In Which We Have Visitors

Since warm weather arrived in the frigid Midwest (it is totally trying to redeem itself after that winter, by the way), I have been trying to sweet talk my parents into coming for a visit.

 "It's humid here too but not as humid as it is for you..." 

"There's a baseball team and you know how you like baseball games..."

We sort of talked about them coming up during the summer, but as the weeks passed, I saw little likelihood of that happening. We had work, Carson had school, Mom was planning two weddings, Scott (my brother) started a new job. I'd pretty much kissed the idea of them coming goodbye, though naturally I mentioned it anyway. 

So when I heard that Dad had a few days off, I thought to myself, "This could work!" and on the phone with Mom, we decided "This could work!" So I discussed it with Dad, who seemed a little less likely to think that it could work. I mean, it is a 12 hour drive one way. Not exactly a great weekend getaway drive up the road. 

I had my hopes up still, and was over the moon excited when I got a text from Mom while I was at work on Monday - "Start cleaning. We're coming." In the short time between Monday and Wednesday, I think my coworkers grew sick at the sight of me... I was unable to focus and very annoying - "Did you hear? My parents are coming!" Who cares about steaming milk when exciting things are going on?

So they arrived on Wednesday night while Carson was in class, and I introduced them to Chicken Gyros (and I think Dad liked them or he was just very hungry... either way, success!). Carson got home late so we stayed up talking until he got home.

The next morning, Carson worked, but the rest of us got a lazy start. We decided after a little deliberation to go to the beach on Lake Erie. We went to Bay Village, mostly because I heard someone talk about it recently and it was the first beach that came to mind (probably because our last name is Bay...). It was a bit of a drive, but we made it just fine. 

Cue pictures.

The Cleveland skyline can be (faintly) seen on the left side of the picture.

We were a little overdressed for the beach, since we were wearing real clothes.

Carson finished work early and joined us at the beach, dirty from his roofing job. He washed off in the lake. 

We came back, ate fried chicken and relaxed for a short while.

Then we took off for our next destination: John Carroll. I'll be honest, I'm not on campus very much, so Carson was showing me around as much as my parents. 

Next stop: Chagrin Falls. 

If it seems like we go here a lot, well, we do. The water was really high on the day that we went (it's rained a lot lately) and ugly and brown, but it was still fun. 

This is the only group picture we got. I needed to clean my lens... that's the sun hitting the dust on my lens... whoops.

We had dinner and dessert at the Cheesecake Factory that night. Carson had the Macaroni and Cheese burger, Mom and I split the mushroom burger, Dad had a regular burger (I think) and then we finished off with lemon raspberry cheesecake for me, Key Lime cheesecake for Mom and blueberry white chocolate cheesecake for Carson. Dad didn't get cheesecake, but we laughed at this picture because it looks like he wishes he had a slice.

I worked the next morning, so Mom and Dad stopped by, got drinks, and Dad took a picture. He picked me up and I changed, then we were off for more exploring. Every second counted on this short trip!

We went down to Progressive Field to get tickets for that night's game. Mom stayed in the car where parking was free while Dad and I ran through a parking garage and around a corner looking for the box office. 

We headed home, then decided to find a place to get a tshirt for Scott. We ended up on East 4th downtown which is really cute! We didn't find a shirt, but I think Carson and I will go exploring down here sometime soon!

I snapped pictures as we drove... for YOU, Granddaddy and Grandmama! 

I like this dog on the side of a random building, and now I have a picture :)

We got home in enough time to scarf down a quick meal and sit around for just a few minutes before Carson arrived and we left for the game. 

We arrived in enough time to enjoy some pre-game people watching.

And it was Dollar Dog Night, so we partook. Carson hadn't eaten lunch, so he made that his first priority. 

Dad joined the fun.

Thanks to the recent rain, the weather was SO pleasant and nice. It was just under 80 degrees, and breezy. Mom and I dressed in sleeves in preparation for the evening chill.

Looking out over the field.

The Indians played the Kansas City Royals. Go Tribe!

Once we were situated, we enjoyed our fair share of hot dogs.

Granddaddy was there in spirit too... we saw him on FaceTime and he called during the game. It must have been during an exciting moment.

The Indians won, there was lots of cheering, and then we relaxed and since it was fireworks night, we stayed to enjoy those as well. The show was set to disco music. I was surprised that I knew every song... thanks Mom and Dad?

That's looking down at the Cuyahoga River where it feeds into the Lake. 

The next morning, though we'd had a late, late night (I think I went to bed at 1!), we woke up early (earlier than my body wanted to) and enjoyed the breakfast Carson made. He prepared omelettes for everyone but me, since I am the pickiest person alive, bacon, pancakes and fruit. Yum!

Then we set up the succulents Mom had brought for me. I documented this because I am not good with plants, so I thought that this might be the only time to show that they were at one time alive. 

And shortly after this, they left! Carson and I spent that afternoon playing The Game of Life, which Mom and Dad brought (along with big boxes of my stuff from home), relaxing and watching The West Wing... until I had to work. 

It was a great, though short, little trip. We can't wait to see them again, and hope that it will be sooner rather than later! Come again, you're welcome any time! 

Throwback Thursday: How We Met

I've been trying to write down "our story" for a little while and I thought that posting it here would give me accountability. I thought that choosing a specific day of the week for this might be nice, so I chose Thursdays, because who doesn't need a little alliteration in their life?

--

"How did you meet?" used to be the first question people asked of us, and it made me squirm. Because to be honest, that memory didn't stick with me.

Helpful background information: 
If you're just joining us, we met in college. We went to Moody Bible Institute - Spokane, a campus of the Moody Bible Institute that's based in Chicago. 
I initially intended on attending the Chicago campus in the fall of 2007, but things changed (I wasn't accepted) and I attended Moody through Distance Learning for the school year of 2007-2008. I applied to Chicago again and it took forever to get a reply back, so when I called, it turned out that my transcripts were in the wrong place, since I was technically already a student. By the time my application was processed, students had matriculated and there was no room on campus, so I was accepted, but put in the 1+3 program, where I'd spend one year in Spokane, Washington and the rest in Chicago. I could do anything for a year, so I went to Washington. Carson, on the other hand, applied directly to the Spokane campus since he's from Olympia, Washington. He definitely did not want to go to Chicago. 

Where were we? Oh yes, how we met.

Carson is sure that we initially met on the first day of classes at Moody, but I don't remember AT ALL. We probably did, but there were so many people to meet that the whole first week was a blur. He says that I made an impression on him right away. I think he's just trying to win points or something (and yes, I'm sort of saying that so I don't feel bad for having NO recollection of the first time we met).

Whenever it was that we met, I did know who he was to some extent our first semester. We didn't have any classes together, but we attended a very small school (we came in with a class of 150 students, which brought enrollment to around 200!), so by the time the first semester ended, most people had a working knowledge of who everyone was by sight.

I know that we both attended the all-school fall retreat, because I looked back through my pictures to see if he's in the background of them and there he was! Playing volleyball, jumping onto the "blob"... I was hoping that it would bring back the memory of a conversation or something, but no.

I am hidden behind the lady on the left in this picture (too short) and Carson is probably hidden by the people on the right. I have no idea, but this session was mandatory so I know we were both there. 

There he is! My future husband!

I also know that he attended the same Halloween party, not only because just about everyone did, but because one of my friends liked one of the guys that he was with there, so we stood around as she awkwardly talked to them. He was wearing rock climbing gear as his costume (I, meanwhile, wore a poodle skirt and pearl from my 16th birthday party).

Carson is on the right in this picture...

But even though we never really met, the strangest thing kept happening. Random girls that I knew but who weren't close friends would be talking to me in the hallway and say that there was this guy that they admired. It was Carson. This happened three times. That was my only idea of who he was though; information from the lips of people who had crushes on him. I knew from these conversations that he was admired for his character, which was a good thing. But I thought he was an older student (since I never saw him) and that he was maybe an aviation student (also because I never saw him - the aviation students have a different campus and only come to the Biblical Studies campus for some of their core Bible classes once or twice a week), and I kept confusing him with one of his roommates because when those girls pointed him out as their one true love (um, sorry ladies!), he always happened to be near Brian.

So, that's not how we met, because I guess we didn't really meet. Not in a memorable way, that is.

The Cat

On a cool evening, we decided to read in the backyard. 

While Carson gathered his books and computer (he's taking a summer class and needed to study), I set up a blanket and began to read. 

"Mrrrrooowww," I heard. I looked up and this cat was sitting under the porch, hoping I'd invite her over. I did, and she gleefully ran over to be scratched. 

She decided after a fair share of scratching behind-the-ears that she'd rather sit under the neighbor's truck, so we said goodbye and she laid down and pretended to nap, but really looked at us out of the corner of her eye, swishing her tail back and forth.

Carson worked and I read.

Then Carson noticed that the cat was interested in his fingers, which were tapping a beat on the grass. She thought that he was getting her attention, and ran over to pounce. 

She let us play with her for a few more minutes then dashed away through neighbor's yards. We've not seen her again. 

How to Unshrink Your Clothes

Not too long ago, when a piece of clothing was stained, torn, too big or had shrunk in the dryer, I thought nothing of throwing it in the "to donate" pile. Now, I try to reinvent my clothes or fix them so they work for me - I reinforce seams with my sewing machine, remake a "too small" dress into a skirt or shirt (I have one I'm still working on... maybe I'll share soon), take in sleeve length or alter an oddly fitting pair of jeans into shorts. 

With this particular article of clothing though, I didn't want to remake anything. I washed the dress for the first time, didn't read the care label (it was rayon but felt like cotton!), and had Carson throw it in the dryer on low without giving it a second thought. I was folding laundry on the couch when I noticed that the dress had shrunk at least a size. Hang dry? Whaaat??? So I consulted this article and though it mentioned wool, I thought that it would probably work for rayon. The dress still sort of fit, but it was definitely a little too tight in the arms and bust, so I hoped to give it a little of the looser fit it had when I purchased it. 

My tools were: 

A pitcher of water (I used lukewarm but I don't know that it matters)

Conditioner (love this one, by the way)

My dress

And by the way, this was sort of how my dress fit before. The day that I wore it was over 90 degrees and I was sweating which led to crazy wrinkled dress.

Anyway, I soaked the dress in conditioner filled water for about 15 minutes. I guess it loosens the fibers... I'm not sure if that's true, but it didn't seem to hurt anything. It looks disgusting though.

Once the dress had finished soaking, I put it on a towel to dry. I didn't wring it, but I did sort of pat it dry with the towel. I smoothed the dress out on the towel, pulling it lightly to stretch it. You can sort of see what I was doing on the skirt of the dress.

I was surprised by how much stretch was in my dress. This is the front hem, stretched, verses the unstretched hem. Quite a difference. I'd bet that this would work with other articles of clothing that needed to be longer or more loose.

 I didn't rinse the dress before laying it out to dry, so the spots you see are from the conditioner - gross. It definitely smelled like conditioner once I was done, and that has to be washed out soon - I think I'll try my hand at hand washing to avoid this process once again.

While I wrote this, I threw the dress on so you could see that it fits again. I got about two inches in the hem, another two in the length of the bodice, and I'm imagining about that much in the width too. It worked! Good thing, because I plan to wear this dress many more times this summer!

To hopefully curb this problem in the future, I also made a "do not dry" list and hung it up by the dryer...

Celebrating Freedom!

I think that the 4th of July is one of my favorite holidays. It has things I love: warmth, food, wearing a certain outfit for the occasion, time with friends... and fireworks. 

I had the day off, which was GREAT! I haven't had a holiday off since I started my job and I was thankful to not work this one because it turned out that we had a FULL day of celebrating. 

We began in Stow, Ohio. My old roommate, Erica is from there and she and her husband Zack (I was in their wedding the weekend we moved to Ohio) were visiting Erica's family, as they are en route from Spokane to their new home-to-be in Michigan (three sets of close friends have recently relocated to Michigan, so we're scheming a trip). So we joined them in the morning for the 4th of July parade in Stow. We sat on a grassy hill in front of a funeral home, her family's preferred spot because said funeral home gives out free donuts and coffee. We partook, naturally. 

And then we enjoyed the parade. 

I interrupted Carson's donut eating for a picture... not a good idea.

Erica marched in this band in high school. We thought that all the high school students now looked like babies. 

We were near the very end of the parade... can you imagine doing this for a few miles?

After the parade, we had lunch with Erica's family and then sat around talking for most of the afternoon. While we were there, I got a text inviting us to a cookout at some friends' house, so we decided on a whim to attend. We were the only ones to NOT bring a side dish or dessert that belonged on Pinterest, so we may not be invited back, but our chips and soda were still welcome. 

The highlight of that party centered around food and fellowship... until water balloons and smoke bombs came out. Let's just say that there were lots of wet people by the end.

From the cookout, Carson, Lana and I headed over to Willoughby for fireworks. A group from the cookout was there too, but we didn't find each other in time for the show. We sat right in front of the field where there was a firetruck, so we thought that meant the fireworks would be right in front of us... and we had to wait a little over an hour before they started. Pictures were in order.

From where we sat, we could see fireworks shows in other places through the tree tops, but nothing compared to the show that we saw. Because we were right in front of the fireworks, we basically had to lay on our backs in order to see them... they were huge and loud and prettier than any I'd seen before. 

This picture? Unedited.

While we watched, we noticed that things kept falling on us - it was "dust" from the fireworks. We called it shrapnel, but I really don't know the correct term for it. Anyway, it was covering us - we smelled like sulfur. It looks like the blanket was dirty, but I promise you that it's from the fireworks - told you that we were up close!

Carson slept on the way home... traffic was a beast and we made it home just before midnight but we're still glad we went!