Chelsey's Clothing Swap Party - 7/17

 You know how I've said I wanted to be a professional Garage Sale/Second-hand-store shopper? RJ's sister Chelsey should be a professional hostess.

Last Sunday (7/17) she hosted our 3rd Clothing Swap Party. One of these days I'll have to give you a photo tour of her house.. it's amazing. Anyway! Chelsey and Trevor's brother-in-law, Daniel, is a chef. He and Chelsey prepared some of the most delicious party food!

Trevor didn't bring any clothes to swap, but we let him have some snacks anyway.

It's not just the (always) lovely food that Chelsey takes the time to put-together that make her parties great, however. She has a way of making us all feel welcome, comfortable and "take-your-shoes-off and-stay-awhile" relaxed. It's hard to explain but some of you know exactly what I'm talking about!

This is their kitty, Mable (better known as "Smoochy").

I have to sneak this in for the sake of ultimate cuteness:

That picture was taken back in the summer of 2009 when Ti and Mable were both kittens. We brought them both over to RJ's parents house and they had a blast chasing each-other around the house. As you can see, after a few hours they wore themselves out. One of my favorite cat memories.

Back to the swap.. 

Everyone brings a few items (shoes, clothing or accessories) to trade. Everything gets set out or hung up and when everyone is ready, you walk around and pick things you want to try on. I have found some really great items at these swaps!

This is Trevor's sister, Mickie. It worked out really well for them because Mickie and Chelsey were best friends in high-school. Fast forward 5(ish?) years down the road and her little brother Trevor became Chelsey's boyfriend (and now husband!). Trevor was in our class in high school, so we've known him (and his ever-entertaining antics) for awhile now. Too funny.

 Mickie and Daniel are having their second little boy any day now!

I like to refer to her as my "Sister-in-Him" because of the first night I met her, at our high school graduation, back in '03. I was standing amongst the crowd with RJ and G-Mom Breece when Mickie and Chelsey walked up to congratulate us. I said: "G-mom, this is RJ's sister, Chelsey." As you can clearly see, Mickie looks more like she would be a relative of RJ's than Chelsey does, so G-mom assumed she was Chels. Mickie knew RJ really well from Young Life (and hanging out with Chelsey all the time) and said something like: "Oh I'm not his real sister, I'm just his sister in Christ!". For some reason I've always remembered that. I can't wait to meet her next little munchin!

This is her son, Zion, last September when they came to watch some Brown's game at the condo. Clearly I was more interested in taking pictures of the baby than watching the game.. I'm sure you're not surprised. :)

Halley's Birthday Dinner

So this was actually last Saturday (7/16) and Halley's birthday was the 15th. She turned 32 but doesn't look a day over 25 - in a good way! We love her (despite RJ's childhood memories or her - haha!)

That's Shawn, he loves Halley too :)

Laura (Mrs. S) makes the best 7-layer dip. It was a Mexican food themed fiesta so this was the perfect appetizer. 

Our Stith family birthday dinners always include guitar playing..

Great local beers,

Dogs,

And, of course..

Birthday Cake :)

♥-ya, Hal!

What we've been up to..

July 8th: Saturday evening church & Dinner date with Renée and Tyler:

We walked passed a book store with the cutest little fuzzball cat sleeping in the window! Luckily Renée is always ready for a photo op :)

July 9th: Taking Harvie to Dad's for Dinner..

 As you can see above, Tigger has the size advantage.

Mary made us a delicious tomato and mozzarella salad (and salmon too) and Harvie got some salmon himself:

We've also been doing some work around the house, as always! I have been helping RJ put up our chair-rail downstairs and he put in all the quarter-round! It's starting to look good downstairs!

RJ got a nail gun and it's been quite a handy tool!

 I finally put up my plate wall too!

This was a little do-it-yourself weekend project.. remember those two bronzey trees we had on either side of the fireplace in the condo? We had one hanging in the dining area for a few weeks. I wasn't thrilled with the bronze color and our accent color against the blue is now yellow (I recently decided). So I used the same paint we're using in the kitchen to do a base coat of pale yellow on the tree. I also got a darker, more gold-toned yellow spray paint to add a little dimension.

Stay tuned for more this week - Pictures from Halley's birthday dinner last Saturday and Chelsey's swap party on Sunday!

Here's a swap party preview - I can't remember if I've already mentioned I'm wearing my hair red now.. if not, here it is!

 Above: Renée & I / Below: Halley & Chels

4th of July Weekend

What a great weekend - it really flew by and time has gotten away from me (it's been one of those "it's already Thursday?" weeks).

On Saturday we met Tyler, Renée and her sister, Natalie at the evening church service. We are so excited R & T came to church and that we will hopefully be joining them again soon! I miss being 5 minutes away, but we love the pastor and service so much we're definitely willing to drive the 25-30 minutes on a Saturday night.

After church the 4 of us went on a old school style double date to a drive in restaurant, it was so good!

It worked out perfectly because the drive-in restaurant was conveniently on the way to our next stop: a backyard bonfire at RJ's co-worker's house. I had met Barb a few times at RJ's office so was excited to get to know her and her husband better. They had a few other couples over and let me tell you.. it was hilarious! It was good to know "older people" (their words, not ours!) can still have a good time. They even have a pinball machine in their basement! I guess it goes without saying that my pinball skills are lacking and RJ won. Barb was a teenager during the 70's and had a great collection of classic rock music. We loved hearing their stories and both agree we were born into the wrong generation, musically speaking at least.

On Sunday we went to Ryan and Michelle's house - Ryan is RJ's drummer buddy and Michelle is his wife. Luckily for me, when drums are involved in their jamming they play at their house. RJ goes over there at least once a week and always tells me about their friendly cats.. his favorite being the giant one. I didn't realize giant was an understatement until I met this cat.. 

Meet Gilbert:

I don't know if you can tell how big he is or not from the pictures. He's definitely the biggest cat I've ever seen! Friendly too.

We went straight from Ryan and Michelle's to RJ's parents' house in Hudson where we celebrated Trevor's birthday (it was the 1st) and the 4th. Check out this beautiful cheesecake:

Festive and delicious. 

Laura gave us a bunch of special trees from Chelsey and Trevor's wedding that were planted in their yard. We planted them along the back and a few on the sides of our yard, I love them! They are about 4 years old now. I plan on taking excellent care of them so they grow big and fill in nicely (I figure if I write that in our blog I'll be more likely to remember to water them). 

Here are all the trees in their bags with Harvie and Craze - aren't they helpful?

 The digger!

Lining the backyard:

& a few on the side yard:

It was a fun (and hot) weekend!