sew and tell: "bumpy" blanket

Here's Kailey modeling the latest sewing project while Zoe enjoys a rawhide. As I mentioned on Sunday's post, Kailey was interested in having a new blanket for lounging (and road trips to Wichita!) so we picked up this super soft material at Hobby Lobby on Saturday. I've seen baby blankets made out of this fabric - it's got these little bumps for texture, hence the blanket's nickname, "Bumpy."

The original plan was to make one side white and one side blue (to mimic the sky and clouds) and then use satin blanket binding to finish the edges. The plan changed, as most plans do. We ended up just sewing two pieces of blue fabric together and nixed the satin binding completely (Kailey didn't think it was soft enough). So now I have plenty of white fabric ready for the next project.

And not a prairie chicken in sight.

One of the really nice perks of being a state employee is that the vacation time is insane. Right now, I have around seven or eight weeks at my disposal, meaning—theoretically—I could take off tomorrow and not come back to work until October. (I'm guessing this explains a lot for those of you non state employees out there.) The really crazy thing is that it rolls over from year to year, so I never lose it, it just keeps piling up month after month. And that doesn't even account for the nine weeks of sick leave I've accrued. Do you know how many door knobs I'd have to lick to use all of that? 

The downside to having all of this time off is that Carrie only gets the normal three weeks—leaving me to find creative ways to spend some time off alone. Last Friday I crossed one of those days off by going on a little photo safari in central Kansas. My primary destination was the Tallgrass Prairie National Preserve but I kind of meandered my way there, taking time to explore towns I had only known from highway exit signs, towns like Cassody, Cottonwood Falls, Matfield Green and Strong City. It was a great little adventure, one that saw me almost get bitten by a snake, come to the realization that everyone in the town of Matfield Green must work at the turnpike McDonald's and wonder aloud why premium gas is 10 cents cheaper than the regular unleaded I just filled up with. 

Oh, and I also captured a few photos. Here's a little sampling.

One sweet weekend

I think it's going to take a couple days to come down from the sugary sweet high we're on after this weekend.

The fun all started when my sister (Erin) and her step-daughter (Kailey) came down to visit us from KC. They weren't in town 30 minutes before we were on our way to a favorite boutique in town, Frou Frou, for girl things -- you know, shoes, jewelry and hand bags. This is Kailey modeling her sparkly green earrings and special "K" necklace that she left with. After hitting a few other shops, we met up with Craig for lunch before hitting the craftaholic's heaven, Hobby Lobby. The goal was to just get some thread for Kailey to make a Shocker-inspired friendship bracelet but we left with a whole new project -- material for me to make Kailey a new blanket so she could have a back-up to her special blanket she's been carrying around since she came home from the hospital seven years ago. I was terrified. This would be my first project without a pattern and instructions! But Aunt Carrie couldn't disappoint. (more to come on that in a future blog)

After burning some calories playing doubles tennis on the Wii, the girls headed out for a sugar fix at the new Sugar Sisters. I highly recommend the wedding cake baby cakes (that's fancy talk for oversized cupcake) or the sugar cookie topped with more sugary goodness.

Next on the agenda: the ultimate sweet treat. Pedicures. And then it was back home to start on the blanket project.

After dinner at Felipe's (a Howard family favorite for over 20 years!), Craig and I sent Erin and Kailey off to the movies and the two of us went to a good friend's 40th birthday party. Shawn Money (check him out here) and Craig go back 11 years to Craig's first job out of college and they've been swapping music and stories ever since. We had a great time celebrating a great friend. Happy Birthday, Shawn!

Erin and I made history this morning by jogging together for the FIRST TIME EVER. While I've been running since high school, Erin has just recently found the joy in running (or at least the joy in completing a run). Today, I took her on our favorite three-mile route to Eastborough Park and back. Tomorrow, we'll conquer a 5K together. (Now we just need to get dad back in those running shoes.)

As for the icing on the cake, the four of us visited my uncle Ed and aunt Linda this morning to see their new miniature Australian Shepherd, Buddy. This little fur ball has that blue merle coloring and is already fetching, sitting and melting hearts. He's a cutie.

That sums up our action-packed weekend as captured by my phone's camera (which explains the picture quality). Stay tuned for a few more updates as we wrap up the month of July.

Carrie

Dinner guests

Craig and I kicked things up a notch with dinner this week by having my friend Amy and her daughter Madison over. Actually, Amy's not just "my" friend. The three of us met in 7th grade at Coleman Jr. High. Oh, the stories I could share. But to be safe, I'll just stick to the next chapter in Amy's life -- she and her husband Rick are moving from Kansas City to Dallas. And Amy's been hanging out with her parents in Wichita until they close on their new house next week. Lucky me, I've gotten to sneak in a couple visits while they're here. And lucky us, now, when we make our trips down to Houston, we'll have a place to stay the night. I mean, it would be rude NOT to invite ourselves over so we can see what little Madison is up to (and mom and dad, too).

118 days, but who's counting?

If you've been reading our blog very long, you've probably picked up on the fact that I'm a bit of a U2 fan. (OK,OK, before Carrie calls me out on this, I'm literally a card-carrying member of the fan club.) It all started when I "borrowed" my brother's dubbed copy of "Under a Blood Red Sky" in the sixth grade—since then, I've gone from requesting "Sunday Bloody Sunday"at elementary school skate parties to flying cross country just to spend my birthday sitting outside sports arenas in hopes of scoring prime concert tickets (I did).

It's an illness, and at times—like right now—the symptoms are more severe than others. You see, there's a new album on the way, and while I've been following the band's progress on it for the past year or so (what did dorks like me do before the Internet?) last week I came across a rumored release date (November 18) which means the countdown has unofficially begun. My once-every-third-year Christmas is just around the corner. It's only a matter of time before I will be standing outside some Best Buy—or whichever store the UPS man hits first—hoarded gift card in hand waiting for the doors to open.

See, I told you I was sick.

But that's four months away you say, what are you going to do in the meantime? Well, I'm happy to say I won't be waiting in silence. Today marked the release of remastered versions of the band's first three albums, which included bonus material—among it a few songs I've never heard before. So, for me, today was the equivalent of a kid getting to open his stocking on Christmas Eve—except Santa's not coming for another four months.

Bed and Biscuit

Meet Cobe, our house guest.

Breed: Irish Setter

Age: 1.5 (give or take) years

Weight: 55 lbs.

Favorite pastime: tugging, fetching, drinking, running, walking, wrestling, tugging, playing, sometimes eating, chasing, pacing, barking... 

We're currently watching Cobe for Craig's parents, which means Casa Lindeman has become Camp Lindeman for the four-legged variety. Not only did Cobe come with his own crate and toys, but he brought a whole new energy to the house that I haven't seen since Zoe was very young (anyone with a lab knows what I'm talking about). 

Every single toy in the downstairs toy box has been brought upstairs. And the toy box upstairs is overturned about once an hour - just in case a plush toy with a really good squeaker got buried. And not only are all the soft toys and the nylabones getting put to good use, Luka is getting more exercise than he has in his 2 1/2 years.

I'm not sure what Craig did to get the still shot of Cobe above, but this is the typical scene in the house and the yard (sometimes Cobe is in the lead).  

As one who knows Zoe might suspect, the poor girl really isn't excited about the additional male in the house. It was bad enough when we brought Luka home from the Humane Society (which somehow gave her pancreatitis), but two boys seems to be two too many. She's been laying low and giving us the big brown sad eyes that we know means we're going to owe her a trip to the lake for a long swim when all this is over. 

We hope everyone else had a quiet and relaxing weekend.

Carrie

Fine dining Gainesville style

As a special treat for being so good on our road trip home from Houston after the 4th, we let Zoe enjoy breakfast in bed at the hotel in Gainesville. These photos were taken by my phone before we made our quick getaway.

The ins and outs of traveling with dogs

Anyone who has ever taken a long road trip with a dog (or heaven forbid, two dogs) knows that the fun really begins once a long day of driving is over—because unless you plan on staying with friends or family, you've got three options.

1) Pretend you're Jewel and sleep in your car behind a Denny's
2) Drive around whichever unknown town you happen to find yourself stranded in and look hopelessly for a place that welcomes your two-legged companion(s).
3) Stay wherever the hell you want, but do so as if you're a Navy SEAL.

We generally opt for #3. If you ever plan on doing the same, here are a couple of tips we've picked up during six years of practice.

The smaller the dog the better
Any breed that has the word "teacup" in its name is ideal. Just place said dog in an overnight bag or purse and cover with a Kleenex—you should be good to go. However, if you've got yourself a little yipper, a slathering of peanut butter may be in order. All in all, the size and flexibility of small dogs drastically increase your overall lodging options.

What to do if you have a large dog (or heaven forbid, two)
With large dogs your choices are pretty slim. Basically you need to look for a place that has outdoor entrances—i.e. your run-of-the-mill roadside motel. So, as you enter town, scan the horizon for a Super 8, Motel 6, Comfort Inn or an older La Quinta. Lower-level rooms on the back of the motel are generally the best, but you can pretty much sneak in and out no matter where you are, just avoid parking the car in front of the lobby when you check in.

When a motel is not an option
Carrie and I were faced with this situation on our way back from Houston a couple of weeks ago. It was 11 o'clock and we were in the hit-or-miss area between Dallas and Oklahoma City, our only real hope for a place to stay was in Gainesville Texas—unfortunately their La Quinta had recently been updated which meant no outside entrances. This was virgin territory for us.

Here's how we handled it.

1) We scouted out the scene, driving around the building to see if there were back or side entrances (there were some on the side).
2) After parking a safe distance from the view of the front desk I ran in and got us a room on the ground level as close to the end as possible.
3) We parked around back and I ran in to check things out. Much to my dismay, the room wasn't very close to the end of the hall, but instead was 30 feet from the front desk! Time to improvise.
4) Carrie and I gathered up everything we needed to ensure that we would not need to make more than one trip (anxious dogs make noisy dogs). Then, since we use Gentle Leaders, we removed their collars to avoid the tell-tale sound of jangling tags and made a run for it.

Success.

Maybe the dogs were just too damn tired, or they were just in on the plan, either way, they were awesome. Our escape the next morning was a little more challenging due to the fact that our door pretty much opened up to the breakfast area, the solution to this little problem was to create a diversion at the waffle maker while Carrie, Luka and Zoe made their escape. MacGyver would have been proud.

Oh, a couple of more things we've learned over the years.

Ice buckets make great water bowls, always turn on the air conditioner full blast to muffle sound, and close the blinds—not to keep people from seeing in, but to keep your dogs from seeing anything they feel they need to warn you about.

Hope this helps you on your next trip.

Craig

sew and tell: baby bibs

It's been awhile since I've fired up the sewing machine, but I was inspired to take on a new project as we get closer to the arrival of our niece or nephew. So here you have it: baby bibs.



While these were fairly simple to put together, the biggest challenge was finding fun fabrics that would work for either a girl or boy. I figured you can't go wrong with doughnuts, monkeys, sea creatures and Jayhawks. (Some may disagree.)

The stars at night were big and bright.

It's become somewhat of a summertime family tradition. As soon as the the thermometer starts to consistently crack the 90s here in Kansas, we load up the car and head deep into the heart of Texas for a little R & R in the cool, Mediterranean climate of Houston.

So that's what we did for our Fourth of July weekend.

Refreshing temperatures aside, we love going down to Houston because it provides us with a great opportunity to spend some quality time with Curt and Cheryl. And with the baby on the way in September, it was kind of a last hurrah before we start a new chapter.

As usual we had a great time. We rolled into town a little after seven on Thursday, delayed by an impromptu visit to the vet (Zoe ripped a nail) and an incident at a Love's convenience store in Ardmore Oklahoma (Carrie's not talking about it). The next morning we headed down to Curt and Cheryl's boat to let the dogs play in the ocean and to hang out around the pool. Luckily we got to do a little of both before a monsoon left us huddling together under the roof of a pool-side Tiki bar and ultimately forced us to scramble back to the mainland. That night we treated ourselves to best fajitas known to man at El Tiempo. (Seriously, words can not describe how good these things are, if you ever find yourself in the area you owe it to your self to get a pound of chicken.)

The next morning I got up at five (what in the hell kind of vacation is that?) to join Curt for his Kenyan Way running club (seriously). It's this thing Curt and Cheryl have done for a couple of years that teaches you to train like the Kenyans do—which I was happy to find out just means putting in a lot of hill work instead of what I envisioned—running shoeless while been chased by rabid cheetahs. Seven miles later we were back home just as the girls were getting up for their day at the spa (somehow I drew the short stick). So, while they were off getting pampered Curt and I cruised around town, first to go and see his swanky new corner office then stopping off to take a look at these huge sculptures of each president's head which sat in rows outside the artist's studio. They were absolutely amazing.

From there, our weekend pretty much just consisted of hanging around and gorging ourselves, before we ultimately packed up and headed home around seven on Sunday night—driving as far as Gainesville before settling in for a couple hours of sleep (more on this in a later post).

By noon the next morning we were back at home—and for Carrie—back at work. No reason to get too down about it though, we'll be making the journey again in just a couple of short months to meet the newest member of the family.



Here are a couple of photos of the nursery-in-waiting.





Funky nightlights.







Zoe and Luka found the nursery very soothing.



*I've also added a few new shots to my flickr page if you want to check them out.

My ultimate blond moment

I went brunette.

Pot of gold

If you haven't seen this before, you owe it to yourself—if only for the amateur sketch, it could save your life.

Thanks to Dooce for reminding me of its wonderfulness.