Show Us Your Life - Wedding Showers

Kelly's Korner is hosting another edition of show us your life Friday. This time, it's wedding showers...

My dear friend (and now sister in law) Carrie threw me a beautiful bridal shower!! It was held at Matt's Aunt and Uncle's house, which is out in the country. They have a gorgeous yard, and the weather could not have been more perfect!!

This is the table that is in the entry hall. Carrie put our wedding invitation in a nice frame and placed a beautiful vase of tulips next to it.

This was the drink table.

Here are the favors. Carrie planted marigolds in little individual pots and had the guests take them home.

There were tables set up all over the patio.

And here is a picture of the happy bride!!!

It was a wonderful day : )

Catching Up

Last week was a busy one for us. First, I started the school semester. I love love love my anatomy professor. She's great at explaining and teaching, and really has a way of holding my interest during lectures. I can already see that I'm going to be successful in this class. 

We went to Tahoe with the Allen's and didn't take a single picture!!! Lame I know, but all cameras were left at home and we kept forgetting to buy disposable ones while at the store. We did have a great time, but the boat broke again. Yes, my fear came true!!! We did get in a good day on the boat Friday, so it wasn't a complete bust. Matt thinks it may be the fuel pump and was working on that yesterday evening. 

Sunday night, we hit up the demolition derby at the fair. It was fun!!! I stole the following pictures from Bonnie....

As far as dinner this week, it's like this:

Monday - Spaghetti, salad and bread

Tuesday - Matt's night (we had pizza)

Wednesday - Artichoke chicken with squash and stuffing

Thursday - left overs: Pick Your Poison!!!

Sunday, we are going to a Giants game with Matt's Mom, Carrie and Zach. It should be a good time!!!

Now, the last thing about this scattered post is a dilemma that has been going on in the Shellhammer household. Macy will not stop destroying certain parts of the yard!!! She has dug up two sprinkler heads repeatedly, and is a little bit of a digger in general. Matt came to me this morning and said that this would be the dogs last day in the yard and he would be putting them in the side yard during the day. I do not want this to happen. There are many reasons, the main one being that I don't think it's fair to them, in addition to the logistics of why do we have dogs so they can be "watch" dogs during the day if we're going to lock them up??? 

I've done a little research this morning and I think I've found some methods that may help. The first two have to do with the digging sites. First, I'm going to bury dog poop in the places that she digs. Apparently this deters dogs from digging spots because they don't like the smell. I'm also going to sprinkle some pepper in these places. This is supposed to make digging an unpleasant experience as the pepper gets in the dogs nose and makes it itch. Next, I'm going to give Macy access to the side yard during the day so that can be her designated digging place. From what I've read, digging is natural for dogs and sometimes they just need to do it, so it can help to let them have a spot that is used for that. Finally, I am going to get up an hour earlier than usual to walk them. This may sound extreme, but I think having a little morning exercise will help (the dogs AND me!!!). Afterall, a tired dog is a well behaved dog. Wish me luck with all this....I still have to run my plan past Matt!!!!!

Coming to a Close

When I was a kid, the sign that the end of summer vacation was near was always when the Yolo County Fair began. We had been back to school shopping, the smell of harvested tomatoes and churned up dirt was in the air, and we were full of anticipation to see our friends at school. The fair would come to town, and we would beg our Mom to let us wear our new school clothes to the fair. She never did, which I now understand, but for whatever reason every year we would fight this battle. Then, within days of the carnival rides and food booths pulling out of town, we would lay in bed the night before the first day of school. Thinking about the upcoming year of learning, our teachers, the school events that would take place...but we would also be reminiscing about the summer vacation that had just passed. 

The Yolo County Fair begins for another year this evening. Still a sign that the summer season is coming to a close. And what a fabulous summer it has been!!!

READY!!!

I am SO ready for it to be Friday!! For some reason, this week seems to be dragging by. You would think that would be a good thing, considering that it's my last week of summer before school starts up, but the problem is that time only drags while I'm at work!!!

Tuesday, Matt, Jason and I took the boat out. After Sunday's incident, I was nervous that we would be "boatless" for our Tahoe trip. Luckly, Matt had a slow day at work on Tuesday and was able to give the X-10 a little TLC. The three of us went for a short river cruise that evening, and everything went smoothly! Let's hope that holds true on Lake Tahoe in a week!!

Last night, Matt and I went to dinner with his Dad and Step-mom to celebrate. Shellhammer Constructions bid was accepted to build a duck lodge out in the middle of no where. Basically, they'll be the general contractors for the completion of a main "lodge" house and five smaller residences (2 bed, 2 bath each), and I think one or two other buildings. It was quite the surprise that their bid was accepted as they were competing with three other contractors, but no complaints!! We're super excited, and very thankful : ) There hasn't been a day this last year that Matt has left for work and I have been saying praises that there is work to be done. 

Tonight, we've got some work to do in the office. I think my time with assisting the business is drawing to a close. Matt really has stepped up so much since his sister left, and has made a 110% effort to learn the ins and outs and improve things. I'm so proud of him, and am really happy that he's educated on what is going on in the office and not just the jobsite. 

Tomorrow, my two co-workers and I are doing a light shopping trip to the outlets. I'm excited for that - hoping to get a pair of jeans and maybe one or two fall tops. As my health and fitness plight continues, I don't want to invest a whole lot in new clothes as I'm hoping that in a few months I'll be down a couple of sizes! Then, after shopping, I think I've convinced Matt it's time (three months after we started!) to finish painting our third bedroom. Once that's done we can get flooring in there and make it an office, which will be so great for when I'm in school - especially with the online class I'm taking this semester. 

Saturday, we are thinking of getting out of town. Originally we wanted to go away for the whole weekend, but with the Tahoe trip being next weekend the logistics just weren't there as far as funds, the dogs, etc. So, probably a day trip to the coast....we'll see! 

Sunday, we'll be boating with the Allen's. It probably seems like we do this a lot, but in all reality we have to plan trips with them WEEKS in advance. This particular trip was planned so far ahead that I forgot about it and accepted an invite to a bridal shower. Oops! Luckily, Matt reminded me of the Allen's and I was able to correct my acceptance in a non-rude amount of time. Don't worry, I'm still sending a gift!

Well, this whole post pretty much ended up being a summary of our week long events. Kind of boring. Hopefully soon I'll have a good story or something besides the regularities of life and menu plans. Ha!

Manic Monday

We had a good weekend. Friday was "date night". We don't do this often, as there always seem to be plans with friends, and in between those we like to be at home, but we had planned this night for like a week, so it happened. It started out with dinner at Mikuni's (a sushi restaurant) in Davis, and then we went and saw The Hangover. It was funny, but a little crude at parts - definitely not something I would want to watch with my Mom! All in all, we had a great time. 

Saturday we just kind of hung out. Had some champagne with the Allen's before they went to Tiffany's 20 year class reunion. Then, we rode our bikes down to the park to say hello to some friends that were at a party there. I stayed home the rest of that evening - it was relaxing. 

Yesterday, we attempted to take the boat out, just the two of us. We got out of the launch area, and the boat started over heating (again). Luckily, we were able to get it out of the water without trouble. But, it was a bummer that we didn't spend the afternoon on the water as planned. Now, I don't know what we're going to do as far as getting the boat fixed goes. Matt said taking it to the shop is too expensive. My thought is, if taking it to the shop is too expensive, isn't it too expensive to have a boat in the first place??? We'll see.....I still think we should sell it and put in a pool : )

My menu is kind of weird this week. I had originally planned a chicken dinner, but then there happened to be some fish on sale at the store, so I got both.  One of these meals will carry over to next week....

Herb crusted tilapia, broccoli cheese potatoes, salad

London broil, squash casserole, green salad

Ranch chicken cutlets with veggies

Chicken stuffing casserole (most likely the meal for next week!)

Wedding Reception & Honeymoon

Kelly's Korner is hosting another wedding "Show us your life" Friday. This week, it's wedding receptions and honeymoon....

Our reception was held at the same place as the ceremony - RH Philips winery. It was a blast!! 

For food, we did heavy appetizers instead of a sit down or buffet dinner. Actually, there were so many appetizers it was like a buffet (no one walked away hungry!), but people were able to "graze" as they wished - there wasn't a set schedule for dinner hour. We went right into dancing after everyone had gotten something to eat and drink. Here's Matt and I having our first dance:

The rest of the reception was fabulous! We kept it simple. I didn't even have a cake to cut - though we did have a lovely dessert bar : ) The dancing went on for hours. I believe these two pictures are to the song "Shout". Ha!

And then, we were off to our honeymoon!

I have yet to develop the pictures from our honeymoon (Oops!). We didn't take our digital camera, and used one of those disposable things instead. We spent a week in Puerto Vallarta and it was amazing. Lot's of good food, the beach, swimming, playing, etc. We even swam with dolphins, something I've always wanted to do. I don't have any of my own pictures, but I found this online - it's the resort we stayed at....

August Already???

I seriously cannot believe how this year is flying by!! Wasn't it just New Years?!?

Anyway...not a lot to report. We had a nice weekend. Friday night we went to a graduation party for Matt's step-brother. It was fun, but we felt old!! Saturday we took the boat out to the river. It was a nice, uneventful trip. And yesterday I convinced Matt to do a little clothes shopping for himself. We went to JC Penney and were there for about 20 minutes and then he was done. He did get four shirts though, so it's progress! After that, we came home and I cleaned and he lounged. We had a last minute dinner date with the Allens. Always a good time! Speaking of dinner, here are my three meals this week:

Steaks, asparagus & garlic stuffed red potatoes

Mushroom Parmesan, salad & tomatoes (our veggie meal)

Hamburgers, potato salad & green salad

I've been recording a few cooking shows that I like to get some new ideas for dinner, so hopefully I'll be making some new recipes in the coming weeks. Paula Deen, Sunny Anderson & Claire Robinson ROCK!!!