A Slurpee, A Couple Cows, A Wedding... And Lots of Free Food!

As you can probably tell I'm trying to get caught up on all the events of our summer. It was a really busy one and has flown by. I can't believe the summer is almost over.

Here's one day in my life.... July 11th, 2008 or 7-11. It happened to be a Friday and one of the few I actually had a day off from summer camp. It started off with some nice time with my husband in the morning. Then off to 711 to enjoy a FREE Slurpee with my good friend, Melody, in the afternoon. It also happened to be National Cow Day at one of my favorite restaurants... Chick-Fil-A. Yes, I was one of the crazy people that actually dressed up. I convinced my good friend Melody to join in on the fun. (I didn't want to go into the restaurant alone and be the only "crazy" person who actually dressed up.) The people at the counter loved our outfits and wanted to take a picture for their bulletin board! They said we could get whatever combo meal we wanted FREE! Oh, and we were definitely not the only people who dressed up. There were lots of cows in the restaurant. My husband even joined in on the fun, but I never actually got to see his outfit. A bunch of techs at his work got together and put duck-tape cow spots on their scrubs. They all got free meals as well. I sure wish someone would have taken a picture of that group walking into Chick-Fil-A! We're wearning the skirts we got the day before for really cheap at Christopher and Banks. We decided we could both get them as long as we made sure to never wear them on the same day! HA...I guess we found a reason to be twins at least for an hour or two! Free food is always a good reason! Right after we finished our meals we changed out of our cow outfits and into wedding attire. We figured we'd look pretty funny going as "cows" to a wedding. It was a gorgeous wedding. Melody and I actually ended up serving some of the desserts at the reception so I didn't get to take many pictures. (I was extra glad we didn't leave the "cow" outfits on!) A lot of her family had Amish/Mennonite backgrounds and they made a whole bunch of really good homemade cheesecakes and other desserts. They also had another table with chocolate fondue!

Unfortuanately the only picture I got of the bride and groom...Wayne and Rachel Barrows.

"Big Project" Revealed

I know it's been over a month since the last post. You're probably wondering what happened to us. (And you're probably tired of checking and seeing no updates... I know my mom is! ) Life has been really busy lately. However, today marks the start of a 2 week break for Laura!!! AND Roderick finished his summer school on Sunday, doesn't start school till next week, and only works Monday next week!!! Needless to say we are VERY excited for the break. I do have several pics of what we've been up to lately, but I think I'll save that for another post. For now I can't wait to reveal my "big project." I've been working on it since April or May and it's finally done. Here's how it began.... I purchased it for a REALLY good price at an estate sale. Not too pretty, but I really liked the idea of a desk/bookshelf/storage combination. It was used in a kitchen and it was obvious by the greasy stains, etc., but at least it was sturdy! Here's how it looks now.... I still need to fill it up and organize all my scrapbook/painting/craft stuff in it. The new hobby room is starting to shape up as well. I've been painting lots of garage sale finds, glueing bows, hanging curtains, etc. I've found so many garage sale deals for this room, everything from a bag of foam paint brushes for $.10 to a brand new 16 X 20 art canvas for $1! Most of the picture frames, pots, knickknacks and even paint are from garage sales. I'll wait for the pictures until it's a little more finished. I'm hoping it will be "finished" in the next couple of days!!

4th of July

**Note: Sorry this post is "old news." It was written almost a month ago. Our Internet was acting weird and I couldn't add pictures. Then we didn't have Internet for about a week and I forgot to finish it. I decided I might as well post it anyway. Better late than never. = )

We had a wonderful 4th of July with several of our friends. We had a cook out at a really nice park in Portsmouth. We ate, talked, threw some balls, etc. until just before it got dark. It was really fun getting to know several couples better and meeting some new friends.

Then we all headed to downtown Portsmouth for the fireworks show. We were a little late arriving so it took forever to find a parking spot. When we finally found one, we fast walked to a perfect spot right along the river. Then we waited... ate some licorice... waited... ate some chips...watched some cool lightning shows in the distance...then finally found out the show was canceled due to the weather. We were bummed to say the least!

By the time we got back to the car and began our trek home with the other thousands of people, we were hit with a deluge of rain. There was so much rain our windshield wipers really couldn't keep up and it was hard to see the lines on the road! They rescheduled the show for the next day, but it rained off and on on Saturday as well so we decided not to even try to go see them. At least we got to see some pretty neat fireworks here in Chesapeake on the 3rd!!!

Birthday Continued

The birthday fun continued on Sunday as well. After the evening service we decided to have a combined birthday party for Ulys (his birthday is June 26th) and I.

We had several couples over and had a blast playing games, eating Red Barron pizza, talking, eating cupcakes/ice cream cake... I even used binary numbering for candles. (11011, Thanks Dad for teaching it to me...but no one else knew what that meant!)

We were probably a little too noisy as we played Apples to Apples until midnight... but at least none of the neighbors complained. Here's a few pictures of our very fun night. I am so thankful for the wonderful friends the Lord has allowed us to make here in VA!!!

Birthday Fun

My dear, sweet husband gave me a full day of fun for my birthday! In the midst of summer school I know that was a challenge. We started out the day with breakfast at Chick-fil-A. (We had a coupon!) Then I got a pedicure and manicure... that lasted 3 hours! Which on a normal day I probably would have been absolutely tickled with... though that meant I got 1 1/2 hours less time with my hubby! = ( This was followed by a shared lunch at Tropical Smoothie Cafe completed with a Mango Moxie smoothie! (Another coupon, of course!) Then I got to do a little shopping with some "birthday money" he gave me. Which I used up mostly at Walmart and Target... I guess I even want my birthday money to stretch as far as possible! Plus that's where I normally shop and I'd already found a couple of things I was hoping to get! = ) Then off to get dressed up for a nice dinner! My husband loves food and I gladly join him in this passion. We usually eat at low budget places, but on birthdays and anniversaries we've decided to treat ourselves. Todd Jurich's Bistro, being the only 4 star restaurant in the Hampton Roads area, fit the bill. The food was terrific! Roderick, of course, got his favorite again, Rack of Lamb, and I got a New York Strip Steak. Delicious to say the least! Overall it was a wonderful day. Thanks Roderick for making my 27th birthday very memorable!

Unfortunately Roderick was the only "family" I was able to be with on my birthday. However, thanks to everyone else for the packages, gifts, cards, and most of all the SONGS! I sure got a lot of different versions of Happy Birthday this year and I loved everyone of them!!!

Little Things Make Me Happy

The name of my friend Bethany's blog is certainly applicable to me today.... Little Things Make Me Happy. Especially a little flower bud... a hydrangea flower bud at that. For Valentine's day Roderick got me a gorgeous purple hydrangea bush. I was afraid it had died because I had to keep it inside so long. As soon as I felt it was warm enough I put it out on the porch and it started to get some green life back. SO I've been watering and babying it in hopes I'd still get flowers next year. (I was thinking that was doubtful as I really have no place to actually plant it.) However, today my day was brightened by the sight a tiny bud with the beginnings of purple tint. I may just have a fully bloomed purple hydrangea for our first anniversary! Now that's a reason to be happy!!!

By the way does anyone know how to winter a potted hydragea bush. At least it doesn't get too cold in VA!

Washington DC

It's been almost a month since I've last posted. I have about 5 blogs in my head, complete with pictures. So there might be a deluge of posts in the next couple of day in order to catch up! Father's Day weekend my Uncle Ron and Grandpa were in Washington DC. My uncle won a trip for his company, Allstate. His wife was unable to come as she had just had their second son 2 weeks before the trip! So instead my grandpa got to come along. On Saturday morning we made the spur-of-the-moment decision to go visit them and spend the night. The smoke from the fire(s) in NC was particularly bad that morning so we were happy to get out of town! We ended up deciding to stay at a Holiday Inn downtown. (Which we ended up paying double for... still have to call them and get that mistake fixed!!!!)We ran into quite a bit of traffic on the way down. Then when we were 1 minute from our hotel we got lost. Needless to say it took a long hour to actually find our hotel and we now know DC a lot better! The Lord graciously allowed us to find a free parking spot really close to our hotel. (We had to reverse quickly down a very small street to get it, but that only added to our adventure!) We were really glad we were able to find parking, especially when we heard parking at the hotel was $28 a day! Once settled we walked a few blocks to my Uncle and Grandpa's hotel. My Uncle Ron accidentally dropped/destroyed his cell phone while trying to get us to our hotel room... so we were able to have a nice visit with my grandpa while we waited for him to find a T-Mobil shop to replace it! They had a dinner meeting that evening so Roderick and I went to the Smithsonian Natural History museum. We really enjoyed it! I especially enjoyed seeing all the amazing and gorgeous rocks God has created. I wasn't so much into the massive jewelry they made it into though. (Who actually wears that kind of stuff. I'd be afraid I'd fall over from all the extra weight or be mugged or something!) Then we went to a nice restaurant called Chef Geoff's. We had some extra money stashed away from our wedding and we decided to splurge. Roderick even got his favorite Rack of Lamb! The next day my Uncle Ron and Grandpa brought all their luggage to the airport early. My Uncle Ron is 6'11'' so he had to make sure he got an exit row seat! Then we had the rest of the day to explore! Unfortunately all the government buildings were closed since it was Sunday, but we still had fun exploring the town. We ended our time with a meal at the ESPN zone. I was the only girl in our group and I'm certain there was not a single word said other than to order the food and pray!!! = ) Here's a slide show of our fun trip. My Uncle Ron has some more pictures of all of us together. I'll post them when I get them!