Paint Job

On Saturday, we painted the sun room. Earlier this summer, we had the sky lights removed from the ceiling because they had leaked. So before we could fix the two holes in the ceiling, we needed to paint. We decided to paint the walls and the ceiling the same color -- Churchill Hotel Wheat (who comes up with these names?!?) We love how it turned out! The walls had been white -- a stark, bright white -- and this color just brings warmth to the room. We moved some furniture around and the room even feels larger now. We have now painted every room in the house except for the laundry room. And we are hoping to not lift another paint brush for a long time!

This is our favorite room of the house to hang out in ... so come on over and visit! I can guarantee you a good breeze through the windows and lots of hummingbird sightings. See you soon!

Nature

This is Carl the Chipmunk sitting on the top step outside our back door. Doesn't he look like a cat? We don't know if he was sleeping, not feeling well, or contemplating life on this beautiful day -- but Carl literally sat there for 50 minutes, just like that, without moving. I was almost ready to go outside and check him to make sure he was ok. I've never seen a chipmunk sit so still for so long. Very strange, yet entertaining too. (And yes, it doesn't take much to entertain me!)


I took this photo a week ago as we were driving from Peru to Indianapolis. The clouds were amazing last Sunday! We spent last Sunday driving around the state -- up to North Manchester for church, to Peru for Dani's birthday party, to Indy to meet some friends at Abyssinia for dinner and then home to Lafayette. A very fun way to spend the day!

Garden Watch

Container garden count:

• 1 cucumber
• 2 peppers

We are watching about 4 additional cucumbers and about a half dozen peppers. Stay tuned!

Birthdays

I'm a little behind on my blogging but wanted to write about some birthdays in our families this month. I thought that I would write about each niece and nephew as they have their birthdays. I started with Mason back in June. The next birthday belongs to our niece Danielle, aka Dani, who turned 14 and will be starting high school this year! She is the oldest daughter of Mark's younger sister, Jennifer. Dani is a very pretty, smart and fun person. She is a cheerleader and also participated in the Peru (Indiana) Circus this summer. She is contemplating doing the trapeze in next year's circus! Dani likes to listen to music, go shopping and play games on her cell phone. She is looking forward to learning to drive. Dani is a very sweet girl and we are proud to be her aunt and uncle.

Our oldest nephew, Brandon, turned 8 this month. I just can't believe it! Brandon is my sister's oldest son. I remember when I first got to meet Brandon ... he was about 5 days old and I arrived at their house around midnight after driving from Indiana. My parent's brought him to the door to greet me and he was wide-awake and looking all around. He has never required very much sleep and has always been a very active boy who is curious about the world around him. Brandon will be in the third grade this year. He loves riding his bike and running. I think he's been in two races this summer. Brandon is very smart and a computer whiz. We love being his aunt and uncle!

Having some fun buying baby stuff

Wendi and I decided that we wanted to go browse around "Once upon a Child" today...just to see what they have and what the store is like. We had never been in there, but we thought there are a lot of things that we know we would like to have that we might be able to get there at a reasonable price. We looked around for bit and then came accross the "Baby Bjorns". I guess they weren't all that brand, but anyway. They are baby carriers to hold the baby on your front or back when you are walking around with them. It was really quite hilarious to see us in the store trying them on and trying to figure out how they worked and how all the hooks worked. I am sure that we looked like complete dorks. Here is a photo of Wendi wearing the one we bought. I made her pose with it and a giraff in it just so I would have a photo for this post.

We did go ahead and buy this one because it really fit us well and it was easy to fasten. Not to mention the fact that we got it for about 1/3 the cost in a retail store. It is in perfect condition also. Anyway...that was our baby adventure for the weekend. We have decided that we will buy one thing that we know we need each month just to keep us entertained. We don't want to "jump the gun" too much, but it is fun to shop and it helps us keep our spirits up while waiting. It is also easier to buy something every month than have to buy it all at once when the baby gets here. Just remember...I know I look like a dork wearing this thing, but I will do it anyway if it helps our baby. I won't be too offended if you laugh at me. Believe me...we laughed a lot today.

Lake Wawasee

Today, I took a day off from work to travel to Lake Wawasee in Syracuse, Indiana to visit with my friend Angie Lahman-Yoder and her family. Ang and Brian and their two children, Elena and Dasan, live in Arizona and have been traveling between Ohio, Indiana and Pennsylvania to visit family this summer. I just had to take advantage of them being in the same state! I have known both Ang and Brian for y-e-a-r-s and I cherish opportunities to see them. In fact, the whole extended Lahman clan is a lot of fun to be with! I am thankful that they didn't mind me making a quick visit today. We all wish Mark could have made the trip too but as he says, someone has to work!

Here is the view from the retreat center where they are staying this week. It was gorgeous!

Here's a photo of me and Angie after returning from our trip around the lake. We had so much fun! I never knew that pontoon boats could travel so fast! Or maybe Brian just has a 'heavy foot!'

Elena and Ang's cousin Chrissy were the first to ride on the tube. Elena quickly learned to give the 'thumbs up' for the boat to go faster -- she loved it! She has lots more courage than I do and she's not quite six years old!

Dasan was a great captain! Actually, he just liked to sit in the seat and pretend to drive when we stopped to switch tube riders. But Dasan also enjoyed riding in the tube with cousin Micah -- and he's only 3 1/2!

Chrissy and Elena doing the classic 'king of the world' pose from Titanic. We had a great time on the lake today -- thank you again, Ang and family, for lunch and a fun time on the lake!

Garden Watch

Not much happening this past week but we are excited to report the first sightings of flowers on the eggplants and the first tiny cucumbers beginning to grow! Yes, it's a slow news week at the Ailor house.

July 4th Weekend

I love three day weekends! I always feel like I'm getting away with something when I'm off work on a week day. On Friday, I had a list of errands to run and friends to visit. It was a lovely day, too, which made it all the better. In the evening, Mark and I were invited to dinner at Dan and Jana's house ... they are also adopting from Ethiopia and we're enjoying getting to know them better. We had a great time!

On Saturday, Mark's studio was closed so we went to the Farmer's Market together. We got there just in time to see our friends Chris and Brian, Joe and Anne, all their kids and our friend Randy. We literally ran into all of them right at the entrance -- it was kind of comical! But then it started to rain so we made a quick trip through the market, got the few things we were looking for, and headed back to the car. We weren't prepared for the rain!

Next we decided to go for a drive and ended up stopping at the new Wildcat Creek Winery. It's just outside of Lafayette and we were curious about it. It was very nice as were the people working there. Although they don't grow their own grapes, we really thought it's a nice attraction for Lafayette. After we visited the winery, we had a Big Lots adventure and then relaxed in the not-so sunny sun room, hoping that the rain would stop in time for the fireworks.

We had an impromptu cook-out with Chris, Brian and Sean, which was very fun and again, more delicious food. (We have the best friends who really know how to cook!) About 9 ish, we drove over to campus to see the fireworks. We made our way to the top of a parking garage -- in the rain. Luckily it stopped about 30 minutes before the fireworks began but that didn't keep my hair from frizzing out! And thus, why there are no photos of me below. Ha! We had a yummy dessert while we waited for the fireworks. Chris made a flag cake with fresh fruit and twinkies.

And here's a little camped-out spot on the roof of the parking garage -- it worked really well!

And finally, some fireworks. I thought that these two photos turned out kind of cool! The air was so heavy from the rain and humidity but I thought it just made the lingering smoke look so neat against the light/reflection from the fireworks.

People have been setting off fireworks for over a week now -- day and night. In fact, there are some going off right now! So on Sunday morning, when we both heard a loud 'pop!' we just assumed it was more fireworks. But nope -- a transformer blew and we were without power. I wasn't sure what to do with the laundry I had started but Mark assured me it would be ok to leave it for a few hours while we went to his parent's house. Thankfully, he was right. We had a nice visit with them and helped them by trimming some bushes. And today is their 46th wedding anniversary -- Happy Anniversary, Robert and Geneva!

So that was our weekend, in a quick re-cap. Today was back to work as usual. We've both been having dreams and lots of thoughts about Baby Ailor over the last few days so tonight we made a list of the things we need to do before Baby Ailor's arrival and the things/supplies we need for Baby Ailor. It's borderline overwhelming to think about! But having the lists helps -- we can cross of things as we accomplish them. That's my favorite thing about lists -- crossing off things! And this Saturday I am taking another class through our agency ... about health issues/when to call the doctor. Should be interesting!

Hope you all had a good holiday weekend!

Would you cross this man?

Seriously ... he looks dangerous, doesn't he?

And that look of determination, shovel in hand, can only mean one thing:

The moles are trying to make a comeback.

They might want to think twice before making tunnels in our yard.

Seriously. Think twice, moles. Think twice.