Spent most of Saturday cleaning and watching Nip/Tuck episodes on Netflix :) Maxwell decided to help me go through the New Yorkers, which were piling up. We have a bunch of framed New Yorker covers in our powder room, and I try to change them out with the season -- summer has finally arrived. Jessy came over on Sunday and brought her brand new trombone, which she won at a recent international trombone solo competition. I made it to Columbus to watch Jessy win the competition -- which was amazing -- but this was my first time to see and hear the prized t-bone. It's not the easiest to capture on film, but the bell of the horn has orchids engraved on it. Soooooooo pretty. After lunch, some of our neighbors came over to watch the final World Cup game and Jessy gave a half-time performance, then John, Jessy, and I headed to the pool for a couple hours. Dinner, a walk around the neighborhood, and then Jessy had to get home for another full week of camp.

Happy 4th!

Hope everyone had a Happy 4th of July! We went to a Phish concert with friends, spent some time at the pool, and watched fireworks with a bunch of neighbors.

John's Latest Project

Here's John's latest project. He painted our formerly white and boring beanbag toss boards (corn hole boards for you Mid-westerners). The mascots are actually stickers. I was shocked to come home to this project under way in my living room, but overall very pleased with the result (no red paint on the carpet, phew)!

Happy Father's Day!

Hope that all of you dads had a very Happy Father's Day!

We've had a nice weekend. On Friday, we got together with two couples from our neighborhood for dinner, which was a lot of fun. Today, we met my parents and Jessy at $3 Cafe Jr. in Alpharetta for wings (my Dad's favorite) followed by homemade ice cream at our house (another favorite). Always great to see the fam :)

A month and a half in 500 words or less...

Here goes....My law firm hosted this quarter's firm outing at Andretti Racing. We raced go-carts and did a ropes course. I came in last in the go-cart race and received a trophy of the business end of a donkey, which reads "Dead Ass Last." Our Australian neighbors hosted ANZAC day, and though it poured rain, it was a ton of fun. We went to a Ben Harper concert with our neighbors, Shannon and Tracy. John purchased a staghorn fern which appears to be tickling him behind the ear (I'll be keeping an eye on that plant). We hosted a Mother's Day lunch and enjoyed visiting with my parents and using the new deck furniture. On Memorial Day weekend, my aunt, uncle, and their beautiful children came for a visit. They stayed with my parents, but everyone came over to our house for steak sandwiches and cornhole (beanbag toss). Oh, and pretty much everyone tried their hand at shooting John's various pellet guns off the back deck. We host a classy gathering :) This same weekend, our friend from law school, Seth, and his girlfriend whom we had not yet met, but loved, stayed with us for a couple days. More cornhole (beanbag toss), great conversations, fancy beers, and good food. Finally, the weekend before last, Johnny participated in his own go-cart race -- Laps for Life sponsored by one of the local Rotary Clubs (he's car #12 in the photos). John raced twice -- he came in 2nd and 3rd, respectively. Meanwhile, I spent all of that weekend preparing for a custody trial, and all of the following week in court. We had one marathon day of litigation lasting from 7:30 a.m. until 10:30 p.m.! So, I played catch up on sleep this past weekend and will be playing catch up at work this week. Last but not least, Jessy and Chris came over last night for taco salad and the Bachelorette!

Lichtenstein

New Lichtenstein poster hanging in our living room.

Giant Lilies

This is just a quick post to replace that now tiresome yarn! Sorry I've been such a slack blogger lately. I basically had one busy weekend like a month and a half ago, and haven't updated since! I plan to rededicate myself, assuming I survive this trial week :)

Pink & Brown

So, here are the makings for the baby blanket I will soon be tackling. I'm making the blanket for Michelle, my neighbor who I'm throwing the baby shower for. I actually started a blanket for her a few weeks ago, but that was before they knew they were having a girl and declared that the nursery will be painted pink and brown. After learning this information, I just didn't feel right about my yellow and white blanket. Sooooo, pink and brown, here we go!

Johnny's Spring Wreath

After the neighbors started making fun of me for still having our evergreen wreath up (I took it down shortly after the last snowfall, which I maintain is really quite reasonable), John and I decided it was time for springtime wreath. So, during our lunch hour the other day, John suggested that we look at the wreaths at Hobby Lobby. We sort of hated all of pre-made wreaths they had -- they looked like cemetery arrangements -- so, John went up and down the aisles, grabbing a grapevine wreath, wire, and ribbon, and I helped pick some fake flowers. When I got home from work that day, John had already arranged the flowers "how they should be," and it was good enough for me! So, this is John's creation, and I love it! For the price, I foresee many more homemade wreaths in our future.

New Outdoor Cushions

We replaced our ratty looking chair cushions with these new ones, which were very reasonably priced at Walmart. My mom gave us the lantern on the table. It's solar powered, and looks really neat lit up. We like it so much, we bought two more in different colored lights.

Happy Easter!

Check out this amazing cake my Mom made! The cake itself is orange, with dark chocolate frosting between layers and cream cheese frosting everywhere else. The chocolate straws you see are an Oreo product -- as tasty as it is pretty!


In this photo, I'm frosting two "lambey cakes" John's mom, Mary, sent us for Easter. Mary makes lambey cakes every Easter. I've always been interested in them, and Mary was kind and creative enough to mail me my very own from Ohio this year! The naked lambs arrived swaddled in saran wrap and packed carefully in styrofoam peanuts, perfectly in tact. Everyone loved them! Thanks again, Mary :)

Bluebird

If you look really closely, you can see the bluebird who has been scouting out the birdhouse my parents made and Jessy painted. Also pictured is our neighbor's new fence. Though we don't intend to put in our own fence, we rather like the barrier the neighbor's creates.

A great weekend...

John and I had a really nice weekend. On Friday night, I got together with a bunch of friends at my friend Madeline's house, and we had a wonderful time. It was so nice to see everyone!

Then on Saturday, our friends and neighbors, Michelle and Freddy, invited John and me to attend Michelle's 4-D ultrasound. It was a really neat experience -- the 4-D technology is truly amazing. Michelle is about 17 1/2 weeks pregnant, but they say that towards the end of the pregnancy, the likeness of the ultrasound photos to the baby's actual appearance is spot-on. I'll be hosting a baby shower for Michelle as her due date approaches, so if anyone knows of any fun shower games (that aren't too terribly obnoxious), I'm all ears!

Oatmeal Cookies

I decided to make oatmeal cookies with chocolate chips tonight. I've never made oatmeal cookies, so I figured I'd give them a try. They turned out pretty well -- here, they're packaged up and ready to go with John and me to work tomorrow. Having 40 odd cookies in the house when I'm the only one who eats sweets, just isn't a good idea.

Spring Break

Jessy was home for Spring Break this past week, and we were able to get together at my parents' house with Jessy, Chris, and Chris' mom, Jennifer. It was great to see everyone, and we had a delicious meal prepared by my mom. Above, Jessy and Chris are showing off their contribution, mushroom puffs (crescent rolls stuffed with cream cheese and mushrooms). I brought a coconut pie and chocolate pie with marange. I'm really mad at myself for forgetting to take a picture of them, b/c they turned out pretty great if I do say so myself. Both pies were made from my grandmother's recipes.

Buddy Come Home!

So, the weekend before last, John was driving home from the store and found this little guy walking down the center line of a busy country road. Cars were slowing down to get around him, and when John got within range, he stopped, opened his door, and the dog jumped right in and started licking him! John thought he'd be able to call the numbers on the dog's tag and take him right home, but the vet's office was closed, so we ended up pet sitting for the weekend. We now know this little guy's name to be Buddy. He's a pomeranian, but his owner keeps his fur short for easier grooming. John has been working on his Jeep a lot lately, and Buddy was quite comfortable sitting inside the cab while John tinkered away. The following Monday morning, I got in touch with Buddy's master, a sweet older lady who brought us a delicious cake in exchange for her pup.

Another snow day!

It's 1:30 on a Tuesday afternoon, and I'm at home watching the snow fall! We woke up to a light dusting, and then the snow really started coming down around 8:00. It's been falling steadily since then, and I'd say we have a good 2.5"! Our office policy is "use your best judgment" when it comes to weather conditions, so most of us left the office around lunchtime. Even John's office closed early! Hopefully, the rest of our day will include a fire and movies -- "Amelia" and "The Hangover" await us!

Rabies Fun Run!?!?!?!?

I went over to my parents' house tonight to help out with some grunt work for an ad campaign my Dad put together. As you can see, the ad is for an oral rabies vaccine for wild animals. My Dad designed the poster I am showcasing. I think we rolled up close to 500 posters tonight, and a lot of assembly remains to be done. Good luck, guys!

Finished!

Yep, those ladies on our wall are naked. But, it's art (apparently) -- a Mr. Gustav Klimt. Hopefully this doesn't qualify as adult content!

Apple Streusal Pie

This is what I did while John painted. The jury is still out as to whether it's any good -- we haven't cut into it yet!

Here's John painting the tray ceiling in our bedroom. He started and finished this project yesterday...well, technically I guess he finished today since it was like 1 a.m. :) I'll post photos of the finished project once we've cleaned up.

2 + 1

It got up to like 60 degrees the other day, so John opened up the windows. Here are all three of our kitties enjoying the fresh air.