Our Wonderful Years...

Over the course of the average lifetime you meet a lot of people. Some of them stick with you through thick and thin. Some weave their way through your life and disappear forever. But once in a while someone comes along who earns a permanent place in your heart.

Brown hair, brown eyes. When she smiled, I smiled. When she cried, I cried. Every single thing that happened to me that mattered, in some way, had to do with her. After all, she was my girl. And I knew that she understood that in some small way my achievements were her achievements.

~ Kevin Arnold

Thursday, November 12, 2009

A Very Special Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my friend Shelley!

Here is the photo story of the gift basket I made for Shelley's Birthday:

It started off with a theme, "Things that make your birthday special"...

"Some Light Reading"= A memoir about a woman who worked at Tiffany's Flagship store in the 40's. "Summer at Tiffany"

"Something Pretty"= A collection of five hand stamped (by me) "Fall themed" note cards, holiday red paper with metallic leaves and fruit and bronze ribbon. No photos :("Toffee, Chocolate, Caramel"= These little guys are an inside joke- this is "Emergency Chocolate Material", but they are so good that I had to put them in.This is beer for Kevin (they share the same birthday!)- it is "TOTAL DOMINATION IPA"- seriously, how could I not buy it? Additionally, there are three boxes of homemade goodies-

"Polka Dots?" is circle shaped sugar cookies with pink icing and green polka dots piped on to them. ( All the ribbon accents have polka dots too! I love coordination!)

"Something Decadent" is a box of dark chocolate brownies!

"Birthday Cupcakes?" is a box of cupcake shaped sugar cookies with pink bottoms and fluffy white tops with white sanding sugar.Opening the goodies over lunch! This is a great shot!!Finally, I made myself a badge that said "A fabulous friend"! We had a great birthday lunch at one of our favorite spots. A nice lady took our photo in front of St. Honore.
This is the baking aftermath. Talk about a sugar high!

Friday, November 6, 2009

OMG: Adventures in Dog Sitting...

Cruiser is staying with Steven and I while my parents are out of town. We got him Monday night and he'll be here until late next Wednesday. We've been taking long walks and laying around the house and playing and fighting over who gets the bed at night but today something very funny happened...

I guess it started last night when I went out to a book signing for a friend from OSU. It was a lot of great fun, but "No Dogs Allowed!" So Cruiser stayed home with Steven. Cruiser hasn't been eating his chow at all!! But Steven took his Beef Pot Roast Soup and saved some pieces of meat and broth and poured it all over his chow. Well then Cruise-man went to town on it! Seriously ate like a cup of chow in 15 minutes.

Cut to this morning. Steven takes him out and he does his business. I get up and take him on our long walk before it got nasty outside and he does some more business! I think that he's probably pretty good for the day and then I got ready to head over to Shelly's house. I took Cruiser with me. I did some crafting and Cruiser laid at my feet while Sissy took a conference call (on her day off! Boo!) Then we decided that we wanted to go out to lunch.

We went to Bridgeport because I could take the dog with us and we could eat outside, since we'll be heading out later tonight and its "No Dogs Allowed". Well we went to Blue Tangerine because we LOVE that place and one of the cooks came out to see the doggie and take a break. She explained to us that she had the same dog at home, only a girl and all white. Then she asked if she could bring him some meat for lunch. We said that was fine. Meanwhile, another server brings us our food. I had Cruiser up on my lap because it was cold out and he was shivering on the ground. Well I dish up a small slice of flatbread pizza and before I know it, Cruiser is licking the cheese off it! YUCK! He was so quick too! You have to be faster than the dog I guess!

Well I get him under control and got a new slice and started eating when the Cook comes out with a massive to-go tray, one side has water and the other is FILLED with meat. It was more mean than a normal serving that they give paying customers! Yeah, we left a big tip. She was so sweet. So Cruiser immediatly gets down and attacks that food.

This is the aftermath...
So we finish our meals and head over to the car because its old out and we want to warm up. We are literally 20 feet from the car in the middle of the 'street' in the Bridgeport Parking Garage when I look over to cross the street. A car is coming at us and Cruiser is in the middle of the street crossing, when all of a sudden, he decides to do his buisness.... Its all I can do to take off the black plastic bag that is on his leash, as fast as I can, to pick it up!!! This is while the car is waiting... Meanwhile, my sister is laughing at me.

We try to get in the car as quickly as possible but Cruiser is standing there looking at Shelly... She's confused when I call out that he's waiting for his treat for going outside! We got the treat, got inside and could not stop laughing.

So he may be a handful at times, but seriously, how can you not love this face?
He's such a handsome dog! Then he nearly scared the crap out of me on the way home by unintentionally opening the window in the car. I could see his ears flapping in the breeze and I was like "WHAT THE HECK??" But then I figured it out and locked the windows. Silly Puppy! I wonder what other shenanigans he might get into before he leaves us...

Colin, Mimi and Papa at Tennis Lessons...

Colin has been taking tennis lessons at the community center for the last couple of weeks. This week was his last lesson and I got to watch with Mimi and Papa. Mimi and Papa got to play doubles with Colin while I took photos ( I was wearing the wrong shoes and they wouldn't let me on the court!).

Colin takes action shots!He's got great hand-eye coordination for such a little guy!
He was fun to watch when he was trying to get "switching" down with Papa. Very fun and cute!
He ended up needing a break part way through so I took over without my shoes on. That's why I don't have more photos. But he was very cute and so wonderful for the instructor. He tries hard and works at it. He's going to be a good little player soon! The instructor gave him the ballon in the photo to practice. He also got a certificate. So cute!

Colin at Halloween!

Shelly, Chris and Colin came to visit us on Halloween. I really wanted to see my nephew dressed up and in the spirit of the occasion, I dressed up too!

I expected Colin to be Optimus Prime from Transformers, but he ended up coming as a Clone Trooper instead.
I dressed up as a black cat!

Chris, Colin and I went out Trick or Treating in our little neighborhood early so that he could go trick-or-treating in his new neighborhood later that night.
One of the first houses we went to had this black dog that managed to sneak in their "family photo" that I got before they left. The dog chased poor Colin down the sidewalk! But to make up for it, one of the houses that had no candy gave Colin a 10 dollar bill!!! To think we used to get quarters... :)

It was a lot of fun to see everyone and we got to see a bit of the OSU and U of O games too. Then we thought we'd have more trick-or-treaters, but Colin was the only one!

Baby Shower Gift

A guy in my office is having a baby at the end of the month, so I wanted to try out a new idea I read about on a blog.

These are my attempts at "onesie cupcakes":
I found a super cute plate to display them on, then I added some Johnson's Bedtime Bath and Lotion and did it up with Cellophane and a ribbon!
Since this is a winter baby, these are long sleeved 0-3 months onesies and they don't know what they are having, so this is the most "unisex" snuggie flannel I could find.
A note for next time is to find some widder ribbon to use.I LOVE these monkeys!

So cute!

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Pumpkin Pics!



Toilet Update...

Steven has just informed me that our toilet is back in action. Thank Goodness for that!