Sickening!

Well, we have been sick all week. There's not much to post except that we have not gotten anything done! After the first day of excitement on the Garden of Paradise, Erik and I came down with a gnarly flu/cold, which we are still recovering from - Elliot has it, too, now. Elliot seems to be not as bad, though. The saddest thing is that it's been beautiful weather this week! Every day has been in the 80's, but we haven't been able to enjoy it much besides today. This morning Elliot and I made it over to the toy store to get a new wading pool for the back yard. We came home and filled it up, and he had a blast. I have a couple pictures which I am not posting due to the full frontal nudity. :) But, hopefully soon we will be recovered and back at the grindstone (if you call working outdoors in your own backyard at a leisurely pace the grindstone). We are so blessed. More to come - soon!

Garden of Paradise II

These are the before and after pictures for day one on the "Garden of Paradise" project, our latest phase of the backyard makeover. This garden is going to be done according to Erik's vision. He's really looking forward to making it into a relaxing place. We are going to make a paved walkway, with a mini-patio just big enough for a little cafe table and two chairs. Then we will make a little doorstep under our bedroom window, and have our window converted into either french doors or a sliding glass door so that it opens onto the little garden and we can have our morning coffee out there. We are also planning on making a little mini-pergola to support a wisteria along the back fence here, and putting a rose arbor at the entrance by the picket fence. For our plant selection, we are going to go with a theme of relaxed colors (silvery gray-green foliage, and lots of purple, blue, and white flowers), mixed with aromatic plants like lavender, fragrant moonflower, rosemary and thyme, etc. This garden is basically going to be a little retreat for the grown-ups. Our own little garden of paradise. I'll keep you posted on it's progress!

Party Time.... Excellent

Well, it was the best birthday part Elliot has had yet, and well it should be because it's the first one Erik has been home for! A great time was had by all, including the host and hostess, which says a lot. All together, we had about 14 kids (not counting 4 babies), and I think about 27 adults. There was lots to do for the kids: We brought out the bubble generator and let them all chase bubbles around, we had Elliot's train table set up as a dinosaur table (for the theme) and even had a soundtrack playing in the closet with prehistoric dinosaur sounds (apparently itunes has been around longer than I realized). We also had Elliot's easel set up outside with markers and dinosaur coloring pages which the kids all colored as a joint effort. Then we did pin-the-tail-on-the-dinosaur (you will see the picture of the winner!). Erik made amazing kabobs with chicken and veggies and beef, and we had fruit salad (thank you, Mary), and lots of snacks. For desert, we had carrot cake cupcakes, and the kids semi-watched The Land Before Time when things were starting to wind down. Then they got their goodie bags, which each had an animal nose and a dinosaur, among other things. The noses and the really loud party blowers were the biggest hits. It was so nice having all our friends and family there together. Erin made the trek all the way from Berkley to share the day with us. Also, my dad, and adopted parents, Gary and Leslie came from San Luis to join in the fun. Of course, the greatest thing ever was to have Erik there. Thank you to everyone for making the day so special and fun for Elliot. Excellent!

What Happens in Vegas ....

.... well, I guess I could just tell you a little. I just got back from an awesome trip to Las Vegas in celebration of my friend Jennifer's 30th birthday! We all met up there -- me, Jennifer, Marie, and Melissa (her mom and sister), and had four days of fun, fun, fun. It's the sort of thing you can only do about every five years if you want to live to tell about it. In fact, we did the same 5 short years ago for Jennifer's 25th. Time flies when you're getting old -- I mean, having fun. ;) Among our adventures were crashing a (very tame) bachelor party for some Irish dancing, attempting to ward off Melissa's numerous suitors (3 marriage proposals), relaxing by the pool, making up songs and cheers, wearing matching roller-skating shirts and side ponytails, dancing on a deserted balcony (thereby being dubbed "the balcony girls" and pretty much being famous), and much much more. I don't want to bore you with the details. We also went to the Tournament of Kings, The Comedy Stop, a bunch of 4-D rides, and to an Oxygen Bar. What else can I say? A great time was had by all with lots of silliness, and fun bonding, plus a birthday crown. Sometimes girls just wanna have fun!

The Four-Fingered Woman

Okay, it's not really that bad, but I did chop off the tip of my finger this evening. Just the very tipity-tip. I was slicing carrots with a very sharp knife, and going fast - probably inspired by too many early morning viewings of "Ratatouille". I'm okay. Erik bandaged me up with some gauze and electrical tape so I wouldn't bleed in the food. (As you can see, I eventually changed it to some stylish Sesame Street Band-aids.) If you think that's gross, the really gross part is that I couldn't find the piece of fingertip that was cut off. Most likely we ingested it. I'm sure it blended in nicely with the cauliflower curry. This is so fun to talk about it was totally worth the pain! You should try it! Just kidding, kind of.

Anyway, it was worth it for the wonderful evening we had with Gary and Leslie, who are Nana and Papa to Elliot, and family to me and Erik. It had been way too long, and it was an absolute joy to have them over. After a delicious meal and some champagne, we all played neighborhood sounds bingo with Elliot, and played with cars, and chatted about new recipes to try (that part was primarily Leslie and I), and had an all around great time.

As for my finger, I'm sure it will heal and quickly be forgotten, but memories of good times with family will last forever.

The only bummer is that I'm not going to be able to play guitar for a while.......