The Shafferland Shuffle

* Last Sunday we served coffee at church. Most handsome coffee maker out there, don't you think?? The rest of the day was a beautiful, restful Sunday. Braeya napped, we napped, I scrapbooked, and we watched Olympic trials. {ANYONE ELSE loving the trials as much as we are???}

 * Monday was the 4th of July, and Ryan worked all day, but in the evening, we went to Red Robin for a dinner date, and then out to watch fireworks over the lake. Despite a cloudy day and some significant humidity {read: HUGE HAIR}, it was a great night and a lovely date!

* Tuesday night we got to attend our friend's 40th birthday party, which was a lot of fun! Her husband surprised her, and the party was a great success {and can we pause to talk about the ICE CREAM??!!? It was homemade and it's such a good thing I am not proficient in that!}

* Wednesday started out crazy stormy and rainy, and I thought it would stay that way all day, but it cleared up and actually became a really nice day! We continued our garage makeover that night - painting the chalkboard part of the wall. What? Do you not have chalkboards in your garage???

* Thursday, when I was busy making lunch, someone was very interested in what was cooking! She cracks me up sometimes! :) I worked on some craft projects that day, and then that night, Ryan and I installed the pavers I told you about earlier this week. I still can't get over how different that patio looks since we installed them!

* Friday was a busy writing day for me, and in the afternoon, I spent some time learning about rosemary: a new herb at our house. I don't know much about it! BUT - I used it to cook our dinner. Ryan grilled our chicken and Brussels sprouts: delicious!! And then I hunkered down to watch more Olympic trials, and Ryan worked on reorganizing the garage. His happy place!!

* Yesterday, I had a case of the grumpies. :( Never good. But I perked up as the day went along! I went to a baby shower for Ryan's cousin in the afternoon: it was a Pinterest delight! And Ryan worked more on his list of projects around the house. And even though this picture is really bad, I have to share it. We went for a walk in the evening, and we saw a DEER!!! You cannot possibly know how happy this makes me!!!

Fourth of July Fun!

I will not lie: I have no idea what day it is this week. Ryan worked the weekend and the holiday and I am not quite sure if Monday was a Monday or a Saturday...or if I'm coming or going. Anyone else???

But I thought I'd tell you about our Fourth of July fun!

I tried to be festive with our breakfast even though we had to be up crazy early so Ryan could go to work.

{To be fair, it's the same thing we eat pretty much every day, but I just made it prettier in honor of the holiday.}

After Ryan got home from work, we headed out for our date! I should say that our fourth here in Indiana was about 2000% humidity and completely cloudy with a danger of some rain. So my hair grew quickly, but it was a comfortable evening as far as temps went. {And it never rained, so YAY!!!}

We went to Red Robin for dinner, which is one of our favorite destinations, and when I got there, I remembered why it was the perfect choice for a patriotic holiday:

I was a good girl with my dinner, so I did allow myself a treat: root beer float!!!

It was delicious. 

Also delicious? Our dinner.

Red Robin was in an outdoor mall, and of course all the stores had closed early, but Starbucks was still open, so we actually, for the first time in the history of our Fourth of July dating, GOT COFFEE BEFORE THE FIREWORKS!!! It was a pretty significant victory. We walked around the deserted mall and then drove over to our fireworks spot!

Right when we got there, some planes were doing flyovers, and it was really cool to watch!

We sat in a new spot this year, which turned out to be a bit less than ideal {sorry, Ryan! It was my idea!} but we learned from it and know where to sit next year!

The seat was less than perfect because we had some power lines conveniently located smack in the center of all the fireworks. My apologies! But it was a GREAT show. Best we've seen yet!

Spectacular show...but I have to say the end was the weirdest thing I've ever seen. In the grand finale, all the fireworks were lower, and they got buried in the smoke and you couldn't even see them. You could see their color in the smoke, but you couldn't see the actual fireworks. I've never seen anything like it. It looked like a big fire!

A great night...thanks, Ryan, for our special date! :)

43rd Monthiversary

Happy Fourth of July to those of you here in the States! Hope you're able to enjoy a nice long weekend!

Ryan and I hit another marital milestone over the weekend: 43 months of wedded bliss! The past couple of weeks have made me so weary, as we are powering through some unexpected home projects, and I won't lie: I am so over the home projects. I'm in writing and speaking mode and it's really hard to stay in that mode all day every day while surrounded by projects! I wanted to be a supportive and helpful wife, but I fear I did not always accomplish that objective. But even when I was stressed and tired and beating myself up for wife failure, Ryan was so good to encourage me and make me laugh. These are the things that make me grateful for this life we share!

Ryan worked most of Saturday, which was our monthiversary, and when he got home, we went on our standard monthiversary date: Starbucks and Lowe's. LOL! I am afraid to tell you just how many of our monthiversaries have included that very combo!

And then...we had an extra special treat!

You see pictures on here a lot of our fun times with Ryan's family, but my family is scattered all over {and there are not that many of us - quite the opposite from Ryan's family-for-days crowd!}, so we rarely see each other!

But one of my cousins recently graduated from high school {she lives out of state} and her parents threw a party for her at my aunt's house, here in Indiana, so the family could celebrate together. I was so excited because some of my cousins had never even MET Ryan. That's how rarely we see each other.

And I have to tell you that these cousins are ALL ABOUT hospitality. I knew it would be a fun night with good food!

The party was out on the lawn, with a little tent for the food and chairs covered in quilts that the guest of honor had made herself. Summer projects, they told us. I couldn't have made ONE of them if I worked on it every day for the rest of my life. Her talent is incredible!!

They had pictures and scrapbooks and all kinds of things to honor her, and then there was the FOOD. Homemade breaded tenderloins, fried pickles, pretzel breadsticks with cheese sauce, Caesar salad, macaroni and cheese, carrot cake, and a couple of pies. Not much on the clean eating list, but it was a delicious treat meal! OH! And the pop! They had these throwback bottled sodas in all kinds of flavors. I had root beer, and Ryan had a black cherry and some Shirley Temple drink. I'm sure it all looked questionable form a distance, but I promise it was all strictly POP! {Soda - whatever you call it.}

My parents were there, so of course we had to get pictures of them, too, and our official 43rd monthiversary photo!

We stayed until dark so we could watch the fireworks {because you know...I LOVE FIREWORKS} and it was the perfect end to the day! It was a shockingly cold day, so we were all wrapped up in the quilts, but it was still fun!

Oh! And the sunset was STUNNING!

 It was a good little fireworks show!

So that's not a bad way to celebrate another month of marriage, is it?

Thanks, family, for throwing such a great party and for including us! It was so good to see you!

A Scattered Little Date

Well, people, we have outdone ourselves. In the land of things that would only happen to the Shaffers, we had a real doozy last week. We have been saving it to share in this week's Spill the Beans, so...enjoy.

 Click to listen.

Ryan had last Saturday off work, and the alarm went off wayyyyyyyyyyyy too early after our late night out at the drive-in. But we wanted to hit some garage sales first thing that day, because we were in search of a baby gate.

THIS IS NOT AN ANNOUNCEMENT. I repeat: this is not an announcement.

 Now that we are finishing off the garage {please see above podcast for that debacle}, we have the potential of leaving the door open to said garage if we're using it as extended living space for that moment, but we do not want Braeya to think for one moment that she is allowed out there, because that's just dangerous for when the garage is a garage. So we wanted to get a baby gate to keep her out.

About 8:10, we wandered up the driveway of the first sale we saw, hoping for a win, because the lady had about two dozen Pampers boxes stacked just inside the door. We asked if she was open yet, and she said not quite, but we were welcome to look around while she finished setting up. Ryan said, "Well, actually we're just looking for a baby gate. Do you happen to have one?"

She said, "Honey, you know what? I have two, and they're not for sale, but they're right up there on that shelf. You  just get them down and take them."

Even though I do not know this woman at all, I felt compelled to rush and explain that we needed it for a cat and not a baby, and ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh she loves cats. Has two. And if this is for a cat, then we were not even allowed to pay. Just take it for the kitty.

And that is how we went back home at 8:15, after visiting one sale, paying nothing, and hauling off TWO baby gates.

We picked up my friend Kari and went out to breakfast together, where we learned that IHOP really does hop on Saturday mornings!

And then we went to an outdoor market {like a craft vendor market} to check it out. I may or may not have made a couple of purchases!!

Ryan planned to spend the bulk of the day pressure washing the house and mowing the yard, so I hung out inside with his mom, working on my scrapbook!

But then...our evening date rolled around! We found out one of the subdivisions in town was having a free fireworks show, so of course we had to go!

We didn't actually know WHERE in the subdivision they were going to set them off, so we just sort of picked a spot.

Turns out we were pretty close!

LOL!!!!

It was a good little display, and I was glad we happened to be so close, because some of the really cool fireworks were lower to the ground and we still got to see them!

A fun and free date - to wrap up a day that started with fun and free gates!