Who Needs Sleep??

I can't believe that we have again reached a "We need to move" stage.

As much as I like this place:
It is spacious and has room for Steven's "office",
It has air conditioning and a central heating system,
It has a garage and some what reasonable parking,
No one has been murdered here and it is mostly police officer free...

We have acquired horrendous neighbors. When we first moved in it wasn't bad at all. In fact, hardly anyone lived around here.

However, we have always had issues with kids to the one side. There was an entire stretch of at least a month where every week day, without fail, at 4 PM the younger kid would come home and wail on the door and the older kid would refuse to open it. It became our "inside joke"... 'It must be 4 PM Honey!'... Finally one day Steven made a point of seeing what was going on and we got a little visit later that night from the Father. He apologized profusely and we think he tattooed the garage code on the kids arm.

Then the Mr. and Mrs. Next Door moved in. Their dogs have been a source of much frustration. One of them mugged poor Cruiser for his treat. They let them out without leashes and Steven almost hit one by accident because he was running loose and we were backing out of the garage! We were glad that nothing serious happened, but they simply open their door and let the dogs do whatever they please with no respect for other residents. I'm fine with having dogs around, but I don't like that.

Then the worst happened. We went to bed on Thursday night and I was just about to drift off when I heard a snoring sound. Steven doesn't really snore much and at first I thought it was just him. I kind of nudged him but it didn't do anything. Then I put my head nearer to him. He was fast asleep and quieter than a mouse! Where was this noise coming from?? Oh yes, it was Mr. Next Door. He was snoring so loud, I thought he had Sleep Apnea. It was a long, loud vibration followed by a short almost choke and then quiet. Repeat. All night. I got no sleep. I could feel it through the wall in the bed. Finally last night I simply got out of bed and slept in my guest bed.

This morning we moved some furniture around. The bed is now on the only unshared wall. I actually think the room looks bigger and we have a better TV position. Go us! A simple fix, but still...

The up side of this is that it might be time to start thinking about a new place. Again. Time will tell. But for now, at least, we should be able to get some sleep...

Happy Birthday Steven!

A belated Happy Birthday Wish to the Best Husband in the World, Steven!!

We had such a busy weekend with the two parties and all, and then on Monday I woke up so sick. This has been the first day that I've been able to accomplish something around the house and so I'll blog now and pretend it was Sunday, his actual birthday.

A little recap: We had such a fun day celebrating with friends and family and eating and drinking beer. I wish we had a larger place so we could invite tons more people. It really is the best way to celebrate a birthday. In my opinion, at least. We had a fabulous spread- meatball and dip and potato salad and a shrimp dish and chips and veggies- SO MUCH FOOD- plus strawberries with shortcakes and cheesecake and all the toppings. Oh my gosh- insane. Plus beer for beer tastings.

I have a few photos on my laptop so I will try to update with those later. I wished I'd taken some more.

But in all seriousness- I couldn't ask for a more awesome lifelong spouse/friend/partner-in-crime... I am happy to celebrate your birthday because you are so awesome and you deserve to know how much everyone loves you.

How much do I love you Steven?

This freakin' much!

Crystal Spings Recap...

Finally! Here are some photos from our Garden walk like a month and a half ago! Steven and I originally bought the camera to get us out and about and learn to take photos. Two birds- one stone here on this trip. We went to the Crystal Springs Rhododendron Test Garden, which I had never been to, and we got to practice with the camera.

I love these pink ones best!I took this of the ducks. I love it. It looks like sepia tones, but it isn't at all.I love this that Steven took of the fountain! So brilliant!!
And, in my opinion, this is the best photo of the day! I'm looking into editing this one because I think it could be really pretty as a B&W or Sepia. We'll see. Well I've finally figured out the secret to posting larger photos here...the only problem is that it takes a loooong time. Trade off? I guess so. At least I'm back to blogging again...

Colin's Birthday Party...

On Saturday we spent the whole day prepping for Parties!

First, we got up early and spent the morning chopping, mixing, baking and arranging for Steven's 26th bday on Sunday. Then we went over and helped by doing more chopping, mixing, baking and arranging for Colin's 5th birthday.

The theme of the party was triathlon and so there were a variety of different activities for the kiddos to do and then pizza and a "make your own sundae" bar with tons of different candies and toppings. It was amazing! I spent quite a bit of time scooping out all the Ice Cream- Ferrells style! Very fun and exciting for all the kids to see a ton of ice cream for their eating.

Steven and I were in charge of the "Bike Race" and so he was the photographer and I held the finish line. He took photos of each kid as they finished... It was very fun. He snapped this one of us before anyone even got there- look how tired we are already! It was very nice and warm if you stood in the sun too long. I wish that weather would come back!

Happy Birthday Colin!

Blogging FAIL.

I have failed to upload photos four times now. I don't really have good blogs to share without the aid of photos so I will work to get this fixed. I suspect it has to do with the size of our super awesome photos...