child-free?

a few weeks ago we ventured back down to new orleans to celebrate rocky and marie's nuptials. this was supposed to be our first child-free weekend. little man on the other hand, begged to differ. granted, as the time approached i was having some reservations and he may have sensed my anxiety.

a few days before we were to depart he decided he was no longer sleeping through the night. one sleepless night and i would have probably been okay leaving him. he decides to not sleep the rest of the time leading up to our trip. so that left us with three options: 1) both go and leave him with a sitter, and pretty much worry the whole time we're gone. 2) awes go and i stay home with him or 3) we all go. well i can't leave him and burden our sitter with an uncooperative kid. awes doesn't want to go without me. and since we already have our tickets and hotel purchased and it wouldn't cost us anything to add the tyke he ended up tagging along. the little weasel.

we were THAT couple on the plane going down. you know, the ones with the screaming/inconsolable baby. luckily most of the passengers were sympathetic to our situation. thank goodness. he was still off the first night/day we were there. but soon after he was fine, back to his happy self. he slept through the wedding ceremony and we were able to attend the reception without incident. so the boy has been to the big easy three times in his short, little life.

overall we had a great time. were able to see friends we hadn't seen in a long time. do a little sight seeing with the little guy. and most importantly, we got to see our friends start their new life together. congrats rocky and marie!!

halloween 2010 in a nutshell

halloweens of yesteryear. yeah, we love the holiday!

everything is coming up poppy

one of my first crafting projects in a long time: baby bedding for my friend, greyson. she's expecting her first, a little girl, in a few weeks and i volunteered to make the bedding for her as a shower gift.

she picked the fabrics and i did the rest. this was the first time i've made either a baby bumper or a crib skirt. i crossed my fingers and prayed the end result would be somewhat recognizable. i ended up using the directions from amy butler's little stitches for little ones book. the directions were fairly simple. but i'm not sure if i'm out-of-practice because i did find myself reading and re-reading each step. what am i saying? i've always had a hard time reading patterns. it's like it's written in some kinda sewing code or for the dyslexic.

in the end, i was happy with the outcome as was greyson. the nursery is absolutely adorable. almost makes me want to have a girl for our next. almost.

another crafty project i did for her shower: poppy cupcakes. brett and grey are 90% sure they are gonna name her "poppy" so as one of her gifts i got her this. which inspired me to to makes these for the shower.

they are homemade peach cupcakes with cream cheese frosting. i used prepackaged fondant to make the flowers, didn't trust myself to make my own. unfortunately i could not find black edible candy balls in boone, so i used yellow instead. they still turned out great and actually matched the cake at the shower, at least the coloring (ha, ha. if you saw the cake you would understand why this is funny). nothing like a baby to inspire some craftiness. tomorrow i'll post my ghetto-rigged teeth guard i put on little mans crib yesterday.

cutting up

last week we had a pumpkin decorating/carving party at our place. we had appetizers, chili and butternut squash soup for dinner and cupcakes for dessert. the party was a huge success and i think we may have started a halloween tradition. unfortunately, not everyone was able to carve their pumpkin. we did a little too much chit-chatting and some friends had to leave before we got started. for those who did stay, we did get some crazy pumpkins. see photo below.


and here are two cuties who came but were a little too young to participate. there's always next year, boys!

westphal warriors strike again

"our ALS fund-raising walk in winston-salem was great fun and very successful. we had a fantastic turnout and the boone dermatology crew raised over $3000 for a worthy charity. in fact, the walkers took home the reward for most money raised by a corporate team! a big thank you to all of those who helped out! let's do it even bigger and better next year!"

this is the update from aaron's work website. as you can see the team has doubled since we first started walking in nc. thanks again to all those who walked, donated and contributed in any way to help us fight this disease. and especially thanks for sporting those ultra-brite t-shirts!! ;) and yes, little man also participated!

on the outs

here are the pics from our long weekend to the outer banks. so we started our summer with a trip to the beach and ended it the same way. unfortunately the weather wasn't so cooperative this time around. we did manage to get at least one day of sunshine. we had a fun time hanging with jill and jerome and pretty much the rest of their family.

tomorrow is the first home game for appalachian state football. hopefully i can somehow maneuver my tshirt to cover the belly. it'll be a little too warm to sport the sweatshirt this time around. i'll post my latest belly pic tomorrow although you can see from the beach pics it's grown a bit! ;)

rebirth

okay, a bit on the dramatic side. i finally finished all the twilight books and can now continue on with daily life. my first priority was to upload all the photos from the last 2 weeks, i guess it's almost 3 now. time sure does fly. included but not limited to is our trip back to illinois/missouri, a few pics from the boone derm picnic and adrian and katie's visit to the high country. i have a few pics on a disposable camera i have yet to develop so they should be coming soon as well.

things should be getting back to normal around here. and either later tonight or tomorrow i'll update the baby status.

oak island

this past weekend we headed to the beach with the caraway clan. here's a few pics from the trip. awes and i had a great time hanging with the caraways and we both hope we can do it again next year.

daily morningness

one of my friends, janett, started up a website yesterday and asked me to participate. mornings lets you follow a group of photographers (amateur and pro) all around the world as they show you a little piece of their morning. the good, the bad and the ugly. this project is wholly inspired by the book, "A Year of Mornings, 3,191 miles apart" by Stephanie Congden Barnes and Maria Vettese.

i originally took this photo, the first thing i see when i open my eyes, but it was a little blah so i went with my old standby. lucky for me, marley was up for a photo session this morning. i'm not much of a morning person, so it'll be interesting to see how long i can go. if i can post one a week, i'll be happy!

what happens in delaware

aaron and i traveled up to rehoboth beach, delaware for the holiday weekend. we rented a fantastic house and had a great time hanging out with everyone. here are a few pics from the weekend. hopefully i'll make it down to the basement tomorrow to really update the blog. got a few new pics to post from today.

the rest of the story

i was able to get the rest of my san fran photos uploaded this morning. between two cameras and two computers i think i was able to get them all loaded. i did have to do some editing. i let adrian play with my slr and he thought it was neat that he could take sequence shots. so any shot of me you see, just know there's about 10 more of that same shot! he's too funny. it was so great seeing everyone and this year was perhaps one of my favorite academy meetings to attend. now we're back home and back to reality.

things that make you laugh out loud!

from katie: You are the only person I know that got pregnant while her husband was camping in Washington! :)

packaging material

a couple of months ago i got a package from super blogger girl (aka jen). she had decided to craft me up a little something-something on a whim. when it arrived, what i found was a box full of awesomeness, not to mention the box itself. a fully crafted exterior with lots of sweet miniatures inside. (i can't get enough little food minis.)

she also included some little toys her company makes, japanese lipgloss, a few crafting supplies and a fertility charm. (hopefully said charm will come in handy in the upcoming weeks!) i was going to post my score when i received it but decided to wait til i was completely done crafting with the material she packaged the crafted box in. old t-shirts.

yesterday i mailed off what i made. she sent 5 old tees and i was able to repurpose four of them for baby diego.

i actually did redo all five, but decided the shorts i made would be way too small for the little guy. (now bosco is sporting a pair of black undies.) i think everything is pretty self explanatory. onesie, bib, hat and blankie. i was quite surprised at how well everything turned out. my only complaint that made reconstructing difficult: the weights of some of the tees. a few were made of that paper-thin t-shirt material that is extremely hard to work with. i was able to pull it off and am pretty happy with the results. now we'll see if they're actually viable clothing when diego models them in a few months!

where the worms are so woolly

another jam-packed weekend for the westphals.

saturday we headed over to winston-salem for the als walk. we were quite surprised at how large the crowd was, easily twice as large as the walk in springfield. what was really great. thursday afternoon we found out we'd have a group of office staff walking with us. they even had t-shirts made for the event. it was great having so much support for such a worthy cause. we were both touched that everyone drove and hour and half both ways to walk. thanks everyone we truly appreciate it!!

unfortunately, i wasn't able to get any photos. we decided to bring the dogs along and i had a hard time corralling them and taking photos. i think someone did take a group photo, so hopefully i can get my hands on it sometime in the near future.

yesterday, we headed over to banner elk for the 31st annual woolly worm festival. it was a kinda cheesy event but apparently a must see/do in the area. it was a gorgeous day, so we didn't mind and actually enjoyed ourselves. (see photo above) we caught a few woolly worm races, drank some lemon shake-ups and listened to some bluegrass.

tomorrow i'm hoping to get some geocaching in. geocaching? what's that? yeah, it's been way too long since we've done any. yesterday i was hoping to get a few in while we were at the festival. unfortunately, i forgot the gps when heading out the door. i've got some new ones programmed in and if weather is permitting we'll get them done tomorrow. i wonder if there's any in jamaica. hmmmmm.

where the elk falls

monday chad, jennaya and the boys ventured up to the high country to do a little camping. unfortunately it started pouring a little after they set up camp. we offered up the house as a shelter until the rain passed, played a little mariokart and had a little dinner. a couple hours later we all headed back over to their campsite. everything was a little damp, but we managed to get a fire going with a little boy scout recall. tepees and chimneys. aaron and i spent a couple hours chatting and catching up before we braved the heavy fog back home.

yesterday we decided to check out elk falls. chad had been there when he went to app. state years ago and we all thought it'd be a fun trip with the kids and dogs. we were quite surprised when we pulled up and cars were spilling out of the parking lot. including a church camp bus. apparently this quiet place has become a local hot spot. we all had a good time despite the crowds. it was a perfect day, even a little on the warm side. it was so great seeing jennaya and the boys. we'll have to make a trip over to greensboro soon! elk falls flickr.

yard sailing

this morning we got up fairly early to hit up a few yard sales in the area. beech mountain was having a community one, so we headed up there first. didn't have too much luck finding anything. it was more like people got a card table, put five things on it and they were ready to sell. i did manage to buy 13 zippers for $3 which was a fairly decent score. other than that, we didn't have much luck at any of the others we checked out. i couldn't believe aaron suggested we hit up yard sales today. i have to drag him to antique shops and thrift stores so i was a bit surprised he wanted to go. it's probably the last time since he didn't find what he was looking for. a small table to put in his bathroom at work. he's dead set against paying $60 for one at walmart, hence the yard sale shopping. maybe i can find something for him when i head to maryland next week. i think a trip to ikea is in order.

made a few more checkbook covers today. it's funny how things get better the more you do them. i'm pretty happy with how these turned out. i'll probably list them tomorrow. i've been trying to do at least five different versions of one thing. and i'm probably making them more difficult than they have to be. oh well. i'm also open for suggestions on what people would like to see in my shop. i like having a little motivation/direction so suggest away. and thanks for all the custom orders and thanks amanda for buying some charms today! i still get all giddy and yell, "i just sold something!" to aaron when it happens. he thinks i'm crazy but i can tell he's happy for me.

blue sky

another jam-packed weekend is finally over. i honestly don't think we could have fit any more into our weekend. graduation, vineyards, cardinal game, geocaching...etc. or i should say carbondale, springfield, carbondale, st. louis, carbondale, boone. it was a lot of fun and we both had a blast but it always takes a few days to recuperate. which mainly means housework needs to get done, groceries need to get bought, and laundry needs to be washed.

i've had my cell phone for over a year now. mainly using it for talking, texting and picture taking. a few weeks ago, while i was bored at a crawdads game, i figured out how to check my email using it. welcome to technology, susan. well, on our way back to illinois i was completely giddy i when i found out i had sold things from my shop via cell phone. even had requests for custom items. i wake up saturday morning with another sold message. how neat. of course, i have a standard phone, no special keypad for texting so i can't really respond but it's nice to be in the loop even when you're out. i do love technology. and thanks betsy and jen for shopping with arudegirl!!

throwing the peace

we're home, phew! it always feels like you need a vacation after taking a vacation. especially one jam-packed with a lot of walking and site-seeing. jamie and i hit up chinatown friday. (although pretty much all of vancouver can be considered asiatown. apparently it's a mecca for migrating asians.) we planned on getting bikes but the weather dictated otherwise. we ended up doing a little shopping and looking for a few more caches. i think urban caching is an acquired taste, both aaron and jamie didn't like it too much. but we managed to find a few.

you went all the way to canada and all you bought was japanese candy? yes. i'm a sucker for pocky sticks. i ended up getting strawberry, milk and blueberry flavors. i also got japanese gum, taffy and chocolate. and yes, that's all i bought while on vacation. i did introduce aaron to the kinder egg this trip too. i managed to score a few while waiting at the airport. so we ventured over to the asian and european side of confectionary delight this trip. i can't believe i wrote a whole paragraph about candy! and boy is it making me hungry. :)

saturday aaron and i hit up the capilano suspension bridge. we were a little worried about the weather, but in the end it turned out to be the nicest day of our trip. we were able the navigate using only public transportation and didn't have a single hiccup with our trip. we also hiked through stanley park, and of course, looked for a few more caches. i combined photos from washington and vancouver for your viewing pleasure.

my mom is notorious for throwing the peace sign when taking photos. we ended up doing a homage to her. hence the photos and the title. apparently it's not only a mom thing but an asian thing. we noticed quite a few taking photos and throwing the peace sign. i guess it's no different than me throwing the devil horns and sticking out my tongue. but i had to post, it's just too funny. while i'm at it i'll go ahead and post the cherry blossom photos i took while in d.c. a few weeks ago.

meet george jetson

i don't know why but vancouver reminds me of the jetsons. probably all the glass skyscrapers crammed in such a small area. you can actually see how compact the city is when you come over the bridge. it's a bit overwhelming. don't get me wrong, there's urban sprawl and the city goes on for miles. but the actual island is pretty much back to back high rises. the complete opposite to what i'm used to.

jamie and i did a lot of walking yesterday. we looked for some urban caches and checked out some of the sites. i think today, if the weather is agreeable, we'll rent bikes. our feet will be happy about that decision. better get ready for the day.

west coast action

a quick update. we're in canada now. spent the last two days in bellingham with the langei clan. i can see why they wanted to return to the coast. it's beautiful out here and the weather has been perfect. somewhat different from the mountains but fantastic all the same.

we've been doing some sightseeing, hiking and caching. jamie is officially addicted, i knew it wouldn't take long. they're on their way up here today and i have a feeling we'll be doing a little canadian caching.

hopefully i'll have more time to update while we're here. if not, next week for sure. i'm uploading photos now of our trip so far.