Well, it's official! Happy Birthday Ryan! Thirty ain't as bad as everyone makes it right?? Right?? *smile*
So, to commemorate the big Three-Oh I've got a few pictures to show you (thanks Ellyn!). I'm sure Ryan is going to kill me when he sees this post on his phone in a few minutes, but they were just too dang cute to keep to myself.
Isn't he a sweetie!! But wait, there's more!
Look at those cheeks!!
And, a full 30 years later, I think he turned out pretty great.
(Sorry for the reused picture. I'll update the post later tonight with a new picture from dinner).
Well, tomorrow morning it will be official....my hubby will no longer be in his 20's! Ek...I'm not far behind, but I will continue to claim my 20's for another full year and 4 months so "nah, nah, na, boo boo!!" :O)
This past weekend we celebrated Ryan's 30th birthday with friends and family alike. On Saturday afternoon we had a little shindig for him at the Fox and Hound in Aurora. We had a few snacks for everyone, and it was really great to see everyone, especially since it's so close to the holidays. We know everyone is super busy right now, and we really appreciated the effort you made to be there to celebrate with Ryan.
Even my Mom and Dad came out for the celebration. Check out my mommy's new bangs! Aren't they cute. I'm so glad she did it!!
Ryan commented later in the evening how humbling it was to have everyone stop in the middle of the crazy holiday season to spend some time with him on his Birthday. He got some great gifts, but was honored to see everyone there to celebrate with him.
Check out some pictures of the cake I made. It was a total pain in the butt, but totally worth it!!
But, I have to confess. As cool as the outside was, the inside was where all the glory was at:
Gosh, talk about a crappy picture! Both shots I've got are blurry like that. Oh well, you get the idea right? It looks like caution tape on the inside. It turned out pretty good, but it sure was a pain to make. Let me know if you want a tutorial.
All in all, it was a pretty great day! Thanks to everyone for coming out and making the day special for Ryan.
And what that, no birthday post would be complete with out the "birthday song" video:
This past weekend we spent the weekend in Freeport while the boys hunted. It was second season shot gun and both the boys were successful!!
Ryan, Chris and I all took Friday off and made our way out to Freeport Thursday night. That gave them plenty of time to bag some deer and it paid off.
On Friday morning Chris and Dad sat together and Ryan sat alone. Ry saw a few deer but didn't take any shots and Chris and Dad didn't see any. It might have had something to do with the fact that they did quite a bit of whispering as my Dad was getting Chris ready and knowledgeable about the process.
All that instruction paid off big time when Chris shot his doe before 4pm on Friday afternoon. The boys left the house around 2 pm so when I received a text with a picture of Chris and his dear before 4pm I knew things must have moved pretty quickly. Chris's deer isn't a huge doe, but it sure is tasty that way. Think about how good veil is. That's because the meat is super tender. Chris's deer is much like that (trust me...I've been eating deer for 3 days now).
After getting Chris's text I checked in with Ryan to see if he had seen anything he. He said he hadn't so I certainly didn't expect to see two deer in the back of the pickup truck when the boys got home. I don't have a picture of Ryan with his deer, but I do have this shot of the back of the truck.
Ry's deer is laying closer to the end of the tail gate. You can clearly see that his is larger than Chris's but they were both great kills. Dad estimates that Ry's deer is maybe 3 years old, and Chris's was most likely a spring fawn.
The boys took the deer and had them checked in and then headed home. We didn't eat venison on Friday night since it would still need to be butchered and cleaned, but Saturday night we had a huge feast! Then on Sunday night, Chris and Brenna came to our house and we ground, mixed and packaged the meat, along with making another venison feast. Tonight I made tacos with it, so simply put, we've been feasting on those deer for a few days now. I think I'm going to have to come up with something else for tomorrow night :O)
WARNING!! I've put together a little video of the pictures and movie the boys took this past weekend. For the most part it's family (and non-deer hunter) friendly, but there is a short video included that is pretty gory. If you don't want to see that part, I suggest fast forwarding around :40 and going through 2:10. Trust me, you will thank me! I'm telling you, it gets a bit graphic, so be ready!
UGH! I don't even know how that is the picture YouTube pics to show up there. I've tried to keep the pictures pretty clean, but I can't do anything about that video. I am so so sorry!
In the mean time, I got tons of other stuff done this weekend including our Christmas cards. I'm headed to stamp and seal them right now so keep a lookout for them in the mail.
Another great weekend on the books. The holiday season is upon us so we've got tons going on so you know what that means! Blog posts for you guys. Keep on checking back....
Disclaimer: I didn't write this, I wish I did, but I didn't. She just summed it up more eloquently than I could. So, with that being said.....here's how I'm feeling:
Dear Non-knitters who love a Knitter, Today is the first of December, and I think it's probably pretty inevitable that you've heard from someone by now that Christmas is coming. (Pro-tip: They have scheduled it on the same day as last year. I think it's pretty consistent.) While regular people are about to have a very busy month, Knitters are under a special and unique strain. They have to do everything that regular people do, and in addition, they are undoubtedly knitting one or more items as gifts for Christmas, maybe for you. They are going to need special love and attention for the upcoming month, and we can talk about that more later, but for now, this is all you need to know. The knitting all-nighters, the frequent trips to the yarn store, the desperation and sobbing when the last darning needle is gone, the way that at least once in the next month they're going to yell "ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND WHY WOULD I WANT TO GO TO A MOVIE WITH YOU I CAN'T CABLE IN THE DARK YOU ARE SO INSENSITIVE" is about to start for you and your knitter. (If you know or are related to more than one holiday gift knitter, you may want to connect with others in the comments so that you can form a support group. Multiple knitter contact in December can be emotionally difficult.)
Some of you may believe that it's the knitters choice about whether or not he or she does this to themselves every year, but it isn't. For many knitters who suffer from this variant, there is no choice. Sure as a nightingale has to sing, a gift knitter must knit - and the opportunity to knit a gift is - to your knitter, a chance to make the love that they feel in their hearts tangible, visible and warm. No matter how it looks (and we admit, it is difficult to see the love when a hat knitter is using filthy language to describe Aunt Alice's head size at 3am) gift knitting is a powerful and meaningful expression of human affection. Each stitch contains the most precious thing a knitter can give - time and talent, and every person who receives said gift of time and talent should be nothing short of stunned with joy and gratitude. Think about it. Other people are going to spend 20 minutes at the mall picking out a present for you. Your knitter loves you so much that their gift to you took hours and hours and hours of time that nobody else deserved.
I love this blog (go ahead and call me a dork, it's fine *smile). And she is offering up 1 gift idea per day that all you Non-Knitters could give to a Knitter (like me). Although it's only day 1 and I can't read her mind, I have a feeling I will like/love anything that she suggests.
So, this post serves a dual purpose. First, it helps me express exactly why I've been feverishly knitting for at least 3 hours a night this past week (and will continue to do so up until Christmas). And second, it serves as a way to (conspicuously) add a few items to my Christmas list.
P.S. I will start my "Christmas" knitting in June next year!
