4th of July Weekend

Every year, I feel like the 4th of July sneaks up on me, and before I know it, I've got no plans. Poop. Probably as a result of this, Dave and I don't have any 4th traditions - unless you count rarely seeing fireworks. Last year we were in Perth, Australia, and Dave had a kangaroo steak for dinner and we saw a movie; the year before we were in Maryland at the Grebb's; I can't remember the years preceding those... So this weekend will at least be memorable.

On Saturday, we had a JO wine tour arranged in Paso Robles. For me, I wasn't thrilled about driving to Paso, spending 50$ for me to ride around in a limo (when i could be driving since I drove up there anyway) and then having to drive back. But it's never a dull moment with the single guys, that's for sure, and Dave found a way to pay for our trip.

Here we have Dave getting a Hanna Montana airbrush tattoo on his lower back. What we like to call a "Tramp Stamp."

When some of the single guys said "I'll pay you $100 to get a Hanna Montana tattoo" "Yeah I'll throw in another $50" Dave weighed the pluses and minuses and immediately said okay. So, there we paid for both our of limo tickets, all the wine we purchased, and then pocketed a bunch. Woot!

The day escalated quickly and was a lot of fun, save the last 45 minutes which were nothing but d-r-a-m-a. Aside from the drama, this was the first full-out day of neck pain, and I was poppin' Tylenol like they were Pezz...



On Sunday, the actual 4th of July, we had no plans. We used Dave's well earned money to go to Walmart-ugh-and buy two racks of ribs, which ended up being waaay to much and one sits calmly in our freezer. Dave and I realized we hadn't had ribs (homemade) since Summer 2008, when Mary and Kyle came to visit us in Virginia Beach. We decided to try two recipes out of the Webber Grill Book: one saucy, and one Memphis-style rub.

The Rub.

The Apple Mop Sauce.

Grilling, with some hickory chips, and sweet corn.

YUMMY. The rub was a bit peppery, the mop was awesome (it has shallots in it, and Dave said all he could taste were the onions, eeeeewwww. I, however, loved it.) the corn was amazing, the squash was bland.

before and after

Peach Cobbler with some local peaches. (I doubled the amount of crust.)

Slider, being Slider, and celebrating. 

After dinner, we went over to the Stephen's house for some fireworks. Local fireworks here are super lame. They are only on sale July 2-4. They cannot go more than 5ft off the ground. So we all sat on the curb to get a dog's-eye-view in an effort to make them more spectacular. 

Look! It's a picture of ME and DAVE!  And Noah. I look like a tent in this shot, but my dress is red-white-and-blue. Not the greatest picture, but it's at least a documentation that we were there together, all three of us :)

So.

So. Dave's been gone for almost two weeks, boo, in Panama City, Florida. He comes home on Thursday, yay! Since he's been gone I've attempted to keep busy. I attended a surprise birthday party for a friend from church, attended a birthday soiree for a friend/Katie's neighbor, and saw a local production of Butterflies Are Free preformed by the King's Players. I met the director at Jo's soiree so it was fun to chat theater for a while. Our church was scheduled to have a church picnic on Sunday at a local ancient park with big trees, but due to high winds (25mph) we had to stay at the church (not nearly as fun). I also pet-sit Topher last weekend. Slider enjoyed having some company and playmate, but I think he was worried Topher would be a permanent addition - he just wasn't himself all weekend. This week I've been preparing for the Hamilton Invasion, who also arrive on Thursday. I'm driving to LA to pick them up, and we're banking on their "packing light" abilities so that' we'll all (7 of us) fit in our Highlander - with 3rd row. So I've been busy making nest-beds for the youngest boys, including a "clubhouse" in the walk-in closet in the guest room. I decorated it with Dragon and Navy paraphernalia and put a touch light and night-time reading books in there. It's pretty cool. It's like Nathan and John's own room, and I think Connor's going to be bitterly jealous. Ohwell.

Noah and I are off to our regular doctor's appointment with Dr. Shipper, Katie is accompanying.

Another week goes by..

Another week passes by. It started off pretty rough - as is usual - with trying to make doctors appointments and not being able to and trying to sort through it all. The week picked up though. Katie and I - with Maya and Caleb - went shopping in Fresno, and visited Laura at Anthropologie as we oogled over the clothes there. Dave signed us up as volunteers to work a concession stand at the Fresno Grizzlies AAA baseball game. While we didn't have to actually cook the burgers, we did everything else, serving hundreds of people, and it happen to be Dollar Beer Night so the place was bouncing, even though it was a crispy 55degrees out and progressively getting cooler. I can honestly say that I have not worked that hard in a long long time. Another wife and I even did the dishes after the park closed. We raised money for the squadron's MWR fund, and I'm not sure what our total is yet. I also do not recommend eating anything from a ballpark: while the place was "clean", the food is "fresh", but it is all SO gross. Stick with hotdogs: at least there you know you don't know what you're eating. The "most interesting" item we served was a Frito Pie. I'm sorry if I offend anyone, but it does not sound appetizing to me. Two bags of Frito chips, topped with Nacho cheese, tomatoes... I don't even know what else, but I stopped listening after they said chips and cheese.... Friday, Dave and I had date-night and ate at Toshiko's restaurant in Hanford. It's a Japanese restaurant, but pales in comparison to those who've recently eaten real Japanese food. They don't even serve Toro, I mean really! And no Ramen! Blah! Saturday, Dave and I drove to Monterey for the day. We ate at a place called Pepper's Mexicali Cafe in Pacific Grove and went to the Monterey Bay Aquarium. I now want to live in Pacific Grove - the houses there are just my style. I can't even imagine how much many millions they cost...We drove up "The Five" on the way there, and took 198 all the way back. I-5 is a major highway and not too scenic, but 198 was really scenic, very twisty, and lots of valleys and peaks to look at. Today, Sunday, we drove up to Fresno to leisurely watch a Grizzlies game, which is definitely the way to see a game. I even kept score, using all the nerdy stuff my dad taught me. I had some trouble remembering how to mark everything, but the basics were there. The Grizzlies won 4-3 with an exciting 2 single run back to back home runs in the bottom of the Eighth.

We've chosen a name and will reveal it after we've told our parents.

the Weekend

Dave and I had a nice uneventful weekend together. On Friday night, we drove up to Fresno to celebrate the birthday of one of Dave's fellow-JO's (Junior Officer). There were about 10 of us, Laura and I being the token wives. We ate at Ruth Chris' Steak House.... I've not been a fan of red meat or chicken since getting pregnant, so I had the vegetable options, with a crab-cake starter. In case you've never been there or heard of it, this restaurant basically sells only steaks, with seafood options to satisfy the wives, or girlfriends that will inevitably get taken there. It's also very expensive: $10 beers, $18 appetizers, $42 steaks. Ouch. The cheapest thing we ordered was the $9 creme brule. Oh well. We don't spend that much regularly, and it was a special occasion. After dinner we went out to a bar, and were home by 1am.

On Saturday, we hung out. Didn't do much. Slept in, for one. We had dinner at a friend's house; they'd gotten up at 6am to start brisket, and again, not being a fan of meat currently, it was good, Dave really enjoyed it.

Sunday was church, where we (I) had a minor melt down. We spent the afternoon in Fresno, attending Triple-A baseball game of the Grizzlies, the field-team of the San Fran Giants. The Grizzles won 7-6, through some anxious innings.

We got a call on Sunday evening from the genetic counselor from Clinic Horrid. The Amnio results confirm that our baby has Trisomy 18. As odd as it sounds, Dave and I were relieved. We've prepared ourselves for Trisomy18, and if it had been something else, like something hereditary, we would have been broken all over again. No word on the gender yet. I've got a doctor's appointment on Wednesday morning, and hopefully the amnio results will have gotten to her by then so she can tell us more information.

On a happy note, I saw a video of one of my sorority sisters being proposed to. So sweet. Made me cry tears of joy.

What have we been up to recently....

-My friend Katie hoested a birthday party for me last week. We made chocolate mousse from scratch and Diane's red sauce recipe. Unfortunately, Dave was on duty that night and wasn't able to attend my party, but he did make me a birthday breakfast of pancakes :)

-Resolved my expiring drivers license issue - via military extension. A process involving lots of paperwork including a letter signed by the squadron's Commanding Officer.

-This past weekend, Dave went skiing with the other Junior Officers in his squadron at Lake Tahoe. I think he had a pretty good time, we'll see if he took any pictures to document it. He said the skiing there uncomparable to that on the East Coast. I'm looking forward to skiing there next winter.

-While Dave was skiing, Katie took me to Anaheim, home of the Angels and Disneyland, and her sister's NAWG conference. I was introduced to the very different side of the American economy as we ate dinner and held a live auction for the National Association of Wheat Growers. We had a grand ole time helping Cori set up for the banquet, and Katie and I were runners, retrieving contact information from the winning bidder. Saturday was spent at Seal Beach, a great example of un-commercialized California beaches, reeking only of alluring charm. We spent hours wandering along Main Street's shops, finding some great birthday gifts for Maya (I bought her a Fancy Nancy sparkle puzzle and Katie bought her a pink ukulele, which she'll learn to play guitar on, or just play with). We had lunch at Crema Cafe and it was ahhhmazing. I'm still dreaming about that turkey sandwich. We ended the day - and the conference obligations - with a celebratory dinner at the Cheesecake Factory, where we discussed Cori's future plans to move to Thailand as a missionary-slash-agricultural researcher. Sunday we had planned to go to Hollywood, but low-and-behold, it was Academy Awards night, We considered star-gazing, but decided to check out Huntington Beach, the copywritten capital of Surf City, USA. We had a great lunch there, and a brisk stroll on the beach where we did see a surfer catch some wave.

-Dave's been on a night schedule last week and this week. This means he doesn't go in to work until 10ish, but doesn't get home from work until 10ish either. It's messed up our relaxing evening routine and I don't care for it. We'll be happy when this phase is over.

-I fixed a running toilet. Our toilets have the tendency to run and run and run, and after discovering the cause being that the chain was catching under the plug, I did some fiddling and shortened the chain. It's worked in the short term, but we'll see how it does in the long-term.

-I had a baby appointment this morning. It took all of 5 minutes. We listened to the heartbeat and was very glad this was an external magic wand instead of an internal magic wand. We'll find out the sex right after we get back from Germany, in about 6 weeks.