On the boat

We went to the lake this weekend and spent both days on the boat-- with sunny skys and no one on the water it seemed like the thing to do-- Maizy isn't all that thrilled with boating--even less thrilled about wearing her life jacket-- but eventually she found a spot that suited her... under the seats! We hadn't spent this much time on the boat in a long time and it was nice to get out and see some of our favorite old haunts and see how many houses have been built or remodeled.. Down on Stonehouse creek there were tons of new houses and sadly over on Lizard creek my dream house has become someones elses and they added a big ol screen porch to it and a new boat house.

A day on the boat without drifting through PeaHill Creek??? gotta do it and get alittle lunch-- Picnic on the Boat!! Of course our perfect weekend wouldnt be complete without Mike catching a big fish... Maizy wasn't too sure about the whole Kiss the Fish thing either... a good sniff was all she was willing to do!

Lots of greenery

Just in case you were wondering Farmer Joe... I mean Mike has been tending his garden pots daily and wow how they are growing! Check out these tomatoe plants!

Nothing but one green pepper to report but he certainly has come a long way.

NJ --we returned

If you look closely you will see the VA Tech flag... that should give you a clue as to where we went this weekend!! Back to NJ, which we have finally figured out why it has such a bad reputation... after 5 hours of driving Mike came up with the answer. NJ is like a state stuck in time. Really other than the whole Newark cesspool-- NJ really is picturesque-- lots of trees, older home and two lane roads. There are not stripmalls on every corner nor are there townhomes and condos on everyblock. They haven't caught up to that yet... seriously you look at the stores, the signs and the roads and it looks like our area did some 20-25 years ago.. yes they still have Gulf gas stations.. who knew??? I thought they were out of business.
Regardless of the time warp, we enjoyed our time with The Dahl's. They have a cute house that is just perfect for them. Huge kitchen and a back yard that makes Cooper smile.

Hardwood floors so running down the hallway is much more fun... and even a fireplace at a jaunty angle. The paint colors in the house was alittle surprising... HOT Pink in the master bedroom, Purple in the guest bedroom and PEACHY peach in the family room... but hey it could be worse right??? I see painting in Amandas future.. rental or not.

Probably the best part of the weekend... was the Englishtown Antique store we found. Oh my goodness... mix junk store with antiques with used Stuff... you could spend days in there... I know Amanda and I will be returning (without the boys) next time we go up! I wish I could find a place like that here! what fun!
So glad we were invited (or did I invite myself???) it was fun playing in the garden, grilling on their HUGE deck and just hanging out.

cuteness

So how darn cute is that bag??? Yea I have a thing for big bags... I always have... as a teenager I carried huge Space Bags, and have carried backpacks, beach bags, hobo purses you know name ever since... ohh I have tried going smaller... my daughter has shamed me into carrying cute little handbags (which I love) but I always end up reverting back...
This one is handmade... I could do that... so could you! Tutorial here!

thought of the day

Things I am thinking about right now:

• Furniture-- I wonder if I bought a bookshelf for the office if I would end up with better flow of the millions of papers that pass through my life..
• If I dig up most of the Lirope in the back yard and divide it will have holes to fill??? meaning having to buy dirt??? Who buys dirt???
• Should I even bother moving my summer clothes into my closet??? 65 degree days don't inspire short sleeve shirts.
• Can I convince Mike that a Chandelier in the office would be cute?
• That I really need to find a container for the chair covers on the deck... I don't like throwing them in a heap when we use the chairs.

BIG

We have complained about the rain now for 2 weeks straight-- but despite the lack of sunshine its amazing whats been happening in the garden... My hostas have turned into gigantic mounds... waist high in some places and take a look at these babys!! Are these not the largest Clemtis flowers you have ever seen??? While the vine isn't but knee high the added rain seems to have enlarged the flowers-- they almost don't look real as you walk by them they are so big.
Looking forward to see what happens when we actually get some sun!!

weekend update..nascar

Its taken me a couple days to recover from the weekend... Lots of Nascar fun-- lots of late nights and we even through a move in there for good measure just to ensure that Monday morning felt like a monday morning...

It was great to see friends and family over the weekend. Its funny because some of the people we tailgate with we rarely see other than the twice a year journey to Richmond. But each year the more and more people we know either join us or stop by to visit our lil tent city. With lots of Rain on Saturday we were happy to have 3 tents this year -- kept us dry in the rain and cool in the sun.

Probably the most remarkable thing about going to the race is the choreography that takes place prior to the race... we leave the house as one car and by the time we enter the gates we are a caravan of 9 cars... and we do this with only one stop and a quick pull through a parking lot... we seem to be able to time lights perfectly to get all 9 cars in a row for the perfect tailgate....

Veggie time

My dad always had the best gardens... weather it was a rose garden or a veggie garden... even when we lived in an apartment he found a way to garden. Last year we tried our hand planting veggies in pots. Due to our lack of sunshine areas pots were our answer. The tomatoes worked... the beans not so much... This year we are at it again... instead of 2 tomato plants we have 9!! and one of them is an upside down planter... who knows if that will work!! But they are all in snug in their pots watered, fertilized and ready for Sunshine!!

Happy Birthday Maizy!

Oh yes our girl is a year old today!! And to celebrate in style we let her Mulch the front flower beds and plant a Magnolia tree that Amanda brought home this weekend!! A whole day out of doors makes for one darn happy Maizy (and hopefully one tired Maizy tonight) -- But in true birthday style we are cooking steaks on the grill (boned steaks for the birthday girl) and Mike even baked a birthday cake!!

and we she even got a present!! Another RED BALL!!!

Its Tax Day--

Its tax day and yes I sent in my tax returns... not happily but I did it.. and for the first time I sent them an IOU-- this probably will put me on the top of the list for an audit... but I refused to borrow money from a credit card to pay them... perhaps if they had their spending in order I wouldn't have to pay so much..

Easter at the shore!

So we spent Easter at the shore this year--- the Jersey Shore that is!! I would have never imagined myself going that far north for anything never the less a holiday-- but I wanted to see where Amanda lived before she moved yet again.. and it was worth it. From her front porch you can see the ocean.. yes she is that close! And While I wasn't getting in --the dogs sure loved running the beach! Maizy thought the sand was grand but still showed no interest in swimming like Cooper and Madison!!

We got to Jersey on Friday afternoon and we spent the rainy Saturday helping Amanda look for a new place that was centrally located between Corey's new job and hers and would take the dogs... Corey and Cooper arrived Saturday night... it didn't take Maizy long figure out that cooper would hold the bone while she chewed.

And while Amanda's fridge may have been bare-- part of the master plan so we could try all the cool resturants in town--she did ensure she had eggs for dying!!

I didn't think I would like the shore much-- but after driving around, and walking the boardwalk and seeing the beach I realized it was really a nice place. Their next house won't be on the beach like this one but they will still be really really close which means our next visit might actually be warm enough to hit the waves... but before that I think a trip south is in order because we have not one but two kids living near the waves... I see another weekend trip in my future!!

Bonnie

She wasn't one for baths...

But she was always first in line for a hug

She tolerated all the puppies we brought into her life...

And you could never get her out of the snow...

And from day one she always liked to garden, or smell the flowers alittle too closely, or just be there to help you dig up what you just planted... This was her favorite look-- you knew she had a good day if she was covered in dirt...

We took her for granted sometimes.. but at the end of the day she was always there for us. And we will miss her terribly.... our bonnie girl...

photos

http://blog.kimberliphotography.com

This is the photographers blog --- just a few sample pictures while we wait for all the others to arrive... enjoy!

spring

My day really started out well, for the second day in a row the girls (Maizy and Madison) slept in... ohh how I love to see the clock hit 8:30 and realize my feet haven't touched the ground. And if that wasn't enough they both were quite content to go back to bed after a quick trip outside.

When we finally did get up the day started slowly... on the list for the day was cleaning out the scraproom... after a year of wedding planning there haven't been many pages created but the room was well used with all our "projects"... well that gave way to opening the windows and realizing Spring finally came. So the indoor projects gave way to outside projects... raking leaves out of the gardens, having Mike cut down the ornamental grass and cleaning out the pots on the deck.

The spring sun felt nice... and then I realized that drinking wine on the deck with the BBQ blazing just wasn't going to be the same. Its official we have been left behind. Yes I have thought about it many times as Corey and Amanda tried to figure out where to live... and my brain always gave out sensible advice.. but today the realization hit me.. I will pick her up from the airport tonight and her obligation to entertain me is over. She's grown up and she has moved away. And we are left here.

Spring is about new beginnings-- fresh starts and I guess thats whats in store for all of us as we try hard to find our new selves in our new lives.

At the wedding people kept asking me what I was going to do now that the wedding was over... it seemed like a silly question--I have tons of magazines waiting to be read, I have a garden that needs alot of TLC , a DVR with over 90 tv shows waiting to be watched and a whole year of stories and photos waiting to be documented... I already know I don't have enough time --being bored isn't going to be a problem... its just those snippets of time that I will miss--the craziness that happens late on a Friday night like when the temprature got above freezing and Corey put up the umbrella on the deck lit the tiki torches and encouraged us all to eat outside "pretending it was summer" I am not sure how to replace that? I've teased Christopher that we will have to focus our new found time on him... needless to say he wasn't thrilled with that idea. But I do see alittle more travel in our future afterall everyone lives at the beach now except us... and maybe a book???

We survived

The wedding was wonderful.... From the beginning of the day to when we rolled in at 2:30am--- So many stories I know we will be talking about for years to come... The bride was beautiful, the groom was happy--- and it was made so special having the entire family in one location. I am sure I will be sharing pictures for weeks to come... but today I give you a quick photo that our wonderful coordinator Vicki sent over.

slave labor

This is what happens when you visit the brides family a few days before a wedding... instead of fun and frivolity its slave wedding labor!! After dinner no one was permitted to leave the table until 100 wedding programs were punched, ribbons inserted and bowed!! And yes it took all four of us to accomplish the task... apparently in wedding boot camp there are no breaks even for injuries... My dad insists he deserves a purple heart for his scissor injuries!! And after waiting soo long to own a cropodile (the hole punching tool) I finally found a good excuse to buy one-- shove that expenditure right under the paper goods on the wedding budget and no one was the wiser. But did I get to play with it??? nooo one mention that it was a tool and Mike took over that job... because my bow tying skills were so poor I got stuck inserting ribbons... oh well at least the job is checked off the list!!

6 days and counting

So many last minute details... Yesterday Amanda and I headed out to Herndon for her last hair trial.. and somehow I got a haircut too... Kristen her hairstylist and friend did a wonderful job on Amandas hair--
Nothing brings out ohh and ahhs in a salon like pulling out a veil! I can't wait to see it on her wedding day.

And Last night was Amandas Bachelorette Party! Toni and I went down for to Arlington with Amanda and joined the girls for dinner and drinks and then left them as they jumped into a Cab for a wild night of celebrating Amandas last weekend of a single gal. The girls all looked so beautiful in their "party" dresses and they were definately ready for a night of fun. Boas and a scavenger hunt list... I pity anyone who got near them they were giddy and loud ready to hit the town.

I can shop

I am not a shopper, my mother would tell you that I am just missing the all important shopping gene... my daughter just shakes her head... and when I do shop I don't always make the best decisions--especially when it comes to clothes... I usually buy what I like and not necessarily what looks good on me, or what is fashionable... comfort plays a big part in my choices as does the "happy quotent", yes I buy things that look happy to me.... don't ask its hard to explain, but even when shopping for my couch I told the salesman I wanted a happy couch... try explaining what that looks like...

But this past week I shopped... alone... and I think I did pretty darn good. I wanted a dress for the rehersal dinner..not because I really really needed one but more because I wanted one. My wardrobe sorely lacks dresses and my only real choice was one had worn to several weddings recently... I could have worn dress pants but in my mind I wanted a dress... so a dress it was! I really am quite proud of myself... I found a dress that looks good on the hanger and looks good on me. I bought two other dresses too... its ok you can gasp-- but I was on such a roll and figured they were on sale and I could use one for the bachelorette party and for a dinner party- that has since been cancelled... In all my excitement about this dress... I pulled the bow on it... and of course now I can't get it to bow right anymore... someones gonna have to redo it for me...

Last month at bonco I let everyone know that I needed a sub for March Bonco... I knew these last couple of weeks would be busy.. but Thursday I decided to head over to Robins anyway.. because this girl needed a girls night out! Even it meant chit chatting from the sidelines... but as things turned out my spot was still open--- and it was a good decision... they all told me last month I would need my night out with bonco and they were sooo right..
A couple of the girls have already married off their children -- so they reassured me I wasn't going crazy, and warned me that it could get worse. And being the friends that they are offered extra beds, cooking skills and shoulder to cry on should things get worse... It was nice to share the details of Amandas big day and be greeted with enthusiasm.
As I worry about the little things I keep reminding myself of the big things... In two weeks my baby is getting married.