27&28

We've been celebrating our birthdays these past few weeks (and enjoying our time being the same age... which only comes around once a year for one week. Hah.). 

We celebrated my birthday with my parents with dinner at the Capitol Hotel Bar & Grill, presents, and cake. Yum yum, chocolate on chocolate, duh!

A few days later we celebrated both of our birthdays with the Sicks with dinner at YaYas, presents, and cake. There weren't enough candles or fire extinguishers handy for us to both have 27 and 28 candles, so I blew out 9 (2+7=9, get it?) and Jeff 10. I was worried I wouldn't get all mine in one blow, so I really brought it and ended up blowing wax all over that gluten free cake. At least it was pink and pretty!

 Then a few days later (while still in a sugar coma and up a few pounds from all the eating out) we celebrated Jeffrey's big day. When I got home from work that night our bathroom (where Murphy stays during the day) was covered in little black dots. Turns out those were seed ticks. Hundreds of them. So we spent an hour or so cleaning that up and running to the store to buy tick shampoo and generally freaking out about ticks being everywhere. While I was disenfecting the bathroom, Jeff actually ended up cooking his own birthday dinner (steaks and sweet potatoes). Sorry 'bout that. But look at this delicious looking cheesecake per Jeff's request, made by moi. Go ahead and ignore that crater running down the middle. After dessert we went to the movies and then came to the other bathroom (where we put Murphy while we were gone... since you know we had the tick crisis in the other one) covered in dog shit. Yep, Murphy also had diarrhea. I have a sensitive gag reflex, so Jeffrey got to clean that one up. Nothing says "happy birthday and welcome to 28" quite like cleaning up liquidy poop. Eww. 

HAPPY BIRTHDAYS TO US!!

Murphy is on the mend (not that you could've told he was covered in ticks or had the runs) and fixed up with tick shampoo, tick collar, and tick spray in the backyard. Sometimes he likes to wear a bow tie. We don't know where he gets his taste for fancy things, but nevertheless, what can you do?

Grandma Medford

 

We spent this past weekend in Mena celebrating the life of my Grandma. She passed away in her home August 13, 2013 (on dad's 53rd birthday). It was a bittersweet time for our family. It was great seeing all of our family, but also strange since it felt like it might have been the last time we would all be in Mena at the same time again. Without Grandma living there, there isn't really a need to go to Mena (our aunts and uncle that live there are able to travel and visit us, which Grandma hasn't been able to do for the last several years). 

The funeral home compiled a bunch of pictures together to create a slideshow of Grandma's life. It was running in the background Friday night at her visitation- everyone loved getting to go down memory  lane and see a bunch of pictures of Grandpa too (he passed away in 1998). Grandma was sassy, sarcastic, outspoken, and more proud of her family than anyone else and will definitely be missed by many, especially her family!    

(Side Note: I love that she thought of Jeffrey as one of her grandchildren. She was very proud of him. When we visited her in the hospital this summer, she said "Here comes the Doctor!!" when Jeffrey came into her room. I can also remember one Christmas where she gave all of the grandchildren Christmas cards, but she gave Jeffrey a present (I am pretty sure he was the only one she shopped for that year)-- a huge can of cashews because she had seen how much he liked them when he picked them out of all the bowls of mixed nuts. Sweet memories for sure.) 

We found this in her pantry... it's a notebook filled with recipes. I took it home with me for the week to browse through it and jot down a few recipes. I love having old things like these- it's fun to think about what stage of life Grandma was in when she was copying a recipe into her notebook or gluing in newspaper clippings for things she wanted to try.

My grandma was German (I think her parents spoke exclusively in German in the home?) so I might have to give this German recipe a try!

My Aunt Cynthia also gave me one of my Grandma's rings. I love having something of her's that I can wear to remind me of her and my grandpa. It's a gorgeous emerald ring. Jeffrey is taking it to our jeweler (it's okay to say we have a jeweler, right?? haha) to get it sized for me.

Over the weekend several people, including my Dad, told me that I reminded them of Grandma... And I think that's a great compliment!

Cute Murphy!

Weekend in Review

We didn't do much of anything this past weekend, which was nice since between the two of us, we are booked pretty solid until our week off in September. I got some sort of sinus infection or head cold last week so I ended up taking Friday off so I could laze around in my cold-medicine-drug induced state. We were wanting to go visit my Grandma on Saturday, but with me not feeling 100%, I decided it would be better if I didn't subject all the family to my pitiful self. (Side note: How great is it to have friends that are MDs and Pharmacists to direct you to the best OTC drugs for your symptoms?? So grateful for them!)

We ran errands non-stop on Saturday. Rolled out of bed and went to Panera for breakfast, then to NLR to get my bridesmaid's dress for MH's wedding fitted, then to Bryant to Ashley's furniture to see if they had any good sales going on for the things we liked (they didn't), then we came back to LR and went to Haverty's (who do they think they are having the same furniture as Ashley's but priced 20%+ more?!... also we saw our headboard for sale there... $600.... we got ours from an estate sale for $100. Boom!), ran home to let Murphy outside, then went to Maumelle to look for a ceiling fan for the kitchen (didn't find one), went back to NLR to look at their furniture stores, then to Lowe's to look at cabinet hardware, then to the hardware store to get our free quart of paint, and finally back home to let Murphy out again! After dinner we wandered over to The Home Depot to look at getting a new front door. We were thinking about replacing our front screen door with a glass storm door, but then looked and saw that it would just be cheaper to get a new front door with a window. We have got to let some light into our dark dark living room! Back home I took Murphy on a walk and Jeffrey started to paint the built ins in the living room. (I used my lawyer mind tricks on Jeffrey to convince him to finish painting the living room on his own... or he's just doing it because he's nice- either way, I don't want to paint anything, ever again.)

We found a few pieces of furniture that we liked, but got to talking and are wondering how new furniture is going to mesh with the rest of our goodwill-esque decor. It was making me laugh out loud imagining the slip covered chairs I decided I probably need mixed in with the rest of our stuff that is second hand/diy. After thinking for a few minutes, we realized that the only new piece of furniture that we have ever bought is a tiny recliner from Target. Hah. Hah. Hah. I guess that is what they call shabby chic. Or not.  

Sunday, Jeffrey did more painting. I went Krogering. A rarity in the Sick house since I hate grocery shopping so much. Then I came home and cooked (kind of another rarity) and we went to church, ate dinner, painted, and called it a night. Not exciting, but relaxing!

I got these flowers at Kroger for $1.80! Almost makes grocery shopping worth it if I can have pretty clearance flowers in the house. Almost. 

I realize this post is filled with ramblings that no one cares about (including myself!), but we might like looking back on this kind of thing in several years when our lives may not look much like this.

Ralphy's visit

We volunteered to watch Ralphy last week while my mom went to visit grandma. Poor Ralphy. Murphy has not yet learned when he is not wanted. (I wonder if he will ever learn that?) Anyway, he was constantly jumping on Ralphy, nipping his ears, his tail, body slamming him, and being a general pain. He's basically blind so I'm not even sure he could always see Murphy coming for him. I also think he was afraid of getting in trouble if he fought Murphy back. Again, poor Ralphy.

Here he is in the one spot Murphy couldn't reach him... warming up my side of the bed for me.

I do think he enjoyed getting a pup cup of ice cream, though! And his nightly walks. So it wasn't all bad. But I don't think he will ever want to stay with us again.

Murphy is doing fine adjusting to being the one crazy dog of the house again.