Bruce Deaux

After seven months of newlywed-ed bliss, I finally got my name changed! There are officially two adult Bruce's at home. Next step: one address! :)

Mixin' It UP!

Oh la la!  I got a shiny new cobalt blue Kitchen-Aid mixer for my birthday.  Shane and his parents went in together and got me this beaut.  This is my first mixer and it's soooooo pretty! I also got new aprons for my birthday which are so exciting!  They almost feel too cute to wear - I don't want to get them dirty!  But the dirtier they are, the more it means I'm cooking, which was the whole point, so I am just trying to limit my messiness as not to get the aprons dirty :)

Another great thing about these aprons - they hide my clothing.  I just noticed in almost every picture taken at home, I'm in the same black Addidas warm up pants and white Hanes t-shirt,  Ya...about that...I apparently have gotten stuck in a comfy clothing rut.  I need some new sweat pants :)

Mixer bliss

I went hog wild and made whoopie pies - I was lookin' like a Cotton with little chocolate cakes spread out all over the kitchen.  The filling definitely wasn't what I remembered hers to be so the next Whoopie Pie batch I will have to try a new recipe for the filling. It made me appreciate all those mud pies of deliciousness that she would bring to every basketball game - not just for my team - but for pretty much all the teams.  How did she ever do that?  They take a lot of time to mix up, bake, and assemble.  Wow...she rocks.

I also tried Lemon Cookies this past weekend...Umm...no.  They were crumbling to pieces before I could even scoop them off the cookie sheet.  Something went horribly wrong.  But success was to be found in homemade pizza dough!  I tried 2 recipes - one for NY style and one for thin crust.  They were both good and I got to use my mixer's dough hook for the first time.  How did people ever used to knead dough by hand?  I will (THANKFULLY) never have to know!!

I look like I'm up to something...

Ya...this is more like it...it's a work in progress

Vino Tasting

Shane got back safely from Vietnam.  What a trip he had...the pictures are really amazing.  The weekend he was back he had planned an overnighter get-away to Prosser.  It was the perfect after work trip since it's only a half hour drive and we left late after work.  Unfortunately, since we got their later we missed the wineries being open for tasting.  But we found a cute wine bar and did some sampling of our own.

We look like total boozers in these pictures but here's the disclaimer: between the 6 glasses there is really only 3 actual glasses of wine (1.5 for each of us).  Not so bad, right? 

One of the highlights of the trip (for me, not Shane) was visiting The Sewing Basket - one of the most amazing quilt stores I've ever been in - I couldn't believe the amount of fabrics this whole-in-the-wall shop had.  There were trails through this place, one person wide, that you had to navigate to see everything.  It blew my mind!  I can't wait to start and project and go back!  Shane was a total sweetie and reminded me that I wanted to go there before we headed back home  - I was so happy!  It is really great to have him back.

Birthday Parties!

Shane was gone to Vietnam and I was bummed he couldn't be home but I had a great day and week.  Thanks for so many thoughtful calls, cards, gifts, and emails for my birthday!  It started with Debbie, Kennedy, and Isabella taking me to Red Robin (Kennedy's choice) for dinner - but they surprised me and turned it into a birthday party.

The girls gave me pajama jeans - yes - you heard me right - pajama jeans!  Shane had ordered them as a joke waaaaaaay back in January and they were (shocker) backordered.  They just now came so Debbie wrapped them up and the girls gave them to me as my birthday gift. 

Debbie even smuggled in tie-dye cupcakes in her purse that Heidi had made.  They were delicious and it was funny to see her whip them out.   You just never know what might be in a lady's purse :)

The girls gave me the cutest card with a golden retriever puppy on the front and I thought the inside was so special.  It brightened my week for sure:

After work that week, the dogs and I loaded up to Nicole's.  We got massages at the Davenport which was AMAZING!  I had never been to the Davenport and I couldn't believe how pretty it was.  I felt like I was touring the Biltmore again in NC.

Later that night, we met Aunt Rhonda at Steamplant Grill for dinner and drinks.  It was sorta sketchy walking there but the restaurant had a cool vibe and the company was awesome!  We got a complementary birthday dessert called "WOW".  And no wonder - it was the best free birthday dessert I've seen...actual scoops of ice cream, a big brownie, and a huge cookie.  Easily splittable for a table unlike most birthday desserts that barely feed the birthday girl.

We headed home to the farm on Saturday and Brittany, Ryan, and Reid met us there.  Mom made my favorite childhood birthday dinner: Chicken-n-Rice casserole and sprinkled brownies.  She also picked up my adult favorite birthday dessert: Red Velvet cupcakes.  So sweet!!  We had fun trying to make lemon drops, playing Life, and watching NC2A basketball.

On my actual birthday, I had to work and then taught evening classes at school - blah! But, Heidi and her boys brought me tulips at work during my lunchbreak - a total surprise - that absolutely cheered me up! And Shane had sent me a beautiful basket of flowers with lots of bright and cheery colors.  It was pretty special he had arranged that even while he was gone to Vietnam.  I missed him even more after getting the flowers but it was really sweet of him to do that since he wasn't home.

Oh - and I nearly forgot to tell you but the pajama jeans are VERY comfortable.  And yes...I have worn them in public ;) I'm not sure they can really pass for authentic jeans but they get an A+ for comfort (AKA stretchy wastebands).  These will be my go-to pants after Thanksgiving dinner this year. 

Dog Walking Competition

Last weekend when Debbie and I got back from the quilt show we found this note on the house door:

Artem is about a year older than Kennedy and I think mowing the grass is probably a stretch for him but dog walking is definitely do-able for him.  Well, he stopped by later that afternoon and wanted to know when he could walk them.  I told him maybe tomorrow, I will call you.  He informed me he was available that Sunday from 1-3. Great.  Well, I forgot to call him and so he just came over.  I let him take the dogs but then soon realized I only had a $10 and a $20 bill in my wallet.  Ouch.  That's an expensive dog walk.  Well, he stopped by again on Monday and I told him that the money from Sunday would have to cover both days - seems reasonable.  He said no problem.  Then Tuesday we stopped by and just wanted to walk them for fun, no charge.  What a good businessman - he was realing me in!

The dogs love going on walks and it's good for them.  Wednesday Artem started getting smart and has been wearing his roller blades so it's easier for him...I think they end up pulling him around.

Artem's business must have caught on because then this message appeared on the door from another neighborgirl:

Now I have one or two people every single day knocking on the door to walk the dogs.  He must've felt like we were straying from his business because he asked Shane if he could be "our permanent dog walker."   We have become involved in a 10-year-old dog-walking business competition.

I'm torn...it's a great job for a kid and he's doing the right thing to earn money.  There aren't many opportunities when you're a city kid and can't drive.  Nothing like picking rocks, spraying thistles or roguing weeds in this neighborhood.  :)  So I want to help him with his employment needs but the doorbell seems like it rings off the hook.  I'm going to have to get tough and set up a schedule with him.  To be continued...

Science Girl

Kennedy has really enjoyed working through the science projects in the kit and book we bought.  The weekend before Shane left for Vietnam, he helped us blow bubbles with slime.  It took a little practice but she got the hang of it!  (And thanks to everyone for calling to check on me...he did make it safe). 

 On Friday night, Kennedy and I did another project: Cornstarch Quicksand.  Nae-Nae got smart and put a garbage sack down to catch all the drippings :)  Next time, she will put one underneath Kennedy too :)  We spent about 20 minutes cleaning the floor after the fun project.  Surprisingly, cornstarch and water does not clean up as easily as I was hoping. 

 We had a fun weekend but missed Shane.  The house is pretty quiet without him around.  We went shopping and went to Hubby's pizza with Debbie, Don, Heidi, Tyler and their boys.  Then we spent a few hours at Heidi & Tyler's house and the kids played.  Everyone was really tired Saturday night when we got home.

Quilt Show Weekend

Shane worked on the boathouse again the weekend.  He's been working on it every weekend we don't have the girls trying to get it done before he leaves for Vietnam - which is this Wednesday night. Friday I didn't spend solo because Debbie and Don took me to dinner at Rancho Bonita.  Then Saturday morning, I asked Debbie to go to the quilt show with me.

It was so much fun!  We saw tons of cute fabrics and amazing quilts!  Now that I know a little more about how they make more of the blocks, I was inspired to do more difficult quilts than I have previously tried.  Mostly though I was in awe at the amount of work some people put into their quilts.

Here were a couple cool ones I liked:

This quilt was made by a guild of quilters and each person made their own birdhouse block.  As a lover of birds and birdhouses - this one captured my heart!

This one gave Debbie and I goosebumps.  A military mom had given all of her son's uniforms to a local quilt store for them to design a quilt and her only request was "that they leave as many pockets on the quilt as possible for me to tuck memories of my son in for his son."

Here's a closeup of some of the pockets.

A little blurry yes - but I thought this one was cool anyway.

This was a fun one!

And this one I had to take to tell Shane it was going to be our new bedspread.  I couldn't keep a straightface long enough for him to believe me!

This one reminded me of Mom.  I'm sorry it's so blurry - I must've had my camera on a bad setting (so unlike me!).  But it's a Dick and Jane quilt which is right up Mom's lane.

Here's a closeup of some of the pieces of that quilt.

After the quilt show, Debbie and I checked a TJ Maxx like store of home decor items.  It was a cute store - some of the prices were good and some were no cheaper than you find at a regular department store.  We ate lunch at a hole-in-the-wall diner that had yummy asparagus soup.  It was apparently award winning - and a fun find to just happen across.  

As far as the quilting class goes, we learned the friendship star and flying geese pattern this week. I had to finish those blocks this weekend. Here they are:

And we had to sew our quilt tops together for class on Tuesday.  I am not still really not fond of the brown - I wish I would've known how the quilt was going to lay out a little better.  But I guess that was another thing the class was good for - learning the blocks and what kind of contrasts work the best in the different types of blocks.  Good thing it's just a small lap quilt.  But here it is:

This week we are going to learn to square the quilt, do the borders, binding and machine-quilt the backing together.  I'm excited to start on a new project.  I think it's going to be placemats with Kennedy.  I picked up a couple yards of cute spring fabric for us to have something to do on a rainy day.