Been Busy...

Well, we have been quite busy over here at the Ramsayer household. I promise I'll write more soon, but for now all I have is:

Lost At Camp 2

An entire swim bag containing bathing suit, towel, flip flops, brush, and hair ties.

How she managed to lose the entire bag, I will never know. Unfortunately, it looks like there will be no swimming for Miss Munchkin until the bag in located. Bummer. I'm such a mean mom -- I know, because I was told. :)

So, the updated running list is:

2 hair brushes
1 pair of goggles
3 flip flops
3 towels
2 necklaces
1 t-shirt
1 water bottle
1 bathing suit
1 duffel bag
even more countless hair ties & clips

Second Harvest

Here are some pics of our second harvest! I forgot to take some pics of the first one, but we had quite a bit (more than we could eat), so we took some over to Jill & Aaron.

We ended up having to pull all of our lettuce out. It never ripened properly. I'd go out nearly every day to test it, and it stayed extremely bitter. It's way past it's harvest time now, so we pulled it out and we'll plant some more seeds to see if we can get some to work. Last weekend, when we got our first harvest, my beans were almost ripe but not quite there. I forgot to go out this week and pick them, so they were pretty much dead on the vine today. Oops. Hopefully I'll have some more soon; because there is nothing better than a ripe green bean straight off the vine!!!

Again, we ended up with way more than we can eat! Look at all those cucumbers!!!

We had quite a few cucumbers, banana peppers and green peppers. We'll have some yellow peppers soon, but they're not quite ripe yet.
We had a ton of jalapenos, and there are a TON more on the way. Those tomatoes you see above and below are GRAPE tomatoes. Yeah, I know. It looks like they were grown with nuclear waste. I cannot believe how HUGE they are. But, all of our tomatoes are gigantic. The beefsteak ones are still green, but probably about 6 inches across already.
My mom is going to end up with a bunch of cucumbers and peppers today! I know she's excited for some of my cukes because her plants didn't make it. So, we took some of my plants out and transported them to her house, but they didn't make it either.

I think I'm going to make a cucumber, onion, and tomato salad tonight with dinner. Mmmmm.

Filming in Downtown Plymouth

I'm a total nerd, but I'm totally pumped that Scream 4 is filming in my hometown. I took Trina down there this afternoon to check it out. It was pretty sweet. They built a "fake" building in a parking lot and it looks amazing! It's really weird to see the Woodsboro Police Station sitting right next door to the Box Bar! They are using Kellogg Park (where we got married) and the surrounding streets. All of the street lights in the area were covered with the "Scream" ghost costumes. It was really neat, and Trina loved it!

We couldn't get super close and I only had my phone, so the two pictures below aren't all that great. But, one of my friends managed to get really close to the police station so I nabbed her photos to show you all!

It's hard to see, but in the first one you can see the Scream Costumes on the light posts in the center of the picture. (Click on the photos to zoom in and see it a bit better)

This second one is standing about a block away. On the right is the Box Bar, and through the trees you can see the police station.

Then, here are the amazing shots my friend Katie got. The fountain in front is recognizable to all of you out of towners who were at the wedding. That's right where we were for the wedding. The white wall behind the two buildings is the Meeting House. On the right with is the Box Bar, and then in the middle is the police station! If you look at any of the wedding photos, you'll see that this was previously a parking lot :)

How cool is that??? I love it! When we were down there they had "fake" police cars parked out in front of it!
So, when you all see Scream 4, you'll know that this isn't a real building :)

The long awaited weekend!

This weekend flew by...maybe it's because I was so excited for it to arrive?

Saturday we all got up early and did a bunch of yard work. The storm that blew through on Thursday wreaked havoc on our poor garden. It knocked all of our plants over. We found the peppers and tomatoes all laying on the ground. The tomato cages will no longer hold the plants up, so we had to run up to Lowes to get some stakes for those and supports for the other plants. But, we did get a nice little first harvest. We had some cucumbers, jalapenos, grape tomatoes, beans & green pepper ripe. We took most of it to Jill and Aaron's, so I hope they enjoy it as much as we do!

Then, around 3 we headed over to Jill and Aaron's. Jill's cousin Sherry came with her husband and three kids, so Trina had some little ones to play with. Aaron and Jill made sliders, potato salad and lots of other yummies. The kids cooked some smores (with giant marshmallows) at the bonfire Aaron made. Ryan managed to break their hatchet trying to split wood, so we made a quick Home Depot run. Then, we put Trina to bed and hung out at the fire chatting. It was a wonderful relaxing evening with some of my very favorite people! Thanks guys!

Yesterday I attended my cousin's bridal shower. As much as I hate showers, this one wasn't bad. I got to see a lot of my family, and there weren't any stupid games. My cousin-in-law, AJ, made the favors and they were absolutely adorable! It was olive oil (with rosemary or thyme sprigs in it) with bread dipping herbs. I'm really excited to try it. Afterward, we ended up at my parents house. We all (mom, dad, Ryan, Ashley, Eddie, & Trina) we to dinner and a movie. Then, it was bed time. I thought it was quite a nice little weekend, until Trina woke me up at 2 a.m. this morning. She hurled EVERYWHERE in her bed. It was all over her, all over the bed (soaked thru the mattress pad to the mattress), all over her stuffed animals, all over the floor and pretty much where ever she walked. And it smelled SO bad. So, we spent 45 minutes cleaning her and her bed up. The mattress is going to have to air out, so she slept on her cot. And, I still have laundry to do this afternoon (we couldn't get it all in one load).

*I have pictures of this weekend, but haven't loaded them onto the computer. I'll update this later with a few. Hope everyone had a great weekend!

Lost at Camp List

1 hair brush
1 pair of goggles
1 flip flop
2 towels
2 necklaces
1 t-shirt
1 water bottle
countless hair ties & clips

How does a child manage to lose *that* much? Seriously...how do you lose ONE flip flop? And how does one manage to leave with their bathing suit, but not the towel...twice???

Weekend Ahead

I know this is premature, since it is only Tuesday. But, I could really use a weekend, like now. Work has involved a lot of manual labor, and I'm really not a fan of hours of heavy lifting on a daily basis. But, that's what happens in a family business. There are no job descriptions, and just because my title is "corporate counsel" doesn't mean I don't have to get my hands dirty sometimes. But, I digress. My manual labor filled week has me longing for the weekend. I'm also extremely excited for it because I get to see two of my most favorite people in the world!

Jill & Aaron

I think they are amazing people. Ryan and I have been great friends with them since the beginning of law school. Ryan constantly tries to take credit for my friendship with Jill, and I continually have to remind him that she was in our RWA class. That class is where I met both of them, my husband and my sister from another mother. Over the years, we've started a couple traditions: annual cider mill trip, and a trip to the RenFest (both of them are coming up!!!) I always have such a great time with them, and wish like hell we could see them more often. I also admire them greatly. They are wonderful people who are perfect for each other. They are runners (will Jill more so), tech geeks (Aaron), animal lovers, hard workers, genuine, handy (you should see their house!!!), intelligent, caring, and FUN! Oh, and I almost forgot, they are AMAZING cooks!

I love them both, and can't WAIT to see them in a few days!!!

Art in the Park

We headed down to Art in the Park on Saturday. Ryan and I go every year with my parents and we always have a great time. As always, it was totally packed! There must have been thousands of people down there. Makes sense tho, seeing as it's the 2nd biggest art fair in the state. This year, Art in the Park migrated (yet again) out further. It's in its 31st year, and there is never a lack of merchants out there. We saw some really great paintings. There was one booth that had pictures of weeping willows painted over a lake...it was stunning. We also ran into some really cool oil candles. My mom was in love with them, so I bought her one. We also saw some amazing chalk drawings. Check out this Warhol rendition:

Inside the actual park (Kellogg Park) is where all of the children's activities have ended up over the years. So, technically the "art" is no longer in the park, but rather all up and down multiple streets in downtown Plymouth. Anyway, we made our way to the park for Trina to do some kid's activities. She got her face painted, and I've got to say it looked awesome. The face painter was so taken with Trina's color choices and her cute little shirt that she asked our permission to take her picture and use her in some advertising.


Then we ran into this guy named Jim. He was chatting with my dad, and it turned out that he does balloon animals. So, he started showing my dad some of his work. I loved the apple (it's in his hand below) and he made Trina an ice cream cone!


We also had Trina do some of the activities in the park. One she chose was to make her own candle. She picked a wine glass and started filling it with all different colored waxes.



She managed to leave Art in the Park with a brand new teddy bear (made out of Alpaca fur), some new doll clothes, a sheepskin walking worm, and a myriad of other things. I almost wanted to buy myself one of the teddy bears -- it is SO. SOFT. I could have stayed in that booth all day touching all of the different things. But, the one bear was pretty darn expensive, so we decided to just get one. Then, we headed to Cellar 849. We wanted to pick up some of our favorite wines and cool off a little bit in the air conditioning (it was a scorcher). Here she is at Cellar 849 showing off the full face paint.


After Art in the Park we headed back to my parents' house to cool off for a little while. Then we decided to head to Gaucho's for dinner. If you've never heard of it, you should totally check it out. It's a Brazilian Steakhouse. There are no menus (and no prices, so be careful, it's pretty pricey). They have a "salad" bar. It's not really a salad bar, but more of an appetizer bar. I absolutely LOVE their apple salad, and the crab salad on cucumber slices. Yum! After your salad bar, they bring over mashed potatoes and fried bananas for the table. The fried bananas are to die for!!! And then dinner begins. They come around with 16 different types of meat, and you take as much or as little as you want of whatever you want. Everything is spectacular. Trina LOVED it. She was so excited to try everything. Her favorites were the chicken options. Then, you can have them bring out a dessert tray (again, no prices available). All of the desserts I have had there are amazing. Trina was quite taken with the lava cake she chose:


All in all, we had a fantastic Saturday! I know the little one did, she was devastated when we had to take off her face paint before bed. She wanted so badly to keep it on until Monday to show all of her friends at camp :) I hope everyone else had a fantastic weekend!

I finally did it!

I got my hair chopped off! I didn't realize how long my hair was until the hairdresser measured it to see how much she was cutting off. EIGHT. INCHES.

She tried to convice me to cut another 2 inches off so I could donate the hair to Locks of Love, but unfortunately that extra 2 inches would have brought my hair up to my chin and I definitely did not want it that short.

So, now it's just above my shoulders and I'm soooo glad. It was WAY too long, and I was throwing it up in a ponytail every day because it was driving me batty. It feels and looks so much better now.

Love it!

I love when...

1) Kids think they're soooo sneaky, but they're totally not. Too bad they don't realize that we can see thru their carefully constructed plan before they even start.

2) My husband rubs my feet. My feet were super sore last night after a long day at work, which surprisingly was not spent at my desk. My husband gives the best foot rubs in the entire world -- wish he'd continue that trend into back rubs. :)

3) I can eat fresh, ripe veggies from my garden. Last night I had a few green beans right off the vine (my absolute favorite way to eat them), and some lettuce. I can't wait for the cukes, pepper, and 'maters to ripen!!!

4) I come home after a long day of work to my husband lovingly doing the dishes so I can prepare dinner with less work. He loves me :)

5) Defendants try to lie to me and get caught red handed.

Happenings...

A few updates and happenings:

1) We received an update on Jayne while we were up north. She's doing "better" but is still on hospice care and over all is still doing very poorly. We're going to keep playing it by ear, and not making any definite plans in the near future. But, we're praying that she pulls through and makes a recovery.

2) All of my wedding photos are finally posted online. So, you all can check them out if you'd like:
http://www.ameriphoto.com/. Click on "Event Photos" at the top right, then on "Ramsayer." Password is: ryan. I am pretty much in love with my photos. Now, I have the daunting task of sitting down with Ryan and picking out 140-150 photos to start the work on our album. I am extremely excited for this process, as the albums my photog makes are absolutely gorgeous! But...the process takes 4-6 months after the photos are picked. My photog has to touch up all the photos we pick, and then we have to work with a graphic designer to create our album, and then it has to be made.

3) Trina has been begging us daily to give her a little sister. Every time she has asked me if I can make her a little sister, I tell her that it's up to her dad whether we have a boy or a girl. I didn't really consider that she didn't understand "how" it was up to him when I said it. Apparently, she got sick of hearing the same response from me...so she went straight to dad last night. As they were walking in the door, I heard Ryan say "It's up to God." I thought they were talking about Grandma, so I asked him what was "up to God," and he said whether Trina gets a brother or sister. Trina again started begging us to make her a sister. Jokingly, I told her "You'll probably be 20 by the time your dad and I have any babies." The look on her face was absolutely priceless. Clearly, she didn't like that answer and so decided she'd try to negotiate with us. She then told us that if we have a baby now, she'll come live with us to help us take care of the baby. I laughed and asked her if she'd still help us take care of the baby if it turned out to be a brother. She thought about it for quite a while, and decided that the answer was still yes. She also seems to think we should have six kids because it would be "fun." And according to Trina, since I'm her "best" mom I could definitely handle that many kids. Too funny.

4) We came home yesterday to a strange smell in the house. Trina walked in and said something smelled funny. I didn't smell anything, so I asked Ryan. He said he smelled something strange too. We looked around and couldn't find anything, so we went about unpacking. A while later, we went back out to the car to pull out some stuff we store in the garage. Ryan opened the garage door and came walking out with one of our yardwaste bags. He'd found the source of the smell. And, I *definitely* smelled it when the door opened. Apparently, when you leave yardwaste in your garage over a long holiday weekend it starts to decompose and mold. It gives off the most horrid smell. The bags were taken to the curb, and I could still smell it up at the front door. We tried to air out the garage for a while --- but it still reeks. Moral of the story: Do NOT leave yardwaste in bags in your garage over a long holiday weekend with temperatures in the mid-90's.

4th of July

As per tradition, we headed up to Luther for an extended 4th of July weekend. We spent the weekend swimming, fishing, laughing, talking, and having an amazing time.

This was Trina's first year up north, and I was extremely happy that all of the kids got along. Having been a 6-7-8 year old girl myself, I remember how 3 girls playing together didn't always equal a good time. Trina came home not wanting to leave, and begging to see the girls again.

The fireworks in Luther were as stellar as always, and the finale was fantastic! Without further adieu, some of the pics from this weekend!