Whatta Weekend

Wow. This weekend rocked. It was filled to the brim with fun and friends. I actually had to come back to work to rest. But I wouldn’t have had it any other way. Heather and Barney were in town and came over for dinner on Friday night. While dinner was cooking (and Simeon, Barney, and Nick were downstairs playing video games, and Emery slept upstairs) Heather and I entertained Miss Lindsay. Lindsay knows where I keep all my “kid toys” and just loves to dig through them. I think mostly cause they are all “new to her” and not because I have some rockin’ good baby toys. (That would be kinda sad, wouldn’t it?) So as she dug through the toys she came across the Harry Potter glasses I got at the last release party. She instantly put them on and proceeded to wear them while she played. I think we have a future HP fan on our hands. Needless to say, Heather and I were ecstatic!


Saturday Simeon and I made plans to go wine tasting with Phil and Chelle. We started early and managed to hit five different wineries. Whew. The first couple places were mighty generous with their “samples” and I was starting to get nice and buzzed. Then we took some windy country roads that were not so pleasant from the back seat of my car. Only after getting stuck behind a smelly diesel truck did I start to rethink drinking in the daylight! But my tummy settled and we enjoyed some lovely fruits, cheeses, breads, salad and chicken for dinner. Mmmmmm. The Cazella’s know how to do wine tasting! Oh and don’t think we came home empty handed. Sim found some wines he could not live without!

Oh and just as a bonus, is this not the cutest picture of their little boy, Jacob? He went on the wine tasting tour with us and behaved like an angel. His only complaint was that he wasn’t allowed to share any of the wine with us! But he certainly made up for it by flirting with all the ladies.

Then we rounded out the weekend with more harvest celebrations. We had our 6th Annual Corn Maze/Pumpkin Patch event at Lakeview Farms. We marched through the corn maze, breathed in the smells of fresh kettle corn and caramel apples, and watched the kids faces light up with excitement as we took the boat across the lake to the pumpkin patch and loaded onto the train for the ride back. Emery even got to sport his adorable little “pumpkin” hat, which went perfectly with his chubby little cheeks. (Come on, what doesn’t go with those cheeks? Oh and how French does he look in that hat! Too cute!)

The we gathered everyone up and headed back to our house for our 8th Annual Pumpkin Carving Party. I whipped up some snacks while the gang got to carvin’. Aaron sharpened our wits by reading Mind Trap puzzles aloud while we carved away. Simeon even made sure we had some spooky music in the back ground. All in all a perfect fall day. Here we all our sportin’ our creations.

Megan carved Charlie Brown & Snoopy, Barney created a spooky face, Simeon cut out an adorable candy corn, Heather did some creepy hands with eyes that peer out at you, and Nick, well he made the “Ghost of Ass” (sadly a long-running theme in Nick’s pumpkin carving career). Any guesses on what my pumpkin was?

You can see all the (hundreds of) pictures I took over the weekend in the galleries: Friday Night Visitors, Wine Tasting Tour and Pumpkin Patch/Carving. Enjoy all the fun photos. I sure had fun taking them!

I hate it…

…when I am talking to a customer service person on the phone and then, out of no where, they put me on hold without telling me first. Jeez. That is so RUDE.

…when I am organizing several events at a time and of the 20 or so people I have invited, only 4 have RSVPed. Total. Will someone please tell me, did being polite go out of style? Urgh! So frustrating.

…when our client management database at work is “unavailable” due to extra long processing times. Ok, I understand if it’s taking you a long time to update the info, and therefore it would be yesterdays figures. That makes sense to me. But taking away the entire database so I am left with NOTHING. That makes no sense whatsoever. Morons.

…when people are either very, very late or show up unannounced. Hello! Heard of a telephone? Try calling and letting people know. It would be the courtious thing to do. Manners, anyone?

Ok, I feel better now. Go on with your day. It’s FRIDAY! Wahhhooooo!

How to make me smile

I was just IMing with Simeon while he is away at a conference and he said he just wants to sleep all the time. So I asked him if he was out too late drinking and not getting much sleep, to which he replied, “My interest in the world is dulled without you.”

Now if that isn’t just the sweetest thing ever, I don’t know what is.

Smile

Today has just been a day to smile. From Lisa taking me out to lunch, to all the email/comments from you guys telling me you are happy I am back, to bringing up Raych’s site and seeing the first post asking where I am and wondering if she needs to worry about me. What can I say? You all rock. I promise to never leave without telling you again. And just so you know, I missed you all, too. Hugs all around.

Back to my roots

Contrary to what you may have believed from reading my blog, I am a total country girl. (I know the last entry I posted was all about getting dressed up and going out on the town, but let me tell ya, that is just a small part of the wonder that is Carrie.) I was practically raised on a farm, I never even lived inside city limits until I was almost out of high school, I love camping and I go hunting. Yep, that’s me. I used to be kind of embarrassed about the way my family did things, but the older I get the more I realize it is what has shaped me into the person I have become today. And I don’t care who knows it.


So where was I? Oh yeah. Simeon and I were gone all last week on a big family camping/hunting trip. I totally planned to blog that I was leaving for awhile and not to worry any of you, but I was super busy getting ready to leave and totally spaced it. Sorry. But we are back now and glad for those of you who missed us and wrote me concerned emails. I love you guys! But we totally had a blast. It was great to get away from work and computers and schedules and just relax out in the woods of Northeastern Oregon.

So there was a huge group of us (I think 25 at last count) and a number of kids running around to keep things interesting. Mostly friends and family. We did all the great camping stuff: slept in sleeping bags, cuddled around the camp fire, went hiking, and ate s’mores. Mmmmmmm.

So I checked the weather before we left so I could pack accordingly. That was my first mistake. I failed to take into account the change in elevation from where we were camping and the town I typed into weather.com. Yeah. So when I packed for high 60’s to mid 70’s you better believe I was a little shocked when it snowed. Yeah. Snow. Don’t believe me? I took pictures.

Luckily we know how to do camping right (go back up to the top where I said I was a country girl!). We have HUGE tents that are more like houses. Complete with sleeping bags on cots, carpet on the ground, and a working wood stove. Oh yeah baby. So while it was showing outside, it was 80 degrees in our tent. Being a country girl is not so bad when you look at it that way, huh?

Long and the short of it, we had a great time. Its nice to get back to your roots every now and again. But don’t think for one minute I wasn’t happy to be back to electricity, showers, and my brand-new bed. Somethings you just have to do without for awhile to really appreciate. Like plumbing. Ha!

So there are a ton of pictures in the new galleries. I divided them up, for those of you who weren’t raised in such a country environment and might not be comfortable with some of the pictures. We have the Camping Trip gallery and the Hunting Trip gallery. Oh yeah, and its good to be back. 🙂