So Megan and I are full of great ideas.  Once, we were going to open up a boutique that specialized in designer clothes for your pet chicken.  If I remember correctly, we were going to call it "Just Us Chicks" and hire a chicken named Henrietta for our store mascot.

Then, we went to Food Truck Friday (which, by the way, was a blast) and we decided to open up our own Food Truck business.  I don't think we have named our Food Truck yet, but we did take a cooking class at the Salud Cooking School.  I'm pretty sure that we now know everything we need to know....

Wait a minute...I just went over to Megan's blog to steal some photos and I realized that she has already blogged about our cooking adventure.  So, forget this....you should read Megan's blog! 

https://thatwasnttheplan.wordpress.com/2015/06/02/salud/

To Be Continued...

Mi Familia

I wanted to share a few more of my loves...

Scott & his mom.  I really hit the mother-in-law jackpot with Kathy!

The Helms Family.  Not all of my aunts & uncles could make it to the wedding but the ones that did sure look good!!!

 

 Dad and all of his beautiful sisters

Mom with her brother and sisters.  (Mom was the baby of 14 children!)

Grandmother Lanford

 My sweet, sweet Sue (right).  I miss her more than words can say.

The young girl to the far left is my cousin, Lauren.  Lauren is now an actress in New York City.  The handsome boy to her right is my cousin, Daniel.  Daniel is now a teacher at Myers Park High School.  (Yes, I've been married for a while).  The beautiful lady in the middle is my Mrs. Ruth Patterson.  She was the pianist at my church for over 40 years.  She is also the mother of one of my oldest & dearest friends.  

And, because I can't wait to show this to him at my yearly physical next month....here is a picture of me & my doctor, John Sensenbrenner.  LOL.  He & his wife Kim are dear friends of our family.  

 

Thanks for indulging me as I shared the photos with my family!!!  I know it has been a long time since some of my aunts have seen these photos!

Photo Share...

My friend, Connie, said she would like to see a picture of my wedding dress.  I went a little overboard.  Sadly, this doesn't even begin to scratch the surface of all of the pictures in our photo album.  I wish I had the patience to scan them all in for you.  

My dress, along with the bridesmaid dresses, were made by Jim Hjelm.  The top had little white "pearl like" beads which were made to look like flowers.  The bottom was silk taffeta...I think.  

Linda, as you can see, the church has been remodeled since my wedding.  Long gone are the brown wood & green carpet!  I have to say that time has not been good to my photos...the carpet was not quite that ugly of a green color!

I am so thankful to say that all 3 of these girls are as big a part of my life now as they were then.  

PS.  Nothing was more fun that spinning around in that dress. 

Scott & my brother, Kevin

 

This picture shows a little bit of the back of the dress

Yet again, the carpet was NOT that shade of green.  ??? It was more of a blue...

This picture appeared in Carolina Bride magazine

The new & improved Helms Family

Connie, I told you I wore socks... (socks & Mary Jane's)

 

 The Beginning....

Parental Warning

You know your kids are spending too much time at their grandparents' house when....

You catch them taking each other's blood pressure.  We were eating lunch at mom & dad's house Sunday and dad noticed that my niece and nephew were on the couch taking each other's blood pressure.  :-) 

It looks like Daniel gave Laura a good report!

Life Is Good Again - Balto Edition

Poor Balto.  Two weeks ago yesterday (Saturday), he went to the groomer.  Apparently The "Balty Dog" either has a skin allergy to the shampoo that was used OR he felt itchy in the area where he received his"sanitary shave".  Long story short, he developed "hot spots".  I have since read that this is a very common issue with Retrievers.  He did it to himself by licking....(lesson learned; we now have an e-collar for him) 

Due to unusual circumstances at work last week, I was unable to take any time off.  I asked Scott to please take Balto to the vet on Wednesday.  He didn't think Balto needed to go.  Then, I asked him to please take Balto to the vet on Thursday.  He didn't think Balto needed to go.  So...we spent Thursday night at the Emergency Veterinary Clinic (cough, cough).  Here's what he looked like when we brought him home.   I even remember thinking at the time that this picture didn't truly show how red his behind was.  

Our sweet boy was in misery.  Despite being on antibiotics, painkillers and a cooling spray, no one slept in our house Thursday night.  In fact, Balto RAN around the house for 24 solid hours.  He wouldn't sit down or drink water.  He did, however, have a great appetite.  When I came home from work Friday, he stood in front of me, and all of a sudden his eyes started rolling back in his head and he started to fall over.  I wasn't sure if he was passsing out, falling asleep or even dying from dehydration.  Thankfully, he was falling asleep.  Scott was able to get a prescrption from our vet for xanax and we just knocked him out for 2 straight days so he could rest. 

Today our boy is feeling reborn!  He is the happiest doggy around & wants to play constantly. Life is good again. 

(Picture taken 30 seconds ago) 

Blank

I'm sitting at my desk staring at the monitor wondering what on earth to write about.  Beside me are two sleeping, yet clean, dogs.  Blossom and Balto went to the groomer pet spa yesterday.  Here's Balto sporting the froggy bandana given to him by the groomer. 

Blossom kept scratching at her rose colored bandana so I took it off before I could take a picture.  I did take one of her with my dad last night.  

My 5K training is going but I have a lot of room for improvement!  I only worked out 3 days last week.  And....while my diet was better than December, I took the weekend off and ate greasy restaurant food on Saturday and Sunday.  Baby steps I guess.

My house is still a mess....I have made NO progress on that front.  Our new Sleep Number mattress arrives on Saturday so I will need to get ready.  We have to break apart the bed we have now and move it to another room.  

Greta is still hating her fluids every night but as soon as she gets them she runs around like a kitten.  Within 5 minutes she is purring on a warm lap, happy as can be.  Since this post would not be complete without a picture of Greta, I found her sleeping in a spare bedroom and snapped a pic.  You can tell by her face that I turned on the light and woke her up.  

Wednesday, I start a Marriage Enrichment class at my church.  The interesting thing about that is that Scott isn't taking it with me.  I keep teasing him that my side of the marriage will be richer than his.  I'll let you know how it goes.  Have a happy week!  My goal is to start posting 3 times a week....we'll see how that goes!