Our good friends Court and Guy were up from TN bc they had just gotten home from their super fab Hawaiian vacation. They came to visit along with their sweet and supper smart doggie, Shiloh. We thought it would be fun to let her and Moses play. And was it fun! Moses chased Shiloh until he couldn’t breathe. He panted for a good 30 mins after they were done. They did several laps around the living room as well as WWF style wrestling. Turns out that even though Shiloh is only 35 lbs that Moses is the wimp. He ended up limping and yelping after they played. He is totally fine now though. It was cute. After they were done playing Shiloh kept giving Moses kisses and trying to figure out how to get him back up to play.

Say cheese

Shiloh loves the camera

Jason, with the help of my Dad’s turbo powered power washer, cleaned our back brick patio last weekend. Who would have thought that those bricks were red? Awesome. The results were amazing and so was the mess that Jason got himself into. His shoes, legs, and face were covered in mud and other various things about 1/2 inch thick. Really. The patio looks great though and was worth all the mess (easy for me to say). Here are some pictures of his labor and his attire.

Before

After: what a difference

Aftermath

Eww, gross

Jason’s 26th birthday was Monday and it was a good one. We went out to eat at a local Irish pub, opened presents and watched the Colt’s pre-season game. It was a blast. I think the most exciting thing for me was the fact I didn’t screw up his cake again this year. The last 2 years something has gone wrong. (pink cake, doughnut cake: see the old post for more info ) But I can happily say that 3rd times a charm. He loved his cake and it tasted good too. Yeah! Happy birthday to my wonderful husband and thank goodness for 2nd and 3rd chances. I love you!

The birthday boy with sparker candels

Make a wish

I love you

The masterpiece: angel food cake with sprinkles
(who would have thought it could be so hard?)

If you read this blog on a semi-regular basis you’ve probably heard stories about our adopted rescue greyhound, Moses. This is another tribute to his mischief and continued acclamation to the retired life. I have sorta gone a reduced meat kick lately. We were in WalMart and for some unknown reason I decided that veggie dogs sounded good. They came frozen so I thawed 3 when Jason called and said he was on his way home from work one night. I proceeded to fold laundry in the living room and wait for him. I heard Moses messing around in the kitchen but I figured that he found a piece of dog food underneath the cabinets and was going crazy to get it. I called him and he came. A little bit later Jason came home so I went to get the vegetarian hot-dogs to put in the boiling water. To my disbelief I couldn’t find them anywhere. I checked the freezer and refrigerator to no avail. I was stumped to where these magic dogs had gone. And then, my 80 pound greyhound comes in, sniffs around and does something I had never seen him do before. He actually jumped up so his 2 front paws were on the counter and he licked the empty veggie dog plate. Ah hah. Moses learned counter-surfing and ate 3 veggie dogs and a couple of buns- after I might add he had already eaten his dog food dinner. It turns out that I don’t know what I was thinking with the veggie dogs because they were gross so I guess Moses saved us a little. I am just glad he ate those and not something fancy. Lesson learned don’t put anything worth eating close to the counter edge.

We went to the state fair this past weekend with my parents. It was a lot of fun. For anyone who doesn’t usually go I would recommend it for sure. There are tons of places to eat real fair food and lots of neat things to see from free stuff, to giant pumpkin launchers, to draft horses and wedding cakes. We were have a great time eating seeing everything. Jason always likes to see the Draft horses because they are huge. Their legs are generally taller than my head-unreal. We had just finished walking through the barn when I went into a ridiculous sneezing fit- it was funny. Then I noticed that my eye started itching a ton and felt bad. About 5 minutes later my mom was like, “your eye is really red and swollen.” At about that time my voice became raspy and slightly constricted. Well at this point we figured I was having a whacked out allergic reaction. We decided to go see the wedding cakes and get and elephant ear and spit. Well about 1/2 way to the other tent my eye became very swollen and it became apparent that I needed to get some benadryl on board before things got out of hand. I was laughing the whole time, and saying I was fine, of course. We couldn’t find the first aid tent so my dad flagged down a State Trooper on a golf cart and he radioed the first aid people. At this point I am laughing continually because this swollen eye thing has gotten out of hand to involve a State cop. Well the people come, and listen to my lungs and give me an ice pack (which of course I was too prideful to walk around with that on my face) and some meds. I told the first aid guy that it was no big deal and that it was funny. His response in true hard core first aid responder form was, “this is not funny, this could be very serious.” I was like, “right.” Anyway, we finally made it to see the wedding cakes, and the bonus part was to get the best elephant ear ever. So there was a little excitement at the state fair this year. Turns out something in the horse barn makes my eye swell shut. Good to know.

Picture of all the good food

Night scene

My swollen eye

I always write how Moses gets into trouble or worse but today I wanted to write and tell you what a good dog he is. Over the weekend Jason and I were out working in the yard and opened and closed the gates to our fenced in yard several times.Today was a normal day I cleaned and as usual let Moses out 2 times, once in the afternoon and once before dinner. I was downstairs with Moses when Jason came running through the door yelling for us. It seems that the side gate was wide open and apparently had been all day. Jason was worried that Moses was out peeing on our neighbor’s houses. It turns out that our good (or slightly slow) boy was out in the yard 3 times with the gate wide open and chose not to run away. What a good dog. Extra treat for you today and a reminder to everyone to check your gates daily. Good boy Moses, good boy.

Congrats to Lauren Howard a family childhood and church friend for marrying the man of her dreams on Aug 4th. Here are some pictures from their beautiful wedding. Good luck Lauren and Nick.

Vows

Cake cutting

First dance

Looking good Mr. Howard. Amazing toast!

Breaking it down

“Gatts” girls party hardy