Book Club

     Tonight I hosted Book Club at my house. We had read "A Thousand Splendid Suns" by Khaled Hosseini and had a riveting conversation particularly about the family dynamic between Mariam and her parents as well as Laila and her parents and Mariam as a mother to Laila - go figure, we were a bunch of women! Also we were in agreement that the Taliban is disgusting, and so was Rasheed. (Go figure, they were a bunch of male chauvanists!)

     I tried to be a good hostess by providing yummy appetizers and to go along with our book, I made middle-eastern themed dishes. Boboli (tomato salad), cucumber and dill, hummus and pita triangles, green olives and for dessert: Turkish Delight. It was all really good except the Turkish Delight started to melt a quarter of the way through the evening (which didn't stop the kids!) and resulted in being tossed - four hours of hard work gone down the drain.

     Overall I would say the night was quite a success - recipes to follow.

(Boboli: 6 Large Tomatoes, 3 Tablespoons chopped chives, 1 Tablespoon garlic vinegar, 3 Tablespoons Olive oil, salt and pepper.  Slice tomatoes, season and pour on them the olive oil, previously mixed with vinegar. Sprinkle chives and serve.)

(Turkish Delight a.k.a. Lokum http://mideastfood.about.com/ud/dessertssweetspastries/r/turkishdelight.com)

(What a nice spread)

Big Girl in a Big Girl Car Seat!

     Charlotte finally got the go ahead from her pediatrician to get a forward facing car seat because her rear facing car seat was no longer safe for her. She was one pound too heavy for it at her last appointment, so Craig and I were really excited to get her facing forward and she absolutely loved it!

(Charlotte loves facing forward!)

(Yes, she's blowing a raspberry for the camera!)

     Also, Craig discovered some friends that were helping Shiner eat his dog food in our pump house. These toads are enormous and at night there are tons of them!

(Large Floridian Toad)

     Craig really enjoyed taking the boys to Youth Conference in Bradenton and got a picture of him with everybody that was able to attend before the dance. Everybody had so much fun and got to tell us about it the following Sunday at church which was nice to hear about. I can't wait for Charlotte to be old enough to join in some of these activities!

(Craig is in the top right of the photo)

We finally found our photo's from Jacob and Sam Oat's wedding in Florida. We were so lucky to be able to attend and it was such a beautiful ceremony on the beach. Below are a few photo's that turned out really well.  Charlotte was a really good girl during the whole thing, as usual.

(Samantha Sowell-Oats being escorted down the aisle)

(Samantha and Jacob sealing their promises to one another with a kiss)

(Charlotte gets a kiss from daddy for being such a good girl!)

And All I Had Was a Screwdriver...

     Since Craig and I are going to be staying in our rent house for longer than we expected, we decided it was time to make it more of a home than temporary housing. So, while he was away on business, I dug around in his stuff to find the tools necessary to hang pictures. Of course, all I could find was a screwdriver. I decided that instead of waiting, I'd just try it out and see how I did. The following pictures were hung with nothing but a screwdriver. I had to eye it to make sure it was level but I think I did okay. I know I probably should have waited for Craig, but when I get something in my head to do, I just do it.

(The wall over my computer, it's not finished...)

(T: Wall sconces from Felicia for our wedding; B: Cross from Grandma for Christmas over my china cabinet)

(Butterfly pictures from Grandma Ray)

(T: Plaques from our wedding; B: My mom cross stitched this for her house and passed it to me!)

     So it's not a real professional job, but this is just a rent house! We have a really busy few weeks coming up and I am so excited. Craig will be gone a lot which I hate, but we will endure and have as much fun as we can otherwise. Tonight he took the boys from church to a youth conference and is supervising a 3 hour dance, good luck! Also, Monday through Wednesday he will be away on business. Tuesday I will be hosting my first book club and I'm ready for that! Afterwards we're going to be preparing for Craig's family to come and visit us and go to Disney World - I can't ask for anything more than that!

Our Summer So Far...

     Saturday, July 10, 2010 Charlotte and I headed to the beach with our friends Holly and her 2 year old Aubrey.  Charlotte and Aubrey had so much fun playing in the waves and in the sand. They're not quite to the point yet where they interact with each other, but we all still had a really good time. After we played at the beach we all went shopping! Charlotte and Aubrey were such good girls as Holly and I consistently stuck them in car seats and drug them all over Bradenten.

(Charlotte enjoys playing in the sand)

     Also, my birthday present finally came in. Craig did such a good job hiding what he'd gotten me and I really didn't guess it was going to be a custom made spice rack! I'd been looking for a spice rack for close to a year at every yard/garage sale and antique shop we'd gone to, but couldn't find one. So Craig decided he'd have one made especially for me and it is beautiful. I love having it where it is in the kitchen because I couldn't reach them where they were over the stove. I had a step-stool but it was such a pain to get that out without stepping on Charlotte to get down one spice! I love my new spice rack. Sorry the picture is sideways, I didn't even think to check it before I posted it!

(It's sideways, but it's beautiful)

     Charlotte is such a big girl. She's finally got in two bottom teeth. So, as any first time mom would, I went to walmart and picked out some stuff to help take care of those precious little baby teeth. I thought I would have to fight her to keep them clean - however, she liked the flavor of the raspberry, flouride-free toothpaste so much, she brushes her own teeth. I figure it's like a dog and a hygiene treat, if she chews on it it's still doing some good! Plus she's so cute while she does it!

(Big girl brushing her own teeth!)

     Craig had a peanut conference in Clearwater Beach, Fl. this week and he was allowed to bring his family. So naturally we came! When we first got to Clearwater we met with his coworker and his wife and had lunch. It was delicious. After, Craig, Charlotte and I went for a walk along the road adjacent to the hotel with a lot of shops and found a little ice-cream parlor proclaiming the best home made ice-cream around. So we tried it out and it was very good! Charlotte really liked it, too! While Craig was in meetings all week, Charlotte and I busied ourselves as tourists and teamed up with Julie and walked about a mile to the Aquarium. It was small but we had BOGO ticket vouchers and so got in for half the cost. They're claim to fame is a dolphin they rescued who had been attacked by a shark and lost it's tail. A dolphin without a tail is a sad sight, but Winter got along alright and even had a prosthetic tail. Also at the aquarium were turtles, fish, sharks, sting rays and otters. The otters were very playful, but all of the animals at the aquarium were rescue animals, so they all were in rough shape. Later, Charlotte and I went to the playground and she swang in the toddler swings. She had a lot of fun and even made a friend. Then we met Julie at the pool but only stayed a little bit because Charlotte's cheeks were starting to get red. That night was the Bayer dinner where Charlotte got to crawl around a little like she likes to do. She made a ton of friends and even a little boy who was also 9 months old. He had quite a bit more teeth than Charlotte and it was his bed time. He wanted nothing to do with her but she kept trying to play with him. It was pretty funny. I loved that he had a bed time. His mom said he was even sleeping through the night. I love my little baby, but when will she do that with me? Normally she goes to bed close to midnight and gets up 5-6 times in the night before she wakes up at 7. Lately she's been pretty good about going down at 9 and getting up at 7, but she still gets up several times in the night, nurses a moment, and falls back asleep. Should I just let her cry? My instincts tell me no, but maybe that's just because she's my first. After the dinner Craig, Charlotte and I went to the playground where Craig got to swing Charlotte and she loved it. That girl loves her daddy. We went to the beach for sunset and let Charlotte get dirty while we enjoyed the view. The next morning Craig DID NOT want to get out of bed. But he did and for lunch he took me to a place called Crabby Bills. It was my first sea-food of the whole trip and I'm glad I waited. It was SO GOOD! For an appetizer we got seared Ahi and it was delicious. I got a snow crab entree with an addition of sugar-cane skewered shrimp and Craig had a yellow-fin Tuna steak. They were both so good and we got out of there just in time to avoid a nasty storm.

(MMMM....Cookies and Cream on a Waffle Cone!)

(Charlotte got to touch a star fish!)

(Do you think she knows how cute she is?)

(Seymour the Sea-Turtle ready to educate!)

(Look mom! A Pickle!)

(Daddy pushes Charlotte at the playground)

(Daddy and Charlotte head to the beach at sunset)

(Charlotte loves to play in the crashing waves!)

(Guess who didn't want to get out of bed!)

     It has been such an exciting summer. So much has happened it's kept us so busy and we love it. But we're really excited about Craig's family coming to visit us in the first week of August! We miss our family back home and wish everybody could come, but we're happy with what we're getting. It's more than we could ask for. I know Charlotte and Hailie are going to have a really fun time together but especially Callie who is going to get to have breakfast with the Disney Princesses! Hailies birthday is in August and Callie's is in September, so Craig and I went ahead and got them birthday presents for when we see them and we're so excited for that!