Day 178: June 27 - I want these shoes

Picture stolen from some wedding blog somewhere. So cute!

Day 177: June 26 - Registering fun

Why there are no pictures of us shooting the gun, I don't know. But our registry adventure at Bed Bath  & Beyond was both exciting and daunting. This is the nice sales lady helping us pick china, which, at age 29 I suddenly decided I desperately needed. Weird, weird things happen in the the girl brain sometimes.

When I did try to sneak a picture, Peter was completely unprepared. I look excited, he looks bewildered. To be fair, we had just gone through a deep conversation about shower curtains. Oh, the hard decisions of homeownership.

Day 176: June 25 - Peter's a big mouth

hahahahaha. When I get to have a photo booth at the wedding, I totally need to make sure we have a magnifying glass. This was awesome.

Day 175: June 24 - Big kid purchases

There's something very fun about seeing a "SOLD" sign with "Sander" on it:) We bought our big-kid couches on Friday for our hopeful new house. A love seat and a couch, both with recliners, that allegedly will be Hailey-proof. Here's hoping!

Day 173: June 22 - Words from the past

While packing up, this paper fell out of a high school scrapbook. My senior year journalism adviser wrote it, and it's quite interesting many years later.

It reads:
Michelle - 
From knowing of your past relations with other (male) advisers, I must share that I have been delightfully surprised with the cool relationship we have developed. You have an amazing eye for details. Your diligence and perfectionist mind bring others to new levels of achievement. You are matured into a trustworthy elder — be cautious in leadership to invite others into your reality versus intimidating them to frustration. You are a part of an amazing team and I hope you keep me posted. Thanks for being so dang dependable ... I will miss you. I love you lady, Ms. Martin.

The leadership part really made me think. I guess we always have room to grow.

Day 172: June 21 - Ella the packing helper

Ella has decided to be my little packing helper. What this translates to is this: Every time I open a cupboard (note, this one is above the fridge, quite high) she climbs into it and posts up. She has gotten stuck in multiple cupboards throughout the week.

Day 171: June 20 - Crazy fingers

The shellac nails did me proud over the three weeks I left them on. But today they had to go. I learned this nifty trick of putting some acetone-soaked cotton on my finger and then wrapping it in foil for 10 minutes. This is way better than having to leave your hands in that stuff not being able to move for that time. Hailey was completely freaked out and ran away. Silly pup.

Day 170: June 19 - Nothing says Father's Day like baseball

My dad may not have been there, but I'm pretty sure baseball screams as a favorite father's pastime.

Peter bought me a Buster Posey jersey to celebrate the world champions. Thanks, babe :-)

Jared did get to celebrate being a dad with his lovely family. Taylor secretly also has a Posey jersey on.

My attempt at baseball cupcakes.

Baseball is not my favorite thing in the world, but tailgating just might be.

It took a while, but the ladies finally took over the top of the truck.

Maybe the cutest photo of the day. I'm secretly holding her because I was afraid she would topple over.

Day 169: June 18 - A little wedding prep

We took a quick 15 minute jaunt over to our ceremony site to measure, figure out how many people can fit (about 20 times the amount we're inviting) and check out the scenery. This is Peter running up and down the stairs, measuring tape in hand. What you don't see is Hailey desperately trying to barrel after him and into the creek.

All in all a pretty productive little 15 minutes.

Day 168: June 17 - Hailey the Chico dog

Hailey hasn't always been the best car traveler. Until we got her a doggie seat belt, she would spend the entire trip trying to get in the front seat between me and Peter. She just doesn't understand the concept of being a dog sometimes and not a human.

The second we pulled into Chico, though, her little doggie ears perked up and she was desperate to get her head out the window. She must love Chico as much as we do.

Day 167: June 16 - New sushi in town

I've pretty much been counting down the days until a better sushi joint opened in Napa. Sushi Mambo is pretty much terrible in ever way, so I knew that someday someone had to open a different place that would be cheaper, have good service and serve fresh fish. Sushi Haku has made me a happy, happy girl.

Day 166: June 15 - $2 Wednesdays

This was a baseball week. $2 Wednesday can't be beat. I mean, if we're being honest, $2 game tickets added to a $5.50 BART ticket, a $7.50 beer and a $5 is not exactly a two dollar day, but it's better than if it was a $20 ticket, right?

Day 165: June 14 - Neurotic bride-to-be

Neurotic bride-to-be - that's me.

I kept pulling things out of  magazines, but then all I had was a stack of magazines pages. What was I supposed to do with all that chaos? Turn it into a completely crazy-girl-brained book, of course.

Don't worry...it comes complete with my little squiggle notes, too. I'm sure this will be helpful later in the process to hold things like actual contracts for the actual things we decide on. But now, I just think Peter things I'm a weirdo.

Day 164: June 13 - Inspection back, house is clear

This little book was pretty spiffy. It's simple enough, I'm sure, but it breaks down all the things our home inspector saw when he came to check out our hopefully potential new home. The appraisal came back at the right amount, too, so now the only hurdle in the way is the sellers getting out and the work done on time. June 30. Fingers crossed!

Day 163: June 12 - Happy dog

Someone told me on Friday to "work like a dog" over the weekend, since I was headed into the middle of a 13-day stretch at work. I couldn't help but laugh, thinking of how Hailey spends her days. Happy, happy girl, she is.

Day 162: June 11 — Giant pumpkin plant

Our "little guy" is growing. The Register is doing its best to grow a 1,000-pound pumpkin .Last year's cracked, and it was super sad. Visit pumpkinnation.com for more info. Hopefully it will be fertilized soon and I'll have an actual pumpkin to show you. For now, it's just a 6-foot long vine.

Day 161: June 10 - Home inspection

Our home inspection went very well, and our guy was awesome. I was very grateful that it was him climbing under the house and not me. I just thought he looked like a Whack-a-mole, though when he was talking to us from under the house.

We did poke our heads down there, though. I'm sure Peter will hate this photo. All I have to say is that he should have thought to take one of me when I was down there;)

Day 160: June 9 - Eat rice

In other sad news, she sold her truck, which means that she has to attempt to track down a new bumper sticker. Any Alpha Chi who knew Remi's truck can appreciate this.

Day 159: June 8 - Don't go!

The girls and I got together to send Remi off in style (with a lot of sushi and a lot of love) for her big adventure in Texas. She'll do really great there, and I keep saying, if there was anyone built for Texas, it's Remi. Their gain is a HUGE loss for us.

Day 158: June 7 - Too cute

This puppy was too much. Cindy and I ran across it on the street and I couldn't help but pet it and take a photo. Now if I can only convince Peter how much we desperately need Hailey to have a fluffy friend:)

Day 157 - June 6: Papasan for the iPhone

It's OK to be jealous. My co-worker Jennifer literally has a little papasan chair for her iPhone. "Borrowed" from one of her daughters, she asserts:)

This is not the first time an iPhone accessory has made it's way onto Jennifer's desk. See her blog here to view the iPlunger incident.

Day 156: June 6 - Rain, rain, go away

At some point, this rain was just silly. It kept raining on our parties, and, thanks to a clogged gutter, was blocking our exit from our house. You literally had to walk through a curtain of massive blobs of rain to get out. Thankfully, Peter is handy and was able to clear the gutter, but geesh!

Day 155: June 4 - Doggie Dash

It was wet. Really, really wet. Hailey had her little t-shirt on, and I had mine on, only under my rain coat. We both looked ridiculous; particularly after Hails rolled around in the mud. She was much less white and much more brown than any of the photos do justice.

The lesson for me was that walking a 5k in rain boots is not so good on the footsies (or the calves, since they were sore after. Weird). Apparently they're not meant for long distances. Who knew?!

Day 154: June 3 - Hailey thinks she's a human

If the humans get to sit in the chairs, Miss Hailey believes she, too, should be able to sit in one. There are days when she is just too cute for words.

Day 153: June 2 - Bomb burgers

Peter's dad made burgers, Peter made corn, I popped open beer. Pretty good way to spend a Thursday evening if I do say so myself.

Day 152: June 1 - Pretty cake

I wish I had taken a picture of Jenn when Cindy and I walked into the restaurant. She was so cute, holding this little cake, presenting it. My friend has been delving into the world of cake-making for the last few years, and some of them are quite incredible. I met with her to get her take on how much it would cost me for one of her cakes, and she was gracious enough to bake a cake for us to taste while we were there.

A sneaky little birdy (Cindy, perhaps?) told her that Peter and I both like red velvet, so inside this little fondant shell is red velvet cake with cream cheese frosting. Yum!

For those with curious minds, I think our plan is to have a pretty cake that's mostly fake. So if you're easily offended at the idea of not getting any cake at a wedding, please cake your offenses at the door. If things go our way, we'll also get to have a milk and cookie bar with Annie Baker cookies. Best of both worlds?! I think so.

Check out Jenn's Facebook site or website  to see the great things she's doing with cakes, as well as her embroidery business. Pretty much she's one of the craftiest gals I know.

Day 151: May 31 - Grow little tomatoes, grow!

Make fun if you must, but I'm really proud of this little green tomato that's trying so hard to grow. Apparently I've been starving my plants of both water and nutrients, so it's basically a miracle that this one guy is pullin' so hard for my cause.

I hereby promise that I will water and feed all of the plants. For the record, though, this was the mortgage plant. That has to be a sign, right?!

Day 150: May 30 - Update on the tree of terror

Silly, I know, but I'm still enamored with the tree. It just grows so fast! I've decided that our board room is now to be called the "room of doom" since that's where people now get their "talking to" when they're in trouble. Now, the tree is just a tree. For the record, I liked the tree more than I do the board room.

Day 149: May 29 - Grape crusher

I got to plod around town with my family before they headed back down south on Sunday, and as my dad said, "We've done the wineries, we've done the jelly beans, we've drank the beer, so let's see the art!"

This was my favorite thing we saw in the downtown galleries. I wish I could remember what it cost, because I now want it in my home.

Day 148: May 28 - Engagement Party, a little wet, but great all the same

The clock struck 3 p.m., the time the party was starting, the heavens opened up and the clouds started gushing water. Thanks a lot, Mother Nature. What did I ever do to you, anyway? This is the second year in a row that we've tried to have a big party on Memorial Day weekend.

Never again. Lesson learned.


I did run around as the rain started to come down and take some quick shots of what the party was supposed to look like. This was before we all huddled into the garage and house.

In the end, I think it was totally OK to end up inside, since it brought people in closer physical proximity to each other. No complaints about that.

Kaila's cake was AMAZING! She basically duplicated our party invitation, which I had crafted up. Pretty smart, we are:)

It was a really fabulous day. We are really lucky to have such spectacular friends and family to celebrate with. It's going to be a great year leading up to the big day.

Day 147: May 27 - Hailey's great-grandma

She may be my grandma, but now she's Hailey's great grandma. Just in case I don't pop out babies anytime in the future years, it's good to know that these two have a good relationship. Hailey was just happy as can be on grandma's lap. I couldn't help but giggle.

Day 146: May 26 - Feeling a little swirly

Go ahead and laugh, but finding just the right swirly thing for wedding invitations and other such wedding things has been quite the chore. Luckily, I had a friend who was able to help me out, but it seriously threw me for a loop for a while. To be fair, he works at a paper that I believe has infinitely higher resources than mine does, so their clip art stock is a little better. Excited to figure out how I'm going to use these puppies in the next year!

Day 145: May 25 - Wedding obsession of the day - Hair

Being sick in bed means you have lots of time to click through thousands of pictures on the internet. The obsession of this day was hair. Thank goodness for knot.com, which lets me save them into a nifty little file. It's also funny to go back and see what I was drawn to when they're all together. Apparently I was on a flower kick?

Day 144: May 24 - Sick of being sick

Coming back from vacation sick was sucky. No way around it. Luckily, this teapot was around to help me get better. Lots of Yogi Throat Comfort tea passed through it's little spout for a couple days. I get a lot of compliments on this little guy. I picked it up for a hot dollar at a yard sale, I think. I was jealous that my co-worker Betty always had a cute teapot. I didn't think this one was cute, but figured it would do the job. Apparently, everyone else thinks it's pretty spiffy, so I'll keep it.