River Rendezvous

Wow- what an exciting weekend! I have been working with a non-profit group called cityWILD since May. I was contacted to help design all of the media materials for their annual benefit event, River Rendezvous. I designed the sponsorship packet, flyers, ticket brochures, tickets, and the slideshow that played during the event. The event was this past Saturday at the Gothic Theater. Jon and I were given VIP tickets for all of my hard work. This meant that we got to sit in the mezzanine level and rub elbows with the title sponsors, have free drinks, and free food.



Jon and I ended up sitting with Rob Eldridge and his wife Julie. Rob played a variety of guitar during the cocktail hour and dinner. He is a very talented musician, so talented in fact that his music is now the background music on my Fries the Moment Design website.

Since I was a sponsor through my design donation, my business and my name were on the slideshow. That’s right- twelve feet long and in lights in front of 400 people that have enough money to support non-profits!!! And as if that wasn’t good enough, the executive director of cityWILD, Seth Winnerman, gave a huge “thank you” to me during his introduction on stage at the event!!! I was so excited to have my business promoted like that. It was so encouraging to be there and know that my side business got us there.

Senator Ken Salazar was honored with the Role Model of the Year Award.

The event was a huge success, they sold more tickets this year than any other year in the past, and the live auction was awesome. They had 10-12 different packages which sold for anywhere between $1,200 and $5,000. Maybe someday Jon and I will have enough money to donate like that. The auction was followed by the main event- Big Head Todd and the Monsters!! I have never seen them in concert before and they were amazing. I always say that you can judge how good a musical artist is based on how they sound live compared to how they sound on the radio. Big Head Todd and the Monsters passes- they were great. My favorite part of the concert was when they added 4 horn players to the band.

On Sunday, our little Stella puppy turned 1 year old! She is half way through ‘”puppy”. She is such a good Labrador. She has mastered "sit" and "stay", now she is working on her acrobatics while catching her squeaky fish mid-air. We didn’t do anything crazy, but we did put a candle in her food for dinner. Happy Birthday Stella!

Lunch Anyone?

Needless to say I will NEVER use the BROIL setting again with out watching it like a hawk! We went to Taco Bell instead of attempting to digest the charred quesadilla's.

We Have Green Thumbs

Jon and I planted our front garden this weekend. I am proud to say that we got it done under budget and in the time frame we wanted. It was a little overwhelming, but with the help of my Aunt and the nice lady at the nursery we got it all figured out. We bought a Weeping White Spruce, a Dwarf Dog Wood, two Blue Star Juniper’s, Fountain Grass, three Mum’s, and about 150 bulbs. Surprisingly we were able to fit all of this, including the two bags of compost soil and six bags of mulch, in our car! It was a forest on wheels.

We had to finish removing the root ball from the ugly spider bush that was there when we bought the house, and re-grade the area before we could start on our own landscape design.

Things you find when you redo 50+ year old landscaping:
1. HORSE (ok, so it was a little toy figurine, but still a horse)
2. Spoon
3. Bullet (Yes, a real bullet- Jon thinks it is for a revolver)
4. Piece of a chain link
5. Ball of yarn
6. Glass
7. Sock
8. Wonder Bread Bag with plastic tie
9. Peanut Shells
10. Concrete
11. Brick Pieces
The cats were very excited to be out all day on Saturday and Sunday. They would check in every now and then to see how the new jungle was coming along. We let Stella hang out in the front yard with us on her long leash. She did a very good job as “Middle Management”.

Overall I am very pleased with how it turned out. I hope that all of our bulbs make it through the winter- it will be so pretty in the spring if they do. It was nice to spend time with Jon doing a project together. I feel like that our time together is rarer than it used to be, and it is not very often that it is just the two of us working on the same project at home.



(The little sticks are where the bulbs are planted)

Pee Wee Flag Football

Last Tuesday, Jon and I went to watch one of my little cousins play pee wee flag football. Joe is 7 and he did a great job out there! Pee Wee flag football is one of those sports for kids where “everybody is a winner” and “everybody gets to play”. Because everybody gets to play- at the same time- there are probably 15-20 kids on one side and 15-20 kids on the other. Since these boys are just learning the sport they don’t really know where to go or stand, so every time the QB gets the ball, a pile of boys in bright shirts and flags appears in the middle of the field- regardless if the ball is there or not. Despite the dog pile practice, there were several good plays, and Joe was a star and was handed the ball several times. Some times he became one with the pile, and a few times he was able to avoid before one of his flags was torn off. Ma and Pa came to watch the game too. It is always nice to see them. Andrew, the youngest brother, was so cute... he is getting so big :(

A Wedding and then a Bee Sting

Last weekend Jon’s childhood friend Bo got married to Dawn. Jon was the Best Man, and I think that he did a great job with his responsibilities. He was prepared with snacks and water for the groomsmen. He made sure the bride and groom, parents, and wedding party were sitting where they were supposed to when there was no apparent set seating at the reception. And he kept his cool when he was told there would be no toasts, and then informed that the Maid of Honor was going to give a toast, even though he had already prepared a speech. On Sunday we went over to Bo and Dawn’s house for a post wedding BBQ, only to find that it was a BBQ for Bo’s family, and Dawn was having a BBQ at her parents house with her family…. The food was good though. It was great to see our friends Trevor and Jenny who came in to town from Massachusetts for the Big Day. We are looking forward to their wedding next spring.

On Sunday Jon and I went to the driving range and I got stung by an invisible bee in the middle of my middle finger! My finger swelled up so bad that I had to take my wedding ring off, then the swelling went down, and then back up worse than the first time that night. I never even saw the bee or wasp- but it sure did hurt!

Oh- in other news- we bought our plane tickets to go to Brazil for Ana’s graduation in January!$!$!$!!!!!

As always visit the "Pictures" link on the right for more visual aids.

The Boys (Trevor, Bo, and Jon) at the rehearsal dinner



The Best Man making sure the Groom looks good.



Dawn and Bo



Trevor and Jenny



Jon and I

Happy Birthday Jon!!

Just a quick note to my wonderful husband for all the world to see. Happy Quarter-of-a-Century-Birthday! I love you!

Spider Bushes B-Gone!

Three of our bazillion juniper bushes in our front yard are finally gone! Now we can put something pretty there that will (hopefully) not house large ugly spiders and their families. Jon did a great job cutting these out. It took all summer, but it is progress, and now is the perfect time to plant for next year. I must admit I am very overwhelmed with the prospect of deciding what to plant, how much to plant, and how to take care of said plants once planted. My thumb needs some greening. Next year we will do the other side and maybe get to the backyard too. For now we are just doing baby steps.