The Jury is Still Out

This is Charlie telling me he doesn't need a shower. 

Bread Dipping Spices

Another way to use the bread doping spices, is to brush some olive oil on kabobs, and then sprinkle the spices on top while they are grilling. This works great if, like me, you forget to marinate.

It's a Feline Miracle!

Finally, A Chance to Use My Interior Design Degree

I laid out a cat bed in the hopes Zeena would use it. So far, she doesn't seem to like it. Maybe I should put some freshly folded laundry, or a computer keyboard in it so she will be more comfortable.

Speaking of Epic Battles

This is our neighborhood woodpecker. This yellow bird and his mate are in his territory. The woodpecker was not happy about it. The conversation went something like this:

WP: Dude! You are in my neighborhood !
YB: So? You want to make something out of it?
WP: Don't make me come over there.
YB's Mate:( rolling eyes) Boys, there are enough trees for everyone.

And then she remembered we were in AZ, and she just let them fight it out.

Epic Battle

It's All About Knowing Your Customer

Charlie and I were playing restaurant. I'm glad he picked vampire blood because I don't know how to make salamander apple casserole.

Best. Son. Ever.

AJ: What's wrong mom?
Me: I'm just bummed I don't have a job yet and haven't heard from anyone.
AJ: You probably haven't heard from them because when they look at your application, they faint from your awesomeness.

AJ and Charlie's Bowls

Here are the bowls I painted for the kids. They really liked them.  In fact upon receiving his, Charlie declared he loved me "SO much".  Then, both kids used them for dinner that night. 

Meanwhile Back at Home. . .

AJ was making the London Bridge out of Legos. It took him four days, but he did it all by himself. I was very impressed. 

Someone Get The Phone

My mom's phone rings and she pulls out a ginormous red plastic old fashioned handset. How great is that? She let me have this one, and I brought it home for AJ. It was a huge hit, and I am sure it will be used quite a bit when he gets back to school to impress his tech savvy friends. His school is pretty big on technology. They may have a 3-d printer, but do they have a red plastic hand set from Marc's? I think not. 

Meanwhile Over at the Fairfield Inn. . .

I was having my own personal version of the "greatest day ever." I got to stay in a hotel room by myself. Did you hear me? BY MYSELF.  Alone.  Just me.  No one else. It was truly awesome.


Just look at all that aloneness! Is that a word? Who cares.

Kathleen and Mark's Wedding

I did not get a lot of photos of the wedding. I was mainly using my phone, and trying to be a little sneaky. What I ended up with was a lot of blurry pictures. After a while, I realized that the happy couple had several trained and competent photographers walking around, so I did not stress too much about the yucky pictures I took. 

Before the ceremony in the green room. 

Jane getting ready to do her flower girl duties. 

After the ceremony, we waited outside with bubbles.

This was the limo. The story goes that Mark won it in a raffle. Nice!

The church had this beautiful atrium and I loved the light. These are some of the bridesmaids waiting for pictures after the ceremony.

The cake was beautiful, and made by Janny's neighbor.

Here is a picture of one of the centerpieces we made. (Please notice the folded napkins in the background, done by the aunts.)

Way in the background, by the door, you can see Janny and Phil high-fiving as they walk into the reception.

The new Mr. and Mrs. S.

This was seriously the coolest thing I have ever seen at a reception. S'mores! There were fire pits and sticks set up and you could make your own s'more outside the reception hall. Genius.

It wouldn't be a Heck gathering if there wasn't corn hole. But, wait for it. . . .

A monogrammed corn hole game. Kathleen and Mark will be the classiest corn hole players in Ohio.

I love this picture of the aunts and uncles. What a nice looking bunch. 

The wedding was beautiful and fun. I had such a great time visiting with the family. 

Kathleen and Mark's Wedding (Before)

I arrived in Ohio on Wednesday night, just in time for a family dinner at Aunt Nancy's house. We went to Carfanga's and got the sauce, pasta, salad and of course the meatballs. 

The sisters were given the task to fold the napkins for the reception. Aunt Janny had provided a napkin folding website. Mom and Laura are checking it out.

 The next night, we had a cookout at Aunt Janny's. Being from AZ,  could not get over all the green in the back yard. And it even rained a little. I threatened to go out and roll around in the wet grass, but I didn't.

The best part of the cookout was when Melanie showed up. It was a super top secret mission, and everyone who was suppose to be surprised, was. Mike and Scott flew her in, and her best friend picked her up. Unfortunately, they got a flat tire on the way home from the Dayton airport. But they arrived save and sound. There was a lot of hugging and not a few tears. It was awesome.

The next day Kathleen, her best friend Britt, Laura, Melanie, Janny and I all went to the florist to create the bouquets, and centerpieces. It was totally fun and I think they came out just fine, if I do say so myself. 

The florist was super organized and had an action plan together with how many of each arrangement we needed, as well as a recipe for each type. The instructor gave us a little lesson and demonstrated how to do each thing, and then we tried to copy what she did. We started small with the boutonnieres and worked our way up to the more complicated stuff. 

These white roses were for the mothers' corsages.

The instructor knew what she was doing and had a lot of patience. There place was packed, and I think there were about 6 other bridal parties working on their flowers at the same time.

After each thing was done, we had to spray it with a preserver and then put it in a plastic bag.

While we were there, this little dude stopped by to say "hi".  The guy (the man, not the penguin) is the fiancee of one of the girls that works there. He works at the zoo and was on his way to a school to do a talk with some animals. He created quite the stir.

These are the bridesmaids bouquets.

And these are the centerpieces for the tables at the reception.

It was a great way to do the flowers. Everyone had great time and it was cool  to contribute to the wedding in such a fun way. 

On the day of the wedding, the three oldest cousins, (floundering without any responsibilities to speak of), thought it would be prudent if we settled ourselves by going out for lunch and ice-cream. 

Vocabulary is Important

The kids had dentist appointments today. I asked Charlie what he thought about his. He said he liked everything but the fossil part. ( the X-rays)

My Mother Taught Me Everything I Know

I just answered my own personal cell phone and and asked the ASU Alumni fundraiser person if I could take a message for Heather. 

Girls' Night Out

Kelly, Lauren and I went to a paint your own pottery place called As You Wish last night. I had never been to one of these places before and I had so much fun. The way it works, is that you pick out something that you want to paint. They have every type of ceramic figure you could think of. There were bowls and plates of course, but also platters, piggy banks, coffee mugs, etc. Then you pick out your paint, what type of brush you want to you and you get to work.

Kelly and I made bowls for our kids, and Lauren made a food/water dish for her dogs.

Here are what the bowls look like when you get them off the shelf. The tiles on the table are what you use to put your paint on.

 Here is Lauren doing her dog dish. It cam out amazing. by the time she was done she could have sold that thing at a boutique.

Kelly's worked on a bowl for her son. She loves this place so much, her goal is to have a whole set of dishes by the time she is done. 

Here are the bowls I made for the kids. The colors will be bright red, kelly green and royal blue after it is fired. Then on the bottom, I made a little heart, wrote "mom" and 2013. If I don't see them eating cereal out of these bowls in college, I will be seriously offended.