Stanley

Wooh hoo! We had a car show at work today where employees brought their cool cars in to show off. I didn't have anything to show off, but I did get to ride in this 1900's Stanley Steamer.

My coworker Greg owns it and took me and a few other people for a ride down the street. We had to stop on the way back to fix a technical difficulty, but overall the ride was surpisingly smooth. My favorite part has to be the sound of the steam driven pistons. What a wonderful Friday afternoon!

When One Door Closes, Another One Opens

I totally missed my opportunity to buy the pet rider costume for Pige. I'm crossing my fingers it will work out for next year!!

However, when Mark was looking for that dog costume the day after Halloween, he came across this. And he bought it. And I love it.

This is the first year UPS has licensed their logo for use on a Halloween costume and the costume was half off, so I made Mark buy it. (It didn't take much persuasion)

But, Pige better watch out........I might put it on her if we don't have any kids soon!!

Just Relaxing

This is how I found Lizzie relaxing on a chair yesterday morning. It does not look comfy to me, but she sat like this for more than 30 minutes!

Happy Halloween!

Mark and I had a great Halloween this year. We dressed up as a witch and a wizard for our church Trunk-or-Treat event on Friday night. Mark went a little nuts with the decorations and created an entire scene including a faux brick wall, fireplace with mantle (plus the creepy cat picture seen here), and table with potions and jars of gross stuff (eyeballs, fingers, rats....)

Gwen and Nicholas stopped by on their way to another party. And I'm glad Gwen was able to take pictures of us. The flash on the camera takes away from the spooky effects quite a bit, so trust me that it looked better than this in the dark. :)

He's a cute monkey! And I'm a scary witch!

All of our hard work paid off because we won a prize for the Scariest Decorations! Mark is seriously already planning for next year.

Creepy Cat

Since we're on the subject of Halloween, I thought I'd give you a sneak peak of something we've been working on.....

Mark and I are going to be a witch and a wizard for Halloween this year. (It wasn't my first choice, but I think its turning out to be pretty cool.)

This picture will be part of our 'Trunk-or-Treat' set up. You'll have to wait until after the weekend to see the final pictures, but I hope it is successful.

Pet Costumes - Part 2

Just to make things fair among the animals, I have found an equally awesome costume for Dave. How cute is this shark sweater? (not the cat, just the sweater) Fun and functional!!

Made by Melisande of Youth Diaspora via Etsy

If you're worried about Lizzie being left out of the Halloween festivities, don't be. She barely even let's me pet her, so I know better than to try to wrangle a costume onto her.

Cowboy, Monkey, Jockey or Mailman?

We've had a major breakthrough with Mark. He is finally reconsidering his costume ban for our pets. We found these dog costumes at a local Halloween store. Its really just a harness type strap that you put on the dog like you would a leash. And its funny. And we're probably going to get one. But which is best?

Costumes also found online at : BuyCostumes dot com

Creepy or Cool?

A few months ago, a coworker asked me if he could take my picture so that his Dad (who is supposedly an artist in Japan) could do a painting of me. Creepy!

Then I realized that he asked all the women at work the same question. Creepier!

But when I got to my desk yesterday I found this. I think its pretty cool!!

Buca di Becker

Sheona and Jon kindly invited us all over to their house recently for dinner and so that we could visit with our Canadian cousins Neil & Kelly and their little boy Garroch. Last time Neil & Kelly were in town we all went to Buca di Beppo downtown. This time we opted for an in home meal because there would be a 3 year and newborn joining us. Sheona and Jon

went out of their way to make it a great night. They decorated their back patio like an Italian restaurant and made enough food for an Italian football team (and leftovers!).

I did a poor job of capturing the night, but here is what I got.....

Mom & Dad

The guests of honor...Neil, Kelly & Garroch

Neil & Nicholas

Sheona "The Baby Whisperer"

Sheona has a way with Nicholas. He will fall asleep in her arms every time she holds him :)

Oh Babies!

Mark and I became Aunt & Uncle to 2 babies this summer!!

Mark's brother and his wife had a baby girl on July 12. Little Elizabeth was born at 29 weeks and had to fight hard for her life. She is now home and we hear that she is doing really well. We hope to be able to see her soon!!

Here are Elizabeth's little feet just after she was born. So tiny and sweet.

And my sister Gwen had a baby boy on August 26. Nicholas is 7 weeks old now and the treasure of the Becker family. Gwen and Gabe are truly wonderful parents and its been great seeing their family grow and change over the past couple months.

Nicholas on his birthday

Ski Beach

Mark and I went with the youth group kids to Ski Beach on Tuesday night. There were a couple of ski boats and wave runners, food, volleyball and lawn bowling. Mark and I battled it out on the volleyball court and are happy to say that the leaders beat the kids in the last game...whew! The best part about that was when someone asked me what side I was playing on! 30 year old women LOVE to be asked that :)

Mark forgot to bring a sweatshirt, so here he is trying to stay warm with a towel.

BTW...did you know they sell Snickerdoodles at Costco now? I believe Mark had two at the beach. They are pretty tasty, but still don't compare to his mom's homemade Snickerdoodles. :)

Pacific Crest Trail

Mark and I were invited to hike with a woman from church up in Big Bear. She has a goal to hike all 2650 miles of the Pacific Crest Trail which extends from Mexico to Canada crossing 3 US states. We did a 15 mile leg with her on Saturday. [Actually, only I did the hike with her. We got all the way up there and then Mark realized he left his hiking boots at home. Luckily one of the other husbands was able to entertain him in Big Bear for the day, so it wasn't an entirely wasted trip for him.]

So, the hike ended up being me and these 3 ladies. It was pretty fun and I would definitely do it again. Eventhough I am so sore today!!

Mark & I at the end of the trail.

I'm a Target-Addict Addict

I just found this new (to me) blog and I love it! Its called Target Addict. She writes about great finds, rants about annoying Targetisms and allows me to shop vicariously through her Target experiences. Give it a whirl for yourself.

P.S. The Target mascot's name is Bullseye. You all know how much Mark is opposed to our pets wearing costumes, but maybe he'd let me paint Pige white with a red bullseye for Halloween this year?

Meet Uncle Richard

Curious to find out who Uncle Richard is? Check out Gwen's blog for a Becker family update.

Happy 23rd of July!!

Its been a while friends. Here are the only pics I've taken in the past few weeks (except for the bazillion pictures I took at girls camp last week).

My family went up to Pomona for 4th of July to celebrate the holiday at Gwen & Gabe's house and to meet most of the Ruiz clan. It was a hot one! But it was fun and we even saw some fireworks. (I must say that the Santee fireworks show is still tops in Mark's book)

Here are some pictures of us waiting for the show to start.

Becker Tidbits

We got together at my parent's house last night to celebrate Father's Day since my parents just returned home from their trip to Ohio & Canada. It was a pretty fun evening, but there aren't too many pictures to share.

My Dad was a little camera shy last night. He's so coy, isn't he?

Mark took this photo of Gwen right after saying, "Don't worry, we're family"....

Only 9 more weeks until Baby Ruiz makes his appearance. We're all waiting for him!!

Toot toot!

I'm about to toot my own horn, so get ready for it. Actually, I'll be tooting mine and Mark's.

I was wrapping a Father's Day gift last night when I had a flash of genius. Mark helped me turn plain old ribbon into a miniature tie for the gift I was wrapping. How cute is this?! (toot toot!!)

(It's a CD...shhhh...don't tell. But that gives you an idea of the scale of it. So tiny and cute! Toot toot!)

I wish I would have taken a picture of Mark with the ribbon around his neck like a real necktie, but you can just use your imagination for that. :)

Sit. Stay. Good Dog.

We love this dog!

Does this make my foot look fat?

The summertime in Santee always means record heat & lots of bugs.  Luckily the temps haven't started to soar yet, but the bugs have already begun their invasion.  Ants, pincher bugs, beattles and other unnamed species can be found right outside our backdoor.

Sometimes the cats bring one in to play with.  And sometimes the bugs just invite themselves in.  A couple weeks ago I was sitting at our (new!) dining table and felt little bite on my foot.  I looked down and there were 2 bites on the top of my foot and they were itchy.

Mark applied some Caladryl lotion so I would stop whining about the itchiness.  And then a few hours later my foot looked like this!

It stayed puffy and itchy for a few days and then cleared up.  I have no idea what bit me, but my foot obviously didn't like it.

P.S.  Please ignore the toes you're seeing in this picture.  I know I need a pedicure.

What's up?!

Just found this picture on my computer.  I thought I should share it with the world.

Ooops!

Roasted Garlic & Herb Kettle Chips

I just ate these chips with my lunch today.  As tasty as they were, I am now regretting that decision as I have a meeting in 30 minutes with my boss who is in town for the day...and there is no way the fire breath I have right now will go away by then.  Why is the will of my stomach always stronger than the will of my brain??

Happy Birthday Mom!!!

Today is Mark's mom's birthday and we celebrated with dinner and movie at our house tonight. Mark BBQ'd some chicken and beef kabobs...yum! We watched the Disney animated movie Bolt. (The crazy hamster was everyone's favorite.) Halfway through the movie we were interrupted by fireworks. We all walked out into the street to watch a pretty long fireworks show that must have been coming from Santee Lakes. It was almost as long as the show for 4th of July. What a great birthday present for Ranee!!

P.S. We ended the night with giant cupcakes from Costco (Mark's choice). Hugely delicious!

Bad Dog