazy day. We spent some time watching beach volleyball and I am happy to say that Misty May and Kerry Walsh are on their way to kick some butt at the summer Olympics in Beijing. Imagine playing in 101 consecutive matches and winning them all. What a legacy... Do you think I could quit my job and move to San Diego to pursue a Beach Volleyball career? A girl can dream, can't she?

Ok, Ok I know it's been forever...

but I'm back...

I've thought lots about updating this thing, but it just never quite happened. So here I am, finally.

Since my last post we've made some major home improvements, sowed some lawn, planted a vegetable garden, acquired beautiful hanging baskets, had several parties (and a few more to go!), sent Ben off to Navy Basic Training, had company from out of town stay over, went fishing, played some beach volleyball, planned to go camping and to a family reunion, and so much more...

I am taking two online classes at BIG Picture. The first is the always fabulous Stacy Julian's "Have More Fun" (and who doesn't want to do that?) and the second is Photography 101. I have learned so much from both classes already and wish I had more hours in the day to committ to them. How fun is receiving a package from Stacy with a fun message to make your day, which also included a mysterious Kazoo? Who knows how to play a Kazoo, (without looking it up on the internet, which is what I did, and I still can't play the darned thing!) LOL So if you've never checked it out go to BIG Picture right now and start by taking some of their free (YES! I said FREE classes), it will be so worth your time...let me know what you think?

Anyway, I hope you forgive me and I will try my best to be more like Julie my new blog hero. I swear she updates her blog every single day (well, not when she's on vacation in a cabin in the woods), but every other day, even when it means getting up at the crack of dawn. And Lisa, one of our new TOM girls, my new scrapbook idol, her stuff rocks, check it out here, here and here... And this is Lisa.

I will return sooner rather than later this time. I promise.

Early Morning Happenings...

if you read the local paper The Bellingham Herald, you would've heard about us this morning. Well, technically there was no mention that this happened in our front yard, but that's where the whole thing took place.

I got up after my alarm went off around 6 AM to get ready for my 7 AM Boot camp class at the gym. When I walked to the bathroom I saw someone parked in front of our driveway gate who's car I did not recognize. No biggie, it's happened before, someone pulls over to talk on the cell phone or to take some picture of the eagles in the trees by the river behind our house... But this time it was a little different. Upon closer investigation I found this in our front yard:

What the heck????
I guess someone was driving a bit too fast, or was asleep at the wheel, cause this darn truck just slid right off the road, into the field in front of our house. Luckily no one was hurt. Just imagine if this guy would've missed the corner by a few less feet, he would've ended up taking out our little rental house where Ryan was sleeping. Pretty scary!

When I got home from work at around 5 PM this is what I found:

They are just finished unloading all the lumber that was in the back and have some huge tow trucks trying to pull it out of the field. Looks like it's back on it's wheels now and they are trying to load it onto a trailer.

Ski To Sea 2008

This is the second year my husband has participated in this event. The first time was in 2001 and we was approached by a guy at the gym he went to. He completed the cross country event. This year he was asked by our friends Ray & Lisa, whom we know through volleyball. Lisa's employer was sponsoring a team and they needed someone to ski the downhill portion for them this year. Ray was doing the running leg. So Martin agreed to be their snowboarder. Not a lot of people like this portion as most of this leg consists of hiking up the hill rather than skiing/boarding down. just like the first time Martin practiced (once) on the run and then showed up ready to go.

The team did really well considering they were just a bunch of average guys, with the exception of the cross country skier, who apparently is a pro. This guy manged to finagle them a really good positron out of the starting gate and the rest of the boys performed well also.

After the race the company (Lucid Consulting) even put on a BBQ for the racers and their families. What a great weekend...

Saturday at the Farmer's Market

Today we spent the morning in Bellingham walking around the local farmer's market. It took a little bit of arm twisting to get Martin out but in the end the good food won him over. This was the second weekend in a row that we went.

Last Saturday I took my new camera and since the weather was so beautiful we all got a little dressed up and headed out. Any photos in this post will be from last weekend.

Some of our favorites are the crepes, chocolate croissants, pretzel sticks spread with Nutella, Sno Cones, Mallard's Ice Cream, Goat's Kefir and much more.

Grace loves to stop and watch the performers, whether it's the guy with the crystal balls, the musicians or a hula hoop lady.

Then she asked to have her picture taken with Daddy!

Then she shared her new favorite treat with Aubrey.

And finally on the way home we stopped at the car wash...

More Home Improvement...

Remember the infamous planter?

Well it now has it's first inhabitant. Check it out:

I'm a Winner!

Check this out: I won, don't know what but I won...

I'll let you know when I receive my prize.

A Picture Post Just For Grandma!

Here's your granddaughter after her bath on Thursday. She didn't want to take it off, actually wanting to go into town wearing it. LOL
The braid was a first too, she usually doesn't even let me brush or clip her hair up. But today she wanted hairspray just like Mommy, so I took full advantage...

Mother's Day Crazy-ness

For Mother's Day we decided kind of last minute to pack up and head over the moutains to visit my mother-in-law Becky. They live in Winthrop and it's about a 3 hour drive, which we did in approximately 2 3/4 hours. Yeah!

We had sneakily planned to take her out to Sunday brunch (my favorite meal of the week!) at Sun Mountain Lodge.

I had never been there before and the drive up the mountain was incredible. The view was stunning and I can't wait to go back there again...

Brunch was fabulous, especially the steak, done rare, just the way my MIL and I love it. Both the boys, Martin & his dad, are not so fond of undercooked meat. To each his own, but boy did they miss out.

Miss Grace looked fabulous in her new dress and of course she sported her styling straw hat which made the whole thing even cuter.

Wow! I am Speechless...

More home improvement projects! Two in one week, we must be setting a record here...

Yesterday Martin's cousin Mark who came up to visit two days ago helped Martin install our new pot filler. If you're wondering what a pot filler is ask my husband, it was his idea to put one into our kitchen. :)

Anyway, the model that goes with our kitchen faucet costs approximately $1600 give or take. So needless to say we've been putting it off as it definitely is a non essential item in our lives. Well, cousin Mark, who is a devoted Costco shopper, found us the Costco version for less than $300. So here it is:

House Improvement

I know, I know....I should be blogging about my Nashville trip and what I learned, the wonderful girls I met and reunited with, etc, etc.
But that post just seems too overwhelming right now for a headache and a late Tuesday night. So here is a post about our new home improvement that took place Sunday evening.

Hubby says to me: "You want to help me put up our chandelier? It should only take about an hour and a half." Well, little did I know that finally about four hours later we would be admiring our handy work, finished, lit up and correctly positioned in the window.

I guess the two lessons I took away from Sunday night with my husband are:

1) It will always take longer than expected.

2) Never take flash photography when your husband (who incidentally is afraid of heights!) is balancing on two planks between two rickety ladders about 15 feet in the air trying to connect a lamp to the electric circuit. He may just think that he's being electrocuted....

OOOOOOOPS!

Playground Date

Last weekend we actually managed to drag Martin away from work, chores, his phone and the computer for a few hours and drove into town. We headed to Boulevard Park and the new Woods coffee stand that has opened there. I had never been and we decided to get some drinks and treats and walk the park. Of course Grace demanded a mandatory stop at the playground. I guess it wasn't such a great idea to dress her up in the new clothes Grandma had bought for her birthday. White is not so white after about a gazillion runs down the slide. At first she was kind of hesitant about climbing up by herself, but after Martin helped her out a few times she quickly got the hang of it and did so the rest of the time all by herself. There was another little boy there and he had no qualms asking a strange man (ie: my husband) to help him too. His dad had his hands full with the little man's baby sister. After a few slides the boy apparently warmed up to us as he felt the compelling need to inform us that "Daddy had a shower this morning". Martin and I looked at each other and had the hardest time to not burst out in gut wrenching laughter. Martin did manage to keep a straight face and when the Dad in question inquired what Jr. had said replied: "Oh, just giving the hygiene report." LOL

Birthday Party Success!

Gracie's 3rd birthday party was a blast. Not only did almost everyone we invited (with the exception of her daycare friend Neva!) show up, we had a full house of overnight guests (including Grandma & Grandpa), but we also had the most wonderful summer-like weather you can imagine.

My mom, (thank you so much!) and the rest of the ladies in the house were fabulous with helping make things happen in the kitchen. I had my hands full with trying to get together the cupcakes, the cheese platter, the fruit platter and much, much more... I could not have done it without them. My sister's boyfriend Brian put together this fabulous cupcake tree I found at Tar-get, love that store. And I had gone bonkers buying pretty much anything with Backyardigans theme on eBay. Hence the balloons, party hats, cupcake decorations, plates, napkins, party favors, kites and much more...

The kids had a blast running through the fields chasing Grace's new John Deere four wheeler, playing ball, opening the pinata, eating candy and cupcakes (Thanks Carly, the icing was a hit!), painting canvases from Treasury of Memories, flying kites and just being kids. What a great party...

I am exhausted...

after a long, long weekend of guests, cropping, working and going to the gym my body is telling me to take it easy...

I think I better listen, cause I don't want to get sick before heading off to Nashville on Sunday...

Today at work I completed my first kit to sell at the store. It's pretty exciting but also very gruelling as I had to complete the instruction sheet. I labored over it and think I did a pretty good job. We'll see how many ladies call and ask for clarification. LOL

Anyway here is a sneak peek at it:

It comes in baby boy or girl or a family option. Does anyone want me to bring one of these puppies to Nashville? They make great gifts!

Proof!

Today has been kind of strange. I am still tired and sluggish from the all night charity crop on Friday. I did manage to get a nap in yesterday and also today, but with the company at our house and two really, really (no I mean REALLY!) noisy boys it's hard to feel better and beat the headache I've been fighting all afternoon.

Anyway, the boys (that means everyone except Grace and myself) went skiing/snowboarding this morning and got back around 4 PM. So Martin, who loves to have a lot of people around, (not so much the noisy ones though!) invited our friend Jon over who is bringing another 5 kids. ARGH! So much for a quiet day to prep for next weekend's birthday party... I've been frantically buying stuff on eBay and online stores. I sure hope that it'll get here for the weekend.

Anyway, I digress... Proof of what you ask....that we have a cat and a dog. The illusive dog has not been around for months now, preferring the neighbors house to ours apparently. But today out of the blue he shows up at our front door. So Rudy has been enjoying a good belly scratching and quite a bit of attention. Maybe he'll stick around this time...?

Our new cat finally has a name too. I perused numerous websites on clever and meaningful names and one just really stuck with me...so it's going to be Indigo with Indie for short. I kind of like the Indiana Jones reference. LOL I felt kind of pressured to come up with something before I left for Nashville next weekend so that whatever the boys and grace came up with didn't stick. Especially since Grace went through a short period where she called the kitty "Little Pablo". Not so much my favorite....

New Family Addition!

We adopted a kitty on the weekend and are still looking for suggestions for names. It's a he and he's mainly white/gray with some tabby markings on his legs and head. His eyes are a really pretty light shade of blue.

Any ideas and comments are appreciated as I really don't want Grace's nickname to stick. She goes around the house calling for her "little Pablo". LOL