Taking some time out…

Well, this will be short because I have a ton of stuff to do today… We’re leaving for San Diego tomorrow (sigh!) We have our friend Rudy watching the house, dogs and cat. I hope it goes well- I’m such a worrier when it comes to those fur balls. I hope they don’t miss us too much, and I hope that they are good to Rudy (and that Milo doesn’t wake him up to go outside at 5:41 am on the dot like he does me! :) Rudy is a good kid, and works for the Union Pacific Railroad, but is unfortunately laid off at the moment…

The last five or so days have be so weird. Scott and I both wondered if there was a full moon that we didn’t know about because everything in our house kept breaking… Ahhh! Scott’s AC in his van finally gave up (probably in protest of the 5000 miles we drove this summer!) Because of that, we decided to rent a little car to drive to San Diego with. We won’t have the dogs, so the van isn’t needed, and the gas mileage will be way better (and cheaper!)

Then on Friday we realized that our cable was out. Which totally sucked because… well… let’s just say that Scott paid the bill for the cable… it was $50 bucks… 10 years ago. That’s all I’ll say about that. But it being off meant that we finally had to sign up for Direct TV. It’s a considerably larger expense then what we had (ha ha) but oh well. I told Scott he had a good run… :) Unfortunately they are not able to hook it up until we get back from San Diego- which sucks for Rudy. I hooked up the rabbit ears, though… Hopefully he can survive on six channels of PBS and Telemundo. :)

Then we decided to buy a new faucet for the kitchen sink because the old one was leaking down behind the fittings and ruining the floor. This turned into a 2 day test of stress management (the first one we bought was missing an O ring so it leaked almost as bad as the old one.) But Scott finally got a really nice faucet installed… with a side sprayer- which I have to admit is one of those luxuries that I never really thought I wanted- but it’s nice!

Well… I will definitely update on how our trip goes… if we can ever bring ourselves to leave the beach!!! :)

Two for one day...

And in the spirit of all of the hard work we have been doing, Scott and I are running away to San Diego next weekend. I'm hopeful about finding someone to watch the "kids" while we are gone because we both agree the dogs had the run of our trip in June. But here is where we are planning on staying: (no dogs allowed, anyway! :)

The Pearl. Woo-hoo. It's a hotel built in the 1960s and decorated in Mid-Century Modern... I hope it looks as good in person! It's a little more expensive than what we're used to, but I think we've earned it!! I'll let you know...

Busy busy busy...

Well, Scott and I have both been pretty busy lately. Scott has been working none stop on a side project for our friend Tommy's sister. His sister and brother-in-law bought a wonderful condo for their two daughters to live in when they start classes at the U of A. Scott was asked to build the custom cabinets for the kitchen. Classes start on August 24, and they wanted to get the girls in before then, so it didn't give Scott much time to build and install the cabinets. For the past two weeks, he has been working 7 days a week on the job, putting in extra hours after work and on the weekends. I even spent last Saturday and Sunday with him helping out with the sanding and filling nail holes! On Saturday, Scott and his friend from work went to the condo to do the install, which spilled into yesterday. I came at the end of the job and helped him clean up. And they're wonderful! He is really talented- and has such a great eye for detail that all of the cabinets came out just perfect! I think (despite the exhaustion and long hours of work) Scott is really impressed and proud of the job he did. In the coming months he is also supposed to redo the two bathrooms in the condo. I'm pretty impressed!
I love the upper cabinets with the lights! I wish we had those in our house! :)
His part is done, but they showed us the granite countertops that are going to go in-Beautiful!
Go Scott!!!!!

I've also been working on getting my etsy.com shop going again. Last fall I was actually making a (although very very small) profit off of my shop. It just got to the point where I couldn't keep up with the demand versus the time I had available to actually make stuff (mostly because of school.) So I kind of let the shop fall to the wayside. My goal for this summer was to tackle some of the many lists of things I that I wanted to make and to get them in the shop. Sadly it took me almost to the end of the summer to do that... but oh well! :) I've been making these toddler A-line dresses that are fully lined (that took an entire afternoon to figure out how to do! ugh!) I'm still a little bit unsure of the sizing; it would be easier if there was a little rug rat running around here that could try them on! Because of the buttons on the straps and the forgiving nature of the A-line I think the dresses could actually grow with the child. It could be a dress when they're younger and perhaps a tunic when they're older. I'm going to bring the finished ones over to my friend's house this weekend to have her 20 month old try on... we shall see!

Most of them aren't completely finished yet- I still need to sew some buttons (which my new sewing machine does lickity-split! Thanks Scott! :) and finish some hems.The red fabric is polka-dot. It's not to obvious in this pic! :)

Aw Crap.

Well, I've been out of the blogging mindset for a few days as we muddled through nursing Brea back to health. But I felt that a little update would be called for...

Last Friday was a particularly difficult day; Brea had been having diarrhea for the two days preceding that. It was most noticeable because she left the evidence right in front of the back door either while we were sleeping or at work. Early Friday morning she even woke me up at 2 am in a panic to go outside. After a phone call from Scott while I was at work telling me he found some sort of doggie-mess in the backroom again, I called my vet. I'm really happy with my vet- in fact Dr. Nichols is the first vet that I've had in Tucson that I have liked and trusted. Unfortunately they were moving their offices the following week to a new location so they would be closed (figures). The vet tech told me to withhold food from Brea for 24 hours, and if it was still bad by Sunday to find find another doctor to bring her to for help because they wouldn't be open.

I was okay with this, because from the advice I had gotten from her, it seemed like giving Brea's belly a rest from food would help to clear it up. I was really trying to be positive and not think about all of the horrible things that COULD be wrong with her (Damn you, Google!) I called my boss from work and asked him if he had a good vet (he's a dog person like us) and even called his vet to schedule an appointment for Brea on Monday morning.

I felt a little better when I got home; I even bought her some Gateraid to pour into the ice cube trays for some electrolyte replenishing treats. Scott looked a little grim when I walked in, and showed me a new mess (outside this time) that he had just found. And it really was blood. I followed Brea around the backyard as she tried to go to the bathroom, hoping that it wasn't from her... Only when I actually saw her pass blood I started to freak out. Thank goodness Scott was there and was able to calm me down. I honestly am a real pansy when it comes to blood- especially when it has anything to do with someone I care for. I've actually passed out at the sight of it- which was always strange to me because my mom was an ER nurse at a city hospital the entire time I was growing up. You would think that exposure for me would have given me a stronger stomach. But oh well.

I called my boss's vet- But of course at this time it was after hours and the beginning of the weekend. Which translated into if we wanted Brea to have medical attention sometime before Monday (which they really felt she needed, and I agreed) then we would have to use their emergency service. I give the receptionist credit for warning me beforehand that it would be $85 just to walk in there- before they even examined her... But what can you do? My lovely little dog was in obvious distress (Scott said she spent the whole day in the bathroom and when we checked on her she looked REALLY bad) and was passing blood.

My first shock was when we got to the vet and they weighed her. I had brought Brea to my vet the week before we left for vacation to refill her pee-pee medicine (and incidentally they performed a blood test and urinalysis that both came back squeaky clean) But he weighed her and she came in at a whopping 73 lbs. Which was 2 lbs lighter than the last time she came in- right after her knee injury and she had been immobile. The vet told me she was a chub-a-lub and needed to lose 12 lbs, but he would settle for 3 lbs in 3 months. If she didn't lose the weight by then, they'd have to check her thyroid. Good enough. But that Friday night in the ER, she weighed 65 lbs. She had lost 8 lbs in probably about three days. That totally scared me.

They were really great, though. I ran through every possible explanation I could give them about why she was so sick: from her love of chewing on rocks (equaled a $200 belly X-Ray) to Doggie Beach in San Diego and the river in Michigan (maybe she drank too much of the water and ingested some kind of parasite?) They did the X-Rays, blood test and checked her dookie. When they showed me the results (the blood test was again squeaky clean) and her X-Rays, everything looked good. No belly full of rocks. But the poo did show a ton of mean little bacteria and white blood cells. So, essentially she had a pretty nasty bacterial infection that could be treated with a slew of antibiotics and "bland" food. They couldn't say for sure why she was sick (and it was blood that she was passing) but they felt confident she would be better. Thank you and that will be $600.

I was so relieved, but it was when they told me she was fixable that I finally lost it and started crying right there. The whole 3 hours we were there I had tried to remain light and positive, but once they said she was going to be okay, I was just so relieved. Everyone (even Scott) looked at me a bit strangely, but I couldn't help it. When they showed me her X-Rays, my fear was that they were going to tell me they found some nasty tumor, and that they were sorry and there was nothing they could do for her. Ugh. I was just so relieved.

I've had Brea for 9 years, since she was this little, fat, bear cub of a puppy. We've been through a lot in those 9 years, too. And we have put each other through a lot. Even as a puppy I spent more time with her in a vet's office than I'd like: At 6 months she had Pyometra, and then shortly after had a serious allergic reaction to her vaccinations (which made her face and tongue swell up twice the size and landed her two days in the hospital.) She has incontinence (thought by the vet to be a by-product of the Pyometra) and tore her ACL. Now this.

And she put up with me a lot: moving her thousands of miles west from New York, into a place that is hell-hot, and has prickly cactus, and no snow or grass (her favorites). And Milo (although we got him because of her- oh well) I know she's 9 and that it is inevitable, but I won't be ready for the vets to tell me there's nothing they can do for her for a very very long time.

Anyway, she's doing so much better. For the last 4 days she has been on her antibiotics and on a "bland" diet consisting of cooked rice and yogurt (which she LOVES!) Today I was able to mix in some Iams dry food as well, and by the end of the week she should be back to regular meals. And she's acting starved- and spunky. I can't help but think that although it sucked that she had to lose 8 lbs because she was really really sick, it might be a blessing in disguise for her arthritis and knee!

And quickly...

I just found out this morning that my sister is pregnant with her second child! Woo-hoo!! They have been trying for a few months... My sister had hoped to plan it around when she could take time off from work... but I guess the new little one had a different idea!! She's only about 6 weeks, so it's a tad early, but I'm horrible at keeping secrets! (is it supposed to be a secret??) :) I love being an aunt!!

Wow, two for one today!!

Well, our trip from Indiana to Oregon led us on Interstate 80 almost exclusively. And pretty much the entire 2,500 or so miles of that highway is under construction. Granted it became a tad bit exhausting because as soon as we had safely navigated through one area of construction, another would pop up... However, I will say that President Obama's American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is in full effect- We traveled almost 5,000 miles- pretty much all of which was under construction, and these signs were EVERYWHERE! (I should amend this to add that it still kinda sucked, though :)

In the beginning we were excited about driving through many of these states because of their notable landscapes and wide open spaces... Unfortunately I-80 kind of avoids a lot of those beautiful places... I have a feeling that in order to really enjoy some of it, an "off the beaten path" trip will have to be in order... Oh well... it just means another road trip will have to be planned to see what we missed!!

Here's the breakdown:

Indiana:

We had really wanted to visit the Indiana Dunes on Lake Michigan during our visit, but there just wasn't enough time. So instead we decided to make a little detour on our way out and at least dip our toes in the lake... Which I'm really glad we did. We drove through Michigan City, Indiana, which is a really cute little town. Scott and I were kind of smitten with it in fact, joking that it would almost be the perfect place to move to: close to his family, Chicago and Lake Michigan. Perfect. Until we drove into the center of town and saw IT. Yikes. As cute and seemingly perfect as Michigan City seemed... I just couldn't do it. I think I would spend too much of my time agonizing over this, um, landmark to live there... Oh well. We were both kind of bummed.

The Indiana Dunes were wonderful. We were only able to spend a couple of hours there, which is really a shame. The dogs loved the water, and although we were going to be spending the next two days in close quarters in the car, we let the dogs have a little frolic in the lake. I had Brea on the leash at one point and she kept practically dragging me into the water, so there was really no way around it. Then we found a shady spot and had a nice picnic. It was really great, and we will definitely have to spend more time there next time!

Illinois:

Luckily we didn't run into any would-be tornadoes this time around. Although we did experience the worst of the construction around Chicago. That, combined with our detour to the lake, took us a lot longer to get on the road than we had hoped for, but being able to see the lake was totally worth it!

Iowa:

Iowa was very pretty. And flat. With lots of corn.

Nebraska:

Nebraska took what felt like six days to drive through. Although it was probably less. :) Seriously, it was a very beautiful state, with lots of Amber Fields of Grain... Our first night was driving through Nebraska, and when we woke after a short nap, the morning was absolutely beautiful with fresh rain.

Wyoming:

There are two states that we drove through that I definitely think we need to return to so we can really explore. Wyoming is one of them. I-80 is the southern route through the state, which is also the drier, more desert-like part. I was really expecting to drive through scenery that was closer to Yellowstone, rather than Arizona. Ho-hum. But there were some beautiful views of the snow covered Rockies and the packs of wild horses in the distance.

But I definitely want to go and explore the rest of the state in the future.

Utah:

I love Utah. When you break through the dry, brown, desert of Wyoming, you crawl up this huge mountain pass, and the highway seems to break through all of that rock. It runs parallel to a river, so the the interstate is surrounded by huge mountain cliffs, and crazy inclines and windy roads. It was absoultely beautiful. There seems to be no civilization between Rock Spring WY and Salt Lake City- just this crazy, intense mountain range... I also really want to go back. I've heard that the Mormons call Utah the Garden of Eden... and I have to admit they weren't that far off... it's beautiful.

We ran into Salt Lake City around dinner time, so we meandered our way to the Great Salt Lake for a picnic. It was worth the $10 :) Our location was on the smallest, most narrow part of the lake, but you still couldn't see the other side of the horizon. The lake is absolutely beautiful, and a little cold!




Idaho:

How do I begin with Idaho? *sigh* Because we hit the state at night and were unable to really see the scenery we were driving past, there was only one to describe this little part of Idaho that we explored:

I have heard that northern Idaho is a beautiful place with wondrous mountains and lush plant life. I think this why we should probably go back and explore the northern part of the state... We drove through the southern part (north from Salt Lake City) through Twin Falls and Boise. And even in the dark, there was no mistaking what we encountered: Factory Farms. And lots of them. It was horrible. We couldn't see them, but we could SMELL them... and it was so far off from your run of the mill cow farm smell... And it seemed like as soon as we survived one noxious cloud of farm, another would creep up and make your eyes water... I think I'm good on visiting southern Idaho for a while... :)

After trudging through Idaho we finally made it to Oregon and the Columbia River Gorge. That part will have to have an entire post of it's own... it's too huge and beautiful to squeeze in here...

Onward...

Well, back to the great trip we had....

We landed in Indiana on Sunday June 21, which was Father's Day. It was two days earlier than our original plan because Scott and I wanted to surprise his dad... which we did! It was pretty funny. As we pulled up to his dad's home, Scott got him on the phone and tried to causally make small talk and wish him a Happy Father's Day. While still on the phone with his dad, Scott knocked on his door, and asked him if there was someone knocking. It was priceless to see Mike's face when he pulled open his door still holding his phone only to see us there smiling. It's one of those times I wished I had a camera, although it probably would have been rude! :) But it was really great to surprise him- and a great way to kick off our Indiana part of the trip!

Every time I've been to visit Scott's family I've always had a wonderful time. It's never been awkward or nervous (as meeting "The Fam" is apt to be sometimes!) His family is just wonderful and warm and welcoming! One of the things that Scott and I talked about when we first met was how similar our stories were in some ways: How we both ended up in Arizona years apart, the relationships we've had, and how we met the same group of friends (who I knew from New York but who lived in AZ) that led us to becoming friends. Small worlds... But this is why I'm grateful to spend time with Scott in his home town with his family and his friends. And Scott was instantly more content, too, once we entered the Mid-West. The stress of work and life just kinda melted away and I could tell how happy he was to see his family (especially his new niece Regan!!)

So, enough with being corny... We had a great time and really tried to squeeze everything we could into the week we were there. We slept. We ate. We hung out. It was lovely.

We had the opportunity to spend a lot of time with the newest addition to Scott's family, Regan. She is just absolutely wonderful! She's happy and fun and beautiful... when she smiled at us we both fell in love and wanted to take her home in our pocket! We both miss her already and can't wait to see her again... It makes being so many miles away even harder!

We also were fortunate to see the beginnings of Scott's sister and brother-in-law's new home. It seemed to appear over night- but it will really be wonderful. Scott is totally jealous of the marshy lake that sits to the back of their property. We both look forward to spending some quality time in the future enjoying the view from there!

Scott's mom also threw a birthday party for us, which was a lot of fun. Scott even mowed the lawn for her before the party- which is pretty funny because it had been a long, long, long time since he'd pushed a lawn mower!! She invited the whole family, and Scott's friends Greg and Debbie (who rule! :) and their awesome kids. Milo had a little meltdown, which is unfortunate and a little embarrassing... In truth he's just a big baby who has some growing pains and issues dealing with stressful situations. I think we need the Dog Whisperer. Luckily, by the end of the trip a sucky beginning had turned into a great ending and it was really apparent that Milo had done some growing up. Phew.

We look back now and see that besides "Great American Baby Tour" (which is what we nicknamed the trip because we basically drove from place to place to play with other people's kids!) the trip was also centered around finding bodies of water for the dogs to swim and play in.


We spent a day in Michigan at Scott's mom's new cabin on the river. It's an adorable little rustic house with kick-ass access to the river... The doggies LOVED swimming in the river. They spent a large part of the day swimming and just having a blast. We also decided that whenever and wherever we live next, water will definitely factor into that move somehow!


I also had the chance to kayak for the first time. I was pretty excited- I've only ever canoed before and really it turned out that kayaking was not very different from that. I think I did pretty good. I think a few more runs up the river and I would have been ready for the Olympics. Okay, not really, but I really enjoyed myself!

Also very very notable (especially for Scott!) was the semi-traditional visit to Essenhaus- an Amish "Country Restaurant" that Scott just loves. I personally think he has (and he's admited to! :) a little crush on the cute Amish girls!!!! Did you ever see our Halloween costumes from a couple of years agao?? But it was a great dinner and a wonderful way to bring our visit to a close... I was surprised by Scott's family with a little birthday cake at the end of the dinner-- They totally got me with that one!!! It was really great and we both were really sad to have to leave the next day!!

Oops...

Well, it's been a few days since I last posted... I've really got to work on my blogging skills. But things have been kind of busy and a tad bit stressful. I've been battling with financial aid for the last week, but found out today that everything should be okay and now I don't have to stop going to school. That would have been a real buzz-kill in the whole me-getting-my-BFA department so I'm pretty relieved. (and for that I'm paying homage with a little toothpastefordinner.com humor! Love them!)
www.toothpastefordinner.com
I promise to get back to work on our adventures soon. It's fun reliving the trip; and a little sad! This weekend we're preparing for our friends Josh and Kim's annual "Thanksgiving in July" party, which will be tons of fun. Every year they call in the masses to have a pot luck Thanksgiving dinner... Granted it is in July, by far one of the hottest (and usually most humid) times of the year; It makes me a little grateful that Scott doesn't cook the turkey at our house as he does in Novemeber (although I don't eat turkey :) Scott is planning on making some stuffed shells and I'm going to attempt to recreate the deviled eggs that I made with Scott's mom during our visit... I hope it turns out half as successful! I'll keep you posted.

Holiday Road...

Well, on with the trip... Friday, June 19th was The BIG DAY. A two week vacation. Nothing felt better earned or more deserved. Scott had been working like a mad man at work for the last few months and the semester was finally over for me, so we both felt like the best medicine for all the stress was to get going on the road. The morning was spent cleaning the house and making our final preparations for the trip.

Our friend Brooke agreed to stay at the house while we were gone- which was such a relief because this was the longest trip we've ever taken and had some "quirky" things around the house that needed to be overseen... Mainly Sly, the pool, my little vegetable garden and my worm compost that I have set up in the kitchen... That is an entirely separate post, but I'm so proud of my Vermicompost! Those little guys have helped to make my little garden 100% organic!!! Anyway, Brooke was fantastic and agreed to feed the worms our scraps periodically and to ensure their bedding in the tub was moist. Phew!

We left in the late morning after all was taken care of; loaded up our own Family Truckster, monster dogs (which I lovingly like to call the pooches!)and headed on our way. Our trip led us through familiar highways and byways... we had made this tip before to visit Scott's parents in Indiana, but never during the summer.

Here's a quick run through of the first 36 hours or so of the trip (because the fun doesn't start till we get to Indiana!!)

New Mexico:

Don't get me wrong. New Mexico is an absolutely beautiful state with lots of majestic desert landscape. In fact it's somewhere I'd like to explore more than I have (I've only been to Albuquerque and Santa Fe). However. Being the early part of the trip combined with our excitement to get on the road and to Indiana to see Scott's family it TOOK FOREVER. One thing I've learned from this whole experience is that whoever got together to plan out the Interstate system never really gave much thought to how scenic they were. I know for sure that it has to be the lesser traveled roads that meander through the good stuff! The most notable part was driving through Las Cruces. It's a city built near White Sands during the height of the Atomic Age. All of the buildings in the city seem stuck in a time warp from that era, with some wonderful examples of Jetson-esque architecture. The strange thing was that much of it was deserted, testimony to times past. It was really a trip to drive through the heart of that city!

Texas:

Ugh. Again. I was driving when we made it to Texas. And it was dark. And raining.

Oklahoma:

We finally stopped to sleep once we made it to Oklahoma. I like Oklahoma. With it's rolling hills, picturesque farmland, and genuinely nice people, it's really pretty this time of year. And Oklahoma City seems like a pretty interesting place to explore (mental note!) By this point the dogs had pretty much settled into their new life on the road. Brea passed out in her usually spot, vicariously perched on the back seat (that cannot be comfortable, but that's always where she lays!) and Milo periodically perched on the cooler so he can inspect the landscape and comment on Scott's driving abilities (always the backseat driver!).

Missouri:

I'm conflicted about Missouri. The terraine is beautiful, and wonderfully green in the summer. But humid. Oh so very humid. And we've noticed something also very peculiar the last few times we drove through the state. It's littered with a ridiculous amount of "Adult Shops." Which are usually either across the street from, or (even more peculiar) right next door to churches. It's very strange. Oh well. They must go hand-in-hand. Interstate 44 runs diagonal through the state from Oklahoma City, through Springfield, and up to St Louis. The Mississippi River flows through the center of the city, and it's really something to see (and luckily we get to cross it again later, but in a different state!)

Again, I was driving when we hit St. Louis. I'm usually a pretty good driver when it comes to traffic, however at this point I'm still not used to driving the tank that is Scott's van. It's just so big- my little car could totally fit inside of his van, with room left over for the dog's to catch a Frisbee. I get nervous, especially passing big semi's because it's hard to judge the width of the van, especially when I'm so used to being in a compact car that hugs the road... And it was hot. And oh so humid. And a number of other things. But somehow I missed our exit for I70. And ended up lost.

St Louis is such a strange city. From the highway you can see glimmers of it's once grandeur... with it's victorian houses, brownstones and factories. But once deeper into the city it's apparant that so much of the once beautiful city is dilapidated and abandoned. So making a wrong turn kinda sucks.


Also notable is that it was Scott that finally got us back to the highway, but only after some exploring of the city...After driving past many, many abandoned buildings with barely a person to be found, we came to a roadblock in a little neighborhood where there appeared to be some sort of Biker's BBQ... we saw hundreds of motorcycles and their leather-clad riders eating, drinking, etc... I think Scott wanted to stay and hang out. :)

Illinois:

Due to me missing our exit for I70 (which would have brought us up through Indiana via Indianapolis) we decided to opt for I55 through Illinois up to Chicago. Illinois is beautiful. Lots of rolling fields of corn. The oppressive heat and humidity in St Louis carried up into Illinois, and as we hit the interstate we could see a gurgling, churning storm to the west of us. Only then the highway shifted and the storm was in front of us and we were driving right into the epicenter. I have always heard of "Tornado Alley." But mild excitement and curiosity at seeing one and actually driving through one are two totally different things. Before we actually hit the brunt of the storm, we saw the clouds ahead, and noticed 3 little funnel clouds forming. Then we hit a crazy storm. The rain was so heavy that it was almost like a white out during a snow storm. All of the cars on the highway slowed and moved into the right lane to fallow each other out of the storm. One strike of lighting was so close Scott felt the vibrations through the gas pedal. It was pretty hairy. (And boy am I glad he was driving- even if he got a good laugh out of my overly cautious freak out!) Eventually we muddled through and it cleared up almost as quickly as it had appeared. From there it was smooth sailing through Springfield, Illinois (birthplace of Lincolin). We stopped at an absolutely beautiful reststop so that the dogs could run out some of their stress from the storm (They HATE thunder and lighting- almost more than fireworks!) and we had a nice little picnic. I really like Illinois. It's really beautiful!

A little off track but...

It was funny because one of the other titles we had given our trip was the "Great American Baby Tour." This was in part because it seemed like each of our destinations led us to another baby of a family member or friend... so half of our total trip photos were of one of us holding someone else's kids! (Thanks Christie, Shannon and Ema!!) So it is in that spirit that I wanted to share some helpful advise that I happened upon:


Hey, I do what I can!

One other thing- for those of you with blogs already and really neat-o layouts... How do I go about getting myself one of those?

Deception: The greatest form of flattery?? Part One

The best place to start is with Scott's 40th birthday party, which was the week before we left.

Our original plan for the trip was to leave after Scott's birthday for Goshen, Indiana. We thought about having a party on Saturday, June 20th and leaving the next day, which would put us in Goshen on Tuesday June 22. However, that Sunday was Father's Day, and Scott thought it would be fun to leave earlier and surprise his dad. So the deception began! Scott's sister and mom knew about our little plan and were wonderful about not letting his dad in on it so it would be a big surprise! (more of that later!)

So, the party was held a week earlier. We had a very nice BBQ and pool party for most of the day and well into the evening.


My big contribution was the birthday cake. I was totally excited. I'm the first to admit that I'm not the greatest cook... or a cook at all, really. But I wanted to make him something special for his birthday. So I set out a week before the party planning and testing this- ehem- marvelous double layer cake I was to make. The flare was to be in the decoration- I wanted to stencil a vintage Gil Elvgren 1940s pinup (Scott's favorite) onto the cake.

I started days before making the stencils- I made two total- believing I'd make it easy on myself. I figured that I use stencils all the time in my artwork- granted it's usually with ink or paint, but how different could icing really be??

Ugh.

I did a practice run that actually came out okay on a piece of tinfoil coated with the chocolate icing I was going to use. I wish I took a picture so Scott would believe me. Confident that it would go smoothly the day of the party, I took to banishing Scott to the backyard so he wouldn't see the cake until that evening and began decorating.

And swearing.

And starting over.

And almost crying.

It just wouldn't work. I couldn't get the icing on the cake to harden enough so that the stencil wouldn't pull it up. Finally I had to throw in the towel and admit that it just wasn't going to happen.

Which is how I decided the easiest thing to do: Do what you know. Which is how Scott's 40th birthday cake came out like this:

Nothing says 40 year old man like unicorns and rainbows. But I still think he liked it!
The party was really a lot of fun and we had some very wonderful friends over to celebrate. Good times, indeed!