Any Similar Revival

Last night, Chad, Mom Voller, and I went to Blossom Music Center for the last classical concert of the year. It was a Rodgers & Hammerstein On Stage & Screen night, during which they played scenes from The Sound of Music, The King and I, Oklahoma!, South Pacific, Carousel, and State Fair, while playing the music that went with it. Afterwards, they set off fireworks, which is always fun. I was worried we wouldn’t be able to go, though. On Friday, I bought the tickets online, and Sunday morning, when I looked at the confirmation, I realized that I had bought tickets for Saturday’s performance. I’ve had a dodo-head brain all week, and this was just the last straw! We decided to pack our picnic and go anyways, and the SUPER NICE WONDERFUL GRACIOUS AND FABULOUS people at Blossom just switched our tickets and let us in! We had a serendipitous meeting with Linda and a bunch of ladies from church, so we sat next to them and plundered their picnic as well as ours. (REALLY good brownies and red velvet cake). It got pretty cold as the night wore on–poor mom with her Texas blood was pretty frozen, but what a gorgeous night! Clear, starlit, snuggled under blankets, singing along to old musical tunes, oohing and ahhing to the fireworks. . .it was worth the cold. And the late hour. We didn’t get home til after midnight. THis worked well for Mom and me. We just slept in. Poor Chad, who had to labor on this labor day, still had to get up early and go to work, but he is Tough.

I’ve been busy the past few days planning the first week of our New Zealand adventure. So I haven’t really been thinking about blogging, but I DO have some photos to post! On Saturday night, Chad & I went to Joe & Sarabeth’s for their first party as a married couple. Luke & Hannah, Billy & Julie, and Jeremy & Christi were there too. We had tacos and a chocolate fountain, and then we played on their Wii. All the wives boxed their husbands, and I am ashamed to say that I am the only wife that lost! We also did bowling and baseball–it was waaaaay too much fun.

After the party, we picked Chad’s mom up from the airport. She is staying with us for a week or so, and then Dad is coming down from Michigan in their motorhome, and they’re going to stay in that in the Medina area.  Yesterday would have been my mum’s 51st birthday, so Heidi, Mom Volelr and I had a picnic. We brought in food from Dan’s Dogs, and Heidi made a yummo spinach salad and cake. In true hobbit style, Heidi gave us presents. THis is my new apron. Myles likes it too.

Last night, Mom and I watched The Inn of the Sixth Happiness, with Ingrid Bergman. It was really, really good, and very, very long. I was tired this morning.

Ok, so judging from the volume of comments on my fabulous random dog-photo post, I still need to come up with more inspiring blog fodder.

Yesterday was HOT. And STICKY. And I sat outside in the wet, stuffy air for several hours with small children lucky enough to have a wading pool to splash in. It’s a tough job, but somebody has to do it. Emma was kind; she watered my feet.

Yep, them ugly dogs is mine.

Ben was not a good listener. Proof:

He was told SEVERAL times to get off the roof of the playhouse and to STAY off the roof of the playhouse. I finally had to go over there and personally supervise the getting off the roof.

If you are really nice to me and send me comments, I might be persuaded to post more photos from the wedding. I’m almost done editing them. . . and I have some really funny pictures of my friends dancing.

I leave for New Zealand in four weeks!

When I don’t have a million things on my list! My workshop tonight has been rescheduled for the first week of September, so I have an unexpected reprieve. I don’t have to be ANYWHERE today at ALL. And I don’t have to get anything ready for ANYTHING. Amazing! And I don’t know what to do with all this time stretching before me. . .I gardened a bit, edited some more wedding photos, mowed the wet lawn, planned menus for the next week, started a half-hearted attempt at a scrapbook page, dabbled in reading my book, wasted time reading message boards online. . .nothing really blog-worthy. (So why, you ask, is she going on and on about it? Because it’s my blog.  🙂  )

Here are some pictures for you to look at while I wait for my life to get exciting and blog-able again:

It’s been a very busy couple of weeks for me. I keep waiting for the ride to stop, because I’d like to get off, but it just keeps spinning and spinning. . .Not all of it is work, though. Chad and I went on a mini-weekend getaway Friday & Saturday. Luke & Hannah’s good friends, Jason & Laurie (their daughter Elli was the cutie-pie flower girl at Joe & Sarabeth’s wedding last weekend), invited all of us to Laurie’s parent’s cabin in Millersburg for fun on the lake. My legs are rather black & blue from tubing, but it was so much fun that it’s worth the bruises. We had fun hanging with all of our friends too. I love this photo of the cute pregnant ladies, Julie & Beth:

And the cute non-pregnant guys, Chad & Luke:

And Billy showing off his mad balancing skills:

Jason, Billy, and Hannah:

And of course, adorable little girls:

We rushed home last night so I could get out to Garfield Heights in time for my stampin up workshop. Even though I was completely packed and ready before we left Friday night, I had trouble concentrating on teaching & demonstrating–my brain was cooked! I woke up this morning, tired, grumpy, feeling like I’d been run over by a bus, and decided to play hooky from church. I loved the rainy coolness today–I wore long pants and a sweatshirt! And SOCKS! I haven’t worn socks around the house in MONTHS! I know that it’s going to get hot again, but today was a promise:  autumn is coming.

So I know this is a rambly post, but I’m a rambly person. How are all of you, dear friends and lurkers? I’m looking forward to life slowing down a bit, so I can blog more regularly.

We had a very nice anniversary date last night. I met Chad at the Macaroni Grill near Southpark mall, which while it is not the most glamorous of spots, does have yum-o food. He got us a bottle of Asti Spumante and our server brought us a free piece of their smothered chocolate cake and sang to us in Italian. He had the most wonderful voice–the whole restaurant fell into a hushed silence when he started singing–a beautiful tenor voice–I was very surprised. Then we went to the mall and saw The Bourne Ultimatum, which was very entertaining. And the best part is we have good leftovers for lunch today. Chad told me that he has always liked that I think with my stomach 24/7.

And my new favorite picture of Chad:

Ciao!

Ten years ago, on a beautiful, stormy, rainy, thundery and tornado-y evening, I married the love of my life and my best friend. Aren’t we the cutest thing!?

I’m totally supposed to be preparing for my Stampin Up workshop tomorrow morning, but I can’t resisit posting a few, especially since I spent several hours converting some of the eighteen gigs [!!!!!] of raw images Becky and I shot yesterday into jpegs.

Wasn’t Sarabeth absolutely gorgeous??!!

More to come later. . .I haven’t even peeked at the shots from the reception. 18 gigs is a LOT of photos!

And I don’t think I want to be a wedding photographer when I grow up anymore. That was really, really, really hard! But it was fun, and I loved sharing this special day with Joe, Sarabeth, and all our friends.

I wasn’t really at the rehearsal in my official capacity as the wedding photographer, but I took some shots of course. Here are some of my favorites:

Last night, I discovered that I had left the door of the big freezer open in the basement. For a day. I had a complete meltdown, pun intended. All that food! Actually, we didn’t lose too much–just some Cool Whip, popsicles, veggies, and other random bits and pieces. Most of the meat was on the bottom in a big pile, so it stayed mostly frozen. If Chad and I suddenly drop out of the blogging world, though, it’s probably all the other stuff that I couldn’t bear to toss, like pierogies and homemade stock and some ground beef that was still cold enough, that has killed us. And God bless Heidi, who offered to take my now nicely thawed whole chicken home and roast it for me and freeze the meat!

I had to go to the dentist this morning for some sore gums. No more whitening toothpast, salt water instead of listerine, and a new ultra soft toothbrush. And did you know that the foods you eat, like popcorn and chips, can contribute to gum sensitivity? He says it looks ok in there. All right.

I am in complete denial about the wedding I’m shooting tomorrow. Wedding? What wedding? I don’t know any wedding!

I’m worried that the ceiling in our front room is slowly being soaked through, and one day, as I am sitting in my favorite chair, reading, it will collapse on my head and make me really sad.

If you check out Scrap in Your Pants, there is a photo of my class from last night, and noticed that Ada is in it, and she’s just so cute and little, it makes me laugh!

I don’t know what I’m going to do with those poor children today! We have been cooped up inside all week, and Ben especially is ready to explode from all that saved-up energy. Pray for me. Pray for me hard.

I get to see Chad in a tux tomorrow for that wedding I know nothing about. Woo hoo!

My TENTH!!! anniversary is next Thursday! I can’t believe I’m OLD enough to have been married for ten years!

My cucumber plant is dead. Just totally, totally dead. It’s very sad. But the eggplant is BLOOMING.

And. . .I’m done. That’s it.