Birthday Weekend

For pretty much the entire month of August I was dreading my birthday.  40.  Ugh.  That's just so old!!  In general, I like my birthday.  I like cake.  I like presents.  I like going out to dinner.  But this year I was just not looking forward to any of it.  At.  All.  But then I had the best weekend ever!

Tom showed up around 11am on Friday with a cake from Cakes on Board.  They did our wedding cake and, seriously, they make the best cakes!  I ate cake all weekend and my mouth still waters thinking about that cake!  I was so happy and surprised that I didn't even (hardly) notice that the cake has my age right there on it for everyone to see.

But then I got the best surprise ever!  My bff, Lori, surprised me by flying in for the weekend!  My mom picked her up at the airport on Friday and brought her to my house just in time to go out to lunch.  I like to think that I'm pretty tough to surprise.  Mostly because I'm sneaky and nosy.  Yes, I'm the one who goes searching for presents in closets.  Always have, and probably always will.  But this time I think that nearly everyone around me was in on it and no one told!  Not a single solitary person!

On Friday, my mom took me and Lori to lunch at Ted's Montana Grill (love their chopped salad).   My mom also gave me a quilt that has been in our family since 1890 that I've always loved.  Wowza!  Friday night was book club, which is always fun.  I tried out a new fall sangria recipe (fabulous) and we had a great time talking about everything but books (as usual).

Tom had to work on Saturday (drill weekend), so Lori and I had the day to ourselves.  I received some gorgeous flowers in the morning, then Lori and I spent the afternoon shopping and lunching.  (Two of our favorite things to do!) 

Isn't my husband awesome?  We went to dinner at Blue Ginger Saturday night.  We sat outside and ate sushi.  Yum.

On Sunday, I dropped Lori off at the airport after lunch and a little more shopping.  It's always so sad when I have to say goodbye to her, but we'll be seeing the entire Potter family in 10 days when we go on vacation, so it wasn't so bad this time.   My parents took us to dinner Sunday night at Columbus Fish Market.  It was awesome!

By now, I think I've recovered from my weekend of eating too much sugar and drinking too much wine!  I had a full 3 days of celebration.  Reminds me of the time that I went to Disney w/ the above-mentioned BFF and her family a few years ago.  We happned to go during Emma's birthday week.  She spent the entire week pointing at her birthday button whenever she met a character and having cake at every meal.  Spending time w/ my best friends and family is my version of Disney.  It was a truly magical birthday.  :)

Grape Jelly!

I had a lesson in making grape jelly today.  From Cheryl.  Remember, if you will, that she is a former Home Ec teacher.  So she knows her shizzle when it comes to being canning and all things domestic.  We had grapes from my cousin's house in Logan.  Lori & her family live in what used to be my maternal grandparents' house.  So - hey - free grapes!  My mom had already done that hard part, which is boiling the grapes and straining them (many times) to get the juice.  I am so surprised at how easy it is to make jelly!  It's definitely something I could pull off on my own.  Maybe next summer with our blackberries from our CSA order.  Once you have the juice, the worst part is waiting for the juice to boil.  Lots of stirring. 

My mom rocks.

We made 3 batches, which filled around 30 jars with grape jelly.



Here's my stash of jelly.  I'm surprised that I got to bring home so many jars!  My dad eats jelly pert near every day.  Seriously - I kid you not.  If there's bread to be had, he thinks it's just better with grape jelly.  I asked him if he could "make due" with one jar a month, and he said, "Well, it depends on how much company we have".  Oh, Curtie, you crack me up.   He should be fine - unless the grape crop is bad next year.  Entirely possible.  There is no way we will use all of our jelly, so I plan on giving some out as gifts and keeping some as an emergency stash for my dad.

I Know What I Did This Summer

Lately I've been lamenting everything that we DIDN'T do this summer.  It seems like the summer went by so quickly.  But when I really think about it, we do have some sweet summer memories. 

- Tom & I went camping with our friends, the Langers, in Hocking Hills.  (That's not a peace sign I'm holding up - it's to signify that we were on day 2.  Note that I'm still smiling....)

- We ate lots of fresh fruits and veggies, courtesy of our weekly CSA deliveries.  I made delicious vegetable soup with kohlrabi, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, onions & peas.  Honestly, it was better than it looks in the picture!

- I went on a girls weekend trip to Washington DC with my BFF and her middle daughter.  Because there's no better place to celebrate your 8th birthday than at the American Girl Doll store in DC with your mom and Auntie. 

- We went fishing.  Yeah, that's right.  I have a license and everything.  I don't enjoy fishing.  Never have and probably never will.  But my husband digs it, and it's not always all about me. 
- We discovered (thank you, Groupon) a local dairy that makes fabulous cheese!  Blue Jacket Dairy in Bellefontaine.  It's a really small company, but they are so nice and have a million samples!
- I had dinner with the sweetest boy in the world.  Just me and Jacob, who proclaimed, "Auntie, that was an excellent dinner"!  (Seriously - how could you not love that?)    You may be thinking, "What's so special about dinner with a four year old?"  Well, let me explain.  Jacob is the youngest of 4.  And the older girls usually occupy my time, so I have never (ever) done anything with just me and Jacob.  He was so cute and well behaved the whole time.  I loved every second of it!

- Tom rode 30 miles in the Tour de Cure.  Like a boss.

- We had a visit from my BFF's oldest and youngest girls during the Fourth of July week.  (5 and 9 years old.)  I love it when I get the kids all to myself for a week!  Festivities included seeing "Brave", lots of shopping (of course) and fireworks with friends.

- We spent at least several weekends at the lake.  With family.  With girlfriends.  My sister makes killer margaritas.

- We had a patio put in, so we enjoyed eating dinners outside without the table and chairs sinking into the grass.
- We turned up the radio and sang like crazy fools any time we heard our summer theme song, "Summer Breeze". 
- We went to a Cincinnati Reds game with the parents, and saw the Reds retire Barry Larkin's number.  Amazing day.
- Tom & I went camping again.  This time with my sis and BIL (again at Hocking Hills).
- I did lots of reading.  When we were younger, we were always allowed to buy books before our family vacation.  Our parents took us to B Dalton at Eastland Mall, where we loaded up on books.  It was awesome.  And probably the reason why I will always associate summer with big time reading.

- We gave the office a mini makeover by recovering a chair (thanks, mom) and backing the bookcase with fabric. 

Now that's a fun summer, right?  With that being said - I'm soooo ready for Fall.  Bring on the football, mums, sweaters, pumpkins, apples, and all things Fall!  Happy Fall, ya'll!



Summer Weekends

Where has the summer gone??  We've spent the past two weekends doing things that are quintessentially summer - camping and taking in a baseball game.   Yes, I went camping.  Again, if you can believe it!  We went to Hocking Hills with my sister and her hubs.  A great time was had by all.   Except for the first night when we nearly froze to death in our tents.  Well, Tom did.  I didn't, because I stole one of Tom's blankets, so I was nice & toasty under my mountain of sleeping bags and quilts.  Tom hardly noticed, though, because he was deep in the thows of a beer-induced snoreathon.  Fortunately, we were only 15 minutes away from the local WalMart, so we made a Saturday morning run for additional sleeping bags and other necessities.  I also discovered that my sister is uber focused and competitive in EVERYTHING that she does.  Like making a fire.  Not that I'm complaining - thanks to her we were able to get the fire going pretty quickly each morning so that we could make out coffee.  Unfortunately, I have no pictures to share from camping.  Which is too bad, because I was rocking a new tie-dyed t-shirt (from WalMart, of course)....

This past weekend we went to a Reds game with mom & dad.  We got there early so that we could see the festivities honoring Barry Larkin.  They retired #11, and it was pretty cool to see a bunch of players famous ex-Reds show up.  Chris Sabo and Rob Dibble were the only names that I recognized, but Tom (of course) knew them all.  The only issue was that it was unbearably hot!  Seriously - crazy hot.  And we were in the sun the entire time. 

So now we have one more week of summer.  I've been reviewing our "summer bucket list" that we made Memorial Day weekend and, although we've had a jam-packed summer, there are many things on our list that we just didn't get to!  Watch a sunrise.  Go for evening strolls.  Spend an entire day barefoot.  Gallery Hop.  The zoo.  Picnic.  These will have to move to our list for fall or next summer.    Enjoy the last few days of summer, my friends!

Happy Father's Day

Happy Father's Day to Curtie!  (That's what most of my friends know him as!)  Thank your for a lifetime of good memories.  I apprecaite now, more than ever, how truly lucky I am to have parents that have never, ever, ever thought of me as anything less than awesome.  Thank you for reading to me.  Thank you for teaching me to ride a bike.  Thank you for teaching me how to bait a hook (although this is a skill I rarely use).  Thank you for being a good example.  Thank you for not sending me to live with relatives when I was a teenager.  Thank you for walking me down the aisle.  Thank you for being the most awesome Father In Law a guy could have.  (That one's for Tommy.)   We love you!

Tour de Cure

I'm so proud of my husband.  He participated in the Tour de Cure today.  Rode 30 miles - which is impressive in it's own right, but I'm even more proud of him because he of WHY he did it.  A few months ago his brother, Gary, told him that he was going to participate in this race to benefit the American Diabetes Association.  Then he said, "Why don't you do it with me?".  Without hesitation, my husband said, "Yes!  That's a great idea!"  And it meant it from the bottom of his heart.  He really looks up to his big brother, and wanted to be there to support him.  And it was for a good cause.  And because he's just a good person.  If my sister would have asked me to run a half marathon with her, I would have shouted "Hellz NO".  Actually I would have collapsed to the floor in a fit of giggles, then I would have shouted, "Hellz NO".   And then I would have had some ice cream, because just thinking about doing a crazy amount of exercise makes me hungry.  But not my Tommy.  He has a heart of gold and is, quite simply, one of the best people I know.  That's one of the (many) reasons why I married him. 

He did great!  The 30 mile ride started at 10:30am from Westerville Central High School.  They went from Westerville to Johnstown and back.  It was sooo hot!  He hardly looked winded when he crossed the finish line.  What a champ!

Here's a picture of the brothers a the end of the day.  Tired.  Sweaty.  But happy.  Way to go!!  We're so proud of you both!

Unplugged

We had a great Memorial Day weekend. I would show you pictures, but you're just going to have to take my word for it. See, someone forgot the camera. Actually, that certain someone remembered the camera, but forgot that he had taken the battery out the charge. Oh well.

We went to Indian Lake for the weekend. The parental units have a house at Russell's Point, so Tom & I picked up Frankie & Lola Saturday morning and headed west. Side note: Curtie's 50th high school class reunion was Saturday, so someone needed to puppy sit. And it's MUCH easier to puppy sit at the lake because the backyard is fenced in. Here's a recap of our weekend: 1) Sitting around. 2) Reading - I finished 3 books!

This was our book club book. Meeting's this week, so I actually finished early for once! Great book!

Read this one a long time ago (back when it was an Oprah pick), and picked it up again when my friend, Cari, suggested it as a book club book. Quick read - better the second time.

Side splitting funny. Sometimes. Other times, annoying. But I really, really enjoyed this book! 3) Boating - a little. 4) Fishing - Curt & Tom did.... I "forgot" my fishing license at home. And seeing how law abiding I am, I didn't want to risk it. 5) More sitting around. Tom caught a catfish. Something about a channel catfish, but I have no idea what that means. 6) Grillin' - burgers & brats. Salad. Corn. S'mores. 7) Antiquing - Me & Cheryl did this while the boys were fishing. We're home now. Left the lake around noon. We relocated the veggie garden & finally got the tomatoes & peppers in the ground. Man was it hot out there! The battery on my phone died within 2 hours of us being at the lake, so I was unplugged all weekend. At first I was a little nervous. I felt disconnected and cut off from civilization. Then I had a few beers and I started to relax a little. I need to remember to put down the cell phone more often and enjoy the people I'm with at the moment! Life is short. Happy Memorial Day, my friends!