~A Whole Month of Bday Fun~

All of August was spent celebrating my birthday. It started with working on Extreme Makeover Home Edition with Tommy, Dad and my friend Angie. I was so excited that Ryan's (my youngest that I nanny for) birthday was in August too. The four of us (me and three kids) made cupcakes. We made home made vanilla with home made icing from Cupcake by Charise Mericle Harper. It's about a little cupcake that feels lonely because all the other cupcakes get "played with" (eaten) and he doesn't because he is 'just plain'. It's a really cute book. We have gotten it from the library three times now!
The kids LOVED helping out in the kitchen and it was a blast to decorate the cupcakes and leave one simple and plain! Here is a photo of the "other birthday kid" decorating away!

The final products! We each got to make six and eat one after singing Happy Birthday to Ryan and Happy Birthday to Meredith! Can you find the cupcake that the story is about?
When I woke up on my birthday morning Tommy had flowers and two cards for me. He put them in a vase with three other flowers (glass ones) that I got from the Columbus Museum of Art when we were first married.
Our friends Melissa and Dan from Bible Study were sweet enough to drop by with a card and veggies from their garden because we were not meeting for the month of August. It made me grin ear to ear when I came home and saw what they had left me. Melissa remembered me telling her about all the veggies that I did not have room to grow but wanted to some day when I had the space. How thoughtful.
One morning in the month of August Hannah and I met up for breakfast. It had been too long since I had seen her. We had such a great time talking. In two days she would officially start High School!!! I can't believe she is a Freshman now. I remember when we brought her to our house, she was two weeks old!
Hannah is very creative and artsy. She made me a necklace. That was something that we spent time doing together over a weekend in 2008. She said that she remembered that fun weekend and wanted to make me something new to wear. How sweet!
Two Tuesdays after my birthday I decided to have a birthday party, Basically it was the only night I had free. Friends were requesting that I do so! I was not planning on having one but when the sixth person asks you whats going on for the party... you plan one! LOL! I decided to have a themed Black and White party! I had fun shopping with my mom getting black and white napkins, decorations, Zebra Cakes "my cake", M&Ms, Oreos and more! We had about 10 people out on the patio and Brooke and Audrey too. Yes I babysat the night of my birthday party.
Audrey was so happy and giggly that night! Of course all of my friends were instantly in love with the girls. They hung out on the patio with us, played board games, flirted with my friend Sammy and later were put to bed, by Tommy, in our bed. I put my play list on to Taylor Swift and Tommy tucked them in. It was so sweet. Here's one of Audrey while I was tickling her.
Audrey had this thing where she was trying to climb over the couch and she would get stuck. What was extra funny was that she knew she was doing it for a laugh!!!
~I had to wear Zebra print for the party!~
~Hanging on the patio~
I know it's a little silly to blog this photo but I just had to. I ended up with 101 people posting Happy Bday on my wall! I'm gonna say it, "It made me feel special". Wow Facebook! What have you done to me?

Tommy's birthday gift to me was to have a Bed and Breakfast retreat after the first wedding we attended together where we were not photographing. On the way home from the Cleveland area we stopped into Grandpa's Cheese Barn and Sweeties as well. My birthday goodies from Tommy...
When we came into town on Sunday and my Mom had a surprise for me. When were in Cleveland with them in July, at a restaurant, I was tying to get one of the three of them to split the HUGE carrot cake slice with me. No one would and I was kinda sad but knew there was no way I could eat the whole thing myself. I come home to find she has made me Carrot Cupcakes for me. I felt so special. That was so kind and thoughtful of her. We all sat around the table and ate cupcakes along with our treats from the Barn. I loved all of my cards this year as well.
Jill also spoiled me this year with a bag of goodies, "Things that Meredith Likes!". I should have taken a photo. I totally forgot. She got me a new UofM tee, some photography and licence plate goodies (LOL) and more!! I love you Jill! Thank you so much.

If you haven't figured it out already, this blogs events are way out of order but I don't care! It's like a "smash page" from the new K&Company line... a thrown together page of things that make/made me happy! Happy 27th Birthday to Me! :)

~Extreme Makeover: Home Ed~

The Extreme Team made their way to Columbus, Ohio to build a home for a deserving family! I wanted to badly, for years, to be apart of it. When I found out that they were headed this way in August I told Tommy that I knew what I wanted for my birthday!!!
They chose the Rhodes family on Dewey Ave at 71 & 5th Ave. "Emergency brain surgery last year saved Mikia Rhodes but forced the mother of four to move her family in with her parents. This year, the home of James and Jackie Rhodes — in a neglected East Side neighborhood — will undergo a radical procedure of its own.".

Columbus Dispatch - Aug 5th 2011~The Rhodes~
Daddy, Me, Tommy and my friend Angie all went together. Daddy was sweet enough to drive as all after have a midnight breakfast - best scrambled eggs ever, carrot cake cupcakes and fruit! We needed it because our shift was from 2am - 8am (had to sign in at 1am)! Yea, you heard it right! This is us right before getting on the bus after signing in! See the tent?
~The boys are thrilled to be up this early!~
The team in charge would not let us keep our tags around our necks so I took a photo of it on the bus. No, not the EMHE Bus but the Shuttle bus that took us back and forth from the parking lot to job site.
Angie took this photo first and I just had to copy her - PROOF that we were up and rolling at 1am! LOL!
So we get the site only to find out that we got red t-shirts in stead of blue t-shirts because "our home" is the EMHE Christmas Episode! Ok, see if you can get this! We meet one of the building coordinators and she says I need two volunteers (one guy, one girl with a cell phone) to go stand guard of the lawn ornaments! What? Yep! The kids from the community center (that the family helps out) got to go shopping and buy Christmas decorations and decorate houses - for part of the Holiday themed episode. Guess what Tommy and I did?
I guess some kids were messing with them and trying to steal them so they needed some volunteers to guard this one and many more!
~Me&T~
Side view of the house around 7am or so. It's so much larger than the old house - as they always are! We DID get to go in after guarding the lawn decorations for 2 hours (we really wish we had brought UNO or something). Anyway, the house has an upstairs laundry room, 5 bedrooms, a patio on top of the garage, a two story living room and a large basement with two additional bedrooms! When we were leaving they were getting ready to paint. Since the four of us helped carry paint to all the designated areas we know what colors the inside will be! Let's just say if the furniture matches it is going to be one happy house!
We did a lot more than carry paint and stand guard. Daddy cleaned floors, we all carried waters and other drinks to the construction workers, constantly picked up trash and scraps! We sweated the whole time we were in the house! We'd get covered in sweat, dust and drywall, clean off our faces with our shirts, go back in and five minutes later we'd be dirty again. I also could not believe how hot it was inside. I guess I can considering that there were 35 people on the main floor at any one time. Going up and down the stairs, dodging laders, men and nail guns was interesting as well. But, the men sure were happy when we asked, "Water, Gatoraide, or Pepsi?".
One of the security officers took a photo of us at 8am before we left! I am so glad that our shirts came clean after a wash!
The bus ride from the job site to the parking lot was literally an 8 minute ride! Poor baby - So Tired! I love him in his shirt, so cute!
The 941-square-foot structure got turned into 4,000 plus home! This is stage that the house was in when we were working, right before paint and laying the floors!
As the bus rolled into town on Wednesday I was babysitting and not able to see the celebrities and reaction from the family. I CAN NOT WAIT to see the episode air in December. They even decorated the house with Christmas bulbs, bows around the windows and Christmas wreaths. They even had 50 Santas there for revil day!

There were no EMHE camera men filming while were were there so we will not make the show but I can't wait to see the reaction of the family!!!

~Well, That Was a First~

The first week(end) of August was quite eventful. Tommy and I also had a “first”! Tommy and I FINALLY got to go to a wedding TOGETHER and not work. It will go down in history for all of eternity that our first wedding that we attended together was Ann Maddox and Dan's Celebration. But that was Saturday, lets go back to Monday. Tommy had a session in the morning with my good friend Laura's younger sister, Julie, and her adorable son Liam. Check out the photos right here!

Wednesday morning I went to my parents to print some things (our printer was getting fixed) and when I got there I was offered some breakfast, can't say no to that. We visited for a few and then checked out the garden. OMGoodness once again – I couldn't believe it. The tomatoes were turning from green to red faster than we could pick them. We took two strawberry containers home along with some jalapenos and a green pepper. That same day I took the kids I sit for downtown! We took a tour of the Santa Maria and Franklin Park Conservatory to see the Butterflies! The kids had such a great time.
~Steering the Boat~
~Searching for Butterflies~
~Right before leaving~

Thursday morning and evening I worked on my ATC (Artist Trading Cards) for September. The themes are The Letter “H”, Sunrise/Sunset or Wild Card, I chose Sunrise/Sunset for mine. I used Tim Holtz Grunge-paper and cut it down to size. Then I used watercolor markers for “paint” the sky.

Also on Thursday The Extreme Makeover: Home Edition announced and surprised the family - a new house for a deserving family! I asked Tommy to go with me to Volunteer for a birthday gift to me! Daddy and my friend Angie signed up as well for Monday morning (the 8th of August) and we were officially counting down the days. Here is an article from that Thursday/Friday.

The next night we had fun Friday night plans. I signed the kids I sit for up for The Worthington Library Summer Reading Program – Baseball Themed! I was happy to! They had to fill in the bases for prizes and when they got “home” they got family pass of tickets to a Clippers game!

Tommy and I took them to the game. We had a blast with the three of them. I do have to say that I was so happy to have Tommy's help. I can handle the CmofArt, Santa Maria, Franklin Park, the Library etc but when you have a 2, 4 and 6 year old with a cooler (on wheels no less), diaper bag, baseball books, coloring stuff, sunblock, etc... it was nice to have a second adult to watch the stuff while we walked the field (they earned to be in the “parade”) and watch the other two and stuff so that I could take them one at a time to go to the bathroom, visit the living statue, go the fountain and walk the gift shop. I LOVE YOU TOMMY! Thank you for all your help that night.
~Me and Audrey~
~The "Parade"~

The next morning we went to pick up the Monte! Tommy's “other baby” got some work done and what a wonderful job! You might not have know what it looked like before but lets just say that the little touch ups made all the difference in the world.

Ann and Dan's celebration was the first wedding that Tommy and I had EVER been to together where we were not photographing... “Well, That Was a First!”. We sat in the back when we got to the wedding and Tommy couldn't really see. He said to me, “You know what? This is our first wedding together and dang-it I want to see it!”. I laughed and we moved up a toward the front. A minute later Jen found us. We were so excited to see her there and of course sad that Dave and their girls were not along.

We all went to Kent together and Jen and Tommy worked together after school. In Tommy's office Jen is the framed bride behind his desk and her oldest is the little girl in The Princess and the Pea photo by the door. The three of us enjoyed the ceremony together. Tommy challenged me not to take photos during the wedding. Right after the wedding Jen and I just had to get a photo together. Can you believe that we showed up in similar dresses and the same shoes?!

Before we “Got The Party Started” at the reception we had to get a photo. We truly were a trio the whole night long: ceremony, cocktail hour, dinner, desert and dancing! I am not joking when I say the three of us danced all night long.
~Tommy Dancing~

~Jen and Me at the reception - not dancing! LOL~

We had such a wonderful time together at our first wedding (not working) and did not want the night to be over! We enjoyed our time on the floor with the Bride, Groom and a few others from Kent that were in Commercial Photography (photo illustration). Here are some of "Photo-Ill Mo-Fos" below – Kent Nickname!

That night we stayed at the Westfield Inn down the road, another birthday gift – to stay there. I woke up to Tommy placing a breakfast plate right in front of me. :) After we ate we played some rounds of UNO. What a birthday morning!

I had to get a shot of the Inn on our way out of town. It was so beautiful. A lot of the other guests from out of town stayed their as well. This photos doesn't even do it justice.

On our way home Tommy took me to Grandpa's Cheese Barn – again, for my birthday!!! He had never been there before and really enjoyed it. There are two old barns turned into two specialty shops. One – cheese, cider, jam, ice cream and gifts, two – chocolate, candy and other sweets.

Tommy thought that the bag of marshmallows from Lucky Charms was so funny! I thought it was very creative as well. I could totally see someone sitting in a back room sorting the marshmallows from toasted oat-based pieces.
Then we went to the Cheese Barn. We must have sampled ten cheeses and five jams. We ended up buying some Beat Chips and Mustard Wasabi Peas! Tommy and I enjoyed some on the ride home and for snacks for the next couple of weeks.

When we got in to Columbus we went to my rents house. I picked two of my peppers and some other goodies to take home. Including jalapeno peppers for my Raspberry Jalapeno Jam!
~Mom, as cute as can be~

Mom and Dad were sweet enough to have some home made carrot cake cupcakes and birthday cards there for me! We sat and enjoyed each others company. Again, WHAT A BIRTHDAY!