Update #8 - The House

So remember forever ago when I went through that whole "rearranging" thing in my office? Here is the result. Still a tad messy at the moment, but at least you can see how it's changed.
The desk on the left there was moved from the wall to the left and replaced with the TV. We hung those cool IKEA shelves above the desk, which is perfect for current art projects and photos to display. The TV has a cool new stand now... an awesome purchase from IKEA! These drawers hold all sorts of business goodies and I LOVE them. Oh and what's that burgundy thing in the front?
Alas, while you may have been reminded by Jon Boardman for a moment (as are we, daily, by it), that swollen burgundy ball you are seeing is a LoveSac. A SuperSac with footrest to be precise. The kids call it a "baby love sac" and they use it as their launching pad as they do superb feats of aerial strength onto the Big Sac. (oh, and the roses in the foreground? My 13th anniversary present from Rick!)
Here you are, sitting on the lovesac facing the door. This is the work table where I package orders, work on art projects, and attempt to not pile things anymore. Just outside the door to the right (you can't see it) is the filing cabinet, which I wanted so desperately to remove from the room. And the pile you see outside the door is one of four stacks of scrapbooking and crafting magazines I am purging.
This is our "gallery" going down our stairs. We have all sorts of fun art hung here... The big head of Demetri Martin was drawn by Carl. Just to the left of it is our newest purchase... an original painting by Chance Gomez of an antique typewriter. I seriously LOVE it and now we have three pieces by Chance... the daisy (our first one), the typewriter, and the guitar. Rick got me the typewriter and I got him the guitar as anniversary presents. They were part of a gallery show that we put on at our church for our Young Adult group. I have photos of that I hope to share later this week. Other art here includes a small block by Amy Ruppel, prints by local artists Dar Freeland, Jennifer Main, and more, and a really extra cool litho print by Liane. I love my gallery!
Oh and of course, I wanted to show you my FLOORS! Violet loves them.
Here is the living room in it's new blue color, complete with fancy new shutters and crown moulding...

This is the view from the front door looking to the family room. You can see the baseboards pretty well from this shot. We went from these gross, standard, 3 inch baseboards to 6.5 inches. I love love them. The same guy that did the crown moulding did the baseboards and I am so glad he did. It was sooo great not having to do that last step and just getting it done in a day.
Since we moved the piano out from the stairway area, I turned into my Grandma Jane corner. That is her lamp from her house, and to the right of it is a piece of her bathroom wallpaper that I absolutely loved as a kid. And the chair was also Grandma's. I love that corner.
And, the kitchen - with our new shutters on the sliding glass door.
Oh and I mentioned that I got those really awesome woodblock letters from the antique show in Michigan? Check them out...!

Wait till you see the art I made with them!! I will share that tomorrow!

Update #7 - The Wedding Day

The Wedding Day started out with gorgeous weather, although the forecast was for thunderstorms. Aside from a few white puffy clouds (and an unfortunate rise in humidity), the weather was beautiful. Aren't my boys handsome?
I love this picture of Papa :)
The groom and his mother. I love her headpiece. Most of the British ladies wore some. I totally wanted to wear a hat, but my sisters weren't interested in wearing one with me. So I didn't. But I would have totally fit in with all the Britishy folk.
And the bride... she looked very lovely.
Shedding a tear as they shared their vows...

The family blessing...
And, of course, the kiss...
Presenting Mr. and Mrs. Fairweather... :)
There was supposed to be a garden tea party after the wedding, but the skies were looking ominous and I was pretty sure the kids wouldn't make it. So we got lunch and headed back to the hotel just as the skies opened up and a HUGE rainstorm fell. The attendants of the Tea ended up all huddling under a porch, waiting for the rain to stop. But really, I think that was the only glitch to the whole affair.

At the evening reception, I got to catch a picture of all the kid cousins (except the baby, who was sound asleep in her daddy's baby bjorn carrier)...
The reception was loads of fun (other than the overzealous waiters who apparently had nothing better to do than clear tables of uneaten food while party guests were dancing... half of us didn't get any cake because it was cleared away before we ate it!). The music was decent and everyone had a good time dancing. We finally left around 9:30 pm (just as the polka started) to get the kids off to bed... after a quick stop for some ice cream since we didn't have any cake.

Sunday morning we got to see everyone one last time before heading out to the airport to catch our flights back to Vegas and the reality of laundry and chores and jobs. Sigh. It was fun while it lasted... and the perfect end to a wonderful summer.

Update #6 - The Wedding (Rehearsal Dinner)

Friday the 8th was an absolutely lovely evening... we went to Lindsey's house for a wonderful backyard gathering for the rehearsal dinner. The weather was perfect, and there were fun lawn games set up around the property... croquet, bocce, lawn darts (which Uncle John wisely confiscated soon after small children arrived. As an aside, aren't those illegal? Or something? Cause people can impale each other? Just wondering)... And of course, the moment we arrived, Violet took charge and invented her own game.
You had to roll (throw?) the ball and hit the post. And if you did, you got Bonus Points (or was it a free turn?). I am not sure, but the other kids totally loved it.
Especially this cutie. She is so adorable I can't stand it.
And this kid. Who took my baby and replaced him with a dude? WHO???
There were plenty of Sisterly Love moments...
And beer :)

I love my sisters! :)
AND I also love toothless babies!!
Meanwhile, as we are all enjoying the gathering, I noticed that across the yard there assembled a group of British folk, with the bride and groom in the front row. With a "program"... from the "show." And, indeed, there was my daughter and her cousin, performing some sort of magic/variety show for the crowd. I believe this scene was called (and I am not making this up)... "Girl Running Fast."
The Brits were ever so polite, however, and appreciated the entertainment.
But the best entertainment of all? Fireflies at dusk. Here Riley has one in his hand... and Violet caught a whole jarful. And Melinda got to experience seeing and catching fireflies for the first time. There is something completely magical about them. It was perfect.

Tomorrow, the Wedding Day :)

Update #5 - Our Michigan trip (part 4)

On our last evening at Crystal Lake, everyone brought their cameras to capture one last amazing sunset. Melinda had her (freaking RAD) 15mm fisheye lens. I am completely coveting that baby.
This was from the walkway as we headed down to the water's edge.
And a few fun shots of all of us with the sun setting in the background... Dad, Mom, and Mel...
Liane and Carl...
and of course, Sisterly Love!!
After this, it was a nice long drive down to Farmington Hills for Lindsey's wedding. We will all desperately miss the beautiful lake and wonderful memories made here. Hopefully it won't be another 10 years before we make it back.

Update #4 - Our Michigan Trip (part 3)

The rest of the week was spent reading (my sisters and I were hooked on the Twilight series... once I finished one book, I passed it to Melinda, who passed it to Liane...) and playing at Crystal Lake. Papa has vivid childhood memories of his summers here, playing at the beach owned by the Congregational Summer Assembly. So of course, we went to the same beach and made some amazing memories for our kiddos.

Melinda got to show off her new, super rad tattoo...
and then she, Rick, Violet, Papa, Liane, and Carl (and some random kid) all swam out to the dock in the lake... and they all did a super family cannonball!
I love that, in this picture, Carl is completely gone... Papa is the highest, Melinda is being crazy, and Rick is pasty white ;)
After a long day at Crystal Lake, we always would spend our evenings on the Lake Michigan shore, watching the sunset, skipping rocks, and roasting marshmallows by the fire.

These two short people crack me right up.
Skipping rocks at sunset on the lake... what could be better?
oooo Carl knows! Piling rocks into towers!
Of course our time at Crystal Lake wouldn't be complete without stopping at the A&W for their famous root beer floats. And, well, they were freaking awesome.
Each day when we got to the Assembly beach, the kids would go out and make friends. Sometimes they would hunt for guppies underwater, play tetherball, or pretend to kayak around the lake.

I love this picture of Rick :)
And of course, Violet would find a way to amaze us.
Riley loved "surfing"
Our suntanned family!
I loved our time at Crystal Lake. It was like going back in time there... everything was just a little slower paced, a little quieter. I wish there was a way to transplant this lake to somewhere close to us. I would spend every summer there, too. :)

Update #3 - Our Michigan Trip (part 2)

August 3, 2008 was the one year anniversary of Grandma's death. It was fitting that we were in Michigan, staying on the lake. It was the perfect way to remember her. Mom found out about an antique fair that was, according to Papa, about an hour or so away. I loved the idea of looking for antiques ("ANTIIIIIIIIQUES!") just like Grandma would have wanted to do. We all piled into our cars, and after an hour and a half of driving, Papa had us stop so we could "stretch our legs." Um. ok. Let me just say that if we were close, I don't see why we had to "stretch our legs." But what we learned was that we were still like 40 miles away. Which is another 2 hours of driving. AWESOME. At least we stopped at a fruit stand and got ourselves some fresh cherries for the drive. These cherries were soooooooooo good!

And the antique fair was pretty great, even though it was an insanely long drive to get there. Grandma would have just loved it! Liane and I both found some sugar cube tongs for our tea sets, some cute hankies just like Grandma would have loved, and I got an amazing set of HUGE 12" woodblock printer's letters. They are AMAZING. (I will show them in another post... they aren't part of this set of pictures). We sprinkled a little of Grandma at the fair before we left :)
After the 3.5 hour drive back, we relaxed a little, read a little, and then decided we would go out to Point Betsie at sunset. That was Grandma's favorite place, and we thought we should have a little memorial for Grandma there.

Papa started off by talking about some favorite memories of Grandma, of Michigan, and how much we miss her... and then we sprinkled her onto the sand. After that, each of us got a turn to share a little about Grandma and sprinkle a little of her, too.
Liane did a little "over the shoulder" chuck when it was her turn...
And even Riley sprinkled some of Grandma onto the sand. Later on, we caught Riley playing in another area of sand, shaking the sand through his fingers, saying "I've got Grandma! I've got Grandma!" hahaahaa
Carl. That's all I need to say.
Liane has apparently lived quite the sheltered life, cause before this trip she had never skipped a rock before. After a quick lesson with Papa (the reigning king of rock-skipping), she got the hang of it. Here she celebrates the FIVE BOUNCES she achieved!

I love this picture of Melinda. :)

Liane, putting into practice some of Papa's techniques. The kids had been playing frisbee when it flew into the water. Of course that didn't stop them one bit! And once one got wet, of course the other had to as well. No swimsuits? No problem. HA.

It was the perfect way to remember Grandma - a beautiful day in Michigan, on the shore of the lake in her favorite place, sharing her memories with each other. I could almost feel her there, enjoying herself right along with us.

Update #2 - Our Michigan trip (part 1)

Our big family trip this year was to Michigan - first to Crystal Lake, Papa's childhood summer home, and then to Farmington Hills for my cousin's wedding. This will be the first of a few posts on the trip, since I took so many pictures and I don't want to overload you!



We had lunch the first day at Cherry Hut, a cute little restaurant that has been at Crystal Lake forever. Papa always talks about when he was a kid and had ordered "Cherry Pie a la mode - WITH ice cream!" and we all reminisced about when we were here 10 years ago with Grandma Jane and that was all she ordered. For breakfast. Cherry Pie. And then she took another one to our house and had it for breakfast every. single. day. :)


Riley stole my camera for a few minutes and took some photos of me...
And Papa and Mama Lali wanted to have a Riley portrait too. I think I have a future assistant on my hands here! :)
We had a house that was actually steps from the shore of Lake Michigan (with Crystal Lake a 3 minute drive away), and this was our view the first night...
Sigh. Beautiful.



More soon!