OMG!!!!!!

The cast of characters included in this post: Natalie, Michael, Spencer, Ginger, Chelsea, Lilly, Zac, Laura, Josh, Sara, Karen, Bernie and Tyler.

The plan: Chelsea, Lilly and Zac would drive from Tucson to Chandler on Friday afternoon and stay with us for 2 nights. Laura, Josh and Sara would drive from Tucson to Tempe on Saturday morning and stay with Karen, Bernie and Tyler for 1 night. We would all get together Saturday morning, Saturday night and Sunday morning for various activities.

The outcome: Things did not go quite as planned and as such I#1: have not been able to blog for several days and #2: currently feel like I have been drug through the mud, put through the wringer and been used as somebody's whipping boy.

I considered blogging the events of the weekend as, like, 3-4 different posts. I decided against it though because I got very little downtime between each "event" and if you're going to re-live the weekend with me you might as well get the most realistic experience possible.

FRIDAY AFTERNOON/NIGHT

So, this is 10 minutes after Chelsea and her kids arrived. Spencer was still napping at this point. A single energetic one-year-old was responsible for this (and this is just a tiny snapshot of his energy).

Yes, Zac was a hurricane of activity. He even needed to take a nap on Ginger's bed after he flew around the house on Friday afternoon.After Spencer woke up we took the kids to the park. Spencer started the first of many Lilly hugs.
Then we came home and Lilly and Zac borrowed Spencer's swim suits and we played with water in the backyard. I discovered that we could have shared swim suits with 5 more kids. I have NO IDEA how Spencer ended up with 8 swim suits.

It was during all this water play that Laura called us with the sad news that Tyler was sick with a fever so Karen, Bernie and Tyler wouldn't be able to join us for all the weekend activities AND Laura, Josh and Sara could no longer stay at their house. The decision was made that it was silly of them to get a hotel room and they would just have to come stay at our house.

Let's briefly stop to count how many people will now be staying at my house on Saturday night: 9. Let's also recap how many of these people are age three or younger: 4.

Lilly and Spencer shared a romantic dinner of pizza and grapes at the art table.
Then, immediately after their 1st date they ended up in the tub together. They move fast. I had to edit the picture since Spencer still doesn't understand the concept of sitting in the bathtub.
This is definitely a shot for their 8th grade yearbook.
SATURDAY MORNING

We played with Mickey Mouse ear hats.
Then we headed off to Dunkin' Donuts where we met Laura and Sara.

After we were sufficiently caffeinated (adults) and sugared up (adults and children) we went to the toy store to meet:

Peter Rabbit! (Or Peter Bunny as Spencer calls him) We listened to a story and then took individual pictures with all the kids.

Zac was not so much in love with Peter.

Lilly would only stand there after Spencer agreed to go with her. They make a good team.

After all the excitement of donuts and rabbits we came back to our house and got the strollers ready for a walk.
I don't think any of these children were particularly excited by what the adults thought was a hilarious photo opp.

SATURDAY NIGHT

Tyler was feeling good enough that Karen could leave him at home with Bernie so she could join us for dinner. We had dinner a little later so Zac and Sara were in bed by the time we ate. 50% less children makes for 50% more eating without interruptions.

The couples:

Me and Michael

Josh and Laura

Without their spouses, Chelsea and Karen became a couple.

Spencer and Lilly

What is a night with long-time friends (notice I didn't say old friends, because we are all quite young) without a fabulous cake?

Chelsea has a promising career in food photography.

After dessert Karen left us and the rest of the night became 1) blurry and 2) confidential. What I can share is that small children went to bed, 6 bottles of wine and 18 bottles of beer were consumed, memories were shared, tears were shed, abdominal muscles were sore from laughter and we all went to bed far too late.

SUNDAY MORNING

Chelsea and Lilly in the guest room.

Zac in the pack n play in the play room.

Me, Ginger, Spencer and Michael in our bed in our room.

Josh on a mattress on the floor in Spencer's room.

Sara in the pack n play in Spencer's room.

Laura in "Spencer's bed" (in quotes because Spencer's never actually slept there) in Spencer's room.

Oh girls, it was fun. We have all changed so much since 5th grade (when I met Karen), 7th grade (when we met Chelsea) and 9th grade (when we met Laura), yet we are all still exactly the same. Let's start planning the next get-together immediately. My only request: keep me and Laura away from BevMo because 6 bottles of wine was obviously way more than we could handle.

The zoo....with Megan and Hadley

We were supposed to go to the zoo with Megan and Hadley last Wednesday. Then Ginger ran away and we had to postpone for a week. Spencer and I have been talking about going to the zoo with Megan and Hadley for like 16 days now. I wish you could hear him say Megan and Hadley. It's dang cute.

The kids, checking each other out.

Could Hadley be any more adorable? I mean really?All decked out in green for St. Patrick's Day. The zoo was a swarm of kelly green clothes. Wearing green, sitting on a green frog. How appropriate. March 16th just so happens to be Megan's birthday. We got her a very cool monogrammed (H) picture frame and a very cool monogrammed (M) water bottle.Megan also brought me something. Old pictures from her birthday parties. I was instructed to include them in my blog post. I'm more than happy to oblige.

Here goes:

2010 1989 (10th birthday) We think this was Megan's 11th birthday in 1990. I don't really have any specific memories of being in the water. I do remember hiking to the water though.

I'm wearing a teal colored shirt.The girl sitting next to me is Teresa. I got an invitation to her baby shower in the mail yesterday. We started school together in 1st grade, graduated from 8th grade and high school together and went to the U of A at the same time. Megan's 12th birthday party in 1991. I can absolutely remember sitting on that couch while this picture was being taken. That's me in the purple on the right side. (This picture is for you too Karen!) It's too bad that the photographer cut Megan's head off- you know, with it being her party and everything.

Flashback Wednesday

I've been really bad about doing any flashbacks lately. There really is no excuse other than being lazy. Lazy in coming up with ideas and lazy in scanning old photos. Even Michael commented that it has been ages since I did a flashback. So, here you go.

March 3, 2007.

We had planned on waiting until I was 12 weeks along to tell anyone that I was pregnant. The only person that knew, other than me, Michael and my doctor was my orthodontist, because I begged him to take my braces off since I could not even fathom being pregnant in braces. However, Michael's grandparents (from VT) had been living in AZ all winter and they were leaving the next week. We knew they would be upset if we didn't tell them in person, so we asked Michael's parents if they would host a "going-away" party for them. The perfect excuse to get both sides of our family together. I was 10 weeks pregnant.

I baked a cake and used white chocolate chips to write out my due date. I didn't space it very well. I laugh when I see this since Spencer was born no where near this date. He was a month old by the time we reached 10-5-07.

At the right moment we revealed the cake to all. Michael's dad got it right away. He was the only one. Then my mom turned white as a ghost and had to sit down.She was pretty happy after she recovered. So was my grandma. Michael, his dad and his grandma were happy. Michael's grandpa and his mom were happy. My dad was happy. My brother? Apparently not so much. I actually thought that I did this flashback last year, but couldn't find it when I went back into my blog archive. I did revisit some old posts though and re-read some great comments. I have the best blog friends (which is not surprising since most of you are the best real world friends). Thanks for always supporting me with your great comments.

Pedicure and Lemon Desserts

That title certainly got your attention, didn't it? Let me explain. For my birthday in September my mom and dad gave me a gift certificate for a pedicure, a massage and a facial. We were in Tucson for the weekend and I finally went for my day of beauty and relaxation on Saturday. I have never had a pedicure or a facial before. Is that sad? I have had a couple massages, but not in a long, long time. I went to the lady who has been doing my mom's hair for like 20 years. She is also a massage therapist. I did not get a relaxing swedish massage. I got a deep tissue, therapeutic massage. I am so sore today I feel like I've been beaten up. She told me not to be surprised if I get bruises from it.

My apologies to Laura for posting a picture of my feet, but don't my toes look pretty?

Today is Kendra's Birthday (my sister in law). My mom asked her what she wanted for her b-day dinner. She gave her requests, which included "something lemon" for dessert. My mom couldn't decide between 2 recipes, so we just made both: A lemon chiffon cake and an almond-lemon tart.Michael made the statement that unless chocolate is involved in some way, it's not dessert. I don't exactly agree with that, but lemon is not my 1st choice for dessert either. The cake, and especially the frosting, was pretty tasty though.The tart was really really, well, tart. Puckery, actually. Kendra and Spencer Where is Spencer looking? Oh, and I don't think I have mentioned this, but Nathan was accepted into law school in Tampa. Yeah! Now they can live in the same city when Kendra starts her oncology fellowship in Tampa in July. That's a bonus, seeing as they are married and everything.My dad broke out the accordian. For my friends who have known me for a long time: remember when my dad used to play at my b-day parties?He was jammin! Geech did not like it one bit. That look on his face is, "get me the hell out of here" The b-day girl, who LOVED her lemon desserts. Spencer took the next 2 pictures. I think this one has a real artistic quality to it. I like the blurry butter in the background. Today is the start of week 2 of my spring break. On the agenda: 3 job interviews (1 for summer work and 2 for next school year), the zoo with Megan and Hadley, Chelsea, Lilly and Zac coming to stay with us, Peter Rabbit at Brilliant Sky Bookstore, dinner with Laura, Chelsea and Karen, and finally, and best of all, NOT looking for Ginger for 24 hours (knock on wood).

Holiday Decorations: The St. Patrick's Day Edition

St. Patrick's Day is probably my lamest attempt at holiday decorating. It's not that I don't love green and leprechauns and shamrocks. It's that in so many years St. Paddy's falls too close to Easter and the bunnies and chicks win the decorating battle (can't you totally picture a leprechaun and a pink marshmallow peep running at each other with bayonets like in the final battle scene of The Patriot?)

Here, in no particular order, with no particular rhyme or reason is my sad attempt at Holiday Decorating: The St. Patrick's Day Edition.

Shamrocks

What are these? I don't even know. Irish figurines?The dining room servers I don't usually have green flowers- they are left over from the baby shower. Let's take a closer look at my two favorite decorations for this holiday.

Spencer is all of a sudden obsessed with Barney. That's a Barney DVD on the TV.
I didn't even put a candle in this.

I bought this at JoAnne's fabric for maybe 99 cents. Hey, has anyone ever noticed that there is no cent symbol on a keyboard?

Dollar Store. It's probably lead based paint.

Ditto

Hanging on the front door

These are in the bathroom. Again, no candles.

Michael hung these and wants to take credit for "helping to decorate".

Well, that's it. Lame. I warned you. Easter is much better. And then there's nothing until 4th of July.

Sleep

Being a runaway apparently makes you tired. Ginger has been doing a lot of sleeping since she got home. And not just napping. Real, snoring, deep sleeping.

My god I love that dog.

Oh, and she hates the cookies that Spencer and I baked her. Maybe she's just upset about her 24 hours apart from us, but I doubt it. We've never been able to find a treat that she likes. Unless it's something nasty on the side of the road.
Anybody want a bag of homemade, organic, free-range, bacon flavored doggie biscuit cookies shaped like basset hounds, acorns, zoo animals, leaves and stars?

UPDATE: We went to the veterinarian this morning. Here's the scoop: Ginger only has one microchip. ONE. When we adopted her from the Southern Arizona Beagle Rescue they gave us the wrong chip information. Wrong number. Wrong company. We never even thought to check it. I made a bunch of calls when we got home: 1) the Beagle Rescue to (nicely) chew them out for giving us the wrong information. They are going to investigate. 2) The wrong company to take Ginger out of their system; 3) The right company to add her to their system- $24.99 and she's covered for life.

If there is a lesson to be learned from all of this, it's to take your pet in and verify their chip information. We would have saved a lot of time, money and heartache if we had done that 3 years ago.

GINGER IS HOME!

This is the look of no-sleep, 24 hours of crying, relief, jubilation and exhaustian. And Ginger just looks scared/pissed. Maybe she enjoyed her adventure more than she enjoys living with us. I hope not!

So, the details. We had a big storm yesterday afternoon. It blew the gate open in our backyard. Ginger took off WITHOUT her collar. We made this discovery at 5 pm (within an hour of her disappearing).

By 6 pm I had printed 250 fliers and registered her on every missing pet website I could find. By 9 pm I had left a flier on every door in our immediate neighborhood and posted them on every stop sign in the immediate neighborhood, a lot of lightposts and on benches and playground equipment in the park.

By 9 am today I posted an additional 50 flyers all around the neighborhood on stop signs and lightposts. By 2 pm we had checked both animal control facilities and I was on my 21st hour of pretty continuous crying. At 4:35 pm we got a phone call from a man saying he had seen our flier in the neighborhood and that he had picked up Ginger yesterday a couple blocks from our house and dropped her off at a vet's office. Michael wasn't even off the phone and I was in the car. Driving and crying. Not a great combo.

At 5:00 (exactly 24 hours after she left) Ginger and I were reunited at the vet's office. They were all so nice. I was sobbing and they hugged me and gave me kleenex and everyone exclaimed how nice Ginger was and how beautiful she was. I gave them a donation for taking such good care of her. They said they would use it for rescuing other lost animals.

At 5:10 the vet's office told me they scanned her microchip and the ID number wasn't registered to anyone. Had it been, we would have had her back within an hour of her going missing. At 5:30 I called the microchip company, furious, demanding answers. Basically, either Ginger has 2 microchips and 1 was never registered or the Southern Arizona Beagle rescue gave us erroneous information when we adopted her.

We have an appointment at the vet's tomorrow (which we actually already had) to find out some answers.

WELCOME HOME GINGER! WE LOVE YOU!!!!!

PLEASE HELP and PLEASE PRAY

PLEASE HELP US FIND OUR DOG

Name: Ginger
Breed: Beagle
Gender: Female
Colors: Yellow and White
Missing since between 4 and 5 pm on Tuesday, March 9th.
She has a microchip, but was not wearing her collar.
Please call 480-857-2208 or 480-495-1105
CASH reward offered for her quick and safe return

_________________________________________________________________

We are absolutely devastated. We had a big storm yesterday and it blew our backyard gate open. Ginger ran away without her collar. I don't ask for prayers often, but would you please pray that she comes home safely. We have distributed 200 of the flyers you see above. I have posted her as missing on every website I can find. We have notified the microchip company and they have flagged her in the system. I am too upset to talk. Please just pray.