First day of class

As I had mentioned previously, I am taking a class in pottery making.

We walked in (a coworker and I) and realized we were late. I guess we both got the time wrong - don't you hate when that happens. Our teacher, Barbara, was already on the wheel centering the clay. This was (and will be, I presume) the hardest part of the whole clay pot making experience. She finished and everyone got to work.

And we were standing there looking stupid. Sigh. We got our giant amount of clay (25 pounds) and stared.

The clay.

Ended up starting with four balls of clay and tried to create something magnificent. I did succeed on one. Nice. At least we can use the 'dead' clay at a later time.

And...

I got a little dirty on the first day.

Pants. And shoes.

You should have seen my towel. I brought it home and Jake tried to roll all over it. I guess it smelled good a dirty.

Next time I'm wearing running shorts and flip flops. Take that dirt.

Why the love blossoms

Jake is definitely a man's dog. Now he loves me (I think) a lot and will search for me if I hide from him until he finds me, but with Darin it's a different kind of love.

Like hero-worship/bury myself-in-you type of love.

We often say that one day I'll wake up and Jake will be burrowed inside Darin's warm body. It's gross, but true.

And it's all because of this:

Man-dog wrestling

Darin plays with that dog all the time. He takes him for walks in the morning on Saturday when I don't want to get out of bed (I do it every weekday morning). He feeds him breakfast if I don't want to get out of bed. He rubs his tummy. Scratches his ears. Tugs (but not as well as Kerry tugged). And he wrestles.

Misc. South Carolina Pictures

I've already writen about our trip up to South Carolina two weekends ago.

What I didn't mention in the blog was that I dropped my cell phone in the ocean. (Or maybe I did mention it and don't remember - and am too lazy to go and check.) I loved the old phone because to took pretty good phone camera pictures - a 2 MP, and I would often take it with me instead of my normal digital camera because it's way smaller.

Anyways...

I was sad because I had been taking pictures of the ocean and the surf.

The beautiful blue ocean.

The surf that ate my phone.

So I searched for a new phone and got another with a 3.2 MP camera. And I also wanted a flip phone. With nothing fancy because I am not a fancy phone person. Anyways, I had a Sony phone and got a new Sony phone so I could use my memory card as well as all of the old cables. I at first thought the card wouldn't fit into my new phone, but it does.

And I found these cute photos I took on the car trip up.

Darin and Jake, resting.

How he loves his Darin.

And now everything is back to normal. I have my ring tones for certain people programed, I have my shortcut phonebook figured out, and I have two chargers! That's all!

The Surprise Party

The party was quite the success. The only main problem was that the golfers (Darin, Scott, and Al) kind of took for-ever to play 18 holes. Their tee time was 12:52 pm and they ended around 6 pm. I guess the group in front of them was s.l.o.w.

Everyone (the friends and family) came over to the house between 4:30 - 5:30 pm. Darin got home around 6:30 pm. That's a lot long time.

We did a lot of eating waiting for Darin to come home! Beer cheese, salsa, salami-cream cheese wrapped pickles, guacamole. And beer. And soda. And jello shots.... I'll add another post from before Darin came home - I have a couple of funny shots!

I went outside when I knew he was close to 'walk' Jake - everyone parked very far away from the house so there really were no clues whatsoever.

And then he opened the door:

SURPRISE!

And from what Darin claimed he didn't really know what to do, so he started giving people hugs. So cute.

Darin with Brad and J.

Janice and Freddy Mercury Josh

Darin with Bob and Julie

Mike and Carrie

And then the co-conspirators came in (we couldn't figure out a way for them to get to the house before Darin. Darin couldn't believe they kept the secret though five hours of golf.

Scott and Al

After the sweaty golf boys got a shower, Goestov cooked some burgers and hot dogs on the grill (which almost caught fire) and everyone ate once again! We were eating machines.

People talked, watched movies, played Game Cube, drank beer, and ate.

And then it was time for birthday cake. Well, I didn't get birthday cake because Darin doesn't really like cake (unusual, I know). We had birthday brownie sundaes!

Singin' to the birthday boy.

Blowing out the 35 candles.

Jake trying to eat the candles. Sigh.

And a birthday kiss!

We all had a fantastic time. Or so I believe! And Darin got his first surprise party and he finally officially turned thirty. No more blaming Hurricane Charlie.

The Preparation

Well, if you didn't know already, we had a giant surprise party for Darin on Saturday!

Hurray for 35!

I have been planning this party for quite some time - probably close to two months. Just to make sure people could come and dates could be thought of and changed if need be. My co-conspirator was our very good friend Al. He was in charge of getting Darin away from the house - and did a great job!

Here was the Evite, explaining everything...

Friday night, I went over to my MIL/FIL's house to make the pasta salad, bean corn salsa, and baked beans. Everyone pitched in to cook and it was a lot of fun. Darin thought I was out with my friend Janice having a girls night. Man, I was such a good liar. Even had stories to tell.

Saturday Darin, Al, and Scott (another good friend) went golfing. He left at noon, leaving me four hours to clean the house, go to the store to get the food, and get myself ready. Yikes. I barely made it...

It was a great success though. I will post pictures soon!

And thanks to everyone who helped with the surprise. I know Darin felt the love in the house!

It's all in a name...

I don't know why I find this so amusing... hurricane Bill. My dad is Bill. He's a big guy and can be destructive, I guess. Never really seen him do anything that terrible though. And he does not look mean and menacing like the hurricane.

He does a mean canon ball in a pool. And he could lift me up above his head when I was little. (He'd probably hurt his back very badly if he tried that now...).

Hopefully I won't jinx anything/place by finding the name funny. Please don't let Bill hit South Carolina. That would be bad. *thinking good thoughts*

And some other useless information - the Hurricane 2009 Name List

Ana
Bill
Claudette
Danny
Erika
Fred
Grace
Henri
Ida
Joaquin
Kate
Larry
Mindy
Nicholas
Odette
Peter
Rose
Sam
Teresa
Victor
Wanda

Don't think Del or Darin will ever make it to the list. It's sad really.

Before and After: Front of the House

Finally have gotten up some motivation to work outside. I can't say that I've been that lazy, just a little lazy. I mean, I help Darin cut the grass every week (or every other week). And we weed the garden, but I haven't really spent time trying to improve the front.

Somehow we got motivated! Hurray!

Darin went and got some plants to go around the boarder between the mulch/leaves and grass. They're pretty! And will probably die, but we're okay with that.

Two weekends ago, I worked outside on the shrubs and got rid of excess leaves/ferns. Man, do those ferns love the outside of the house! Probably because it's fern heaven - very little sun and a lot of rain.

Here were some pictures I took over two weeks ago:

So on Monday I took a Del day (needed a little bit more break after the long drive home from SC) and planted the orchid plant things that Darin got. Cleaned up the other miscellaneous plants. And made things look nice. Or at least I think so!

Now we wait and see if they die. (This occurred previously not because we were bad plant owners, but because of the giant tress in the front yard that block a lot of the rain and the sunshine.) I will water the plants for awhile to make sure they take root. At least the lizards will enjoy the new forest around them!

Before and After: Carpet

We got our carpets cleaned by St@nley Steamer.

Don't know why we waited so long to try them because they were fantastic. I think that my camera did a freakishly good job of showing the dirty spots. And now they are mostly gone.

Took some photos before and after. I have to say that initially I didn't think the cleaning would do anything. I kind of have a very negative outlook towards our carpets.

By kitchen

By front door

The guys were very nice too. I guess they see a lot of people. Jake didn't particularly care for the giant vacuum thing and I had to give him a pig ear to shut him up. And yes, I think it actually was a pig ear. Gross. Our neighbors gave them to him for his birthday. Yak.

After!

By front door.

Pathway to kitchen.

Impressive, isn't it! I'm very proud. Definitely recommend them.

Heading North

This past weekend we went on an adventure North to see the Wolfskys. KC and Bob were going to be in town (not that we really needed a reason, but it had been a couple of months since we had last visited) and Jake had to see his cousins before they headed back up to Canada with their mama.

And it was also some one's birthday. (I baked him cookies for his birthday).

Bob with monster cookies

On Friday night we had modified chicken bog (it's a tradition) and some nummy chocolate cake that Kay made. Tasty. That night the dogs did their thing. I didn't get a good picture of Macy this time. Too sad.

Jake with some other dog's baby



Lilly outside with her ball

Saturday while the boys played golf, the girls went to the Hammock Shops and lunch. Just like last time. Haha. When we got home, Jake found a fun new toy outside.

Ahh, it's a grasshopper. Yikes.

After the golf and a quick nap, we went to the beach. Finally. KC, Darin, Jake, and I headed out for some sun and sand. And water too, I guess. Darin and Jake enjoyed the waves while KC and I read our books. It was beautiful as ever.

Zoom in on Jake. It's very funny.

Ocean!

KC lounging.

Check out his nose. He rolled in the sand like a crazy dog.
Crazy dog.

That evening we went out to dinner with Joanie to celebrate Bob's birthday for real. Went to a local favorite for some pizza and salads. And drinks.

Talkin' golf probably.



KC and Bob.



Sigh.



The beauty.

We had to wait a bit before our table was ready - got some drinks. While Bob and I had beer, KC and Darin had watermelon cucumber margaritas. Yeah. KC ate all of the fruit in the cup. All. Of. It.

Sunday we headed to church then came back quickly because Margie had gotten something in her eye and Bob rushed her to the emergency room. I guess it was just plaster that had gotten on a towel. She's fine, but was in a lot of pain. We went home and made chocolate chip waffles. KC was a fine waffle maker.

And then we left. Boo hoo. We definitely need to visit a little longer next time we visit.

Jake turns Four

August 1 was Jake's unofficial birthday - I don't have an actual birth date for him because I wasn't his Mama back then and do not know. So I did what any normal person would do, I made one up. And August 1st was easy to remember. 8/01/05. Not numerically though. I could have thought up another cooler date, but the 1st was too easy to resist.

So we didn't have a birthday party for him because Darin would never allow it (plus he only really has three friend dogs (Lady, Maggie, and Tabasco - all the others he would attack). But we got him a chew bone to knomp on instead of killing his babies. Stuffed animals people. I have a pile of them to stitch up. Must do so...

Anyways... a video of us giving him his present. Beware, it's very exciting.

He really did like his bone. And it was good for his teeth. And he won't eat it in like 5 seconds like every other bone he gets.

The sniffing of the bone

Knomp, Chew, Drool, Knooomp

That was one happy Jake. He's almost catching up to me in age - yikes. Next year he'll be older in dog years! Yeah for birthday celebrations!

Meatball Celebration - Darin's 35th

Wanted to show some pictures from Darin's party at his parent's house. We celebrated the weekend before his birthday because we're going out of town the weekend after. Pretty simple concept.

Darin's favorite meal ever since he was little were his mother's meatballs. Not spaghetti and meatballs or Swedish meatballs. These have a delishish-ness all of their own.

Eat and enjoyed.

Keay and Darin.

Delilah

Goestov and Diana.

He got some good presents - cutest was the biscotti from his folks.

In love with the biscotti.

It's nice to be able to celebrate such an important event with people you love. Makes birthdays extra special. (Or at least I think so.) And there were meatballs. How can you go wrong?

Fondue, I love you

Finally got together with our very good friends Dan and Angela on Saturday night.

Dan and Angela

Del and Darin

For fondue baby.

I love fondue. A lot. It's probably one of my favorite types of cuisine to eat and to share with others. I think just because I get so happy from seeing a big bowl of cheese.

The Beer Cheese



Happy Del

Doesn't cheese just make you happy?

We had a good time eating and chit-chatting. Their girls, H. and C., are growing up and are becoming funny. It's nice to hear all about them, how they're mimicking their parents, and growing up.

Good evening all together.

I think it was the chocolate that made us a bit too full. I was so stuffed, yet I still couldn't resist the dessert.

Ying and Yang - Dark and Milk chocolate



Darin's candle. No singing, shucks.

Nobody was too crazy with the chocolate. Like sticking your head in and licking the bowl clean. Had to keep an eye on Darin and Dan though. They do like their chocolate.

Beware the fork-thingy.

After fondue, we went to check out Carl@s n' Charlies. They have a new one here near Lake Mary - crazy place. They go around with a bottle of alcohol and pour shots into peoples' mouths. Yikes.

I'll be fine with my beer, thanks. And my cheese.