A wonderful weekend

Josh's parents allowed us to come and visit on their houseboat all last summer. In return, we wanted to help clean it up this season, so we can continue to visit and not feel like total bums. We scrubbed all day Saturday, and Sunday night we took the pontoon out for some fun. Special thanks to Karen and Steve for letting us frequent their boat! And to Josh and Tiffany for being so kind to always invite us!



In this first picture, you can see the house boat. It's on the right. It's huge! And Beautiful!

Here are few shots from the weekend...

This last picture is one of my favorites! Mark jumped from the top of the houseboat. He got some BIG AIR! Looks like he's flying, huh?

Enjoy your week! The fourth is coming fast this year!

Headed South

Mark and I are headed to the boat tonite, for some much needed (and deserved, in his case) R&R. See you on Monday. I am sure there will be pictures and stories.

Happy weekend!

Just in case....

... you ever decide to get a husky, I thought you should know what you are getting yourself into:

That pile next to her is her undercoat. Huskies "blow their coats" in summer to regulate their temperatures. Their coat is their "heating and air unit", if you will. You can't shave them, it would kill them. So, brush we must.

For the record, this is the third pile we pulled off of her. We are halfway there.

So now you know what it will be like each summer, if you ever decide to get one of these. : )

I also thought it a good conversation blog, no?

Fathers Day

Father's Day is always hard, not having my dad to celebrate with, but I do have my grandfather- who I share a birthday with and ALOT of fond memories, with. Here are a few pictures from Father's Day, with grandad (aka: paw-paw) and the family.


Ryan with a very Vintage Texaco Truck. It was my uncles' and my grandmother thought Ryan might like it. Well, he sure did! He kept saying "vroom, vroom!"

Mark and Grandad, while he was opening gifts.

My wonderful Grandparents. Granmudda and Gia.

Grammy and Ryan.

Paw paw and Ryan

Happy (belated) Father's Day to all of my daddy friends, my brother in law, my grandfather, and of course, my dad. I love you all so much.

*special note: Wayne, I am so sorry I didn't get a picture of you and Ryan. Next year, hopefully?

Love,

Heather

No story

Here are a few pictures from last weekend. No story, as we were bored.


Mark Schooling some kids at the theatre on Guitar Hero. He played 'Yellow' on Hard and Kicked ass. Aww, baby- you so sweet! : )


Me and Courtney. We went to the marina. It was supposed to be ladies night for us...

...but we had some tag-alongs... : )

Happy Thursday!

Why I can't stop thinking about WATERMELON.

The lovely Jenny Woodall brought a diet to my attention recently, and being the half brain that I am, I decided to try it. Let me preface everything by saying, I HAVE NEVER BEEN ON A DIET. Nope, I'm not kidding. I have cut cokes out, I've tried the vegetarian lifestyle, but I have never followed anything that had more than 1 rule to it.

The diet is similar to Atkins. It's a diet doctors put by-pass patients on to lose weight before surgery and goes like this;

Breakfast: 2 Eggs, 2 slices of bacon, and half a grapefruit or 4oz grapefruit juice
Lunch: Salad with any amount and kind of dressing, meat any style, any amount
Dinner: Grapefruit again, Meat-any style any amount, veggies- any style any amount.

Drink 1/4 cup of this mixture, one time a day: 64oz Unsweetened Apple Juice, 48oz unsweetened white grape juice, 8oz Apple Cider Vinegar. (I suggest you chug it, it's not that great.)

You can use as much butter and seasoning as you like. Cokes must be decaffeinated and diet, but it's better to drink water.

Here's what you can't have: white vegetables, cheese, desserts, bread, sweet potatoes, fruit or celery.

You follow this menu for 12 days, then you get 2 cheat days. You can lose up to 12 pounds in the 12 days and you can continue the diet like this until you reach your goal. If you did it for 2 and a half months: that's 52 pounds!

Oh my GAWD, I am in Sugar Withdrawals. Not as bad as Mark though. He lost caffeine and sugar in the deal. So, I think he got the crappiest end of the stick. I had NO IDEA how much sugar I was eating. The headache has been going strong for two days now, but it's dwindling. The hardest part is figuring out what to make for dinner. It sucks eating salad for two meals, so I have been trying to come up with some interesting concoctions. Last night we had lettuce wraps with chicken and bacon. Tonight we had sausage with peppers. If you have any ideas, PLEASE SHARE. I am terrible with making stuff up- and if you won't do it for me, think of Mark. He's being deprived of caffeine!!

We've both been a little cranky, but in the end, it's for the best. I was thinking earlier about how hard it is to not cheat, when a thought entered my head: How hard will it be in 30 years to do this? I am thinking way harder. And Arby's.

No Muffliato charm here

Less than a month, folks. I am so excited, I just might have to dress up.

See what I am talking about... HERE

I just love being a geek sometimes.

Completely Gratutitous

Now that I am in a better mood, I thought I would reflect on my past blog.. you know the one I am talking about. There are times in a person's life when talking things out isn't really enough- these are the times when I turn to my blog. I have always been a writer, of sorts. When I was little and my mom would get upset with me about something, I would write her an apology letter, because I hated that I had disappointed her. As an adult, I write Mark a letter sometimes for him to find before work. Writing makes me feel better, because I let my true feelings pour out. When talking to someone, sometimes I feel like I have to edit and try to be tactful. In a letter, I am more inclined to be blunt and harsh, and sometimes that is exactly what a person needs, whether or not the things they say are true, or just meant to hurt someone in that exact moment, sometimes a person just has to be that REAL.

In the exact moment I was writing my blog, there were a lot of things bothering me that I needed to let out. However, making the things that were bothering me public knowledge wasn't a good idea- because I was worrying over someones problems that were not my own, so the venting didn't really help me at all. The only things that have made me feel any better are the power of prayer, and talking to Mark. I am overcome by the compassion and heartfelt conversations he has given to me in the past few days. Today, my words fail me in thanking him. God made Mark's presence in my life nearly 10 years ago and fork in the road for me. We had never been more than friends, and one day I simply saw him in a different light. I chose the path that brought us closer together and the poor guy did too. For me, it's hard to imagine being anymore thankful to God for putting Mark in my life, but each day he shows me a new reason to love, cherish and adore him.

Today I am thankful, and putting it into words is what makes me feel good.

the one where my blog goes over to the dark side

It has been a shitty week, of massive proportions.

Well, hello there! Not the sunny, happy, nephew loving Heather you were expecting to encounter? This girl is blue this week, ladies and gents, sorry. I actually cried today while getting a pedicure. WTF?

The crappiest part of all of it, is that I can't really explain what's bothering me. Not publicly, anyway. So, we'll just say that this blog will be about the other 5% of the week that has sucked, okay?

Moving on. I was supposed to be going out for a weekend of R and freaking R with some friends on their land yacht. This has been canceled. And when I really needed it the most. Damn! My weekend will now be spent installing a storm door for the in laws, cleaning out the garage and doing other boring crap that I really have no interest in being part of. Hopefully by then I will be a better sport about the whole thing.

Ryan (oh wait, there's the nephew loving heather!) also had to have a minor procedure done today. It was only a Colonoscopy, but he's so little and I have been losing sleep over it all week. It's the first time he's been "put under" for anything, so it was really scary. Thankfully, today was D Day and things went great and hopefully his little issues will be straightened out before too long. Holly and Wayne and the doctors and everyone else on the planet are hoping dietary change will sort out most of his problems.

So after all the stress about Ryan and the other 95% of my problems, (which leave me without words) I am not getting out of town this weekend. I am really hoping Karma turns this one around for me.

The only positive things I can say right now are: that Mark is completely understanding and wonderful and that Saber, (my husky) has hear head sitting in my lap-where it has been for the past several hours. I think she's on to me, feeling blue, which is nice to know.

I will leave you with this, 'cause it's sounding like a pretty good idea right now.

More on a day when I am a lot less bitchy...

Ryan's Birthday BASH

Pictures! As promised! Here are few highlights from Ryan's Birthday party.


Ryan with Brittany's Mello Yellow. He didn't want to give it back!


Sweet photographer (extraordinaire) Carrie Helle- Gotcha!


Bailey and me. I can't believe I didn't get one with myself and Ryan all day!

Rachel and Grammy relaxing...

Mark 'manning the grill' Holly came to supervise. : )

Tiffany and Olivia with her squirt gun.

Opening gifts: Once again, the boy racked up!

Kittrells' and Courtney enjoying some fine cooking!

Caden and his cousins in the sand box!

Banner... says it all, really.

All in all, it was a wonderful day! The party was a success: the kids had fun, there was PLENTY to eat, and the weather was hot, but pretty. I think Ryan had a great time. Special thanks to Carrie Helle from ella minnow pea for taking better photos than the ones you'll see here.

I know the video is shaky, too. I will get better... and dude in the hat... couldn't you see I was filming? MOVE! Happy Birthday, little man!

Love,
Aunt Hedda

A YEAR in review..

My nephew is a year old today. Time flies when you are having fun. I remember the moment he came into this world. Kicking and screaming. He was a dream come true for my sister and Wayne, and an unrealized dream for Mark and me. We have had a wonderful year of firsts-first smiles, first laughs, first words, first attempt at crawling, first time he pulled up, first time he rolled the ball back to us, and now, his first birthday.

Ryan was delivered via C section on June 4, 2008, He arrived at 12:11. He made his parents find a love they never new about, his aunts and uncles find a joy they never knew existed, his grandparents some of the most crazy people on the earth, his great-grand-parents all the more wise and loving and his extended family and friends feel so happy and blessed. We love you so much baby boy....


A year in review:

His arrival:

One month

2 months

3 months

4 months

5 months

6 months

7 months

8 months

9 months

10 months

11 months

12 months


To Ryan Cole Wilkins: We love you more than you will ever know. Happy Birthday, little monkey.

Love,

Aunt Hedda




PS... Birthday pictures to arrive in the next few days. : )

Boat, Boat, Fun!

Eric invited us out for some boat fun on Sunday. It was a wonderful excuse to get out of the house, without having to do yard work, and enjoy the sun. Chris joined us for the fun too. It was beautiful out on the lake, although none of us were brave enough to get in the water, whether that was due to the ash spill or the water temperature, I am not sure. We all needed some sun. We were a little pasty. : )

Chris' aim was to get scorched. I don't think he succeeded, but a valiant effort was made, nonetheless. There was no offering this guy any sunscreen. Mark and I- look at Mark's tan lines! He's outside a lot at work now, so he's got that hot farmers' tan going on. This is my first attempt at a two piece in 3 years, people. It's new and green and I love it. My hair is new and red, I love it too, just not in this particular photo.

Eric chillaxin. Even he looks like he needs some sun, and for Rasco, that's saying something! We had a great time. We pulled out a rap mix from 2002 and jammed out. Rasco has an arsenal of old music. Gotta love it. : )

Thanks Eric! We had a blast!