School Days

Another great weekend. We just enjoyed Friday night. Well, I packed! I am so excited to be leaving on Thursday to head home for Gary and Becky's wedding. We are also going to be able to see all the Aunts and Uncles, cousins, great-grandparents, grandparents, and even some of the cousins - both mine and Kendall's. It is going to be so much fun...I can hardly wait. And...we decided to fly rather than drive, which will be great because not only can we avoid the 13 hours in the car, we now also have that much more time to spend with family and friends!

Saturday we began our projects around the house. I began sanding a dresser set that we've had for quite awhile. We actually tried to sell the set a few times on craigslist, but alas no interest...and, it really is a nice heavy set just ugly as sin in its black lacquered finish. So, here is the before. We'll be sure to update you with the final end product. At the current rate it will probably be awhile before I can finish.
Aaron finished cleaning the soffits on the house. It looks so much better. The whole front and side of the house are done. Hopefully this will be the last time it is necessary seeing as the eaves were added in the fall. On Sunday, I went to church and said goodbye to a great friend of mine. Her and her new hubby are moving back home to Delaware. I first got to know her at work and then remained friends even after she quit to go back to school to be a pharmacist. She has been a great friend and walking/running buddy for the last few years and I will surely miss her.

This morning we all got up and headed to school to help Aaron get his new room ready for this coming school year. We unpacked boxes and arranged desks. The decorating still needs to be done, but it's a start. Before arriving at the school we headed into town to pick up some subway for lunch and what do we see on the way?...a women literally stopped in the median of the divided highway giving her kid a whipping. It was so ridiculously the south!

Here is the room as we left it this afternoon. Not too bad, but still needs some finishing touches.

Here is Kendall enjoying the paper "grass." We forgot to bring a blanket, so this was our ingenious attempt at creating a place to play.
Aaron and Kendall take a break from the unpacking to read a book. Kendall loves to be red to and as you can tell Aaron was really feeling this story!

We came home and we made arrangements with family for when we arrive back in MI and I made an apple pie - yummy. Now all that remains is two lousy days at work until we get to fly home - Yeah!!!!

Girls Weekend

The mighty push up...with a smile.

Well this weekend, it has just been me and Kendall. Friday night we went to a friends house for wine night. It was a lot of fun - after we got Kendall to bed. I think she is beginning to make 'strange.' It is so sad, her bottom little lip sticks out and she begins to get this sad little look, "like where am I?" We all brought a different bottle if wine, then put them in bags so as not to see the labels and tasted each one - only we had a spin to the traditionally wine tasting...we all had to say who the wine reminded us of and what we would like to be doing while enjoying it.

Saturday we went grocery shopping and then came back home to try out the new stroller (well the one we bought about a year ago at a garage sale for $4). As you can see Kendall did very well in her new big girl wheels...and now she can take in more of the scenery. Today we went to church and just hung around the house. Here she is showing off her new trick...touching her toes. Here is another video as well. She talks up a storm and really likes to kick now too. I can't believe she is nearly 5 months old!

Daddy should arrive back home in SC sometime tomorrow. Then it is back to work for me after having 4 days off to relax.

Well here is the video I promised. I was finally able to capture the laugh! Cheers to all!

Update

It's been awhile since our last post exchange. We celebrated Ms. Cindy's birthday in style with cupcakes.

Later on Sunday we celebrated again with a semi-surprise party at the lake. It was great fun buying and watching Cindy open all the old fart gifts.

Aaron's mom joined us on Tuesday. She and Aaron and Kendall all had fun just hanging out. Well, Aaron did get some work in...

He borrowed a ladder in order to clean out the eaves and wash all the dirt and mold away. He didn't quite finish, but you can see from this shot the before and after.

On Wednesday we attended our regular trivia competition and this week we came in 2nd place. We're moving on up...

Aaron and Grammy and friend Brooks then headed home to MI for a bachelor party. They left on Thursday evening around 5 pm and arrived safely in MI this morning at 6 am.

While Aaron was gone and Kendall was asleep I began to go through an old box of memories that my mom had given me awhile ago. It was quite interesting reliving my past, remember things that I had done in school and the like, and then also coming across old letters and birthday cards. I organized it all in order to throw some of it away and then keep some stuff in totes.

29 years of life, distilled down to three small totes.

Kendall and I also got some shopping in. I took her to Target and she was just cracking me up....screaming and laughing down all the aisles. I swear she laughed for about 30 minutes straight! It was so cute. So cute in fact that I had to call daddy while they were on the drive to share her laughter. I did also capture some of it on video this morning and hope to get that posted on the blog this weekend, so check back again soon.

Previous Post - Explanation

So...some of you might be wondering about the previous post...maybe not. Some of you might not have even had a chance to see it. Well, let me explain.

You see, my husband is a new member of the facebook community. And, my previous post... which you can't see because he hacked into my blog account and deleted it - rude!..was about my objection to his new found "hobby" (i.e. obsession).

You see everyone out there has been on us in the past few months to start accounts. I am hesitant - Aaron in all his infinite boredom this summer, started one. Now...let's just say he spends a lot of time on it. However, in the interest of full disclosure you should know that even as I write this he is in the background whining about how I have spent just as much time living vicariously through his site over the last few days. And, I will admit that looking at people's pictures is fun - perhaps the only thing I see any value in - but, I digress.

Anyways...I just felt the need to explain myself...or explain Aaron's post anyway. Needless to say I have threatened to change the password on the account - to which Aaron responds that it wouldn't be a good idea because seeing as he has my email address account he would just log to blogspot and claim that I forgot my password, then hack into my email to get the new blogspot password - nice huh!

While the debate about facebook rages on (at least in the Mason household), we'll continue to post to the blog...new post coming...

Please disregard my wife..she's cranky

Fourth of July

Well it has been awhile since our last post, but to recap a bit...

The Masons left on Tuesday mid-day. On Monday we visited Shealy's for BBQ and also went antiquing. On Tuesday I went back to work and Terrie and Gma Char cleaned up the house as well as cut and froze all the left over peaches we didn't get to. It was so great to spend time with them. It...1) made us realize how lucky we are to have such great family, and 2) made us realize that it stinks to be so far away from them.

Last week I began conducting interviews to fill a vacancy in our section at work. Aaron joked that I shouldn't be nervous - it was the interviewees who should be. All in all, the first few went well and it has been a good experience.

It was a short work week, as I had Friday off. On Friday, Aaron, Kendall and I went shopping at the mall. Aaron surprised me by letting me spend some of his extra work money buying new work clothes. It was great!

Friday night we had the Weidners over for dinner and got to generally catch up with them.

On Saturday morning, Mrs. Page, Kendall and I went to the Peach Festival in Gilbert. We enjoyed the music and sun while walking around to each of the vendors. I picked up a few things for Kendall. Mrs. Page and I dropped Kendall off at home and went to El Chico for a ladies lunch.

After resting up a bit, we headed over to Mrs. Michael's for the fireworks on the lake. Here is Kendall playing with her new friend, Riley. The fireworks on the Lake were great and so was the dinner and time with friends.

Today we all enjoyed a great day just lounging around home. Kendall seems to be eating a bit more lately, so Aaron and I picked up some rice cereal and decided to try it out this weekend.

She did pretty well with it - although it was honestly only a few bites. We'll probably continue to try it from time to time.