A visit from Becky and Bob

Becky is Jason's cousin from Los Angeles. Bob is her husband. Becky's 25-year high school reunion was this weekend in Indianapolis. Since Bob had never been to Chicago, they decided to head up this way for a couple days after her reunion. (Bob is not sheltered - he has lived in many states, just never stopped in Chicago.) So we got to spend a few hours visiting with them yesterday at Jason's parents' house. It wasn't long enough, but nice to get to know them a little better. I had only met Becky once before at our wedding. Obviously I didn't get to spend much time with her that day. We've been communicating on Facebook the last few months, so I feel I've gotten more familiar with her that way.

Jason's family is all over the country. Some are in the Washington D.C. area, Ohio, New York, and California. Fortunately, we're kind of in the middle of all of them and near a big city, so we get visits from an uncle, aunt, or cousin now and then. Becky's mom and dad are headed out here in the fall so now we're looking forward to that!

I'm back!

My apologies to those that regularly check in on my blog. I appreciate your patronage! Despite this cool weather, it is summer and I just haven't felt like sitting at the computer (except to check in on Facebook!). Here are a couple new posts for you...

Yearly trip to the zoo

Every summer the boys and I take a trip to Brookfield Zoo. We were there yesterday. The weather was perfect, but that meant a lot of other people were there as well. The zoo is currently undergoing quite a bit of construction. I wish they would lower their admission prices if I can't even go inside the pachyderm house! Seriously. I'm also wondering if the lions died. Only about two years ago, my boss did a root canal and placed a crown on a canine tooth of one of the males, so I know they had one there. (I think there are pictures of him doing that procedure on riverheightsvet.com)

Overall, the three of us had a nice day together. But we do plan on going up to Milwaukee County Zoo in August when Jason is on vacation.

Master bedroom re-do

I finally got mine and Jason's bedroom redecorated. It was this sage green color with navy blue accents. I had done it a couple years ago and it started to look stale to me. A couple months ago, I found a red comforter that I liked. I knew it wouldn't look good with the green paint, so I'd have to choose something neutral. I decided on just a light colored neutral mushroomy sort of color and chocolate brown for an accent color. After I painted all the walls this light color, it was very plain looking. I knew I was going to use a stamp or a stencil to liven it up. I found a wall stencil that I loved. It's a scroll design on an 18" square. I chose to use it on the largest wall in our room which is 15 feet long (because I'm insane). I think it took me about 12 hours total. Fortunately I'm very happy with the result!

There's Emma enjoying the new comforter. Red is not a good color for hiding cat hair!