Marriage Funnies...

On Saturday, hubs and I attended the wedding of two dear friends (more on this later). Since I was a member of the wedding party, I met up with the bride and others for breakfast that morning. Hubs was helping a friend move and then playing a few games of racquetball.

I left my car at IHOP for hubs to pick up after he was finished with racquetball. He was leaving his car at the home of the friend who was moving. We were going to pick it up after church on Sunday.

This morning, hubs called me and asked if there was anything we forgot to do this weekend. I felt like we'd accomplished alot and had not forgot anything. I was wracking my brain, but couldn't come up with anything. Hubs mentioned he was watching the cat be on display (meaning she was on the foosball table), so I knew he was home. I couldn't figure out why he was there though. You probably know at this point why he was home, but I hadn't figured it out.

Of course...we forgot to pick up his car!

So, he decided to ride his bike to work, then he'd ride his bike to where his car was parked and drive it home. Only the front tire of his bike was in the trunk of his car. It's been in there since the last time he rode his bike. The bike frame and back tire sat in our living room for at least a week. I got tired of looking at it, and we were having people over so it had to go to the garage. Since hubs didn't put the bike away himself, the tire was left behind in the trunk. Hubs used the leaky front tire from my bike, which he fixed by putting a cap on the valve, and rode off to work.

The last time he rode his bike to work he lost his dress shoes. I hope that didn't happen again today!

First Date...

Three years ago Hubs and I had our first date at Chili's! Only, neither of us realized it was a date at the time! We were just meeting so I could borrow a Fantasy Football magazine from him. We split some Monterey Jack fajitas. After all I didn't want to look like a pig in front of the guy I hadn't known long! In fact, I think this was one of first times we talked in person. Other times were over email planning for the Amazing Race or talking about Fantasy Football.

I think I pretty much spilled my guts at dinner on my life up to that point. We'd had plenty of email convos, so I knew that I liked his personality. And, I'd recently found out he was pretty cute to boot! I figured, if he didn't like me after that night, then there was no point in trying to date him. We walked out to his car after dinner to get the magazine. Only he forgot why I was walking to his car with him. He was acting a little awkward on the walk, so I gently reminded him about the magazine. I figured he thought I had something else, like a hug or kiss, in mind by walking him to the car. We later laughed because that was exactly what he thought! He was probably pretty proud of himself about that one!

Tonight, we're going to Chili's to celebrate. Only, they don't have fried cheese sticks anymore, so that's a bummer.

Homemade Sugar Scrub...

After my relaxing foot rub last night, I was inspired to make a homemade sugar scrub! Girls, you must try this! My recipe is adapted from here.

Super Simple Sugar Scrub
1 cup sugar
1/2 cup canola oil (I think any oil would work)
splash of lemon juice
splash of almond, coconut and vanilla extracts (you can use all or any combination)

Mix in a plastic container with a twist on lid. Scrub your feet and hands with the mixture in the shower. Make sure your tube isn't slick and that you wash the oil from your feet.

Doggie Cure...

Tonight I swung by Davene's to return her card tables we borrowed this weekend and to give her a plant that I'd been promising. I had to get rid of the plant because the cat is allergic to it. Davene and I ended up talking for two hours! During which her beagle, Chelsea (I hope that's how it's spelled) decided to lick both my feet and my legs! It tickled, but it was so cute! I felt bad for her because she was just working so hard, but Davene said the puppy enjoys it! After the doggie cure, Davene let me use some of the dead sea salt scrub she got in Israel! It was awesome! My feet are so soft now! Thanks Davene!

Happy Birthday Mom...

Happy Birthday to my mom! I love you!

Road Trip Day Three...

Hello Kids! It's vacation post 3 of 14! Yes, I am still way, way behind! The Olympics are on, am I supposed to do other things during this time?

Back to the road trip. On day three we woke up in Dubois, WY at the Stone House Bed and Breakfast. We had the most fabulous breakfast: cereal, strawberry and cereal parfaits, corn muffins, slices of homemade cranberry bread, homemade cherry rhubarb jam and scrambled eggs with basil and cream cheese mixed in! On my gosh, it was so fabulous! We got to eat in a gorgeous, bright sunroom and enjoy the mountain scenery! This was the best start to a day. I can't wait to recreate this breakfast soon! There were even wonderful chocolatey cookies in our room for a snack.

We set out for Grand Teton and Yellowstone for a nice relaxing day!


Beautiful flowers along the drive!


The Grand Teton Range. Phenomenally beautiful and snow capped in July!


Fish in the tub at the B&B...being a Fisher, I think fish are cute!


Turnout along the road with the Teton range in the background!


View from Jenny Lake at Grand Teton National Park.


View from the staging area just before the rest of the hike up to Inspiration Point. I skipped the rest of the hike from this point. Too steep, narrow and rocky. Hubs went all the way up and took some pictures. He said the view wasn't much different.


Boats on Jenny Lake. By riding the boat, you save yourself a six mile roundtrip hike.


More from the base of Inspiration Point. There were cute little chipmunks scavanging for food around here!


Tableside phone to place orders at A&W Lanes in Shoshone, WY. Yes, the A&W burger place was connected to an eight lane bowling alley complete with flourescent cosmic decor. I'm pretty sure the food came from the bowling alley snack bar kitchen.


Incredible! The colors here are just amazing! So many shades of green, blue, grey and purple.


USGS marker at the top of Signal Mountain.


More from Jenny Lake. Up close with the mountains.


Us at Hidden Falls. These are on the way to Inspiration Point. The wind blows off the falls just right and feels like someone has turned on the A/C! Several shaded spots along the trail offered the outdoor air conditioning as we called it. It was very neat and a nice break when you're sweaty from hiking.


The living room of our basement suite at the B&B.


Lobelia, a beautiful purple plant that I want to try to grow at home.


The first elk we saw on the trip at Grand Teton.


More falls! You could hear these way before you saw them!



More from Signal Mountain. So lush and vibrant!


And more from Jenny Lake!


By the falls...that hat looks goofy on me.


Characters outside the A&W Lanes. Wow, these pictures are in no order whatsoever. I should really learn how to do that.


So beautiful, it's hard to believe they're real!


Sunset over Boysen State Park. There were people waiting near here to watch fireworks over the lake. Would that be gorgeous! Too bad we had to keep driving.

Day 4 is next! Yellowstone!

Curious Cat...

There are two rooms in our house where the cat is prohibited: our den and our bedroom. She's also closed off from the rest of the bedrooms and bathrooms. But if she got in any of those rooms, it's not the end of the world. Our "allergy havens," however, are off limits.

She's allowed in the rest of the house, since it's hard to close that off without her busting through the doors (we learned that on day one). Tonight, I was walking into the den and as I opened the door, the cat was staring in and bobbing her head around just to get a good look in the room! It was so funny! She's just chomping at the bit to see what's in that room! Ha! Sorry kitty! She also waits outside of our bedroom door for us. We can see two little black paws under the door waiting for us. Then at 7AM, the meowing begins because the cat is just starving for attention by that point!

UPDATE: The cat has now been in our bedroom. As soon as I finished this post, I walked into the kitchen and noticed our door was open. Someone left our bedroom door cracked and a curious cat nosed it's way into room. She was lurking in the bathroom when I discovered her.

I Need to Read More...

From Dana's blog...

The story is that apparently the National Endowment for the Arts estimates that the average adult has only read six of these books.

Here are the markup guidelines:
1) Look at the list and bold those you have read.
2) Italicize those you intend to read.
3) Mark in red the books you love.
4) Post the list to your blog.

1 Pride and Prejudice - Jane Austen
2 The Lord of the Rings - JRR Tolkien
3 Jane Eyre - Charlotte Bronte
4 Harry Potter series - JK Rowling
5 To Kill a Mockingbird - Harper Lee
6 The Bible
7 Wuthering Heights - Emily Bronte
8 Nineteen Eighty Four - George Orwell
9 His Dark Materials - Philip Pullman
10 Great Expectations - Charles Dickens
11 Little Women - Louisa M Alcott
12 Tess of the D’Urbervilles - Thomas Hardy
13 Catch 22 - Joseph Heller
14. The Complete Works of Shakespeare
15 Rebecca - Daphne Du Maurier
16 The Hobbit - JRR Tolkien
17 Birdsong - Sebastian Faulks
18 Catcher in the Rye - JD Salinger
19 The Time Traveller’s Wife - Audrey Niffenegger
20 Middlemarch - George Eliot
21 Gone With The Wind - Margaret Mitchell
22 The Great Gatsby - F Scott Fitzgerald
23 Bleak House - Charles Dickens
24 War and Peace - Leo Tolstoy
25 The Hitch Hiker’s Guide to the Galaxy - Douglas Adams
26 Brideshead Revisited - Evelyn Waugh
27 Crime and Punishment - Fyodor Dostoyevsky
28 Grapes of Wrath - John Steinbeck
29 Alice in Wonderland - Lewis Carroll
30 The Wind in the Willows - Kenneth Grahame
31 Anna Karenina - Leo Tolstoy
32 David Copperfield - Charles Dickens
33 Chronicles of Narnia - CS Lewis
34 Emma - Jane Austen
35 Persuasion - Jane Austen
36 The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe - CS Lewis
37 The Kite Runner - Khaled Hosseini
38 Captain Corelli’s Mandolin - Louis De Bernieres
39 Memoirs of a Geisha - Arthur Golden
40 Winnie the Pooh - AA Milne
41 Animal Farm - George Orwell
42 The Da Vinci Code - Dan Brown
43 One Hundred Years of Solitude - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
44 A Prayer for Owen Meany - John Irving
45 The Woman in White - Wilkie Collins
46 Anne of Green Gables - LM Montgomery
47 Far From The Madding Crowd - Thomas Hardy
48 The Handmaid’s Tale - Margaret Atwood
49 Lord of the Flies - William Golding (I told my 9th grade teacher my parents wouldn't let me read it because I found it so boring)
50 Atonement - Ian McEwan
51 Life of Pi - Yann Martel
52 Dune - Frank Herbert -
53 Cold Comfort Farm - Stella Gibbons
54 Sense and Sensibility - Jane Austen
55 A Suitable Boy - Vikram Seth
56 The Shadow of the Wind - Carlos Ruiz Zafon
57 A Tale Of Two Cities - Charles Dickens
58 Brave New World - Aldous Huxley
59 The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-time - Mark Haddon
60 Love In The Time Of Cholera - Gabriel Garcia Marquez
61 Of Mice and Men - John Steinbeck
62 Lolita - Vladimir Nabokov
63 The Secret History - Donna Tartt
64 The Lovely Bones - Alice Sebold
65 Count of Monte Cristo - Alexandre Dumas
66 On The Road - Jack Kerouac
67 Jude the Obscure - Thomas Hardy
68 Bridget Jones’s Diary - Helen Fielding
69 Midnight’s Children - Salman Rushdie
70 Moby Dick - Herman Melville
71 Oliver Twist - Charles Dickens
72 Dracula - Bram Stoker
73 The Secret Garden - Frances Hodgson Burnett
74 Notes From A Small Island - Bill Bryson
75 Ulysses - James Joyce
76 The Bell Jar - Sylvia Plath
77 Swallows and Amazons - Arthur Ransome
78 Germinal - Emile Zola
79 Vanity Fair - William Makepeace Thackeray
80 Possession - AS Byatt
81 A Christmas Carol - Charles Dickens
82 Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell
83 The Color Purple - Alice Walker
84 The Remains of the Day - Kazuo Ishiguro
85 Madame Bovary - Gustave Flaubert
86 A Fine Balance - Rohinton Mistry
87 Charlotte’s Web - EB White
88 The Five People You Meet In Heaven - Mitch Albom
89 Adventures of Sherlock Holmes - Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
90 The Faraway Tree Collection
91 Heart of Darkness - Joseph Conrad
92 The Little Prince - Antoine De Saint-Exupery
93 The Wasp Factory - Iain Banks
94 Watership Down - Richard Adams
95 A Confederacy of Dunces - John Kennedy Toole
96 A Town Like Alice - Nevil Shute
97 The Three Musketeers - Alexandre Dumas
98 Hamlet - William Shakespeare
99 Charlie and the Chocolate Factory - Roald Dahl
100 Les Miserables - Victor Hugo

Man, thanks to AP English! I may have read some of the others and forgot about them. And I'd like to point out that number four is seven books totalling a lot of pages!

08.08.08...

The Olympics start on Friday! Woohoo! I love the Olympics, especially the Summer Olympics. I get chills during the commercials for the opening ceremony (while watching American Gladiators)! Hubs and I have been through one set of Winter Olympics together, but I'm not as obsessed with those. He's in for quite the shock. I enjoy the figure skating, speed skating, skiing, etc. during the winter. But in the summer I am totally addicted to gymnastics, swimming, diving, track and field. I've already got the opening ceremony ready to DVR since I'll be on a plane when it starts. So, if you need me in the next two weeks, check the couch.