Dan Had a Birthday, Shout Hooray!

Dan's 48th birthday was June 2, 2010. Since we were away from family, and since I'm a girl, I did what I could to make Dan's birthday fun and special. Here's the breakdown of what took place for his birthday extravaganza!

Friday, May 28th:

Ice cream cake with 4 & 8 candles on it for Dan to blow out. (A turtle ice cream cake with pralines and cream ice cream, nuts, caramel, and a chocolate crust...mmmmmmm...)

Monday, May 31st:
After playing some volleyball for a couple hours Dan decided to soak in the tub for awhile. I took the opportunity to sneak out and decorate his car windows. Early? Yes, but I thought it would be fun to advertise his big day as long as possible. (Sadly it rained the night before his birthday so the windows were cleaned off on the big day.)

Additionally, gifts (purchased weeks earlier) were wrapped in preparation for his big day:

Wednesday, June 2nd:

THE BIG DAY ARRIVED!!! When Dan got up to go to the bathroom that morning I jumped out of bed and quickly gathered his gifts from their hiding spot, put them on the couch, and then hurried and climbed back into bed.

When he saw them he said, "The Birthday Monster's been here!" (We debated whether it would be a fairy, pixie, or monster; monster won.)

Since Dan was scheduled to work at 11:00 am we thought it would be nice to sleep in (his sister called at 7:00 am to wish him happy birthday, oops) and go out for breakfast (work called him in at 8:00-the FDA showed up for a surprise inspection that would last for the next couple days-so he raced to get ready and head into work a few hours early). Thank goodness we know how to be flexible with our schedules and plans.

While Dan was at work I got busy with the other birthday surprises for him.

Our entry was decorated in honor of the day.

Disco balls for the disco king!

Balloons and banners were hung inside for the Birthday Boy!

The gifts remained in place until Dan arrived home at the end of his day. At about 10:00 pm he was FINALLY able to open his gifts:

Dan tried, unsuccessfully, to throw each piece of wrapping paper into the closed garbage can. He thought he had done well and that some were pretty close, they weren't.

Saturday, June 5th:

Yes, there's still more! We spent most of the week enjoying the ice cream cake and left over cake from our Memorial Day picnic. Our last official celebration was dinner at PF Changs on Saturday evening. We enjoyed their lettuce wraps and lunch bowls, YUMMY!

Hope it was a FABULOUS birthday and you felt how important you are to me! I love you, Dan!

The Big Question...

Amanda, you've just graduated from USU with your master's degree,what are you going to do now?

Look out Vancouver and Portland, the Horrocks are coming....

We are SUPER excited for our trip. Only a couple weeks more till we meet you there!!!!!

Pictures Worth More Than 1,000 Words!

Going to let the pictures say it all (well most of it) in this post:

Queue the music: Dum dum da dee dum dum, dum dum da de dum...
Please rise...

A few more people than we had seats saved for. (Neal, you're a trouper!)
(Saving seats wasn't too challenging until the very end. Some guy says "I'll just sit here," and directs his family elsewhere. I tell him the seats are saved and he looks at me like I'm nuts and that he's about to argue. I'd been there for at least an hour holding seats and he walks in a few minutes before and expects seats up close? Thankfully everyone was coming down right behind him so I didn't have to look like I was just being difficult.)

Somewhere in this sea of caps, gowns and hoods is Amanda!

There she is!!!

On her way to be hooded.

(Sorry it's a little shaky.) She's one happy girl and totally deserves to be so! (Hugs were from Whitney, her former roommate and best friend, & Linda, her amazing major professor.)

Yes, she's on the phone after just graduating, making lunch reservations actually.

He says he doesn't sleep through things like this; hmmmmm.....caught ya!

Look at that smile...writing her 160+ page thesis in approximately 3 months, she deserves to smile as often and big as she wants!

Lots of hugs for our girl!

All official now!

Photos outside after:

The roommates; two of whom graduate the next day

(Courtney, Amy, Amanda, & Whitney)

Close up with Dad, that didn't really work...

The Loveland Family with Amanda (glasses on & off)

(Liz, Emily (a HS grad two weeks later), Amanda, Ann, Kevin, & Neal. Missed you Matt & Rebecca!)

With JaNae & Dad 

So happy to be finished!

Now that she's got her master's degree she thinks she's in charge (we were there to celebrate her so, yes come to think if it, she was in charge.)

Well done Amanda!!!!! We are so very PROUD of YOU!

No Uncles in This House

When we moved into our new place we had the carpets and whole apartment cleaned. Unfortunately cleaning didn't remove the non-paying tenants! As things began warming up these non-paying tenants came out by the dozens!!!!

Yep, yucky, creepy, crawly, disgusting ANTS! We went to the office to report the issue and later maintenance came by our place with traps:

The ants are supposed to go into the trap and in the middle is poison they take back to the queen. Once the queen dies, they others die too. Somewhat skeptical we placed the traps where the saw the ants, the bathroom and kitchen. After a short time (a few hours) we saw this:

It seemed to be working. A few hours later the traps looked like THIS:

After only a couple days this is what the trap looked like:

Yep, the poison is ALL gone! Only 2-3 days. I'm thinking this was a pretty major nest of ants or one super hungry queen!

When I took the pictures into show the office, thinking that it wasn't working, the manager asked how I got the pictures so close-up. No worry about the invasion of the ants, just wondering how I managed go get such detailed pictures of them! Are you kidding me?!

The traps were not all completely emptied (we ended up with 4 or 5 before the ants mostly disappeared) and we still have the occasional ant in both places; however, I have to say it appears that the issue is mostly resolved. THANK HEAVENS!

Who's Smiling Now?

Since Sid has so many emails arriving on Mondays I try to send him a quick note by Monday but mail longer letters to him so he has more time to read the other emails and so he gets mail during the week too. Sometimes I get the emails to him on Saturday or Sunday and sometimes it's a quick one from me on Monday morning.

Well, this morning I went to send Sid a quick email for his P-day and there was a letter from him already; he was on-line when I was! Catching him on-line always puts a smile on my face, feels like a hug from him, and shortens the miles between us. What a great way to start the day and the week!

I thought missionaries were about the work? :)

No Awards Here; So Much for the Dream of Wife of the Year...

Monday's has become my laundry day. Yesterday I did get a couple loads done in between everything else I had to accomplish; making & icing 2 cakes (one from scratch), delivering one cake to a funeral, buying new pajamas for Dan, getting my hair done, sending an email to Sid, and keeping up on the baking dishes. I was feeling pretty good about what I had accomplished until this morning....

As Dan and I were getting ready to leave this morning; him to work and me to Walla Walla helping a neighbor, the conversation was something like this:

Dan:  Did my pants get washed yesterday?
JaNae: No, sorry I didn't get that load done. Which ones are in the wash?
Dan:  All of them. No problem, I'll just wear my scrubs today.
(He only has about 4 pairs of pants he can wear to work..most of which need to be replaced....Man, I'm really failing as a wife right now...)
JaNae:  I didn't get your scrubs washed either so you'll have to wear your paint splattered ones. I'm so sorry I didn't get those loads done. I did the whites and towels first.
Dan: That's ok. It's not that bad.
(Not that bad?! I saw him trying to scratch off one of the bigger, front & center, paint spot!)

So my sweet husband went to work today with paint splatters on his scrub shirt. Sadly, I didn't even have a load finished enough by his lunch break that he could change shirts. Good thing his birthday is tomorrow and maybe he'll get some more clothes...another pair of scrubs might be in order too.

Yes, the last load of laundry is almost finished so new clothes or not he'll have something clean to wear tomorrow. Sheesh!