Weekend Wonderland

My husband is a manly man in many ways. He frequently comes home covered in drywall dust, axle grease, pipe glue, welding spatter and other similar substances. Sidenote: learn to have work clothes, and non work clothes Jerad! Gah!!! I frequently am grumbling about power tools being left about and him using our good kitchen sponges to clean the lawnmower. BUT, if there is anything I want done, he can do it. Move walls, fix my car, fix a slow draining sink, you get the jist. Usually when I show him something I want to buy his response is "I could make that."

Then he has this other side. The one that knits. And sews. And has to have his own bodywash because he likes only vanilla coconut scent. He likes his baths with bubbles, loves to bake, and can clean a bathroom with the best of them. Instead of calling this side "girly," I like to say "well rounded."

Well, me and my well rounded guy took a little mini road trip yesterday. We slept in a little, then headed to Touch of Paso for a huge breakfast around 8am. After that we got in the car and went north to Palo Alto to go to:


kiiiind of the best place on earth! Honestly, most of the stuff isn't my style, and feels "cheap" but its always an experience never the less. For the baby room we got:

The dresser is the same brown/black as the little book shelf. We also picked up a new cheese grader, cutting board, and whisk. It took FOREVER. Mostly because Jerad does stuff like compares how big the groove for catching juices is on the different cutting boards and wants to get the one that is easiest on the knives. I'm more like "dude... its just a piece of wood." but, I have a husband who is happy to littereally spend an entire day doing nothing but shopping with me, so I can live with the pickyness.

We finally left and decided to stop here on our way back:


We had planned on going there for Valentine's but didn't make it so now was the chance to make it up. One bloomin onion and 2 steak dinners later (eh, if you're gonna cheat go big), we were stuffed. There is a Babies R Us in the same plaza and we decided to check it out since there are none close to us. Basically, having a baby has opened all sorts of new stores to us. Like the children's section at Ikea! Then again I am both cheap AND picky so its not thaaaaat exciting:) We wandered around a little bit and left with a giraffe skin looking changing table cover.

Jerad has become obsessed with giraffes for the baby. He wanted a whole giraffe room which was voted down, we compromised that a few "accents" would be okay. The other things he really wanted in a baby room were orange, dark blue, vintage ford or plane stuff. None of that really screams large jungle creature to me. Anyways, the changing pad cover is cute and I did manage to dissuade him from the fluffy giraffe mobile, switch plate, drawer pulls, airplane/tow truck/boat bedding, and lamp.

We drove home from Salinas and set everything up. It already looks like a completely different baby room! As soon as we hang the wall shelf and curtains tonight, I'll post pictures. The only thing left to do is have the art we bought framed and hung, then put away the gifts from the upcoming showers.

I have no transition for this, but I almost forgot about our Friday dinner.

Backstory:
We went to have dinner with a guy and his family that Jerad met at work. The guy is an outside contractor, so they aren't coworkers or anything. When they met they somehow started talking about homebirths, organic food, homeopathy and decided to be bff's. The guy and his wife live in Paso and have 7 kids, 5 of which were born unassisted at home.

I baked a ginormous apple pie and we headed over there. They live a little way's out of town on a big lot with a bunch of goats and chickens. We got to feed the baby 3 weeks old goats bottles, milk the big goats, and meet the fam. Their kids were soooo well behaved. Seriously. 7 kids, ranging from 3 weeks old to 8 and they were a dream. We had a great dinner. So, that was the good part.

Before dinner he asked if we minded if he prayed. We said of course not. He prayed then afterwards asked if we were believers. Annnnnd it all got weird from there. He asked where we went to church and we told him nowhere at the moment. When he pressed why and found out that it was because we were disillusioned with the way churches opperate now (to say the least) and don't feel like that's how it should be, lo and behold him and his wife were having all the same issues. Instead of it being one more thing that we have in common, it turned into a three hour discussion (and by discussion I mean him talking:) about all these different issues, getting out his Bible to read certain passages, and giving us a Bible to follow along in. We ended the evening with a 30 minute prayer. At 10:30pm.

It was just... awkward to say the least. Not because we prayed or read the Bible... just the whole thing. Both of our families are questioning and think that there is a better way, but in totally different ways. I think he is the type that wants an answer for EVERYTHING, and gets frustrated that that's not really possible. Jerad and I are more in the mindset of "united on the few, divided on the many." There are key elements that I think are integral to the Christian faith, but so many smaller issues and differing opinions that I honestly do.not.think.matter. If there was a 100% right way to do things, someone would have hopefully figured it out by now right? I don't want this to get all heavy so I'm not going to get into it, but it was just kiiiinda awkward to have a study sesh with basically strangers when all I planned for is dinner:)

We had tons of fun though, they seem like a super nice family and I got to hold baybee goats!!! Maybe next time we can solve the countries debt problem and come up with a solution for the off shore oil drilling debate? Jk.

My worst fear is... dishwashers?

Bless me for I have sinned. 9 days since my last post? Who is this girl?

I jetted off to San Fransisco for the weekend to go wedding dress shopping with my best friend Tina. More on that later.

Before I left Jerad and I were sitting on the couch watching a Desperate Housewives re-run, the one where all of Gabby and Carlos's drains get backed up with sewage. Ewwwwwe right? I told Jerad that that was my worst fear EVER (right behind spiders, having my feet touched, and other peoples hair laying around) and made him tell me over and over that that could never ever ever happen at our house.

Except he wouldn't actually tell me that because apparently it COULD happen.

Jerk.

He did say that it was very unlikely and most of the time an easy fix, blah blah blah.

I was just like, "the f@ck??? easy fix? poo coming IN the house?"

then I died.

Later after I was reincarnated, we were washing our dinner dishes in the kitchen sink and water started to pour out of the front of the dishwasher. I immediately freaked out saying that since I voiced my fear of backed up plumbing out loud, it was happening. Thank GOD it was clean water!

We have wood flooring in our kitchen, so pouring water=bad news.

I hopped up and down and whined at Jerad to "fix it, fix it right now, for the love of God make it stop, I can't deal with this," you get the drill. The water was coming out of the dishwasher because the pipes had backed up with water until the dishwasher was so full that the seals were leaking.

He started to take apart the pipes under the sink and said that it was probably something that got put in the drain. I flashed back to last June when I put artichoke leaves down the garbage disposal and ended up causing like half of our pipes to stop draining.

I couldn't remember putting anything down the drain this time, I've been SUPER careful!!!

Just in case I told him that nevermind, I had changed my mind, he didn't need to fix it, lets go to bed and I would call a plumber tomorrow.

He looked at me like I was a crazy person since a) plumbers charge a buttload, and b) he was perfectly capable of fixing the problem.

I just let him know that if he did find something "taboo" it didn't mean that I was the one that put it in there because I had definitely learned my lesson.

He ended up having to not just take apart the plumbing under the sink, but a bunch of it in our basement too and flush a lot of other pipes. Thank goodness its easy to get to!

I like to think that I just provide opportunities for him to show off his manliness and how handy he is! Er, ya, that's what I do! In fact, when I get home I might flush a towel down the toilet and then mess with some electrical. Because I care about his ego that much, I just want to do my part. Heh.

Re: This gravy-train has sailed!

I'd just like to take a quick moment to say that Jerad made up for his foolishassness. Yesterday he got off early, brought home dinner (a rare treat) a was a general joy to be around.

This morning he took ME to work, as well as dropped Wyatt of at the vet to be neutered, all before 7:30. And he's meeting me for lunch. So, I guess he's off of my list. As long as he doesn't forget to a) show up for lunch, and b) pick me up tonight.

Thursday's are sketchy around here because we duck out early sometimes... so if he's late, I'm screwed. Speaking of being off of my "list," ever find you get confused about YOUR list? Who's on it, who's off it... what did they do, how long ago, how bad was it....well, have I got a product for you!


Order here.

This gravy-train has sailed!

Or however the F that saying goes.

I've mentioned a few times that out of the goodness of my heart I've been driving Jerad to and from work as of late. My car gets better gas mileage, is more comfortable, we get to visit.... he is on time for a change. There are a million pros. For him.

For me, it means that I have to be awake even earlier, and am consistently 5 minutes late from work because instead of coming from the house to my job (3.3 miles), I go from home to his work (3.6 miles through weird roads) and then from there to my work (6.3 miles). Nothing crazy, just a little longer. The whole trip takes about 30 minutes. As opposed to the 5 I was used to. Again, not a big deal.... I used to commute over an hour. Barefoot. Up hill in the snow both ways...

***

Enter, yesterday.....

***

Jerad was running late again. I told him that if I was going to keep taking him to work then he needed to get up and start getting ready while I was in the shower because his lollygagging makes me late everyday and it was annoying. No one at my work cares. We don't even punch in and out. Heck, we don't even write what time we get in, just the number of hours we worked that day. My company is realllly lax. No one is on time. We start at 7, it's 8:50 right now, and people are still showing up.

The punctual people are the other two girls in my department so I hate hate hate being late. Once in awhile is fine. Since I started driving Jerad, its a consistent 5 minutes every day.

Anyways, that is how we start our day. He promises to try harder (he is chronically late EVERYWHERE). I drop him off around 6:50am, speed like a mofo and make great time to my job arriving only 2 minutes late.

Blah blah blah, boring boring boring, 5:30 rolls around. I had forgotten my cell phone, but he had never called me at work telling me he was getting off late, which is a common occurrence, so I headed on over. Usually he is waiting right outside.

Not this time. So I waited as all the cars cleared out of the parking lot (everyone is off by 5 there remember).... and waited.... and waited.... and I don't have my phone to call...

40 minutes I waited.

Finally I decide to drive home and get my phone and call him and see wtf is going on.

I pull into the driveway and he is home. "He got a ride." Isn't that nice? He decided to get a ride, texted me at 5:15, and when I didn't respond didn't think it was a good idea to call me at work too...

THEN let me sit at his work for FORTY FUCKING MINUTES instead of, you know, driving his ass out there and being like "surprise! come home!" Cause goodness forbid he inconvenience himself a little bit too.

Actually, he didn't even think of that. And I wasn't that mad. More annoyed. And he did feel really bad. He tried to call my cell phone a million times but it was inside the house. Locked inside the house. He didn't have his house key and had to break in... which was surprisingly easy. We finally start locking the house and apparently there is no point, so now we need to install a deadbolt on the one door that doesn't have one. Geeze.

Needles to say, I let him haul himself to work today and I think he was about 15 minutes late. Except his shift doesn't actually start until 8 so technically 45 min early, but pretty much 15 minutes late.

I think he'll remember to call next time.

Ass.

And... then the year was over...

Hmmm, all of my gchat buddies have Veterans Day off. Lucky Duckies:) That's okay, I duked out early yesterday... It's quiet though. The phone hasn't been ringing. I think all of our reps and customers are also closed. Bummer, looks like its going to be a long day here.

I was looking at the calendar and ohmygosh, the year is almost over! And looking at our calendar, I am stresssssing.....

This Friday we have fancy pants date plans in SLO.

Saturday we are going to a Marriage seminar thing Santa Maria at one of Jerad's friend's churches... he heard about it and wanted to go, but since it was so far wasn't sure. Then he heard there was a catered dinner and live music. Its supposed to be a good time.

A week and a half after that its Thanksgiving which means I'll need to make about 15 pies. That weekend we'll do a bunch of Christmas shopping, and decorate our house and tree.

The next weekend Jerad has some fab. secret plan for our anniversary that we are celebrating a week early.

The next weekend I'm in New York (for 5 days of frolicking.... yessss).

The next weekend is my company Christmas party and Jerad and I are spending two nights at Sycamore Mineral Springs Resort in Avilla.

Then its Christmas. Ho-lee Crap! 15 more pies. Tis the Season! I actually love making pies. I got down all of my pie pans this weekend in preparation. Its just a lot of time and energy. I like all of the "Martha Stewart" references it earns me though...

The next weekend Jerad and I will be in Arizona! Leaving Thursday night, returning Monday night.

And that's just the big stuff. Overextended much? I'm happy though. Christmas is my FAVORITE. Jerad too. So much so that last year we painted a wall in our living room just so it would better match our Christmas decor. Here are a few pics... cause who doesn't want to start looking at Christmas pics before Thanksgiving right?






I don't know what I am going to do with the tree now that we have all of the new furniture.

And we usually have some of the best lights on the block. This was a (really dark) pic from the first year that we moved it. Jerad has added since then, but you can get an idea:


You also can't tell from the pic, but the small tree in front of the kitchen window is decorated with ornaments and everything... He was going to do a bunch of new outdoor stuff this year, but looking at all the trips we are taking in the next 7 weeks I'm thinking maybe we should be conserving our money as much as possible. Yikes!

Hmmm, posting all of these Christmas pics is making me excited. Maybe that is one way for me to get over my hatred of fall. Just skip to winter:)

Just say no....

o·ver·com·mit (vr-k-mt)

v. o·ver·com·mit·ted, o·ver·com·mit·ting, o·ver·com·mits

v.tr.

1. To bind or obligate (oneself, for example) beyond the capacity for realization.

2. To allocate or apportion (money, goods, or resources) in amounts incapable of replacement.

******************

A few months ago when I made the decision to not go to school this fall even though it would put me 2 classes away from my BA, I told myself all sorts of little lies.

"You'll have so much more free time."
"You can go to bed early and sleep in on the weekends."
"You'll be able to cook dinner
"You can enjoy the Holidays."

These things could be true... except we have jam packed our schedules with so many "extra curricular activities," I feel like I can't breathe lately. Seriously, a different obligation 4 out of 5 week nights, and then there.is.always.something. on the weekends. If it sounds fun, we just can't say no. Even if it doesn't sound fun, but people we like will be there, count us in! Erm, that hasn't been working out so well.

Yesterday I told Jerad I wished I were on my death bed so at least I could have an excuse to lay in bed. I think he thought I was joking?

This is the busy season for Jerad. So besides working all manners of overtime at work, he is also having to spend the weekends submitting proposals and planning out all of this stuff for side jobs he has coming up. All of these side jobs he has been putting off all of a sudden are ready to go at the same time. I think he is working 3 out of the next 4 weekends... I've started driving him to work just so we can see each other more (and he likes my warm toasty car). Driving him also means that we have to leave the house at 6:30AM now. By the time I pick him up, its after 6 assuming that he gets off on time.

So, in an effort to keep my/his/our sanity, we are going to practice saying "no." Hmmm, we'll see how this works:) I just want to be able to look forward to going out instead of it being one more thing that we "have to do" each day.

We are quitting the Dave Ramsey class we were taking on Wednesday nights. Its too hard with his work schedule. We have all of the materials, so we can work on it at home, then take it next time around when the days are longer and everything else isn't so crazy. We just didn't have time to actually read the materials we were supposed to, so we weren't getting much out of the class.
Thank goodness, softball is also over, so that frees up Thursday. Hopefully this month we will be able to get back to our dance classes, I think there are only 2 meetings due to Election Day and Thanksgiving.

I have been managing to cook dinner every night and we have been trying out some fun new recipes. The Dream Dinners thing has also been helping for when I don't have time to cook, and at least we aren't eating out or eating unhealthy. Speaking of healthy eating habits, we are making the switch to drinking only unpasteurized, raw milk. More to come on that later.

So, I'm hoping that just learning to be able to say "no" every now and then will make me way less stressed, and maybe get rid of these seemingly permanent black circles under my eyes. One can only hope:) Besides, I need to save up some energy for the twenty-something pies I inevitably end up making for anyone that requests them during the next 2 months. Mmmmm, pie....

************

	Chillax
	1. To chill and relax simultaneously. 2. To loosen or reduce the level of stress by employing a more relaxed and groovy outlook.

Somebody Broke my Boyfriend...

Lately Jerad has been super great to me. He has been working a lot of overtime lately which has left me pretty much alone to do all of the errands, cleaning, shopping blah blah.. so, Monday he decided to help out be spending two hours cleaning and organizing the kitchen, fridge, and cabinets. That was like a Stephanie dream come true. While he was doing that, I got a bunch of laundry washed, and all of the floors vacuumed and washed.

Later, he ran errands with me and I gave me a one hour back rub. Trust me, this is not normal.

Then, in an effort to keep me de-stressed, he Split!His!Head!Open! Ya. Apparently him and Josh, one of his co workers, were making metal something-or-another that Jerad was going to weld. Jerad was bending down over his to use a plasma cutter or angle grinder or some man tool, right as Josh raised up the one that he was working on. It had sharp metal threads and just sliced right into his forehead apparently down to the bone.

Did he call me, text me, warn me? Nope. I come home to him mowing the lawn with all this bandaging on his head and hear how everyone thought that he probably needed 5 or 6 stitches but he didn't want to go get them. Oh goodness. Hopefully the gaping wound gash isn't as big as the bandage.

He started backtracking and claiming it wasn't that bad after he figured out I.was.pissed. that he refused to see a doctor. I mean come on, 1) he has good insurance and 2) it doesn't even matter cause it was a workman's comp thing anyways. It will just suck if it heals into an ugly scar cause he was too scared... er, busy... to get it looked at. Plus, hello, he got cut by probably a dirty piece of metal... I hope he cleaned it well.

The good news is besides being a little sore, he feels fine. I called him at lunch today and he was having a little jam sesh in the warehouse with Josh. Who by the way feels TERRIBLE about the whole thing. Which is why I encouraged Jerad to occasionally pause and ask him if he could "hear that ringing sound?" Or pretend to forget the names of certain tools, and call Josh by the wrong name.

Cause I'm nice like that :)

Lucky Ducky

Jerad spends a lot of his time at work drawing up plans, revising them, redrawing... you get the picture. He decided that it would be easier on him if he had a laptop and Auto Cad. So... he asked his company to buy them for him.

He doesn't really even have a desk job so I figured no way.

Imagine my surprise when I walked in yesterday and there is a shiny silver laptop on the kitchen table... the worst part is I think its nicer than mine! Then again mine is pink so I win right? Say yes people.

Really, a pink Inspiron (ooh, sounds like 'inspiration')


Or a Gray "Latitude" (I totally typed "latiturd" on accident. I crack myself up) Latitude just sounds so.... flat!

Anyways, all joking aside, Jerad is super stoked, I'm super proud of him, its really nice having 2 laptops around the house so one of is isn't confined to the office to use the desktop. AND, he actually might start responding to those emails you've given up sending him!

Also, tonight is his last softball game of the season... so cross your fingers that they win!

If you are feeling really ambitious, you can join us. Have a case beer and cheer them on! We don't actually know what time the game is, but whenever it is we'll be there haha.

You can text me if you're interested in going or feel sorry for me being basically the entire fan club.

Just For Fun...

After I updated my sister's page for her, I was sitting here thinking about a few of my favorite things. Pink, and cupcakes. Then I decided to combine them and now I have a sugary sweet new look to my blog.

That made me think about how it is very girly and not very fitting for Jerad to post. Even though he has only posted once that I can remember besides the occasional comment. That is where you come in little internet friends!

You can ask him whatever questions you want, and I will make sure that he answers them be it by torture or promising er, favors.

To make it even more interesting, I will send a prize to the asker of my favorite question. Something from my desk, I have all sorts of interesting little trinkets and baubles. Everyone wants a bauble!!!

According to my SiteMeter, I have a bunch of repeat readers that never comment this might be a fun way to delurk... you kinda want to!

Questions can be posted until 5:00 this Friday! Make it something good!

A peek into our bedroom

Relax, its not what you're thinking (Beth).

The night before last,we were laying in bed and I turned to Jerad and said:

"now that you bought yourself Rockband, what am I supossed to get you for your birthday?"

He said "hmm, there is a guitar that I want at the music store on 12th st."

I pictured the 5 or so guitars he had and reflected on how it's not like he's in a band or anything and retorted "why the heck do you need another guitar????"

He got very excited and replyed "its really cool and black and only $675"(he kept talking but all I heard was 'blah blah blibitty bloo')

I laughed and said "ya right, I'll buy you that the day you buy me an engagement ring." Ha! There, I won that one!

He was quiet for a moment before coming back with: "Oh no. I know how that works, if I buy you a ring, then 1/2 of the guitar would be yours. Then you would want to return your 1/2 and you'd be like 'oh sorry... your 1/2 is attached to mine you're SOL!' "

I rolled my eyes (which was pointless because it was after midnight and dark in the room) and told him "ha.ha. if you buy me a ring, you can have AND KEEP a guitar and I def. would not want 1/2 of it you flippin weirdo."

Then we were talking about rings and he kept joking about MAKING me a ring (as in welding one.... yes he thinks he's funny like that) and I said "no way, ill kill you" or something to that effect.

"A year ago you had me pick out a ring I like, and you should get me that one, not try to be creative and pick out your own. And DEFINITELY not make one."

He said (but I think he was joking) that it would be more special if it was something he picked out himself, that 'had lots of character' (Read: looks homely) not something that I picked out and actually loved.

So I caved (AKA I knew he wasn't serious anyways), saying "fine, whatever, as long as you don't propose in a gas station." You know, like in The Office season premier. He tried to convince me that I would actually like that method. Pshft. Then he kept saying retarded ways he was "planning" on proposing. Cause he is sooooo funny like that. *Rolls eyes*

I asked "do you already have an idea?"

He got serious and then said "I have a few."

So obviously curious little me had to ask "like what?" Sure like he would just tell me...

Not surprisingly he retorted: "ya right, im not telling you."

Damn. "Fine, how many ideas?"

"About 2 and a 1/2." What the hell is a '1/2???'

I tried to get him to tell me the 1/2 an idea but he said no. I persisted saying that it would probably be so long until he proposed since I'm not an adult yet (referring to a jack ass text message) that I would forget anyways.

He told me the problem is that I am too MUCH of an adult and he does't want to marry an old woman. It was fine when he thought I was 23, but now that he knows I'm 24, things have changed.

I tried a new tactic, and told him he should just tell me his ideas because I bet they are stupid and I have better ones anyways.

He said "nice try, youre not getting me to give up that easy." Damn, he's on to my plan...

So I kneed him really hard and we didnt talk about it anymore.

***********

That concludes the magic that happens in our bedroom late at night.

The weekend of beer and sleeping in.

Our weekend started Thursday night with a party at Beth's house for the season premier of The Office. Everyone dressed up as a character from the show and we had beer and pizza. Yesssssssss!





Even though the episode was an hour long I was panicking that Jim wasn't going to propose. I may or may night have had a little tear when he did. Although seriously, at a gas station? I'm all for spontaneous, but in real life shouldn't he have waited till the weekend and planned something a little special? Me thinks so.

Friday I slept in and then ran a few errands, cleaned the house and started reading a book my best friend Tina got me for my birthday, American Wife.
On Friday's Jerad is now off by 3:30 so that we can spend time together. I'm loving it! It is such a nice change from all of the double shifts. Especially since I don't work Fridays. We had dinner at Cool Hand Luke's to celebrate his sister Jill's birthday and then headed over to Hoover's Live in A-town.

Noah and Lucinda had invited us to see Noah's band compete in the Battle of The Bands that Hoover's Live puts on. Taylor and Dom were going to come but Taylor ended up playing a show last minute in San Luis, and Beth and Tyson also bailed on me but since it was their 7 year anniversary I'm letting that one slide. Since Melinda and Larry live right behind us now, they didn't have much of a choice. Plus I told them there was alcohol so they were in.



Lucinda thought it started at 8:30 and we might want to be a little early and also mentioned that she would be stuck there from about 7 on. I think we got there at 7:45 and found out it didn't actually start till 9, and the first band ended up playing at 9:30 or something like that. We had fun visiting though and at least we got a table and there was no line at the bar for the first hour and a half:)


The first band was Honor Bound Heroes who are pretty popular around here.



After that was Noah's band, Perceive the Symphony.


It was fun watching them play because I don't think I've seen Noah play since he was in The Timothies, my friend Taylor's high school band. I also went to school with the drummer and hadn't seen him play since he was in a different highschool band as well.

They were very good and ended up winning the $100 prize, and getting to advance into the next round. Yeay!!! Everyone celebrated:




During this time Larry managed to get drunk which I have NEVER seen cause he is by no means a lightweight. Apparently when Larry drinks he likes to argue about football. Loudly. It was really funny.

Saturday we slept in which never happens. The dogs even slept in. I don't know if Jerad drugged them or what, but none of us were out of bed till after 10. Scandalous I know:) Jerad made us breakfast, homemade biscuits and fresh jam, sausage and homemade gravy and he cleaned up! After breakfast, he played some music and I read some more of my book and then we met Nick, Heather, and Jerad's brother Joey, sister Jill and her kids Carter, Maddie and Abby in Morro Bay.

We rented a boat and cruised around the Bay for an hour then had dinner. It was really fun!












Saturday night from about 8pm till 1:30am we had a Rock Band Championship.



It started out with us playing with Nick's game on our Wii, and by the end we had bought our own game so we had 2 and could have dueling bands.



We learned that just because I have been in a relationship with a drummer does not mean I can rock the drums on Rock Band. At.All. But I can kick Joey's ass singing, I ended up doing okay on bass too. I do need some practice fo sho. I wish they had a country version!

Melinda turned out to be good at the drums, and of course Noah rocked the guitar. Heather was really good too.

Sunday we AGAIN got to sleep in (IIIIIIIIIII know!) until probably 9:00, and shopped around for supplies to make these invitations for our Halloween party:


So you can be looking forward to a plaster version of my finger arriving in your mail box soon! Creepy huh?

I also re-did our window box with new flowers since the herbs had come to the end of their life span. I went to plant some flowers in the back yard too and found out the hard way that I was digging in a red ant hill. After that I stayed in the house. Jerad cleaned up the back yard and planted a Palm Tree in one of the barrels that we had had a tomato plant in that had also finished for the season. Him and Larry finished the gate on the new fence they have been building, so now we can get to each other's houses without walking around the block.
For dinner I made a lasagna from scratch (including the noodles and sauce) along with seared squash and a salad.

We spent a lot of time playing with the dogs. Jerad's been teaching Bailey to vault over Buddy ro catch the Frisbee. The first few times she was just so focused on the Frisbee, she nailed him in the face (these are pics from the week before, but you can get the idea):
After awhile she got it:


Other than that we just vegged on the couch and watched some shows we had tivoed during the week. Very relaxing! I'm bummed that I missed the Desperate Housewives Premier. Totally forgot it was last night, I'll catch it online tonight though.

Most of our tomato plants are finished growing tomatoes. I picked a ton yesterday and in an act of domestic diva-ness I'm going to make and can a bunch of marinara sauce. The lasagna sauce came out really yummy, so why not?