Thanks of the Week: Mechuwana, Green Shoes and the Lake

A little late thanks-of-the-week:  

Mechuwana Memories

This week I'm thankful for Camp Mechuwana's Music Theatre Camp.  My mom, sister, brother, grandfather, godmother, and cousins were all there this week.  It's really always been a family affair.  I have so many fond memories of camp. They performed "Sardines and Biscuits" this year, the show I performed my senior year at camp.  I played Joan Rivers.  This year the role was played by a boy.  So funny.

Relaxation

Learning how to "take a chill pill", as they say, is a work in progress for me.  I am proud of myself for being more aware of my stress level and taking time to just to breathe and enjoy myself.  Amidst all this wedding planning and working two jobs and just being uber busy, per usual, it's tres important to take a minute for yourself every now and then, and induldge in a mid-afternoon pick me up: an organge soda float, as I did today. :)

 Green Wedding Shoes

 My camera is seriously lame, but my green wedding shoes came in. Be still my heart....

The Lake

I just love going to the lake.  Harley loves to swim, and though I'm no mermaid (as much as I might wish I were) cooling off with a dip in the lake is so nice.  I'm loving that my husband to be has a go to lake camp, nice when it's as hot as it has been lately.

Post-4th Catch Up

So it's been a super busy couple of weeks, last week with Monday off, just flew by.  We had an awesome 4th of July weekend.  Saturday morning Nate worked while I got some housework done, then we both got wedding stuff done and went to camp for the evening.  Sunday (the 3rd) we celebrated the 4th, just because it was easier for everyone.  I look forward to that lobster all year long...mmmm.....  Then Monday, on the 4th, I went to the beach with Kate her sister, mom, mom-in-law and sister-in-law and her two boys.  Her oldest, Ethan, just wanted to be in the water the whole time.  I have to admit, I didn't really mind it, I love swimming in the ocean.

But man were those waves strong! That's Ethan laughing at the three of us getting knocked around...

 

And then Kate and I laugh when Chrissy gets taken out by a wave.  Don't worry, like 2 seconds later we got taken out too...

Kate and I built a sandcastle.  It was fun to do all that fun kid beach stuff you never get to do.  I can't wait to have kids just to be able to play with them and not seem like the freak adult playing by myself. :)

Last night we went down to camp and Harley had a blast.  She just loves to swim.  She jumps right off the dock, it's hilarious.  We took her for a boat ride for the first time, not knowing how she'd like, but she loved that too.  She liked to stand right at the front with her ears flapping in the wind, pretty funny.  She also was digging under water, I've never seen a dog do that.  She hold her breath, sticks her head under water and digs for rocks.  She can hold her breath a pretty long time.  Such a weirdo.

In other news Nate's little sister Kristen is engaged! Her boyfriend, now fiance, asked Nate for his blessing last weekend after the 4th party, and asked Kristen last Saturday.  I'm so so so excited for her!! I'll have lots of wedding plan wisdom to bestow. :)

Later dudes,

8 days till Christmas, just can't be

So the best and I have been super busy getting ready for the holidays. I got to swing by a new place downtown to try their bubble tea. It wasn't as good as the bubble tea I used to get in Boston, but it was still yummy...
Ok, so one of the first projects we've completed was making coasters. We took a strip of industrial rubber wall base and cut the lip off. Then we cut it into sqares. We printed off pictures of our friends and modge podged them on. I love making modge podge a verb.

We put a couple layers on top of the pictures. This is the stage where I was freaking out, being a modge podge newbie, I panicked that it goes on so foggy. But no fear, it dries nice and clear!

Oh, how we heart modge podge!!

Nate and I FINALLY got our tree. I was crying about it so much, Nate brought home a tree for me, and we spent an evening decorating it. Ain't it puurrrdy?


Lastly, our vanilla was ready to be bottled! We strained it through coffee filters to get any vanilla chunks out.
This ended up taking for-ev-er, so we strained it through a tea steaper.

Then we poured the strained vanilla extract into the little bottles we got. Kate got this funnel at Home Depot on sale for like a dollar....oil...vanilla extract....close enough...

Kate made these cute little bottle labels, you can't tell but they have pink ribbons on them.

In a moment of boredom I decided to make Harley a sticker head...she clearly wasn't happy with me...So I called her more names. "Hey, don't call me a sticker head!"

Oh the simple pleasures...

peace out,