Ginger's Birthday

Tomorrow is Ginger's made-up birthday. March 10th is the day we adopted her 3 years ago, so we decided it would also be her b-day. The vet thought she was about 5 when we got her, so Ginger turns 8 tomorrow.

This was taken on the day we brought her home.

This was Saturday. Not much has changed in 3 years.In honor of Ginger's birthday, Spencer and I made her some doggie biscuit cookies.
The ingredients included flour, powdered milk, egg and bacon grease. Mmmm mmmm mmmm.I think it's only appropriate for a beagle to chew on a basset hound cookie on her birthday.We're going to the zoo tomorrow. Ginger can eat her zoo animal cookies and think about how we abandoned her on her special day. After all the cookie making we took some Glamour shots of Ginger.

Now I have some new pictures to use on my banners.

The baby shower

If I could figure out a way to make a lot of money with very little work doing party planning and catering, I would totally leave the field of speech language pathology. As it stands, though, my little part-time gig as a speech therapist is pretty easy compared to throwing a party. The baby shower is over and while I loved planning and doing every minute of it, I'm tired.

I took these pictures of the tables before anyone arrived.

Me playing the role of 1950's housewife.
Some of the ladies

Adorable baby Desmond.

Back in October I had a picture from a Halloween party of 2 people dressed up as Juno and Bleeker from the movie Juno. Shireen (in the black shirt, pouring juice) was pregnant and playing the role of Juno. She is the mommy of Desmond.

Spencer patiently waiting for his food.

All of Amy's gifts.

Amy and Josh opening presents.

More ladies.

The cake pops.

My lazy dog during gift opening time. Could she be more in the way?

I got to hold Desmond. It made me feel some sort of crazy urge to have another baby. Then I felt frightened and scared and horrified and gave him back to his mom.

What is wrong with my hair and forhead in this picture? Party giving apparently does wonky things to hairstyles.

Amy was worth every minute of the effort the shower took. I CANNOT wait to meet her little boy in late April or early May!

2 and a half

I'm working on a post about Amy's baby shower, but it's raining and it's my spring break, so I'm not very motivated. I don't know when I'll get it done.

In the mean time, here are some pictures of Spencer on his 2 and a half birthday yesterday. OMG. I have a 2 and a half year old!

Here's a preview of some pictures from the shower. Dessert. Always the best part.

Chocolate-chocolate-chocolate cake pops

Funfetti-vanilla cake pops

Michael

This is Michael, my husband of 8 years. He was my boyfriend for 5 years before we got married. 13 years. That's a long time.

Michael is a GREAT husband. He's funny, supportive, easy on the eyes and helpful around the house. He's a FABULOUS daddy too. Most importantly though, he puts up with my need to buy things that have to be assembled. Luckily he's a champ at figuring out directions. From places like Ikea.

In Michael's honor (and you'll see why below) I've put together a montage of everything Michael has assembled in our 13 years together. I missed the blanket chest in our bedroom (and let me tell you, it was a biatch to put together), but I don't think the honoree would appreciate me going in there and taking a picture while he's sleeping.

Bookshelves
Computer desk and chairs
My dresser, the TV armoire, Michael's dresser. We got as close to divorce as we ever will during/after when Michael put these together. I was pregnant and could offer very little help. Our headboard/footboard and Spencer's bed rail
2 benches Spencer's changing table (which now serves as garage shelves) and metal garage shelvesSpencer's toysThis glider swing which looked better before the AZ sun ate it alive.
Which brings us to now, and my desire to create a beautiful outdoor living space. We bought new cushions for the glider. And........this gazebo!
Oh. What a let down. It doesn't look nearly as beautious in our backyard. Could it be because we haven't put the mosquito netting on yet? Or maybe because our backyard is concrete and not in a lush meadow? I'm going with the netting.
So, Michael spent 3 hours putting this together on Wednesday night. I got too cold after 2 hours and went inside to watch TV.

Look, a conversation area. Who wants to come over for a glass of wine and conversation? And concrete.

Isn't my builder Bob (assembler Adam?) husband the best?

A citrus tutorial

Dear Spencer,

The fruit on the left is a grapefruit. The fruit on the right is a lemon. They are NOT the same fruit. There. That's settled. Now stop arguing incessantly with your parents every time we take a walk around our neighborhood that happens to be full of citrus trees.

Love,

Mama and Daddy

Baby Shower

I am hosting a baby shower on Saturday for my friend Amy. I am so excited about it I actually started decorating last week. (Maryellen, if you want to be surprised when you walk in on Saturday, close your eyes and don't look at the pictures but skip to the text under them which will be hard to do because your eyes will be closed, but maybe John can help you)

I made a diaper cake centerpiece.

And I used baby clothes that Amy has already received to decorate the living room/dining room.

It came out so cute that I dug out some of Spencer's old clothes to do another clothes line in the kitchen/family room.
I'm getting ready to go make my baby-shower-to-do list and my shopping list. I love making lists.

In other good news. My friend Kara found out today that they are having a GIRL in July. I am just so thrilled and excited for her and her husband Mike. They're going to name her Kaitlin Ann, which is coincidentally, my cousin's exact name (though not the same spelling).

Also, my high school friends and I somehow managed to figure out, in like 10 minutes of emailing, a weekend for us to have a get-together with all 4 of our families. It's coming up in 3 weeks! That means that all I have to do is make it to 12:30 on Thursday and then fabulous things will start happening: 1) my 2 week long spring break starts; 2) I can start buying groceries and baking for Amy's shower and 3) It will be closer to Chelsea coming with LILLY and Zac.

I should buy a lottery ticket. Things just keep getting better and better.